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Roob's Observations as Eagles' disastrous streak continues in loss to Commanders
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- Roob's Observations as Eagles' disastrous streak continues in loss to Commanders
Roob's Observations as Eagles' disastrous streak continues in loss to Commanders originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
This is an awful team. No, not the Eagles. The team that beat the Eagles. The Commanders are truly terrible. What does that say about the Eagles?
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Yikes.
The Eagles fell to 2-6 with their sixth straight loss Sunday night, falling 27-10 to the lowly Commanders in Landover, Md. The Commanders didn't even play well and they still beat the Eagles by 17 points.
This is the Eagles' longest losing streak since 2012 and 9th-longest in the franchise's storied 94-year history.
The good news? The Sixers are 6-1 going into a game Monday against the Bulls, and the Flyers clobbered the Mammoth 6-3 Sunday night! Let's gooooo!!!
Here's our 10 Instant Observations off another loss in a lost season.
1.Now we can all stop pretending that they have any chance of winning the NFC East, even when the NFC East is the worst division in football. We can stop pretending they are going to wake up and suddenly start playing like the playoff team we expected before the season began, like the team that won a Super Bowl just 21 months ago. We can stop playing those games. They're not good. In fact, they're really, really bad. The questions facing the franchise now are how dramatic must the changes be, not just after the season but next week at the trade deadline. And not just on the roster but on the coaching staff as well, from the position coaches to the coordinators and all the way up to the head coach. How much do you consider Jalen Hurts' situation when figuring out how significant those changes have to be? And how many of the over-priced, under-achieving players on this defense are worth keeping around? So many questions. But at least now Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman can focus on the future instead of hoping something will click this year. It won't click. It's over.
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2.For a while, the defense held things together and kept the Eagles in the game while the offense sputtered before putting together its weekly 2nd-half collapse. Then it got ugly. Really ugly. It wasn't quite Cowboys bad, but it was bad. This is a middling Washington offense missing its No. 1 receiver, its No. 1 running back and its best offensive lineman, and they just wore the Eagles' defense down, which teams have been doing every week lately. For all the talk we heard from the defense all week about working harder, doubling down on the effort, practicing with more intensity, turning things around, the Eagles allowed 339 yards, 135 rushing yards and 27 points to a broken-down last-place team. The Commanders netted 21 yards and no points on their first three drives, then like everyone else figured out the Eagles' defense and Vic Fangio had no answers. The Eagles have now allowed 100 or more rushing yards in all eight games, the first time they've opened a season allowing 100 or more yards in eight straight games since 1968 and only the third time since 1938. Pitiful. Embarrassing.
3.On the list of massive disappointments Sunday night let's talk about the offensive line. You figured getting Landon Dickerson and Drew Kendall back would solidify things and they played OK on Monday night but this was an o-line disaster. Tanner McKee was bad, but he wasn't getting a whole lot of help from the guys up front. And that's everybody, from Jordan Mailata across to Markel Bell. McKee was sacked five times, pressured snap after snap and hit numerous times. And there was nothing for the running backs, either, with Saquon Barkley and Elijah Mitchell combining for 64 yards on 24 carries – 2.7 yards per carry. There's a lot of blame to go around when it comes to the offense, and this was not a good day for Sean Mannion. But it all starts with the offensive line. If you can't block up front, you can't do anything on offense.
4.Tanner McKee has played three games now and the results are not good. Honestly, I didn't expect him to go out there and play at a Pro Bowl level, but I did expect more accuracy, more completions down the field, more explosiveness, better ball security and a lot more pocket awareness. But three games in, we just haven't seen it. I get that the offensive line didn't give him a lot of help Sunday night and he still doesn't have DeVonta Smith or a healthy Saquon Barkley, but he's just not making plays when he has opportunities. McKee padded his stats in the final seconds, but he still has yet to post a passer rating of 80 or higher in his three starts, and 80 is mediocre. He still hasn't completed a pass of 25 yards to a wide receiver. And that fumble with the Eagles down three late in the third quarter near midfield, that was inexcusable. There's no reason to think Joe Milton can do any better, but who knows? It might be time to give him a shot. Can it go any worse? The Eagles need so much more than McKee is giving them. And more than he's probably capable of giving them.
5.This offense is just just impossible to watch right now and whatever modest progress they made with 21 points against the Cowboys it just evaporated Sunday night in Landover, where they manaaged just 268 yards of offense, 3.9 yards per play, 3.1 yards per running play and just 4.5 yards per pass play. When your No. 1 weapon is freaking Elijah Mitchell that's just not a good place to be. And that's not a knock on Mitchell, a practice squad running back, as much as it's a knock on Nick Sirianni, Sean Mannion and everyone else who had anything to do with putting together this gameplan and preparing this offense for a football game against the 25th-ranked defense in the NFL. The Eagles were up 10-0 very quickly and you're feeling pretty good about things. The rest of the game? Punt, punt, punt, end of half, punt, fumble, missed field goal, interception, end of game. Just complete and utter incompetence by everyone who had anything to do with the offense. I get that there was no DeVonta Smith or Dontayvion Wicks and Saquon Barkley is still limited, but this was just a dismal performance by everyone involved with the offense, from the o-line to McKee to Mannion to Sirianni to everyone. The Eagles have now had fewer than 300 scrimmage yards in five of six games during the losing streak, under 4.0 yards per play in four of the six games and under 4.0 yards per carry four of six games. During the losing streak, they've scored 7-20-17-14-21-10 points. This is just disgraceful.
