It seems pretty established around NFL circles at this point of the season that four teams have risen above the rest as the true contenders to hoist the Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl LIX. Two are in each conference.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills appear to be the cream of the crop in the AFC. The Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles are the best teams in the National Football Conference.
Other teams are always lurking. Pay attention to the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, and Baltimore Ravens. They're included in that mix, but the top four teams seem to be in their own tier.
Fortunately for the Eagles, they have something the others do not.
The 2024-25 Eagles have established themselves as Super Bowl contenders, but their defense sets them apart from other contenders.
Football games are won and lost in the trenches, and it's been that way for over a century. The Eagles have arguably the best offensive lines in football, but other contending teams have cases for that title as well.
What can't be disputed is the Eagles have the championship defense to complement their offense. Defense wins championships. That holds just as true as the importance of the trenches does.
People may not want to admit that, but how much pudding do we need to eat before we start tasting the proof? The mistake is made almost annually when the high-powered offense that everyone loves goes against a stout defense in the playoffs, and of course Super Bowl.
When the Lions and Bills played this past week and each put up darn-near 50 points apiece, the NFL community salivated at the, what they hope, is the inevitability of the two teams meeting again for another fireworks show in the Super Bowl.
Not so fast though.
What brings high-powered offenses to a haul? Why, great defenses of course, and it just so happens that the Eagles have objectively the number one unit in all the league. The Lions' defense is the walking wounded, the Bills' is wildly average, and the defense of the Chiefs isn't looking like it once was. That just leaves the Birds.
Ever since Nick Sirianni shaved his head and morphed into his new form of Baldianni/Bic Nick, the Eagles have won ten in a row. The basic formula has been simple. All they've had to do is score 17 points on offense to feel cozy, and 20 for the game to be considered a wrap.
Seriously, look at the scores, and keep in mind the higher opponents' totals are often products of garbage time. For the season, the Eagles' defense is giving up an average of 17.6 points per game, the least in the league. During the win streak, the total is 15.1 points per game. So yeah, the math is mathing.
That is how good defensive coordinator Vic Fangio's unit is playing on all three levels. Jalen Carter can wreck games by himself, Zack Baun looks like an All-Pro, maybe even a darkhorse Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and Quinyon Mitchell is now the favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, with a strong case to make for being the best at his position already.
As of the writing, the Philadelphia Eagles defense is number five against the run, and first both against the pass and overall. Simply put, they are a championship defense, and once the glitz and glamour of these high-powered offenses starts to fade come playoff time, the NFL world may be attending the school of hard knocks and learning this lesson the hard way.