Roob's Instant Observations after Eagles let No. 2 seed slip away

The Eagles will settle for the No. 3 seed and will host the 49ers next week in the wild card round.

By Reuben Frank • Published January 4, 2026

Watching the Lions go into Chicago and beat the Bears and then losing to Josh Freaking Johnson was one of the nightmare scenarios we talked about all week.

The No. 2 seed was right there for the Eagles, but they let one of the worst quarterbacks in NFL history – Josh Johnson and his 1-10 career record – beat their backups 24-17 at the Linc.

Ouch.

The Eagles got the help they needed from the Lions, but if Nick Sirianni played his starters Sunday, it’s hard to imagine the Eagles losing to the Commanders. But here we are and instead of the two seed and a chance to play the struggling Packers in the wild-card round with a 2nd-round playoff game at the Linc guaranteed with a win, the Eagles will now draw the 49ers in the wild-card round and then most likely head out on the road for the second round if they win. And I don’t need to remind anyone the Eagles have won five road playoff games since 1950 – they’re 5-14, with just one road postseason win since 2009 – the Double Doink in Chicago.

Despite all this, Sirianni’s approach made sense. The Eagles go into the playoffs healthy, and if he played the starters there’s no guarantee that would have happened. You just don’t expect to lose a football game to a 39-year-old journeyman with one career win in 17 seasons. That just can’t happen.

1. A disappointing performance by Tanner McKee, and that’s something we just haven’t seen from the third-year QB. He got off to a good start but really struggled as the game went on and when the Eagles had a couple drives in the final minutes with a chance to tie the game – and a tie gets them the No. 2 seed – he made a series of terrible throws. He just looked bad. He took off out of the pocket too much, struggled with pocket awareness, missed too many open guys, made bad decisions, threw a terrible interception down in the red zone and finished 5-for-14 for 40 yards on three drives in the fourth quarter. If you told me the Eagles need a Tanner McKee win over Josh Johnson to earn the No. 2 seed, you would love your chances. From what we’ve seen of McKee last year and in training camp, this sort of performance is very surprising. And very disappointing.

2. So it turns out the Eagles will have to go on the road for the conference semifinal round if they beat the 49ers in their home wild-card round game - unless the Packers beat the Bears - but this has been such a good road team they’re capable of winning in any stadium. The Eagles are an NFL-best 30-13 in five years under Nick Sirianni on the road, and no other team has more than 27 road wins during that span. Sirianni is one of only two coaches in NFL history to have a winning road record in each of his first five seasons. The other is Hall of Famer Don Shula. The Eagles won in some tough buildings this year – Arrowhead, Raymond James, Lambeau, U.S. Bank, Highmark – and finished 6-2 on the road, losing only in that mightmarish Week 6 game at the Meadowlands and against the Chargers last month. The Eagles are not like a lot of other teams that struggle in tough road stadiums. Assuming they take care of business next weekend, they’ll be ready if they have to go on the road.

3. Honestly, I expected the Eagles’ defensive backups to play a lot better than this. Yikes. I thought they would dominate Josh Johnson, the 39-year-old journeyman who came in with a 1-10 career won-lost record. They did force two turnovers but also let Johnson move the ball through the air way more than he should have, didn’t sack him, even with a bunch of d-line regulars, allowed him to get outside repeatedly and make plays with his legs, gave up two touchdowns set up by pass interference calls, let the Commanders convert 55 percent of their third downs and even let Johnson throw a touchdown pass for the first time since 2021 and 14th time in his 17-year career. This is a quarterback who had never put up more than 21 points in any of his previous 11 starts and generated an average of 14.4. I get that they’re backups for a reason, but it was still a terrible performance.

