By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Somewhere between Darren Sproles' 73-yard catch and run and Kenjon Barner's eight-yard touchdown to give the Eagles a 31-point lead in the third quarter, Eagles fans everywhere had to pinch themselves, thinking this was surely a dream.
It was no dream. The Eagles are not only 3-0 after beating a legitimate Super Bowl contender, but did so in convincing fashion.
You know that game your mind plays where the expectations are better than reality? Well, the 2016 Philadelphia Eagles are playing that game in reverse. The reality is far exceeding expectations.
Only now, the expectations are going to start to catch up.
At 3-0, one of five unbeaten teams in the NFL, and also now atop the NFC East standings, the Eagles are no longer just riding the year out as a rebuilding team. They are very much in the thick of things.
Now, before you jump up and buy tickets for Houston, it is just three weeks into the season. As Doug Pederson told the team after the Week 3 win, there is still a very long road ahead. But who would have thought that it would be like this, three commanding victories?
The Eagles pulled out all of the stops to get Carson Wentz onto the field. They went great lengths to put a rookie on the field, and couldn't definitively say he was the starter until eight days before the regular season and that came after he missed almost all of the preseason with fractured ribs. It didn't matter.
The Eagles have also done this with a first-year head coach who had essentially no experience calling plays. They did it with a head coach that was viewed as an underwhelming hire in January. Sure looks good right now, doesn't it?
The Eagles have also done it with defense. Yes, roughly the same defense, hold for a few players in the ever-rotating secondary, that was ranked 28th in pass defense, dead last in run defense, and 30th on defense as a whole. That was under Billy Davis. Under Jim Schwartz, the Eagles are eighth in pass defense, second in run defense, fourth in total defense and tops in the league in points allowed per game, a whopping nine points on average.
It's hard to win when you can't score, and the Eagles are not only the best in the league at holding teams off the board through three weeks, they have been the best putting up points as well, to the tune of a 92-27 score and 65 net point margin to start the season. Incredible.
So, naturally, expectations change with a 3-0 start. In the NFC East, the Eagles are instantly a contender. In some ways, they were without expectations, just because for as poor as they were on defense and as much as they struggled on offense at times, they still finished 2015 with a 7-9 record and were mathematically alive in the playoff race as late as Week 16.
But now, the Eagles are now only one of five undefeated teams through three games, there is a visible path to the playoffs. There is no doubt, at least winning the NFC East seems like an attainable and almost expected goal now.
The Eagles have not yet played a divisional game yet. With six of those to go, anything can happen. But if they play anywhere close to the way they played against the Steelers, they will be in every game against divisional foes, if not experiencing similar results.
As for the rest of the games, well, if the Steelers didn't intimidate the Eagles, then no one will. That doesn't mean the results will all be on the winning end, but don't expect this team to cower in fear or let nerves get the best of them before a big game.
That's what 3-0 does. It makes you believe. And the best part is that the two most important and crucial pieces to the 3-0 start for the Eagles — Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson — have believed all along.
For weeks, it was "it's only the preseason."
"It's only the Cleveland Browns."
"It's only the Chicago Bears."
What do you say now?
The Eagles are a legitimate playoff contender now and that has expectations soaring after just three weeks.
