November 15, 2022
There were two sides to the same coin when talking with a pair of Eagles players in the locker room after a disappointing 32-21 loss to Washington on Monday night.
One was a bit relieved, admitting that putting the ridiculous 17-0 talk to bed isn’t the worst thing in the world, and the other lamenting about too much time [expletive] around against an inferior foe.
Those two sentiments don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but one that should be ruled out is the idea that losing at home as a double-digit favorite is some kind of learning experience in an environment where the goal is getting the No. 1 seed.
The Eagles spent the first nine weeks of the NFL season building up the case that they were the most well-rounded team in the league and it took all of a 60-minute Keystone Cops routine to dismantle the narrative.
An 8-0 juggernaut suffering a setback to Daniel Snyder’s Commanders quarterbacked by Taylor Heinicke is not quite the equivalent of the Globetrotters losing to the Washington Generals because the script didn’t demand a Philadelphia win and there are no homecoming games in the NFL.
The Eagles, though, became everything they were not over the first nine weeks.
They looked like a team that read their press clippings and figured strapping on the helmet was the requisite preparation needed to move to 9-0 against the Commanders.
The hubris of Nick Sirianni and Jonathan Gannon refusing to recognize the occasional randomness of turnovers perhaps angered the football gods to the point the deities obfuscated the view of Alex Kemp’s crew while Dallas Goedert was getting his head ripped off via face mask for an uncharacteristic fumble.
They teased the Eagles’ brass with a Jalen Hurts deep shot to A.J. Brown short-circuited by Darrick Forrest and a 50-yard splash to Quez Watkins only to watch the speedy receiver give the ball away to a lurking Benjamin St-Juste.
The injury list is also growing whether it was pre-game (Avonte Maddox to IR) or in-game (A.J. Brown).
Gannon’s refusal to add a little size to a front that’s without Jordan Davis for a least a few more weeks is generating the blueprint for beating the Eagles, running the football, controlling the clock, and shortening the game.
The glass half full take is that this Eagles team really is well-rounded and it does everything together – even losing. “We lost it together: offense, defense, special teams, we lost it together,” Sirianni said. “That’s what lost us the game.”
He later added coaching as well to the toxic stew of his postmortem.
In 60 minutes perfection turned into parity. Dominance has turned into doubt with the stress test of Jonathan Taylor, Aaron Jones, Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley looming.
Of course, for many Philadelphia fans weaned on disappointment, the sight of watching the other shoe finally dropping might even be a little comforting.
The Eagles could never really be that good, right?
Don’t be so sure.
“I think in the end, it’s about how you respond regardless of what’s in front of you,” Hurts said. “How do you respond to this scenario? How do you respond to that scenario? How do you respond to the feeling of joy? How do you respond to the feeling of pain?
“I’ve got a good feeling on how we’ll respond.”
John McMullen is a contributor to PhillyVoice.com and covers the Eagles and the NFL for Sports Illustrated and JAKIB Sports. He’s also the co-host of “Birds 365,” a daily streaming show covering the Eagles and the NFL, and the host of “Extending the Play” on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com. Follow John on Twitter: @JFMcMullen
