It’s lengthy been mentioned the NFL stands for Not For Lengthy. Change comes rapidly in a copycat league the place successful methods are examined, analyzed and imitated and fixed innovation is central to continued success. However even by that commonplace, it’s troublesome to recall a extra speedy fall from grace than what’s gone down with the Philadelphia Eagles over the previous two months.
The Eagles had been the envy of the league as not too long ago as seven weeks in the past, a successful machine fronted by an lively younger coach, ascendant franchise quarterback and considered one of soccer’s most proficient rosters from prime to backside. After romping to final 12 months’s NFC championship and arising three factors wanting successful the Tremendous Bowl, they’d raced out to the NFL’s greatest file at Thanksgiving and appeared on the right track for a return journey to the game’s largest stage.
However from that 10-1 begin, the Eagles got here undone and limped into Monday night time’s NFC wildcard playoff having dropped 5 of six video games – a loss of life spiral punctuated by blowout losses to the 3-12 Cardinals and 5-11 Giants. All of it got here to a merciful, predictable finish on a muggy Monday night time at Raymond James Stadium, the place they had been dog-walked 32-9 by a mediocre Tampa Bay crew they’d dominated in October – a horror-show scoreline that would have been far worse had the mistake-prone Buccaneers not dropped a few half-dozen passes. The Eagles couldn’t block. They couldn’t catch. They definitely couldn’t sort out. They had been unprepared, unmotivated and uninterested. In a key sequence freighted with unmistakable metaphor, the Tush Push – their trademark short-yardage play as soon as hailed as unstoppable – was stuffed on the goalline.
The Eagles have skilled their share of home-stretch faceplants in a nine-decade historical past full of much more heartbreak than glory – 2014 beneath Chip Kelly, 1994 beneath Wealthy Kotite, 1981 beneath Dick Vermeil and 1961 beneath Nick Skorich – however none of these collapses can evaluate to the warp-speed regression of the previous seven weeks. This 12 months’s aspect turned solely the second crew in NFL historical past to fail to win 12 video games after a 10-1 begin, becoming a member of the 1986 New York Jets. However even these Jets conjured sufficient satisfaction whereas in freefall to squeeze out a playoff win. Not these Eagles, who suffered their second-biggest postseason loss ever, and it got here towards a bottom-10 offense helmed by a journeyman quarterback.
Two months in the past, it could have been unfathomable to think about the Eagles parting methods with Nick Sirianni, the 42-year-old wunderkind who in two and a half seasons had amassed one of the best win-loss share of any present NFL head coach and appeared on deck for a fats contract extension. Now, it’s a definite chance.
So what occurred? Let’s begin with the apparent. After final 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl run, Philadelphia noticed each of their coordinators poached for head teaching jobs: OC Shane Steichen to the Indianapolis Colts, DC Jonathan Gannon to the Arizona Cardinals. These vacancies had been crammed by Brian Johnson and Sean Desai, respectively, and it was clear that the replacements had been in over their heads from early on.
The once-formidable go rush that flirted with the NFL all-time sacks file final 12 months – and which misplaced key gamers Javon Hargave, CJ Gardner-Johnson and TJ Edwards to free company – regressed badly regardless of normal supervisor Howie Roseman’s funding of extra capital house and draft assets on the defensive position than anyplace else. That spending was supposed to hide deficiencies at linebacker, cornerback and security, holes that proved too large to patch schematically, particularly when the secondary was hit by damage early within the season.
![The Eagles’ stunning defensive collapse reached its nadir with Monday night’s NFC wildcard loss to the Buccaneers.](https://i0.wp.com/i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2355ea058a46ced35896ad5780b0a2f79c133889/0_0_5257_3505/master/5257.jpg?resize=445%2C296&ssl=1)
Hurts, the MVP runner-up a 12 months in the past who performed by a dislocated finger on Monday night time, injured his knee in October and by no means absolutely recovered. Johnson’s maddening refusal to run the ball, regardless of an offensive line tricked out with future Corridor of Famers and a Professional Bowl-caliber working again in D’Andre Swift, persevered all season.
In brief, that they had large issues. And when it got here time to repair them, the teaching employees had no clue what to do. As soon as that turned clear to the gamers, it was over.
None of that may instantly account for Philadelphia’s golden begin to 2023. And it’s true: the Eagles raced to the NFL’s greatest file at Thanksgiving weekend and the within observe on the No 1 seed, piling up wins over Tampa Bay, Kansas Metropolis, Miami, Buffalo and Dallas, all of whom ended up within the playoffs. However moderately than acknowledge their gaudy file benefited from a luck issue that defied analytical scrutiny – seven of these wins got here in one-score video games – the teaching employees deluded themselves into the canard that successful DNA and organizational tradition would see them by. They knew methods to win.
However the home of playing cards was got here crashing down in early December once they hosted San Francisco in an eagerly anticipated rematch of final 12 months’s NFC title recreation. The Eagles surrendered touchdowns on six straight drives – 85 yards, 90 yards, 75 yards, 77 yards, 75 yards and 48 yards – in a 42-19 defeat that kickstarted their demise. It was a bitter tablet for Philadelphia, who’d listened to months of trash discuss from San Francisco’s star gamers about how the Eagles had been overrated frauds. However ultimately the Niners had been proper about every little thing, completely noticed by Sirianni and – not like most each different crew within the NFL to that time – uncovered them badly.
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Just like the champion prize-fighter who’s by no means the identical after that first knockout loss, the Eagles misplaced one thing that afternoon they’d by no means get again. San Francisco laid down a blueprint, however the teaching employees’s lack of response made it far too simple for future opponents to comply with. (The Eagles’ lack of ability to scheme a blitz response for 2 months, as an illustration, displays an incompetence not often seen on the NFL stage.) They had been blown out the subsequent week at Dallas and solely went south from there, their once-stout protection regressing right into a blur of blown assignments, busted coverages and whiffed tackles. In a transfer that stunk of desperation, Sirianni changed Desai as defensive coordinator with Matt Patricia, a retread whose major declare to fame – definitely in Philadelphia – was overseeing the Patriots’ protection that surrendered greater than 500 yards to the Eagles of their first and solely Tremendous Bowl win.
There’s no scarcity of blame to go round. Some could query how the management among the many gamers on the crew was so unhealthy to permit this final result. Others could counter that the coaches gave the gamers no likelihood to win. Both manner Philadelphia’s beautiful implosion quantities to a missed alternative that can hang-out this football-mad metropolis for years.
The apparent reply is cleansing home. Your complete teaching employees should go together with the exceptions of offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland and particular groups coordinator Michael Clay, whose once-shaky unit demonstrated marked enchancment from 2022.
As for Sirianni, it might not be that straightforward. His win-loss share stays one of the best in membership historical past, even accounting for this 12 months’s disaster. No different Eagles coach has ever reached the playoffs in every of his first three seasons, a physique of labor that implies he’s earned yet one more crack. It might definitely characterize a break in kind for crew proprietor Jeffrey Lurie, whose even keel and resistance to reactive strikes has been a supply of satisfaction over his three-decade possession.
However make no mistake: the Eagles discover themselves at a crossroads that might have appeared unfathomable not that way back.