The party's over. At last.
The Eagles enjoyed their three-day weekend and will be eager to get back to work Monday; but, really, they got back to work on Thursday night _ finally _ when they beat the Giants. Afterward, Carson Wentz shook a few hands, submitted to a TV interview, prayed, then jogged off the field. Hicks chatted with a couple of Giants, knelt next to Wentz then ran off, too. Zach Ertz gave several interviews before he left. Jalen Mills, usually ebullient in victory, didn't linger at all.
The common denominator: Nobody smiled.
"You don't see a lot of happy, happy, joy, joy? That's because we're not satisfied," Mills said a few minutes after the game. "We know that we're a better team. I'm not satisfied. Nobody has to tell anybody not to smile."
MetLife Stadium was so utterly without Eagles in celebration you wouldn't have known they'd blown out their hosts by three touchdowns if you didn't look at the scoreboard. If not for the uniforms they might have been mistaken for plumbers, or farmers, or sanitation engineers, heading for home after a good day's work. They'd fixed the toilet. They'd fed the cows. They'd taken out the trash.
They'd gone to work, and they'd done their job. They were grim. Thin-lipped. Matter-of-fact.
"We weren't in desperation mode," said Ertz, "but we were close."
Maybe it was desperation that chased the Eagles' Super Bowl hangover. Maybe the thought of a ruined season ended the longest victory lap since Buster Douglas.
They were 2-3, with a plenty of reasons to lose: the top two running backs were out; both offensive tackles played hurt; the secondary was as flammable as chicken grease. These were the sorts of issues that somehow made them better last season. Maybe those issues made them better Thursday, too.
Two first-quarter touchdowns after one in the previous five first quarters. Four total penalties, less than half of their average in the first five games. Carson Wentz with his best game since his Game Three return: 26-for-36, 278 yards, three touchdowns and, crucially, no turnovers.
"This," Wentz said, "is who we are."
Is it? Then what were they for the first five games? When they blew it in Tampa? When they choked in Tennessee? When the Vikings pillaged Lincoln Financial Field?
They were living in February, basking in the afterglow of franchise's first Super Bowl title in the 52-year history of the game. Doug Pederson, their coach, knows it was true, because he won't say it wasn't. He's been asked several times if his team is suffering from a Super Bowl hangover. You know what he's never said? "No."
Pederson then referenced what he saw as a backup quarterback for the 1997 Packers, who were defending Super Bowl champs that never quite regrouped. On Friday, he seemed convinced that the hangover was gone. He seemed sure that the rock-solid accountability and resilience from 2017 had finally surfaced in 2018.
It took a Nashville meltdown and a revenge visit from their NFC Championship opponent to elicit change. Pederson noticed.
So: No smiling.
Nigel Bradham, dressing in the next locker, reported that the players in the locker room were almost as subdued as they were on the field.
"We know where our focus is," said linebacker Nigel Bradham, who was invisible in the first five games. 'We're happy with this one, but we're ready to get to the next one."
The Next One is Sunday when Cam Newton and the Panthers visit. A win in Game Six at Carolina last season stamped the Eagles as the NFC's best team. A win over Carolina in Game Seven this season should convince anyone who doubts the Eagles' viability as Super Bowl contenders this season. A win over the hapless Giants won't convince anyone of anything except that the Eagles aren't completely hapless, too.
"This is the first complete game we played," said defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. "Now, you see what happens when we don't shoot ourselves in the foot."
"Everyone was very focused," Ertz explained. "In the first five weeks, the production wasn't there. We'd been stringing things along. There would be lapses."
"We've got so much ball ahead of us," Cox said. "It was great to get a win, but the guys in this locker room know we have a lot of ball ahead of us."
They're only 3-3. They have toilets to fix. Cattle to feed. And lots more trash to remove.
