EAGLES LOSE TO RAMS; BARKLEY INJURED VS. BEARS

Plenty of holes are evident after 2 weeks of season

PHILADELPHIA — Maybe all the Philadelphia Eagles should have followed wide receiver Marquise Goodwin’s lead and opted out of this season when they had the chance, forcing management to go with replacement players, asit did during the 1987 strike.

Because the first two weeks of this season couldn’t have gone any worse, and there’s been no sign that it’s going to get any better.

After an opening week in which their defense completely failed to defend the short field while giving up 27 points to Washington, the Eagles couldn’t defend at all in a 37-19 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams.

The group of supposed professionals they put on the field on this day looked like nothing more than a random assortment of accountants, school teachers and truck drivers being directed by a haphazard collection of middle-school coaches who weren’ t prepared for what their opponents were going to do.

Three steps slow on the perimeter and overpowered up the middle for a grand total of 449 yards and 30 first downs, The Replacements were turned into fodder for a balanced Rams attack that required quarterback Jared Goff to attempt just 27passes. Hecompleted20 for 267 yards and a near-perfect passer rating of 142.1. The Rams also averaged 4.9 yards on 39 rushing attempts, including a 40- yard burst up the middle by Darrell Henderson that set up a touch dow nearly in the fourth quarter, giving the Rams a 31-19 lead. “We just were not in our gaps,” safety Rodney McLeod explained. “Gap responsibility — we all have to play that play.” Turns out, nobody did. At any point during the game. “It was nothing the Rams did,” McLeod said. “It was all self-inflicted and us not being where we needed to be.”

Two plays later, Goff and tight end Tyler Higbee connected for their third touchdown pass of the game, which marked the second time Higbee was able to easily beat linebacker NateGerry

Tyler Higbee connected for their third touchdown pass of the game, which marked the second time Higbeewa sable to easily beat linebacker Nate Gerry in single coverage.

“We just have to have good eyes and [play] disciplined football,” McLeodsaid. “And that’ s what this game was today. And wewere the undisciplined team.”

Worse, the three-play touch down drive ignited by Henderson came immediately after coach Doug Pederson was given a chance to put his offense back on the field forafourth-and-3fromtheRams10-yard line after the Rams’ Nick Scott jumped offside on a 33-yard field goal by Jake Elliott.

Pederson took three points there instead of potentially eight, and the inexplicable decision to trust adefensethat let him down all day didn’t pay off.

“We wanted to keep it to a one-score game at that point,” Pederson said. “We felt like we had the momentum and wanted to keep the points on the board.”

In Pederson’s defense, the offense didn’t give him much reason to change his thinking.

Despite fixing the protection issues that led to a career-high eight sacks for quarterback Carson Wentz the week before, the Eagles turned it over three times — twice on ghastly interceptions. Sunday, in fact, marked the first time Wentz threw two or more interceptions in consecutive gamesinhisfive-year career. This, despite not being sacked at all and being hit just three times.

But if one thing has become clear over these first two games, it’s that the Eagles offense is going to have to carry the team this year with 30-plus points every week to have a chance to win. This is because all the turnover on defense over the last two years has proved to be too much for coordinator Jim Schwartz to overcome.

Just since the end of the 2018 season, they’ve parted ways with safety Corey

Graham, linebackers Nigel Bradham, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Zach Brown and Jordan Hicks, corner backs Ronald Darby, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas and defensive linemen Timmy Jernigan and Chris Long.

They might have been able to withstand all that turnover had they not decided to add safety Malcolm Jenkins to that list, releasing himin March to end a contract standoff.

Jenkins’ skills might not be what they once were, but losing his leadership and ability to get everyone positioned left a void they obviously haven’t filled. They already have paid dearly for that reckless decision, made in the name of the almighty dollar.

McLeod talked in the offseason about being more vocal. So did Jalen Mills, after being moved from cornerback into Jenkins’ former role.

They’re nice players.

But they’re not Jenkins.

Nobody on this team is.

With Jenkins in the box in the fourth quarter, no way Henderson rips off that damaging run. With Jenkins in the defensive huddle the week before, no way the Eagles are staring at each other on the coverage breakdown that gave Washington its first touchdown.

With Jenkins still on this roster, there’s a good chance this team is 2-0.

Instead, it’s 0-2 and looking at a disaster it won’t figure out unless the offense can become the juggernaut the players believe it can be.

Meanwhile, Peder son just wrote off the absence of all the lost players as nothing unusual.

“Every year, you’re going to have turnover,” he said. “That’s just the way this league is and the way the business goes. For us, we do have some young players in some of those roles, right? ... I don’t think you can just hang on the fact that these guys are young anymore. We are coaching them each week and we are getting them prepared to play, and now they just have to go out and play games.”

The problem is that they’re not.