The post-game celebration had long ended and the players were well into the process of peeling off the layers of their game uniform, jumping into the cold tub, taking a shower, and changing into their clothes when the focus shifted from the elation of beating the Dallas Cowboys to the big picture.
At 6-0, the Eagles have everything going their way, right? Well, yeah, they are the only unblemished team record-wise in the NFL, but every single player and coach understand there are areas of improvement needed.
"There isn't a player here who is satisfied with what we've done," center Jason Kelce said. "It's great to be 6-0 and where we are. We've worked hard to win these games and each one of them has been a little bit different, so to find ways to win these games has been important for this football team. But there are a lot of areas where we need to be better. I don't think we've played a full game. I think we have yet to play our best game and it's exciting to know that it's still out there."
That's a common theme in the locker room. There is a quest for perfection each time out for the Eagles and, however unattainable that may be, it keeps the Eagles pushing forward.
It is a mentality that permeates the locker room. The Eagles are obviously pleased with being 6-0 and with that comes a level of confidence, but they want more.
"We're a pretty good football team," running back Miles Sanders said, "but we still haven't played our best game. Everybody knows that. The fun thing about it is that we've got this bye week to keep getting better and come back out and keep this thing rolling. If we want to get to where we want to be, we have to have that mindset. You can't be selfish in here. And you can't be comfortable. Even though we're 6-0 going into the bye week, we have to come back with the same intensity for every practice and every day and try to be 1-0 the next week. One-and-oh every week. That's the goal.
"I'm going to enjoy this week, relax, take care of my body, and wait for my hometown (Pittsburgh Steelers) to come in here (October 30 at Lincoln Financial Field). It's going to be a lot of fun."
Wide receiver A.J. Brown noticed something different about the Eagles shortly after he arrived via trade on the first night of the 2022 NFL Draft, once the players gathered and the NovaCare Complex became the home away from home for everyone. What Brown saw in the spring and then in Training Camp and through the preseason has become extremely obvious to him in the regular season: The Eagles want it.
They want it, and they want to work hard to get what they want.
"This team is hungry. We've got guys on this team that want to make plays, that want to put the game away," Brown said. "Guys want to be great for the team and that is what makes me the happiest. When I first got here, I was a little nervous because, you know, it's new and you never know how it's going to turn out. But when I understood what this team, this organization, is all about, it became clear to me. I just want to do my job. Whatever I can do to keep this rolling, I'm going to do. Every day we're learning.
"We're hungry and we're humble. Already, we're looking to the next team. We want to enjoy our downtime and when we want to get back here and get down to work. That's exciting to know the team feels that way."
While the players largely take the week off and visit family or just sit home and decompress and take their first deep breaths in months, the coaches are hard at work before taking the weekend off reviewing Sunday night's win, starting the scouting intel on Pittsburgh, and reviewing what has worked and what needs to be better moving forward. This period of time self-scouting is invaluable and when the time is used correctly, it becomes a tremendous benefit for the remainder of the season.
Head Coach Nick Sirianni plans to dig in and sift through everything and do it without any preconceived ideas.
"You go in with a general thing of what you want to look at – where you are successful, where you aren't successful – so that will kind of tell the story. And then that will lead to other projects that we want to watch. And then there are a couple of other areas that we're looking at, a couple of areas that we're looking at right now that we want to improve on," he said. "There are always things to work on, so I actually think that we can even be even more demanding and more crazy about what the standard is when you are 6-0.
"I think being 6-0 is awesome, but you put your foot on everybody and say, 'You like this? Does this feel good? All right, then we've got to keep going,' and really dive in even harder. That's not to say you don't do that when you're 0-6 or 2-5 or whatever, it's just easier to really get after everything because there are no feelings involved in there when you're 6-0. It's like, 'Hey, let's go. This isn't good enough and let's get it better.' Looking forward to the process this week."
