by John Kincade
The end result tells the story of a hard fought, 17-16 victory. The Eagles never led until inside the two minute morning. The Colts were a 4-5-1 team playing their hearts out for new Coach Jeff Saturday, but the Birds found a way to survive a less than stellar effort fraught with poor decisions and miscues. At (9-1) the Eagles sit atop the NFC by a game and a half over the Vikings and 2 games over the Giants in the NFC East and 2.5 over the Cowboys. Things are definitely looking good as they head into the final stretch. All is good, right? An honest set of eyeballs is needed.
The last 3 games now constitute a trend. There is no mistaking the fact that they are struggling. There will be a lot of spin doctors attempting to tell you to “just take the win and be happy”. I refuse to shake the Pom Poms and not discuss the way that they are playing. It’s worrisome. Is it a death sentence to plans they have for a long playoff run? No. Should it be brushed off as “nothing to see here”? Absolutely not!
It started with the short week Houston game week after the Cowboys victory. The Eagles offense started to leak oil and we all wrote it off as that they didn’t have a long time to prepare. They played one of the worst teams in football and we thought it was just a blip on the radar. Then Monday night happened vs the Commanders and the team realized there were issues that needed to be addressed. The loss was going to be a wake up call. They were going to regroup and come out with a fresh approach. That never happened.
The biggest bright spot was the Eagles run defense which got gashed on the very first drive. After that, they dominated the Colts rushing attack and made Jonathan Taylor look more than ordinary. After a week of sports radio scape goating, Jonathan Gannon had his unit prepared and made the great adjustments. It’s very fortunate that they did, because the offense wasn’t going to do them many favors. It’s rare you can put up just 17 points on the road and come away with a win, but the defense saved their butts and stopped a losing streak from getting legs.
Does this mean that the Eagles are severely flawed? I don’t believe they are. I am concerned that they seem to be not hitting on all cylinders at a bad time. The schedule is getting tougher and the importance of each game gets bigger. The Cowboys just dominated the Vikings, but still are 2.5 games back. Unless you trip up in another game you won’t open the door for them to win the NFC East. We all get to enjoy a Thanksgiving elimination game between the Cowboys and the Giants. Whichever team loses will have a 4th loss and most likely is eliminated from division title contention.
The Packers come limping in on Sunday night. They are most certainly not a top contender. Win number 10 will be a necessity. Getting themselves back in the win column in impressive fashion is a far bigger priority!