FOXBOROUGH — You’d have to go to Philadelphia to find a group more excited about the Eagles win than the group of Patriots players assembled around a TV screen in a training room after their win against the Bills Sunday.
Their hats and T-shirts, prizes for winning the AFC East for a 10th year in a row, were waiting for them next door in the locker room. But first, eyes were glued to the Texans-Eagles game, which was coming down to the wire with major implications for the Patriots’ playoff seeding.
Just as the Patriots came off the field, Nick Foles was beginning his attempt to lead the Eagles on a game-winning, two-minute drive. The Texans were up, 30-29. An Eagles win would vault the Patriots over Houston and into the No. 2 seed in the AFC. New England would control its own destiny in terms of securing a first-round bye.
Forget Super Bowl 52. In that moment, the Patriots would have painted themselves green, jumped in a vat of cheese whiz, and bought their families Christmas dinner from Wawa if it helped them avoid playing on wild-card weekend.
“Fly, Eagles Fly,” Julian Edelman said.
The group gathered in the training room grew. Some players watched on their phones, others called in to the players looking at the TV for updates. Most genuinely enjoyed a chance to watch part of a suspenseful football game as fans, though their rooting interest was more significant than most.
Duron Harmon chose what sports fans know as the most stressful way possible to follow an important game: obsessively refreshing ESPN’s play-by-play feed on his phone.
“I mean, literally, I was there just refreshing, refreshing like, ‘All right, come on Nick, let’s see some of that magic that we’ve seen last year,’” Harmon said.
He refreshed once and saw that the Eagles faced a third and 10. The irony of rooting hard for Foles, Super Bowl MVP last year for tearing up the Patriots’ defense, crossed his mind.
He refreshed again.
Foles to Alshon Jeffery for 19 yards and a drive-sustaining first down. Phew.
“He’s a competitor,” Harmon said. “We’ve seen that. We’ve seen that in the Super Bowl.”
Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Yelps from the group watching on TV punctuated each play. Two chunk plays, a big throw from Foles to tight end Zach Ertz, and a 16-yard run by Darren Sproles moved the Eagles into field goal range.
“Thank him for leading that offense today and especially on that two-minute drive,” Harmon said of Foles. “That takes guts. Against a really good team, a Texans defense that’s as good as anybody out there. We’ll definitely take it.”
The Eagles got down to the Texans’ 17-yard line. Then came the 35-yard kick for Jake Elliott. Then came the cheers, audible from outside the locker room.
“The kick is good!” one Patriot shouted.
“Nick Foles does it again!”
Some players tried to play it cool once reporters entered the locker room.
“Oh, were they in there watching the end of the game?” deadpanned Marcus Cannon, who had just emerged with the group from the equipment room with a huge smile on his face. “I was just taking my shoulder pads off.”
Others couldn’t hide their excitement.
“I remember there were years in Tennessee where we were playing in that last game and you need this person to win and this person to lose and I remember being on a plane and we won the game and then it didn’t happen,” Jason McCourty said. “Just that sick feeling of, ‘Well, here goes the offseason.’ So you definitely enjoy when things work out in your favor, but I think at the end of the day what you do and making sure you’re taking care of business is the most important thing.”
Most players were quick to point out that they still have to hold on to the No. 2 seed with a win next week against the Jets. That’s a far better position for them to be in, though, than having to cross their fingers and hope for a Texans loss against Jacksonville. Considering the Patriots’ struggles on the road this year, playoff seeding is important.
That’s why the cheers were so loud in the locker room after the win — the Eagles win – Sunday, when the Patriots had an unlikely rooting interest.
“Shout out to Nick Foles,” Harmon said.
Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.