Eagles aren’t playing down to competition despite cupcake schedule

The Eagles have won their last four games by margins of 28, 28, 28 and 23 points.

Sure, they’ve been playing against some of the bottom teams in the NFL, like the 49ers and Bears, but wins, consistently by that margin in the NFL are enough to make some noise in a league that is quick to annoint a top dog.

The Eagles are the 2017 top dogs, having rattled off nine consecutive wins, a 10-1 record and incredible numbers in the stat sheet on both offense and defense.

Opponents beware.

“If I am a defense going against a high-powered offense and the’yre putting up a lot of points, I am buckling down,” Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills said. “You have to play assignment football.”

Philadelphia, which has run for 100 or more yards in 10 straight games and scored more than 30 points in five straight, leads the NFL with 351 points, which are the most through 11 games in franchise history.

“It’s just playing together,” Fletcher Cox said. “All three units — special teams, offense and defense — sticking together and knowing that nobody is going to come here and lay down and give us a win. We have to continue to just build on things that we do during the week and take it out on Sunday.”

Two of the tougher tests this season await on the west coast, when the Eagles face first the Seahawks in Seattle and then the Rams in Los Angeles. One encouraging facet of their point output is how dominant they have been with an easier strength of schedule.

“We didn’t want to overlook the Bears but we know we have three road teams ahead against good teams, moving forward we will be put to the test,” Lane Johnson said after Philly’s Week 12 31-3 win over Chicago. “It’s really trying to put good stuff on film. We know what we have and what we are capable of. If it’s a good team, you want to play the best of your ability but if it’s a bad team, you don’t want to play down to them.”

The Eagles have had no problem playing their best against the Giants and Cowboys this season. Here’s hoping they are equipped to play up to the good teams down the stretch.