Sleeping in Seattle, Eagles Lose to Seahawks

SEA QB R. Wilson scoring...on a receiving TD. Image: CSNPhilly.com

      The Eagles traveled West to play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday and came home losers.  That's right, surprise, surprise!  They lost to the Seahawks 26-15 in a game where the score does not tell the story as it could've been worse.  Last week on The SmallBall Lineup (weekly podcast with Keith Smallwood) I predicted a very close 24-21 loss on the , because I thought this team was going to get it together respectably after a solid win against the Falcons.  Anyway they came out flat and the stats are irrelevant for the most part after a game like this.  What I am going to do this week is just keep it simple, make points and observations on this past week and for the team moving forward.

• Surprisingly, this was the first game of the season that the Eagles were completely out played in all facets of the game and for the most part were never really in it.

• Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson continues to prove how clueless he can be.  His press conferences don't help him in the slightest as his poor explanations of his decisions to me depict how he calls the game on the field.  For example, He acknowledges in today's press conference that he knows that Rookie QB Carson Wentz should not be throwing the ball 45 times in Seattle, yet he had him throw the ball 45 times when the score wasn't out of hand yet.  Also, Doug needs to be careful because he tends to subtly throw Wentz under the bus as a rookie, yet many of the other players who make mistakes never are mentioned to the media.  In my opinion Wentz is the guy that needs to be tended to because he is one of the few on the team right now who will be the face of the franchise.

• The Eagles defensive as a whole did not play their best game for sure, but the defensive line was suckered all day by a sub-par/make-shift offensive line.  Going into the game the narrative was to contain Russell Wilson and the defensive line continued to over-pursue giving space for Wilson to slide up into the pocket.  Unfortunately this was not one of Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz's best games coaching as they were not creative in their blitzing schemes.

•  Eagles QB Carson Wentz has been regressing over the past couple of weeks and he does deserve a slight bit of blame but he is getting an unfortunate amount of flack with close to 0 help around him.  The guy has nothing to work with but at the same time he is making mistakes.  Some of this to me is the Head Coach not play calling as he was in the beginning of season and the other part is Wentz wanting to win by pressing.  The bright side of this all is that he can experience the lows now and if/when they can get him help he'll be able to capitalize on his mistakes in the future.

• Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson would've essentially been the best wide receiver on the Eagles on Sunday(when it mattered), scoring a 15 yard trick play Touchdown pass from Seahawks WR Doug Baldwin.  Seattle lived on the big plays Sunday as TE Jimmy Graham also caught a TD on a 35 yard broken play (awful missed attempt at a tackle by Safety Jaylen Watkins) while Rookie RB C.J. Prosise busted out a 72 yard TD scamper as the defense wiffed on getting the back down (big missed assignment by Eagles CB Jalen Mills).  Bottom line Seattle took advantage of missed opportunities by Philadelphia and Philadelphia hurt themselves on offense by taking away big plays via penalties and dropped passes.

• Speaking of Receiving...Eagles 2015 first round pick WR Nelson Agholor has been nothing short of a disappointment and Sunday may have been a breaking point.  Not only did Agholor drop another wide open strike from Carson Wentz, but his Illegal Formation penalty that negated a 57 yard screen pass TD to Zach Ertz in the 2nd quarter may have changed the tide for the Eagles.  He has admitted to his head not being in it and that he is pressing but I can not feel bad for him because he has been given every opportunity since he has arrived and has not been able to catch more than 3 passes in a game.  To cut him would cost around 7 million dollars and that seems absolutely crazy but it is something that has to AT LEAST be considered because he has been the epitome of how bad the wide outs have been here the past two seasons.

• Garbage time for the Eagles as I mentioned made this game look salvageable for this team.  WR Dorial Green-Beckham came up BIG in Garbage time.  Please people watch the game before referring to the box score so you know what you are talking about because just the box score is so misleading.  I still believe there is something there in talent and size with Green-Beckham but he has to do it when it counts, not just when they are down 19 in the 4th quarter.

• A couple bits of good news for this team moving forward.
• The Eagles are 1-5 on the road and 4-0 at home, so there are only 2 more road games and 4 more home games which favors the Eagles going forward, MAYBE keeping them in the playoff hunt if they can take advantage of the home field advantage.
• The Seahawks, in my opinion, are the best all-around team they have played this season and will play this season.