The Eagles clinched a bye in the first round of the NFC playoffs with Sunday’s 34-29 win over the Giants and that leaves them with two weeks to try to nail down the top seed in the conference before the regular season comes to an end.
That won’t be the only thing on the team’s to-do list, however. There are issues to clean up, starting with a defense that allowed the woeful Giants to gain 504 yards and convert 10-of-18 third downs in Sunday’s win. Bad penalties were also an issue and coach Doug Pederson said his message to the team was that more of the same will keep them from where they want to go this season.
“We’re slowly checking boxes, you know, NFC East a week ago and then a bye and a home game now, check the box but there’s still everything in front of us and I just challenged them that you can’t play like this and win in the postseason obviously,” Pederson said, via the team. “Can’t play like this and expect to win every week. You have to come prepared and when I say prepared I mean from a mental standpoint, that emotion, that sort of sense of urgency and that dominating swagger that you want to see your team come out of the dressing room with and that was kind of the message today.”
The game against the Giants was the third in a row on the road for the Eagles. They now have two home games left in the regular season and know they’ll be at home in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, which provides a nice stretch of time to focus on shoring up the weak spots before it is time to win or stay home for good.