Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

The Hits Keep Coming

Posted October 16th, 2026 | No Comments »

The Eagles just played a trio of tough games and are in the midst of a 3-game losing streak. There are injuries all over the place. And a surprise retirement. And a surprise trade. What else could happen?

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

Philly media reached out to a variety of doctors to get their take on the situation. As you might imagine, they got a variety of opinions. This could be a week, a month or more. We really won’t know until they do more testing next week to see how the situation is progressing. Blood clots can be a serious issue. Let’s hope for the best for Jalen’s sake.

And for the Eagles. They need their star QB to return soon if they have any chance of turning the season around. Tanner McKee will start this week. It will be interesting to see how the offense looks with him running it. McKee struggled this summer. He’s had more time to learn the offense by now and will have a gameplan to study to get ready for Sunday. Maybe that will help him to play better. It will help that he is going against one of the worst defenses in the league (26th in points, 29th in yards).

McKee won’t have a full set of weapons to work with.

It sounds like Saquon will miss the game. Still waiting to find out about DeVonta. And now Wicks is hurt. Ugh. Drew Kendall did return to practice. While Jake Majors was solid last week, getting Kendall back would be a good thing.

Even with McKee getting the start I feel like this is a winnable game. The Eagles made plays on defense and STs over the past two weeks and that gave them a chance to beat a pair of really good teams. The Panthers are 2-2. We’re still trying to figure out just how good (or mediocre) of a team they are. If the Eagles protect the ball and play good defense, they could win and get to 3-3.

Nick Sirianni did a good job last week of getting the players to lock arms and come together. He’ll really be tested this week, with the team coming off a torturous loss and playing the backup QB. A loss would drop the Eagles to 2-4 and make the season feel all but lost.

My good friend Jimmy Bama is among those who think the season is already lost.

He breaks it down this way.

However, Howie Roseman and the Eagles are in a position to choose their suckage path the rest of the season.

• One is to try to compete for a division title in the craptastic NFC East, and if successful pretend that anything can happen in the playoffs.

• The other is to maximize the value on likely soon-to-be outgoing players, and reset the roster for another long-term run.

The decision really shouldn’t be all that hard. They should choose the reset.

Not everyone is happy with Jimmy’s take. I can get you his cell number if you want to call him to chat about it. Just let me know. (I kid, I kid)

The next two weeks will likely dictate how the Eagles approach the rest of the season. If the Hurts injury doesn’t linger and some of the other players start coming back, the Eagles could start winning some games. I think there is value in still trying to win as much as possible. Player development is important. You want to see Kendall, Markel Bell, Darius Cooper, Jihaad Campbell, Jeremiah Trotter Jr, Drew Mukuba and other young players developing over the course of the rest of the season. Howie Roseman needs to know what he’s got moving forward. You ideally want them playing around good players and in meaningful games.

Jimmy is right that winning the NFC East isn’t a huge deal. The Eagles want to be title contenders, year in and year out. NFC East championship hats are nice, but pale in comparison to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. You need to focus on the ultimate goal. But I do think there is still value in winning the division and getting to experience the postseason. I would bet that the 2022 playoff run helped the team win it all in 2024.

We’ll talk more about this after we see how the team plays against the Panthers. That will give us another data point to base decisions on. The season isn’t over right now, but the Eagles have put it in a position where that point is getting closer and closer.

*****

Here is a reason that there is still hope for the rest of the season.

*****

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Game Review – JAX 19, PHI 17

Posted October 14th, 2026 | No Comments »

We have talked about the agonizing nature of this loss enough. The final minutes have been dissected over and over so I’ll spare you more of that. I’m interested in a fresh perspective. Think of the game from the mindset of a Jacksonville fan.

The Jags came into the game as 7-point favorites. They were taking on an Eagles team missing their top two RBs, best WR, best pass rusher and a Hall of Fame OT. The OL featured three guys making their first or second NFL starts. The Eagles weren’t underdogs by accident. And yet the Jags needed a pair of impressive TDs by Parker Washington, a long KOR and a last second FG to beat the Birds.

The Eagles made QB Trevor Lawrence uncomfortable throughout the game. He finished just 24 of 39. He was sacked twice and picked off once. Coach Liam Coen made some questionable game management decisions. The Eagles were better on third downs and in the red zone, despite the makeshift OL. The Jags couldn’t hold a late lead against the banged up offense.

As bad as the ending was, there were some real positives. The Eagles played hard. They competed. They made some critical plays in the game, on offense and defense. If the team can play like that with Saquon, DeVonta and Jonathan Greenard in the lineup, they might start winning some games and get this thing turned around.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni talked about his team needing to lock arms during the week. He knew this would be an uphill battle and the guys would have to really come together as a team. Sirianni had the guys ready to play and they embraced the challenge. Kudos for that. The end of the game is a different story. We can debate whether he should have kicked off or just put the ball out of the end zone. There are merits to both points. I think he made the wrong choice, in part because the Jags returned the opening KO for a TD, only to have it taken away by a penalty.

I think the Eagles should have done a better job of working the clock once they got into FG range. Burning 2 seconds would have changed the outcome.

Vic Fangio mixed in blitzes effectively. He used a variety of personnel and had really good answers in the red zone. Jacksonville was 0 for 3.

Michael Clay’s unit was up and down. The Eagles were good on returns. They did not cover well.

OFFENSE

QB

Jalen Hurts was up and down. He finished 21-40-220 with a TD. The highlight was his TD pass to Darius Cooper.  Read the rest of this entry »