DEFENSIVE END CHRIS Long underlined the magnitude of the Philadelphia Eagles’ victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London as the defending Super Bowl champions moved to 4-4.
Philadelphia began the weekend a game behind the Washington Redskins in the NFC East and faced the possibility of entering their bye week with a sub-.500 record.
However, inspired by quarterback Carson Wentz throwing three touchdown passes, Doug Pederson’s team recorded a 24-18 victory at Wembley to become the first team to beat the Jags in London since 2014.
Long insisted that their success across the Atlantic was crucial to their quest to return to the post-season.
“I hate the word must-win but that was kind of a must-win,” Long told Omnisport.
“Maybe not mathematically – you can always get back in it – but just for where our heads are at, and heading into the bye week.
“All of that hard work we’ve put in, we’ve played a lot of good football, we just haven’t finished games. Tonight we finished the game.
“I think this team has been energetic, hard-working, we’ve been waiting for a break and today we just got more breaks and we finished the game.”
Once Wentz, then an MVP candidate, got injured late in the regular season last term, the Eagles were considered the underdogs in the playoffs.
Yet they defied the odds with Nick Foles under centre and beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII in Minnesota last February.
As defending champions they have not been flying under the radar in 2018, yet Long insists there has not been a change in mindset since they lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
“Some of that is kind of cliched,” he argued.
“We’re the same team minus a few subtractions plus a few additions as last year. Last year what we did, in spite of a lot of adversity, we played outside ourselves sometimes.
“This year we just have to make those plays that we’re not making to date. Today we made more of those plays.
“If we just get back on that roll and we start making plays, we’ll forge our own identity.
“We’re not worried about last year, we’re worried about this year.”
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