We keep waiting for the real Eagles to show up, but 16 games into the season, the sad truth is that this is the real Eagles team.
Not elite. It does not match. Certainly not a Super Bowl contender. Just a big, underachieving disappointment.
And a season that started with a lot of promise, starting 10-1 with wins over the Dolphins, Chiefs and Bills, including this unthinkable setback against Jonathan Gannon and the Cards on Link Sunday. It was an ugly turn of events with 4 losses in 5 games. The team that went 3-12 was 1-7 on the road, trailing by 12 points.
disaster.
The Eagles are still in the playoffs, but does it matter anymore?
Here are 10 instant observations from the Cards’ 35-31 win over the Eagles.
1. Let’s start with the defense: this was just a horror show. The 27th ranked Cars offense came to the rink, averaging 18 points and 306 yards per game, with 35 points and 449 net yards. They scored touchdowns on all four drives in the second half, all gaining at least 70 yards. A disaster. The Cards pounded the Eagles’ beleaguered defense all over the field. Drive after drive. They racked up 32 first downs, the most in a game since 2008, and put together scoring drives of 64, 59, 75, 77, 77 and 70 yards for 29 points in the second half and a 21-6 lead. They came back from behind. That’s impossible. But it happened. The Cards handled the Eagles well. Beat it. Your muscles are being trained. They ran for 221 yards. Kyler Murray completed 80 percent of his passes and threw three touchdowns. What is the answer? The Eagles have tried different safeties and linebackers. The coordinator has changed. They went with the old and the young. They traded players, cut players, promoted players, signed players. And no matter how you portray it, this is just a terrible defense. Once again, there is very little pressure from the edges. There were no sacks from any of the edge rushers. Missed tackles here and there. Bad angle to the ball carrier. Everyone is out of position. Young guys will get better. Sidney Brown, Kelly Ringo and Eli Ricks have bright futures. But right now? Is it currently under construction? If you can’t stop the cards, no one can.
2. And the Eagles’ inability to complete games has reached epidemic proportions. It was the ninth time this year that the Eagles had a double-digit lead at some point during a game. Only two of their nine games were won by double digits, and they lost three of them. In other words, in a game where you are leading by more than 10 points, you are more likely to lose than to win by more than 10 points.
The nine games are introduced below.
Week 1: Lead the Patriots by 16 points and win by 5 points.
Week 2: Lead the Vikings with 20 points and win by 6 points.
Week 3: Lead the Bucks by 19 points and win by 14 points.
Week 6: Led the Jets by 11 points and lost by 7 points.
Week 7: Lead the Dolphins by 14 points and win by 14 points.
Week 9: Cowboys win by 11 points, 5 points.
Week 15: Leading Seahawks by 10 points, losing by 3 points.
Week 16: Lead the Giants by 17 points and win by 8 points.
Week 17: Lead Cards by 15 points, lose by 4.
They have no problem getting a big lead, but then they can’t maintain it. on either side of the ball. Is it coaching? Game planning? execution? A little bit of everything. When a team can’t dislodge a lower-ranked opponent, something is missing. Week after week every week every week. This Eagles team lacks the killer instinct that a good team should have. They build these big leads and don’t know how to finish teams. How to stomp on their faces. How to maintain momentum. And if you don’t have it, I don’t know if it’s possible to find it.
3. Until Week 10, the Eagles had the No. 1 run defense in the NFL. the best. They were allowing 66 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. More than half of the season is over. Then disaster. Yes, they played against better teams, but since then they have allowed 153 yards per game and 4.8 yards per carry. The weight of so many snaps wore down the entire D-line. Their linebackers had some good moments, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. The Cards finished the game 40 times for 221 yards. This was the most yards against the Eagles since early 2016, Doug Pederson’s first year as head coach, and the most yards for the Lynx since 2015, Chip Kelly’s final year. This is the 11th time since 1990 that the Eagles have allowed 220 rushing yards per game, spanning nearly 600 games. James Conner is a good back. But 128 yards? he’s not that good. They went from having the best run defense in the league to being the worst. And you’re going in the wrong direction.
