December 19, 2023
The Eagles lost again. Three straight now, and with the latest and maybe most devastating yet to a banged-up Seahawks team who needed to start their backup QB.
The offense is struggling to move the ball efficiently, much less put up points. And the defense, even with the keys getting handed over to Matt Patricia, still can't make the crucial stops.
The Eagles are still going to the playoffs, but they're in bad shape right now.
Everything's on fire.
Here's what they're saying about the Birds...
Frank put it simply at the top of his postgame observations following Monday night: "You can’t lose to Drew Lock."
Not a team with this high of expectations.
And yet here we are, with a ton of reasons for why. But this one, Frank argues, comes down to the coaching first and foremost:
We’ve talked a ton about the coordinators and they haven’t been good – and that includes Matt Patricia – but you’ve got to point your finger squarely at Nick Sirianni after this one. Sirianni has taken his bows and he’s deserved to, but everything this team does is on him, and you can explain away the 49ers and Cowboys losses – very good teams on extra rest against a team that seemed gassed – but this? The Seahawks had lost four straight games, they started a backup quarterback with eight career wins in six seasons, they were down 10 points at halftime … and this? If you’re the head coach, you just can’t let this happen. Your offense managed seven points after their second possession. Your hand-picked new defensive coordinator just allowed a 92-yard game-winning drive in the last two minutes to Drew Lock for crying out loud. You’ve lost three straight games after a 10-1 start. You’re no longer an elite team. You’re no longer a Super Bowl contender. Sirianni has always responded when there’s been adversity, and this is adversity like he hasn’t experienced here. This is on him. Let’s see how he responds. [NBCSP]Thing is, Sirianni did respond with the seemingly drastic move of handing the defense over to Patricia this late in the season.
And the same problems persist.
So did Sirianni make the wrong call?
Maybe not necessarily, writes McLane, or at least not wholly unwarranted.
The defense under Sean Desai was falling apart. It was terrible in the red zone, and against the 49ers and Cowboys the past two weeks, didn't have a prayer at a third down stop.
Something had to give, and Sirianni chose for it be Desai's duties at the helm.
But Patricia only masked the numerous problems in personnel for just a little bit before it all crumbled again.
The Eagles aren’t quite a sinking ship. They clinched a playoff spot over the weekend without even playing. But a third straight loss after Nick Sirianni made the drastic move to bench Desai for Patricia suggested that rearranging the deck chairs did little more than paint the coach as an overreacting captain.
And there’s an argument to be made, after the Eagles offense failed to score more than 19 points for the third straight week, that he repositioned the wrong set of chairs.
“I did what I thought I needed to do in the best interest of the football team,” Sirianni said when asked of the defensive coordinator change that wasn’t announced until Sunday. “We made some adjustments there. Didn’t feel like we were playing and coaching well enough on defense, so I made an adjustment.” [The Inquirer]
But that adjustment doesn't reflect great right now.
Jalen Hurts was sick, but it's not like the Eagles' offense had looked any worse than it already did the past couple of weeks.
And then that final, game-winning Seattle drive laid out everything wrong with the Eagles' defense in less than two minutes, including a clear and concerning regression from James Bradberry.
It's getting bad, and at a really bad time, with not a lot of it left to fix this.
Placing James Bradberry in single coverage in a Cover 1 look should have worked out, at least on paper, considering the Seahawks were short on time with no timeouts available. But it didn't because Bradberry didn't protect deep, highlighting a lack of situational coaching emphasis that has become too prevalent for the Eagles this season. We haven't even gotten into Philadelphia's offensive issues, which continued with Hurts' two interceptions and the Eagles' inability to consistently piece together scoring drives. The total picture isn't a pretty one right now, and after three straight losses, it's certainly fair to be concerned about the Eagles. They haven't played a complete game all season and are struggling at a terrible time. They can only hope a meeting with the Cardinals (sandwiched by two dates with the Giants) ends up being the remedy they need. [NFL.com]
Let's go to the film and the Baldy Breakdowns that will have Eagles fans pulling their hair out.
Again, Hurts was playing through sickness. Admirable, tough, but in the end, costly because his processing and decision-making just weren't sharp, as evidenced by the third-down underthrow to A.J. Brown, the deep interception meant for Quez Watkins, and the scramble from sideline to sideline that led to nothing and gave Seattle the ball back.
.@Eagles “everyone has to be better and it starts with me” @JalenHurts …and he is right. These 3 plays were critical. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/TFfX6FjUYF
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) December 19, 2023
But then there's the defense and what was supposed to be that stacked front seven. The interior linemen who were on the field for Seattle's winning touchdown probably aren't who anyone would be expecting.
.@Eagles @Seahawks put no pressure on @DrewLock23 on 10 straight passes to go 92 yards for the game winning TD #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/tQYDQpCLmp
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) December 19, 2023
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