The Philadelphia Eagles are 3-0, but you wouldn't think it. Endless noise about the tush push, panicking fans rambling about a stuttering offense and its new coordinator, and the usual misplaced displaying from wider league audiences for Jalen Hurts and his band of merry men.
But the reality is, this is a Championship-defending team who has yet to fall at a hurdle. Beating the Chiefs once again to cement their place at the top of the NFL totem pole? Lovely. Getting past a Rams team that often proves to be tricky, and doing so by digging out of a hole they threw themselves into? Never in doubt.
You don't need to deep-dive EPA analytics or find fancy charts to dissect why the Eagles have been inconsistent, nor do you need to do so to justify their place as an elite team in the NFL.
The Birds consistently find ways to win. You can't chart that...and will never throw in the towel. But for any fans still battling doubts, just cast your mind back to exactly this point 12 months ago.
A look back in time
The Eagles opened the 2024 campaign with a 34-29 win over the Packers. On paper, it looked good, but in reality, it was as bumpy as the field in Brazil. The offense bumbled its way down the field and would've suffered two huge scores off turnovers early if not for a vaunted defense.
A one-point loss to the Falcons then followed, along with a week of heated debates surrounding Saquon's dropped pass that essentially gave Kirk Cousins a lifeline. It felt ridiculous to criticize a player for dropping a pass, but most of the anger was directed towards a coaching staff that once again failed to sustain momentum and make the right calls at the right times.
The Eagles then beat a floundering Saints team by 3 points in week 3, before the unravelling against the Bucs in week 4 - a team they will face once more in that same spot this season.
We all know how that story ended.
The point I'm making is that once again, the Eagles have undergone some big changes. A lack of preseason play is often attributed to early sloppiness and it's as if it takes the team a few weeks to properly get the wheels turning. But with a new offensive coordinator too, this was always going to be a teething process.
The Eagles are just getting started
The fact that the Eagles are 3-0 in spite of their tumultuous offense says a lot. The will that Jalen Hurts has to carry the ball himself, the selflessness of receivers to be content with giving up targets in favor of the team winning, and a defense that's only growing in tenacity as the weeks go by, all contribute to one of the fiercest rosters we have ever seen.
It's easy to look at how the Eagles are 'scraping' early wins. But they did it last year too, and that worked out just fine.
With the NFC East in a shambles, a spot in the playoffs is all but guaranteed so long as they take care of in-division business. They've just beat one contender in the Rams, and will face a few more along that road, including the Packers, Chargers, Lions, and Bills - grading scale games to see where this team is really at.
Would anyone care if they limped past the Bills by 3 points? Or if a late blocked field goal netted them a win over the Chargers in an otherwise worrying affair? No.
This team is built to win. And winning is what they do.
It's a long season, a lot can change, but the Eagles are intent on building a team of constants...and ultimately, those cornerstones of a golden standard are what can push them back to the promised land.
