Let’s stop acting like the Eagles haven’t had a great season. An NFC East title would make it a rousing success.

Nobody wants to hear this, but every football season is different, and the preceding season should never flavor its successor, and expectations of continued excellence from a team that is markedly different are utterly ridiculous. Super Bowl LIX is gone, just like six significant players from that championship roster.

Which brings us to the 9-5 Eagles, who, contrary to much of the commentary and punditry, are nearing the end of a very good season. Saquon Barkley isn’t going to break rushing records this season, and the passing game hasn’t equaled its pedigree, and the defense won’t finish ranked No. 1, but none of that matters. What matters is who they beat, who they lost to, and where they stand.

» READ MORE: The Eagles are about to win the NFC East again, as usual. Here’s how they’ve done it.

What? How? Why even consider such heresy as this? Isn’t there enough gaslighting going on during White House press briefings?

This isn’t fake news, and this isn’t pandering to the franchise (as if).

This is common sense.

The Eagles’ results through 15 weeks present a team that can become just the eighth franchise to win consecutive Lombardi Trophies.

They’ve beaten the Rams, Packers, and Buccaneers, all playoff teams. They also beat the 8-6 Lions, and they won in Kansas City against a Chiefs team that began the season 5-3.

More relevantly, if you view the season objectively, the negative isn’t very negative.

The Birds have one bad loss in 14 games. That bad loss came Oct. 9, to the Giants. That was one of the NFL’s idiotic, three-days-of-rest, Thursday Night Football games, and the Eagles were the road team. The Giants were riding a wave of hope in the form of a pair of dynamic rookies with names straight out of youth fiction sports novels, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. Still, it was a loss, and a bad loss.

The other losses are eminently explicable.

The week before they lost to the visiting Broncos, who, now 12-2, turned out to be the best team in the league.

They lost to the Cowboys at Dallas on Nov. 23 because Dallas came back hard, which was to be expected, since Dallas has the league’s No. 1 offense.

They lost to the Bears, a 10-win team that holds the No. 2 seed in the NFC, mainly because of an inability to stop the run game, an inability predicated on the infirmity of defensive tackle Jalen Carter’s shoulders, which were subsequently repaired. That also was a short-week game, played on Black Friday.

They lost on the road to the Chargers, another 10-win team, because Jalen Hurts had a catastrophically bad game. That’s allowed. It was his first catastrophically bad game since Dec. 18, 2023, when he and A.J. Brown went rogue. That means it was Hurts’ first disaster in a span of 36 starts. That’s not bad, considering Brett Favre averaged about two catastrophes per season in his first years as a starter.

Hurts hasn’t been great, but this season he has produced his two best games in terms of passer rating, which this season is 99.4, about 5 points higher than his previous four complete seasons as a starter. With 22 TD passes, he’s just two away from a career high.

And, while every team suffers in-season roster attrition, it’s only fair to factor in the Eagles’ most relevant absences, since they help explain some of the losses.

They recently lost three games in a row when Carter and right tackle Lane Johnson, the two best players on the team, were either playing hurt or not playing at all.

Guess which other game Carter missed because of injury? The bad loss in New York.

Further, the Eagles have had four short-week games: Games 6, 10, 12, and 14. They have a fifth, on Saturday, at Washington. They could have a sixth if the NFL decides Game 17 against the Commanders should be played on a Saturday.

Short-week games are an onerous burden. The long week that follows a short week never compensates for the shortened time for rest, healing, and preparation.

These are not complaints. These are explanations. This is how champions are forged. This is the price of greatness.

Have the Eagles looked great in the first 14 games? No. But when they’ve looked bad, or when they’ve lost, it either occurred against very good teams, or with extenuating circumstances, or both.

What, then, does Saturday portend? Nothing certain. The Eagles have lost once apiece to their other NFC East opponents, the Cowboys and Giants, each time on the road. The Commanders might be without some of their better players, but they are not without talent, however aged that talent might be.

» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Commanders in Week 16: Here are the numbers that matter

They play hard for coach Dan Quinn, who worked as the Cowboys defensive coordinator for three seasons before taking over in Washington.

This game isn’t a walkover, and the rematch in Game 17 won’t be a walkover, either. But, assuming Johnson and Carter return soon, the Eagles should be regarded as a fearsome playoff foe.

This is a much more palatable argument coming off an impressive win, but it would be just as true had they not won by 31 points or shut out the Raiders.

Because they are a very, very good team. Does Jalen Hurts need to run the ball more? Yes. Does the offense need to commit fewer penalties? Yes. Did they endure a midseason lull? Yes.

But the Eagles are nearly a touchdown favorite Saturday, and likely will be favored by even more in the season finale against the Commanders. They’ll probably get points in Buffalo next weekend, but likely no more than a field goal.

Why? Because, again, they’re a very good team that has had a very good season.