Eagles bye week comes as team plays best football

LeSean McCoy is suddenly the NFL’s fourth leading rusher. Credit: Getty Images

The Eagles are in the midst of their bye week. But after playing the best 60 minutes of football they’ve played all season long (in a 27-0 thumping of the Giants), is the timing off?

“It’s a great position to be in,” Nick Foles said, clearly okay with the Week 7 bye. “We still have a lot of season left to go and I still have a lot of things to improve on, which excites me. You all know how I am. It will be great to have the bye this week to get healthy, get some rest, recoup and get ready to go.”

The ability to spend a week getting healthy is certainly a plus, but for a player like Lane Johnson, who spent the first four weeks out on suspension, it might slow down an offensive line that is finally clicking.

“We have good momentum, but the thing is, a lot of times when you come off the bye you look rusty,” Johnson said. “That will be the emphasis.”

The Eagles have played 10 games (including four in the preseason). With 10 remaining, its pretty much the halfway point with the Cardinals next on the docket in Arizona in Week 8.

Historically, the Eagles have fared incredibly well after a bye week, though most of the success came during the old regime. Under Andy Reid’s tenure, the Birds pieced together 12 straight wins following a bye (they finally lost in Reid’s last year in Philly).

With Kelly now calling the shots, the Eagles expect to repeat their success from a year ago, when they had a Week 13 bye and defeated who else, the Cardinals 24-21.