4. Speaking of which … I didn’t really understand why Jakorian Bennett never got much of a chance to compete for playing time at cornerback earlier in the year when Kelee Ringo and Adoree Jackson were both struggling. This is a guy Howie Roseman traded for in the move that sent Thomas Booker to the Raiders. But we saw Sunday why. He was terrible, committing a defensive holding on one drive, a 23-yard pass interference in the end zone on the next, which set up Washington’s first touchdown, and then another DPI in the end zone in the fourth quarter, setting up Washington’s second TD. Bennett was originally a 4th-round pick out of Maryland a couple years ago, so you thought maybe he was a guy who had a future here as a backup, but he looked like he doesn’t belong in the NFL. Overall, the Eagles committed four DPIs for 88 yards – 4 and 23 yards by Bennett, 32 yards by Ringo and 29 yards by Mac McWilliams. Yikesville.

5. There was little doubt in my mind before this game that Tank Bigsby can play and he didn’t do anything to change my mind. Sixteen tough carries for 75 yards and a touchdown and a 31-yard catch-and-run for 106 scrimmage yards. And he should have had more carries. I’m not in love with that 43-to-16 pass-run ratio on a day McKee was struggling. And none of those rushing yards came easy for him as he worked behind a makeshift offensive line of rookies and backups. Bigsby is under contract for another year on the rookie deal he signed with the Jaguars last year and I want him back. There were times earlier in the year when Saquon Barkley wasn’t putting up big numbers and whenever Bigsby came in he would add some juice to the operation. There were a number of games where I thought it was warranted to give Bigsby a few more carries. He’s a legit back. Ran for nearly 800 yards and a 4.6 average with seven TDs last year in Jacksonville, and I really think he can be another weapon in this offense if used properly.

6. It was great seeing DeVonta Smith get the 44 yards he needed for his third 1,000-yard season. Got his 1,000 yards and then got off the field healthy. Smith really deserves it. He’s been so freaking good this year and you’d hate to see him fall a few yards short of a milestone that still means a lot to wide receivers. Smith is only the fifth Eagle ever with three 1,000-yard seasons, joining A.J. Brown (four) and DeSean Jackson, Mike Quick and Hall of Famer Harold Carmichael (three each). That’s elite company right there. Until 2022, the franchise had never had two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season. Now Smith and Brown have done it three times. What a WR duo the Eagles have. Smith plays in Brown’s shadow to a great extent, so it’s nice to see him get an accolade he truly deserves.

7. Jalyx Hunt’s ball skills are tremendous, and you wouldn’t expect anything else from a defensive end who played safety at Cornell, his first college stop. With his third interception on Sunday, Hunt became only the 11th defensive lineman in NFL history with three INTs in a season and the first Eagles defensive lineman with three since nose tackle Charlie Johnson in the 1980 Super Bowl season, when he made 1st-team all-pro. Hunt’s three INTs gives him as many as every Eagles cornerback combined (Cooper DeJean two, Adoree Jackson one). And he’s only the fourth defensive lineman with three INTs and six sacks in a season, joining Hall of Famer and former Eagle Richard Dent in 1990 (12 sacks, three INTs), the Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson in 2022 (9 ½, 3) and the Colts’ Laiatu Latu this year (8 ½, 3). He’s also the first Eagle ever to lead the team in both sacks and interceptions in the same season. And he also had his first career fumble recovery Sunday, which led to the Eagles’ 3rd-quarter touchdown. Terrific year for the 2nd-year player.

8. Yeah, Darius Cooper should know better, and that was a costly mistake, but I really hate the taunting penalty and it’s gotten out of hand what constitutes taunting in the NFL rulebook. If you glare at a guy after a play, that’s taunting. If you celebrate a little too much and too close to the other guy, that’s taunting. What exactly did Cooper do to cost the Eagles 15 yards and a likely touchdown? He spun the ball in the general direction of Jonathan Jones after a 17-yard catch down to the Washington 5-yard-line late in the second quarter. Instead of 1st-and-goal at the 5, the Eagles had 1st-and-10 on the 20 and that’s when Tanner McKee threw his first career interception, which led to a Washington field goal. So the taunting penalty was quite likely a 10-point turnaround in a game the Eagles lost by seven points. Terrible, stupid rule. Or at least a terrible, stupid interpretation of a rule that should be only enforced in the event of a true unsportsmanlike display. This was not that.

