The Philadelphia Eagles have won six straight games since their bye week to take a healthy lead in the NFC East. After an uneven 2-2 start, the Eagles have emerged as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and their impressive defense is the reason why.

Heading into Week 5, the defense ranks No. 1 in the NFL in several advanced stats, such as EPA/play (-0.235), completion rate (36.3%) and completion rate (37.0%).

During its six-game winning streak, Philadelphia allowed just 13.8 points and 211.3 yards per game. It’s fair to note that the Eagles faced average QBs Deshaun Watson of the Browns, Daniel Jones of the Giants and Cooper Rush of the Cowboys during that stretch, but they also stopped Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels from Washington.

In Week 8, the Eagles limited the Cincinnati Bengals to 17 points and 4.8 yards per game. On Thursday night, they held the Washington Commanders to a season-low 18 points and only got to 18 on a garbage-time touchdown and two-point conversion when the game was already decided.

The defense, led by first-year Eagles coordinator Vic Fangio, ranks first in the league in yards allowed per game (273.1) and yards allowed per game (4.7), fourth in opponent completion percentage (61, 5 percent) and sixth in opponent red. field goal percentage (46.4 percent). It’s quite a contrast to last season’s disappointing defense.

In 2023, The Sean Desai unit finished 26th in yards allowed per game (356.1), 31st in yards allowed per game (252.7) and 30th in points allowed per game (25.2). Things got so bad for the defense that Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni took play-calling duties from Desai midway through the season and gave the responsibility to Matt Patricia..