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Through most of this season, the Philadelphia Eagles have been just there. They weren’t bad. But they weren’t great either.
The past couple weeks might have changed that. The Eagles have won their past two games, both on the road, by a combined score of 65-20. Their opponents were the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals, a bad team and perhaps another bad team, but one sign of a good team is blowing out bad opponents. For two weeks the Eagles have done that.
The Eagles are suddenly 5-2, and if it hadn’t been for one of the great Hail Mary plays of all time, they would be in first place of the NFC East. And the lukewarm start to the season can be explained by injuries. A.J. Brown missed three games. The Eagles are 4-0 with him and 1-2 without him. He’s a difference maker and the Eagles look like a new team with him back. They had other injuries, too.
Over the past two games the defense has looked better, perhaps as it gets more comfortable with new coordinator Vic Fangio’s scheme, and Jalen Hurts has been more efficient as well. The Eagles’ 37-17 win over the Bengals was under the radar, probably because neither team had been playing up to expectations to start the season. In Philly’s case, that might be changing.
Here are the power rankings going into Week 9 of the NFL season: