Letdown at The Linc

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Letdown at The Linc

Posted: September 19th, 2021 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

There was a ton of buzz for the Eagles home opener. The team was coming off a 32-6 beatdown of the Falcons and the Eagles were a media darling, with Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts getting a lot of love. All of that energy, positivity and momentum came to a screeching halt, just like the Eagles offense at the goal line.

SF 17
PHI 11

This may have been an especially costly loss.

Ugh.

Graham has already tweeted about trying to get ready for 2022 so that tells you where his head is at. We’ll have to wait and see with Brooks. If Brooks is done, that could be the end of his Eagles career. He’s struggled to stay healthy and isn’t getting younger. He stays in great shape, but his body just isn’t holding up. Let’s hope somehow he’s just out a few weeks.

Back to the game.

The Eagles controlled the first half of the game, but couldn’t score points. There were two terrible sequences.

Jalen Hurts hit Jalen Reagor for a long TD, but replay showed Reagor stepped out of bounds before catching the ball. The Eagles were then stuffed on 3rd-and-short. They attempted a FG, but it was blocked. They went from 7 to 3 to 0.

Ugh.

Later Hurts hit Quez Watkins for a 91-yard gain. Watkins was tackled inside the 10. Surely the Eagles would score a TD after that huge play. Oops. The Eagles ran 6 plays and didn’t score a point. They went with a trick play on fourth down, a version of Philly Special. Greg Ward was supposed to throw to Hurts, but he was covered so Ward inexplicably threw the ball away.

Ugh.

The Niners drove 97 yards for a TD after that and led 7-3 at the half. They never trailed again.

Sirianni didn’t do his players any favors with his play-calling in key situations. He got too cute. To be fair to him, he did try to run the ball up the middle, but they got stuffed. Instead of adjusting and going for QB sneaks, he got creative. Too creative. SF defended the Eagles well and ended drives with some big plays.

The Eagles offense was up and down. This wasn’t some awful performance where they couldn’t move the ball. The Eagles struggled to score after getting into scoring position.

Hurts could have played better. Last week he didn’t attempt a deep ball. This week he did that over and over. The problem is that he didn’t have much success. SF had some backup corners in the game, but throwing deep isn’t a high percentage play. And the Niners safeties did an excellent job of helping to cover the deep receivers. It wasn’t like guys were running wide open down the field.

The receivers didn’t help Hurts out. They didn’t make tough catches. They didn’t draw PI flags. The passing game wasn’t good enough.

The Eagles defense played well overall, but wore down as the game went on. They were dominant early, holding SF without a first down in the first quarter. The Niners hadn’t had that happen to them since 2016.

The Niners did run for 117 yards, but it took 38 carries. They only averaged 3.1 yards per run.

The Eagles defense didn’t come up with a takeaway, key Red Zone stop or a key 3rd down stop. They didn’t play well enough to win.

The biggest takeaway from this game is that the Eagles can play with the best teams in the NFC. We still don’t know if they are good enough to beat those teams. They weren’t today, but they can learn from this loss and be in better shape for the next game.

Anyone who watched this game should be frustrated, but not discouraged. This is a new coach and a young QB. There are going to be ups and downs. There is no shame in losing to a tough, physical, veteran team like the Niners.

If the Eagles embrace this loss and learn from their mistakes, this game can help them in the long run.

It feels weird to say this, but there are still 15 games left to play. This journey is just beginning.

http://igglesblitz.com/2021/09/letdown-at-the-linc/