If Eagles can avoid letdown Monday night, they can deliver a dagger

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They're the hottest team in the NFL. And Eagles head coach Doug Pederson wants to make sure they stay that way.

Pederson revealed Thursday he constantly preaches to his team the importance of staying focused and not letting the growing outside noise surrounding the team affect its preparation.

In other words, ignore everything swirling around you and keep doing the things that got you to 5-1 with a league-best four-game winning streak.

"Yeah, I do focus on it and I have to," he said. "And for me, it's about winning this week and nothing further. [There's] a lot of football left. Remember, we were 4-2 this time last year and we've got to be mindful of that.

"Those are the things that motivate us and keep us going. There can't be a letdown. It's my job not to have that letdown with the team, so I continue to address them and keep them focused that way."

The Eagles were 4-2 after six games last year before losing seven of their next eight games to tumble out of the playoff race. They haven't reached the playoffs since 2013 and haven't won a playoff game since 2008.

But this year's team is 3-1 on the road, has lost only to the 5-2 Chiefs at Arrowhead, is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in all the major NFL polls and plays its next three games at home, where it's 8-2 under Pederson.

"I talk a lot to the team about ownership, and this is that time of year we're getting in that stretch of games, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, where teams begin to separate themselves, and we can't have any letdowns, setbacks, and we've just got to be full steam ahead," Pederson said.

"It's about doing the little things now. Meaning rest, hydration, extra study, extra conditioning, things that sometimes you lose sight of in all the wins and success that the team has had. And again it falls back on my shoulders to make sure the guys are doing those things this time of the year."

With a win over the Redskins Monday night at the Linc, the Eagles would have a three-game lead in the NFC East with 10 games to go.
 
That means if they went 5-4 the rest of the season, the Redskins would have to go 9-1 to get ahead of them.
 
It's been 21 years since Pederson won a Super Bowl ring as the Packers' holder for placekicks and third-string quarterback behind Brett Favre and Jim McMahon.
 
But the lessons he learned that fall are ones he shares regularly with his team today.
 
"The biggest thing that I remember from that team is it was always just the next game," he said. "It was always focused on the next game.
 
"You could honestly throw the wins and losses away, it was winning that week, being 1-0 that week, and if you stack enough of those up, obviously you put yourself in a position to be in the postseason."

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