The Philadelphia Eagles are now 2-2 following a shocking loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While the sky isn’t falling just yet, many are naturally concerned about the state of the team. This is a story we’ve seen before, and we all know how it ends…unless Nick Sirianni can use the Bye as an opportunity to get right. To do that, he and the rest of the team need to take a long look in the mirror and ask some important questions.
Eagles fans have been here before
When you look at the state of this Eagles team on paper, there are no excuses. Top-to-bottom, this should one of the most dominant offenses in the entire league. Every position has an elite talent at the helm, and the front office made a coordinator change in the offseason to rid the group of any play-calling excuses. Nick Sirianni is no longer in charge of that. The job falls to Kellen Moore, who has flashed excellence in previous roles.
On defense, you have a flurry of first-round picks, all with elite potential. You have an EDGE rusher who you mortgaged the house on knowing that he couldn’t play in a full-time role off the bat, and a defense that you’ve spent 3 years trying to imitate. The real thing is finally here. This was the vision all along and again, there are no excuses.
The Eagles are following an identical pattern to the one displayed in 2023, only this time the red-flags are waving more violently. Philly might have started the year 10-2, but they were scraping wins by digging out of holes they dug themselves into. The penalties, the lack of execution, the misfires and the carelessness on both sides of the ball, all painted the picture of a team with all the potential in the world and nobody to put it all together coherently.
It works until it doesn’t. Talent only takes you so far, and when the realization sets in that this Eagles team isn’t what we thought it was, that confidence evaporates and you’re left with a core foundation of…well, I don’t know. That’s the issue.
Fast forward to 2024. The starters don’t play any preseason snaps, and the only previous experience they have to go off is an unexplainable collapse. So when push comes to shove, and the players see the writing on the wall, what confidence do they have that this time will be any different?
They scraped a win over the Packers. They should’ve been down by multiple possessions after the first few minutes alone. The Falcons game brought plenty of criticism with it, and the Saints victory would’ve resulted in the pitchforks being raised had Reed Blankenship not won that game.
One week later, and the Eagles posted their worst performance yet…without much in the way of a fight. John Ross slowed down on a route, the blocking was lousy, the defensive scheme was exploited again and again with endless passes over the middle without any minor sign of an adjustment. It’s easy to pick apart a team that refuses to get out of its own way.
The Eagles are not a good football team. It’s a group of great players on different pages being saved by individual excellence. Without Saquon Barkley, there’s a strong chance this team would be 0-4. Without a career-game from Dallas Goedert, or incredible plays from the likes of DeVonta Smith and Jalen Carter, this team is 0-4. Without consistently confusing coaching decisions, this team is likely 3-1.
Where do the Eagles go from here?
What is the identity of this team? They’re not a run-first offense...because they refuse to run on first down. They’re not a gun-slinging offense, because every play-call on a crucial down sees players run short of the sticks. They’re not a hard-hitting defense because they can’t tackle consistently. No rhythm, no rhyme, just pointless out of time toe-tapping.
How much of it falls on Nick Sirianni? How much of it falls on Howie Roseman? That’s subjective. On one hand, you’ve got a coach who has been gifted Super Bowl caliber rosters and failed to make the most out of them. On the other, a man who has guided this team to ‘3 CoNsEcUtIvE PlAyOfF bErThs’.
As far as the GM goes, history continues to repeat itself. The team collapses, Roseman resurrects it and helps usher in a new era. The team flies out of the gates before the quarterback play regresses, the coach loses his sparkle, and the implosion begins. Kelly, Pederson, Sirianni. It’s far from coincidence at this point.
You’ve got a veteran leader, a captain of the team, heading to X after the game to buff up his own play and talk about how great his career has been while the team around him is burning to the ground. You’ve got countless calls for ‘accountability’ from the top despite a severe lack of it ever being shown.
The Eagles don’t know who they are…and until that changes, the process is doomed to repeat itself.
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
