The Eagles have now lost 2 games in a row. They just need to bounce back.

https://twitter.com/YoNuby/status/787760873527881729

Uh, okay. That looks tough.

But wait a minute. The Eagles were clearly superior on paper to both the Lions and Skins. That’s the beauty of the NFL. You never know what is going to happen on a given Sunday. Is a team hungry? Or complacent? Aggressive or nervous? Healthy? There are a lot of factors that go into a game.

Matchups are huge. It’s clear right now that Kirk Cousins has the Eagles number. The Eagles have had the Giants number in recent years. Sometimes that’s just how things go.

It would be convenient for the Eagles to have a soft schedule so they could pile up some wins, but in a way the tough schedule is the best thing possible. The worst thing that can happen this season is for the Eagles to win a bunch of games and get a false sense of security with this roster. Clearly there are positions that need an upgrade. If the team got on some crazy roll and went 12-4, Howie and Doug might get too comfortable with their own players. This isn’t a 12-win roster.

I still want this team to win and even overachieve, but it needs to be tested. We need to know what this team really is.

The Jets went 10-6 last year, surprising everyone. They decided they were close to being a serious contender so they signed a pair of starters over 30 (LT Ryan Clady and RB Matt Forte). They kept another pair of older stars in Darrelle Revis and Brandon Marshall. The Jets tried to go cheap at QB and waited until August to finally bring back Ryan Fitzpatrick, also 30+.

Things have not gone well this year. The weight of expectations has brought out the worst in the team and they are 1-5. They are also old and now have a lot of serious questions. Todd Bowles looked like a coaching star last year, but now you wonder about his job security, although I think the GM is even more at fault.

I want the Eagles to win the Super Bowl. That means building a Super Bowl roster. You don’t do that by beating up on crappy teams. You want to face tough competition so you can see which of your players are good and which guys are still getting by on the “he’s got potential” label.

The Eagles know Carson Wentz is the real deal ( I need to do a full post on that) and that is the key to this whole puzzle. Get the right QB and everything else can be worked out.

I look forward to the challenging schedule. Let’s find out who can play and who can’t. I hope guys like Nelson Agholor and Marcus Smith stand up. I hope rookies like Jalen Mills and Big V get better. But at the end of the day, we need answers. The goal isn’t to be “good enough”. The goal is to build a championship team and if that means losing some games to weed out the guys who don’t belong, so be it.

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