A long, strange night for Eagles
PHILADELPHIA >> Instead of another start for Jalen Hurts, who was in uniform and slinging the ball in pregame warmups, the Eagles announced that the quarterback contracted an illness that wasn’t COVID-related.
That was it for clarity Thursday night, although Lincoln Financial Field fans booed Nick Sirianni for ordering veteran backup quarterback Joe Flacco to take a knee on the last play of the first half, the Eagles trailing the New England Patriots by 19 points then.
It would only get worse on the way to a nasty 35-0 setback, the first time the Eagles lost a preseason game by that much or more.
Though Sirianni did his best to explain the Hurts drama, it was stranger than strange in the wake of the young man being shutdown after showing no signs of anything in pregame. He wasn’t feeling great when he came in.
“We put him in pregame warmups and he wanted to go out there,” Sirianni said. “He came back in and he still wasn’t feeling good and we evaluated him and decided it wasn’t in his best interest to play the way he was feeling. He’s fine now. He’s doing OK now. He actually went to the hospital to get evaluated for his stomach. He said he had pain in his abdomen. For a guy like him to tell us — he’s a tough guy. It must have been hurting him pretty good.”
What a long, strange night it was for Sirianni and his team, unless you wondered when DeVonta Smith finally would play. He did, and he caught two passes for 19 yards in the first half.
Neither pass was from Hurts, who literally was dancing in the warmups yet unable to step up and play. If that passer-receiver duo fails to get in step it’s going to be a long season for the Eagles.
At the intermission, Sirianni told Eagles’ insider Dave Spadaro he’d planned to play Hurts for a couple of series but the quarterback felt ill. Hopefully it wasn’t Patriots Flu, as Bill Belichick played his first team defense. Please tell me
it wasn’t a fear of Hurts being upstaged by Mac Jones, who led the Patriots to 25 points on four drives that averaged 11 plays.
The Eagles trailed, 32-0, entering the fourth quarter. It would have been 37nil if kicker Quinn Nordin hadn’t bricked a field goal attempt and a couple of PATs.
Additionally, substitutes or not, the Eagles have been outscored, 52-0, in their last six quarters.
“We’ve got to execute better, we’ve got to play with better fundamentals and we’ve got to coach better,” Sirianni said. “Every time we step on the field we want to compete.”
Even if the Hurts-Smith connection is at least another week in waiting, getting Smith on the field was a coup in that the Heisman Trophy winner had been shelved for all but a couple of practices since spraining a knee in the first week of training camp.
Smith’s 10-yard grab after slamming on the brakes and using an inside move to separate from Michael Jackson, also ended a run of 0-for-11 on third down in the preseason for the Eagles.
There wasn’t a lot more to look forward to unless you wanted to see if punter Aaryn Siposs, the Australian Rules Football import could successfully replace kicker Jake Elliott, sidelined with an ankle injury.
The Eagles rolled the dice on fourth down instead of giving Siposs a chance in the first half.
Hurts wasn’t the only veteran who was shutdown. Jordan Mailata and Isaac Seumalo were the only starting offensive linemen to play Thursday. Tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert played briefly.
Flacco was moving the Eagles down the field, dishing the ball to running backs Miles Sanders and Josh Gainwell when Nate Herbig’s third snap flew so high over his head you couldn’t see it through the smoke from the national anthem fireworks minutes earlier.
The Smith moment, on the other hand, was a long time coming. Not until the ninth play did the Eagles even look at Smith, who returned to practice just two days ago after being sidelined the first week of training camp with a sprained MCL.
At any rate, Smith’s evolution as a pass catcher wasn’t immediate. First, the Eagles called a crossing route for Smith, who ran from one set of numbers to the other but was separated from the ball by J.C. Jackson, who the Eagles had been lighting up in the one-on-ones at practice with the Patriots. Smith was four yards shy of the first down marker anyway.
Smith got a step on his defender the next time Flacco located him but was unable to come back for the catchable back-shoulder throw, which would have been a big gain. OK, the degree of difficulty on the catch was 4.1.
Smith’s first catch came later in the second quarter on another crossing route, the receiver taking a dive toward the marker after a gain of nine.
By then, Belichick was beginning to empty his bench.
The Eagles played through changes on defense as well. Basically, the entire starting defensive line got the night off, and that obviously taxed the rest of the unit.
How awful was it? Cam Newton, who struggled to complete passes in the joint practices, connected on eight of nine passes for 103 yards, including a 28yard scoring pass to Jakobi Meyers. A 151.4 passer rating for Newton? Please.
Jones completed 13 of 19 attempts for 146 yards with a 91.1 rating.
So, there you have it. What Sirianni accomplished this week was almost nothing although rookie running Gainwell had eight touches for 44 yards.
Sure, it was a preseason game. But a five-touchdown drubbing at the hands of a Patriots team that could have played better, too? That wipes out whatever confidence the Eagles had garnered during the joint practices.