The Eagles win on Sunday in Buffalo was an impressive one.
They went on the road in a tough spot, controlled the line of scrimmage, ran the ball up-and-down the field, made big plays on defense and just enough in the passing game to get a crucial win. The win not only brought the Eagles record to .500, but it also felt like one that has the potential to turn around their season.
The painful truth, however, is that the team's win in Buffalo was basically the exact same win the Eagles had a month ago in Green Bay — a win that was quickly followed up by two disastrous losses.
A reminder that for the Eagles to get where they really want to go, it is going to take a level of consistency the team has not been able to reach for over a year, not just a win in a tough spot they put themselves in.
After the win on Sunday the Eagles are 4-4 this season and 13-11 in their last 24 regular-season games. Take away the late-season, miracle playoff run with Nick Foles at the end of last season, and head coach Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz have not won three-games in a row since 2017. In fact, in their four seasons together, Pederson and Wentz have only lead the Eagles on a winning streak of at least three games twice — once at the very beginning of 2016 and once in the middle of 2017, when they won nine in a row.
Other than that, Pederson and Wentz have had trouble stringing together victories.
Last season, they followed up a win with another win just once. This year they have more losing streaks (two) than they do winning streaks. Instead of using big wins to spring this team on big-time runs, the Eagles have struggled to get any momentum going, and the result has been a roughly .500 team since winning the Super Bowl.
The Eagles have shown they can be better than that and they should be better than that. Sunday's win in Buffalo showed that. Even with Buffalo at 5-1, and the Eagles at 3-4, it was clear there was a difference in talent between the Eagles and Bills, both on the field and on the sidelines in coaching staffs.
It really is pretty simple for the Eagles — get an early lead and the wins will stack up. Since the start of last season, Pederson and Wentz are 7-2 when they are winning at halftime, 2-8 when they don't. The sloppy, mistake-filled football they have played at the start of games is the main reason they haven't been able to get any kind of real momentum going. Every time they come off of a big win, they follow it up by immediately falling behind the following week, killing their confidence and doing away with any positive momentum they got going from the previous week.
Coming off of their win in Buffalo, Pederson, Wentz and the Eagles now have yet another chance to get a streak going, just like they did after Green Bay.
To be taken seriously as playoff contenders, and perhaps more than that, they better take advantage of it, and not throw away another quality win.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
