After finishing the first month of the regular season 4-0, the Philadelphia Eagles suffered their first loss of the 2025 campaign on Sunday at the hands of the Denver Broncos.
Denver battled back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 unanswered points in the final frame, in what was one of the biggest wins in Week 5. They did not back down from the Eagles and gave the defending Super Bowl champs everything that they could handle for four quarters.
Speaking of the Super Bowl, the Broncos treated this win like they had won the big game, taking their celebration from the locker room to Broad Street.
As ESPN’s Pete Schrager mentioned on Monday’s edition of NFL Live, Broncos head coach Sean Payton had Denver’s team bus driver re-route them to drive down Broad Street “to let them see the team bus come through the city again.” Schrager also said that the Broncos were blasting Meek Mill in the locker room postgame “to make a statement.”
Broncos Overreact to Early Season Win over Eagles
When Eagles fans heard about this on social media, they found it amusing to see the Broncos reportedly act in this manner. Some fans believe that this should give the Eagles bulletin board material, which they could certainly use, as they haven’t played a complete four quarters of football this season.
Meanwhile, other fans found joy and amusement in the Eagles now being every team’s Super Bowl this season. Knocking off the defending champions should be considered a significant achievement for any team; there is no doubt about that. Giving said team its own quasi-victory parade through another city's streets after an early October victory, however, is a bit much.
With the Eagles being the defending Super Bowl champs, every team will try to give them their best shot. Sometimes it will not work, as we saw in the first four games of the season, where the Eagles were victorious.
And other times, like in Week 5, Philadelphia will be on the losing end of the scoreboard. That said, the next question the Eagles must answer is, How do you respond when you get punched in the mouth?
Luckily for fans in Philadelphia, they’ll receive an answer to that question rather quickly as the Eagles play the New York Giants on Thursday night to kick off Week 6. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if the Broncos can carry that momentum from Sunday’s win into their next game against the New York Jets.
If the Broncos can do that and win in dominating fashion, then maybe Schrager was right about Denver’s win over Philadelphia being “a career-defining and regime-defining moment” for Payton, even if it was hyperbolic to say that.
But if the Broncos fall flat on their face in London against the winless Jets, you better believe some Eagles fans will happily voice their opinions on social media.