THEY ARE 6-2 and eight points away from a perfect ride. That's right. Screw on the thinking caps a little tighter in Nashville and Jacksonville, eliminate maybe one defensive or special-teams breakdown in each, and the Eagles are a scarless 8-0 halfway through this Super Bowl-serious season.
Which leads to this debatable, but interesting, possibility:
Is this Eagles defense as good as last season's?
Might it even be better?
"It's better," says defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. "A bit. I think it's better because our run defense is playing a lot better."
The Eagles were 18th in the NFL against the run last season. They are third this season.
Second against the pass a year ago, they currently are fifth.
No NFL team is better on third down. The Eagles have allowed just 26 percent to be converted. In 2001, they were second in third-down efficiency, allowing opponents to convert 30.6 percent.
Last year, they allowed 208 points, second in the NFL. At this juncture last season, the Eagles had allowed 115 points.
Of the 118 points scored against the Eagles this season, 21 have been scored via punt and kickoff returns. Take them away, and the performance of this season's defense compared with last is virtually identical.
Which is quite amazing, given the preseason and early-season hyperbole surrounding this team. The Eagles' defense, said everyone from your neighbor to Bill Parcells, had slipped considerably from the year before. No Jeremiah Trotter. No Damon Moore. No Mike Caldwell.
And then, no Hollis Thomas.
Those people looked right when the season started in Tennessee. Levon Kirkland, signed to replace Trotter without the benefit of minicamp, was lifted after Eddie George made him look foolish on a pass play. Blaine Bishop, the plug for the departed Moore, looked about the same on a touchdown pass late in the game.
"I said back then that as the season went on, these guys would get better," Johnson says. "I think one of the mistakes I made was that I should have played some of these guys, especially Levon and Blaine, more in preseason. I don't think they worked enough. They needed to play with the first defense just to get the feel, and making the calls."
"I feel more comfortable now than at the start," Kirkland says. "The one thing about playing defense, you kind of want to know all the ins and outs. Especially at middle linebacker...
"I think the last three games... I'm feeling better and better about my role."
Says Bishop, "Now compared to then, I feel a whole lot more comfortable."
The defense has allowed one touchdown in the last three games. In the Eagles' six victories, that number swells to four TDs. In starting 5-0 against the NFC, they have allowed the offenses of those five teams to score exactly one touchdown.
"That's the whole key to defense," says Kirkland. "You stop them from getting in the end zone, make them kick field goals, neutralize the run and prevent big plays. Do that, you'll be fine."
Says Johnson: "Last couple of years I thought we were giving up some big plays. That's the stat I see a big improvement in. Our corner play has been better. Our safety support has been better, it seems. We're keeping out of the red zone about the same, we're good at third down-and-long last year and we're good at third down-and-long this year."
Only Dallas and New York have amassed more than 100 yards rushing against this edition, and then just barely. The Bears accumulated 5 yards on the ground in the second half Sunday, when they needed it the most. And the Eagles' 26 sacks put them on pace to exceed any team of Andy Reid's tenure here, on pace to register their highest total since Reggie White's last Eagles season, 1992.
The Eagles need to maintain that pace, or increase it, when the Colts come to town Sunday. When the Birds have shown weakness, it has come against better quarterbacks such as Jacksonville's Mark Brunell and Tennessee's Steve McNair, against offenses in which, in the words of cornerback Troy Vincent, "the routes are going to be crisp, the balls are going to be there, on time."
The Colts' Peyton Manning is among the best there is in that regard. But the absence of running back Edgerrin James should limit his play-action options and allow the defense to rush and play with even less trepidation.
And allow for another week like the last 3.
"I've been saying all season long that we're a work in progress," Vincent says. "Over the last 3 weeks, we have seen some progress on where we really are and what we are made of defensively. We lost some key football players last year, but now we're really starting to come together.
"And we can get better. We're going to be a very competitive football team come this last stretch."
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