Woof. That’s not the sound of underdogs coming for blood. That’s the sound of an empty, deflated locker room. This team is not the team it was a mere season ago. I wanted to believe. Yesterday was it. Coming off a bye week, trading for a top WR in Golden Tate, having complete control of our own destiny, at home in the blackout on Veteran’s Day… and goose egg. I thought the Carolina loss was bad, this was a shot to the heart.
Every aspect of the game had issues. Offense again was flat in the first half. The defense couldn’t tackle, the schemes continued to be soft. Everything was just bad. They just can’t get anything going. I think it is unfortunately a perfect storm of issues. I guess the one bright spot was Zach Ertz is still proving to be a Top 5 TE? Josh Adams is showing promise? Carson Wentz was pretty bad last night, but his QB rating is still good overall? There were so many things about this game I could go into, but that wouldn’t be a State of the Union.
So, where do the Birds stand now? I guess I’ll keep a sheer sense of hope for a playoff appearance only because this division is so bad and volatile, and I still think the Redskins are frauds. Lane Johnson might come back early in December, so that could help I guess? They’re not going to beat the Saints, they’re not going to beat the Rams, they might not beat Houston although we’ll see what the weather has in store for that day. And then the rest are divisional games. Giants and Cowboys once more, Redskins twice. If they win all of those, playoffs will obviously still be a possibility. But is there anything from this team we’ve seen on both sides of the ball to give us any hope that this will happen? Unfortunately, no.
Defense…
Jim Scwartz is a fraud. His schemes are softer than a baby’s bottom. And so easy to expose! A lot of the individual performance is warranted for criticism as well. Fundamentals just aren’t there. These guys don’t even know how to tackle! I guess one could argue that Schwartz’s set up relies heavily on a D-line that can pressure the QB quickly, but they haven’t been able to do that consistently all season. How many games is it going to take him to realize this and change it up accordingly? That’s what good coaches do, right? And of course, every corner on our roster has gotten injured so that doesn’t help.
Offense…
I think Doug Pederson misses John DeFilippo. I really think this team in general misses Frank Reich. Like, really really misses Frank Reich. The Eagles averaged 6 points on the first drive last year with him. Now that he’s gone they average a league low 2.6 points. The Colts (Reich now the head coach) flip flopped those numbers with his addition. The offensive issues I HAVE to think are only to point fingers in two areas. Play calling and overall offensive game plans (coaching), and the offensive line struggling to protect Wentz on a consistent basis. RPO’s are not Wentz’s strong suit. Look at him last season, controlling the game with his ability to read schemes and move the ball the way he saw the field. Is that not there anymore because of the current system? I would think yes. A fair share of injuries of course affects things, but you can’t point to injuries when we struggled with even more last season and still rallied to win the Super Bowl.
Again. This team can be great. They can, we know they can, the league knows they can. So – the opportunity to turn things around is always possible but this is the main issue… we haven’t seen even a glimmer of it yet. You could see the spark wasn’t there in the first 5 minutes of the game last night. It’s about to be Week 11. We have 7 games left. Last night was supposed to be it. I will continue watching, will continue hoping, will continue praying. But I have to think if we don’t beat the Cowboys on the road, and also go 2-0 in the Redskins games... this season is over.
If coaching is an issue, and players are noticing this, I NEED players like Wentz, like Kelce, like Jenkins, like Ertz, to get this team together. Because talk about underdogs. You want to be treated like the underdog? Welp, you’re right back in that limelight. Hungry dogs run faster? We’ll see about that this time around. Can they make a statement against the league’s hottest team in the New Orleans Saints? Or will they get a 50-spot dropped on them. I hate to say, I’m unfortunately going with the latter. Come on boys, don’t go down like this… #FlyEaglesFly