CHARLOTTE — The Eagles put the rest of the NFL on alert with a tough, hard fought 28-23 win over the Panthers in front of a nationally-televised audience on Thursday night. Here’s what we learned:
1. The Eagles aren’t a fluke, Part III. For the previous two weeks, in this exact space, I wrote that the Eagles weren’t pretenders following a road victory over the Chargers and a complete drubbing of the Cardinals. I wrote that they were clearly better than I and others had incorrectly thought they’d be this season. But I wasn’t sure how much better or if they really were the top-five NFL team that many had ranked them based partly on the nature of being 4-1.