Make that 20 years since the NFC East has witnessed a repeat champion.
The Eagles have clinched a division title thanks to their 41-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys, who last season donned the crown.
“It’s exciting,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said postgame of taking the division. “We always want to do special things. I think winning the division is a special thing. And then our goals are much bigger from here. I think we’ve got special guys. It was fun celebrating in there when you’re able to do this, and exciting. We’ll enjoy this and then we’ll get right back to work.”
Not since 2004, when the Eagles won the NFC East a fourth straight time, has a division winner among Philadelphia, Dallas, the Washington Commanders and New York Giants remained on top the following campaign.
That 2004 season marked a trip to the Super Bowl, as did the last time the Eagles reigned supreme over the NFC East in 2022.
Both of those division-winning trips to the postseason ended in Super Bowl heartbreak, something Sirianni and Co. have been hard at work to rectify this time around.
It required three more weeks of work to capture the division after punching their fourth consecutive playoff ticket, but the Eagles nonetheless enter the final game of the regular season flying high as the NFC’s No. 2 seed with wins in 11 of their last 12.
Their only loss during that span came in a nail-biter last week with quarterback Jalen Hurts, who also missed Sunday’s contest, sidelined by a concussion. An otherwise sterling run helped turn a 2-2 record at the early Week 5 bye into a 13-3 mark and division title, powered by a dominant run game behind Saquon Barkley and a suffocating defense under coordinator Vic Fangio that has helped wipe away the bitter memory of last season’s 1-6 stretch run.
Despite a tremendous season, though, Philly has only a narrow path to the conference’s top seed — one that requires the Minnesota Vikings to lose Sunday, the Detroit Lions to finish out 0-2 and the Eagles to take care of business against the Giants in Week 18.
Sirianni acknowledged the odds and how they could play into resting starters or not next Sunday.
“We’ll watch some games tonight and see how things are going and then we’ll do what we need to do,” he said. “Always got to do what’s right for the football team to reach our goals of what we need to do. Got a lot to think about. We’ll enjoy this, and then I’ll think about it tonight.”
If all of those results don’t fall their way, the Eagles will be hosting the eventual No. 7 seed on Super Wild Card Weekend.
