It’s Not Time For The Eagles Panic Button Yet
Yesterday, the Eagles played one of the worst games in the Nick Sirianni era. They got absolutely worked by the New Orleans Saints, scoring a total of only 10 points in the game, and failing to take advantage of a sub-.500 team. The game plan was nonsensical, the execution was nearly as bad, and Philadelphia Eagles fans are now left to sweat it out in Week 18 as their once juggernaut team has to battle with the New York Giants for a final chance to lock up the top seed in the NFC and an NFC East title before heading into the playoffs. This is about as bad of a scenario as the Eagles could have seen themselves in when it came to the last 3 weeks of the season, but it’s not time for anyone to be hitting the panic button yet.
Two things can be true: the Philadelphia Eagles played a god awful game yesterday, created by one of the most blatantly ignorant game plans that I’ve ever seen by a competent NFL coaching staff, but they are still a 13-3 football team, tied for the best record in the NFL with the inside track to the top seed in their conference. It’s perfectly fine to be upset about Sunday’s performance against New Orleans, in fact you should take a look in the mirror and reevaluate your fandom if this game did not make you significantly upset with the Eagles’ effort. Where some folks may find themselves going too far is when you take the emotion from the birds’ 3rd loss of the year and channel it into thinking that this season is over now. While the Eagles are currently on a slide, and there should be a lot of concern with the current state of the team, they have built up enough equity over the rest of the season to still hold our trust.
Think about what the Eagles are currently playing without. Their starting slot corner is injured, the NFL leader in interceptions that plays safety for you is also hurt, the NFL record holder for most games and pass snaps without a sack allowed is hurt too, and, oh yeah, the MVP of the damn league and your starting QB has been out. Those are a couple of pretty big pieces, and while that’s not an anomaly when you look around the league – plenty of teams are experiencing major injuries to key players right now – it certainly can explain why the Eagles have faltered a bit down the stretch here. The good news? Jalen Hurts will be back this year, as will Lane Johnson, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, and possibly even Avonte Maddox as well. This team healthy is still arguably the most talented roster in football, in spite of how they’ve looked without those key players. That’s not the only reason why the panic reason should remain un-pressed, though.
Super Bowl winning teams almost always have weird slip ups. Let’s just look at the last 5 NFL champions. Last year, the Los Angeles Rams got smoked 31-10 by the 3rd place in their division 49ers in Week 10. In the 2020-21 season, the Buccaneers got demolished by their division rival Saints, 38-3 in Week 9. The Super Bowl Champ Chiefs lost back to back games to the Colts and the Texans in the 2019-20 season. The 2018-19 season saw the eventual champ Patriots lose back to back games to the Lions and the Jaguars. And when the Eagles won in 2017-18, they had an eerily similar score in Week 12 against the Seahawks, falling 24-10. This type of thing is annoying, and every single one of those losses are different, but the point remains: teams that win the Super Bowl still have slip ups. Has it been a fun couple of weeks for the Philadelphia Eagles? No. But is the season now over? Absolutely not. Hold off on the panic button, the birds still have a really good shot at this thing.
