How The Philadelphia Eagles Reached 8-0 For The First Time Ever

It’s been a historic start for the Philadelphia Eagles, who ran their record to 8-0 with a 29-17 win over the Houston Texans Thursday night.

How historic? No Eagles team has ever started a season 8-0. None. Just 21 teams have done it in the last 30 seasons. And it’s been from execution, not fluke plays — Philadelphia has a positive turnover ratio in each of its first eight games. The last team to do that? The 1972 Pittsburgh Steelers.

But the Eagles have their sights set on the goal reached not by the 1972 Steelers, but the team that knocked them off in the AFC Divisional Playoffs — the Miami Dolphins. Undefeated? Maybe not. But a Super Bowl? That’s the endgame.

“Well, I just think we went to work each day, each week, and we’ve got it done each week,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said Friday. “That’s not an easy thing to do, each week coming out victorious. Our team has done that, and obviously that feels good sitting here, but all we’re really concerned about now is how we get better from the last game, how do we get better from our little self-scout again, and then how do we get ready to play this next game. Because yeah, sure, right now 8-0 is fine, but it’s not the goal. Our goal – there are a lot of goals, but none of them can be accomplished unless you take care of business each week, so always our goal is to handle this week and feel good about it because we have a little bit more time to sit with it.”

The Eagles have a luxury few teams get, something akin to a second by week — after Thursday night’s win, they don’t play again until next Monday night, facing a Washington Commanders team they already dominated earlier this season.

“It is important after coming off of a Thursday game that the guys — like we got right off the plane, we slept for a couple hours on the plane — we watched the game, and once guys got done watching the game on the plane, they took a little bit of a nap,” Sirianni said. “Once we got off the plane, we immediately came in here and started working by watching the game and then doing some self-scout stuff that we’ll continue to study over the weekend.

“But when you play on a short week, it’s also important because of the grind that it is to get ready for that short week game that the guys have a little bit of time to rest. So yes, it will be — we’ve already done some things that’s kind of like a bye. After we got done studying the game, we did some of the self-scout stuff again. Now, what’s unique about that is there are only two additional games from all our studies from the bye week.

“We went through a similar process, obviously way shorter, in the sense of there are only two games, but a similar process, we’re continuing through that similar process, the guys need to go home right now and get some sleep. I know our staff is on their way home right now after working for the last five and a half hours here at the office, and then we’ll continue to evaluate things over the weekend, as well, because this is an important part of the process this mini-bye.”

As for the most critical reason for this success, quarterback Jalen Hurts, he simply keeps building on his already-stellar start. His completion percentage is up to 68 percent after a 21-for-27 effort Thursday night, and Sirianni believes there are many reasons why.

“It’s both his ability to see the plays over and over and over again, know exactly where he’s going with the ball and make quick decisions,” Sirianni said of Hurts. “That’s a huge part of it. And that leads to physical. His mind working fast and knowing where to go with the football leads to better opportunities to throw.

“So, when you throw it quicker, the rush is not quite there yet. You’re able to make more accurate throws when the rush isn’t there because you’ve made quick decisions. So, it goes hand in hand. [QB] Jalen [Hurts] has done a great job of just continuing to develop himself as a player. [Quarterbacks coach] Brian Johnson has done great job coaching him. [Offensive Coordinator] Shane [Steichen] has done a great job coaching him. That’s a great quarterback room with Gardner [Minshew] and Ian [Book], [Assistant Quarterbacks/Offensive Assistant coach] Alex Tanney is in that room, as well, and it’s fun just being in there with those guys. He’s just continuing to get better, and I look forward to seeing him continue to grow.”

As for the huge acquisition, Robert Quinn, expect him to continue to increase his playing time after seeing just seven snaps on Thursday night.

“Just the way the reps shook out yesterday is kind of how that played out. With being on a short week and everything, it’s just the way the reps played out the other day. Obviously, we want to get him — and it’s the way some of the packages are being called, as well.

“So hey, the reps play out the way they are based off of some of the packages you’re in. There are certain packages where Robert wasn’t in on them, and there are packages that he was, and the ones that he wasn’t in on just got called a little bit more because that’s what we were trying to do to stop him. Now, does he need to get a little bit more reps? Yeah, we want him to be kind of in that — we’re kind of where BG [DE Brandon Graham] was with his reps the other day, and that’s something that that’s not the easiest thing to monitor during the game when [defensive coordinator] Jonathan [Gannon] is trying to make calls to try to stop them. But we have to do a better job of making sure that he does get more reps because we know he can affect the game in that manner.

“But yeah, that’s obviously something we’re aware of and that he’ll get more reps as we continue to move forward.”

Figuring out how to do that requires time the Eagles now have.