[ad_1]
PHILADELPHIA – The sign of the enlightened Super Bowl champions still dominates the Lincoln Financial Field, a constant reminder of what the Philadelphia Eagles were so recently. But in the silent walk that leads to the locker room, in the collapsed behavior of Doug Pederson, you can see what the Eagles have suddenly become. They stop. They are subject to errors. They seek coherence. They almost do not look like the confident offense that has reached its peak with the bluster and accuracy of "Philly Special".
In their 23-21 loss to the Minnesota Vikings last week, the Eagles showed all the disturbing symptoms of their 2-3 start, a frightening reminder that this NFC championship game resumption could have served to make the Rams of Los Angeles smile. Angeles. They start slowly and are doomed to failure. They commit terrible turnovers and stultifying penalties. In short, they are a little messy.
"We were 2 or 3 because we play badly," said defensive end Chris Long. "It's the same thing right now, we're playing like we're dead, that's the reality, we can say we're better than anything we want, but unless we play better we are not. "
In fact, the next day, no one said that the Eagles were better. Pederson looked disgusted at the Eagles' performance, which – covering your eyes, Eagles fans – included only 91 offensive yards in the first half, only two of the nine conversions in third downhill, a Carson Wentz fumble that had been returned to 64 yards. touched down by Linval Joseph, a call to hit the passer against Michael Bennett who helped the first touchdown of the Vikings, a Jay Ajayi fumble on the 5-yard line that the Vikings turned into a goal, and a sequence at the Kirk Cousins' fumbles, with only six points ahead of the Eagles in the fourth quarter, included penalties imposed on the Eagles for illegal formation, intentional grounding and late play.
After each question and before each answer, Pederson took a deep breath, let out a gloomy "well", and began an inconsolable autopsy.
"I just told them I was going to take it for the team," Pederson said. "Our way of playing and playing started with me, I wanted the guys to understand that we can not do these things, we can not self-inflict, the championship teams do not do it."
The critical situation of the Eagles is particularly alarming because it has no obvious excuse. Carson Wentz is back and seems to be at full strength. The same goes for receiver Alshon Jeffrey. But only seven previous Super Bowl champions started the next season on a two – to – three and only one of them – the 1996 Cowboys – has made enough to qualify for the playoffs. A team that looked ready for a strong title defense in the off season is on a very thin ice. Even the relative weakness of NFC East can not provide much balm, given the number of NFC teams playing better than the Eagles. It was enough to ask whether the departure of former offensive coordinator Frank Reich (now head coach of the Colts) and former quarterback coach John deFilippo (the coordinator offensive Vikings) could be problematic. No, said Wentz, it was not that either.
They are, it seems, just in a funk state. No player in the locker room, attacking or defending, thought that there were any physical problems. This is strictly mental, the Eagles believe. This is probably easier to solve than physical inadequacy, especially for a team that has very recent evidence of what it is capable of. But the Eagles have not scored more than 23 points in one game this season. Last season, they scored at least 26 points in 12 of the 15 games played by the starters. In 2017, they were the third team to score the most points in the league. They entered Week 5 in 26th place.
"We have to look at ourselves in the mirror," said Wentz. "Three consecutive penalties … Small mistakes like this kill us, we play as if we were a young, young team and we are not."
Wentz said the offensive struggles reminded him of his rookie season, while the Eagles were 7-9 and struggling with the growth pains expected of a young quarterback. These problems disappeared last season. They came back, with a slow start after another, even in the two parts that they won.
"We always preach fast," said offensive tackle Lane Johnson. "I think if you look at all the success that we had last year, we started the games quickly.This year was totally the reverse.Also bad we wanted to fix that, that's what we have to make a late second-half rise when it's too late, this puts our team in a bad situation. "
And that could become much worse. Before the Sunday night game, there were already eight NFC teams with a higher winning percentage than the Eagles, which suggests that even if the Eagles win it in the East of the NFC, they will still have a long way to go to return to the top of a conference whose dominance they highlighted with their strangulation of the Vikings last January.
The Eagles were silent as they passed the gigantic illuminated images of their recent triumphs lining the tunnel in their locker room. When their epaulets brushed the signs, they were as close as they had become.
Source link
