A Bad Loss

Posted: September 16th, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

The Eagles lost to the Falcons 22-21 in a game they had on lockdown. If Saquon Barkley catches the third down pass at the end of the game, the Eagles run the clock out. But that didn’t happen. Not even close.

I don’t blame Barkley for the loss. Or any individual. There were a lot of moments in this game where the Eagles were sloppy and made mistakes. The offense, which looked so good at times, only scored 2 TDs. The defense was dreadful, minus a handful of plays. The Falcons final drive was embarrassingly easy. Quinyon Mitchell made a mistake in coverage and got burned, but he’s a rookie. Darius Slay got burned for the winning TD because he was staring in the backfield and not paying attention to the WR directly in front of him. That leaves me speechless.

The DL was invisible. Atlanta has an underrated OL, but they shouldn’t manhandle the Eagles the way they did. That is incredibly troubling. Kirk Cousins had all day to throw on the final drive. The Eagles knew they would be passing and still couldn’t get close.

The holes in the zone coverage are massive. The defense feels like a group of individuals rather than a cohesive unit right now. That has to change.

The tackling was bad. Again.

Nick Sirianni and his coaching staff have a lot of issues to fix on a short week. And they have the hottest team in the league on the schedule for the next game. That’s not ideal at all.

This was a game the Eagles should have won on paper. And in reality. Instead, they blew it. A choke job like this could really hurt them come playoff time.

We also got the news that AJ Brown would miss another week. That’s going to keep the offense challenged. They did move the ball, but big plays were lacking. The long play was a 23-yard run by Jalen Hurts.

There are some things the coaches can build on, but there are also major problems that must be solved. And in a hurry. Even if Saquon catches that pass, there would have been issues to address. They just would have been in a win and not a loss. Maybe losing the game will get the players attention. Something needs to change or this won’t be the only disappointing loss.

*****

I’ll go through individuals who really struggled in another post. This is just an immediate reaction to a nice Monday night kick in the groin.

Thanks fellas.

http://igglesblitz.com/2024/09/a-bad-loss/

You can't under estimate Howie's failures along the DL.  Smith can't play at this level.  He's a bust.  Huff can't play in our scheme for some reason and the DC obviously doesn't care for his game.  Sweat is marking time until free agency.  Graham will retire after the season.  Davis is playing like a mid round NT.  Howie has drafted one DE bust after another after another.  He can't evaluate the position.  He is great at trading for established players so I would suggest he trade high picks to replenish the DL rather than drafting guys who can't play.  

I think the way the year plays out will determine if Howie's moves were winners or failures......it's still way to early to make those calls.

The reason I say that is because these guys have played for 2-3 defensive coordinators in multiple systems.  These adjustments are usually dismissed by fans and media but to a young player who still needs developing, they can have a big effect on their productivity.  And I don't care if they were 1st round picks or not.  Adjusting to the pro game and speed is a huge jump and changing schemes 2-3 times is difficult.

We're seeing OBVIOUS mistakes from the defense right now.  That means somebody is missing an assignment or pickup and allowing big plays.  Even veterans are making mistakes

It takes a defense 5-6 to really get thru the learning curve and start to jell.  As frustrating as these losses are, we have to wait and see how Fangio adjusts and how well the players implement the scheme and start to produce consistently.

Also, the offense is making such boneheaded mistakes and putting more pressure on the defense to win games when they clearly haven't gotten it together yet.  Interceptions, penalties and dropped passes have caused bad situations.  

But time will tell whether or not the talent on this team can play up to their expectations.  In the NFL, you have to evolve quickly or the season gets away quickly. 

On 9/17/2024 at 10:06 PM, birdman#12 said:

I think the way the year plays out will determine if Howie's moves were winners or failures......it's still way to early to make those calls.

Unfortunately the biggest factor will be the one decision they didn’t take action on… And that was to get rid of Sirianni. That’s the move they should have made but they didn’t and I think that’s going to haunt us.