9. A couple thoughts on the 49ers. While the 13-3 loss to the Seahawks might be freshest in our minds, this is a team that won six of its last seven games and averaged 34 points in their eight games before Seattle. Kyle Shanahan is a heck of a play caller and it will be quite a battle between Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and Company and Vic Fangio and his group, which has been the best in the league since the bye week. The 49ers don’t have an elite defense, and they’re last in the NFL in sacks among the worst in the league in takeaways. You can run on the 49ers and you can definitely throw on them – their 100.5 opposing passer rating is 7th-worst in the league. It’s going to take the offense playing better than they have in quite a while and another big-time effort from the defense to win this game. I know the defense will be up to it. I’m just not sure about the offense. Can they score 24 to 27 points against a good team? It’s been a while.

10. A few people have asked why Nick Sirianni wouldn’t put some of his guys who were in uniform but hadn’t played in the game in the fourth quarter, once the Lions beat the Bears and that two seed was within reach with a little comeback. But I think that’s a dangerous thing to do. These guys have been sitting around for three hours, mentally they weren’t planning on playing and it’s not fair to them to ask them to go in cold in the fourth quarter. That’s where you’re really putting players at risk. I get that you have Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith on the bench in uniform, and Smith had played in the first quarter, and it could be tempting. But the whole idea of resting those guys is to keep them healthy for the playoffs and bringing them in cold is a good way to get people hurt.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/roobs-instant-observations-after-eagles-let-no-2-seed-slip-away/704427/

Tanner didn’t play well there’s no doubt about that. But I think it was also further confirmation that Patullo isn’t a good OC nor play caller and Sirianni just ain’t it when it comes to the offense. Tanner has looked good every other time he’s been called in to action and now suddenly he looks lost? And that follows how Jalen and this offense has looked lost all year. Something needs to be done about those two in the offseason.

1 hour ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Tanner didn’t play well there’s no doubt about that. But I think it was also further confirmation that Patullo isn’t a good OC nor play caller and Sirianni just ain’t it when it comes to the offense. Tanner has looked good every other time he’s been called in to action and now suddenly he looks lost? And that follows how Jalen and this offense has looked lost all year. Something needs to be done about those two in the offseason.

Sirianni's leash will likely get considerably shorter (IF they stumble in the postseason ... likely a safe assumption but can't say that with certainty). But have to believe the only way he'd get fired is if the same situation unfolded for him that we were in with Pederson where he was given the ultimatum to fire his OC (Groh) and he refused to do so leading to his exit.

10 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Sirianni's leash will likely get considerably shorter (IF they stumble in the postseason ... likely a safe assumption but can't say that with certainty). But have to believe the only way he'd get fired is if the same situation unfolded for him that we were in with Pederson where he was given the ultimatum to fire his OC (Groh) and he refused to do so leading to his exit.

Yep. If the offense continues to look like it has in the playoffs and we lose a game clearly due to that, I'll be real curious to see how Howie/Lurie feel about the Siri-tullo combo. I'm more or less preparing for another year of these 2

Just now, EaglesAddict said:

Yep. If the offense continues to look like it has in the playoffs and we lose a game clearly due to that, I'll be real curious to see how Howie/Lurie feel about the Siri-tullo combo. I'm more or less preparing for another year of these 2

I can't imagine they'll be OK with having watched a golden opportunity slip away all because of a dumb hiring decision. This roster was set to repeat - there are loads of talent on offense and the defense has been playing at a championship level (even though there was significantly more change on that unit relative to the offense). I just hope they don't buy in to the injury excuse (if Sirianni uses that route if he goes to bat for Patullo) even though technically it would be legit.

25 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Sirianni's leash will likely get considerably shorter (IF they stumble in the postseason ... likely a safe assumption but can't say that with certainty). But have to believe the only way he'd get fired is if the same situation unfolded for him that we were in with Pederson where he was given the ultimatum to fire his OC (Groh) and he refused to do so leading to his exit.

