NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The Philadelphia Eagles are winning. While it may not be the way fans and media want, they are still finding ways to climb the standings. Against the Cincinnati Bengals this past Sunday, they did so with arguably their most complete game on both sides of the ball. Now they just have to keep that momentum going.
What’s staggering is that the media is now saying they had belief in this Eagles team all along. Stop it. Just a few weeks ago, those same analysts were calling for Jalen Hurts to be benched and for Nick Sirianni to be fired. This is what happens when you jump off the bandwagon too soon.
The Philadelphia Eagles entered the season with a good win against the Green Bay Packers but then things fell apart. AJ Brown went down with an injury that held him out of a few games and then they lost DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson as well as Dallas Goedert. In that time, the Eagles slipped some. The offense struggled and then the Sirianni sideline incident occurred.
That was all the critics needed to see as they ranked the Washington Commanders ahead of the Eagles as the team to beat in the NFC East. Okay, the Commanders are playing good ball but to think this Eagles team is beneath them is absurd. They had injuries to deal with. Two new coordinators and one of the youngest defenses in the NFL and yet, here they are sitting at 5-2 on the year.
And if you want to get deeper into it all, they have lost just one game where they didn’t show up and that was to the Tama Bay Buccaneers but that was also a game where they didn’t have Brown, Smith, and Johnson. The loss against the Atlanta Falcons was due to poor playcalling and a dropped pass by Saquon Barkley. By all accounts, this Eagles team is not a 5-2 team, they are better.
But here we are getting ready for Week 9 and all of a sudden, those critics want to show praise. The claim is that Hurts is playing better with fewer turnovers, well, that is due to having his receivers healthy and on the field with him. That part is what true Eagles fans were saying from the start but the media, well, it was a reason to throw dirt.
The bandwagon is filling up again for the Philadelphia Eagles. The talk of what happened last season is declining and now, according to those same critics, the Eagles are back to being Super Bowl contenders. The media is so flaky. This season for most teams has been about patience. Yes, the Kansas City Chiefs, despite injuries are still undefeated but they are the exception. Their core players have remained healthy. But the Eagles were dealing with injuries to key players while learning new offensive and defensive schemes and implementing new weapons. It just takes a bit of time.
