American Football
Are the Phildadelphia Eagles and QB Jalen Hurts back to their soaring best?
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It took a while for the reigning NFL Super Bowl champions to find their wings again, but the Philadelphia Eagles appear to have rediscovered the swagger that made them football’s most complete team a season ago.
After a stuttering start to their 2025 title defence – marked by uncharacteristic inconsistency, sluggish offensive rhythm, and whispers of locker-room tension – back-to-back statement wins have quieted the doubters.
Here, I break down whether this surge is just a spark or the start of a full return to form.
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The 34–10 dismantling of the New York Giants in Week 8 wasn’t just payback for their early-season loss to the same opponent; it looked and felt like the real Eagles had returned.
Through the first six weeks, Nick Sirianni’s team didn’t look much like the champions who rolled through 2024. A shock defeat to the Denver Broncos and that humbling loss to the Giants had many wondering if the emotional high of February’s triumph had left them drained.
The offense, once a symphony of balance and brute force, stumbled.
Jalen Hurts’ timing with his receivers looked off, Saquon Barkley – who set an NFL record for total rushing yards across the regular season and playoffs last year – was averaging under 3.9 yards per carry, and star wideout AJ Brown’s visible frustration on the sidelines was becoming a recurring subplot.
In Philadelphia, small cracks always become big stories. Brown’s outbursts and cryptic social media posts sparked talk of a fractured locker room. Sirianni and Hurts tried to downplay it, insisting “competitive emotion” was being misread as dissent. But on the field, the disjointed play told its own story.
Through Week 6, the Eagles ranked just 15th in total offense and an unthinkable 21st in rushing efficiency – a shocking decline for a team built on trench dominance and physical control.
Then, the switch seemed to flip. The Week 7 win over the Minnesota Vikings was the first sign – a 28-22 performance with Hurts posting a perfect 158.3 passer rating as he slung touchdown passes to Brown and Devonta Smith.
But it was Week 8’s demolition of the Giants that truly looked like a course correction. Barkley ran like the player who once carried the New York franchise, posting 150 yards and a touchdown against his former team, while backup back Tank Bigsby racked up 104 yards on the ground, too.
The run-pass-option dynamic that terrorised defences last season finally clicked again, and the Eagles’ front five – led by Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata – re-established themselves as the league’s most punishing unit.
Defensively, there’s also a sense of restoration. The secondary, shaky and injury-hit in September, has tightened up. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter has once again turned the interior defensive line into a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks.
With that balance returning, Philadelphia has vaulted back into the NFC elite conversation.
Verdict
It’s still early to declare the turbulence over, but the timing couldn’t be better. For all the talk of a Super Bowl hangover, this looks less like complacency and more like the slow grind of a team recalibrating under the weight of expectations.
Perhaps, then, the question isn’t whether the Eagles ever truly fell apart, but whether they simply needed to remember what made them great. Their identity was never about flair or finesse. It was about domination, about imposing will, about making opponents quit by the third quarter. For the first time all season, that identity is back.
If the past two weeks are any indication, Philadelphia’s turbulence was temporary – a few clouds before clear skies. The champions look grounded again in what made them champions in the first place: power, precision, and purpose. The Eagles might just be soaring once more.
