So Nick Foles and the Eagles are doing the whole underdog thing again, huh?

Here we go again. The Philadelphia Eagles needed a couple miracles Sunday to beat the Chicago Bears and they got them in a 16-15 contest.

First, the Eagles needed a touchdown drive led by Nick Foles in the final minutes of the fourth quarter against the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL. After struggling with two interceptions earlier in the game, Foles caught fire at just the right time and led a 12-play, 60-yard drive. He had 59 passing yards as Philly drove down the field and capped it with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate on a fourth down with just under a minute left.

Then, when the Bears drove into field-goal range, the Eagles needed Cody Parkey to miss from 42 yards. After he was iced by Doug Pederson, Parkey missed his second try in the most devastating way imaginable — off the uprights after Treyvon Hester apparently tipped it:

The Eagles were a 6.5-point underdog after sneaking into the playoffs, but they pulled off the win in Chicago. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? They reveled in the underdog role a year ago so much that they even wore dog masks after wins on their way to the organizations first-ever Super Bowl title.

So it’s clear at this point the football gods love Foles and this story is destined to end the same way ... right?

Maybe the most surprising thing about Philadelphia’s mediocre 2018 regular season was the defense dropping off significantly. It finished 2017 at No. 4 in both points and yards allowed, but fell to No. 12 in scoring defense and No. 23 in total defense a year later.

For most of 2018, the Eagles defense hasn’t been particularly good at anything:

A long list of players on injured reserve is the biggest reason why the defense disappeared. Among the players lost for the year are defensive end Derek Barnett as well as cornerbacks Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills.

But the Eagles showed throughout December and again Sunday that they still aren’t easy to score against.

Philadelphia forced 10 turnovers in the last six weeks of the regular season. And while it didn’t force one against the Bears — partially the fault of the officials — the defense still made life miserable for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky most of the night.

The Bears didn’t have the most prolific offense in the NFL, but they averaged 26.3 points per game during a 12-4 the regular season. Holding them to just 15 points gave Foles an opportunity to win the game —and he did.

Is there another explanation?

It looked like Sunday would be the “fall back to Earth” day for Foles when he threw his second interception of the game. He was only picked off once in his entire postseason a year ago that ended with a Super Bowl MVP award.

His 77.7 passer rating Sunday is the first time in his career he finished a playoff game with a rating below 100. But when the game was on the line, Foles scored a touchdown against the most difficult team in the NFL to score against.

Even on a day that wasn’t perfect, Foles was unflappable and got the job done.

“We saw some adversity tonight in the first half, I had a couple turnovers,” Foles told NBC’s Michelle Tafoya after the game. “The big thing is that no one loses faith, nobody stops believing. Everyone just keeps talking, keeps believing in one another, and we just rallied. Our defense really kept us in the game. It was a hard fought defensive battle but we were able to come up big in the end.”

Eagles coach Doug Pederson lauded Foles’ ability to stay on an even keel:

Once he replaced an injured Carson Wentz at the end of the season, Foles gave the Eagles just what they needed. He completed almost 77 percent of his passes and threw for 962 yards, six touchdowns, and three picks during a three-game winning streak that got Philadelphia back to the playoffs. His roller coaster career is impossible to explain, but do you dare pick against him in a playoff game at this point?

Philadelphia isn’t very good on offense, and — for most of the 2018 season — looked subpar on defense. Foles is scoring points now, and the Eagles defense has straightened things out a bit. But now, they’re off to face the No. 1 seeded New Orleans Saints on the road.

That’s a notoriously difficult place to visit and come away with a win. The Saints were No. 3 in scoring offense and they’re the No. 2 team at stopping the run.

Earlier in the year, the Saints destroyed Wentz and the Eagles, 48-7. So it’s not surprising that Philadelphia is already the biggest underdog of the Divisional Round:

For the Eagles’ run at another trip to the Super Bowl to continue, they’ll need the defense to slow down an offense that few have managed to slow, and they’ll probably need Foles to have a huge day.

But that’s pretty much the expected outcome at this point, right? The Eagles are the underdogs again — despite being Super Bowl champions — and apparently that makes them unstoppable.