Eagles prove they're ready for showdown with Packers

The rout was on and the mind wandered, just as it had the night before in front of the television. Sunday night, it was the Packers. Monday night, it was the Eagles. And now the splendid collision is upon us.

Eagles vs. Packers. And with that, beginning next Sunday afternoon at Lambeau Field, the truth will begin to be told.

This night was the setup, just as the Packers' bludgeoning of the Bears had been. This night was the time when the Eagles' cornerbacks finally got their interceptions, when their defense was best described with an adjective one degree beyond voracious, and when Mark Sanchez ran the offense proficiently in his first start in a couple of years.

The Eagles demolished the Carolina Panthers, 45-21, and told the world that they were ready for Sunday afternoon in Lambeau -- just as the Packers had done the night before with their 55-14 beatdown of the Bears. The winner of that one, with all due apologies to the Cardinals, Cowboys, Lions and Seahawks, will become the Unofficial Team to Beat in the NFC. There is a reason that FOX protected this game from the clutches of the flexers at NBC and moved it to 4:25 pm, and that is it.

It will tell us a lot about a lot of things, starting with the Eagles' secondary. Because the pass rush that got nine sacks against the Panthers looks legit and has for weeks now. Given that kind of pressure, there have to be accompanying rewards from the secondary to legitimize the Eagles' defense as one with championship potential. The offense works with pretty much whatever quarterback Chip Kelly puts in there, but the defense is the question if the dreams are going to be realized.

Sunday, at Lambeau, we really begin to see.

"It's a different beast," cornerback Cary Williams said. "You've got to go into Lambeau. It's a tough place to win. Obviously, we're doing some great things. Obviously, we can do some better things here and there...It's a short week but there's no excuses in this business. You just go out and play football and play your best football."

Eagles cornerbacks entered the Carolina game with no interceptions this season, as in zero. But on a night when Panthers quarterback Cam Newton frankly looked terrible, and also not particularly healthy (or well-supported), the Eagles made sure he paid.

Williams and Bradley Fletcher each had their first interceptions of the season -- Fletcher's returned 34 yards for a touchdown, the first pick-six of his career -- and then safety Nate Allen added one, too. Maligned all season, the three of them were given opportunities by Newton and accepted them greedily.

"Our front seven, they're playing as good as anyone right now in the league," Fletcher said. "We're very happy to have a group like that up front, as a secondary...We knew we were going to get opportunities."

Now, don't lie: between the texts from your friends and the output from your Twitter timeline, Williams and Fletcher were getting quite a going over as Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was picking apart the Bears. It was all on the order of, "Imagine what Rodgers will do to ..." And, really, who could blame them?

The truth was that Fletcher and Williams have been a concern all season, not so much because they get roasted as much as because they never seem able to make a play on a ball in the air. It is maddening sometimes, how 50-50 balls never seem to fall their way -- maddening and inviting for opposing quarterbacks of all stripes but especially for the best ones. And right now, Aaron Rodgers is as good as they come.

So, going into their biggest test so far this season, Williams and Fletcher finally have something to feel good about. Newton offered them gifts and they happily caught them -- so there is no need to get carried away here. But there is something to build upon. Again, now we will see.

"It's already to next game," Fletcher said. "...We've got the Green Bay Packers. They're going to be a challenge. But we're going to be ready for them, do some studying and see what we can get done."

Did you watch them Sunday night?

"I saw some of it," Fletcher said. "They're very, uh, productive out there."

Uh.

There really are no truths in the NFL in the first half of the season -- except for the teams that dig so deep a hole that they render their missions impossible. You cannot win a playoff spot in the first half of the season but you can lose one. That is the only truth.

But then, for the teams that have not eliminated themselves, comes the reckoning. It happens every year around Thanksgiving, give or take. The Eagles' schedule this season says that it happens beginning on November 16th. The schedule says they play at Green Bay on the 16th, home against Tennessee on the 23rd, at Dallas on the 27th, home against Seattle on December 7th, and home against Dallas on December 14th.

Again, the reckoning: for the cornerbacks, and the whole defense, and all of them.