The Eagles Are Bad — Eagles Fall to Arizona 35-31

The Eagles are not good, they are not ok, they are a bad football team right now. The Eagles just blew a 21-6 halftime lead to the now 4-12 Arizona Cardinals.

The Eagles have not been a bad team all year long, but they seem lost. After today’s loss the path to winning the NFC East, and getting the NFC’s two seed is now out of their hands. It is looking more and more likely that the Eagles will be going on the road throughout the playoffs. A season that looked like it had so much promise, has turned into a disaster.

The Fatal Flaw

We have known it for a while now but the reason the Eagles season will most likely end before their final goal is the defense. This defense is embarrassing. Yes, there are players hurt, but there is more than enough talent on this defense to be better than this. The Arizona Cardinals’ offense stinks, yet they did not punt today. The Eagles’ defensive line has done absolutely nothing in the past few weeks. Jordan Davis was drafted in the first round of last year’s draft to stop the run, and he has not done that in his two seasons. Jalen Carter had a great start to his rookie season, but where has he been in the second half of the season? Josh Sweat has 1 sack in his last 8 games. The Eagles drafted Nolan Smith with their second first-round pick this past draft and he has not made an impact at all in this season. The defensive line has been paid too much money and has had too many resources poured into it to be this bad. Haason Reddick has 11.5 sacks this season, the next closest is Sweat with 6.5. The line has to be better.

For years Howie Roseman has neglected the linebacker position. He does not use valuable resources and relies on players from the street. The linebackers have been exposed week after week on this team and it needs to be addressed this offseason. James Conner rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown, while Michael Carter ran for 61. The Cardinals did whatever they wanted today with little resistance. The team’s eventual fatal flaw will be this defense.

It’s Nick Sirianni’s Offense

Everyone wants to blame Brian Johnson for the struggles with the Eagles offense, but it all starts with Sirianni. When Nick was hired as the head coach he brought in his offense and was calling plays. After giving up play calling to Shane Steichen, it was still Sirianni’s offense, just with a new guy calling the plays. Now with Steichen with the Colts, the Eagles promoted Brian Johnson to Offensive Coordinator. They did not hire him from outside the organization to come in and run his own offense. He was promoted to call Sirianni’s offense. Any problem that any fans have with the offense should start with Nick.

With that being said the final Eagles’ drive on offense was atrocious. After getting great field position from a failed Cardinals onside kick in a tie game the Eagles go conservative. They ran two straight QB runs and then a screen on 3rd and 20, essentially trusting their defense to get a stop. That would be fine if the defense had gotten a single stop all second half. The Eagles’ offense is predictable, and too big play-happy. They can not put teams away, and even the worst teams in the NFL can make them pay. The Eagles have too much talent to be playing this badly.

What Happens Next

After the Cowboys’ victory last night, the Eagles controlled their own destiny for both the NFC East crown and the NFC’s two-seed. Now after today’s loss, neither of those things are true. If the Eagles win next week against the Giants, and the Cowboys lose, and the Lions lose, the Eagles would win the NFC East and be the number two seed.

If the Eagles win, the Cowboys lose, and the Lions win the Eagles would win the NFC East, but would be the number 3 seed.

If the Eagles win, and the Cowboys win, the Eagles will be the number 5 seed and be on the road in the first round of the playoffs.

If the Eagles lose they will be the 5 seed and play on the road in the first round of the playoffs. If you are the 5 seed, you most likely will need to win 3 straight road games to make the Super Bowl, not like any of us actually believe that is even a possibility right now with this team.