PHILADELPHIA − The Eagles insisted that an undefeated season was never the goal.
“That’s a fantasy being 17-0,” cornerback Darius Slay said. “That’s tough to do … We gotta move on. I don’t want to listen to all that 17-0 (stuff).”
He won’t have to listen to it anymore after the Eagles lost to the Washington Commanders 32-21 on Monday night, thus dropping the Eagles’ record to 8-1.
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Neither will quarterback Jalen Hurts.
“I wasn’t entertaining it at all,” he said about an undefeated season. “You obviously want to win all of the games we play in. (This) 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.”
It was still the best start in team history, surpassing the Eagles’ 7-0 start in 2004.
But based on recent history, once a team suffers that first defeat, there’s no guarantee of postseason success. The Eagles became the 11th team to start at least 8-0 since 2011. None of the previous 10 won a Super Bowl.
It won’t be easy.
In the last three games alone, the Eagles lost three key players to injuries. Rookie defensive tackle Jordan Davis is on injured reserve after suffering an ankle injury against Pittsburgh on Oct. 30. Slot cornerback Avonte Maddox is on IR after suffering a hamstring injury against Houston on Nov. 3.
Then star tight end Dallas Goedert suffered a shoulder injury against the Commanders that is expected to keep him out for “multiple weeks,” according to a league source, confirming the NFL Network report on Tuesday. The Eagles haven’t placed Goedert on IR yet, but if they do, that will be a minimum of four games.
So far, opposing offenses have exposed the Eagles without Davis and Maddox. Davis is considered the Eagles’ best run stopper. In the two games he has missed, opponents have averaged 158 yards rushing per game.
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And now the Eagles will be without one of their three top receivers in Goedert. He is third on the team with 43 receptions and second in yards with 544.
The closest Eagles’ tight end in receiving is Jack Stoll with 4 catches for 49 yards.
So the Eagles will face a challenge in the coming weeks.
Here’s a look at the other 10 teams who started at least 8-0 since 2011, and how they finished up:
2011, Green Bay Packers, 13-0
Green Bay’s first loss came to the Kansas City Chiefs, 19-14. The Packers didn’t lose again in the regular season, clinching the top seed throughout the NFC playoffs at 15-1. They lost their first playoff game to the Giants 37-20 at Lambeau Field. The Giants, as the No. 6 seed, went on to win the Super Bowl.
2012, Atlanta Falcons, 8-0
The Falcons’ streak ended with a 31-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The Falcons went 5-3 after their fast start, but lost 28-24 at home in the NFC Championship game to the San Francisco 49ers, led by Colin Kaepernick. The 49ers overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win.
2013, Kansas City Chiefs, 9-0
This was Andy Reid’s first season in Kansas City after getting fired by the Eagles the season before. But the Chiefs couldn’t sustain it. Their first loss came to the Denver Broncos, and they lost the next two as well. They went 2-5 after the 9-0 start, then lost their first playoff game to the Colts, 45-44. In that game, the Chiefs led 38-10 in the third quarter.
2015, Carolina Panthers, 14-0
Carolina came the closest to an undefeated season since the 2007 Patriots won all 16 regular-season games (the Patriots lost in the Super Bowl). The Panthers, led by quarterback Cam Newton, lost their first game to Atlanta, 20-13, but won the next week to finish 15-1. They advanced to the Super Bowl, losing to the Denver Broncos, 24-10.
2015, New England Patriots, 10-0
The Eagles indirectly figured into this one, back when Tom Brady was still in his late 30s. The Broncos had ended the Patriots’ streak the previous week. Then the Eagles, in the midst of a 7-9 season, came into Foxboro and shocked the Patriots, 35-28. The Patriots went 2-4 after their fast start before losing to the Broncos again, this time 20-18, in the AFC Championship game.
2015, Cincinnati Bengals, 8-0
Like the Patriots, the Bengals also struggled after their fast start, finishing the season 4-4 beginning with the first loss to the Houston Texans, 10-6. They were ousted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-16.
2018, Los Angeles Rams, 8-0
The Rams’ unbeaten start ended with a 45-35 loss to the New Orleans Saints on their way to a 5-3 finish. The Eagles also beat them 30-23. The Rams were the second-highest scoring team in the NFL that season. So it was confounding when they lost 13-3 to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
2019, San Francisco 49ers, 8-0
The 49ers’ first loss was in overtime to Seattle as they finished 5-3. The 49ers advanced to the Super Bowl, where they lost 31-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
2019, New England Patriots, 8-0
The Patriots couldn’t sustain their fast start as they finished 4-4 beginning with their first loss to the Baltimore Ravens, 37-20. The Patriots were ousted in the wildcard round by the Tennessee Titans, 20-13. That was the last game Brady played for the Patriots after 20 seasons.
2020, Pittsburgh Steelers, 11-0
The Steelers fell off the proverbial cliff after their fast start, going 1-4 the rest of the way, beginning with the first loss to Washington, 23-17. The Steelers then lost the following week in the wildcard round, 48-37 to the Cleveland Browns.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
