Andrew Noel, Editor

By the way people have reacted to the Eagles this season, you would not know they have a great record. Has there ever been an 8-2 team getting such negative vibes from both the media and the fans? Sure, the Eagles, despite winning six games in a row, have not been playing their best football, especially on offense, but that’s a good thing. Teams should not peak in mid-November. If they do, they flame out and do nothing in the playoffs. Case in point is the Eagles of just twelve months ago.

The last week and a half could have been season-defining for the Eagles, but not in a good way. In a space of five days, they had to travel to Dallas, a stadium they have not won in since 2017, and then return home on short rest to face the upstart Commanders in Philadelphia. Everyone knew going into this stretch that the Eagles were good. Everyone was about to find out just how good they are. 

Based on how those five days and two games went, you would have to say, they are pretty good. An easy 34-6 win in Dallas was followed up by a gritty 28-16 win over Washington. Five days, two cities and two divisional wins. It is time to be excited about these Eagles. 

The most exciting part is that their best, at least on paper, is yet to come. Four of the last five games of the season are at home. The Eagles also benefit from having one of the easier remaining schedules in the NFL. Obviously, with the scars of last season still fresh, no one is going to get ahead of themselves, but with where the team is today versus where they were just six weeks ago, it is hard not to be hopeful about how the rest of the season will play out and where it will end (hopefully, New Orleans). 

One can only hope that the Eagles continue to be disregarded by the national media. They are a team that plays better as the underdog. How last season ended proves this point. The Eagles started 10-1 and people were planning for a parade in mid-November. The second that the Eagles became favorites for the Super Bowl is the second that the wheels fell off. Let’s hope that the media keeps ignoring the Eagles as they chase the number-one seed in the NFC; the longer the media keeps doubting them, the better the chances that the Eagles play very deep into January (and hopefully into February). 

As Jason Kelce said on the art museum steps six years ago, “an underdog is a hungry dog.” These Eagles are hungry, so let’s see how far that hunger takes them.