The Philadelphia Eagles have lost to the New York Football Giants for the first time since 2016. An embarrassing loss, drops the team to 3-5-1. Coming off the bye week and getting healthy, many expected this to be a game the Eagles would win rather convincingly. However, that’s why the game is played. Let’s get into the good (not much) and the bad and the ugly, but for this article, the bad and the ugly can be placed into one category.
The Good
(Bare with me, there isn’t much)
- Miles Sanders returned to the starting lineup and was active in the ground game, finding holes and consistently gaining positive yardage all afternoon. He was a positive in what was an otherwise bleak game from the Philadelphia Eagles.
- Boston Scott had a 54 yard run to cut the Giants lead to 4 points in the 3rd quarter.
- Richard Rodgers displayed a keen ability to get open and catch passes. He was the teams leading receiver, finishing with 4 catches for 60 yards.
The Ugly
This football team is not good. I don’t think that’s a stretch to say. Coming off of a bye week and having a full complement of skill players at your disposal, you would think things would flow a bit smoother. They did not.
Offensively, Carson Wentz missed throws high, Doug Pederson went away from Miles Sanders when Sanders had rhythm, and the Eagles continue to run the exact same zone read plays with Jalen Hurts every time he enters the game.
Defensively, it was a (for lack of a better term), dumpster fire. The running defense was atrocious, giving up 151 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns, two of which came from Daniel Jones. Jim Schwartz’s time is ticking after a performance like that. Week in and week out, defenses are able to find holes in his game plan and attack them and his lack of ability to adjust or pivot from what clearly isn’t working is very alarming.
Even on special teams, there were numerous penalties and absolute astonishingly bad decisions.
Elsewhere, the secondary was M.I.A. The usual shutdown, Darius Slay gave up multiple catches to Darius Slayton who finished with 5 catches for 93 yards. Avonte Maddox and Nickell Robey-Coleman were no better and their matchups finished with a combined 8 catches for 91 yards. The height disadvantage that Howie Roseman put the Eagles at in the offseason was exposed, as Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate repeatedly went up over the top of the Eagles number 2 and slot cornerbacks.
The offensive line didn’t look good either, mainly Jason Kelce who had multiple bad snaps. And Sua Opeta and Matt Pryor were flat out bad handling the Giants pass rush.
Overall the biggest reason the Eagles lost this game though, in my opinion, is coaching. Coming out of a bye week where you had 14 days to prepare for the 31st ranked offense in the league and a defense that aren’t world beaters, and you put that on display. It’s maddening to see. There’s no excuse for this, the team was healthy at wide receiver, running back, cornerback and defensive line and they had 2 weeks to prepare. Just a flat out brutal performance by this football team. If it wasn’t time to sound the alarm before, it’s definitely right now.
Offensively, Doug Pederson went away from what was working (Miles Sanders) and once Carson Wentz did eventually get into a rhythm, you bring in Jalen Hurts which killed the momentum Wentz had early in the 3rd quarter. Its honestly mind-blowing how hard the Eagles make it on themselves each and every week.
As a whole, things are bad right now. Even if you want to bring up the fact that the Eagles are still in first place, it just because the division is so bad. The lack of execution this team put on display in this game was terrible. The 3-5-1 Eagles are back next week against the Cleveland Browns.
The Philly Blitz 