Eagles notched their 600th regular-season win in franchise history. Which teams have they dominated?
With a win against the Cowboys — America's team — the Eagles reached No. 600 regular-season wins as an organization.
Buried deep in the footnotes of Sunday night’s critical Eagles victory was that it was the 600th regular-season win for the team. There was a 10-year stretch starting in the late 1960s when the Eagles would regularly get blown out by the Cowboys who were on their way to becoming America’s team. Ask any grandparent in Philadelphia.
The Eagles are the eighth NFL franchise to get to 600. Their winning percentage isn’t as high as the other seven teams, but they’re getting there.
Since Jeffrey Lurie’s first full season as owner in 1995, the Eagles are 243-192-3, good for a .558 winning percentage. Before that, their overall record was 357-431-23 (.454).
More succinctly, the Eagles have had nine losing seasons during Lurie’s 28 full seasons. In the previous 28 (1967-94), they had 17.
They may not be the league’s gold standard, but the Eagles have been a real football team for most of the last three decades. After beating Dallas to move to 6-0, No. 600 is sweet, but what it could mean down the road is even sweeter.
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Quick lists
Wins by coach (top 5): Andy Reid 130, Greasy Neale 58, Dick Vermeil 54, Buddy Ryan 43, Doug Pederson 42.
Wins by starting QB (top 5): Donovan McNabb 92, Ron Jaworski 69, Randall Cunningham 63, Carson Wentz 35, Norm Snead 28.
Wins during ownership (reverse chronological): Jeffrey Lurie 243, Norman Braman 86, Leonard Tose 96, Jerry Wolman 28, James P. Clark 87, Alexis Thompson 41, Bert Bell/Lud Wray 19.
Who has the most wins?
The Packers and Bears each have 785 wins, but the Bears have played 34 more games. The NFL was a little disjointed early on and not every team played the same amount of games in a given season. Next are the Giants (711), Pittsburgh (654), Washington (619) and the Rams (602). Washington, by the way, has a .423 winning percentage (158-216-1) since Daniel Snyder became owner in 1999. It was at .528 before.
The Cardinals (579) and San Francisco (564) should hit 600 in the next few years. The Lions have 571 victories, but God only knows how long it’ll take for them to win 29 more games.
Who’s been the most consistent?
Even after they both lost on Sunday, the Cowboys (.5718) have the best winning percentage, barely ahead of Green Bay (.5714). Dallas, which joined the league in 1960, is 542-405-6. Since this report is focused on the regular season, we’ll leave it to others to tally up the number of Super Bowl wins and appearances the Cowboys have made this century. Shouldn’t take very long.
Who have the Eagles beaten the most?
Divisional rivals will obviously top the list with 88 wins against the Giants, 83 vs. Washington, and 55 against Dallas. The Cowboys had won the last three games against the Eagles, and seven of nine, which makes Sunday’s win even more critical. All-time, the Eagles are 54-69 against Dallas in-season, 1-3 in the playoffs. This year’s rematch is on Christmas Eve in Dallas.
Outside the NFC East, the Eagles have 57 wins against the Cardinals, who were divisional rivals from 1970-2001. Their best winning percentage is against the Jets (12-0).
The Eagles also have regularly thumped Pittsburgh, which they will play in Week 8 following their bye week. The Eagles are 48-29-3 against the Steelers (.619). They combined with Pittsburgh in 1943 because of World War II player shortages and went 5-4-1 as the “Steagles.” Those five wins do not count toward the Eagles’ 600.
That 1943 team was co-coached by the Eagles’ Neale and Pittsburgh’s Walt Kiesling, and it sounded like it was quite an adventure. The story goes that one day Neale instructed Pittsburgh wide receiver Tony Bova on how to execute a certain play. Bova, however, did the opposite. Neale went berserk on Bova, Kiesling screamed at Neale, and that was the end of that practice.
“Greasy Neale was a real good coach, an offensive coach,” Art Rooney Jr., whose father owned the Steelers at the time, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2018. “But Walt and Greasy hated each other and never talked after 1943.”
Home cooking
The Eagles have won 331 games at home, including 137 in 32 seasons at Veterans Stadium (1971-2002) and 90 in 19-plus seasons at Lincoln Financial Field (2003-22). Other home sites include Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium (54), Franklin Field (40), Municipal Stadium (5), Baker Bowl (3), Temple Stadium (1), and Laidley Field in Charleston, W.Va. (1).
Today, the NFL plays games in Europe. Back in 1938, West Virginia must have been considered exotic.
The Eagles faced Pittsburgh, which was led by rookie halfback Byron “Whizzer” White, the league’s highest-paid player at $15,000. That did not seem to concern Bert Bell, the Eagles owner who was confident his defense would carry the day.
“Bill Hewitt and Joe Carter will take care of White,” Bell said, according to a 2018 story by Mike Whiteford of the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “And [halfback] Dave Smukler will cause the Pirates more trouble than eight tax collectors.”
Great line, but Bell was only half right.
Smukler threw two touchdowns, but White ran for 133 yards, including a 79-yard touchdown in the Eagles 14-7 victory.
That win, by the way, was the 12th in franchise history.
Getting No. 601 in two weeks will be somewhat more meaningful since it’s never too early to start thinking about home-field advantage. It could be a big help in the most consequential number of them all: winning Super Bowl No. 2.