by Much of December’s NFL narrative is dedicated to teams fighting to qualify for the playoffs, but the end of the regular season is also a great opportunity for the dwindling handful of Super Bowl contenders to sharpen their tools. and separate themselves from the rest.
One of those contenders, the Philadelphia Eagles, had lost their previous two games but could have pulled out a win Monday in Seattle against the Seahawks. All they had to do was stop Seattle, trailing by four points, from going 92 yards in less than two minutes.
Related: Drew Lock’s late heroics lead Seahawks to 20-17 victory over reeling Eagles
Eagles fans, who can find fault with almost anything, probably wouldn’t have gotten too carried away if Philadelphia had pulled off a stunning victory. After all, Seattle’s quarterback was backup Drew Lock, who started just his second game in two seasons.
Additionally, the Eagles’ beleaguered defense, led Monday for the first time by assistant Matt Patricia, Bill Belichick’s protégé and former Detroit Lions head coach, looked much better (well, generally) than in lopsided losses to San Francisco. Francisco and Dallas.
Well guess what. Lock drove Seattle those 92 yards in 10 plays and had 28 seconds to spare. He threw a 29-yard touchdown pass in the rain to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had outrun Eagles veteran cornerback James Bradberry in one-on-one coverage.
The touchdown put Seattle ahead for good, 20-17. Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts threw an interception after bringing the Eagles, who still had two timeouts, to within 20 yards of what could have been a field goal attempt to tie the score. Hurts grimaced as he took off his helmet.
“I didn’t do my job well enough,” Hurts muttered in a postgame news conference. But that was a good thing to say, and Hurts wasn’t the only one who did a bad job.
So the Seahawks (7-7) are still in the playoff hunt. Pete Carroll, their 72-year-old coach, can still tell people that he has never lost to the Eagles as coach of the Seahawks. The city of Philadelphia would have been in a bad mood anyway.
Surprises happen in the playoffs, but December serves as the time when the elite emerge and find another gear. Philadelphia lost two of its final three regular-season games last year, and a big win over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, at least as far as San Francisco fans were concerned, carried an asterisk because quarterback outfielder Brock Purdy was injured.
This, however, was a deadly loss for the Eagles, who gave Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs a memorable battle in the last Super Bowl, and had big plans to return. The Eagles (10-4) should still win their last three games, but nothing is certain now.
The Eagles’ highly unpopular first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson will be buried on sports talk shows for another questionable game plan, which included an option play in which Hurts slid the ball toward his difficult ending, Dallas Goedert, who gained one yard.
But it was the Eagles’ defense that gave in when Philadelphia needed big plays, even though coach Nick Sirianni had tried to fix his defense’s woes by replacing Sean Desai, his first-year defensive coordinator, with Patricia in banking on Monday. .
“Listen, it was a tough decision to be able to do this,” Sirianni said after the game about changing coaching responsibilities, “but, again, like I said, I did what was best for our football team. “We’re always making adjustments and that’s what I did.”
Much of the pregame talk in Philadelphia during the week focused on how the Eagles, despite dismal losses to the 49ers (11-3) and Cowboys (10-4), could still win the NFC East, and maybe a first round bye. , by sweeping their last four games.
The Cowboys were then beaten Sunday in Buffalo by the struggling Bills (8-6), who were considered Super Bowl contenders at the start of the season. San Francisco must play Baltimore (11-3), winners of eight of nine and leaders of the AFC, in a big game on Christmas night.
So Monday night was a huge opportunity for the Eagles. They weren’t hit like Dallas was on Sunday, but Seattle’s long drive by the backup quarterback that led to a last-minute loss was excruciating and deflating. Declare it now: the 49ers stand tall above the NFC pack.
As the Eagles won 10 of their first 11 games, somehow losing only to the horrible Jets, it became a popular sport in Philadelphia – for fans and players alike – to point out that the team had failed to put together a commanding performance. The 49ers and Cowboys exposed their flaws.
The defense was a big problem. Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat whispered to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter after the 33-13 loss to Dallas that “I’m not used to our group not looking out for each other when it comes to pressure.” Cornerback Darius Slay underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Saturday, forcing the Eagles to start two rookies in the secondary.
Through three quarters, dangerous Seattle receiver DK Metcalf had one catch, for a measly eight yards. The Eagles had trouble tackling Seattle running back Kenneth Walker III, but the Seahawks were only able to score one touchdown on their first eight drives.
Then came the ninth. Metcalf caught three passes for 58 yards, including a surprising six-yard reception in which he appeared to catch Lock’s pass with just his left arm before he hit the turf. He also split Bradberry and Sydney Brown for a critical 34-yard reception.
The Eagles’ season will continue. Games against the New York Giants (5-9) sandwich a game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-11), so Philadelphia can still win the NFC East with a sweep. Even if the Eagles don’t win a first-round home playoff game, they could face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-7), the NFL’s worst division leader.
But a radical defensive solution now seems like a panic measure. Hurts, who played Monday despite being physically ill, now has 12 interceptions in 14 games this year, compared to 19 interceptions in the first 45 games of his career.
Ten months after reaching the Super Bowl and wanting more, the Eagles are no longer elite. Tower of San Francisco above them.
