Defense wins championships.

That’s the famous saying, right? 

Well, with the way the Eagles’ offense is playing, that phrase might have to be true for the Birds if they want to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Unfortunately, a stout defense means nothing without the ability to score points.

The Eagles defense held a talented Detroit Lions team to under 10 points in their 16-9 victory on Sunday night. That’s really not easy with all the threats Detroit has, so this was a strong performance from Vic Fangio’s unit, but that should come as no surprise.

One, Fangio is a great coach. We learned that last season, and now his defense led the Eagles to win another low-scoring game against a top team in the NFC. The Lions had scored at least 13 points in their previous nine games this season.

Two, the defense is still young and just needed time to jell. They suffered injuries, like Nakobe Dean and Nolan Smith. And now both are healthy, and clearly are making a difference.

Howie Roseman addressed some holes at the trade deadline, like with Jaelan Phillips, who has been an immediate impact. He made five tackles, including one for loss, had two QB hits and a sack. He played under Fangio in Miami, so I bet that familiarity helps. But I think it goes beyond that. He just came in and acclimated to a new defense and teammates like it was nothing. It’s pretty awesome.

The last two weeks have been really fun to watch, well defensively.

Not only did they shut down the Lions, nut the Eagles stuffed them on all five of their fourth-down attempts, which was an impressive feat. We all know Dan Campbell just loves going for it on fourth down, and his squad has been relatively successful at it.

The Lions had converted about 72% of their fourth-down tries this season entering Sunday’ s game. But their aggressive nature failed this time. But by no means was that just a coincidence. They didn’t “just have a bad game.” The Eagles defense, especially the front, completely obliterated the Lions. Detroit was forced to punt four times.

Jared Goff did not have a great game. He threw an interception and had a 60.1 passer rating. He looked rattled at times. He completed just 38% of his passes, a career-low for him.

The Eagles finished with 20 QB pressures, seven QB hits and two sacks. He didn’t seem composed, and the Eagles rush made him throw passes that were either too low or too high.

Jahmyr Gibbs rushed for only 39 yards, David Montgomery 27. Amon-Ra St. Brown had just two catches for 42 yards.

Gibbs did have 107 receiving yards, but was held out of the end zone. But the Eagles’ run defense has been great these last few games.

Gibbs and Montgomery are a dynamic duo. They are dangerous, and they were stuffed.

The Eagles are allowing an average of just 83 yards and 3.7 yards per carry over their last four games. That was not the case early on this season.

Jalen Carter made two amazing pass deflections, including late in the third quarter that brought up fourth-and-3 at the Eagles’ 45. Detroit would go for it, and Goff threw incomplete to St. Brown, who had Quinyon Mitchell pressuring him.

The Lions went for it on a fourth-and-1 from their own 48 early in the second quarter and Moro Ojomo stopped Gibbs for no gain. Detroit faked a punt on fourth-and-2, and Jalyx Hunt made a great read.

Cooper DeJean got a regular-season INT and made two pass breakups. Mitchell also had some breakups, and Adroee Jackson played decently, aside from his blown coverage on the Lions’ lone touchdown. Jordan Davis even knocked down three passes. Zach Baun led with seven tackles, inducing one for loss.

This was pure domination from the defense.

The Eagles just smothered the Lions.

I am not a fan of Chris Collingsworth, but even he said the Eagles “embarrassed” the Lions.

And, just to reiterate, they embarrassed a very, very good team.

The Lions are loaded with offensive talents, so you cannot take them lightly. So what the Eagles did defensively Sunday was phenomenal, to say the least.

This defense is scary right now. In fact, it’s clicking on all cylinders. They are carrying the Eagles, and that comes at ideal time because the offense is, well, awful.

I just don’t understand what is going on.

I keep blaming Kevin Patullo, and he dialed up atrocious calls again. But the receivers can’t get going. Saquon Barkley can’t get going. The Eagles cannot convert third downs. Is it all Patullo? No, but he gets a lot of the blame, too, and Nick Sirianni still plays off Patullo’s horrendous play calls.

The offense had many more opportunities to get more points. After DeJean’s interception, they had a perfect chance for a TD, but they had to settle for a Jake Elliott field goal.

After the Eagles forced two turnovers on downs in the second quarter, the offense had the ball right near midfield, a perfect situation to get touchdowns.

Sadly, we know what happened — the Eagles punted and got another field goal. They got a touchdown before halftime, but they know they need more than one TD to win. The defense isn’t going to hold teams under 10 points every week.

Sure, Detroit has a pretty good defense. The Packers are not bad defensively, so that could be an excuse for the last two games.

But it’s not just two games.

It’s been basically all season.

We have seen the offense compete at a high level this season, but never consistently. Patullo does need to go, but his he the reason that the Eagles are inconsistent? I honestly don’t know. I do know that he is putting them in horrible situations, which doesn’t help.

And now losing Lane Johnson for four-to-six weeks will make the situation even worse. The Eagles have enough trouble on offense when he is out, so these next few weeks may not be good.

Jalen Hurts has not been super great the last two weeks, and this AJ Brown drama is getting ridiculous. It felt like Hurts was forcing him the ball again, making throws to Brown that he never should have.

I bet that was because of all his crying. Hurts probably felt like he had to get Brown the ball when, really, he should be reading the full field and making good decisions.

DeVonta Smith was targeted five times and only had one catch. I feel like some of those forced targets to Brown could have gone Smith’s way. I am sure Brown is causing some tension in the locker room, too.

The offense has not shown any great signs of life. So unless something turns around fast, the Eagles will be in trouble.

Luckily the NFC East is pretty much locked up, but the goal is to get that first-round bye.

The Eagles will be at the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, then they close out the season with the Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders, Buffalo Bills and then Washington again.

The Eagles should at least win four of those matchups, but time will tell. The defense will show up each game, but will the offense?

That answer is to be determined.