PHILADELPHIA – This marathon that is the NFL season is coming to an end.
The finish line is in sight, but the Eagles are huffing and puffing and leaking oil.
They lost for a second straight week, this time the New Orleans Saints handling them, 20-10, at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
What looked like a foregone conclusion, that they would cross that line first, is now far from guaranteed. They may not have enough left to get there.
It comes down to this: Week 18; the final mile if you will.
Eagles-Giants.
New York has nothing to play for, locked into the No. 6 seed after beating the moribund Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
The Eagles have everything to play for, looking to clinch the top seed and earn a much-needed by. Destiny remains in their hands.
“We’re here now,” said head coach Nick Sirianni. “We’re 13-3 right now with a chance to go 14-3 next week to win the division. All our goals are in front of us.
“Any time you lose a game, any time you don’t perform the way you think you should perform you’re going to be upset and humbled, but that’s not a bad thing. You go back to work, and you get better from it.”
Philly handled the Giants rather easily in the first meeting in New York, winning 48-22 on Dec. 11. Of course, they handled the Commanders and Cowboys in their first meeting against them, bet lost the rematch against each.
“That just goes to show you, it’s hard to beat the same team twice,” said Haason Reddick. “We’re going to need a laser focus and for guys to lay it on the line next week because this is the one. In the regular season, this is now the biggest game of the year so far.
“We’ve got playoffs, we know that, but as far as locking up that number one seed and getting that first-week bye then having everybody have to come through the Linc to play us, his next game is the most important one.”
One only needed to watch Reddick slowly dress, wincing here and there, well after his teammates had left the locker room to see the toll an 18-week season has on a player physically and mentally.
“We’re going to need a laser focus and for guys to lay it on the line next week because this is the
It didn’t matter to him that he notched another two sacks and now has 16 in 16 games.
“It means nothing if we don’t get this next one,” he said. “So, while the stats are all good, I’m focused on something much bigger now, focused on being myself, being the best that I can be to help my team win next weekend to make this playoff push. These are the only things that matter.”
Always a ray of sunshine no matter how cloudy the race becomes, Brandon Graham said that maybe this loss is good, maybe two losses are exactly what the team needs.
Had the Eagles clinched everything against the Saints, or even in Dallas last week, the questions would be: who’s playing the final handful of games, who’s resting, and how do you stay sharp with timing and execution?
Not anymore.
“I feel like maybe we didn’t need those two weeks off before we actually play a real, real game, so I look at it like, we have to finish off the season right, then we get a bye, then we get to rolling,” said Graham. “I just look at it like a positive that’s going to come from this. We fought to the end.
“I’m looking at the positives. We still have everything right in front of us. Nobody said this was going to be given to us.
“I love it because these types of games make you focus in a little more. Even though we’ve been focused, but life has a way of doing stuff and making you think like, you know, we have to learn from this. We have to get better from this. We just keep playing.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
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