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Nick Sirianni, Eagles had to 'drag themselves through the mud' to return to the NFC Championship Game
That 2-2 start, the doubts, and the calls for Sirianni's job, that all feels like forever ago now with the Eagles on the doorstep of the Super Bowl.
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Nick Sirianni addressed his team with C.J. Gardner-Johnson's "Dream Chaser" chain back around his neck.
Finally out of the snow and into the locker room in celebration, the Eagles had beaten the Los Angeles Rams, 28-22, to advance to the NFC Championship Game and set themselves up for Round 3 against the upstart and division rival Washington Commanders next Sunday.
They'll be back at Lincoln Finacial Field, in front of a roaring crowd of nearly 70,000-strong, and on the doorstep of a potential second Super Bowl appearance in three years.
They're the highest seed left in the NFC side of the playoff field, and maybe – arguably – the most complete team left in the whole bracket.
Regardless, the Eagles are a long, long way from 2-2, all the early-season doubts, all the calls for the coach's head (well...mostly, that is), and definitely that implosion that brought 2023 to a bitter end.
And Gardner-Johnson, who signed back in the offseason to be headed to his third straight NFC title game between Philadelphia Detroit and then Philadelphia again, wanted to acknowledge that.
"I told y'all at the beginning of the year: This s*** runs through Philly," Gardner-Johnson told the media huddled around his locker after the Eagles' latest playoff classic (via KYW's Dave Uram). "I wasn't being cocky, I was just being honest.
"I'm just glad we got a chance to do something for Coach Nick. A lot of people talk about him, and a lot of people talk about this team. I'm happy for [A.J. Brown], [DeVonta Smith], really the offense. They get a chance to go shut everybody up for good, really, the next two games, so I'm happy for 'em."
They're not there yet though. They'll still be operating on a 'one game at a time' mentality approaching Jayden Daniels and the Commanders for Sunday, then go from there.
But it can't be denied, between Saquon Barkley, Jalen Carter, Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Nolan Smith, the offensive line, all the other key names and unsung heroes who stepped up big throughout the year, and even Jalen Hurts – who manages to get by despite how unsteady he can look or be – the Philadelphia Eagles are so much better than they were.
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They're better than that team that lost to the Falcons in Week 2, that got pummeled in Week 4 against the Bucs, too, and, hopefully, just a bit better now than that Week 16 game at Washington that just got away from them.
"I think if you ask the players, they'll say that we've been the same as will the coaches ever since we got here," Sirianni said at the dais within the press conference room after beating the Rams. "Attention to detail has always been there, that accountability has always been there, the toughness has always been there, the togetherness has always been there. You just double down on those types of things."
Even when it seemed unpopular to – back when the city wanted Sirianni gone, and the Eagles looked like they had no shot.
But that all feels like forever ago now, with much greater much closer in view.
"2-2 seems like a long time ago," Sirianni said. "We're here where we are now. I think we're battle-tested from some of the stuff. We embraced the adversity. We're battled tested from some of the things that we went through last year, had to kind of drag ourselves through the mud to get to this position.
"We had to drag ourselves through the mud through the early starts and a lot of the doubts, and now here we are right now, but that's the way football goes. It's the way life goes, and hopefully these guys are learning – you know, we talk a lot about it, and hopefully these guys are learning through the ups and downs that you can pick yourself up and go again."
They already have, though, but with just a bit further to go.
"A lot of growing pains," Gardner-Johnson said (again via Uram) "From the beginning of the season to now, it's just one of those moments where I'm just proud. I ain't really got no trash talk, I'm just proud of the guys...
"Moments like that, the beginning of the season we lost – the Atlanta game, lost. A late game like that...to see that we learned from it and bounced back and go to the conference championship, it's f---in' amazing."
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