January 07, 2024
Just over a month ago, the Eagles were an NFL-best 10-1 and the can-do, never-say-die team that was always finding a way to win.
Now, they're continually finding new lows.
In their last chance to "get right" and possibly still snag the NFC East title going into the playoffs, the Eagles instead got way worse and waived the white flag before the first half was even over in a 27-10 embarrassment delivered via the New York Giants.
What went wrong? You name it.
Do they still have a chance heading to Tampa now? Sure, but after dropping five of their last six the way they have, can anyone genuinely say that with a straight face?
There's a ton of work still to do, work that probably won't all be accomplished between now and the Wild Card game next weekend. It'll take a hard look in the mirror and some serious self-evaluation after – in what is continually setting up to be a quickly arriving offseason – but nevertheless...
The Eagles offense that was a near-unstoppable force just a year ago has now been reduced to Jalen Hurts rolling out of the pocket and hoping someone is there cutting back along the sideline to try and jam a pass to. And that's if he can even escape the pocket in the first place now.
The bread and butter rushing attack – which saved their season in 2021 and made them so dominant in 2022 – nowhere to be seen.
Motion? They don't seem to know what that is.
Working between the numbers with the pass? That entire section of the field has been treated like lava, even with A.J. Brown statistically proven as one of the best slant runners in the entire league – which they finally remembered late in the first quarter, only to see him get hurt and fumble the ball doing it again.
Oh yeah, and they know they have Dallas Goedert there, right?...RIGHT?
This offense – loaded with talent – shelled itself into a boring, one-dimensional, woefully predictable mess.
Nothing they seem to do, definitely not in the past month, seems to carry any rhyme or reason. It's like they're just giving Hurts the ball and leaving it all on him to figure it out – with routes that carry too deep and just take way too long to develop – or they're just praying they chip away enough to get within "tush push" distance on third or fourth down, which ends up doing nothing for you in the long run when you have no other way of moving the ball to keep defenses honest.
Seriously, all verticals facing a full-on blitz on third down of the Eagles' opening drive? What was that?
OK, just saw a replay. All vertical routes against that Giants blitz.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) January 7, 2024
Yeah, they didn't have D'Andre Swift today, nor DeVonta Smith, and lost Brown early. That hurts, but being without them isn't the source of blame for what happened with this embarrassment.
This is systemic. This is the game plan or extreme lack thereof. This is repeatedly calling for routes that take way too long to develop and wear the O-line thin, this is the starters not even sniffing Giants territory after Brown's fumble.
This a massive indictment of Nick Sirianni's and Brian Johnson's competence, where even though this team is still going to the playoffs, neither should be feeling safe right now heading into an offseason that sure is looking like it'll arrive sooner rather than later.
This was the last chance for the offense, and the entire team, to "get right." Instead they got worse – and even worse, gave up.
The defense is what it is at this point.
The secondary can't cover, which means the D-line can't get home to the quarterback anywhere near fast enough because they can get the ball out immediately.
Any semi-decent quarterback can do it – Hell, Sam Howell looked like Peyton Manning TWICE doing it – so go to town, Tyrod Taylor! And soon enough, all those free yards over the middle tires the entire unit out and turns the whole field into a danger zone, which seems to always end up with James Bradberry getting cooked.
WALLER 🔥
— New York Giants (@Giants) January 7, 2024
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/aiOJu4v6OW
Not that he was alone in that.
Saquon is COOKIN' 😤
— New York Giants (@Giants) January 7, 2024
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/sd4aFYvqbj
YEP YEPPPPP 👏
— New York Giants (@Giants) January 7, 2024
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/9hXcWNsQUJ
The return of Darius Slay alone isn't going to fix this.
The now clearly exposed panic move to hand the unit over to Matt Patricia couldn't fix this.
The Eagles are stuck with what they have, and what they have isn't going to be anywhere close to enough in the playoffs.
A week ago, the approach would've been to put it in Hurts' and the offense's hands to win a shootout, but...see above.
These articles deal in threes, so while it may be a bit redundant staying with the defense, it is worth noting that their tackling in the open field has been atrocious as well, which I guess carries over to special teams.
Basically, another early omen for the Eagles was when they came out to punt after Hurts and the offense got stopped on their opening drive.
Sydney Brown went gunning down the field and got to the returner, but went flying by him on the attempt to tackle as Gunner Olszewski started taking off.
Brown hurt his knee and was ruled out for the rest of the game.
Everything rapidly fell apart from there.
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