The Philadelphia Eagles Are Broken And They Threw Out The Directions On How To Put Themselves Back Together
The Philadelphia Eagles look like a team that was just staying together for the kids. On the surface, everything looked all well and dandy. They were 10-1, and had the best record in football. Sure, they didn't play a single game that fully convinced you that they were world beaters. There were clearly some major, fundamental issues dwelling there under the surface. But they were winning games, and winning is able to mask all those issues. Winning might not cure all of those issues, but it can let you forget they exist. It was all about just "keeping the main thing the main thing".
But the issue with "keeping the main thing the main thing" is that there are so many other little things that make the main thing happen. And if you just flat out refuse to address all those little things, then they start to fall apart one by one. If enough of them fall apart, then the whole entire thing goes to shit.
Which brings us to where we are at today with this Philadelphia Eagles team. They've lost it. They've lost everything that made this team great in the past. All the little things that made this team who they were are gone. Winning the turnover battle, explosive plays, getting to the quarterback, getting stops on big 3rd downs, scoring damn near every trip to the red zone. The Eagles were still winning games when they weren't doing any of these things through the first 11 weeks of the season. But then they got their dicks kicked in by San Francisco, and the mask of winning got ripped right off. This team was broken before the San Francisco game, but that was the loss that finally pulled the mask off.
You've got the quarterback making god awful decisions, you've got quite possibly the worst secondary to ever step on a football field, a head coach who is too focused on talking shit while he's walking off the field after a win, a defense so bad the Eagles had to panic and soft fire their defensive coordinator in week 14, and and offensive coordinator who has no situational awareness and put together the most predictably bland offense known to man.
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Issues on the field are one thing. Those are at least a little easier to correct. But once the issues start creeping into the locker room? That's when you know it's over. And the fact that Jalen gave that answer about the team's commitment level is how you know we're already there.
When is the last time you heard Jalen Hurts give an answer during a press conference that wasn't either a canned response or a pre-rehearsed quote? Never. He's always extremely guarded every single time he talks to reporters. But not last night. This team has a commitment issue, and it's also clear they have a confidence issue. You can't just fix those things over night. And unfortunately, we're halfway through December. The Eagles have 3 "easy" games left on their schedule to try to get right, but their time is running out in a hurry. They are broken, they are scrambling to figure out how to put themselves back together, and there's not really any time left. Sure feels pretty over.