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No one in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room was sulking or hanging their heads in shame after Monday night’s 32-21 loss to Washington. The chance at an undefeated season is off the table, but the team is using it as a wake-up call to attack the next eight games.
The Eagles have always had a 48-hour rule. Make it a 24-hour rule now.
“If you are expecting me to have a frown or be down, I’m not. Because that’s not who I am,” A.J. Brown told reporters. “I’m gonna bounce back, we gonna bounce back. Because you got guys like me, guys in my room, we’re not gonna let this happen. We’re not gonna sulk around. Forty-eight hours to sulk if something happens to me, then it’s over. I’m not even giving myself 48 hours.”
Brown had a tough day at the office after rolling his ankle in the first quarter. The Pro Bowl receiver stayed in the game but lacked his trademark physicality, with quarterback Jalen Hurts looking more in the direction of DeVonta Smith and Quez Watkins. Brown finished with just 1 catch for 7 yards on 4 total targets.
Afterward, Brown insisted his ankle was fine and he’d be “good” next week against Indianapolis. More importantly, Brown was happy to end any talk of going 17-0.
“I don’t want to make any excuses,” Brown told reporters. “They played better than us. That happens sometimes. It’s all about how you respond. I know there are some guys with long faces, but me, personally, of course I want to win, but now all of that 17-0 s*** is over with. It’s time to wake up.
“How are you going to respond? Sometimes you get hit in the mouth. How are you going to respond? I hope we get back up and start fighting back, and I feel like we will. We have good teammates in this locker room, a lot of vets. I had one catch for seven yards. That s*** is a part of it. How are you going to respond? I know how I’m going to respond.”
Jalen Hurts on Going 17-0: ‘Not Entertaining It’
The idea of the Eagles posting a perfect 17-0 record never crossed the mind of Jalen Hurts. It was a media-driven circus that kept adding rings with each victory. That’s not to say that Hurts and his teammates don’t have lofty expectations, but this is a team conditioned (read: brainwashed) to take it one step at a time.
“I wasn’t entertaining it at all,” Hurts said of going 17-0. “You obviously want to win all of the games we play in. Tonight wasn’t our night. The message for me is control the things that you can. When you do that, you have a pretty good opportunity to be victorious in the end. How do you do it? You prepare, attention to detail, the energy you have, the approach, the mentality towards it, and ultimately playing together.”
Winning the Super Bowl remains the “end goal,” although those two words aren’t being uttered. They never will be.
“Just keep moving forward like everything else,” Darius Slay said. “Move forward and onto the next one. We are going to get ready for Indianapolis.”
Larry Csonka, 1972 Dolphins Celebrate Eagles Defeat
The Commanders’ victory over the Eagles ensured that the 1972 Miami Dolphins will remain the last and only team to enjoy a perfect season. They won 17 straight games that year – 14 in the playoffs, 3 in the postseason – and that mark has only been matched by the 2007 New England Patriots who went 18-0. However, the Patriots lost the Super Bowl whereas the 1972 Dolphins lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
On Monday night, Larry Csonka raised an adult beverage to celebrate his continued place in history. He was the starting running back for Miami in 1972 and proudly showed off his Super Bowl ring in a Twitter picture.
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