Right on cue, another season seemingly salvaged
PHILADELPHIA >> Brandon Brooks was one loss into his Eagles career when first he realized how it worked around his new workplace. One. Just one.
“Man, it was ‘17,” he said. “We were 1-and-1 and people were standing outside the facility telling us to run the ball.”
The Eagles were 1-1, and ran the ball plenty after that. Threw it, too. Tackled and kicked. Won their next nine, their final three and a parade permit.
“In ‘18,” the Eagles’ guard continued, “we were 4-6. We lost to the Saints, everybody said we were done.”
And then?
“A few weeks ago,” he said, “everybody said things.”
Oh, they said things. And not all of them were said outside the NewsControl Compound by loud and grumpy pedestrians brandishing signs. Some of them, at least according to reports, were being growled from inside the iron gates, too. The Eagles had just lost their last two by a combined
45 points. And more than in
2017 and more than in 2018, they were in danger of losing their way.
One report from ESPN had an unknown Eagle badgering Carson Wentz about play selection. Lane Johnson went on TV and said some players were showing up late for meetings and practices. Not long after, Fletcher Cox was heard to tell South Jersey police on a 911 call that he had a gun and a mood to use it because an attacker allegedly was throwing rocks at his windows.
No, this year, unlike that other year, it was going to take more than just a better commitment to the run to salvage a season. Yet two games later, including a 2214 victory over the Chicago Bears, there were the Eagles Sunday, spinning into their bye week with a 5-4 record, a two-game winning streak and a locker room absent of complaints, fingerpoints or fear. Whether that meant they had regained their status a true contenders will not be known until they keep winning, and their next game is against Tom Brady, not Mitchell Trubisky.
But it did mean that when they came within one more dirty loss or one more rogue clubhouse comment of collapse, they suddenly began to flash some of those 2017 charms.
“Two big wins against two really good football teams,” Zach Ertz said. “Obviously, we played the Bears in the playoffs last year, so they are extremely talented. The Bills were 5-1 last week when we played them. So we’re extremely happy where we are at. Obviously, 5-4 is not ideal, but we’ve still got everything in front of us.
“The bye is going to be huge for a lot of guys. We faced a lot of adversity on the injury front this year. So I am excited about taking a week off, getting back healthy, not only physically but mentally as well. We’ve got seven more games to put a stamp on this season.”
That was what the Eagles accomplished in two important victories: The peace of mind that their season had not yet been stamped as expired. Sunday, they weren’t overpowering, but they were never in horrifying danger of losing. They were the better team and played that way. They didn’t commit a turnover, and when pressed in the fourth quarter, they used 8:14 of the final 8:39 to uncork a 16-play, fourfirst-down drive to the Chicago 20, good for a Jake Elliott field goal and the eightpoint lead.
“They knew what we were going to do,” Jordan Howard said. “But we’re still hard to stop sometimes.”
At their best, they can be a challenge. But there they were two games ago, in danger of being stopped only by their own, dangerous behavior. Yet the Eagles had a team meeting, plugged whatever verbal leaks were springing from their locker room, and played enough responsible football to remain more than relevant, particularly with the back end of their schedule appearing to provide a significant drop in class.
“You know what?” Brandon Graham said. “We know that challenges are going to happen in a season. And that was just one of our tests that we had to pass. We could have easily folded and started pointing fingers at each other. There was so much media stuff going on from Fletch to this guy to that guy. So many distractions. But we never stopped believing. That was one thing.
“But we have to clean up some of the little things that tend to sneak up on us. Even in this game, there were some. First half, lights out. Second half, not so much. I don’t know what changed. I am glad we picked it up and finished well. We’ve just got to continue to keep believing, which I believe is not a problem. But I am glad we went through that adversity, because that’s all it was, the first little test of many more that we are going to go through the rest of the season.”
The Patriots will be a test in two weeks. Seattle, on the following Sunday night, will be something less than a party. Both games will matter, though. Two weeks ago, that wasn’t assured.
“No matter what our record is or how dark it seems at the time, we’ve done it before, numerous times,” Brooks said. “For us, there is no secret, there is no key. Once we figure out what the problem is, it’s about execution and getting it fixed.
“And I think we are one of the better teams at doing that.”
They did it in 2017. They did it in 2018. And don’t tell the Bills or Bears they aren’t doing it in 2019, too.