A Sequel To 2023's Collapse Isn't In The Cards For This Eagles Team

The Eagles' firewall starts with Vic Fangio and the game's best offensive line.

Eagles DC Vic Fangio / John McMullen/Eagles On SI

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles have gotten used to good starts in the Nick Sirianni era. 

So good that this year’s 8-2 record at the 10-game mark is a small step back from the 9-1 breakouts in the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

A somewhat still inexplicable collapse last season in which Philadelphia lost six of seven with the final ignominy in Tampa has somewhat obfuscated what’s been going on with the Eagles during this unprecedented run at the top of the food chain.

Since the 2-5 start in Sirianni’s first season as head coach during the 2021 season this organization is 40-14 in the regular season, a gaudy .741 winning percentage. Take out the outlier of losing five of six to end last season when the mojo was lost and the number is 39-9 (.813), a startling efficiency level.

The organization’s actions after the disappointing end to the 2023 campaign pointed to former defensive coordinator Sean Desai and the tortured in-season move to Matt Patricia as the defensive play-caller, and to a lesser degree, former offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, as the main culprits for the collapse.

The Eagles moved to 10-1 last season before the bottom fell out. Despite Sunday’s game at the Los Angeles Rams, where Desai landed as a senior defensive assistant, there is little superstition, never mind concern of a potential repeat.

In fact, the Eagles’ feel more like an inevitability this season with the NFC East assumed and a conference championship hinging on whether Detroit can keep things going rather that facing a road to the Super Bowl through Lincoln Financial Field.

That haughtiness has been built up on the foundation of an offensive line that serves as the stormtroopers for this Galatic Empire, and a 66-year-old defensive wizard who arrived one year late.

Nothing is assured in a league where attrition is always lurking other than a sequel to last season is not in the cards with Vic Fangio and an elite offensive line serving as the firewall. 

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