Birds need a win in Dallas to wipe away that deja vu feeling

PHILADELPHIA >> The last time the Eagles were leaking oil the way they are now was in 2016, Doug Pederson’s first season. There are too many parallels between then and now to ignore them.

The Eagles were coming off a difficult loss in Week 7 that year, as they are now after Week 6. Pederson’s play-calling was in question, as it is now. A popular player was released during the week primarily due to his off-thefield conduct, much like now.

How bad was it when the Eagles finally got on the field that weekend? Eli Manning and the Giants beat them to drop the Birds to 4-4. Eli hasn’t beaten them since in five tries, and may not get another.

But ahead of a game with the Cowboys which is comically called a fight for the NFC East lead, there is enough deja vu for the Eagles. They are stumbling along after an embarrassing 3820 loss to the Minnesota Vikings looking at a Sunday night showdown in Dallas.

The Cowboys have lost three in a row and with a setback Sunday would have their worst losing streak since Tony Romo was the starter. The Cowboys also committed the unpardonable sin of losing last week to the New York Jets.

Jason Garrett is thisclose to seeing the keycard code to his office changed.

The great thing about pro football is you can turn the momentum around in just one Sunday. The flip side is your guys better be locked in on the game plan or you’re behind before you’ve started.

Tight end Zach Ertz thinks the Eagles have had a great week of practice. He loves the game plan. He senses energy in his teammates.

Ertz and offensive tackle Lane Johnson have dealt with a ton of drama since joining the Eagles in 2013. They’ve seen the head coach who drafted them, Chip Kelly, get fired during the season. They were part of Nick Foles’ 27-touchdown, two-interception season in 2013, including the day Foles tied the single-game NFL record with seven TD passes.

Ertz and Johnson were around when Foles was shipped to the St. Louis Rams for Sam Bradford. They were still at their lockers when Foles returned to lead the Eagles to their only Super Bowl title in 2017.

Ertz and Johnson should co-author a book about outside noise. Neither were shocked when starting linebacker Zach Brown was cut earlier this week primarily because he was critical of former teammate Kirk Cousins, not because the cornerbacks allowed the Vikings 333 passing yards and four TDs last Sunday. Brown called Cousins the “weak link” in the Vikings offense, which usually is true, just not that day.

More recently, an ESPN report surfaced citing an anonymous Eagles player ripping the offense and Carson Wentz basically because the latter keeps throwing deep too much, instead of checking the ball down and moving the sticks.

“Yeah, I saw that quote but there’s so much crap on the Internet,” Johnson said. “What do you believe? Everything is click bait. Everything is meant to be divisive, to create divisiveness in the locker room. And I’ve been around the league enough to where I don’t really give a damn. All I’ve got to worry about is I’ve got Demarcus Lawrence, a $105 million man and I’ve got to go block him. And that’s all the problems I need.”

Ertz rarely flinches at questions about outside noise. If he’s seen one controversy, he’s seen them all.

“Playing in the city you deal with a lot of outside noise at times,” Ertz said. “So, we’ve got a bunch of guys on teams that are focused on winning football games. That’s what we’re focused on. I don’t put too much thought or energy into this whole thing.”

Finally, there’s veteran receiver Alshon Jeffery, who is widely considered to be the friend of the ESPN reporter authoring the blurb critical of the Philly offense. Jeffery denied he was the source of it. That left media minions scurrying this way and that speculating that it had to be Brown, unhappy over his release, talking trash about his ex-employer. That’s motive, not proof.

Here are a few historical facts about the impact the above type of distractions had on a certain football team.

In 2016, Pederson was ripped for the conservatism he showed in his play-calling in a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Cowboys in Week 7. He vowed to be aggressive afterward not only on fourth down but in every phase of the game.

Pederson barely was done talking when receiver-kick returner Josh Huff was arrested and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm in New Jersey, possession of hollow point bullets and possession of marijuana. That was an immense distraction.

Though Pederson went out of his way to defend Huff, whose firearm was legally registered in his home state, the young man famously said, “what professional athlete don’t got a gun?”

Huff was out the door the next day.

Pederson then decided to throw all of his machismo at the Giants, who are and continue to be a team that you beat simply by getting out the way.

It wasn’t so much Eli who triumphed over the Eagles at the end of the week. The Eagles defeated themselves. Pederson went mad trying to prove he wasn’t afraid of fourth down. The Eagles were stopped on three of the four occasions he went for it.

The game effectively ended on four straight Wentz incompletions inside the last 1:41, the last a crossing route that took Jordan Matthews forever to run.

The Eagles won just three of their last nine games and with a 7-9 record, failed to reach the playoffs. They don’t need a repeat of that history.

Contact Bob Grotz at bgrotz@21st-centurymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @BobGrotz.