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6.Just an unbelievably bad sequence deep inside Washington territory midway through the fourth quarter. In what was still a one-possession game – the Eagles trailing 16-10 – they had a 1st-and-10 on the Washington 19-yard-line. So 19 yards from taking the lead. All they managed on their first three snaps was a six-yard Elijah Mitchell run, so that left them with a 4th-and-4 on the 13. Nick Sirianni kept the offense on the field, but rookie Markel Bell was called for a false start, dropping them back to a 4th-and-9 on the 18. At that point, they had to get the field goal team out there, and Jake Elliott nailed the 36-yard field goal. But Jordan Mailata had lined up in an illegal formation, and the five-yard penalty turned the field goal attempt into a 41-yarder. Which Elliott missed – hit the left upright – because that's how this season has gone. That was that. Ballgame. That sequence kind of epitomizes the 2026 Eagles.
7.If you want a silver lining, it was garbage time and ultimately meaningless, but good to see rookie tight end Eli Stowers catch three passes for 53 yards in the final minutes of the game in his first extended playing time since coming off Injured Reserve. He even had a 34-yard catch and run on the final play of the game. All it really did was pad the stats, but it was definitely encouraging and probably good for his confidence to finally get out there and make some plays. With Makai Lemon 6-for-57 you had two rookies over 50 receiving yards in the same game for only the second time in the last 35 years. Kenny Gainwell and DeVonta Smith did it in 2021 against the Chiefs but before that you have to go to Fred Barnett and Calvin Williams against the Patriots in 1990. Before that? Charlie Young and Don Zimmerman in 1973 and Billy Ray Barnes and Clarence Peaks in 1957. So not a lot to get too excited about but nice to see a couple rookies make some plays.
8.The Eagles aren't just losing games. They're getting blown out. Lost to the Bears by 20, to the Panthers by 11, to the Cowboys and Commanders by 17. During the six-game losing streak they've been outscored 160-89, so an average of 11.8 points per game. First time they've been outscored by 71 points in a six-game span since 2015, Chip Kelly's disastrous final season. And they've been outscored by 65 points this year, which is the most points they've been outscored by through eight games since 1998 and 2nd-most since 1972. The Eagles were outscored by at least 17 points seven times in Sirianni's first five seasons. They've been outscored by at least 17 points three times just during the six-game losing streak. They are the NFL's punching bag right now. The Panthers are 3-4 and beat the Eagles by 11. The Cowboys are 3-5 and beat the Eagles by 17 points. The Commanders are 2-4-1 and beat the Eagles by 17 points. First time since 1970 the Eagles have lost three games in a season by 11 or more points to three teams with losing records. Good lord.
9.Can we talk about what a ridiculous weapon Braden Mann is? Here's a look at his last nine punts vs. the Jaguars, Cowboys and Commanders: 57 yards to the 14 (no return), 48 yards to the 2 (no return), 41 yards to the 13 (no return), 61 yards to the 16 (no return), 42 yards to the 12 (no return), 37 yards to the 11 (no return), 46 yards to the 10 (no return), 42 yards to the 23 (27-yard return), 44 yards to the 4 (no return). He might be the best player on the team. Not a high bar at this point, I know. Mann's deep punts Sunday night repeatedly pinned the Commanders deep in their own territory, and when your defense is struggling as much as the Eagles' defense has been, that long field becomes incredibly important. Just think what the score would have been if Mann didn't keep punting the ball deep. So far this year, 22 punts inside the 20, one touchback. In four years as an Eagle, 77 inside the 20 and 18 touchbacks. Playing in an outdoor stadium in the Northeast, he has made a massive impact on this team over the last four years. Mann is the best punter I've ever seen.
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10.I'm going to say this with a straight face. As bad as this year is going, and it's been a nightmare, there's no reason to think the Eagles can't turn things around in 2027. Think about the bad seasons in recent Eagles history: There haven't been a lot, but in 1999 they went 5-11 in Andy Reid's first season and 11-5 and to the second round of the playoffs in 2000. In 2005 they were 6-10 and bounced back in 2006 with a 10-6 season and playoff win under Jeff Garcia. In 2012, they went 4-12 in Andy Reid's last season and then went 10-6 and made the playoffs the next year under Coach of the Year Chip Kelly. They were 7-9 in Doug Pederson's first season in 2016 and won the Super Bowl a year later. Then 4-11-1 in Doug's final season and made the playoffs at 9-8 a year later in Nick Sirianni's first season. Five of the last six times they had a losing season they reached the playoffs the next year, the only exception that 7-9 record in Pederson's first season after going 7-9 in Kelly's last season. Howie Roseman knows as well as anyone what has to be done to turn a terrible season into a good one overnight, and he'll certainly have that opportunity again this offseason.
