In terms of bouncing back from their defeat in Super Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles have done an incredible job, at least through the first three game weeks of the season. Jalen Hurts may not have had the best game at the point of attack, as he threw just one touchdown against two interceptions, but the Eagles' defense remained firm, holding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a lackluster outing en route to a 25-11 victory.
This win moves the Eagles to 3-0 on the season, putting them alongside the Miami Dolphins (fresh off a 50-point demolition of the Denver Broncos) and San Francisco 49ers as the only undefeated teams left in the league. While that in and of itself bodes well for their chances of avenging their Super Bowl loss against the Kansas City Chiefs over seven months ago, recent history suggests otherwise.
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According to ESPN Stats & Info, none of the other three Super Bowl runners-up since 2000 that began the season with a 3-0 record went on to win the championship. In fact, the farthest those teams have gone was the divisional round, with both the 2017 Atlanta Falcons' and 2006 Seattle Seahawks' playoff runs grinding to a screeching halt early on in the postseason. Meanwhile, the 2019 Los Angeles Rams even failed to make the playoffs, going 6-7 after starting off the season unbeaten en route to a hugely disappointing campaign.
Of course, these sorts of omens are merely superstitious, as there's simply no way the performances of those aforementioned teams will have any effect on how the Eagles' 2023 season shakes out. Philadelphia has an entirely different crew of players with an entirely different mindset as a collective, so it stands to reason that the Eagles' 3-0 start will be a foreshadowing of better things to come, not an omen of disappointment.
At the very least, the Eagles can hold on to the hope that the franchise could soon win a Super Bowl; both the Seahawks and Rams, years after their failed trip to the Super Bowl, won eventually, with the former breaking through in 2014 and the latter smashing all expectations in 2022. But it's too early to look that far out towards the future. What Philly should do now is take care of the things they can control, and so far, so good.