“It Didn’t Have To Be Close!”

Seven years apart, the identity of the two world champion Eagles rosters is strikingly different.

The 2017 bunch erased a longstanding drought, quenching the championship thirst of the NFL’s most impassioned and devoted fanbase.

That particular iteration overcame a series of debilitating injuries, with the list of marquee players on injured reserve reading like a CVS receipt.

The postseason run conveyed the essence of a Disney movie, with backup quarterback Nick Foles easily authoring the finest two-game performance of his career.

On that night, at U.S. Bank Stadium, Foles outdueled his counterpart, future Hall of Fame quarterback, Tom Brady.

Super Bowl LII also featured heroic performances from unlikely contributors, such as rookie running back Corey Clement and wide receiver Nelson Agholor, each of whom turned in career seasons.

Doug Pederson, a coach heavily scrutinized from a national perspective before the season, pressed all the right buttons.

While their road to the Lombardi Trophy was rather unconventional, that roster unequivocally was an underdog that defied insurmountable odds, slaying that dragon that was –  at the time – the league’s most daunting tandem in Brady and head coach Bill Belichick.

The big game was old hat for the Patriots, an annual expectation.

For the Eagles to come out on top required a performance for the ages.

The 2024 Eagles embodied a DNA that almost bordered on anger – certainly an edginess – while boasting a renewed sense of confidence and swagger.

In other words, no one’s underdogs. They were better than any team that stepped on the field with them, and they knew it.

The biggest difference, however, came on the defense.

But to back it up a tad – almost as if hitting the reset button – the tone had been set and standard reinforced back in the summer, the times when most champions sow their seeds.

To a man, there seemed to be a collective buy-in, with players committing themselves to the culture and ideologies enforced by head coach Nick Sirianni.

The defense, which had been in flux merely months earlier, had undergone a major renovation under its newly appointed defensive coordinator, veteran Vic Fangio.

GETTY IMAGES: Eagles DC Vic Fangio’s hard coaching helped the Eagles go from subpar in 2023 to Super in 2024.

Communication and cohesion, along with a focus on detail and fundamentals, became significant coaching points as the team shed the remnants of what had previously been a bottom-tier unit.

With the demanding Fangio – termed in the summer by several players as an “old school” coach – outlining the heightened expectations for his players, there was no gray area.

Players would be called-out and held accountable, even forced outside of their respective comfort zones.

Given the demands and tough coaching, it takes a certain make-up for widespread buy-in.

Only for players obsessed with the prospects of continuous improvement, success and Super Bowl glory would Fangio’s approach resonate.

And for the Eagles, the like-mindedness and universal acceptance was just as evident as the incremental improvements throughout the summer.

When much was expected, the players delivered their end of the bargain.

Along with Fangio, the defensive side of the ball was filled out with assistants on the rise, such as passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Christian Parker and safeties coach Joe Kasper.

Others, such as inside linebackers coach Bobby King, defensive end/outside linebackers coach Jeremiah Washburn and defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, himself a former defensive coordinator, added additional pedigree and credibility to a reconfigured staff.

One doesn’t have to look far to see their respective imprints on player development, as rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, EDGEs Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt, linebackers Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean and defensive tackles Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Milton Williams all took significant steps forward.

The standard had been established months ago but required commitment and focus from the players.

While several of the defense’s most prominent stars were collegiate champions, like Carter, Davis, Smith and Dean, hard work was expected and welcomed.

So was the fixation of improvement.

Winning, for them, was a way of life, a reward for sacrifices. But making it even more special, and rare, was that each player embodied the same will to win and commitment to excellence.

With that comes hard coaching, for sure, but also results, validating the work and time invested.

The grit and toughness Fangio’s unit displayed reflected Philadelphia’s image of fighting and resonated fairly early with the fanbase.

The characteristics included a focus on communication, details, and physicality along with swarming to the ball with urgency.

The group, selfless and close-knit, celebrated together and celebrated each other.

Their resolve, cultivated back in training camp, also came with an ability to eliminate distractions, instead focusing on the group and the necessary work to better themselves. They obsessed about whatever it took to win each week.

Each game day was approached with the sole intent of imposing their will and dominating the opposition, a take-no-prisoners mentality.

For them, what was understood didn’t need to be explained.

Sirianni’s “Tough, Detailed, Together” mantra best depicted the identity of the 2024 Eagles, but viewing it through a defensive lens, it especially rang true.

Like most transitions, patience is required. But once the group meshed and adapted to the scheme, it played faster and more free, and the dominance emerged.

From a defensive back perspective, assignment-sound football was a prevailing theme.

Safeties Reed Blankenship and C.J. Gardner-Johnson might have served as the loudest voices directing traffic, but each player showacsed moxie and bravado, especially Mitchell and Gardner-Johnson, the latter playing the role of backend heartbeat.

GETTY IMAGES: Eagles safeties C.J. Gardner-Johnson (left) and Reed Blankenship fulfilled their duties for Vic Fangio’s defense.

