Eytan Shander: There's no trust in the Eagles' process

[time2rock]

Eytan Shander: There's no trust in the Eagles' process

The Eagles don't carry the same level of belief that they did on the way to the Super Bowl last season and are running out of time to recapture it.

BY EYTAN SHANDER
PhillyVoice Contributor

BILL STREICHER/USA TODAY SPORTS

Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, and Brian Johnson have struggled to get the Eagles' offense looking fully in sync this season.

Nothing comes easy.

Not in Philadelphia and not with the Eagles. It’s becoming more evident that people aren’t just feeling pressure – see last week – but that walls are starting to close in on an 11-4 team. They won a double-digit amount of games with two to play, yet the feeling around here is like the Eagles are barely above .500.

Good.

The in-fighting, arguments on the sidelines, Nick Sirianni addressing having fun – what is this, New England? – and a coach getting benched; All part of the bigger issue that has become apparent inside this organization, they just don’t have it. It’s not just A.J. Brown staying away from the media or Jalen Hurts sounding broken after a third straight loss, it’s how this team got there on the field.

With Hurts struggling at times, it’s hard to think this team will recapture the same level of belief they had last year on the road to the Super Bowl. Think about what it took for the 2017 team to win? Belief was everything. There was no room for doubt when Nick Foles took over for Carson Wentz. That level of trust and belief took that team right through a Brandon Graham Super Bowl-saving play. This after the defense was shredded by Tom Brady.

It took an unwavering sense of confidence and belief last year to make it back to the Super Bowl. Nothing could get in this team’s way, and it showed on the field. Their identity was punching teams in the face, both from pressuring QBs and establishing second-quarter leads.

That stuff is long gone, cuz. Instead, it seems like this team’s dysfunction continues to be masked by the fact they are so damn talented. It’s one of the most fascinating dichotomies we’ve seen in professional sports. No team dealing with such a terrible pass defense, lack of pressure up front, turnovers on offense, stale coaching, and now inner turmoil should be in the hunt for the top seed. Not this deep into the season.

Yes, the Eagles are that good to survive the regular season, even thrive, but even they know this isn’t the same team as last year. They don’t have the same level of trust and belief in the product.

Neither do you.

Nobody out here thinks this team is geared up and ready to win the Super Bowl. Instead, there’s some weird belief that they will somehow figure this all out ahead of time. Somehow, against two awful teams, the Eagles will fix their issues on both sides of the ball and be "ready” for a rematch with San Francisco or Dallas.

If last week against the Giants didn’t prove to you who this team is, nothing is going to get through to you. Things may look like they are getting better on paper, but that’s what paper champs think. This isn’t about the regular season, it’s about the Super Bowl. The same game this team lost last year. They basically guaranteed a spot back with their incredible start to the season. Things evened out a little, and tapered off some, but nothing about this team changed. In fact, the only actual change was replacing the defensive coordinator.

So that’s it. There’s nothing more this team can do but the same thing on the offensive side of the ball. It’s rather insulting that this Eagles team would make a change with Sean Desai, then look us in the eye and tell us there’s nothing similar going on with their offense. The playcalling is a disaster and much like with Desai, not the main reason but still one of the root causes.

The offense is predictable, found out, and yet it seems like nobody is doing anything to innovate it any further. This feeds the narrative that players continue to bail out this coaching staff. That may be the case here on a second level, where maybe it’s Hurts who wants his long-time friend to stay in this role. Maybe not. But someone needs to go, and it’s not going to be the QB or head coach.

I don’t believe Shane Steichen was a mastermind in getting both Sirianni and Hurts a ridiculous game plan where all they needed to do was follow. The former Eagles OC certainly looks better in Indy than the current one does here, but it was the decision after he left that was most puzzling. The team’s head coach was heralded as a genius and an up and coming superstar because of what they did on offense. Jonathan Gannon ran the defense and Sirianni ran the offense. Hurts benefitted and dominated, as the two offensive minds helped each other reach stardom.

Then they just handed it all over to Brian Johnson like keys to a car. A 16-year-old getting a new license with nothing more than practice runs took over the family car, the only vehicle in the house. Sure, every now and again a parent is there to help guide through some mistakes, and Johnson isn’t an idiot, so he’s figured some things out. It’s just not enough.

It wasn’t enough with Desai, and it’s not enough with Johnson. The Eagles continue to hurt only themselves until they remove Brian Johnson from all playcalling duties. There is still time to get back to a level of comfort and belief, trust, that they haven’t had all year. There’s nothing that can change on the field without change on the sidelines.

