PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It's only preseason. It doesn't count. The Eagles 35-0 loss to the New England Patriots in front of paying customers at Lincoln Financial Field doesn't go on their official 2021 record.
In three weeks, the focus will have shifted, from the schooling Nick Sirianni's Eagles got from Bill Belichick's Patriots to whether the team can return from Atlanta with an opening day victory over the Falcons
The Eagles didn't have a number of starters. Jalen Hurts needed to go to the hospital for stomach pain. (Sirianni said he'll be OK.) And there were others who the team chose to sit.
However, that doesn't make up for the fact that the Eagles didn't play anything remotely close to inspiring football in the roughly three-hour event.
The Voice of the Eagles, Merrill Reese, who is entering his 45th season calling games on the radio, turned to his longtime broadcast partner Mike Quick — an All-Time Eagles great — and asked, "Mike, can you remember a preseason game this one-sided? I mean this is pathetic."
And that came from a guy who mentioned numerous times on Thursday's broadcast that the players on the field were not the ones who would be out on Sept. 12. Still, their performance deserved the resounding boos at halftime from the Eagles faithful in attendance.
"I was so encouraged by what we saw last week [in the first preseason game against the Steelers] with the first unit," Reese said on the 94WIP broadcast. "But tonight — I understand what we're watching, I understand the people that are on the field — but it is still very, very disappointing."
Since joining the Eagles as a rookie head coach, Sirianni has emphasized competition — internally and externally — as a core value of this team. When it was pointed out to him that his squad has been outscored 52-0 in the last six quarters of preseason football -- all in South Philadelphia -- he said the team has to do better.
"Obviously you want to go out and you wanna win every time you take the field," he said. "And just because we're not playing our starters ... that's not an excuse. We gotta execute better. We gotta play with better fundamentals. We gotta coach better. And we gotta put them in better position to make plays."
Friday morning, WIP morning show host Angelo Cataldi was livid at what the Eagles have produced on the field in their last three home games — two preseason games, and the controversial 2020 season finale against Washington when former head coach Doug Pederson removed Hurts in a close game.
Fellow longtime WIP talker Glen Macnow tweeted that, while he doesn't really know what happened last night with Hurts, "the Eagles can use the preseason for whatever purpose they want — but don't charge fans for tickets if you're putting garbage out there."
Many reporters at the Eagles joint training camp practices with the Patriots this week had positive things to say from those workouts. But in the end, more eyeballs will ultimately be on games, whether preseason or regular. So, even though the Eagles objectively laid an egg Thursday night against the Pats, some fans may not be soothed by knowing that the team practiced well leading up to that.
"You gotta stack practices on top of each other. You gotta stack quarters on top of each other. You gotta stack plays on top of each other. You gotta stack games on top of each other," Sirianni said, summarizing his message to the team after this type of game.
"So, it's not good enough to come out, play a good game one day, compete the next day and play a little bit better than OK, and then play bad the third day. That's just not going to work in this league, and it was a good example for our guys to see that's just not what we do. We gotta come out and we gotta play every day and compete every day."