Now the Eagles can go into the offseason and talk about how much momentum they built up with these two wins over the Giants and Cowboys.
Even after Sunday's 27-13 win over Dallas (see Instant Replay), I don't want to hear it.
Winning is always better than losing, but if the Eagles believe that winning these two games in any way, shape or form means they are any closer to being a championship team than they were when they 5-9, they're deluding themselves.
Remember that four-game winning streak that ended the 2011 season and really guaranteed Andy Reid's return in 2012? How did that go?
That said, here's our final 10 Instant Observations of the 2016 football season.
1. Watching the Cowboys go through the motions in the Eagles' own building as they prepare for a second-round playoff game really reinforces just how far away the Eagles really are and how long it's been since this team made any sort of postseason run. It used to be the Eagles resting players as they got ready for their annual deep playoff run. Now they are the team trying to play spoiler and talking about next year for the third straight season while their most hated rival brings a 13-2 record and No. 1 NFC seed into the Linc. Eight years without a playoff win, three years without even making the postseason. And a roster frighteningly light on potentially elite young talent. I don't want to hear any talk about close losses or building on the last two wins or tweaking the roster. The Eagles aren't close, and until the people running the franchise understand this and figure out how to stock the roster with elite young players, they aren't going to be close.
2. Let's talk cornerbacks. Conventional wisdom says the Eagles need to replace Leodis McKelvin and that they're OK with Nolan Carroll. But honestly, I haven't seen enough from Carroll to be in a big rush to bring him back. The Eagles are last in the NFL in allowing big plays, and that's on the cornerbacks, and a lot of it is on Carroll. What big plays has he made? He has one interception this year (back in the first Giants game), he gets beat as often as he makes plays, and he turns 30 in two weeks. The Eagles' cornerback situation only makes the Eric Rowe move even more baffling. You don't get rid of a 23-year-old cornerback who's shown promise, and you certainly don't when your cornerback situation is this dire. But Rowe is in New England and will probably have a Super Bowl ring in a few weeks, and the Eagles once again are trying to figure out how to patch up a position that hasn't had any stability with young talent since Lito and Sheldon. Enough with the free agents. Haven't we learned anything from Nnamdi, Bradley Fletcher, Cary Williams, McKelvin and Carroll? And I'm fine with Jalen Mills as a third corner. He's tough and physical and battles. But I don't think he's a long-term solution as a starter because he just doesn't have the wheels. This team has to figure out how to draft some talented, fast, athletic cornerbacks and develop them into players. Soon.
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3. What Jordan Hicks is doing is absolutely remarkable. Despite missing eight games last year, he's the first NFL linebacker with seven or more interceptions in his first two NFL seasons since Al Richardson of the Falcons in 1980 and 1981. Richardson, an eighth-round pick out of Georgia Tech, had seven INTs as a rookie and just two more the rest of his career, but he did have eight in his first two seasons. In all, Hicks is only the fifth LB in NFL history with seven or more INTs in his first two seasons. The others are Richardson, Mike Stratton of the Bills in 1962 and 1963 (nine), Hall of Famer Jack Ham of the Steelers in 1971 and 1972 (nine) and Archie Matsos of the Bills in 1960 and 1961 (10). Hicks' seven INTs are the most by any Eagle at any position in his first 24 games since Eric Allen had 13 in 1988 and 1989. Hicks has more INTs this year (five) than all the Eagles' cornerbacks combined (three). The Eagles have a ton of work to do, but goodness gracious they sure have a linebacker to build around.
4. Zach Ertz has shown me a lot lately, especially since that Vontez Burfict play in Cincinnati. There's no question he's been a little more physical and a little more aggressive since that play. And I just like the way he's caught the ball, too. With wide receivers this terrible, the Eagles have to get big-time stuff out of Ertz, and he's responded. With another huge game Sunday (13 for 139 and 2 TDs), Ertz has 63 for 666 and four TDs in the last nine games. He finished the season with a team-high 78 catches for 816 yards and four touchdowns. His performance Sunday made him the first Eagles tight end with 100 yards and two TDs in a game since Keith Jackson vs. the Redskins at RFK Stadium in 1989. And I'm sorry, I just don't want to hear about his slow start or how the production came after the season was over. Ertz didn't have a training camp with Carson Wentz, had 6 for 58 in the opener, then missed two games with an injury, then basically had a quiet four-game stretch in which he was targeted a total of 13 times (and caught nine passes) before turning into Wentz's favorite weapon. People love to get on Ertz's case for whatever reason, but that has to stop. Here's what Ertz has to show for his first four NFL seasons: 247 catches for 2,840 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has the eighth-most catches and 12th-most yards in NFL history by a tight end in his first four years and he's never had the same QB two years in a row. You want to blast an Eagles player and question his desire and effort? Find somebody else.
5. There was one thing I wanted to see Sunday and that was a clean game from Wentz, and we got it. Wentz got off to a little bit of a slow start but finished strong Sunday. He moved the ball, he was accurate, and best of all, for the first time in seven games, he didn't throw an interception. And I don't care who the Cowboys were playing - look who the Eagles were playing. He was out there with Paul Turner, DGB and Bryce Treggs at wide receiver, and Byron Marshall and Terrell Watson at tailback. Think about where Donovan McNabb was after his first season – 2-4 record, 49 percent completion percentage, averaged 130 yards per start. And think about the jump he made into Year 2, when he had a Pro Bowl season and led the Eagles to an 11-5 record and a playoff win over the Bucs. I fully expect Wentz to make significant strides in Year 2, and I fully expect the Eagles to give him some weapons to work with. For the first time in forever, the Eagles go into an offseason with absolutely zero questions at quarterback, and that's huge for a franchise with major issues at almost every other position.
6. Mark Sanchez is really, really, really, really, really bad. Like world-class bad.
7. Like I literally cannot believe he's this bad, and it blows my mind that he won four playoff games with the Jets.
8. I like the way Marshall ran the ball Sunday. With three running backs on the shelf, the undrafted rookie got 10 carries for 42 tough yards, and although he's probably not a guy who can carry the load and be a No. 1 – which the Eagles certainly need next year – he and Wendell Smallwood have both shown they can at least be a piece of the puzzle at running back. For whatever reason, the Eagles don't like Kenjon Barner, but Marshall and Smallwood will both deserve a long look in training camp next summer.
9. Eagles wide receivers Sunday: three catches, 45 yards. Keep Jordan Matthews and get rid of the rest of them. Please?
10. Here's something I liked that shouldn't go unnoticed. Jason Peters got nicked up in the third quarter and was helped off the field. The guy is two weeks shy of his 35th birthday, he's already got a pretty good Hall of Fame resume, he's got that ninth Pro Bowl in his back pocket and he's playing on a cold, windy day in a game that means nothing to his team. But if you figured that was the last we'd see of Peters in 2016, you were wrong. Halapoulivaati Vaitai came in for a few snaps but then there was the old warrior heading back out to left tackle to finish the game. Good for him. That showed me a lot about Jason Peters and what a pro he really is.
