Eagles Continue to Regress, Lose to Falcons 30-17

Andy Reid’s time in Philadelphia is nearing the end after getting blasted by the Atlanta Falcons 30-17 at home. Andy Reid was 13-0 after the bye week as the Eagles head coach. This season has been a nightmare for Reid and the rest of the Eagles team and organization. The nightmare doesn’t appear to be ending soon, at least not until the end of the regular season. The Falcons took control of this game early, with two long drives that combined for 13 minutes in the first quarter, while the Eagles only had one quick three and out before falling 14-0 in the first quarter. They responded with a long touchdown drive capped off by LeSean McCoy, but Matt Ryan answered with a 63 yard touchdown to Julio Jones. Atlanta put on cruise control after that and Philadelphia struggled to move the football from there. It’s tough to get back in the game when your defense isn’t on the same page and you get down 14-0 in the first quarter. There was plenty of blame to go around on Sunday. The coaching staff, the offense, the defense, the special teams, the front office that put this team together without much depth, Michael Vick and basically anyone not named LeSean McCoy. This is the team of the year where attitude is crucial. A record of 3-4 doesn’t kill your season, but a record of 3-6 or 3-7 does. It’s important to keep fighting on every play at to maintain your focus and not to celebrate when you are losing badly. Nobody wants to see an entire defense celebrate a sack when they are getting blown out. The season isn’t quite over just yet, but is a lot closer than it was yesterday. Right now the Eagles just need to focus on getting on the same page on defense and getting better on every phase. They can start focusing on their record and what it will take to make the playoffs once they end this three game losing streak. The Eagles get an extra day next week to prepare for the New Orleans Saints next Monday night, but they can’t afford to have another start like they did against Atlanta. The Saints are on a two game winning streak and they are offense is really starting to heat up. One more week like the Eagles had against the Falcons and you can bet some major changes will be coming earlier than expected. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie won’t put up with a half empty stadium in the fourth quarter for long.