Recap
Philadelphia lost an incredibly ugly game against the New York Giants on Sunday by the score of 13-7. The Eagles easily played their worst game of the season, and man, it was tough to watch. The Eagles actually outgained the Giants 332 yards to 264 yards, but were unable to score due to sloppy play. The preparation, coaching, and execution during this game were lacking, and it showed. This game was a major setback to the Eagles’ hopes of making it to the playoffs this season. Let’s take a further look at what went wrong this week.
Positive Observations
1.) Darius Slay
Slay has been having one of the best seasons of his career thus far; he is truly a lockdown corner that the Eagles have needed for the past few years now. He is certainly one of the bright spots on this team, and he had another good outing on Sunday. Simply put, he doesn’t allow the opposing receiver to get the ball. Great game from Slay.
2.) Jordan Mailata
Mailata has one of the coolest stories; he had never played a snap of football until being drafted in 2018. Fast forward three years, and he has been one of the Eagles’ top draft picks as of late. He had a good game overall on Sunday, although he did have a few mistakes. Other than that, he had a great game on Sunday; it’s been enjoyable watching him grow as a football player this season.
3.) Defense?
Overall the defense played fine? Gannon called somewhat of a decent game on Sunday, although I would have liked to see better red zone defense from the birds. The positive aspect of Sunday’s game for the defense is that they only allowed 13 points, but this defense continues to be unable to create turnovers. Overall, I’d say that they had a good game considering that the Eagles offense couldn’t stay on the field to save their lives.
Negative Observations
1.) Nick Sirianni
Sirianni seemed to stray away from the Eagles offensive identity during Sunday’s game. He ended up figuring it out as the game went on, but some of the play calling was simply awful. For instance, the Eagles were driving down the field and found themselves in a 3rd and short situation. Rather than running the ball (which they had been doing with much success), the Eagles opted to pass on 3rd and 4th down, resulting in a turnover on downs.
This game was frustrating for me to watch because of Sirianni’s play calling. The Eagles seemed as if they had finally found their identity and were picking up momentum. For whatever reason, Sirianni decided to pass the ball more on Sunday which resulted in the offense looking like it did at the beginning of the season: like they had no identity.
2.) Jalen Hurts
Let’s get this out of the way early: Jalen Hurts had easily the worst game of his career on Sunday. He boasted a 45% completion percentage, only threw for 129 yards, and threw 3 interceptions to boot. His situational awareness was extremely lacking during Sunday’s game; he tried to force too many throws and they ended up being intercepted. In addition to this, he never looked comfortable in the pocket, and he fell into old habits by bailing out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure. For someone who is trying to cement his spot as the Eagles’ franchise QB, he certainly didn’t make a good case for it on Sunday. Absolutely horrible game from Hurts.
With all of that being said, he did battle back and put the Eagles in a position to win the game. Props to him for that.
3.) Nelson Agholor Jalen Reagor
Oh man… Reagor was absolutely terrible on Sunday. Many Eagles fans have defended him prior to Sunday’s game by arguing that he doesn’t get enough targets to be successful. I think that those arguments can be put to rest after Sunday’s game. Reagor dropped two potentially game winning touchdowns during the Eagles’ final drive on Sunday, both hitting him right in the hands. Eagles fans are calling for him to be cut or traded, and to be quite honest, I can’t blame them. Horrible performance from Reagor.
4.) Nate Herbig
I’ll cut Herbig some slack due to the fact that he’s not a starter. With that being said, he had two penalties that wiped out both a touchdown as well as a big first down run by Hurts. Penalties absolutely kill offensive drives, and Herbig was the culprit of taking 7 points off the board for the Eagles. I understand that it’s tough coming into a game cold and be expected to produce, but man, Herbig has to be better.
Standings
With the Eagles loss to the Giants on Sunday, the birds have now dropped to 3rd place in the NFC East. This would have been a perfect moment to go on a run to challenge Dallas at the top spot, but the loss on Sunday certainly complicated things. In order to have a realistic shot at making the playoffs, the Eagles need to win out to finish the season. The updated NFC East standings are as follows:
- Dallas Cowboys: 7-4
- Washington Football Team: 5-6
- Philadelphia Eagles: 5-7
- New York Giants: 4-7
Upcoming Game
The Eagles travel to MetLife Stadium once again next week to take on the New York Jets at 1pm. The Jets are coming into this game with a 3-8 record; they have been one of the worst teams in football this year. Although the Eagles had an awful performance against the Giants on Sunday, I do believe that they will win this game handily. The Jets simply do not have a good football team. I believe that the Eagles will leave MetLife Stadium on a high note, coming back to Philadelphia as a 6-7 football team.
Final Thoughts
I don’t even know where to start. At times, the Eagles look unstoppable; at other times, they look like a High School JV team. I felt fairly confident after the recent string of success that the Eagles had, but now, I’m not so sure. The Eagles have the potential to be good in this league, but the fact of the matter is that they simply are not good right now. This team is a big question mark; I’m not quite sure what to expect each week. With that being said, I’m interested to see which Eagles team we’ll see on Sunday. As always, Go Birds.
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Nate Eichner is a featured writer at The Birds Blitz. For more from Nate, check out his archive and read through our Eagles articles for the latest news about the Birds.
