Bumbling Birds drop one to Lions
PHILADELPHIA >> The 2017 Eagles were good, and they showed it early, sometimes winning close, often winning easy, never showing selfdoubt.
They were efficient and effective, way more often than not. And when they would win the Super Bowl, Jason Kelce would have a pleasant way of sharing one fundamental truth: All along, they were better than anyone projected.
That’s the way it works in sports sometimes. That’s not the way it works forever. For just as there will be those seasons of crisp execution and exploding talent, of smart plays and smarter play calls, of victories at home, on the road, in short weeks and long, there will be the other kind of season.
The Eagles of 2019 already are on their way to one of those.
After an offseason of unconditional conviction in their own analysis of personnel and salary-cap gymnastics, the Eagles were whisked into the season by gusts of utter confidence. They were certain they were deep at every position that mattered, healthy in all the right spots, better than anything else in their division and maybe their conference, too.
That’s what they thought. Yet unless something changes, and changes soon, they thought way, way, way wrong.
In a 27-24 loss to the visiting Detroit Lions Sunday, their second NFC defeat in two weeks, the Eagles demonstrated every characteristic of a bad football team. Dropped passes? Seven. Fumbles? Three. Odd coaching decisions? At least one classic.
Though injured in plenty of places, particularly at wide receiver, the Eagles unloaded a second consecutive seminar on how a losing NFL team is supposed to look. And with 19 percent of their regular season already over, they already are trending low on opportunities to argue otherwise. They were inept when Jamal Agnew raced 100 yards with a kickoff for a touchdown on the first time Detroit touched the ball. They were inept on their own last possession, when J.J. Arcega-Whiteside had his hands on a possible go-ahead touchdown pass but allowed it to crash.
Beginning to end, they looked like every losing team in NFL history, right up to the point where they were close enough to win only to find multiple ways to fail.
“You can feel the momentum on our side, we go out there and we don’t convert,” Lane Johnson said. “Game’s over. It’s tough.”
As with any NFL team, the performance of the quarterback in the final minutes will be a virtual DNA test. Twice within the final 3:16 Sunday, Carson Wentz had a chance to grand-marshal a winning drive, once from his own 20, again from midfield. Total points in those chances: Zero. His fault? Not entirely. He didn’t need veteran Darren Sproles to be flagged for offensive pass interference. And he didn’t need Arcega-Whiteside failing to catch a pass at the Detroit two, tightly defended as he was, with 41 seconds showing. But the Eagles are paying for legendary, late-game quarterback production, not muffled excuses why they can’t score late in close games. Wasn’t it just a week earlier that a potential gamewinning drive ended when Zach Ertz didn’t run past the sticks on fourth down?
If DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery played, chances are Wentz would not have been victimized by as many dropped passes. But that wasn’t the only reason the Eagles lost Sunday, or why they lost in Atlanta. They did not sack Matthew Stafford Sunday. They sacked Matt Ryan once in Atlanta. And with Michael Bennett and Chris Long departed, Timmy Jernigan out and Derek Barnett slowed by injury, there is little chance that they will begin soon to threaten many quarterbacks.
Thursday, they will target Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
Good luck?
“I know how the sacks go,” Brandon Graham said. “Right now, we just let people say what they are going to say. We just have to keep working. It’s a long season and you never know how this stuff ends. There’s going to be some funny stuff that will be happening and I’m hoping we’re on the good side of it.”
So three weeks in, the Eagles’ attitude has transitioned from conviction to hope. From there, it is a short jump to panic. Sunday, in a decision that revealed his lack of confidence in his defense, Doug Pederson chose not to punt on fourth-and-nine from his own 22 with 2:25 to play, down three points. Even for a noted risk-taker with a secure place in profootball lure for his Philly Special call in Super Bowl LII, that was a bizarre decision. That the Eagles would block the ensuing Detroit field goal attempt was but a cheap cosmetic on a coaching blemish that would have had Andy Reid, Chip Kelly or Rich Kotite, just to name three, forever badgered for justification.
Who does that? Who doesn’t punt eight yards from a first down with three time outs and the two-minute warning left when the opponent already is in three-point range?
“Situational right there,” Pederson said. “With the three timeouts, I can use them on defense. And we knew they were probably going to run the ball in that situation. We got them to kick the field goal. It worked in our favor. But we didn’t capitalize.”
But that’s where the Eagles are, three games into an unraveling season. Neither their players nor their coaches are executing at a championship level. This is why: They are not as good as they claimed.
“We’ve got to be better,” Fletcher Cox said, “and I know we will.”
It wasn’t that long ago that NFL excellence was what the Eagles consistently delivered, not just promised.