Gannoned

The Eagles wanted a blowout. Instead, they got an L. The defense did not force a single punt by the Cardinals. They allowed 29 points in the second half. That absolutely blows my mind. This was easily the low point of the Nick Sirianni era.

What an embarrassing day.

We can obsess on who to blame for this fiasco and the late season meltdown, but the bottom line is that this is simply a flawed team. One week the offense is good, the next they struggle. One week the defense is solid, the next week they’re invisible. The overall team just makes too many mistakes and often they come at critical moments.

A glaring issue to me is that too often the team plays as individuals, not a collective unit.

Huge play by Milton Williams to blow up the run pic.twitter.com/bdoZvp65fB

— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) December 31, 2023

Great play by Williams, but his first instinct is to celebrate. The ball is still loose. If he stays on Murray, a teammate might have had a chance to get to the ball. There was a play where Haason Reddick took a step to the inside and Kyler Murray ran wide. Reddick must keep contain on that. Defense requires all 11 guys to do their job.

The Cardinals scored points on 6 of 8 drives. They had an INT on one, but even that came in the red zone. The only drive without a first down was when they kneeled before the half. Not one legit defensive stop all game long. That is nuts.

I thought Sydney Brown’s pick-six was the kind of play that would fire up the defense and get them going. That was a great moment, but it proved to be the last big thing the defense did.

The Eagles offense played well, but had a couple of 3 & outs that ended up proving costly. Jalen Hurts had a good game, going 18 for 23 with 3 TDs.

There was a frustrating sequence late in the game. The Cards scored to tie the game at 28-28. They tried an onside kick, but the Eagles recovered. That put them in scoring territory with 5:26 left. The Eagles got down to the 20 and things looked good. That’s when things went bad. A holding call on Jordan Mailata forced the Eagles into 1st & 20.

QB run
QB run
Perimeter screen

Those plays netted 4 yards and the Eagles had to settle for a FG.

Nick Sirianni explained that the QB runs had a chance to work based on the defensive fronts Arizona was showing. Unfortunately the runs didn’t work. The screen was an attempt to get into better FG position. It sure would have been nice to throw the ball to AJ or DeVonta or Goedert and let your stars make a play. The Eagles went conservative and it backfired.

The Eagles now need luck to win the division and host a playoff game. There was a time when this team was 10-1 and in position to be the number one seed in the NFC. Now they might be a wild card team. I wrote recently that the Eagles did not have a realistic shot to win the Super Bowl this year. This team was too flawed. Now this team might get bounced in the opening weekend.

The whole organization deserves a lot of scrutiny after this debacle. The coaches will focus on the game tape, looking to see what can be fixed. Sirianni can’t think long term right now. He’s got to focus on beating the Giants next week and whatever comes after that. When the season is finally over, he’s going to face a lot of tough questions from Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman, as well as every Eagles fan he runs into.

What a crappy way to wrap up 2023. Ugh.

Happy New Year

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