Eagles 2nd Loss in a Row Drawing Concern

Wentz being sacked by Redskins DE Ryan Kerrigan. Image Courtesy: NBC10.com

      The Philadelphia Eagles and their fans came off of last week's disappointing loss to the Detroit Lions hopeful as their 2nd half comeback in that game fell just short due to a Ryan Mathews fumble in the last 2 minutes.  So the thinking going into Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins was that the team would right their wrongs, shake off their bye week rust, and play with a chip on their shoulder...WRONG!  If not for a Wendell Smallwood kick-off return touchdown and a Malcolm Jenkins Pick 6 in the first half the final score of this game would've been very lopsided in Washington's favor as they surprisingly lost a close one, 27-20. 

      The first three weeks of the season we saw three well coached games with players being held accountable, available, and executing.  On the flip side, in the last two weeks we have seen awful execution, lack of accountability, and an egregious amount of penalties.  Penalties the last two weeks have played an integral part in the teams losing ways.  In the past two games the Eagles have committed 27 penalties for 225 yards and they are now on a record breaking pace for penalties in a season, not good!  Don't get me wrong, the NFL is getting flag-friendly, throwing excessive amounts of penalties left and right and some of them in the past two weeks against the Eagles have been egregious, but this team right now is shooting themselves in the foot by committing poor penalties, showing a lack of discipline.  As to no surprise, penalties and game planning have gone hand-in-hand during this losing streak.  It's simple, when a team is playing poor there is a much better chance they will commit penalties as they play with their back against the wall.  As much as they players are not executing and are committing penalties, the coaching staff deserves just as much of the blame for not having their players better disciplined.

      Another issue that has reared its ugly head is players not being available.  In particular RT Lane Johnson, who is now in the midst of serving a 10-game suspension for violating the NFL's Drug Policy for the 2nd time in his career, has been a horrific blow to an Offensive line that was playing surprisingly well this season.  Eagles 5th-Round draft pick in this past springs NFL Draft, RT Halapoulivaati Vaitai (Big V), got his first career start against the Redskins on Sunday getting destroyed by their defensive line.  Now, I can't fully blame him as this was his first game and he didn't have much help and he is a 5th-round draft pick, meaning he's not looked at as an elite player who is ready to jump right into the NFL.  The problem I have here falls on the coaching staff because as I said they did not provide him with much help.  Myself and many others thought going into Sunday the Eagles would've line up the tight ends next to Vaitai to help chip off Washington's pass rushers to give QB Carson Wentz more time to make plays...WRONG!  It was evident on the first play of the game for the Eagles offense as Big V was lined up by himself against Skins DE Ryan Kerrigan who completely blew up Big V and sacked/ripped Wentz's jersey.  The trend continued throughout the game which had me especially frustrated that veteran TE Brent Celek was not out there next to Big V as he only played on 13 snaps the whole game, which I can only blame Head Coach Doug Pederson and the rest of his offensive coaching staff.

      I could continue to go on and on and on about all of the mistakes the players are making on the field, such as receivers not running the correct routes/dropping the ball, or both offensive and defensive lines committing awful penalties, or the linebackers and defensive backs missing tackles, but I'm not going to do that because it is a continuing trend that we are seeing every week and we know what they are doing wrong by now.  What I and many others across Philadelphia would like to know is who, what, when, where, why, and how are they going to fix these issues?  All of our expectations arose after the Eagles 3-0 start, including their Week 3 win at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers, rightfully so, but the flaws we saw before the season are now showing up and after two bad games there seems to be no sign of growing or improvement.  This season is a process and we did not expect them to start as well as they did, but now there is a hunger for more, especially from the fans.  To me Doug Pederson has a lot to prove this season, as all eyes will be on him and how this team either progresses or regresses, so for his sake and ours I hope he can get to his players and make the best of the rest of the season, because as we all know this city can turn on you very quickly.

P.S. - I blame almost nothing on QB Carson Wentz because he is the GOAT and he is the main reason why the team still has a chance to win these games even when they are playing awful!