No NFL team before or since ever posted consecutive shutouts in championship play. No NFL team can claim to be more dominant over a two-year period. The Eagles won back-to-back NFL Championships in 1948 and 1949, first shutting out the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0, and then blanking the Los Angeles Rams, 14-0. Under legendary head coach Greasy Neale, Philadelphia finished the 1948 regular season with a 9-2-1 record and took on the Cardinals in the championship game with a foot of snow covering Shibe Park. RB Steve Van Buren scored the game's only touchdown on a 5-yard TD run, while the defense limited the Cards to just 6 total first downs. The Eagles continued their dominance in 1949 with an 11-1 record in the regular season and a victory over the Rams in the championship game on a rain-soaked Los Angeles Coliseum field. Van Buren again led the Eagles as he rumbled for 196 yards on 31 carries. In those two seasons, the Eagles outscored their opposition 761-290. They were lovingly called "the duffel-bag dynasty." Many players were young men who had served their country in World War II and returned home trying again to settle into a regular life.
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