Four. I can’t tell you how much I hated the play calling on the Eagles’ field goal drive in the final minutes, a drive that gave them a 31-28 lead with 2:33 left. The Cards had already scored on three consecutive TD drives of 70 yards or more. The Eagles couldn’t stop them. The card should score 7 points because it must assume that he will score 7 points. you have to. Must be aggressive. You have to hit the ball down the field. After Jordan Mailata’s holding call to D’Andre Swift, the Eagles had a 1st-and-20 at the Cards’ own 30-yard line, but the first two play calls were shaky on Jalen Hurts’ keeper, and one 4 yards gained, then 3 yards lost, and neither had a chance. So now it was third-and-19 and they called a small screen on Kenny Gainwell, which looked like it was for Jake Elliott to gain a few extra yards to kick into the wind. Everyone watching the game knew the Cards were going to take the field and score. The Eagles’ only chance to win the game was to score seven points. We lost by a field goal. And how did it go? Elliott made a field goal, as usual, and seven plays later the Cards scored. ball game.
Five. The Eagles ran only 47 plays, 25 fewer than the Cards, as the Cards had such a high level of ball control and held the ball for so long, several seconds short of the 40th minute. The Eagles scored 31 points, but seven of them came on a 99-yard pick-six by Sidney Brown, giving the offense 24 points. In the end, the offense totaled 275 yards, 17 first downs, and 24 points against a formidable, world-class defense. And while most of the blame for this collapse lies with the defense, it would be a mistake to ignore the offense. They just couldn’t hit any big plays – nothing more than 23 yards, and nothing more than 18 yards in the second half. They’re still not good enough and aren’t consistent enough running the ball. They were 1-for-4 on third down in the second half. Jalen Hurts was okay – he threw three touchdowns – but was ineffective as a runner, averaging just 3.1 yards on eight rushing attempts. Including those two unlucky plays on the field goal drive. Injuries aren’t an issue, but the offense should be much better than what we’re seeing. There’s not much juice on that side of the ball either.
6. Can we look at 32 first downs? For starters, the Cards entered the game averaging 19 first downs per game. They scored 32. That’s insane. There were 19 in the second half. The Cards ran 38 plays in the second half. Half of those were first downs. That’s completely insane. This is the most first downs the Eagles have allowed in the final weeks of Chip Kelly’s coaching tenure since a loss to the Saints in 2015, and the fourth-most since 1990. That’s surprising.
7. Here’s the latest on Josh Sweat: 1 sack in past 9 games. He’s one of the guys I never expected to decline this much. He was a Pro Bowler in 2021 and had a career-high 11 sacks last year, five and a half in his first seven games and one sack in his last nine games. The Eagles’ lack of pass pressure was shocking. He had 30 sacks in the first nine games and 12 in the last six games. 70 sacks seems like a long time ago.
8. To me, the Eagles look like a team with nothing left. Tank is empty. Maybe it’s partly mental and partly physical, but I look forward to seeing how they respond to the biggest challenge this franchise has faced in a long time. I’m very interested in that. The biggest challenge Nick Sirianni has faced since getting here. Can Sirianni get things back on track? Is his voice being heard by the team? Is there any fight left in the locker room? Is this fixable? I know the answer. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong.
9. Consider this: Starting this weekend, the Cards will average 18 points per game. That’s 9 points per half. Less than a touchdown and a field goal. And on Sunday against the Eagles at the rink, he hit two-nine after halftime. This is the 11th-most allowed in the second half by the Eagles and the fifth-most in Philadelphia. And the Cards’ comeback from a 15-point deficit was the ninth-most ever against the Eagles in Philadelphia. The more you look into this collapse, the more incredible it becomes. Maybe they can join forces in the playoffs, but after what I saw today? I can’t believe they can do it.
Ten. It ends with a good result. Sidney Brown’s 99-yard interception return was the longest by an Eagles rookie and the third-longest in franchise history. Rito Shepard has two of the longest INT returns in franchise history. Both games are against the Cowboys. 101 yards from Vinny Testaverde at Texas Stadium in 2004 and 102 yards from Drew Bledsoe at the rink in 2006. Jerry Norton and Malcolm Jenkins in 1957, and 99 yards in 2015. The longest No. 6 pick ever by an Eagles rookie was Lee Roy Caffey’s 87-yarder from Giants quarterback Glynn Griffin at Yankee Stadium in 1963. Kelly Ringo’s INT in the Giants-Brown game a week ago gave the Eagles a rookie record. It was the first time in his career in 36 years that he had interceptions in back-to-back games. The last time it happened was in 1987, when cornerback Cedric Brown kicked Neil Lomax during a Cards game at Busch Stadium on Nov. 1 and then a week later against Vette Washington. Jerome Brown intercepted Jay Schroder.