The Philadelphia Eagles lost their identity, and now they’ve lost their season

Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

It is hard to believe that one year ago this Philadelphia Eagles team was in the Super Bowl. It’s even harder to believe that less than two months ago, they were sitting on top of the conference with a record of 10-1.

Because the Eagles team that no-showed in their wild-card playoff game on Monday night didn’t look anything like either of them. They don’t dominate the lines of scrimmage anymore. They don’t lean on their powerful running game. And they don’t pressure opposing quarterbacks, or cover and tackle opposing receivers.

They lost their identity. They forgot who they were.

As a result, their unfathomable fall is now complete. One year after coming within a whisper of a championship, they were embarrassed and eliminated by the Bucs, 32-9 at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. It was their sixth loss in seven games dating back to the start of December — a spiral that nobody could have seen coming.

And the only good thing that could be said about their performance on Monday night is that they finally mastered the art of complementary football.

They stunk in every phase.

“It’s very embarrassing to go from 10-1 to losing six of seven,” said Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. “There’s probably going to be some changes. It’s frustrating.”

“It’s almost like we couldn’t get out of the rut we were in,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. “We need to find some answers.”

Assuming he keeps his job, Sirianni will have months to search for those answers, to try to figure out how they could collapse so quickly and completely. But they can start with this: Howie Roseman, their general manager, built them to be a power team on both sides of the ball. They were built to be a physical offense on the ground, using the run to set up big pass plays. And they were built to be a pressure team on defense to make things easier on their secondary.

But they’ve clearly lost sight of all that, especially on the…

Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/the-philadelphia-eagles-lost-their-identity-and-now-theyve-lost-their-season

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Publish date : 2024-01-16 05:22:28

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