A roller coaster of a Philadelphia Eagles season took a major plummet with a disheartening 45-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a squad fresh off a 2-14 record that earned them the No. 1 overall pick in this past year’s draft.
Chip Kelly’s no-huddle offense that set franchise records in scoring in both 2013 and 2014 has now been held to under 20 points in each of the last two games. To make matters worse, the defense has allowed over 20 in four straight contests, the last three coming against teams with sub-.500 records.
A shortened week for the Eagles sets the stage for a Thanksgiving Day matchup with the 3-7 Detroit Lions; while this seems easy on paper, so did the games against the Miami Dolphins and Buccaneers. Billy Davis’ defense will undoubtedly have difficulty containing Calvin Johnson, and the Lions are coming off consecutive victories.
1. There will be no division title in 2015; in fact, it’s anyone’s NFC East, including the Dallas Cowboys.
In Chip Kelly’s first season with the Eagles, he rebounded from a 3-5 start to win seven of his final eight, catapulting the team into the playoffs via an NFC East title. There will be no division title this year. The Eagles likely won’t even make it to .500. They’re buried at 4-6, with games still to come against the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals. Can you begin to imagine what Tom Brady/Rob Gronkowski and then Carson Palmer/notorious Eagles killer Larry Fitzgerald will do to this defense?
Despite a 3-7 record, this division is going to come down to whether the Dallas Cowboys can gain enough traction on the 5-5 New York Giants. Tony Romo’s return today was enough for a Dallas win; they’re 3-0 with him this season after going 0-7 without him. The Romo-to-Dez Bryant connection is as scary as it gets in the NFL and the offensive line is arguably the game’s best.
Dallas has two difficult games left – a Thanksgiving Day matchup with Carolina and a mid-December game at Lambeau. But the rest are winnable – Washington twice, Buffalo, and the New York Jets. An 8-8 record could win this division, and that could definitely be the Cowboys.
2. Mark Sanchez had his chance to jumpstart the offense but interceptions continue to derail him.
Count myself among the Eagles fans who were cautiously optimistic that Mark Sanchez might get this offense going. After all, Sam Bradford wasn’t getting the job done, and Sanchez did set the franchise’s single-season record for completion percentage (64.1) a year ago.
It’s difficult to be optimistic anymore. Sanchez did what Sanchez does – while he moved the chains today and showed some mobility, he also threw three backbreaking interceptions, including a horrific pick-six in which he just gift-wrapped a screen pass to All-Pro linebacker Lavonte David.
Sanchez’s final numbers – 26 of 41, 263 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT – were representative of a quarterback that doesn’t deserve to start in this league. Sanchez was high and outside on a number of throws. He targeted the tight ends frequently, connecting with Brent Celek and Zach Ertz nine times for 91 yards, but inexplicably only found Jordan Matthews four times and for a grand total of 13 yards.
Sanchez’s next start will come against the Detroit Lions, a game that seems easy enough; then again, the Lions held Aaron Rodgers to just 5.6 yards per attempt last week and Derek Carr to 6.8 and no touchdown passes this week.
3. The once-great run defense had an all-time worst performance vs. Doug Martin.
For the first half of the 2015 season, Eagles fans could at least pride themselves in their run defense. A front seven boasting of stars in Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, Mychal Kendricks, Jordan Hicks, Kiko Alonso, Connor Barwin, and Brandon Graham was shutting down opposing running backs every week.
Devonta Freeman was held to 18 yards on 10 carries in Week 1. The New York Jets mustered just 47 yards in Week 3. And even last week, Lamar Miller was bottled up for just 43 yards on 16 rushing attempts.
Whatever went wrong today resulted in one of the worst performances in Philadelphia franchise history. Doug Martin ran the ball 27 times for 235 yards, averaging nearly nine yards per attempt. He reeled off a 58-yard run early, then a 84-yarder in the second quarter, getting pushed out of bounds a yard short of the end zone. In all, Tampa Bay totaled 283 ground yards, the most the Eagles have allowed since a 1973 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
4. And the secondary was no better against Jameis Winston.
Frustratingly enough, not only could the Eagles not slow down Doug Martin, but rookie quarterback Jameis Winston did whatever he wanted against this secondary.
Winston completed 19 of 29 passes for 246 yards and five touchdowns, becoming just the third rookie QB in league history to throw five scores in one game. He did so without a pick, and nearly had a sixth touchdown had Adam Humphries been able to haul in a catchable pass in the end zone late in the game.
Winston’s day was reminiscent of RGIII’s debut against the Eagles in 2012, when he went 14-of-15 with four touchdown passes. It was a terrific day for the No. 1 overall pick, who has to have Buccaneers fans excited about his NFL future. And it was unbearably demoralizing for Eagles fans, especially since the team entered the day with the No. 2 ranked defense in the league, per Football Outsiders’ DVOA.
5. Chip Kelly won’t win anything until he gets his quarterback of the future.
You see why Chip Kelly reportedly wanted to give up so much for Marcus Mariota? Chip knows as much as anyone that this is a quarterback-driven league, and he’s not going to win anything with a combination of Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez.
Take the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for example. They went 2-14 last year, drafted their franchise quarterback in Jameis Winston, and now they’re 5-5 and looking like they may make some noise in the NFC playoff race.
Kelly’s options this coming offseason are bleak. He could theoretically re-sign Bradford. He could ride with Sanchez (not likely). He could trade for a retread like Robert Griffin III or Colin Kaepernick or even Matthew Stafford. Or he could try to draft a quarterback and groom him for the future, which will be even more difficult considering it’s doubtful the Eagles pick within the first 15 selections.
Maybe Kelly won’t even want to wait around for this. Will the Tennessee Titans call and try to trade for Kelly, who has two years remaining on his Philly contract? Will Kelly take another college job? Will Jeffery Lurie try to strip Kelly of his GM powers but keep him as head coach? (Good luck with that). It’s becoming the norm for Eagles fans that there’s a new QB every year, and 2016 looks to continue that trend.