It might simply be restoring trust in the game plan, the process – if you will.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-offense-jalen-hurts-brian-johnson-nick-sirianni-gameplan-process/

[weko]

Yes Johnson is the biggest problem and has to go yesterday.  But the scheme is high schoolish.  We can't run the ball, can't screen, have few quick slants, don't put men in motion, don't use bunches of 3.  Like one poster said a month ago, it's like guys playing pick up and the qb tells everyone to go long.  That's about the degree of sophistication here.  

There was a play in the red zone of a recent Dolphins game that drove home this point of how childish unimaginative and how unintelligent our offense is.  They had three in a bunch on the left side and sent them all long in different directions, taking the entire defense with them.  The RB went hard right, then cut sharply back and filled the space the 3 wrs created.  He was wide open and jogged into the end zone.  A primary concept of moving a ball into an offense zone in any sport is to create space that others fill.  You can't do that when you send everyone long.  

Our OC and unfortunately our cheerleading phony of a head coach don't know squat about the modern offense.  This problem will not be solved when we fire Brian Johnson.  You can't have Jeff Lurie's son and his analytics dept forming these absurdly simple game plans, giving them to yes man Nick to pass on to the OC.  You need someone who not only has the knowledge but also the autonomy to run an offense independent from control of the owner, his son and our executive accountant GM.

[birdman#12]

Playoffs are not going to be pretty.......there is no indication that the eagles are capable of playing a solid 60 minutes on both sides of the ball.

Sirianni and his coordinators are losing the team......

I've never seen an eagles team fool me the way this team has.......going 10-1 while not being very impressive and believing this was on of the most complete rosters completely fooled everybody that this team was a serious super bowl contender.

Sirianni has sacrificed the season to save Brian Johnson.......who was promoted way too soon, is a terrible play caller and hasn't improved over 16 games.  But he's still here with one of the most boring offenses in the league.

I just can't see them lasting past the 1st round......

[UK_EaglesFan89]

All season we’ve said that this team needs to clean some things up and they can get back to a high level. We said it on the 3 game slide. We said it after beating the Giants. We recognised this team needed to improve at 10-1. At this point with just 1 regular season game to go I think we all have to accept that isn’t going to happen.

The players have given up on the coaches. They seem to have given up on each other. They seem disinterested or frustrated. Or in some cases both.

This team isn’t winning a play off game. They have the talent to but they don’t have what it takes. The coaches don’t have a clue and they aren’t going to remove BJ now. Why would they? They’ll pin the blame on the defense for yesterday and ignore the BJ issue.

[weko]

6 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

All season we’ve said that this team needs to clean some things up and they can get back to a high level. We said it on the 3 game slide. We said it after beating the Giants. We recognised this team needed to improve at 10-1. At this point with just 1 regular season game to go I think we all have to accept that isn’t going to happen.

The players have given up on the coaches. They seem to have given up on each other. They seem disinterested or frustrated. Or in some cases both.

This team isn’t winning a play off game. They have the talent to but they don’t have what it takes. The coaches don’t have a clue and they aren’t going to remove BJ now. Why would they? They’ll pin the blame on the defense for yesterday and ignore the BJ issue.

The players have rightfully given up on the coaches.  Our schemes on both side of the ball are high schoolish.  We must have two of the worst schemes in the league if not the worst on both sides of the ball and Nick does not have the knowledge or autonomy to do anything about it.  We throw deep, run qb draws and hand to the ball off from the shotgun to a flatfooted RB who runs directly forward into traffic for little gain.  Occasionally shorter more effective intermediate throws to one of 3 receivers, Brown, Smith or Goddard.  That's the extent of the offense

[PoconoDon]

The Sirianni flower bed looks quite sick right now. Maybe too much fertilizer...which is often made of B.S., like his football philosophy and schemes.

[Southparkeagles]

Their record was as stable at 10-1 as last season’s Vikings team. We played two decent games, Miami and LAR (maybe TB). We won the rest due to the other teams incompetence and some lucky breaks. We were never able to hold the lead and/or could never pull away with confidence. We’ve had many implosive moments and always gave the opposition a chance. We played down to our competition. We’ve never played a complete football game, and it sure looks like we never will this season. 
Siri and the coordinators probably lost this team at some point. Maybe a few games into the season when they realized the scheme on both sides of the ball wasn’t cohesive and/or consistent. The offense was unimaginative and predictable. Changing D coordinators late in the season was an act of desperation, and I believe this has caused the team to completely quit. 
The beat down we took from the 9’ers and Cowboys probably broke some of our players as well. They knew the day would come when a team would completely expose and humiliate them. They’ve been an entirely different team since those losses, cause they know they’re poorly coached, but also, just not good in keys areas-mostly on the defensive side of the ball. More importantly, they know the coaching staff is unable to rescue them, because they are largely the problem. 
 

At least the 2022 Vikings bowed out quietly. This team’s continued collapse is historic and will be talked about for a long time if it ends they way most believe it will.