Phil Sheridan, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

After reboot, Eagles must find groove

PHILADELPHIA -- The Eagles liked where their bye week fell this season. It’s fair to wonder, though, if they weren’t better served by their late-November bye last year.

The Eagles’ 2013 bye came after they had won three games in a row to improve their record from 3-5 to 6-5. They didn’t lose any momentum, going 4-1 after the bye to finish with a 10-6 record and the NFC East title.

This time, the Eagles’ bye came immediately after their first truly excellent performance of the season. After finding ways to win despite deeply flawed performances, the Eagles were flat-out dominant against the New York Giants a week ago. Their running game finally looked as powerful as it was last year, and their defense managed its first shutout in 18 years.

Not exactly when you want to call a halt to operations and force everyone to start over after a week off. But as coach Chip Kelly pointed out, this bye comes at the real midway point of the NFL season. The Eagles played four preseason games and six regular-season contests. They have 10 regular-season games remaining.

This is an opportunity to reboot, and the Eagles could use that. Start with their offensive line: The current group has begun to find some continuity after a few weeks together. If it can maintain that level of play, which enabled LeSean McCoy to gain 149 rushing yards and prevented Nick Foles from being sacked even once against the Giants, the Eagles will be in good shape. The return of Jason Kelce and Evan Mathis will still be welcome, but without that sense of desperation the Eagles were feeling a few weeks ago.

On the defensive side, the Eagles could get inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks back. Kendrick injured his calf muscle during the Week 2 game in Indianapolis. He hasn’t played since. The defense has improved in his absence, though, culminating with the eight-sack, no points allowed showing against the Giants. Adding Kendricks to that mix could really rev up the Eagles’ defense.

That’s important, because the Eagles face some tough offenses after the bye: Arizona next Sunday, Green Bay on Nov. 16, then the Dallas, Seattle, Dallas sandwich over the next three weeks.

It will help if the Eagles can get into the kind of groove they were in over the last few weeks. Starting in San Francisco, their defense and special teams ran off a streak of three impressive performances. Those games felt connected, with those units building upon the previous game’s momentum.

The Eagles have a chance to restart that process. It is better to be peaking as the playoffs approach, in the games that will decide the NFC East title. It was clear that after six games, that is what Kelly is expecting when the Eagles return to work this week.

“I've seen us get better,” Kelly said last week. “That's one positive where we are right now. We weren't in this situation last year, but I saw us get better. We were 7-1 down the stretch [and] we were a better football team at the end of the year than we were at the beginning of the year. I hope that holds true now, because I think we're moving in a positive direction right now.”

 

 

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