The Den of Despair (Again)

I went to the Philadelphia Eagles game yesterday, a disappointing 27-24 loss to the Detroit Lions in Philadelphia, and came away with the following observations:

1.  Make no mistake, the Lions deserved to win the football game.  They played mistake-free football for all but the last minute of the game (when Malcolm Jenkins blocked a field goal attempt), forced a couple of turnovers, did not commit dumb penalties, did not turnover the football, sacked the QB a few times, tipped a few passes, covered receivers well and created space for their wide receivers.  In contrast, the Eagles committed some dumb penalties, had no pass rush, could not cover the Lions' receivers well, dropped passes and fumbled the football.  In certain ways, the game was not as close as the 27-24 final score indicates.

2.  The Eagles won a sloppy affair in the home opener against the Redskins, fell behind on the road against Atlanta and at home against Detroit, lost two close games (score-wise) and are now 1-2.  If Nelson Agholor catches that ball in Atlanta, if he doesn't drop a few yesterday, if JJ Arciega-Whiteside does not drop a ball and if the entire Eagles offense honored Jenkins' block and marched down the field as a good offense should, the Birds would be (a shaky) 3-0.  But wins are wins, and you are what your record says you are.  At 1-2, the Birds just are not that good a football team.

3. From my vantage point, the squad went into the season old, over-hyped, overrated, over-injured and under-prepared (if for no other reason than too many key players were recovering from injuries).  Atop that, they have suffered many injuries since the season started, perhaps more than any other team.  Which means that something was wrong with their readiness and with their training.  Then again, it could be that the age of the players is such that they might be more prone to injury.  Take WR DeSean Jackson, around whom there was so much hype when he re-joined the team after an exodus that took him to Washington and Tampa Bay.  Jackson is 32, and had not played a full season in several years.  Surely, the Eagles could not have been thinking that he would play the entire season.  Ditto the now-enigmatic starting left tackle, Jason Peters, who apparently has his own set of rules.  How could management expect the 16-year veteran to play an entire season, especially since few can remember the last time he did just that?  Jackson got hurt early in the game in Atlanta; Peters had to take himself out of yesterday's game.

4.  It is common for Eagles' fans to diss the Cowboys' Dak Prescott, but Prescott is a very good QB who is much more than a game manager.  And in close games, he is something like 17-6; Carson Wentz is something like 8-14.  Big edge:  Prescott and the Cowboys.  My guess is that most player evaluators in the NFL still would prefer Wentz, but it is not as though these guys get it right more than half the time.  They don't.

5.  Miles Sanders might be more effective as a receiver for the Eagles than a running back.  The discerning fan noticed that the Lions started kicking returnable balls to the Eagles after they scored, if only because they thought that Sanders might cough one up on returns, too.  As it was, he fumbled the ball twice yesterday, exacerbating his already subpar start to his career.  Both Sanders and the fans should be patient -- Tiki Barber fumbled a lot early in his career and then changed his tactics and had a wonderful tenure with the Giants.

6.  Fletcher Cox obviously is not healthy.  The Eagles had no discernible pass rush.  The Eagles' cornerbacks had difficulty covering anyone yesterday, and it wasn't as though Matthew Stafford channeled his inner Tom Brady or Drew Brees and had a career day yesterday.  But time and time again, the Lions' receivers were wide open when Detroit needed them to be.

7.  I sat in the fifth row.  Offensive linemen are big people.

8.  Carson Wentz still holds onto the ball for too long.  And he seemed to have little confidence for much of the game in receivers not named Agholor or Ertz.  On many plays, Mack Hollins and Arciega-Whiteside lined up on the left side, and almost never did Wentz look their way.  Perhaps those fellows had trouble getting open, but the failure of Wentz even to look their way made it easier for Detroit to defend the receivers he was looking at.

9.  The Birds failed to honor Malcolm Jenkins' block of the field goal attempt late in the fourth quarter.  Jenkins' committed a penalty on the run back that cost the Birds' about 28 yards of field position, but they still had the ball at midfield with 1:49 left and 3 time outs.  That they could not get the ball at least into field goal position to tie the game and send it into overtime was very telling.  The Eagles had the momentum and should have pushed the Lions out of the way to score a TD and win the ball game.  That's what good teams do.  Instead, they blundered and found themselves out of field goal range with fourth and long.  And then Wentz found Darren Sproles, and somehow the smallest guy in the league gets called for offensive pass interference when it appeared that both players were fighting for the ball.  And then Wentz found Arciega-Whiteside, who was drafted to make catches of 50-50 balls in traffic.  He did not, and that was the ball game.  It was an awful sequence and an awful end to an awful day. 

10.  The officials were bad; the Eagles were worse.  Yes, they missed a glaring facemask penalty against Detroit during which Miles Sanders almost was decapitated.  The NFL's explanation as to why this was not a penalty was such sophistry as to be fit for a laugh track.  And one of the officials is so out of shape that he could not have gotten into position to make the call.  And then there were three offensive pass interference calls against the Eagles.  The second of the three -- against Mack Hollins -- was obvious, but the first one, against Hollins was questionable and the last one, against Sproles, seemed wrong.  That said, had they Eagles dropped the ball less, not fumbled the ball, rushed the QB better and covered better, they would have won the game. 

11.  Had the Eagles pulled out the victory, everyone would be talking about the Jenkins' block and the great drive that ensued.  Everything else would have been considered small in comparison and not worthy of much discussion.  That they lost puts everything on the table -- and there is much to discuss.

12.  Finally, one distinction between the Patriots and everyone else is the lack of sentimentality when it comes to their roster.  They trade players right before they decline, they release veterans who cannot produce, they recycle players who can produce, especially if they do what they are told (Patrick Chung failed with the Eagles; he returned to New England and became a much better player).  The Patriots traded Richard Seymour to Oakland when he was one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL and let Nate Solder become a free agent and sign with the Giants (if you are asking "who?" about the latter, you get my point).  The Eagles, in contrast, have let the team age, keep patching and tolerating Peters and brought back Jackson, who is not the player he was when they drafted him out of Cal about 10 years ago.  To be elite -- truly elite -- you have to be ruthless with personnel decisions.  Among other things, that ruthlessness distinguishes the Patriots from everyone else.