This one will not be a fun one to write. As Week 3 of the 2021 NFL season is officially in the books, let’s take a look at how the Eagles performed against Dallas as well as look ahead towards next week’s matchup against Kansas City.
Recap
The Eagles faced off against the Dallas Cowboys in primetime on Monday Night Football, and man did they disappoint. The Eagles couldn’t get anything going offensively and the defense had no answers for Dallas’ run game. The Cowboys absolutely waxed the Eagles with a lopsided score of 41-21 that honestly doesn’t even accurately depict how badly the Cowboys dominated last night due to a garbage time score that made the Eagles look slightly like a more competent team than what they were on Monday night. The Cowboys ran away with this one, handing the Eagles their second loss of the 2021 NFL season. The Eagles were ultimately out-coached, out-classed, and out-played in almost every single aspect.
Positive Observations
I’m really going to be reaching here; there are not many positive observations that came from last night, so bear with me.
1.) The defense finally forced their first turnover!
The Eagles defense scored off of a Dak Prescott fumble early in the first quarter, forcing their first turnover of the season. Javon Hargrave has been an animal this season.
2.) Special Teams
Arryn Siposs (yes, our punter) may be the best player on our team. When called upon, he did a great job of pinning the Cowboys deep. It seemed as if he was one of the only Eagles players that showed up to play last night.
3.) Quez Watkins
Quez had a great catch while being held last night. He has been a bright spot in the Philadelphia Eagles offense, and I’m excited to see him featured more in the offense as the season continues.
Negative Observations
1.) Penalties are STILL an issue
The Eagles went into Monday night’s game leading the league in penalties… and they are entering into Week 4 leading the league in penalties. This has been an issue the entire beginning of this season, and if this team has any chance of being competitive, this needs to change. The Eagles were penalized 13 (!) times for 86 yards; it’s incredibly hard for an offense to get into a rhythm or for a defense to get off the field with that many penalties. Sirianni needs to get this right.
2.) Playcalling was arguably worse than last week
Sirianni sat in front of the media after last week’s loss against San Fransisco & told the media that he needed to be better in regards to play calling. He certainly did not do good on his promise this week; our first running play came with 50 seconds left in the 1st Quarter. Miles Sanders had 2 rushes at halftime, and the Eagles did not call his number again for a rushing attempt for the rest of the game. As a team, the Eagles ran the ball 12 times, which includes scrambles by Jalen Hurts on called passing plays. This game gave me flashbacks to the Doug Pederson era with the lack of rushing attempts; it’s simply unacceptable.
3.) Jalen Hurts
Let’s face it: Jalen Hurts looked awful. He had a few bright spots, but overall he did not look good. He had a badly under thrown ball intercepted during the 1st Quarter, and then made a bad read which resulted in an interception later in the game. Hurts’ arm strength and deep ball have been a point of criticism throughout his career, and to be quite honest, last night’s game did not help his case in that aspect.
He looked jumpy and scared throughout the game, and couldn’t settle down quickly enough to make the game competitive. This was a painful game to watch from Hurts; hopefully he can take this as a lesson & learn from it.
4.) Derek Barnett
My patience with Barnett is wearing extremely thin. He ran onto the field late twice in the 1st Quarter and was called for 12 men on the field when he didn’t get off the field fast enough. Although he didn’t have any personal fouls, thank God, he didn’t contribute to the game in the way that you would expect a former 1st round pick would. It’s highly unlikely that he stays in Philadelphia after this season.
5.) MORE injuries
The absence of Brandon Graham, Jordan Mailata, and Brandon Brooks was certainly felt throughout this game. Unfortunately, the injury bug bit the Eagles once again during this game; K’Von Wallace separated his shoulder early in the game and Isaac Seumalo was carted off the field. Wallace is slated to hit IR and Seumalo’s season looks to be over with a foot fracture.
6.) Jonathan Gannon
Gannon seemingly made no defensive adjustments throughout the first half of the game and it showed. The Cowboys were able to run right through our defensive line picking up anywhere from 5-8 yards per carry. Gannon finally made adjustments after halftime, and his adjustments somewhat slowed Dallas’ offense down. I would’ve loved to see him make those adjustments earlier in the game. Side note: Ryan Kerrigan has been completely invisible for the Eagles this season which is extremely disappointing. Gannon needs to learn how to get Kerrigan going.
7.) Offensive consistency
When I wrote that the Eagles needed to be more consistent on offense, I didn’t mean consistently bad. The Eagles couldn’t get anything going in the first half, and much of that is because the Cowboys figured out early on that the Eagles were opting for shorter passes which allowed their defensive backs to play closer to the line of scrimmage. In addition to this, the Eagles decided to completely abandon the run game. This team needs to be more consistent in the sense of balancing the rushing and passing game in order to be competitive.
Standings
After last night’s embarrassing loss against Dallas, this seems like this division is Dallas’ to lose. They looked sharp and have looked sharp all season. New York and Washington both suffered losses this week, meaning that the NFC East standings are as follows:
- Dallas Cowboys: 2-1
- Washington Football Team: 1-2
- Philadelphia Eagles: 1-2
- New York Giants: 0-3
Upcoming game
The Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs this coming Sunday at 1pm. I’d like to consider myself a somewhat optimistic Eagles fan; however, I’m having a hard time finding scenarios where we come out of Week 4 with a win. The Chiefs are coming off of 2 straight losses, so they’ll be coming into the link pissed off and fired up. This is going to be a tough matchup, with a young head coach in Sirianni facing off against an experienced head coach in Reid. All things point to the Eagles dropping to a 1-3 record after next week, but time will tell.
Final Thoughts
This was a brutal loss to suffer, but it’s important to remember that this is essentially Jalen Hurts’ rookie season. He just made his 7th career start; growing pains will happen. It’s important to remember that most NFL quarterbacks will have bad games, and the majority of them will not look like future hall of famers in their 7th career start; now is not the time to start calling for Howie to draft yet another QB in the 2022 draft. Hurts has potential; give him the space to grow and learn from his mistakes. The same thing goes for our coaching staff: the Eagles are the only team in the NFL with their Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator, and Offensive Coordinator who are all 40 years or younger. This is a young team, and learning pains will come from that. Eagles fans: don’t jump ship just yet, give these guys some time to grow and perfect their craft. 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.
