Everything. And nothing. So… something.
The Eagles are on a franchise record 10 game winning streak, and with the remaining three regular season games against teams they have already beaten, it could continue for a while. Does it even mean anything?
In a word: yes. In two words: yes, but. In more than two words: A 10+ game winning streak usually, but not always, results in a deep playoff run. And when that winning streak occurs does not matter.
There isn’t much evidence that teams that are hot late are more likely to win the Super Bowl. Playing well at the end of the season is nice, but the bigger positive that a team is capable of going on such a run at all.
In the Super Bowl era there have been 44 teams that have had a 10+ game winning streak during a season. Two are this year’s Eagles and Lions. Of the other 42 teams, 26, 62% of them, went to at least their conference championship game.
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That’s a scary amount of 1 and done teams, though the 2015 Chiefs played another team on the list, the 2015 Patriots, so one of them was guaranteed to be out immediately. (And the 1990 49ers were the only other team on this list to lose to another team on this list.) But more often than not a team that goes on a winning streak like the Eagles are on are a final four team.
Further evidence that it doesn’t matter how you finish: 13 teams ended the season on a winning streak, but nearly half didn’t win a playoff game. Meanwhile 15 teams started hot then cooled off, half of them made the Super Bowl.
Here’s what does matter, and is very much in the Eagles’ favor.
The team is relatively healthy
There is a very simple formula in the NFL: talent + health = success. Easier said than done, but the Eagles are doing it. Not everyone can say the same.
The Lions are disintegrating as the season progresses. The 49ers started falling apart before it even began. The Chiefs were starting to get healthy and then Patrick Mahomes sprained his ankle.
The Eagles aren’t in perfect health, not with Dallas Goedert once again out. But their injury report is thin for this time of year.
No one else looks unstoppable
At the moment the Eagles have as good of a claim to being the best team in the league as anyone. In their 10 game streak the Eagles have not needed a final game winning drive by the offense, they have had the lead late in the 4th in every game. They have the best 4th quarter point differential.
The Lions, as noted earlier, are falling apart, suddenly going from coasting to the 1 seed to in danger of not winning the NFC North. The Vikings are hot but not dominant, their seven game win streak includes going to overtime against the Bears, not scoring a TD against the Jaguars, and trailing the Cardinals late. The Packers have struggled on the road, needing a last second FG in Jacksonville, trailing in Chicago late, and losing in Detroit. Since beating the Eagles way back in Week 4, the Bucs are 1-5 against teams with a .500 or better record. In the AFC the Chiefs are playing with fire, the Bills defense is playing with fire, and the Ravens are quite beatable.
The Eagles have flaws. But so does everyone this year. This isn’t like last year where the Chiefs and 49ers were clearly the best two teams all season, or the year before when the Chiefs and Eagles were. The Eagles have a strong defense and run game, as long as the pass game shows up in some capacity, they can beat anyone, anywhere, as they have shown in their winning streak. And that’s what matters.
