They spoke about bouncing back. They spoke about growing and learning from the experience. They spoke about moving on and focusing on the Jaguars.
Just hollow words? Or can the Eagles salvage something out of a season that has suddenly gone off the rails?
The Eagles gave a game away Sunday, and now they have to face the reality that seven games into the season they’re 3-4, they have yet to play a complete game on both sides of the ball, they have yet to beat a winning team, they have yet to win back-to-back games, they’ve blown two big fourth-quarter leads, and things like the Super Bowl, the playoffs and even a winning record seem so far out of reach right now.
They have to go 6-3 just to have a winning season.
“I wish we were playing on Thursday, honestly, to get this game out of our system,” Zach Ertz said.
A loss like the one the Eagles suffered Sunday night can crush a team. It can destroy hope. It can send teams spiraling downhill. We’ve all seen it.
We’ll see what they’re made of now.
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“It brings us together,” Wendell Smallwood said. “We’ve been through a lot together. We’re going through things like this. Everyone can go through something good and be happy, but what about the bad stuff? Are you going to buy in? Or are you going to go the other way? This team is never going to go the other way. We all buy in. Everything matters to us. We play for each other, so this hurts, and we just have to take it back and I know we’ll do everything to get it fixed and everyone is going to come back ready for next week.”
The Eagles opened 2013 with a 3-4 record and actually lost their next game and still made the playoffs.
So there’s hope. Just not very much.
“It’s tough,” Ertz said. “We have to learn from it and can’t let this get our spirits down. We have a whole season in front of us.
“We keep saying after every loss that we cannot get too down. We have to find a way to win games. We just let games slip away when we have no business losing. Good teams and championship teams do not let that happen.”
But the Eagles have let it happen twice now.
Even their wins have hardly been works of art.
And their losses have all been excruciating.
Honestly, I don’t know how you bounce back from blowing a 17-0 fourth-quarter lead at home three weeks after blowing a 17-3 second-half lead to the Titans.
At a certain point, you’re no longer a good team playing poorly. You’re just a bad team.
But there are nine games left for the Eagles to prove that some of the magic from last year is still floating around the NovaCare Complex.
“I think we’re up to the challenge,” Smallwood said. “We’re tired of being on a roller-coaster this season. Win-loss, win-loss. But I know what attitude we’re going to have when we come back Tuesday and get back to work. I know what attitude we’re bringing to the table. I know we’re not sitting back comfortable.”
If the Eagles are going to bounce back, you couldn’t ask for a better opponent.
They’ll face the Jaguars Sunday in London, and the Jags have lost three straight by an average of 24 points and just benched their quarterback.
But the way things are going? The Eagles are capable of losing to anybody.
“I sound like a broken record every time we lose up here, but it’s on to the next,” Carson Wentz said. “There is no time to feel sorry for yourself. There is no time to be pissed about it. You have to learn from it quick and bounce back to next week.
“We’re going to find out what we’re made of now. I feel like we said that two weeks ago. Saying it again.”
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