With a 4-3 record, the Eagles are nearing the halfway point of what has been a typical rollercoaster Eagles season. It started with extreme highs, but the last month has seen the Eagles come back to earth with losses in three of their last four games. If the season ended now, the Eagles would miss the postseason for the fifth time in the last six seasons.
Below are my 25 observations, largely based on the debacle last night, as well as my first-half of the year expectations. They are in no particular order.
1 – I’ve seen 106 regular season losses since I started closely following the Eagles during the 2000 season. I would rank this game in the 12-15 range for most painful losses. About half of those are losses to Dallas. I hate that team, that city, that fanbase and those players.
2 – Carson Wentz has not been as good over the last 4 games. I understand and acknowledge the obvious rebuttal, and he definitely can’t control drops. I also think there’s a big part of all of us deep down inside that wonder how long until we see weeks 1-3 Carson Wentz, if ever again. And finally, I think Carson Wentz has a very bright future. i cannot stress that enough. He will be a very good quarterback. But am I as high on Wentz as I was a month ago? No. Then again, maybe he just set the bar too high with how well he played in the first three games.
3 – Nelson Agholor has entered Marcus Smith territory. He’s probably worse actually, considering Smith is now a viable backup. Agholor makes about one good play every six games. And he doesn’t seem to understand why fans criticize his drops. That’s a problem. Agholor isn’t going to be on the team next season.
4 – Hal Vaitaii has played much better over the last 2 games. I haven’t noticed him. That’s a really good sign. Two weeks ago, we thought the Lane Johnson injury would ruin the season. That storyline has already passed.
5 – Josh Huff is the best Eagles kick returner I’ve ever seen. He’s becoming a poor man’s Cordarrelle Patterson. I find myself disappointed when he takes a knee, even when the kick is seven or eight yards deep into the end zone.
6 – Zach Ertz used to be in the 6-8 range for tight ends. Is he in the top 20 anymore? When is the last time he made a play? Has he ever broken a tackle? He has 15 catches for 150 yards and 0 touchdowns this season. He’s just so mediocre.
7 – Is Vinny Curry still on the team? I see he’s on the payroll, near the top of Highest-Paid Eagles Players, but has he actually played yet this season? I haven’t seen him.
8 – I thought the Eagles did a good, maybe even really good job, against Ezekiel Elliott. He also finished with 148 total yards, and it would have been 211 without a holding penalty. He has the brightest future of any RB to enter the NFL in my lifetime, given his skillset and blockers.
9- Playoffs? Are you kidding me? I just hope we can win a game. Because if Eagles lose to the New York Giants, they play Atlanta, at Seattle, Green Bay. No, I don’t think the Eagles are going to be 4-7, but it’s not out of the question. Then again, it’s certainly possible that this team goes on a run, again, and knocks off a couple of superior teams. They’ve shown that they can play with the best.
10 – What do you do at running back? Do you bring in a guy off the street? Do you keep giving Darren Sproles 15 carries until he breaks down? Or do you go back to Fumblin’ Ryan Mathews?
11 – Jordan Hicks is the best Dallas killer since Lito Sheppard. He broke Tony Romo’s collarbone in Week 2 last season. He took back an interception for a touchdown in Week 8 last season. And he intercepted Dak Prescott in the end zone yesterday.
12 – Carson Wentz is worse as a runner than I expected. Significantly worse. I thought he would be getting 15-25 yards per game. Scrambling isn’t a make-or-break for a quarterback, but I am surprised this is an area where Wentz can’t make any sort of contribution.
13 – Brandon Graham has become one of the best defensive ends in the NFL. It’s awesome. He has played like we all expected Vinny Curry to. With four sacks and two forced fumbles, he’s worthy of Pro Bowl consideration.
14 – It’s as if the wide receivers (and running backs and tight ends) are all told that they must drop one pass every game in a crucial situation and it’s up to them to determine when that drop will be. It’s incredible. It’s not one player with four drops and another with three. It’s seven different players, each with a single drop, usually on third down.
15 – Doug Pederson has a lot to prove to me moving forward. When your sample size is so small (seven games), it’s hard to not overreact to what you just saw, and he was awful against Dallas. Just awful.
16 – Carson Wentz is better than Dak Prescott. I think that’s obvious. I also hate the constant comparison of the two. One is the only playmaker on his entire team and was drafted second overall. The other was bypassed by all 32 teams three times and is succeeding largely because of an unbelievably talented supporting cast at virtually every position. Wentz is doing a tremendous job of hanging in there and keeping his composure despite five to six drops every single game and a widely underachieving running game.
17 – Dallas is making me completely question everything I believed about not picking a running back in the first round. As are the Eagles. If a first-round running back is what it takes for this offense to run more smoothly, I am willing to listen.
18 – Fletcher Cox needs to be better. Much better. This is exactly why I strongly questioned giving $100 million to a defensive tackle. He needs to be the best player on the defense in every game and he’s been the fourth or fifth-best player on the Eagles’ defense in 2016.
19 – Eagles lose a big offensive play to a penalty every single game. I’ve actually come to expect it when the Eagles break off a big gain. It’s one of the most frustrating things I can ever remember as a fan of this team.
20 – The damage Chip Kelly did to this roster still hasn’t been fully realized yet. No LeSean, no DeSean, no Maclin, Nelson Agholor and no offensive linemen in two straight drafts. Eagles will be cleaning up that mess for a number of years.
21 – It’s an extremely encouraging sign that the Eagles have the longest streak of consecutive games scoring 20 points with absolutely no help at RB or WR or TE. That’s on Carson Wentz.
22 – I am really concerned about Doug Pederson’s playcalling and usage of timeouts. He reminds me of a former Eagles head coach who, although he is currently 15-2 in his last 17 regular season games, was also notorious for his poor clock management, which still plagues him in his 18th season as an NFL head coach.
23 – Carson Wentz has just three interceptions in seven games, and two came in a brutal first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings. It’s not on par with Nick Foles’ fluky stretch in 2013, but Wentz’s three interceptions in seven games is a very encouraging sign for a quarterback who has a reputation as a gunslinger.
24 – There is something fundamentally wrong with your offense when you can’t throw a single pass more than 20 yards downfield. I understand how bad the receivers are. I get it. But they’re not the worst group in NFL history and that’s how they’re being treated. I just want to know what changed from the first three games of the season when it seemed like Carson Wentz regularly took shots downfield and now leads the most conservative dink-and-dunk offense you’ll ever see. I put the blame on Doug Pederson, not Wentz, but moving forward, the Eagles cannot expect to win football games when their quarterback is averaging a historically-low six yards per completion.
25 – There’s a lot of negative talk surrounding the Eagles, and it’s understandable considering the embarrassment that occurred against Dallas in Week 8. But this is an above average team and all of the numbers back it up. The Eagles are 4-3, they’re 10th in points scored, 4th in points allowed and 2nd in points allowed. They’ve beat Pittsburgh and Minnesota and they’ve lost all three games in the final minute, a sign that this team is able to compete with anybody. Their defense is loaded with playmakers, their special teams is arguably the best in the league and their offense has a future franchise quarterback. Are they perfect? Far from it. Are they a playoff team? I would guess no. But the Eagles are moving in the right direction and it’s exciting, even with the bumps in the road along the way.
