The Philadelphia Eagles, sitting at 2-1, are well in the mix to compete for a first-round bye week by getting the top seed in the NFC. Sure, their start hasn’t been the greatest (with all their games being decided by one score), but they’ve won more than they lost.
To truly excel, however, this team will need to get out of its own way. It’s the reason why they aren’t 3-0 with flying colors.
Eagles Battling Opponent & Themselves Every Week
We talk ad nauseam about how much talent the Eagles have. Being on the road against the 2-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week, potentially without both A.J. Brown (questionable) and DeVonta Smith (out), should be a death sentence. These are two players whose combined average annual values ($57 million) nearly match the payroll of Major League Baseball’s (MLB’s) Oakland Athletics. Still, it doesn’t matter—Philadelphia has a chance.
And that is, of course, because of the high-end players on the team. Especially recently, the defense has come to play, only allowing an average of 21 points per game—that’s good enough to win any week. Seeing as the Eagles made the playoffs in 2019 with no wide receivers over the 500-yard mark and without Saquon Barkley or Jalen Hurts in the backfield, chances are they can beat the Buccaneers.
What’s stopping the Eagles from being this unstoppable force? Themselves.
The Eagles haven’t won a football game by more than one score (over eight points) since Week 7 of the 2023 season (31-17 versus the Miami Dolphins). The reason for that is not the talent on the roster, but the decision-making by coaches and players alike.
Mind-boggling play-calls and a lack of situational awareness have crushed the Birds. We can just look at this season, too.
Eagles’ 2024 Blunders
Against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1, the Eagles had three third-down turnovers that led to nine total points on the board in favor of the opposition. Though Philadelphia won 34-29, perhaps their double-digit win drought could have been ended.
Against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2 (their sole loss), there were several avenues to winning here. On third and short, they threw an incompletion and then kicked a field goal to lead by six points (less than seven, which is how much a touchdown plus an extra point is worth) with just under two minutes left. With that time, the Falcons got seven points with ease and won the game by a hair. The approach here was egregious, for multiple reasons. Had they gone for it on fourth down, maybe they would have gotten the first and won the game right there (because the Falcons had no timeouts). On third down, perhaps they run the ball to chew the clock so that Atlanta doesn’t have enough time to drive down the field. Doing anything but what the Eagles did would have given them a better chance to be 3-0 right now, essentially.
Against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3, they let at least nine points vanish off of the board due to an interception well within field-goal range on third down, a second-down fumble at the Saints’ 40-yard line, and choosing to go for it on fourth down in chip-shot range despite having 14 seconds and one timeout left in the first half to score. The Eagles won 15-12, but their mistakes nearly cost them.
No team is ever going to be perfect, but Philadelphia is about the most imperfect team out there. They’re constantly making their job harder, so it’s almost a miracle that they win so much. That has to stop as soon as possible—it has carried over from last season.
The way they’ve been playing, there’s almost no chance the Eagles beat the Buccaneers without both Brown and Smith if it comes to that. However, with errors kept to a minimum, Philadelphia can beat anyone. Do they have what it takes? Can they be more efficient?
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