Eagles stayed true to themselves
Defending champs didn’t quit when hope seemed lost
LANDOVER, Md. – Every so often during his team’s game against the Redskins, Nick Foles would unconsciously glance up and catch the score of the Bears and Vikings game on the FedExField scoreboard.
The Eagles’ quarterback would quickly look away, trying to block out the results before his mind could comprehend what he saw.
Yes, Foles knew that the Eagles needed a Chicago victory to help them get to the postseason. But he and his teammates also realized that nothing that took place in Minnesota would have any impact on them if they didn’t handle their own business.
“I didn’t want it to affect what I was doing. I was trying to stay focused on winning this game,” Foles said after throwing two touchdown passes and helping lead the Eagles to a 24-0 victory. “I didn’t want to let (Washington) back in. The Redskins’ defense was who I was competing against.”
After dominating Washington in all phases of the game and handing the Redskins their first shutout loss since 2014, Foles and his teammates retreated to the visitors’ locker room where they had to wait to see how the final minutes of the Chicago-Minnesota game played out. The Bears prevailed 24-10, and then the Eagles’ locker room went into brief celebration mode. Snoop Dogg and Jay Rock’s “Win,” 112, Biggy and Mase’s “Only You,” and The Commodores’ “Brick House” blared from a speaker.
And then, just as quickly as the celebration had struck up, it ended. The Eagles returned to business mode.
“You can throw out everything and how everyone got there,” safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “These are one-game seasons now, and it’s going to be excit- ing. … This is what we expected. We are where we expected to be. The journey hasn’t been the way we drew it up, but this is where we expected to be.”
It’s almost crazy that the Eagles are even in this position after standing at 4-6 at one point this season. Stuck behind Dallas and Washington in the NFC East standings, their chances of defending their Super Bowl title appeared shot. But Philly’s players and coaches maintained a season-saving belief in themselves. Rather than letting a disjointed offense, shortcoming defense and failed expectations cause them to implode, the Eagles maintained their focus.
“There was no point I was worried, man, because the thing about this team is it starts up top,” defensive lineman Fletcher Cox told USA TODAY. “When your coach is so calm about things and he approaches things like he does, he knows how to handle tough times, and as we all know, man, tough times don’t last long, but tough people do. That being said, he stayed calm, he kept coaching, and he knew that his guys were go- ing to be there for him at the end of the day.
“The biggest thing was, ‘Don’t quit because it’s a long season.’ Guys just kept punching, man. … Now we finish the regular season 9-7 and we’re headed into the postseason.”
Doug Pederson’s players scraped their way out of their hole by winning five of their next six games. They did so despite again losing quarterback Carson Wentz to injury, with a back ailment sidelining him this time after torn knee ligaments sidelined him at the end of 2017. But it was the experience from last season — the understanding that they were capable of still accomplishing their goals despite misfortunes — that pushed them to keep punching, as Cox put it.
Some teams might have suffered from an identity crisis after following up a Super Bowl victory with a losing first half of the season. But not the Eagles.
“We know who we have in this locker room,” Jenkins explained.
Said defensive end Chris Long, “The key is you can’t listen to people outside of the locker room. No offense, but if I listened to y’all midway through the season, we might as well have packed our bags and headed home, booked our warm-weather vacations or whatnot. But now we’re going somewhere cold in January and I couldn’t be happier. … Belief is something you can’t put your finger on. This team has it.”
Now the Eagles will take their belief on the road to Chicago for the start of what they hope is another magical run to the Super Bowl. But to do so, they must remain in the moment, as Foles repeated throughout his improbable march to Super Bowl MVP last winter, and as he reiterated again on Sunday.
“It’s been a crazy year. … The road that we’ve had, these last several weeks, it hasn’t been an easy ride. We got some help today, but this is really special,” he said. “We get to keep playing and get to wear that Eagles’ jersey one more time. I’m excited and the locker room is excited, and it’s going to be hard to sleep tonight.”