The Philadelphia Eagles almost played a perfect game on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. They lost in a heart-pounding climax, 24-21. Jalen Hurts sat with a sullen look beside DeVonta Smith at their adjacent locker stalls. They’ll look back on this year’s team as the offense continued to flounder, stumbling to find any semblance of consistency and production.
As the game played out, the Eagles’ offense struggled to find its groove on the day. Despite scoring on their first three possessions, the team only managed to accumulate a total of 26 points in victories against the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers earlier in the season. This operational inconsistency over the years has understandably left players like Hurts frustrated.
“We’ve got to find a way to finish the game, and we’ve got to find some consistency in what we do,” Hurts stated after the game. He’s made clear that accountability and transparency are critical to improving his team.
The Eagles’ defense made big plays at the right time, becoming a significant factor in their wins this fall. COVID and injury still ran rampant on Vic Fangio’s unit during the game, especially through the secondary. Reed Blankenship departed the game on a thigh injury. Though Adoree’ Jackson is still in recovery from concussion, Andrew Mukuba was seen on crutches with a boot on his right foot. This compounded all the individual setbacks and could explain why the team completely fell apart in one of their biggest matches against archrival NC State.
The Eagles were haunted by penalties, reminiscent of their performance in Week 1 of 2021 against the Atlanta Falcons. Those same self-inflicted wounds plagued the team and proved to be their undoing at finding their way back to the winners circle.
Definitely the tale of two halves. Ultimately, we just didn’t play to our full potential as a team from start to finish, and it came to bite us today. Hurts said, pointing to the team’s failure to build off their explosive start.
Cowboys running back Saquon Barkley faced a stout defense and wasn’t at his best. He failed to crack 22 rushing yards on 10 attempts, though he did contribute with seven catches for 52 yards. Even with Dak struggling, the Cowboys took advantage of their opportunities to make big plays and stepped up on key plays when it was crunch time.
Brandon Graham, longtime Eagles veteran, expressed his disappointment with the team’s performance.
You don’t want to over-psychologize the thing, right? We know what it was.… we lost the L, they came back to defeat us,” he said. Graham gave credit to the Cowboys, who continued to battle until the final whistle.
Head coach Nick Sirianni accepted the blame for the team’s failure in this game.
When there’s the amount of mistakes that we had, some of the self-inflicted wounds that we had today, I’m always going to put that on me as the head coach because that’s something that we talk about an awful lot, Sirianni stated. He further pledged to make sure that his message lands correctly with players in the future.
In the aftermath of this loss, Hurts continued to deliver that belief-heralding tone of togetherness in the locker room.
Together, let’s rise to meet this challenge! As one group, let’s stoke a passion among our ranks and fight on together, as one. he asserted.
The Eagles’ next test will be important as they try to get back on track offensively and cut down on mistakes. The season isn’t over yet. Yet they remain hellbent on fortifying their national defense and centralizing offensive coordination.
Leave a Reply