PHILADELPHIA – It appeared as if the Eagles were headed for a cliff as September ended. They were 2-2 at the time, but the bye week gave way to corrections in habits and attitudes, and that led to an abrupt U-turn away from that cliff.
It led to 10 straight wins and counting after Sunday’s 27-13 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Not once since the Philadelphia Eagles were officially born in 1933, when Bert Bell and Lud Wray purchased the former Frankford Yellowjackets franchise for $2,500, have the Eagles ever won 10 in a row.
“To have 10 of them in a row, which this city has never had, I really take a lot of pride in that,” said head coach Nick Sirianni, whose career record is now 46-19 and .708 winning percentage ranks third among current NFL head coaches behind only Andy Reid (.769, 50-15) and Sean McDermott (.719, 46-18) since 2021.
The longest winning streak the Eagles had until Week 15 this year was nine in a row three times. Those nine-game winning streaks came in 2017, 2003, and 1960. What do those three years have in common? Two of them – 1960 and 2017 - led to championships, the 2003 team made it to the Super Bowl where a loss to the New England Patriots ensued.
Where this season will end remains to be seen, but there’s no arguing that 10 wins in a row is already quite the achievement.
“It feels great,” said Saquon Barkley. “The Eagles have never done that. I don’t think there’s anyone in this locker room that’s ever won 10 games in a row. I think it’s funny. You go back 10 weeks ago, the sky was falling, and everyone was saying ‘We should do this, we should do that.’ Everyone was jumping off the bridge.”
The Eagles rebuilt that bridge during their bye week and now, the last time they lost a game was nearly three months ago, on Sept. 29 at Tampa, when the leaves were still mostly green and the temperatures warmer.
“It’s unbelievable,” said right tackle Lane Johnson. “We’re resilient. When we did face some aversity early we’re 2-2, we came tighter and knew what direction we wanted to go. Then slowly wins started coming. We started practicing better.”
Four of the last five wins in this streak have come against teams with winning records and a combined record of 36-20. They were against the Commanders, Rams, Ravens, and Steelers. The Panthers were sandwiched in there, too, and, oddly enough, the 3-11 Panthers may have been the biggest threat to the Eagles’ streak.
So, what does it all mean?
“Nothing,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said bluntly. “It doesn’t mean anything. Just worry about the next game, and everyone else knows that. It’s great to win games. It’s cool to set records and history, but at the same time, we left a lot of plays out there (against the Steelers). It was a great win, don’t get me wrong, but we’re not into chasing records. But it’s pretty good.”
