This year’s Eagles are starting to feel like the 2023 Eagles. Get ready for a weekly struggle.

Why did this one feel so … ominous? It wasn’t just the way it happened. It wasn’t just that the Eagles had a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and then proceeded to throw up all over themselves Sunday, giving up that lead and a game to the Denver Broncos, 21-17. It wasn’t just that the Philadelphia area still was coming to terms with the Phillies losing in a similar fashion to the Dodgers the night before. It wasn’t just that the Eagles defense fell apart and that their offense still can’t run the ball at all and that they are screwing up “the things that require no talent,” as coach Nick Sirianni put it.

No, this one felt ominous because of what happened two years ago. Because of the 2023 season. Because that Eagles team was also coming off a Super Bowl appearance — no, it hadn’t won Super Bowl LVII, but it had traveled the long and grueling road to get there — and that Eagles team never seemed quite right in the aftermath. Everything was a struggle. The new offensive coordinator’s play-calling and oversight of the system were flashpoints. Even when the 2023 Eagles won games, those games left you asking, Is all well here, really? Turned out, all was not: six losses over the final seven games, a collapse that put Sirianni’s job in jeopardy and led to major changes to the roster and the coaching staff.

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Are these perfect parallels, 2023 and 2025? No. There are differences, sure. The Eagles won the Super Bowl last season, of course, and they had won 20 of their previous 21 games entering Sunday’s, and Vic Fangio’s presence is reason enough to think that this team’s defense won’t fall to pieces like that team’s did. But it’s worth remembering that the ’23 Eagles got off to a 5-0 start, then lost for the first time when, in a mistake-riddle performance, they blew a double-digit lead to the New York Jets.

That outcome was a sign of things to come for a club that seemed burdened by the expectation that the regular season did not matter, that all that mattered was getting back to the big game and winning it this time. Those Eagles were 10-1, but that terrific record was the ultimate house of cards, and it crumbled.

These Eagles are 4-1, and, yes, it’s early, and, yes, one could argue that they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt for winning that championship last season. But doesn’t this all feel familiar?

“The guys have worked extremely hard in preparation,” Sirianni said. “I see the same hunger that was there prior to us winning a Super Bowl. I don’t think it’s anything like that. The name of this game is always going to come down to detail, and as far as us as coaches and players, we weren’t detailed enough today.”

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“As a unit, we’re not looking to the past or anything,” wide receiver A.J. Brown said. “It’s a new season. A lot of guys didn’t win it. That’s in the past. We can’t go out there thinking like, ‘We’re the Super Bowl champs.’ Like today. That didn’t help us today. I wouldn’t get into the repeat part. We’re not sitting here talking about how we’re going to repeat. It’s just, go win.”

Hmmm. If Sirianni and Brown actually believe what they said, then I’d suggest that they’ve reached exactly the wrong assessment of the Eagles’ issues right now. The Eagles aren’t complacent. They’re not carrying themselves with a sense of entitlement. They’re not resting on the laurels of being the NFL’s defending champs. The pressure that comes with trying to win a Super Bowl after you’ve just won one isn’t much different, if at all, from the pressure that comes with trying to win a Super Bowl after you’ve just lost one. How wide is the gap, really, between We should have won and We’re supposed to win again?

Sirianni, for instance, spent a lot of time last Monday talking about the concept of joy, about the need for him and his coaches and his players to celebrate each victory just a little; otherwise, they run the risk of grinding themselves into sand. Nothing will ever be good enough. The entire season becomes a slog. You have to give yourself some credit when you win, he said, because you take for granted that you’re going to beat yourself up after a loss.

It sounds like a Pollyanna perspective to have about the kill-or-be-killed ethos of pro football, but the Eagles have to find a way to lighten the load for themselves. It felt heavy in their locker room late Sunday afternoon, and that atmosphere wasn’t a great sign for them. There’s a measure of attrition that is inherent to the process of winning a championship, and it doesn’t take much for a great team to lose some edge, lose some precision, and find itself straining to figure out what’s going wrong — or what’s not going quite as right as it did the year before. Look at the Eagles — not as they were in February against the Washington Commanders or the Kansas City Chiefs, but as they are. The offensive line isn’t as stout. The pass rush isn’t as dangerous. They have a talented defense that is young and sometimes makes big mistakes. Kevin Patullo hasn’t been Kellen Moore and may never be.

That 2023 team carried a boulder on its back all season, and it eventually went down and couldn’t get up again. This team already has been dealing with questions galore, and now it has suffered a gutting defeat. Its reaction, either way, will be telling.