If you've opened social media or turned on 94WIP today, the day after the Eagles' 20-17 defeat in Seattle dropped them to 10-4 on the season and became their third-straight loss, it has likely appeared as if the sky has fallen on the team's 2023 season.
That may very well be the case. But Eagles great Donovan McNabb joined Marks & Reese earlier today and expressed confidence the team could still be on a Super Bowl path.
"I think they're still on [an NFC Championship game] track because I think we're still the second-best team in the NFC," McNabb said. "Even if it's kind of pulling hairs between us and Dallas, it is what it is at this point. Are we better than San Francisco? No, we're not. Are we better than Baltimore? No, we're not. Are we better than some of the AFC teams? We're not. But at this particular point we have three weeks left in the season which we can better at what we're doing. And if we can find ourselves in a position where we can get back to the NFC Championship, then anything can happen."
Those final three weeks will be at home against the 5-9 Giants, at home against Jonathan Gannon and the 3-11 Cardinals and on the road again against the Giants. Three games that should be won, and three that can present an opportunity to right many of the ongoing wrongs.
McNabb discussed some of those wrongs, including the team's inability to build a lead in the first half of games:
"But as far as right now, you talk about the Buffalo game, remember I told you 'we can't find ourselves in this position where we have to fight back to win, or it's going to come back and haunt us,'" McNabb continued. "And it has. It haunted us in the last couple weeks, where it's hard to dig yourself out of this hole if you're not able to create opportunities to make explosive plays early in the first half. If you're not, then it's going to be just what we've been seeing so far in the last two months."
The Eagles did actually start well against Seattle, taking the first drive 75 yards for a touchdown and later adding a field goal to make it 10-0 in the first half. But then all unraveled in the second half of the 20-17 defeat, especially on offense.
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense received the football up 17-13 with 10 minutes left in the game. Then the following three drives happened:
4 plays, 30 yards: Interception
7 plays, 25 yards: Punt
3 plays, 20 yards: Interception
"Offensively we were stagnant," McNabb said to begin his thoughts on the game. "We didn't create any plays to sustain drives, we did run the football but was it in the opportune times? No...We weren't able to methodically move the ball downfield. And we were trying to create explosive plays...but in games like that where you're not really in rhythm, you have to really protect the football and be able to move the ball methodically."
So whether it's starting slow, struggling to put teams away, re-finding the run game, protecting the football or getting stops on defense, the Eagles have a lot to fix entering the final three-game stretch against poor competition. If all is somehow fixed, maybe the Super Bowl path can be re-opened.