Though I personally was too young at the time to be critical of him, the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2023 season reminded me of a person: Andy Reid. Notoriously awful at managing the clock in the most dire situations (especially in Super Bowl XXXIX), these struggles were apparent with Philadelphia last season.
While the team was talented (and lucky) enough to mostly get away with it, that’s a factor that made their season so stressful. Let’s visit three of their most egregious instances of clock mismanagement.
Reid-Esque Clock Mismanagement in 2023
This isn’t even going to focus on games like in Week 1 where the Eagles gave the New England Patriots two separate drives in the last three minutes to move down the field and score a touchdown in a five-point contest—it was mostly a skill issue, not entirely a clock issue. Rather, we’ll look at situations that could have been easily avoided.
Our first egregious clock miscue came in Week 4 against the Washington Commanders. In a 24-24 affair and 1:49 showing on the clock and having possession, the Eagles went for it all: they got a touchdown. But this was probably the worst thing that they could have possibly done.
Washington had one timeout left and it was a second-and-four situation at their 28-yard line. If they really wanted to, the Eagles probably could have tush-pushed their way to a first down—and a victory. Seeing as Jake Elliott hit 23 out of 24 (95.8 percent) of his kicks under 50 yards, all there was to do was run the clock out while the Commanders sat there and watched.
But as we established, that’s not what the Eagles did. Scoring a touchdown, they gave Washington time to drive down the field and score a touchdown themselves. Doing just that, and even getting the ball to start overtime, the Commanders should have made this one a devastating blow for Philadelphia. However, there’s a reason why they finished 4-13—they let the opportunity slip away.
In Week 6, the Eagles were actually punished for their misuse of the clock. Against the New York Jets, a team which they had never lost to, a serious gaffe was committed.
Jalen Hurts had arguably his worst game as an Eagle, but he probably still should have won. Getting a first down at around Philadelphia’s own 45-yard line with under 2:30 left, the clock running, and the Jets sitting on just two timeouts trailing 14-12, it was looking good for Philadelphia. Until it wasn’t.
The Eagles did nothing with their next two plays, then threw what was basically a pick-six on third down. Against a team that could not move the ball because they had Zach Wilson at quarterback, it was indefensible to just hand over points like that. Had Hurts, say, taken a knee on third down after the first read wasn’t there and punted the ball on fourth, the Jets would have had about 1:20 on the clock and zero timeouts to drive a semi-long field. Seeing as they had 12 points the entire game, it’s a good bet to make that they don’t do that. Instead, the Eagles robbed themselves of that chance. Throwing the ball is fine, even if it were incomplete, but throwing an interception is inexcusable.
Next, we get to Week 15. We’re only focusing on the clock here, so we’ll ignore the Eagles’ inability to get a first down late in the game on third down, which resulted in a punt and a Seattle Seahawks score with less than a minute left. But at his own 44, down 20-17 with two timeouts, chucking the ball Hail-Mary style—which was intercepted—probably wasn’t the smartest idea from Hurts. Sure, there were only 13 seconds left on the clock, but that’s likely just enough for two short plays and a shot downfield if it comes down to that. Instead of perhaps throwing the ball away and only having two plays, the double-coverage pass was the option—it went as well as you’d expect.
Elliot has hit two 61-yard field goals in his career including one in Week 2 against the Minnesota Vikings, so getting about 10 yards might have been enough. Simply, their aggressiveness was unnecessary. Even had they completed the pass that was thrown, it still would’ve been far too short of the end-zone—a field goal would’ve been the approach anyway. No overtime resulted, and this was basically the nail in the coffin for the Eagles’ season. While they made the playoffs and went 11-6, the vibes were crushed.
There were a few other instances here and there that weren’t enough to really get upset at. But the three incidents here are plenty—two of the three potentially cost the Eagles a victory.
You can debate that this is the benefit of hindsight. But I can guarantee that some people, like myself, were thinking these things in their brains when this all unfolded in the moment.
In 2024, it’s time for the Eagles to go out with misuse of the clock, and in with more efficient techniques. Perhaps doing so would have delayed their fate or avoided it altogether. There were a couple of games that could have flipped.
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