National Football League

Panic time in Philly? Eagles questioning everything after third straight loss

Published Dec. 19, 2023 11:21 a.m. ET

The Philadelphia Eagles looked like a team in crisis last week.

They might be close to a full-blown panic now.

Just days after they quietly demoted defensive coordinator Sean Desai and turned the play-calling over to Matt Patricia in what seemed like a desperation move, both coaches got to watch helplessly as the Eagles defense fell apart once again. They somehow let Drew Lock march the Seattle Seahawks 92 yards down the field in just 1:24 late in the fourth quarter so he could hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba with a game-winning, 29-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds to go.

That was enough to send the Eagles off on their long flight home with a soul-crushing, 20-17 loss — the third straight defeat for the defending NFC champs. And it once again left them wondering how everything had suddenly gone so wrong.

"I've been talking about execution all year, being on the same page, everyone being on the same page," said Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. "We didn't execute. I don't think we're committed enough."

His teammate agreed.

"That's three games in a row with the same stuff," said defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. "It's been a rough three weeks for this team."

That's quite an understatement for a team that came off back-to-back blowout losses against the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, only to fold late in Seattle. It's the first real adversity they've faced in the last two seasons. It's also their first three-game losing streak since the first month of the Nick Sirianni Era back in 2021.

And the worst part for the Eagles (10-4) is they looked like they were almost out of it, that they had found their old selves in Seattle. Even though Hurts was playing through an unspecified illness that forced him to skip the team charter and fly separately to the game, they actually looked good on offense at times. They recommitted to their rushing attack to the tune of 178 yards. Even Hurts, as sick as he looked, ran for 82 yards and two touchdowns.

But every time it looked like the Eagles had a chance to pull away from the Seahawks, something went wrong. Like when they had a shot to take an early 14-0 lead, but blew it when center Jason Kelce was called for a false start on a usually-automatic "Tush Push" play on 3rd and 1 from the Seattle 3 in the second quarter. That made them settle for a field goal instead.

Jalen Hurts questions Eagles 'commitment' after Seahawks loss

Or like in the fourth quarter, when they had the ball near midfield and a 17-13 lead with 8:15 remaining and a chance to grind the clock. But instead, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson tried to go for it all and had Hurts throw for Quez Watkins in the end zone. But the ailing Hurts threw it short and he was picked off by Seattle safety Julian Love instead.

They even had a shot to get into game-tying field goal range in the final seconds when they reached their own 45. But instead of trying to give kicker Jake Elliott a shot, they went for it all again with another deep pass that ended in a game-ending interception.

"Obviously, I thought we did a nice job running the football and keeping drives going, but we really wanted to be able to get up two scores on them," Sirianni said. "I thought the defense was hanging in there and doing some really nice things. We just needed to pull away and we didn't."

It's almost as if they can't right now. The old Eagles — the ones that won the NFC last year and looked ready to do it again this year — didn't have that problem. They had an offense that would grind opponents into submission, wear down defenses, and come up with big plays when they needed them. But this spiraling version of the Eagles has an offense that has now scored just four touchdowns in their last three games.

Sirianni said he has no plans to make any more coaching changes after this latest disaster — after all, benching two coordinators in two weeks would be a real desperate act. But after three straight losses, and with their starting quarterback now questioning the team's commitment, clearly something else has to be done.

"There's going to come a time where we learn from all these things," Hurts said. "S—t, I hate losing. But when you play like you deserve to lose, it's hard to beat that."

Hurts, as he always does, took the blame for the loss, after going 17 of 31 for just 143 yards and two interceptions — though it's hard to completely blame him given how sick he looked. He was really off on his longer passes, though, which made those fourth-quarter deep calls by Johnson look even more ridiculous.

Here's the thing, though: Despite Hurts' struggles, despite whatever offensive failings they had, they still had the lead over a struggling Seahawks team that had lost four straight games and had them pinned inside their own 10-yard line with less than two minutes to go. It wasn't pretty, but against a team with the NFL's 20th-ranked offense and starting their backup quarterback, that should have been enough.

But it wasn't because it doesn't matter whether Desai or Patricia are calling the plays the way this defense is playing. The Eagles are still struggling to generate any kind of consistent pass rush. Lock (22 of 33, 208 yards, one touchdown) was only sacked twice. And on that ill-fated final drive, the Eagles gave him plenty of time to pick their secondary — which was missing injured cornerback Darius Slay — apart.

The lack of a rush allowed Lock to find D.K. Metcalf for a 34-yard catch, even though he was double-covered by Eagles corner James Bradberry and safety Sydney Brown. And it allowed him two plays later to hit Smith-Njigba in the end zone after he got a step on Bradberry again.

Maybe it wasn't as bad overall as the last three weeks, when the defense gave up an average of 451 yards and 36 points per game to the Cowboys, Niners and Bills. But it was still a stark reminder of how different things are now with Philadelphia. They never used to miss a chance to finish an opponent off.

"I don't even know what to tell you, honestly," said receiver DeVonta Smith. "I don't even know. The frustrations are everywhere. It's everything."

It's so much, in fact, that they took little solace in the fact that they still control their destiny in the NFC East, even though they've basically punted away their shot at the No. 1 seed. They do still have a chance to get right thanks to the soft landing coming up on their schedule — two games against the awful New York Giants (5-9) sandwiched around a game against the woeful Arizona Cardinals (3-11).

But for now, they still can't shake the feeling that something is really, really wrong. And time is running out for them to figure out exactly what that is.

"We're running out of chances right now," Cox said. "Obviously, we are in the playoffs, but we're looking at the bigger picture."

Sirianni added: "We're in a slide. We have to get through the storm that we're in, fix our mistakes, and get better from this."

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.