Nick Sirianni, as he has on multiple occasions through the first month of the season, has shouldered the blame for the failures of his team as the Eagles head into the bye week with a 2-2 record after a lopsided 33-16 loss to Tampa Bay Sunday. Finding anything of note in Siranni’s round about answers is the equivalent to Charlie Day proving a conspiracy theory while in the mailroom in It’s Always Sunny.
However, one quote in particular stood out…“The product on the field is directly a reflection of me.”
If Sirianni looks in a mirror at his reflection, he will see a team who once again laid an egg in Tampa, a team that hasn’t won the turnover battle since the thrilling overtime win at home against Buffalo last season, and perhaps most shockingly, a team that has lost 8 of their last 11 games dating back to last year.
A reflection that is once again resuming the hot seat conversations that took place during last year’s tailspin.
Eagles Defensive Woes
Going into the season, the Eagles’ defense was certainly a question mark even with the hire of longtime defensive guru Vic Fangio. However, it has been anything but the expected turnaround from last season.
One of the biggest flaws on the defensive side of the football for the Eagles is the alarming rate of missed tackles this year.
“Now this will be the week that we kind of relook at some of the drills that we’re doing and try to do as many drills as you possibly can do to simulate tackling,” Sirianni said. However, in the same breath, he mentioned how it’s hard to practice tackling live and keeping the safety of the players in mind.
Another head scratcher is the fact that Fangio, who typically likes to play aggressively, has had this young and underperforming secondary play off of wide receivers for the majority of the Eagles’ first four games of the season, something that directly led to their collapse at home against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2.
The Buccaneers took advantage of that all game long, allowing Baker Mayfield to dump short passes off and let his playmakers do the work.
Last but certainly not least, the defense has been unable to win the turnover battle. That is key in winning games in the NFL. Shockingly, the Eagles are -6 in that department and are a .500 team. The only team in the league that’s worse than the Eagles are the winless Tennessee Titans at -7. Philadelphia’s defense has mustered just two turnovers this season in a pair of interceptions.
Sirianni said “You turn the ball over as a team and you protect it as a team,”. Well, they aren’t doing either very well at this juncture of the season.
Slow Starts
Offensively, it was going to be a slog against the Buccaneers. No A.J. Brown, no DeVonta Smith and no Lane Johnson. Three of the team’s top five offensive players were not on the field against a blitz happy Tampa Bay defense and it proved to be too much for Jalen Hurts and the offense to handle. That has to account for something.
However, it’s not plausible to use it as the only scapegoat as to why the offense only put up 16 points. The offense sputtered early and inexplicably gave the ball to the leading rusher in the NFL in Saquon Barkley just twice in the first three drives. With Jahan Dotson, Parris Campbell and John Ross as your wideouts to go with Dallas Goedert. Dotson has been with the team for a little over the month and Campbell and Ross were elevated from the practice squad. It was quite a bold strategy by the Eagles.
Then in the second half, Barkley opened up the third quarter with this 59-yard run, only to get one more handoff the rest of the game.
For multiple reasons, this offensive unit who, when all healthy, should be one of the most feared in the league, has started games at a glacier pace. Struggles to get in rhythm and move the ball has been a common theme through four weeks of play.
This offense is still searching for an identity and when asked about it Sirianni said, “I’m not sure you see any team right now that says this is our identity. Right? I mean, there’s some probably, but there’s not a lot. You’re still, you’re figuring out what you do well because it is still a small sample size and all. What you’re trying to do is repeat the things that you do well.”
He continued on and said, ” I know one thing that we can say that our identity is as a football team is that we talk a ton about is our team, is our accountability, our detail, right? And our toughness that we’re constantly trying to work on and become better at that. At all times you know, and we feel like we’ve had moments of that throughout every game that we’ve had and shown that but like anything we have to make sure that we’re consistent with it.”
That last line stands out.
“We have to make sure we’re consistent with it.”
Unfortunately, for the Eagles, consistency has evaded them through the first month of the season on both sides of the football. Will we see major changes throughout the bye week and into their Week 6 matchup against the lowly Browns when they return home on October 13th? Only time will tell, but it’s starting to get uneasy in South Philly for Sirianni once again.
Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
