Wings have fallen off the Eagles — 5 observations from Eagles-Giants a day later

The Eagles have ended their regular season the exact way many of us did not think it would two months ago, a wretched loss to the New York Giants. It was another disastrous loss to finalize a catastrophic regular season.

The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to open a season 10-1 and not win 12 games, and they had one extra chance than teams in a 16-game season. Also, they are the first team in 37 years to open up 10-1 and not win its division. The Eagles are the first team to start the season 10-1 or better and finish with 11 or fewer wins since the 1986 New York Jets. The Eagles were 10-1 and finished 1-5 with a win over the Giants, by a whisker, their only win since November.

The Eagles’ collapse is one of the worst in NFL history, and it ended embarrassingly on Sunday in a 27-10 loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium.

The Giants have been eliminated from playoff contention for weeks, they had lost 17 of their last 20 to the Eagles, and had not beaten a winning team all year, until now.

Here are my five observations a day after the loss:

It starts at the top

Nick Sirianni has entered the hot seat.

I still do not think he will lose his job as head coach, but I can see owner Jeffery Lurie thinking about it. And you cannot blame him. This is a collapse that the NFL has never really seen. The Eagles did not just finish 1-5 after a 10-1 start, they did it by blowing big leads, losing to lousy teams, getting picked apart by backup quarterbacks, and falling apart week after week in every way.

Sunday was supposed to be a chance for the Eagles to get their confidence back heading into the playoffs after their disaster against the Arizona Cardinals last week. Instead, they suffered one of the worst losses to the Giants ever.

The Eagles had already started to get blown out while the Washington Commanders were up 10-7 against the Dallas Cowboys with the NFC East on the line. Even with the division championship in play, they still could not quit playing putrid football.

The Eagles are still playing a playoff game in Tampa next Monday, but there is no reason to believe the Eagles can just come together after the last six weeks and beat the Buccaneers on the road.

What is going on with Hurts?

Jalen Hurts has never been the best against the blitz, but he has not been one of the worst, either. However, he just was not seeing anything on Sunday.

Nobody prepares more than Hurts, but it looked blind to the Giants’ defense. His answer to every blitz was to roll out and throw the ball away, get sacked, or throw a bad pass into traffic. Hurts ended the day 7-for-16 for 55 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a 26.8 passer rating before Marcus Mariota took over late in the second quarter.

The Giants blitz the second-most in the NFL. The Buccaneers are third.

The Eagles do not have much of a chance to win a playoff game no matter what, but without Hurts playing at an elite level they have utterly no chance.

Another part of the problem, Hurts’ middle finger got messed up badly. However, he underwent X-rays and he has no fracture. Hurts says he is taking it day by day, and he has an extra day. Eagles may have dodged a bullet.

Patricia has to go.

When the Eagles made the change at defensive coordinator to send Sean Desai upstairs and let Matt Patricia call plays, things got worse.

The Eagles need to put Desai back in control. May not have been the best, but at least when things fell apart it was against teams with powerhouse offenses like the Buffalo Bills, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Dallas Cowboys. And the defense had nice performances under Desai like holding Tampa to 11 points, the Los Angeles Rams to 14, the Miami Dolphins to 10, the Cowboys to six second-half points, and the Kansas Chiefs to no second-half points.

With Patricia at the head, the defense has been ruinous against offenses ranked 20th or worse.

If Patricia is calling the defense on Monday, the Eagles have no chance of advancing in the playoffs.

MetLife strikes again

I wrote a feature last week about how the Eagles should rest their starters because of the injury risk MetLife Stadium brings. And, well, I was right.

Let us look at the injuries the Eagles suffered on Sunday, shall we?

• A.J. Brown (knee)
• Reed Blankenship (groin)
• Cam Jurgens (eye)
• Sydney Brown (believed to be torn ACL, undergo testing Monday to confirm)
• Hurts (finger)

Hurts’ X-rays showed no fracture in the middle finger on his throwing hand that he dislocated, so that is good. We do not know the severity of A.J. Brown’s injury, but seeing him walk off the field and to the tunnel on his own power is encouraging. And losing Sydney Brown with a probable torn ACL is horrible.

Was it really worth it?

Is there any hope?

The only hope is that the Eagles are getting away with maybe the worst playoff team in the NFC.

The Buccaneers are not great. They beat the 2-15 Carolina Panthers Sunday without scoring a touchdown to finish 9-8 and win the sour NFC South. They finished 2-7 vs. winning teams and finished 23rd in the league in offense and 25th in defense.

The Eagles already beat Tampa by two touchdowns and they were 4-4 at home while the Eagles were 5-3 on the road.

Todd Bowles has coached for six years and has never won a playoff game.

I still highly doubt the Eagles will come out with a win next Monday night, but this is probably the only team in the playoffs that the Eagles have a chance to beat.

And would you rather beat the Bucs and get blown out in San Francisco in the Divisional Round, or just call it quits now? I know what I would rather.