While the seemingly-always-present-in-Philadelphia tension has lingered through the 9-5 Eagles’ season, particularly surrounding the offense, they're on the doorstep of a level of continuity that is common in the NFL albeit not in the NFC East.
Through a very narrow lens devoid of context, perhaps Nick Sirianni was correct.
“It is just the next game right here,” the Philadelphia Eagles head coach said.
Through a broader lens, particularly that of the NFC East’s last two decades, the Eagles’ Saturday night game against the Washington Commanders represents something much bigger.
“It’s just the next game,” Sirianni said, “and we know it’s an opportunity to win the division. And as my dad used to always say: We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
The bridge at which the Eagles are on the cusp of crossing has not been crossed in 21 years. Not since the 2003 and 2004 seasons has any team in the NFC East defended their division title, which is to say won the division two consecutive seasons.
For 20 straight years, the division has changed hands annually. The Eagles, this weekend, have the chance to snap that streak.
Philadelphia travels to Washington as 7-point favorites against a Commanders team that has sidelined quarterback Jayden Daniels (elbow) for the remainder of the season. Beat the Commanders, and the Eagles clinch the NFC East.
The Eagles can also clinch this weekend if they and the Dallas Cowboys tie their games, or if the Dallas Cowboys lose Sunday to the Los Angeles Chargers (the Cowboys are 2.5-point home favorites, per BetMGM).
Philadelphia’s simplest and earliest route to division-champion hats and T-shirts is a Saturday win.
And while the seemingly-always-present-in-Philadelphia tension has lingered through the 9-5 Eagles’ season, particularly surrounding the offense, they’re on the doorstep of a level of continuity that is common in the NFL albeit not in the NFC East.
The NFC East’s recent history diverges wildly from its counterpart divisions.
Since the NFC East was last defended by the Eagles from the 2003 to the 2004 season, every division has featured a repeat champion. Twenty-three of the 28 teams in the seven non-NFC East divisions have won repeat titles, a Yahoo Sports analysis of Pro Football Reference data showed. The other seven divisions have been defended 72 unique times by those 23 teams since the 2004 to 2005 season, when the NFC East began its wild reign of changing hands.
“I’m not surprised by it,” said Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, whose eight years in the division have included six with the New York Giants before two in Philadelphia. “It's a hard, hard division throughout the history of this game. Being in this division for the last eight years, you know how tough it is.
“So to do something that hasn't been done in 20 years is pretty cool. But again, that can't be the focus.”
The NFL structures its guidelines around the goal of parity, aiming to thwart dynasties via the salary cap and draft format. And yet: Six of the league’s eight divisions were defended last year from the 2023 season. The only NFC division not defended last year, the NFC West, was defended the year prior.
Still, it was the NFC East who sent two teams to the conference championship game last season. The Eagles beat the Commanders, 55-23, before ultimately winning the Super Bowl.
In the 20 years of defenseless NFC East play, the Cowboys and Eagles each have won the division seven times, while the Giants and Commanders have won it three times a piece.
Philadelphia and New York have each won two Super Bowl titles in that stretch. Only Dallas has not advanced past the divisional round.
Until the division has been clinched, the Eagles are hesitant to celebrate. After all, history suggests this is a division that does not want to be defended.
But the chances that the streak breaks are high. The chance that it breaks this weekend: also high.
Could that momentum shift the panic in Philadelphia, reminding the city how difficult it is to sustain success in the division?
“You win the division, you can guarantee yourself a playoff position,” Barkley said. “You get to the playoffs, you guarantee yourself a chance to compete for the Super Bowl. And that's what you want.”
The Eagles enter this Week 16 game with the league’s fifth-ranked scoring defense and 18th-ranked scoring offense. Philadelphia’s defense ranks 13th in total yardage compared to its 22nd-ranked offense, which rebounded to a 31-0 victory against the Las Vegas Raiders last weekend to snap a three-game skid.
Winning in the postseason will take more than the caliber of play needed to beat the spiraling 2-12 Raiders or even the 4-10 Commanders up in two of the next three weeks. But Barkley advocated for peaking at the right time. Hitting a stride in September is rarely what makes an NFL champion.
“If you look at some of those teams that were the guys or the teams halfway through the year, they're falling off,” Barkley said. “It's a long season. It's hard and everything that we want is still out in front of us and we can finish the season the way we want to.
“But the focus has got to be on the little things. Put ourselves in position to do it and obviously we’ll take advantage of it.”
Category: General Sports
