November 11, 2022
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts strikes a pose after connecting on a 53-yard touchdown pass to Quez Watkins in the first half against the Vikings Monday, September 19, 2022.
Perhaps it'll be lessened if Twitter goes bottom up soon, but there's nothing quite like scrolling social media and seeing a sports take that irks you. If not for that fervor, I am not in the profession I'm in. The trolls got to me this week after seeing this post on one of those random "NFL Memes" Instagram pages:
putting a reminder in my phone to check in with nflmemes_ig in February pic.twitter.com/j2OjwXk7Qx
— shamus (@shamus_clancy) November 11, 2022
The whole point of that post is to irritate Philadelphians, stir the pot and have nitwits like me rolling their eyes. Bravo. It worked. It's obviously a dumb thing to get riled up about. I'm self-aware enough to admit that, but it's part of a larger issue that's been lingering and it's a good time to let some passion pour out.
There's this narrative building that the Eagles are somehow paper tigers or not as good as their unblemished 8-0 record indicates. That goes for random people I may come upon on social media and goes deeper than just "trolls." It extends to actual respected NFL media members.
The Ringer, a site I frequently visit and enjoy, published an article on Friday predicting the NFL playoffs midway through the 2022 season. 10 different people gave their picks on who'd win the divisions, the NFC, the AFC and Super Bowl. Zero of them had the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. Seven of them had the Birds making the Big Game, which is an accomplishment in its own right, but, really, no one thinks the Eagles are pulling this bad boy off? Nonsense.
This isn't supposed to be some "Everyone hates Philly!" thing. In the interest of fairness, Sports Illustrated did a similar story this week and a couple writers there picked the Birds to win the Super Bowl. Maybe brain has rotted with social media consumption and I'm just seeing the lowest common denominator of opinions, but the Eagles and Jalen Hurts should be the story of the NFL right now and it does not feel that way.
"They haven't played anyone!"
Well, that's not true. On any factual level. Nope. It's flat-out wrong.
Look at these power rankings that the "Sunday Night Football on NBC" Twitter account posted this week:
The TOP 10 teams in the #NFL right now, ranked by @ProFootballTalk.
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) November 8, 2022
Thoughts?! pic.twitter.com/ceSRZYgLD4
So the Eagles are the best team and they beat the second-best team by 17 points and then the fourth-best team by nine points. They haven't beaten anyone good though! That's what I constantly read and see!
I saw this take last month after the Eagles beat Dallas on Sunday Night Football and continued their undefeated streak. It owns my brain:
The Cowboys are better than the Eagles, right?
— Timo Riske (@PFF_Moo) October 9, 2022
Sounds good, bro! I hope Jerry Jones sees it!
How about recognizing this?
Most wins against teams .500 or better, at the time they played:#Eagles — 6
— James Nagle (@NagleNFL) November 7, 2022
Chiefs — 5
Vikings — 5
Giants — 4
Jets — 4
That seems pretty good.
The Eagles aren't playing the 1985 Bears and the 2013 Seahawks week-in, week-out, but they are beating the snot out of whatever sorry squad they cross paths with. Look at some analytical models, such as EPA (expected points added), and the Birds are soaring high above everyone else:
What a beautiful Monday this is. And the weather is nice, too.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/yPIb9FDe4s
— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) November 7, 2022
They're about to be off the chart entirely.
If you look at DVOA on Football Outsiders, they're fourth in offense, third in defense and first overall. Domination.
Perhaps you're not a "stats" person. That's fine. I'm no Daryl Morey myself. Let's take a peek at things from a "vibes" perspective.
The Eagles are turning the sport with the greatest amount of parity and week-to-week variance into a walk in the park. Some games are over by halftime. Even in a situation like last week's Thursday Night Football game where the Texans played them close, considering the inherent wonkiness of a road game on a short week, there was no doubt that the Eagles were ultimately going to prevail. There wasn't the dread in the fan base thinking, "Ugh. Of course this is happening." The Birds won by two scores, but I've spent the last week reading up how they struggled against a one-win team.
I remember when I would play "NFL Fever 2002" on the original Xbox as a young kid with my older cousin. Obviously, he knew how to play the game much better than I did and didn't let me in all the things necessary to succeed. He beat me every single time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Whenever I'd have a nice play, I'd get excited and he would simply reply, "Scoreboard." That's the approach this Eagles fan base should have. They "only" beat the Texans by 12 on the road? "Look at the standings, chump." There's a goose egg in the loss column last I checked.
It's a pretty easy comparison to make: these Eagles remind me of the 2017 team. It's a young quarterback's second season in a coaching system. The team has added playmakers on offense. The defensive line is stacked. The head coach-offensive coordinator-quarterbacks coach triumvirate is running circles around the competition. They don't have an overwhelming schedule, but they're crushing good, mediocre and bad teams equally into dust. Those Eagles didn't capture the football world's attention fully until they were hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Minnesota. Maybe it won't happen for these Eagles until they do so in Arizona this winter.
The Eagles are good and that's clearly acknowledged, but the way they're beating teams, the ease in which they're doing it and the manner in which they're setting themselves up for a path to the Super Bowl is remarkable. For the sake of not looking foolish, I hope everyone else smartens up to that.
I think of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," as I always seem to do. In the classic "The Gang Beats Boggs" episode, the characters are trying to break Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs' record for the most beers drank on a plane. In his quest for glory, Danny DeVito's Frank says one of my favorite lines from the series:
"I'm tired of people telling me what I can't do. They say I can't drink on a plane... They say I can't be a pilot. They say I can't be a doctor. I'm going to do it right in front of your face."
They say the Eagles can't go all the way and aren't as good as their record. I have a feeling they're going to do it in front of everyone's faces on Feb. 12, 2023.
Follow Shamus & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @shamus_clancy | @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Shamus' RSS feed to your feed reader
