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The Philadelphia Eagles are underdogs once again, with the Patriots opening up as a 5.5-point favorite in Super Bowl LII, and, once again, they are totally fine with it. Lane Johnson and Chris Long embraced the underdog role by wearing creepy dog masks in the Divisional Round, then sported them again on Sunday night after thumping the Vikings 38-7 in the NFC Championship Game. 

In the locker room after, Johnson was informed the Eagles were underdogs and he was plenty pleased, while also promising to get after "pretty boy" Tom Brady. 

"I know," Johnson told Tim McManus of ESPN when informed Philly was a dog again. "Hey, Tom Brady. Pretty boy Tom Brady. He's the best quarterback of all time, so, nothing I'd like to do more than dethrone that guy."

*tugs nervously at collar*

Ahem, um, Lane, congrats on the big win and the dog mask sales. But, uh, you do know that maybe ripping the G.O.A.T. just minutes after drawing the most difficult possible matchup in the Super Bowl is probably not the greatest idea in the entire world right? 

Johnson probably did not see what Brady did to the Jaguars, but it can best be described as getting "Tom Brady'd," according to Jacksonville linebacker Myles Jack.

Brady led the Patriots back from a 20-10 fourth-quarter deficit, his second consecutive playoff game that featured a highly improbable comeback, to win 24-20 and advance to his eighth Super Bowl. He has some staying power. 

Safety Malcolm Jenkins had some more appropriately aggressive words for Brady.

"Greatest quarterback of all time, but that doesn't mean that he's unbeatable," Jenkins said after the game. "We've got a destination that we're geared to. No matter who's in front of us, we've got somewhere to go."

That's just motivational talk. Still: perhaps it would be best to follow the Zach Ertz line. Ertz, asked about playing against Brady just pointed out that the Super Bowl "is a huge stage."

"It's going to be crazy. The Super Bowl is a huge stage and a huge opportunity, and it's going to be a lot of fun. It's something that you dream about growing up as a kid, and now we're here," Ertz said. "No one thought we were going to be here after Carson [Wentz] went down, but it's the resiliency of this team, how much we love playing for one another, and how much we love the game of football. I hope you guys can see it out there each and every game."

Or channel Vinny Curry, who said this is all "for the city."

"At this point it's for the city. It's for [owner] Mr. [Jeffrey] Lurie. For the city. For everybody that put the hard work in this season. It doesn't matter who we play. It's not about them, it's about us," Curry said. "We're not done yet. We just have to stay the course. Like I said, we're going to embrace this moment. It's a wonderful feeling. This is the thing guys talked about at OTA's and here we go, you know what I mean? I'm pretty sure you're happy." 

The larger lesson here? Don't feed the beast. The Patriots are a dangerous enough team without getting motivation from their opponent over the course of two weeks, and generally speaking, teams who talk a lot leading up to the game can struggle versus teams who spend their time focusing in on the Super Bowl. There's plenty of time for trash talking later.

Plus, Brady did sort of pull off that epic comeback against the Jags with 10-12 stitches in his hand. Just because his coach wasn't impressed doesn't mean we can't be.