Plenty of teams across the NFL have ugly wins.
Only the Philadelphia Eagles appear to need to apologize for it. Despite an ugly 22-16 win over the Carolina Panthers that helped them clinch a playoff spot for the fourth consecutive year, the Eagles have had plenty of people openly mock their passing game.
To be fair, the Eagles have struggled through the air recently. Philadelphia ranks in the bottom five of the league in most passing statistics and barely recorded over five yards per pass in Sunday’s win. It would be wrong to say that passing wins in the playoffs, though.
Despite what some fans and league executives may want, the road to win championships is to have an elite defense with a rushing attack that is dominant and consistent. The Eagles have both of those right now. It is why, even with a victory on Sunday that didn’t instill much confidence, head coach Nick Sirianni has made it clear to his team that it’s ok to celebrate lackluster performances that result in wins.
“Don’t be a prisoner of your expectations. Enjoy it. But we’ve got a lot to clean up. There is no doubt about that. So, enjoy it for the night. I can enjoy it for a couple hours because I’ll go home and start watching it,” Sirianni said in his message sent to the locker room. “Those guys can enjoy it for a little bit longer because we’ve got to get back to work tomorrow.
“One thing I said to them is, ‘Remember how it feels when you lose and everything,’ — and I think I might have said this to the coaches — ‘How much it hurts when you lose and how down you are when you lose.’ You’ve got to enjoy a victory, no matter what the expectation was.” The team may be frustrated with how they looked on Sunday, but wins are the only things that matter in the playoffs. And for the fourth straight year, they’ll be in the winner-take-all tournament.
