PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Eagles were indeed flying high as the best in the NFL, boasting a 10-1 record with a No. 1 seed, home-field advantage in the playoffs, and yes, a Super Bowl ring all ahead as credible goals.
This season? On the way to the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 in a rematch from two years ago against Kansas City?
No, try 2023, when coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts' run at a Super Bowl instead turned into one of the more epic meltdowns in Philly sports history — and there have been scores of them.
The Eagles were 10-1 until they were clobbered by San Francisco at home by 23 points in an NFC championship game rematch. Dallas beat the Eagles by 20 points the next week and the losses — and finger pointing — snowballed from there. The Eagles limped to a 1-5 regular-season finish before they were put of their misery in a wild-card loss to Tampa Bay.
Sirianni was on the hot seat despite three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl trip in three seasons. Changes were mandated — from the assistants to the game plan to drafting to repairing the loose connective tissue inside the locker room.
The harsh lessons learned from last season fueled the Eagles on their way to a 14-win regular season and three more wins in the playoffs.
Team owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman declined to move on from Sirianni and the Eagles made the moves needed to bring them back to the top of the NFL — and they are one win away from reaching the pinnacle.
“It’s been the story of the 2023 to the 2024 Eagles. As bad of a feeling we had about how last year ended, I think it makes you who you are,” Sirianni said.
Now, it's off to try to win just the franchise's second Super Bowl.
“That’s pretty dope,” Sirianni said. “That’s all my focus is on.”
Hurts and Sirianni
Perhaps a sign their rapport this season has turned more cohesive than taxing, Sirianni insisted Hurts was joking when the QB quipped after the NFC title game that he had been freed from the offense's “straitjacket."
Hurts had six wins this season when he threw for less than 200 yards passing before he threw for 246 yards and accounted for four touchdowns in the NFC championship game win over Washington.
“We’ve been winning a couple different ways this year. I think he was just having fun after the game,” Sirianni said. “I know this, and he’s said this plenty of times: He doesn’t care how we win. I don’t care how we win, as long as we win. We do everything we can do to be able to win.”
The No. 1 storyline in training camp this season was just how thorny was Hurts and Sirianni's relationship last season and would any issues carry over into this one?
Hurts offered a lukewarm endorsement of Sirianni in the aftermath of the playoff loss at Tampa Bay. He said days later his tepid response was only because he was caught off guard by questions about Sirianni’s job status.
“We’ve been through a lot together, right? A lot of wins, some down times,” Sirianni said this week. “That’s what kind of forges relationships.”
While some of the best Super Bowl winners in history have come with strained relationships between a QB and coach, Hurts has backed Sirianni publicly this season — even if it wasn't always a rousing endorsement. They are, through it all, only the first coach/QB pair in franchise history to make two Super Bowls.
“He’s done a great job,” Hurts said.
The coordinators
One of the most distressing signs the Eagles were in free fall mode last season with no way out came when Sirianni made former Lions coach Matt Patricia the defensive play-caller and essentially stripped defensive coordinator Sean Desai of any true responsibility. Desai and Patricia were jettisoned in the offseason, as was offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. Johnson lasted only one season in Philadelphia and Hurts regressed, throwing a career-high 15 interceptions and with his passer rating dropping to 89.1 from 101.5.
The new guys couldn't be better.
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore assumed play-calling responsibilities and has been one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the NFL. The Eagles jumped on hiring 66-year-old Vic Fangio to run the defense and he's made it the top-rated one in the league.
The defense has allowed 10, 22 and 23 points and has 10 takeaways — including 21 points off three fumble recoveries against the Commanders — in the postseason.
“The players have to play well to play great defense, so it’s a combination of what Vic does and how he motivates the guys to get them to play to the highest level that they can,” Sirianni said. “Just got a ton of respect for him and sure glad he’s here.”
A former backup QB who played behind Dak Prescott with Dallas in 2017 before becoming his position coach the next year, Moore directed a Philadelphia offense that featured Barkley as the ninth running back in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in the regular season.
“There are different things that we’ve been doing that have really helped us. There are some things that are similar to what we’ve done in the past because we’ve been good at those things,” Sirianni said. “And then there are things that are new to both what we’ve done and Kellen’s system as well. Kellen’s done a phenomenal job of handling all those things, putting our offense in positions that we been successful in.”
Barkley arrives
Former Eagles running back Miles Sanders ran for a solid 1,269 yards in the 2022 Super Bowl season and Kenneth Gainwell was — and still is — a serviceable backup.
Hurts was the team's leading rusher with 70 yards in the Super Bowl and the Eagles had just 115 yards rushing overall.
The Eagles seem like a whole new franchise at times with Saquon Barkley.
Barkley is near the top of the short list of all-time great Philadelphia sports free-agent signings. He ran for 2,005 yards, rips off 60-yard scoring runs with the ease of a Joel Embiid layup and has turned the offense into its most elite dual threat since the halcyon days of Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens.
The Eagles aren't going to have a chance at beating the Chiefs if Barkley isn't at his best — no small feat in a season that's earned him comparisons to Terrell Davis and Eric Dickerson as among the best for a running back in NFL history.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
