Here we are midway through a football season that was predicted to be long on long-term growth for the Eagles and ultimately short on short-term payoff, but suddenly time has compressed like an accordion and there is a lingering note of the unexpected in the air as October gives way to November.
How unexpected? Well, that remains to be seen, but if the next two months are as surprisingly successful as the first two, you can hang your dream as high as you like. Maybe not by much, but stranger things have happened in the NFL than a 7-9 team catching a breeze that sails it well beyond the course outsiders charted for it.
The best example was the 1999 St. Louis Rams, who won the Super Bowl for coach Dick Vermeil behind quarterback Kurt Warner just one year after turning in a 4-12 record. (And to prove that nothing is really predictable in the NFL, the championship happened after Warner was left unprotected _ and unselected _ in the expansion draft and the Rams signed Trent Green to be the starter ahead of him.)
Truth be told, the Eagles might not even have been a legitimate seven-win team in 2016 since the Cowboys rested their starters in the regular-season finale and allowed the Eagles a layup. To actually have a conversation about whether the Eagles can take the following season all the way to the house is remarkable, but at 7-1, it isn't premature any longer.
So, as we take a breath and try to digest the first eight games, here are some things I think about how they got here and what they need to do in order to get the rest of the way.
