Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Consistency

Posted December 21st, 2025 | 4 Comments »

The Eagles have made the playoffs in all five of Nick Sirianni’s seasons as coach. They have won three division titles in the past four years. They have been to a pair of Super Bowls and won it all last season. Sirianni can be frustrating for a variety of reasons, but the man wins. Don’t ever overlook that.

Winning in the NFL is hard. The Chiefs have been on an amazing run, but are going to miss the playoffs this year. The Ravens and Lions are both alive, but barely. All three were seen as Super Bowl contenders back in the summer. Injuries have hurt all three teams, but they have also underachieved. Those teams have star QBs and veteran coaches.

Todd Bowles had Tampa at 6-2 this season. They lost on Sunday to fall to 7-8. Going into halftime a reporter asked Bowles if the Bucs gameplan was too conservative since they were trailing 13-10 and hadn’t thrown many passes. He said no. He pointed out that Tampa was winning the time of possession battle and the scoreboard would reflect that eventually. Huh? That is some serious 1985 football strategy. This is 2025. That’s coaching malpractice.

Dan Quinn did an amazing job of turning Washington into a winner last year. They went 12-5 and reached the NFC title game after having gone seven straight  seasons without a winning record. The Commanders thought they had an elite QB and really strong nucleus. They decided to focus on winning now and traded picks for veteran players. This season has been an abject failure for Quinn and his team.

The Commanders are 4-11. They have the oldest team in the league and lack the resources to add the kind of young talent that roster needs. I thought Quinn’s comments after the game were odd.

He and his team feel disrespected by the Eagles going for 2 late in the game. So now Washington is going to be really fired up for the rematch. Is this Ray Rhodes? One of Sirianni’s strengths is that he preaches for his team to live in the moment. They don’t play harder in the Super Bowl than Week 4. One of the ways you reach the SB is by playing hard every week and focusing on that team. Coaches who try to get their teams up for big games are inadvertently sending the message that you don’t have to get up for every game. You want consistent effort and performance.

Think about Dallas. They were 3-5-1 at midseason. They had a lot of issues, especially on defense. Jerry Jones traded for LB Logan Wilson and DT Quinnen Williams. They signed DE Jadeveon Clowney. A couple of key defenders came off IR. Suddenly the dreadful defense was mediocre, even solid at times. Dallas won three straight games to get to 6-5-1. The media fell in love with them. It sure felt like Jerry Jones and Brian Schottenheimer started to believe the team was legit.

Oops. Dallas lost three straight games to fall to 6-8-1. The defense allowed 37 points a game in that stretch. I don’t think Jones and Schotty (as Kirk Herbstreit annoyingly calls him) realized they had some luck in their win streak. They believed the team was different. Part of being a good organization is being honest with yourself. Dallas struggles with that and it is a big reason they haven’t been to a Super Bowl since 1995.

I think Cowboys fans have heard that speech before.

Being a consistent football team doesn’t mean there won’t be ups and downs. Any time human beings are involved, there are going to be inconsistencies. The key is to limit those and to be consistent overall. Sirianni always preaches process over results. A lot of coaches struggle with that mentality. They live and die with results. Sirianni’s messaging has worked well overall, especially the last four years.

I don’t know how this season will end. The Eagles could be the #2 seed and make a Super Bowl run. They could be the #3 seed and lose in the opening round. This has been a wild season around the league and the Eagles are an odd team. I am thankful that Sirianni was able to deal with some ups and downs and still get his team to win the division. They have killed off the comparisons to the 2023 team.

Any time you have Vic Fangio running the defense and a star-studded offense, I think you have the potential to be a problem in January. It also helps to have that Sirianni guy running the show. His teams win.

*****

This is great news. There will be some debate about whether those guys should play. As long as the #2 seed is on the table, you play to win. I want those guys out there. The game is at Buffalo, a tough place to win. The Eagles will need every bit of talent they can muster.

Depending on how things go, the Eagles may be resting players in Week 18.

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Division Champs!

Posted December 20th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

The most annoying streak in sports is over. The Eagles have repeated as NFC East champs. They were the last team to do this back in 2001-2004. The Eagles defeated the Commanders 29-18 to clinch the division.

That certainly wasn’t a smooth game or great performance. The first half was the kind of sloppy football we’ve seen from this team all year long. There were dumb penalties, missed FGs, errant passes, missed blocks and sloppy coverage. And a fumble to open the game. Will Shipley fumbled the opening kickoff and I wondered if this was going to be a miserable night.

The Eagles trailed 10-7 at the half. They probably should have been up 13-7, but the mistakes bit them in the backside. Most concerning was Jake Elliott missing three field goals. Only two of them count. A penalty wiped out one of the misses, but Elliott then missed the retry. Ugh. Nick Sirianni said he’s not worried after the game, but we’ll see about that. This is a real issue.

Jalen Hurts led the offense on a long TD drive in the third quarter and the Eagles went up 14-10. Cooper DeJean picked off a pass on the next drive and set the offense up at the WAS 37. Hurt and company turned that into another TD and really took control of the game.

It helped that the defense knocked Marcus Mariota out of the game. Josh Johnson took over and didn’t fare well. It was his throw that got picked by Coop. Jordan Davis and the DL shut down the Commanders run game. There were a pair of 3 & outs before a late TD against the backup defense.

Saquon Barkley had a good game, going 21-132-1. He had a 48-yard run that set up another TD drive and really put the game away. Tank Bigsby scored his first TD of the season with a 22-yard run. The Eagles ran for 207 yards. They built up a 29-10 lead before the late TD made the score a bit closer.

Washington is a bad team. They lack talent. This is a game the Eagles were supposed to win. Blame the Eagles for the sloppy play early, but give them credit for dominating the second half. They haven’t done a good job of putting teams away this year. They did that to Washington. The offense made timely plays. The defense made the Commanders work for every yard.

It does feel like the offense is figuring some things out. They came out and used empty sets to attack Washington’s base defense. When they shifted to nickel personnel, the Eagles ran the ball more. Hurts was efficient and made a terrific throw to Dallas Goedert for a TD.

Hurts also used his legs wisely, going 7-40 as a runner. He had some timely scrambles that hurt the Commanders defense. The OL had an up and down showing. I was hoping for a better performance. It sure would be great to see Lane Johnson come back next week. There was a late game slap-fight/mini-brawl. Tyler Steen got ejected. I don’t think this will lead to a suspension. There weren’t any real punches or vicious shots thrown.

Nakobe Dean left the game with a hamstring injury. Hopefully that’s nothing serious. Jihaad Campbell replaced him and the defense didn’t seem to miss a beat. Brandon Graham got another sack while playing DT. It is great to see him making a difference. The overall pass rush was a bit disappointing. They didn’t get as much pressure as I expected. Jordan Davis had 6 tackles and 2 TFLs. He made some big plays to clog the middle.

I do feel better about the team. They are now 10-5 and have won two in a row. They will get Jalen Carter and Lane Johnson back at some point. The offense is showing signs of life. The defense continues to be outstanding. They held Washington to just 220 yards. They needed some luck to get to 18 points. Next Sunday will be a real test for the Eagles. Going to Buffalo is never easy. That will give us a better idea of where this team is.

For now, enjoy being NFC East champs.

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