LONDON - Jordan Mailata’s week started with one hit and ended with another.
Before the Eagles ever stepped onto the field at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Mailata had already been hit with a pair of jolts: longtime friend and mentor Lane Johnson abruptly retired in the middle of his 14th NFL season, then the next day another close friend, Cam Jurgens, was traded to the Baltimore Ravens. After that, Mailata still had to make the 7-hour trip to London and sit through a 19-17 loss that came down in brutal fashion.
“Dude, I’m tired,” Mailata said after the defeat. “I’m so tired.”
The final sequence was as cruel as it gets. With 8 seconds left, head coach Nick Sirianni chose to kick off deep. The 53-yard return left 1 second on the clock, and Cam Little finished the job with a 57-yard game-winning field goal.
For Mailata, that was not the kind of loss that leaves room for silver linings. When asked about a “moral victory,” he sounded completely spent.
“I don’t even know what that means now,” Mailata said. “I don’t even know.
My brain hurts. This week has been a week from hell for me.
I don’t even know the concept of a moral victory right now. I’m just trying to look internally to see how I contributed to this loss so I can correct it.
We weren’t good enough. We know that.”
Mailata’s answer for how to shake it all off was simple, almost blunt.
“Watch the film and move on,” he said. “Just watch the film.
Now we have a couple days before the next opponent and I’ll deal with it then. Reach out to my guys, see how they’re doing and then pull my socks up.
Because we’ve got another game to play and these boys need me. That’s how I look at it.”
As a captain, Mailata knows the burden that comes with the job, and right now the Eagles need that steadiness. They head into Week 6 against the Panthers, who are coming off a bye.
The offense made life harder on itself by being short-handed all day. DeVonta Smith was out.
Saquon Barkley was out. And up front, the injury hits kept piling up.
At one point, Mailata was the last original starter left on the line after Tyler Steen went out with a shoulder injury. He was working beside Willie Lampkin and Jake Majors, both making their first career starts, along with Markel Bell in his second career start and Fred Johnson playing out of position.
Even with all of that, Mailata came away feeling good about the group’s response.
“The theme this week and during the week was to just keep riding the wave,” he said. “Wave of good, wave of bad, wave of perfect, wave of adversity and just keep surfing.
All that means is just keep playing the next play. I thought they did a great job of that.”
The loss was the Eagles’ third straight. They were blown out in Chicago in Week 3 and then dropped back-to-back heartbreakers to the Rams and the Jaguars.
It also left them with a losing record for the first time since before the bye week in the 2021 season.
Still, Mailata wasn’t sounding like a player ready to fold. If anything, he said he still believes in where this team can go.
“I’m actually very excited and very high on the team right now,” Mailata explained. “Because I think defense picked us up, not just on the field but with everything we went through this week, they picked us up off the field.
We did link arms and I think moving forward, we’re linking arms even more now. There’s no blame to be tossed around.
“Again, it’s how can I do my 1/11th and how can I contribute to a win? Unfortunately, we lost so now it’s how did my 1/11th contribute to the loss?
And that’s how we have to look at it. There are moments in the game that we all want back and we all contributed.
It’s tough.”
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