The Other Side

There is a lot of negativity surrounding the Eagles right now. People are questioning Nick Sirianni’s coaching, the players performance and Howie Roseman’s moves. That’s what happens when you lose 2 of 3 games, with the last one being a beatdown from Baker Mayfield.

Life isn’t good.

At the same time, things might be getting overblown a bit. AJ Brown has missed three straight games. With him on the field, I don’t see the Eagles losing to both Atlanta and Tampa. Heck, if Saquon Barkley makes an easy catch, the Eagles would have beaten the Falcons and would be 3-1 going into the bye. Not having Brown, DeVonta Smith and Britain Covey against the Bucs proved to be too much for the offense. It also hurt not having Lane Johnson at RT.

The Eagles will get back Brown, Smith and Johnson for the next game. That will give the offense a big boost.

Beyond getting healthy, the bye week will give the coaches time to study what’s gone wrong. The Eagles have not scored a single point in the first quarter. That’s a big problem. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said the coaches will attack that problem this week. You can’t afford to play from behind every week. Even if you’re just down 7-0 or 3-0, you don’t want to deal with that for every game.

The 2022 team scored early and then controlled games. It was a great formula. Doing that is easier said than done, but the coaches need to figure a way to get off to faster starts.

The defense has struggled early on. We knew there might be some bumps in the road as the players adjusted to the new coaching staff and new version of the scheme. Even for that, the defense has been disappointing. But let’s put some context on the defense.

Milton Williams – 4th year
Jordan Davis – 3rd year
Jalen Carter – 2nd year
Josh Sweat – 7th year
Bryce Huff – 1st year as a starter and with team
Nakobe Dean – 8 career starts
Zack Baun – learning new position and new to the team
CJGJ – 6th year
Reed Blankenship – 3rd year
Darius Slay – 12th year
Quinyon Mitchell – rookie
Avonte Maddox – 7th year

Overall, that is a pretty young/new defense. They are doing a lot of learning. They should improve as the season goes along. The Dolphins defense started slow under Vic Fangio last year and got better as the season went on. There is a good chance the Eagles will do that as well. The key question is how much better will the defense get. They don’t need to be Gang Green, but they need to be a lot better than what we are currently seeing.

The tackling has been bad. The coaches will work on that and I think it will improve. Tackling has been an issue for a lot of teams. The Eagles tackled well in New Orleans so they can do it.

The coverage has been erratic. There are times when the Eagles clamp on to receivers. There are other times when the Eagles play soft and give up easy completions. The zone coverage needs a lot of work.

The biggest priority is the pass rush. The Eagles only have 6 sacks so far this season. We all know sacks can be overrated. The Eagles have 13 QB hits on the year. For comparison’s sake, the Giants have 15 sacks and 29 QB hits. The 0-4 Jaguars have the 30th ranked defense this year. They have 7 sacks and 19 QB hits. Not ideal.

The Eagles hoped for a bounce-back year from Sweat. He played well in Tampa, but he’s not been productive enough. Bryce Huff is struggling in a major way. The Eagles knew his run defense would take time, but hoped for immediate impact from him as a pass rusher. Nolan Smith has improved as a run defender, but doesn’t have a QB hit this year. Brandon Graham is the only edge rusher who has played as expected.

Carter has done a good job as an interior rusher, but he’s needs more help from his teammates. Teams will double him and dare the other DTs to be disruptive.

Fangio is a veteran coach. He’s had to figure out solutions to defensive problems for more than 30 years. He has enough pieces to work with that he should be able to figure some things out.

The Eagles have some serious issues to fix, but they have the time and the potential to get that done.

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Identity

We don’t know much about the Eagles right now. They are 2-2, which is average. The team looked really good for much of the season opener, after falling behind 6-0. Then they played well in New Orleans. But the loss to Atlanta was bad and the performance in Tampa was troubling.

Who are they? What are they?

The season is still early so you can’t really make definitive conclusions about most teams. You should be able to have some idea about them. I just don’t think we know the Eagles right now.

They are 6th in the league in total offense. That’s good. They are 14th in scoring, which is average. They are 29th in yards allowed, which is terrible. They are 22nd in points allowed, which isn’t a whole lot better. But the Eagles one really good showing came when they beat the Saints, who happen to still be the top scoring team in the league. So we know the defense is capable of playing well.

Jalen Hurts looks like a star QB, at times. He’s made some big time throws and some clutch runs. He also has continued to turn the ball over, a problem the Eagles hoped would go away after last year’s issues. Nick Sirianni can lecture us all day about how turnovers are a team stat, but that’s just not entirely true. Hurts has not taken care of the ball the way he should have. That is on him. Not all the turnovers, but most of them.

The biggest problem is Hurts tries to do too much in some situations. Being aggressive is good. Being reckless is bad. He needs to have a better understanding of the difference in them and play accordingly.

Sirianni talks about how he wants a team that focuses on details. He wants a tough, smart, physical team. He preaches fundamentals. The team we have watched for the past month doesn’t match that description.

They miss tackles.

Next Gen Stats charged the #Eagles defense with 16(!) missed tackles, which led to an additional 105 yards for the Buccaneers.

Nakobe Dean had a team-high five missed tackles.

— EJ Smith (@EJSmith94) September 30, 2024

They don’t know the rules (Isaiah Rodgers).

They don’t play smart. Think about Darius Slay giving up the TD at the end of the Atlanta game.

They aren’t physical enough. Watch Grant Calcaterra try to block. Or the DBs try to tackle.

Does Sirianni see this? He doesn’t acknowledge it to the media, but that’s the way he does things. I do wonder if he’s as frustrated by this team as those of us on the outside are. The problems of 2023 were supposed to go away with coaching and personnel changes. Unfortunately, too many of them still remain. That makes me question if Sirianni’s message is really getting through.

Sirianni was famously patient in 2021 and that turned out to be the right approach. That team came together at midseason and went on a hot streak. This team is more talented and is in a different situation, but it should be pointed out that there is still plenty of time for this team to live up to expectations. I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on it right now. I also wouldn’t have bet on the Eagles melting down the way they did last year or them losing a playoff game to Tampa, who was 4-7 at one point.

The NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint. That’s good news for the Eagles, who have stumbled out of the blocks. But they need to figure some things out in a hurry. The NFC East isn’t a weak division. Washington is 3-1 and playing better football than we’ve seen from that franchise in a long time. Dallas is only 2-2, but they have enough talent that it feels like they’ll wake up at some point.

One of the keys for Sirianni will be gettinig this team to play to a standard and not live and die in the moment. That’s how you become a consistent football team. The Eagles did that in 2022, but haven’t since. If Sirianni can solve that puzzle, this team might just turn into something good.

For now they are more of a mystery than anything else.

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