I think another double digits winning season. A home play off game and that he won the SB just 11 months ago keeps him safe for another year. I’d personally move on from him because I don’t have faith in him but I also recognise he’s a SB winning HC who also went to the SB 3 years ago. I just think being an offensive coach with an offense as bad as this has been? Despite all the talent that we have on offense? And being so reliant on a good experienced OC is something that is going to hurt us. I mean eventually we are going to have to invest cap in the defense. At that point we will need to get more out of the offense than the talent available at that time. And Sirianni just isn’t it.

12 minutes ago, time2rock said:

I can't imagine they'll be OK with having watched a golden opportunity slip away all because of a dumb hiring decision. This roster was set to repeat - there are loads of talent on offense and the defense has been playing at a championship level (even though there was significantly more change on that unit relative to the offense). I just hope they don't buy in to the injury excuse (if Sirianni uses that route if he goes to bat for Patullo) even though technically it would be legit.

I don't buy into the injury excuse even though that's likely what has hindered the OL play. But the starters are on the field so it's kinda hard to use that. Plus, they obviously aren't doing anything to help compensate.

I wonder at times, in general, what Howie and Lurie see when it comes to this situation. It's perplexing...Siri has had great overall success since being our HC but at the same time, it has seemed relatively obvious that he has simply benefitted from having tremendous talent. He will never be a "do more with less" kind of coach (just like Jalen will never be a "do more with less" kind of QB). If the overall offensive talent drops off to even "a little above average", Siri will not be able to overcome that by scheming and designing ways to do so.

And what UK_EaglesFan89 said above is of particular interest....we will soon have to spend heavy cap resources to defensive players which will likely mean sometime relatively soon we will have to sacrifice on the offensive side. And if so, Sirianni will be completely exposed.

14 minutes ago, EaglesAddict said:

I don't buy into the injury excuse even though that's likely what has hindered the OL play. But the starters are on the field so it's kinda hard to use that. Plus, they obviously aren't doing anything to help compensate.

I wonder at times, in general, what Howie and Lurie see when it comes to this situation. It's perplexing...Siri has had great overall success since being our HC but at the same time, it has seemed relatively obvious that he has simply benefitted from having tremendous talent. He will never be a "do more with less" kind of coach (just like Jalen will never be a "do more with less" kind of QB). If the overall offensive talent drops off to even "a little above average", Siri will not be able to overcome that by scheming and designing ways to do so.

And what UK_EaglesFan89 said above is of particular interest....we will soon have to spend heavy cap resources to defensive players which will likely mean sometime relatively soon we will have to sacrifice on the offensive side. And if so, Sirianni will be completely exposed.

Perfectly stated! I would add to what you said that Sirianni's success comes not only from the top talent but also with having strong coordinators.

Point #5 just drives me nuts. Throwing the ball 40 times with a backup QB and a backups on the OLine is just STUPID. In a 1 score game.

But we've seen STUPID all season from Doofus Siri and Doofus KP. It ain't changing now.

19 hours ago, LacesOut said:

Point #5 just drives me nuts. Throwing the ball 40 times with a backup QB and a backups on the OLine is just STUPID. In a 1 score game.

But we've seen STUPID all season from Doofus Siri and Doofus KP. It ain't changing now.

The play calling continues to be absolutely atrocious! QB under constant duress, Bigsby averaging 4.7 yards/carry, and then ZERO carries for him after the 2 min mark in the 3rd quarter (when we were still up 14-10) to close out the game. Dumb coaches doing dumb things. Completely nonsensical approach to the overall game plan.

^^^^

At some point, should the Owner/GM march into the Office of Doofus 1 and Doofus 2 and ask........ WTF are you doing on Offense?! WTF is the gameplan??!!

Tank should have gotten 15 carries. WShip should have gotten 10. AJ Dillion should have gotten 5.

I swear to god, they remind me of Andy's time here, when he thought he was the smartest guy in the room. Windy day in Cinnci, who was like 29th against the run, hey, we're going to fool everyone and, let's have McNabb throw the ball 45 times.