Brookover: Eagles resume play against ideal foe: Detroit

When last we saw Carson Wentz and the Eagles, they went riding into the bye week as one of five unbeaten teams in the NFL after demolishing a previously unbeaten Pittsburgh team that was and still is being billed as a Super Bowl contender. The Steelers rebounded with a rout of Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night, a result that only enhanced the Eagles' already glowing resumé.

Wentz and the Eagles returned to work Monday morning in South Philadelphia as one of only three unbeaten teams and now we get to see how they handle success, a nice, little problem that many of us did not think they'd encounter at any point this season.

"Obviously we're off to a good start," veteran linebacker Stephen Tulloch said. "Now we have to make sure we stay on it, especially with a young team like this. You can't get lackadaisical or think you've arrived. Get your mind right and get ready to get back and improve on the little things and that's what we're looking to do this week."

It was a little unfortunate that the schedule makers plopped the earliest possible bye week on the Eagles' laps immediately after their momentum-building victory over the Steelers, but at least the game coming out of the break is the perfect opponent for the league's most surprising team in September.

What better place than Detroit for the Eagles to go back to work? OK, maybe Cleveland, but that game has already been crossed off the schedule. The 1-3 Lions are a solid second choice for several reasons, the least of which might be the ineptness they have shown so far this season.

Remember Thanksgiving 2015?

Tulloch does. He had one of the six sacks the Lions registered on quarterback Mark Sanchez during their 45-14 win over the Eagles at Ford Field.

"Obviously I played in that game and we did give them a pretty good butt whuppin'," Tulloch said. "We haven't spoke about it this year. We know last year is last year and obviously we're off to a good start and we want to continue that."

Zach Ertz, who is expected to return after missing the Eagles' last two games, pointed out that neither he nor former starting quarterback Sam Bradford played against the Lions last season. Being on the sideline, however, did not make it any easier to stomach.

"Distraught" is how Ertz described the postgame locker room. "Guys vividly remember that game and it's definitely in the back of our minds."

Ertz's fellow tight end Brent Celek properly noted that a lot has changed since that game. Some believe the Thanksgiving Day massacre in Detroit signaled the beginning of the end for former Eagles coach Chip Kelly and the majority of his coaching staff.

"We just didn't play well," Celek said. "We just got whupped by them. It's a new year. There are a lot of things that are different. The way we call plays. There's not a lot of hurry-up stuff like we were last year."

New head coach. New quarterback. New defensive coordinator. New outlook.

A lot has changed with the Lions, too. Most notably Calvin Johnson has retired. He caught three of the five touchdown passes that quarterback Matt Stafford threw in last season's game. The Eagles should also benefit from the absence of star pass rusher Ziggy Ansah, who is likely to miss his third straight game with a severe ankle sprain. He had 31/2 sacks in last season's game and the Lions have not had much of a pass rush in the two games without him this season.

The biggest surprise after the Eagles left Detroit last season was that former defensive coordinator Bill Davis still had a job when the team returned to work the following week. His defense had surrendered 951 yards and 11 touchdowns in the previous two games.

That job, of course, now belongs to Jim Schwartz, which brings us to another reason the Lions are the perfect opponent for the Eagles coming out of their bye week. Schwartz coached the Lions from 2009 through 2013 before being fired. When he returned there as Buffalo's defensive coordinator in 2014, Bills players carried him off the field following a 17-14 victory.

"He was very, very riled up for that," said Eagles cornerback Leodis McKelvin, a member of that Buffalo team. "You knew Jim was going to put us in a great situation to go out there and win the game and we had to go out and have his back."

McKelvin, who is also expected to return from an opening-day injury, suspects that a similar feeling will permeate through the Eagles' locker room this week.

"Oh, definitely," he said. "It's going to mean a lot. He was the head coach there. He doesn't have to say anything. We know."

Fletcher Cox, the best player on Schwartz's defense and the NFL defensive player of the month during the Eagles' stunning September, does not believe the Eagles need to remember last year in Detroit or win one for their coordinator.

"Everybody is playing at an elite level," he said. "I don't think it's about other teams. I think it's about us and what we do in this locker room. It's about how we prepare and how we practice. We control what happens on Sunday."

If Cox is correct about that, then this really is going to be a special season. In the meantime, it does not hurt to return from the bye week with a game against Detroit on the schedule.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob