PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles are staring at a rough patch that already feels bigger than the calendar says it should.
Two straight losses - first the blowout against the Bears last Monday, then the collapse against the Rams on Sunday - have pushed Philadelphia to a point where the noise around the team is only going to get louder. Next comes a trip to London, where the Eagles will try to stop the slide against a Jaguars team that is now 3-1 after beating the Bengals in Cincinnati.
That’s the backdrop, and nobody in the locker room is pretending otherwise. Britain Covey pointed to the kind of reaction that tends to follow a stretch like this, and to the way a team can sometimes tighten when the outside world starts writing it off.
“Here's what I do know is there's gonna be panic on the outside, and there's gonna be understandably a lot of frustration on the inside, but we were 2-2 in the Super Bowl year, and there's kind of like a sigh of relief in a way that happens when everyone writes you off, where you just say, ‘OK, now it's the only thing that matters is everyone in this room,’ and I have a feeling that's probably gonna happen,” said Eagles punt returner Britain Covey, whose 41-yard punt return into the red zone set up a touchdown that gave the Eagles a 13-3 lead with 5:44 to play in the second quarter.
“You're gonna get written off as a team and, and in a way it's kind of a unique situation. You wish it wasn't needing that, but it's a unique way to come together as a team because you're all you have.”
There were still some signs of life mixed in with the mess. Cooper DeJean said the Eagles can pull real value from the game, even with the result sitting squarely in the loss column.
“I think there's a lot of things we can take away from this game,” said Cooper DeJean, whose interception late in the first half set up a touchdown with three seconds to go. “I don't think anybody's worried.
I still feel like there's a lot of confidence in, in this locker room. There's definitely things we can build off of that we did in this game, and obviously things that we can clean up.
The biggest thing is finishing the game.”
But the bigger picture is hard to ignore. Philadelphia entered the game already dealing with injuries and then took more hits along the way, losing Saquon Barkley, Jonathan Greenard, and Quinyon Mitchell. Lane Johnson also was unavailable because of a personal matter just hours before kickoff, leaving the Eagles with 47 available players, one short of the NFL’s game-day limit.
On the field, the offense sputtered in ways that have become impossible to gloss over. The Eagles have been awful in the third quarter through four games, going three-and-out on nine of their 11 possessions in that period. Against the Rams, they went 0-for-12 on third down and 1-for-4 on fourth down, finishing with just 12 first downs.
Nick Sirianni didn’t try to dodge any of it.
“I've got a ton of confidence in [Offensive Coordinator] Sean [Mannion] and he's going to wear a lot of this,” said head coach Nick Sirianni. “There's no doubt.
I'm going to wear a lot of this. Our offense is going to wear a lot of this.
You win together, you lose together. I have no complaints on what happened there today.
There's opportunity for us all to grow following this game, win, lose, draw.”
There’s also the reminder hanging over this group that 2-2 wasn’t a death sentence the last time the Eagles were in a Super Bowl season. After that bye week, the focus sharpened on the run game, and Saquon Barkley went on to a 2,000-yard season.
Hurts said the answer now is to keep pushing.
The quarterback said they need to “double down” on the work.
“This is a team that is building and finding its way,” said the quarterback. “It's obviously a work in progress.
I have the utmost confidence in this team. I have the utmost confidence in this group.
We just have to remain endured, be persistent, and keep committing to one another, keep committing to the work of becoming a better group together.”
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Tank Bigsby stepped in after Barkley exited, with Will Shipley also picking up snaps as the Eagles tried to piece together the running game on the fly. Barkley has still produced 174 rushing yards through the first four weeks, but the bigger worry now is whether this is becoming a pattern rather than a one-off, and how long Philadelphia can keep its ground game on track if he keeps getting dinged up. [Read more 🡒]