Two weeks ago, the table was set for the Eagles. Beat the Cardinals and the Giants, and finish as the NFC East champion and the No. 2 seed in the NFC field.
The Eagles lost both games, landing at the fifth seed and having to spend all of the postseason on the road — barring multiple upsets by the sixth or seventh seed.
During a Thursday press conference, coach Nick Sirianni was asked about recent comments from tight end Dallas Goedert, who said the Eagles might have overlooked the Cardinals and Giants, coasting to the finish and expecting the team’s talent to deliver victories.
“Obviously we know the work we put in,” Sirianni said, “We know the work that we put in to go out and play each week. I know those guys, you see them in the -- I know there’s nobody coasting, when I’m in there, in the weight room watching those guys work out or practice or meetings or walk-through.”
Right, but the rest of us see them on the field. And it hasn’t been good lately. And if they were coasting, that’s a poor reflection on Sirianni.
“Dallas said what he said,” Sirianni added. “And maybe that’s how he felt. He obviously said how he felt. I just know the guys have been consistent working. Nobody was satisfied with a playoff berth. I know that. It’s what it turned into, just a playoff berth, not an NFC [East] championship, not a No. 1 seed. It was a playoff berth.
“And I know nobody was satisfied with that, just like nobody is satisfied with where we’re sitting right now, like, we’re in the playoffs. We want to go out and win this week and see what happens. . . . They’re excited that we’re here in the playoffs. We obviously have waited a long time to be back into this spot. Not everybody gets to go to the playoffs for three years in a row or back-to-back years even.”
That was a low-key humble brag by Sirianni, who has taken the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his three years on the job. But something seems off with the Eagles, and it’s been off for a while.
Is it as simple as the Eagles realizing after losing at home to the 49ers by the score of 42-19 that it’s just not their year? Is it as simple as the Eagles not really wanting to play the 49ers again in San Francisco?
By Monday night, the Eagles will know where they go next, if they beat the Bucs. And if the Cowboys beat the Packers and the Lions beat the Rams, the Eagles could face the 49ers in San Francisco six days later.
And that knowledge could make it even harder to dig deep and beat the Bucs, because going to Santa Clara in the divisional round doesn’t feel like a reward, for anybody. Especially not for a team that was feeling pretty good about itself at 10-1 and then got destroyed worse than Rocky in the first fight against Mr. T.
Sure, Rocky won the rematch. But the Eagles haven’t been giving anyone reason to think they could eventually be saying to the 49ers, “You ain’t so bad. You ain’t nothing.”
