The one thing you can count on from Sirianni’s Eagles

[time2rock]

The one thing you can count on from Sirianni’s Eagles

 

Sometimes when a really smart kid is in classes that don’t challenge him, his grades will start to suffer. He’ll get bored and won’t be able to motivate himself enough to succeed.

The Eagles are the smart kid in this analogy. Their weak schedule is the class.

And I’m just the dumb guy trying to use it to tell you the Eagles need to keep taking care of business.

Because so far, there hasn’t been any complacency. The Eagles haven’t played down to their opponents. And the best sign we could have seen coming out of the bye week was the Eagles’ stepping on the throats of the hapless Pittsburgh Steelers to improve to 7-0.

"Just don’t get bored,” Fletcher Cox said after the 35-13 win. "We keep saying that, especially as a defense. We don’t get bored. Keep attacking the day knowing that now we get a chance to go 8-0. We get a chance to play football in a couple days and get everybody rolling and get ready to play Houston. It’s another chance to go out and play another game.”

There’s no question the Eagles’ schedule isn’t full of world-beaters this season. (Although, it’s fair to point out that two of their wins are against the Vikings and the Cowboys, the other top teams in the conference.)

The good news is that under Nick Sirianni the Eagles do take care of business.

In the last two years, the Eagles are 13-1 as favorites, according to Stathead. They haven’t covered the spread in all those wins, but they also haven’t lost games they’re supposed to win. As they look down the stretch of a season where they might be favored the rest of the way, it’s important that continues.

Under Sirianni they’ve even covered in all five games when they’re favored by at least 6.5 points, including Sunday when they covered the 10.5-point spread against the Steelers.

That leads us to Thursday night, when the Eagles are favored by 13 points over a Houston Texans team that is in the basement of the NFC South.

It would be easy to look at the 1-5-1 Texans, a franchise that has looked lost in recent years, and take them lightly. Especially because the Eagles are on the road in a short week at a moment in the season where it would be really easy for them to start feeling a little cocky.

But there’s a difference between confident and cocky. And the Eagles still seem to be on the right side of that.

The obvious reason for the focus is leadership. That starts with Nick Sirianni and his coaching staff but the Eagles have a ton of experienced leaders in place too. Guys like Cox and Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham aren’t going to let things become too relaxed.

I think back to before the season when people were looking at the Eagles’ schedule and penciling them in to win the NFC East and Kelce publicly railed against expectations.

"Expectations are just that,” a fired up Kelce said in early September.’ They’re f—ing nothing. We gotta go out there and play. The moment you’re comfortable in this league, somebody’s coming for you.”

While Sirianni has said in some ways it’s easier to harshly grade film after wins, Kelce in that fiery press conference warned against film study through rose-colored glasses. He warned against letting things slide because of the result and not the process.

So far, the Eagles seem to be following his lead. Because they were 6-0 coming out of the bye week, but knew they had plenty left to improve. Even after a beatdown of the Steelers, that remains true.

The Eagles’ next four opponents have a combined record of 11-18-2 and they won’t play a team that currently has a winning record until Week 13 at home against the Titans.

Four of the Eagles’ last six games this season are against teams that currently have winning records (Titans, Giants x2, Cowboys) so it’s important the Eagles keep winning games they’re supposed to.

There are games in this four game-stretch that could be tricky. The Commanders have new life under Taylor Heinicke, the Packers still have Aaron Rodgers, the Colts just fired their offensive coordinator, which could serve as a wakeup call.

And even the Texans have some talent and at least play hard under Lovie Smith. Hard enough for the Eagles to not take them lightly.

Based on what we’ve seen so far … they won’t.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-continue-take-care-business-games-they-should-win

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Well I hate to say it but they played down to Houston last night. They didn't have the energy that we've seen from this team the previous 7 weeks. They looked sluggish and they absolutely looked like they thought they could just turn up and win. And I guess in the end they did because there was some good and some bad but they got it done. 

[SlimReaper4Six]

I don’t care what anyone says that running back is a absolute beast and he doesn’t get enough attention because of their record. He came out and they would have given any team fits the way he was running. I’ve seen him play and he always brings juice but something about last night it was even more extra. Davis Mills said basically this is their Super Bowl. That’s something we’re going to have to get ready for. I can’t get mad at the Eagles as a whole but this defense needs to start tackling better. Our secondary is great at pass defense but they do not like to play downhill