Northwest Stadium (Landover, Md.) — The Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champs, so most of the team has already hung the biggest banners a team can celebrate.
Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” blared in a celebratory visiting locker room — “You can feel it all over,” they sang, with the team owner, general manager and coach taking photos with jubilant players. “BEEN THERE, WON THAT,” read the black T-shirts commemorating the back-to-back NFC East titles clinched with a 29-18 win over the Commanders.
“It’s good to get the first hat and T-shirt,” cornerback Cooper DeJean told me.
So, as the defending Super Bowl champions, why celebrate what is only the first of several team goals for the 2025 season?
For starters, the NFC East hadn’t seen any repeat champ since 2004, when the Eagles had won four straight at the peak of the Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb years. The NFL has also shown that dynasties can be fleeting, with the Chiefs missing the playoffs and the Bills currently trailing the Patriots after five straight AFC East titles.
“These times, they’re rare times,” said quarterback Jalen Hurts, who threw for two touchdowns in the win. “So [it’s] one thing that all of us must soak in and relish on this second proper now, however hold the principle factor [as] the principle factor.”
The message on Saturday was that small issues may be celebrated. A couple of hours earlier, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial within the capital close by, a mock funeral service was held for the penny, with a solemn bunch of pallbearers dressed like Abe himself carrying an precise coffin previous an easel studying “Relaxation in Pence.”
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That is not the Eagles’ perspective, although. Whereas they’ll fortunately take their newly minted NFC East crown and put it away, they know they have not reached the identical heights as final season. The final two weeks, although, introduced a 31-0 win over the Raiders and this comparatively convincing win over the Commanders.
The hope is that the perfect is but to return.
“We’re getting shut,” DeJean stated. “I nonetheless really feel like there’s issues we will clear up, as at all times, however we have simply bought to maintain constructing, constructing on what we did this week and final week, to proceed to attempt to play our greatest soccer taking place the stretch.”
The Eagles proceed to be an imperfect crew. Whereas 10-5 is sweet sufficient to clinch the division, it is their worst document at this level during the last 4 years, a span that has included two Tremendous Bowl appearances. Philadelphia pulled away Saturday, however it began slowly sufficient that it trailed a 4-10 Commanders crew late within the third quarter.
Cooper DeJean’s third quarter interception helped swing the sport within the Eagles’ favor. (Photograph by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photographs)
The Eagles are solely two weeks faraway from a three-game shedding streak, and the offense has scored fewer than 20 factors six instances after going greater than a 12 months with out such a sport.
The protection gave up 34 factors in a loss to the Giants earlier this season, however has now appeared to search out itself once more. Kicker Jake Elliott has missed 5 area objectives within the final 5 video games, together with two Saturday.
The present trajectory, although, is upward after a 31-0 shutout of the Raiders final week earlier than beating the Commanders.
“We simply hold working,” defensive sort out Jordan Davis stated. “The one limitations are what we placed on ourselves. The sky is the restrict. We are the masters of our personal future. We simply need to go on the market and hold claiming it. We now have to be constant. So, that is my factor, being an affect [player] and claiming consistency.”
In opposition to the Commanders, there have been indicators of final 12 months’s dominant Eagles, particularly within the run sport by piling up 207 yards, their second-best whole of the season. Saquon Barkley, held in verify a lot of this season, broke free within the second half, with a gritty 12-yard landing within the fourth quarter and a 48-yard run to arrange one other rating.
It isn’t simply Barkley who ignites the run sport, although. Offensive sort out Jordan Mailata was fast to level out that it is a crew effort.
“Did you see Smitty’s block?” Mailata advised me, referencing receiver DeVonta Smith on the 48-yard run. “Return and watch Smitty’s block. Oh, my goodness. I really like watching Saquon run, however I really like watching Smitty blocking. As a result of man, it is wonderful how for an undersized receiver. … That man can block his ass off and he does a rattling good job at it.”
Not the whole lot on Saturday seemed just like the 2024 Eagles, although. Their signature tush push, so efficient in brief yardage that NFL homeowners almost voted to ban it, was stopped 3 times on the 1-yard line by the Commanders, twice on false begins on offensive linemen. Hurts made up for it each instances, throwing a 6-yard landing cross to Smith, and most significantly, a 16-yard landing to tight finish Dallas Goedert for the lead on a third-and-goal play late within the third.
“You lean on that play, you count on us to transform on the 1-yard line, and we simply did not do it that point,” Mailata stated. “Fairly completely satisfied that Dallas and Jalen might bail us out on that one, however that is simply the way it goes.”
If the tush push goes the best way of the penny, how do the Eagles keep away from the identical destiny? Is final evening an indication of issues to return?
The Eagles need greater than to simply repeat as NFC East champions, and head coach Nick Sirianni stated that, like the rest, his crew should counter the best way opponents ultimately discover methods to beat the unbeatable.
“You already know, groups modify. We have to proceed to regulate,” Sirianni stated. “What I used to be actually inspired by – clearly, you do not need penalties … however we had been actually capable of overcome them. That is what this sport is about. There’s ups and downs all through this sport, and there have been ups and downs by this sport, and we had been capable of overcome, and hats off to our guys.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand spent a decade masking the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Occasions and The Athletic. You may observe him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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