MINNEAPOLIS — After the game, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas spoke about putting the game behind them, learning from their mistakes, moving on.
But this was such a thorough collapse by the Eagles’ two third-year corners it really makes you wonder if that’s even possible.
Kirk Cousins attacked both Jones and Douglas all afternoon Sunday to the tune of 333 yards, four touchdowns and a 38-20 dismantling of the Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium.
The Eagles have now allowed 16 touchdowns passes in six games, and the only QB who didn’t throw one — Luke Falk — isn’t even in the league anymore.
We’re a confident group,” Douglas said. “We know what we can do. You’re not about to play in the league and not have a bad game. Everybody has bad games, as a team and as individuals. So we’ve got to just find out what we did wrong, fix it all up and move on, because we know the Cowboys are going to watch the film and try to do the same thing.
Douglas allowed two long touchdowns to Stefon Diggs, and Jones allowed an Adam Thielen touchdown, mis-played a short Diggs catch into a big play and was just shaky all day.
Douglas has played fairly consistent this year, but Jones has struggled both to stay healthy and to perform when he is on the field.
Sunday was a terrible day for both of them.
“We’re still putting pieces together,” Jones said. “We haven’t came to form. We know what we’re capable of and we’re still trying to do that.”
This is the first time since 1965 the Eagles have allowed five TD passes of 40 yards or more in their first six games.
They allowed just three last year.
It’s very frustrating,” Jones said. “Obviously you try to eliminate those and make it hard for them to drive down the field, but when we give it to them easy it’s pretty frustrating.
Safety Malcolm Jenkins took the blame for the second long Diggs touchdown.
“I should have been back there.,” he said. “I just vacated the deep end of the field. We just did too many things to give them extra tries. We turned it on one point and it started to turn around, but it was too late.”
How do you put this sort of embarrassment behind you?
It’s not hard at all,” Jones said. “Watch film, go over your mistakes, what you need to do to get better and just practice. We have a game next week, we can’t think about this one. It’s over. We lost already. We’ve got to move on as a team. We’ve got the Cowboys, a divisional game and we’ve just got to move on to that.
Jones didn’t play against the Jets because of his nagging hamstring. He left the Vikings game briefly “to get right” but did finish.
He was a second-round pick, and so far we just haven’t seen it.
“I feel like I’m very close,” he said. “I just have to put the pieces together.”
Jalen Mills should be back this week, and Ronald Darby, Cre’Von LeBlanc and Avonte Maddox are all expected to return at some point this year.
But let’s be honest.
It’s not enough.
The Eagles need help. Jones and Douglas are still young players and could get better.
But right now, if this team has serious playoff aspirations, their corners just aren’t good enough.
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