A tale of two seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles
It's not how you start that's important, but how well you finish!”. This phrase could not be more prevalent for the 2023 Philadelphia Eagles.
It was all rosy for the Eagles as December was approaching. They beat the Buffalo Bills 37-34 in an overtime thriller on November 26th.
However, the month of December was not kind to Nick Sirianni’s men. They went 1-4 in those 30 days and then suffered a Week 18 loss to the New York Giants before their exit in the Wildcard round at the hands of Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield, going 1-6 down the stretch including the playoffs. In fact, out of the five teams they lost to, only the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills made the playoffs. This is not the same as the Miami Dolphin’s late season collapse, as two of those three losses came against the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens.
AJ Brown is out of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Wildcard Round game, and Hurts has been often relying too much on the brilliance of their WR1. This could be a one and done situation for this team.
So what has gone wrong for the Eagles of late? Here is a summary of their issues.
Victim of their own success?
It is one thing being the hunters. It is another thing being the hunted. This is an issue for the Eagles as they have become a victim of their success.
Teams are much more aware of the Eagles and what they can do, after their run to Super Bowl 57 last season. The “brotherly shove” became more and more talked about league wide and the Eagles have become so good at it, that they have seemingly forgotten how to make a play that isn’t a tush push.
Asa result of their success last season, the Eagles lost multiple coordinators this offseason. Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon left to become the Arizona Cardinals head coach and took linebacker coach Nick Rallis with him.
Defensive passing game coordinator Dennard Wilson left to become the Baltimore Ravens defensive backs coach and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen was announced as the Indianapolis Colts head coach. The Eagles are not the first team to lose players or coaches due to their success, but this is another example of how tight a Super Bowl window is for a team.
A tale of two seasons
The start of the season seemed to paper over the cracks. Wins against the New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings, coincidently the Bucs, Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams saw them race into a 5-0 start. Some thought they could even go 17-0. However, as this season proved, the Vikings, Pats and Commanders all missed the playoffs by some distance.
Allowing 31 points in their Week 4 and Week 8 games against the Commanders should have been a red flag, as the loss to the Jets and Zach Wilson should have been. However, a 31-17 win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 7 and a 21-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs to go 9-1, all seemed well again for the Eagles.
In their first ten games of the season, they had only allowed their opponents to score more than 30 points on two occasions. In their final seven games, they allowed this to happen four times.
One year too long for veterans?
During the Super Bowl build up, it was seen that long time Eagles Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, and Brandon Graham would almost certainly retire if they won a Super Bowl, as most athletes want to bow out on top. However, they decided to stay on after their loss to the Chiefs and they have not been the same this year-round.
Not everyone can have a Peyton Manning or Ray Lewis type of ending. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger are all guilty of staying on one year too long and it appears these four veteran Eagles are going to be another part of this long list of athletes who chase the dream over thinking of their bodies.
There is likely to be a big overhaul in Philadelphia this offseason.