Photo By: Seth Wenig (AP)
The Eagles' 8 game win streak against the New York Giants is over.
The Eagles fell to the Giants for the first time since 2016, 27-17.
The game was ugly. The Eagles drop to 3-5-1 on the season as they enter a brutal 5 game stretch.
It has been difficult to understand how this team could come out out of a bye week and deliver this awful performance against another bad football team.
Here are my takeaways from another painful loss from this horrible season.
1. Doug is 1-4 after bye weeks.
This is the third consecutive year the Eagles have come out and lost after a bye week. That just shouldn’t happen to well-coached teams. Doug had 2 weeks to prepare for an awful Giants team that he had just beaten.
Instead, The offense came out flat only put up 17 points. Doug seemed overly conservative with his play calling. It took almost the end of the 3rd quarter for him to get Carson out of the pocket. Absolute blasphemy.
The offense was 0-9 on third down attempts which is just mind boggling.
It is hard to comprehend how this whole offensive coaching staff had 2 full weeks to prepare for a game and came out with this result.
2. Poor Defense
The other side of the ball did not look any better. The defense gave up 2 early touchdowns including a 34 yard touchdown scramble by Daniel Jones.
Even worse, they allowed a 75 yard drive for a TD in 2:42 after a third quarter Eagles’ touchdown.
The Giants came into the game ranked 31st in scoring and 31st in total offense.
Embarrassing performance from Jim Schwartz’s unit.
3. Carson Wentz
It was another lackluster performance from Wentz. He finished 21/37 for 208 yards and a 37.7 QBR.
It appeared he was just trying to run Doug’s offense and not make any mistakes. Instead of trying to make impactful plays, he was just the exact opposite and too conservative. At least, he didn’t turn over the ball.
Very vanilla. Just bleh.
4. Jason Kelce’s Struggles
It is rare to call out Jason Kelce after a loss. But, this was one of the worst games of his career.
Kelce had low snaps that lead to three fumbles. He seemed to struggle with the Giants’ defensive line using a 0-technique, putting a defensive tackle over him. This may have lead to him rushing snaps to attempt to get an edge on the block.
5. Pass/Run Balance
Doug called 39 drop back plays to only 19 rushing plays. Yes, the Eagles trailed the entire game but the offense was moving the ball very well on the ground.
Running backs averaged 8.05 yards per carry.
Miles Sanders only received15 carries. Its inexcusable for him not to touch the ball at least 20 times a game. He finished with 85 rushing yards including 5.7 yards per carry.
On his weekly call with Angelo Cataldi this morning, Doug claimed that he was about 50/50 pass-run call on Sunday, which is not even close to reality.
This game was an unmitigated disaster. Let's all hope this season doesn't go completely off the rails with this tough stretch ahead.