The Eagles had 10 days to get ready for a crucially important game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
10 days to try to correct the mistakes that have plagued them all season.
10 days to get ready for an easier schedule that should help them turn the season around.
Instead, they turned in their most embarrassing performance of the season.
The coaches were out coached. The defense missed tackles. The offense was boring. Don't let the final score fool you -- the team was barely competitive.
The embarrassing 33-22 loss dropped the Eagles to 2-5, a record that doesn't completely end their season, but certainly puts any hopes of the playoffs on life support. For the second straight season the Eagles won't even make it to November without fans already looking ahead to next year's draft.
There is no question the defense played a huge part in this loss. Jonathan Gannon's defense was once again boring, but the players didn't help him out, as they missed tackle-after-tackle to help extend Raiders drives. The Raiders did whatever they wanted against the Eagles, including run the ball, something they have struggled to do all season — before they got a chance to run against the Eagles.
The Eagles defense is a terrible combination right now of poor coaching and players making avoidable mistakes to make things worse. The don't have the talent to make up for poor coaching, and despite being one of the defensive coordinator candidates available, Gannon has been a complete disappointment.
There is going to be plenty to talk about from this one, but for now, let's take a look at the day Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni had:
Nick Sirianni: Sirianni came into the game with a clear plan to run the ball. His opening drive of the game consisted of five runs, three passes, and the result was a 67-yard touchdown drive.
The offense seemed to fall apart, however, when Miles Sanders went down on the second drive of the game.
Sirianni remained committed to the run immediately after Sanders went down, but Kenny Gainwell and Boston Scott just didn't have the same juice on the ground that Sanders did. The offense stalled, and Sirianni didn't have a counterpunch to get it going after the loss of Sanders.
Sirianni also made a few questionable decisions as a game manager.
On the Raiders first drive of the game Sirianni elected to accept a holding penalty, pushing the Raiders back into 3rd-and-15 instead of them punting on 4th-and-3. The Raiders offense was leaving the field, but came back when Sirianni accepted the penalty. The result on the next play was a 43-yard completion and fresh set of downs for the Raiders. It was probably the right call by Sirianni, but it was looking like it could be a game-changing bad call until Avonte Maddox bailed him out by picking off Derek Carr four plays later.
Sirianni decided to start the third quarter by attempting an onside kick, a move that was made out of desperation and an attempt to get his team going. It is understandable why Sriainni would feel that way, considering how the game was going, but it didn't work as the Raiders recovered the ball and the offense went right down the field for a touchdown.
Went for it on 4th-and-1 on their own 34-yard line. Great decision and the play call was good as well, as he had Hurts sneak it up the middle for the first down. Although the drive ended in a punt, momentum was on the Raiders side and the converted 4th down allowed the Eagles to hold the ball longer and definitely slowed things down.
It is also worth mentioning that, even though he is an offensive head coach, Sirianni deserves some blame for the defense as well. He is the head coach. He should be involved in what is going on on the defensive side of the ball as well, especially when they are playing this poorly.
The bottom line is that Sirianni had 10 days to get his team ready to play. The result was a complete disaster. You have to wonder what Jeffrey Lurie was thinking watching.
Grade: F
Jalen Hurts: Let's start with this — in Hurts' defense, the Eagles offensive line did not play well. Both Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson struggled, which is likely the result of Mailata having to switch positions constantly and Johnson missing the last three games.
Still, there is no denying that for yet another week, the offense did not look good — and Hurts holds blame for that.
Accuracy remains an issue for Hurts and it is really hurting the offense.
He nearly threw a pick-six on the second drive of the game, but Goedert batted the ball away. Hurts had two poor throws to Devonta Smith in the first half that really highlighted the accuracy issues he has as both should have been easy completions. The first one was behind Smith, who had to reach back for it and dropped it. The other one — although it was a 20-yard completion — should have been a much easier catch with a better throw. Smith was wide open, but Hurts lead him so far to the sideline that Smith just barely got both feet inbounds. Hurts should have had a long touchdown to Quez Watkins in the fourth quarter, but he overthrew him.
You could see the difference between Hurts' arm and how it impacts the offense negatively vs. Derek Carr's arm and how his arm gets the Raiders offense going. Carr delivered consistently accurate passes on time that hit his receivers in stride. Hurts has shown he can do it at times, but being just off by a little bit on his passes consistently is making it hard for the offense to get going.
Hurts also had two questionable decisions running the ball where he left yards on the field in big spots. On a run in the second quarter Hurts slid three-yards short of the 1st-down marker when it looked like he could have gotten the first down. On a run in the 4th quarter Hurts seemed to have a chance to run it in for a touchdown but instead went towards the sideline too early and ran out of bounds.
Yes, Hurts got very little help. The coaching staff was bad, the offensive line was bad and the defense was bad. So this loss isn't on Hurts.
But it's now been seven games in 2021 and 11 overall. His arm hasn't gotten better and until it does this offense is going to struggle.
Grade: C
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
