December 22, 2023
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
There's a lot of pressure now on Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.
Under pressure.
David Bowie wrote it, Vanilla Ice stole it, and now Philadelphia is taking it back. We are in a weird funk watching the Philadelphia Eagles – one that could magically disappear if they beat the New York Giants – but still understand how good of a team they can be. Joel Embiid is destroying anything in his path, from bottom feeders to the West leader in Minnesota. Bryce Harper is asking for an extension to keep him here forever. The Union lost in the Cup Semifinals last month. Even the Flyers surprised a lot of people with their start.
That ain’t all bad, folks. In fact, the city is backed by a bunch of contenders no matter what league you examine. With this level of success comes a certain level of “want” where fans are never truly satisfied. Not unless that team wins it all.
For most of you, this was life up until the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. We all watched our team continue to fall short, sometimes even in that big game, only to sum up the entire season as a failure. I’m not sure we are there yet for the Flyers, but make no mistake, the amount of “Philadelphia pressure” we used to put on our teams is back – tenfold.
It didn’t take long for fans to call for the firing of both Eagles coordinators. People watched both sides of the ball and recognized a major difference in both approach and execution on the field. It took a little longer, but the team finally came around on defense, and with the connection the current OC has with the current QB, it’s safe to say he’s not going anywhere. But the other move, the demotion of Sean Desai, was a larger statement – a response if you will.
Two types of teams make the move the Eagles just did with their defensive coordinator. The first is a bad, desperate team not going anywhere but has an entrenched head coach. It’s much easier to scapegoat than fall on a sword, so we see a head coach with name and stature usually just ship out one of his assistants. Show the sharks some blood and they swim away.
The other example is a team with 100 percent conviction that they can win games and make noise in the playoffs. We saw this with Pittsburgh and Buffalo this year, two teams that still think they have a shot. Mike Tomlin isn’t getting fired mid-season while still pursuing another non-losing year, and Sean McDermott believes in his team’s turnaround.
So do the Eagles.
Make no mistake, moving on to Matt Patricia shouldn’t comfort anyone looking for a security blanket on defense. The team should look better than it did under previous management, but Patricia was available for a reason. He’s still the better option right now and the team took a massive risk to respond to pressure.
Was it the pressure from the latest round of callers on our local sports radio station WIP? Was it the Tweets? The comments on the latest Jimmy Kempski column? Your barber? I heard in line at the supermarket how the Eagles should have benched Jalen Hurts weeks ago, send a message to the rest of the team. Thankfully that was not a conversation I was involved in, rather a keen observer.
The collective answer is probably not, but they did respond to pressure – internal pressure. A team with as much recent success as the Philadelphia Eagles – including that Super Bowl run – isn’t content with resting on what they did for the first part of the regular season. This is a team that just lost the Super Bowl to what they still think was the lesser team. There’s a sense of belief that if they can just get back there, they can win it this time.
So while fans load up on signs, demand firings, push narratives of absurd benchings, and anything else that comes with watching a team lose three straight, know the team is listening. Maybe not to you, but they hear the walls closing in from within.
No team in their right mind would bench Hurts, but the Eagles did sit someone down from their responsibilities, which is not easy to do in the middle of a playoff run. But they did it because they still care about this season, and everyone is feeling pressure to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s Jason Kelce cleaning up penalties, Hurts cleaning up turnovers, or Nick Sirianni as a whole. Right up the ladder to Howie Roseman, people are hearing it from whoever they answer to, no matter the chain of command.
It was enough to push out a defensive coordinator and will be a guiding force in re-establishing this team as a contender. Right away the Eagles have three winnable games and still a shot at hosting the second round. I’d imagine that not winning the Super Bowl would be a massive disappointment for most, much like the Sixers not making it out of the second round. The Flyers just making the playoffs would be a massive W, but they aren’t in the same tier yet.
I’m not sure who else will get fired or replaced after this season if the Eagles exit early, but they made a serious and necessary statement of intent. The QB called out people for lack of commitment, and it’s safe to say nobody demands more from the team than Hurts himself. Nobody demands more of Hurts than himself.
The Eagles listened, maybe not directly to you, but they hear it all. From the chatter inside the walls to the buzz on the TV, it’s impossible to escape. This was the right move, the only move, a wakeup call to anyone else who could be on their way out if they don’t change.
