Truly a Black Friday

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You get to eat food and watch football. I hate when the Eagles play because I suddenly have to care about what happens and can’t just enjoy the holiday. I hated when I saw the schedule had the Eagles playing on Black Friday. That affected travel plans and I had a bad feeling the game wouldn’t go well.

It didn’t.

The Bears won the game 24-15. There is no shame in losing to the team that is atop the NFC North. But playing bad football and losing a highly frustrating game is different than just losing. Chicago ran for 281 yards. 2-8-1. That is nuts. Jalen Hurts played his worst game of the year and the offense struggled to score against one of the weakest defenses in the league. And Jake Elliott missed two kicks.

Other than that it was a great day.

I’m not going to write a long piece and analyze the game. I’m bummed out and don’t have a lot to say that would be all that interesting or useful. I know a lot of people are out for blood. Fire Kevin Patullo. Cut somebody. Bench somebody. Have Howie and Jeffrey address the media so we can grill them for answers.

I’m not at that point. I don’t believe in action for the sake of action. I understand the emotional desire for it, but you should only make moves that make sense. I’m fine with firing Patullo, but only if Nick Sirianni has the right idea for how to replace him. The right change can make a difference. Sirianni needs to figure out how to take this group of players and get the most out of them. That could mean calling different plays. It could mean being different with messaging. Maybe the coaches aren’t yelling enough. Maybe they’re yelling too much.

Something isn’t working.

A lot isn’t working.

The Eagles have a couple of extra days to figure out how to proceed. Their next game is a week from Monday, at the Chargers. I hope they use the time wisely and come up with solutions to problems. Unfortunately some of those issues have been around all season long and I don’t know if a couple of extra days will make much of a difference.

The Eagles are now 8-4. They are still atop the NFC East. Amazon had a stat that showed the Eagles with a 95 percent chance of making the playoffs. The problem is that the Eagles aren’t just trying to get to the postseason. They have been their four years in a row. This team wants to win another Super Bowl. That isn’t going to happen unless the players and coaches get a lot better in a hurry.

*****

If there was one thing to be happy about it was that I don’t think the team suffered any key injuries.

*****

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their Thanksgiving since Black Friday turned out to be such a downer.

There will be better days ahead. I promise.

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