The Philadelphia Eagles go into the Playoffs on the worst note possible.
Unless something dramatic happens in the playoffs, your Philadelphia Eagles run through the postseason will likely be a short one.
Throughout the week, between A.J. Brown speaking to the media and admitting that he and Jalen Hurts improvised that disastrous interception at the end of the Seattle Seahawks game and reports of players-only meetings, things for the Birds hit bottom in their regular-season finale against the New York Giants at Met-Life Stadium.
The Eagles are down and probably won’t get up until maybe next year.
Hoping to generate some semblance of momentum coming into the postseason and some semblance of hope that the Washington Commanders would beat the Dallas Cowboys, the Eagles came up with the worst effort that they have had in a long time.
In the Eagles 27-10 loss to the Giants, neither side of the ball could do anything right in the first half and the result was their fifth loss in six games after a 10-1 start.
After the Eagles defense got steamrollered by the Arizona Cardinals last week, New York quarterback Tyrod Taylor picked the Eagles apart. He completed 23-of-32 passes for 297 yards that included a 19-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton. The Giants scored on four of their six possessions to jump out to a 24-0 halftime lead and never looked back.
For the game, the Giants rolled up 415 yards of total offense.
After all the talk of generating steam going into the playoffs, the Birds offense couldn’t do anything against the Giants blitz. Jalen Hurts was sacked twice and completed just 7-of-16 passes for just 55 yards and one interception.
Both Hurts and the Eagles offensive coaching staff had no clue how to stop it or come up with adjustments to slow the Giants pass rush down.
You would think that the reputation that Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale has for blitzing teams would make the Birds coaching staff prepare the offensive line a little better or come up with some in-game adjustments to slow the Giants defense down.
Spoiler alert: They did neither.
Even worse, the Eagles may not have Brown for their road playoff game against Tampa Bay. On a catch and a fumble in the first quarter, Brown injured his right knee after being tackled by Giants cornerback Nick McCloud. In the second quarter, Hurts injured his middle finger on the helmet of a Giants defender.
At that point, head coach Nick Sirianni decided to rest his starters to get them ready for next Monday night’s playoff game against the Buccaneers.
More than any other game this season, Sunday’s game against the Giants encapsulated the weakness of the Eagles’ coaching staff and its inability to make any meaningful adjustments to the team’s strategy. Granted, the Eagles were without players like Brown and Devonta Smith, but even if those guys were on the field, the coaching staff would not have put their personnel in the right position to win.
Sirianni and his staff never fixed any of the things that the team was struggling with when they jumped out to a 10-1 record. In the last six games of the season, the Eagles defense gave up 30.3 points per game. The offense struggled to score 20.5 points per game after averaging 28.2 points per game during the first 11 games of the season.
Starting with the 49ers, Eagles opponents figured out how to physically beat up on a defense that had trouble stopping the run and the pass. One of the worst losses during that stretch was the loss to the Seahawks when backup quarterback Drew Lock drove his team 92 yards 1:24 and hit Jaxon Smith-Nijgba for a 29-yard touchdown pass to win the game.
The offense has been woefully inconsistent. Hurts and the offense could not put teams away and had no imagination. They were good in spurts, but were never consistent enough to win games.
The good thing about the playoffs for the Eagles is that everybody is now 0-0. The bad thing is that the Eagles aren’t good enough to duplicate last year’s run to the Super Bowl and aren’t getting better anytime soon.
Now I have to watch the Philadelphia Eagles play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday because it’s my job. But if you want to watch, you can catch the game at 8pm on 6ABC.
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