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PHILADELPHIA — Either taunting the Eagles or presenting them with a challenge, there they were, strung together and slapped onto the schedule. Five games. Five contenders. Five opportunities to define a regular season.
In a span of just a little over a month, there would be the Cowboys. There would be the Kansas City Chiefs, world champions. There would be the Buffalo Bills, high among the better AFC teams of the early part of the decade. And Sunday, the Eagles would be made to play their third game in 13 days, this time against the San Francisco 49ers, sturdy NFC contenders. Then it would be back to Dallas, with the division standings potentially tightening.
Such burdens always have been among the charms of an NFL first-place schedule, the Eagles’ treat for their 2022 NFC East championship. But it’s not always that a good team will be made to face the heart of the order without as much as an automatic victory over the Giants shoved somewhere into the mix.
Nope, that was the deal: Between Nov. 5 and Dec 10, the Eagles would be made to play Dallas twice and contenders galore. For an added burden to prove Super Bowl readiness, it all would be chased with a game in Seattle Dec. 17, meaning they would have to travel to Texas for a night game, then the Pacific Northwest within seven days.
Good luck?
“You just got to control the things that you can,” Jalen Hurts said as the challenge approached. “The objective is to play to a standard and demand excellence of ourselves.”
The Eagles didn’t play to a championship standard Sunday, falling 42-19 in misty conditions. They were strong early, throwing bodies all around the Linc and limiting the 49ers to a minus-6 rushing yards and minus-10 yards of total offense in the first quarter. Yet despite two lengthy drives for a combined 120 yards, they were forced to settle for two field goals, allowing the Niners time to settle.
By halftime, the Eagles were behind, 14-6. Then, Deebo Samuel blasted around the right end for a 12-yard touchdown on a seven-play, 75-yard drive to open the second half, and for the Eagles, it would not get much better. Before the day was over, their quarterback would need a quick concussion-protocol check, their tackling would be exposed as clumsy, and their offense would appear plodding, particularly near the end zone.
The 69,879 fans, as they occasionally might, expressed their dissatisfaction, for that’s their job. They were realizing the Eagles were about to drag a one-game division lead into Dallas, and that they likely would be underdogs even after their recent 28-23 triumph over the Cowboys at the Linc. They were coming to grips, too, with the fact that should the Eagles and Niners post identical regular-season records, a rematch of the 2022 NFC Championship Game would be in Santa Clara, Calif.
So the game itself had the kind of relevance boost that only the contenders comprehend. All of which could have explained the oddity of the Niners — despite the Eagles’ 10-1 record — being three-point road favorites. The more-desperate-team phenomenon has always been a sports reality. Sunday, it was obvious.
“I just know this game is going to be about two good teams coming in here and having a good game,” Sirianni had said. “There are a lot of good players on the San Francisco 49ers, some of best players in the world over there.
“This is different. This is 2023. It’s not 2022. And it is very similar to what we said going into the Chiefs game: There are different players on this team. There are different players on their team. So this is about the 2023 Eagles vs. the 2023 Niners.”
The Niners won, proving not much more than a long-established sports truth: Spots are important. And there were the Eagles, overworked of late and aware that Dallas was next, playing a good team desperate to keep within striking distance of the No. 1 NFC East seed. As for the Niners, they hadn’t played in 10 days. So the woe, if there was any, was at a minimum in the Eagles’ locker room.
“There was some stuff that we normally don’t do,” Fletcher Cox said. “So now we have a chance to play a good football team next week, a division game. We know them. They know us. They have been hot, so we have to go on the road and — if you want to be a good team — work.”
One loss is not going to define the Eagles. Indeed, if there has been any defining of Sirianni’s players, it has been that they were able to defeat Dallas, Kansas City and Buffalo in order, two weeks after thumping Miami.
Should the Eagles fall again in Dallas and sputter in Seattle, where the Seahawks could be desperate, then prepare another status report. But if the worst that happens to the Eagles during a schedule challenge for the ages is that they lose a game, their status as contenders will only rise.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
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