If you shut the TV off in disgust, I don't blame you.
This was about as bad as it gets.
The Eagles suffered their second straight lifeless home loss Sunday, dropping a 17-9 decision to the Seahawks at the Linc.
The Eagles committed five turnovers for the first time since 2013, didn't score a touchdown until the final 20 seconds when it didn't matter and just sputtered their way to a 5-6 record.
The score doesn't even begin to express how bad this was.
Here ya go with our 10 instant observations. And go 76ers!!!
NFL
1. There are plenty of excuses. No Lane Johnson. No Brandon Brooks. No wide receivers. No running game. No pass protection. The offense is a mess all around. But right now Carson Wentz is just as much a part of that problem as anybody. Missing open guys. Fumbling. Taking sacks when he could throw the ball away. Throwing hard-to-believe interceptions. I have no idea what’s going on with him. Maybe he’s hurt. Maybe it’s coaching, although he had the same coaches last year when he played at a much higher level even with a broken back.
I get that he’s not getting any help from the people around him, and that makes it tough to function, but the fumbles, missing open guys, turnovers … absolutely no excuse. Wentz and his coaches have to figure this out soon because he's not going anywhere.
2. That said, you can’t bench Wentz. You can’t. For a 40-year-old journeyman who’s won 23 of 76 career starts? If the Eagles are going to go anywhere or do anything this year — and for the next few years — it’s going to be with No. 11 at QB. They need to get him rolling again, not riding the bench.
3. Big picture? The Eagles are 5-6 with five games left, and I don’t want to hear about how easy the schedule is the rest of the way because if the Eagles can’t beat the Cowboys, then beating the Dolphins, Redskins and Giants a couple times won’t matter. And yes the Eagles will get some guys back, but from what I’ve seen the last couple weeks — and really what I’ve seen all year from this team — I don’t have a lot of faith in the Eagles beating the Cowboys on Dec. 22.
Honestly? Right now? I don’t have a whole lot of faith in them going 4-0 against the Dolphins, Giants and Redskins.
4. That 58-yard Rashaad Penny TD run was ugly — as was Ronald Darby’s attempt to tackle Penny — but the defense was really good again, holding the Seahawks to 17 points — eight below their average — forcing two turnovers, recording three sacks. You hold Russell Wilson and the Seahawks to 17 points in your own stadium, you should win that game. And that's four straight games the Eagles have allowed 17 or fewer points, the first time they've done that in one season since 2009.
5. I was surprised Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor didn’t at least try to play. As the week went on, the Eagles seemed to think both would be available Sunday.
“They’re both trending in the right direction,” Doug Pederson said Friday.
That was after the last practice of the week. What changed? Why weren’t they out there? Their absence left the Eagles with one wide receiver who hasn’t caught a ball in two months, one who came in with zero career catches, one who just got here a few weeks ago and one with three career receptions.
I know Jeffery and Agholor have had terrible seasons, but if they could walk — and if they indeed were trending in the right direction — they should have been out there. They should have at least tried to gut it out.
6. That said, someone needs to explain to me why Greg Ward has been rotting on the practice squad all year when it was clear by the end of the first quarter that he’s a legit NFL player. Ward’s been here for most of the last three years. How could Pederson and Howie Roseman not see that he could help? As bad as the Eagles’ wide receivers have been? How do you have him here and watch him every day at practice and not see it?
Ward had 6 for 40 Sunday and while those aren’t exactly mind-blowing numbers, the Eagles hadn't had a wide receiver catch six passes in a game since Week 6. Agholor hasn’t since Week 3. Mack Hollins and JJ Arcega-Whiteside never have. Looks to me like Ward should have been playing all year.
7. It was kind of shocking to learn that Brooks had left the game because he was sick. This is a guy who is so tough he started the opener 7½ months after blowing out his Achilles in New Orleans. The guy literally never misses a snap. I don’t know what the issue was, but one thing I’m absoutely certain of is that if he were at all able to play, he would have played.
8. OK, that goofy delayed handoff Pederson called in the third quarter that resulted in a fumble when Wentz was trying to get the ball to Miles Sanders … I hated that play. Here’s why: The Eagles were finally moving the ball for the first time in the game. They had driven 47 yards and had a 3rd-and-3, and that was a situation where they didn’t need to be clever. That was a pivotal play in a one-possession game. Just run the offense.
9. I'm trying to find a positive here, and it does look like Arcega-Whiteside is at least showing some signs of life. He had a couple catches for 43 yards but did have a drop — tough catch but a drop — on a late fourth down. I still think JJAW is going to be a player. It's just taking a while to show it.
10. Someone in the Eagles’ front office has to figure out why injuries have become such an epidemic on this roster the last couple years. Not just injuries but slow recovery times. We thought 2017 was bad with those six key guys missing for the Super Bowl run. That was the healthiest Eagles have been lately. I’d love to see what kind of team this would be at something near full strength, but it never is. One guy comes back, two more get hurt.
Every team has injuries, but this has been just an almost bizarre stretch. Everybody gets hurt. Maybe it’s just a huge coincidence. Bad luck. Probably not.
The Eagles need to take a close look at the way they handle conditioning, nutrition, sleep, lifting, rehab — all that stuff — and really take a hard look at their medical, training and strength and conditioning personnel. Because you just can’t function as an NFL team when your whole team is always hurt.
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