What went wrong for the Eagles? There's no 'magic answer' and they must prove they're not 'stuck'

ARLINGTON, Texas — Some players sat by their lockers with blank stares. Others changed quickly and filed to the busses for a long flight home. This is a group used to possessing a certain swagger, to being on the other side of games like Sunday’s 33-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. And the rare losses have been easy to explain, with something uncharacteristic that could be addressed in a meeting and fixed the following week. 

What once seemed uncharacteristic is developing into their features.

Jalen Hurts likes to talk about the standard. What is that standard now? Because for the second consecutive week, the Eagles were embarrassed by a team that’s supposed to be in their weight class. Turns out, there’s a level lower than the humiliation felt in a loss to the 49ers last week. 

“This is something we’re going through,” Jalen Hurts said, “not something we’re stuck in.”

If that’s the case, they better find the light quickly. The Eagles failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time in the Nick Sirianni era. They turned the ball over three times on offense — each one a fumble by a team captain. The defense allowed points on the Cowboys’ first four drives and saw their rivals convert 9 of 16 third downs. The Eagles trailed at halftime for the sixth consecutive game, with three of those deficits by double-digits. It would be easier to wash away the loss if there was an obvious fix. But like Jason Kelce once said, it’s the whole team.

“To say I have the magic answer right now, I don’t think that’s realistic,” Sirianni said. “But today, what it was about, was some turnovers. And then just got to start a little bit faster.”

They’re not the first team to look like this against the Cowboys, just as they weren’t the first team to look like they did against the 49ers last week. The problem for the Eagles is that’s the curve they’ll be graded upon in the NFC. They’re at the point where it doesn’t matter how many points they can beat the Arizona Cardinals by on New Year’s Eve. What matters most is what they do in the postseason. And to reach the Super Bowl, they’re likely going to need to get through San Francisco and/or Dallas. 

The Eagles beat the Cowboys last month, and topped the Dolphins, Chiefs, and Bills. So it’s not as if they can’t outmatch top teams. But it’s hard to have much confidence with the way they’re playing the past two weeks, when they can’t make stops on defense and can’t keep pace on offense.

“Let’s be honest: We got punched in the mouth two weeks in a row,” Fletcher Cox said. “We got a little blood dripping from our lip. We’ll get it stitched up.”

So where to begin? What’s at the top of the list?

Depends who you ask.

“Taking care of the ball, scoring in the red zone,” DeVonta Smith said.

“Third down,” James Bradberry said.

“I can keep it simple and just say ‘win’,” Hurts said. “We’ve done a lot of that for a long time. These last two games we haven’t been able to do that. It comes down to executing.”

The Eagles were lauded for their resilience during their come-from-behind wins, although those games obscured festering issues. It was like delaying a doctor’s visit until an ailment became too troublesome to endure. They trailed at halftime in only three games last season, and only once by more than seven points. The schedule was easier, of course, but their roster is built to play from ahead. That way, their pass rush can feast on a one-dimensional offense and their offensive line can overpower the opposing defense while wearing the clock down. Instead, the Eagles are trying to make up ground because the defense cannot force opposing teams off the field early. And the offense has looked like a tennis player that cannot return a serve. The last time they reached double-digit points in the first half, James Harden was still preparing for his Clippers debut. The last time the Eagles led at halftime, the Phillies were still playing. 

On Sunday, the offense was either settling for field goals or turning the ball over. The Eagles fumbled three times — each one by a prominent player (Hurts, Smith, and A.J. Brown) in Cowboys territory. You can’t go into the Eagles’ auditorium without seeing signs about ball security, yet there was Hurts after the game crediting Dallas’ technique for taking the ball away. If only the problem was limited to Sunday. The Eagles have 19 turnovers this season. That matches last season’s total with four more games to play. The fumbles stymied scoring opportunities, although it’s not as if they could find explosive plays on their own. The offense only had two plays of greater than 20 yards (excluding a well-executed fake punt).

“I think, we are trying to make plays, man,” Brown said of the fumbles. “Of course we have to hold onto the ball. But we are trying to make plays. Holding onto the ball, of course we want to hold onto the ball. But that’s the least of our worries. That’s just me being honest.”

There’s much else to worry about, like a defense that cannot get opponents off the field. The Cowboys scored points on seven of nine drives. The 49ers scored touchdowns on their final six drives last week (excluding kneeldowns). The offense is struggling at the moment, although it would take a top-of-the-league pace to match opposing offenses with the way teams are scoring on the Eagles. Five of Dallas’ seven longest plays came on third down. The Eagles entered the game with the worst third-down defense in the NFL, and they played as advertised. Two of their third-down stops came on sacks, but they entered the game with the worst sack rate on third downs in the NFL. That’s a major reason for the rock-bottom ranking.

“I’m tired of fucking ‘almosts’,” Josh Sweat said of a pass rush that’s getting pressure but not sacks.

There are enough reasons for losing to spread around the locker room. Some players acknowledged that losing by 20 points is no different than losing by one point. The frustration and criticism might be sharper back home, but the record looks the same no matter what. And what’s worse than a bad loss is letting that loss spill into the next week. The Eagles fly cross country next week for a tough visit to Seattle. They must stop the bleeding. 

“I think the biggest thing for this team now is really find out who the dudes are,” Cox said “And I’ve been part of teams where the dudes in the locker room do something about it. And I’ve been a part of the team where you know, it kind of crumbles. But now it’s time to see the real leadership. The real players. The guys that are elite on this team, myself included, step up and do something about it. Get this team another win.”

Sirianni will try to hit the right notes in his messaging. He’s found ways to engage the team when they keep winning. He kept the locker room from unraveling during the 2021 nadir. How they respond to the latest humiliation is Sirianni’s next task.

“I know that everybody that’s in that locker room has been through shit in their lives and has made it to this point,” Sirianni said. “They’ve made it to this point because of the shit they’ve been through. And so that adversity has made a lot of us in that locker room where we are today, and we’ve got to remember that. We’ve got to internalize that, and we’ve got to make sure that they have adversity that we’re facing right now we’re able to get through and make sure we get better from it.”

It’s a nice message, although the same could be said about the opponents who are stripping the ball, converting on third down, and keeping the Eagles out of the end zone. So Sirianni must find tangible improvements — and that charge extends to the coaching staff, too.

“We’re not doing well enough right now coaching or playing,” Sirianni said. “That’s just the fact.”

The Eagles no longer control their path to the top seed. Another slipup could cost them control of the NFC East. The schedule gets lighter, but the margin for error has thinned. Ten wins in 11 games made them a likely playoff team. The past two losses dimmed their Super Bowl odds. 

The Eagles can still get through. They first must prove they’re not stuck.