Cowboys 27, Eagles 20: RIP 2018 Eagles season

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This is as bad as it gets.
 
Cowboys 27, Eagles 20, and the Eagles still haven’t won a meaningful home game against their biggest rival since 2008.
 
That should be impossible.
 
This game should be impossible.
 
This season should be impossible.
 
But the reality is the Eagles are 4-5, they’ve lost three straight home games, they’re two games behind the Redskins with seven games left and they still haven’t won back-to-back games this year.
 
And the hottest team in football is up next. On the road.
 
RIP 2018.
 
1. It’s time to stop pretending the Eagles are a good team that’s underachieving. They’re just a bad team. And they’re in deep trouble. They just lost to a team that at the start of the day was a bigger mess than the Eagles. Whose coach may have been fired if they lost. That had scored just five road touchdowns all year. We can break down everything, but the bottom line is the Cowboys had more energy, more fight, more fire. This was a team-wide embarrassment. Oh, the Eagles made the obligatory second-half run to make it close. They even got within nine yards of tying it as time ran out. But who cares. That’s window dressing. There are seven games left, but it sure seemed like the season thudded to an end Sunday night at the Linc.   
 
2. How does a team go from Super Bowl champs to this? Honestly, I never sensed during training camp that there was any sort of hangover or letdown in intensity. They seemed to do and say all the right things. They practiced hard. They worked hard. But whatever magic they had last year has evaporated. It’s not any one thing. They clearly miss Frank Reich and John DeFillippo. Doug Pederson hasn’t had that magic playcalling touch, and the offense has rarely found a rhythm. Carson Wentz has been mistake-prone early in games. They can’t score early and are always playing from behind. The defense has been pretty good but keeps coming up small in big moments and doesn’t get turnovers. And unlike last year the backups haven’t been able to play up to the level of the injured starters. Add it all up and this is what you have. A 4-5 team. And what sure looks like a lost season.
 
3. The Eagles’ first-quarter problems on offense have been catastrophic. The Eagles’ three first-quarter drives Sunday night resulted in a three-and-out, an interception and a punt after five plays. The Eagles have had 21 first-quarter drives this year and scored an NFL-low three times. They’re averaging just 22 yards per drive in the first quarter. Their 21 first-quarter points are their third-fewest through nine games in the last 25 years. Here’s a look at the Eagles’ 21 drives that have ended in the first quarter:

12 - Punt 
4 - Turnover 
3 - TD 
2 - Missed FG 
0 - FG 

This lack of early production is inexcusable. It’s a direct reflection on coaching and lack of preparation. The Eagles are the worst team in the NFL in the first quarter and you’re just not going to win a ton of games digging an early hole for yourself.
 
4. Carson Wentz can’t be let off the hook either for the slow starts because he’s just been bad much of the time in the first quarter. He’s got two TDs and two INTs in the first quarter this year and 11 TDs and one INT the rest of the game. In his career, he’s got 23 interceptions, and 10 have been in the first quarter. It just seems like it usually takes him a while to settle in and get comfortable, and the Eagles have to figure out how to get him into a rhythm and avoiding bad early mistakes.
 
5. The Eagles were down a bunch of defensive backs in the second half. They were already without Jalen Mills and Sidney Jones and then lost Ronald Darby to a knee injury. That left them with Rasul Douglas, Chandon Sullivan and Cre’Von LeBlanc at cornerback. But still. The coverage and tackling in the secondary was so atrocious I don’t care how many backups were in the game. The Cowboys just had guys running free pretty much from the end of the first half through the end of the game. The Cowboys put together THREE touchdown drives of 75 yards on their last five possessions, and the Eagles really put up little resistance on any of them. This is a Dallas offense that came in averaging 12 ½ points per game on the road. I understand that these are backups. But if you’re in the league you have to do better. This can’t happen.
 
6. This drives me crazy: Why does the defense always seem to give up points immediately after the offense scores? It happened three more times Sunday. Get a freaking stop.
 
7. The lack of takeaways is simply unacceptable. Seven takeaways in nine games? That’s the fewest in the NFL and the fewest in franchise history. The Eagles haven’t had an interception since the Giants game. They’ve now faced 157 consecutive passes without an interception. Absolutely unreal.
 
8. I’m not one of those guys that’s always screaming about running the ball more often. It’s a passing league. You win by chucking it. I get that. I still think Doug doesn’t run enough. Josh Adams averaged almost 7.0 yards a pop Sunday night coming off a very good game in London against the Jaguars, but he only got seven carries. The final ratio was 48 pass plays, 14 rushing plays in a game that was close throughout. Obviously they had to throw at the end, but still. Would it kill the Eagles to work in some runs? Maybe I’m old fashioned but I just think running the ball a little more would help the offense get into a rhythm, keep pass rushers off Wentz, keep the defense off the field a little more and just make the whole offensive operation smoother. Can’t hurt.
 
9. I can’t say enough about Zach Ertz and the playmaking and production and consistency and effort he’s giving this offense. This was one of his best games just based on the difficulty of his catches and the plays he made after the catch with the ball in his hands. Ertz finished with 14-for-145 with two TDs and now has 75 catches for 789 yards and five TDs this year. You can blame a lot of people. You can’t blame Ertz. Monster numbers. Monster season.
 
10. Here’s why I think the world of Nelson Agholor: He took a huge shot from linebacker Damien Wilson down near the goal-line just before the Eagles’ first touchdown, is helped off the field, misses some plays, then goes right back out there and makes a highlight-reel finger-tip 51-yard catch on the Eagles’ next drive to set up another TD. That shoulder injury would have sidelined most receivers. The dude isn’t just a baller, he’s incredibly tough, and I hope he's here a long time.

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