Gardner-Johnson’s brash tendencies, ball skills and much-needed swagger fueled the defense with an attitude to match the production.

Along with his ability to take the football away, Gardner-Johnson added charisma and personality. Enigmatic, yet lively, the sixth-year defender played with an edge, a chip on the shoulder that wouldn’t go away.

Having a position coach like the 33-year-old Parker who came with an inherent sense of relatability certainly helped in the chemistry.

Parker also initiated various motivational tactics to fuel the fire, from leaving a red gas can at the foot of Darius Slay’s locker along with a post-it note that read, “How much gas do you have in your big play tank? CP,” to leaving microscopes inside the lockers of his safeties early in the season, to earplugs inside the lockers of his secondary – as if to say, “Drown out the noise.”

“When in doubt, choose violence” was a popular term uttered by linebackers coach Bobby King, who cultivated a tenacious linebacker room headed by Baun and Dean.

Baun, a virtual unknown before the season, became an overnight Defensive Player of the Year candidate while the cerebral Dean, a leader who donned the green dot, represented the defense’s glue.

While Baun was the star, Dean personified the violence, physicality and block destruction that King preached.

Each player roamed the second level and attacked downhill like a heat-seeking missile, destroying anything in their path the way King demanded.

The edge rushers, presided over by coach Jeremiah Washburn, showcased violent hands and power at the point of attack, with Smith and Josh Sweat producing quality seasons.

Even the rookie Hunt, the team’s third-round pick from Houston Christian, flashed, suggesting a far more prominent role for 2025.

And one could have made a case for Sweat as the Super Bowl LIX’s Most Valuable Player given his 2.5 sacks of Patrick Mahomes.

The entire defensive tackle quintet – Carter, Davis, Williams, Moro Ojomo and Thomas Booker – proved to be disruptive.

Carter is on his way to becoming the defensive face of the NFL while Davis answered conditioning questions and made strides in his pass rush. Williams thrived in a more pivotal role, making himself more of a household name.

Regardless of injury or circumstance, players such as linebacker Oren Burks, cornerback Isaiah Rodgers and Hunt, stepped in to fill the void without causing a letdown, a testament to the players and their preparation as much as coaching.

Fangio, in only months, had molded an inspired group into the NFL’s best – and most feared – defense. They were better than every offense, and they knew it.

They belonged in every conversation.

So when the Eagles took the field for Super Bowl LIX, this time things felt different.

Beyond the team’s selection for entrance music – the show-stopping DMX classic, “What’s My Name?” – this unit had the look of one that knew what was about to happen.

Not only had they been in, and persevered though, tight games during the season to build confidence, but much of the discourse leading up to the Super Bowl suggested the game would be close.

The Chiefs, of course, were attempting to complete a three-peat and have the best player in the world in Mahomes at the game’s most important position.

Even in the absence of explosive weapons, the Chiefs resembled “The Terminator,” thanks to Mahomes, who can usually keep any team alive.

For the Eagles to stave off a Chiefs team accustomed to winning big games it was widely believed the defense would have to hold firm for a series or two.

Questions leading up to kickoff centered on the NFL’s youngest defense and how it would fare under the brightest of lights.

But what wasn’t given enough credit was the leadership, the unflappable traits of a largely inexperienced defense, and close-knit bond throughout.

GETTY IMAGES: DT Milton Williams’ breakout season helped make the Eagles’ DL one of the game’s fiercest.

This bunch had been in several tight games, and had their backs against the wall before responding.

That they vaulted from bottom tier to the NFL’s best in one season didn’t occur by happenstance.

No team all season had matched their physicality or toughness.

But even in light of all that, something seemed different while observing pregame warmups, almost as if they’d been there before, like they were prepared for the moment, like they knew exactly what was about to happen.

The summer of hard knocks and unwavering expectations had primed them for the moment.

Almost as if taking things personally, the Eagles overwhelmed the Chiefs from the start, rallying to the football, breaking on throws, and encumbering Mahomes with pressure.

The Eagles tallied six sacks and 11 quarterback hits to go along with a pair of interceptions, one from Baun and a pick-six from DeJean.

They owned the night, achieving legendary status. The anger and edginess that best described their play all season manifested in sheer dominance, befuddling the stoic Mahomes and stymieing Hall of Fame-bound head coach Andy Reid’s game plan.

It was a performance that should usher Fangio into the conversation as one of the best coordinators in the sport’s long history and perhaps the best defensive coaching performance in Super Bowl history.

The defense – the team, really – came to New Orleans for a business trip but returned to Philadelphia as a champion.

Unlike the first championship, this one felt expected.

None of it should have been a surprise if you’ve been paying attention.

They were never built to be underdogs or merely happy to be on the grandest of stages.

They demanded more, and it was the mammoth Davis who put that into perspective walking off the postgame podium and down the corridor toward the locker room.

“We earned that mother–cker! he shouted. “It didn’t have to be close! It didn’t have to be close!”

– Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com.