Doug Pederson: Super Bowl-bound underdog Eagles players, coaches are a lot like their fans

Doug Pederson didn't attempt to climb any greased streetlight poles on his way home from the Eagles' NFC championship victory Sunday night.

"I just went home," Pederson said Monday, the day after the Eagles earned a Super Bowl LII berth with a 38-7 NFC championship victpory over the Minnesota Vikings.

"Some family in town, my mom was here, my boys from school were in town, some friends from Louisiana," Pederson said. "We just enjoyed the moment."

Pederson said he did get to sleep, "about 2 a.m."

Pederson seems to be following the template Andy Reid once said was imparted to him by Mike Holmgren in Green Bay (where Pederson, of course, was the backup quarterback for the Super Bowl the Packers won after the 1996 season). The idea, Reid said, is that you do all your real prep work during the week you are at home at your practice facility, then you use the week you spend on site, where media obligations and sideshow frivolity run rampant, to fine-tune.

"We can get a lot of good work in this week with minimal distractions," Pederson said.

Pederson agreed with a questioner who wondered if the Eagles' December week in California between West Coast games might make Super Bowl week seem a little more familiar.

"Makes it a little bit easier," said Pederson, who went on to say that the week in Minneapolis will be played out "on a grander, bigger stage, obviously, so the attention will be a lot more, there'll be a lot more distractions."

Overall, Pederson said this will be his message to the team: "There's one game left in this season. We've come this far and we want to make sure we stay focused … we've got a great locker room … I trust my leaders to get that job done."

Pederson said he hasn't been able to devote a lot of attention to the way his team's improbable journey to the third Super Bowl appearance in franchise history has sent fans into near-delirium, but he appreciates it.

"I'm excited for our fans. They're a lot like us. We've been underdogs, you know, for the last couple of weeks. Our fans feel that and they understand that," Pederson said. "We hope to have the entire Eagles nation up in Minneapolis for a game in two weeks."