Speechless — Eagles Get Embarrassed By the Giants
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
We have known it for a week or so but this game made it official.
The Eagles are cooked.
The Eagles just got embarrassed 27-10 by a Giants team with nothing to play for.
The team that could only worsen their draft stock wanted the game more than the team with the potential number two seed on the line. This Eagles team has just completed a historic collapse, and there may be major changes coming.
Sirianni on the Hot Seat?
When you take a bird’s eye view of Nick Sirianni’s tenure as Philadelphia Eagles head coach the idea of him being fired seems insane. In his three years as Eagles coach, he has led the team to three straight playoff appearances with a Super Bowl appearance. But as we all know the devil is in the details. According to Tim McManus of ESPN, the Eagles are the first team to start 10-1 and finish the season with 11 or fewer wins since the 1986 Jets. The Eagles are also the first team to lose 5 out of their final 6 games and make the playoffs according to Jeff Kerr of CBS. This is not just a collapse, this is a historic collapse.
The biggest reason Sirianni may be on the hot seat is because of his offense. While he does not call the plays, the Eagles offense is his. This offense is stale, unimaginative, and predictable. Coming into this game you knew the Giants were going to blitz you every chance they got, yet the Eagles had absolutely no plan to stop the blitz. The Eagles continuously ran long developing plans with no hot routes for Hurts to utilize. The Giants even got an interception on Mariota because they knew a bubble screen was coming. This offense has not adapted since last year, and that is on Nick Sirianni.
This Eagles team seems like they have quit, and there may not be any coming back from that. If the Eagles lose next week in Tampa, the Eagles may be looking for a new head coach. Even if they somehow win in Tampa, it’s hard to believe these coordinators will be back.
Why Matt Patricia?
The demoting of Sean Desai was a panic move, and it has not worked out for them. Ever since promoting Matt Patricia to defensive play caller the Eagles defense has gotten torched by Drew Lock, Tyrod Taylor twice, and Kyler Murray. Yes, Darius Slay is out, but the fact that this defense is getting carved up by backup quarterbacks is an utter embarrassment. This defense does not have a lot of talent, but at least when Desai was calling the shots they were able to get some stops. Howie Roseman has a lot of work to do this offseason.
The biggest problem with the defense is the pass rush. Josh Sweat ended the season on an 8 game streak of not getting a sack. Haason Reddick finished the year with 11 sacks, but his presence was not felt much during this end of the season. These are the guys that you paid big money to and they did not produce. The philosophy of this defense is to get pressure with four up front, but they can not get pressure at all. The Eagles’ defense will ultimately be their fatal flaw, and it seems like it will kill them quicker than we all thought.
Jalen Hurts Regression
There is no other way around it, Jalen Hurts regressed from last season to this one. Hurts finished the regular season with 20 total turnovers in 17 games played. The sequence that happened in this game that is a snapshot of Hurts’ struggles this season was when he stared down two wide-open receivers in Jones and Zacchaeus and then scrambled to his right for a minimum gain. On the next play, he takes a deep shot in double coverage that gets picked off. Hurts has gotten too big to play happy, and it has gotten him hurt way too many times this season.
While the coaching staff does not know how to beat a blitz, Jalen Hurts is also not great against the blitz. Every defense in the NFL knows that as soon as there is a sniff of pressure Hurts will drop his eyes and roll out to his right. Another thing that makes this offense predictable is their inability to use any other formation besides shotgun. The Eagles do not run Hurts under center, in the I formation, or any other formation for that matter. There are only so many plays you can run out of the shotgun formation, and going into next year the Eagles need to have Hurts learn some new formations.
The Eagles paid Hurts $255 million this offseason, and I do still believe in Hurts going forward, but he has not played up to his new deal this season. If the Eagles are going to do anything in the postseason, Hurts needs to start to be special again.
