State of the Eagles: Week 3 (2021)

2.) Jalen Hurts?

Let’s face it, Jalen Hurts played “okay” during this game. He had some great throws (ex: 91 yards to Quez Watkins & the TD to Reagor that was unfortunately called back) and he also did a good job of using his legs to pick up a few first downs. Hurts’ willingness to throw the deep ball will keep defenses honest and will stretch the defense more as the season goes on. With that being said, he did not look nearly as sharp as he did during the season opener against Atlanta.

3.) Jordan Mailata the GOAT

Jordan Mailata, the former rugby player, is cementing his case to be the Eagles franchise LT. He went up against the elite Nick Bosa this past weekend and essentially shut him down. In a game that did not have too many positive aspects, this is certainly one of them.

Negative Observations

1.) Offensive consistency is lacking

This loss hurt, not because it’s just a loss, but because the Eagles could have easily won it. They had been dominating the entire game, but the lack of offensive consistency was killer. The Eagles offense seemed to be able to move the ball at will during the first half, only to stall out on SF’s 30-yard line. To be good in this league, you have to be able to consistently get into the end zone, which is something that the Eagles failed to do on Sunday.

2.) Playcalling was ROUGH

This game gave me flashbacks to the Doug Pederson era. I, among many other Eagles fans, am not a fan of running on 3rd & 6, and I was left scratching my head at the decision to run a knock-off Philly special on 4th and goal. I love the idea to go for it in that situation, but man, that call just wasn’t it. This game was certainly disappointing in most aspects, but the play calling is one of the most frustrating of those. After the game Nick Sirianni took full responsibility for the lackluster play calling; let’s hope he puts his players in a better position to win next week.

3.) Penalties galore

The Eagles once again struggled with self-inflicted wounds, racking up 8 penalties for 57 yards, the most aggravating of those was a 15 yard unnecessary roughness call due to a late hit by Derek Barnett that erased an SF 3rd & 15 late in the 4th quarter. You simply have to have better situational awareness than that. This game had been a battle and you finally have a good chance to give the ball back to your offense with a chance to win the game, only to have that chance squandered because of an idiotic play like that. You just simply have to be better than that.

4.) The injury bug bites again

The biggest loss that the Eagles took this weekend was not on the scoreboard; rather, it was losing Brandon Graham for the rest of the season with a torn Achilles. In addition to this, Brandon Brooks also got hurt, although we are still waiting on an MRI to find out the extent of the injury. As always, the Eagles will need to adapt the “next man up” mentality.

Standings

The Eagles are in a three-way tie with Dallas and Washington for first place in the division, with the tiebreaker going to Washington for their divisional win against the Giants. It’s only Week 3, but the division is wide open for any team to make a run. Here are the updated standings:

1. Washington: 1-1
2. Philadelphia: 1-1
3. Dallas: 1-1
4. New York: 0-2

Upcoming game

The Eagles travel to Dallas to face off against the Cowboys in primetime on Monday night. The Cowboys are hot off a win against the Chargers, and though this pains me to say, they look good. The Cowboys went toe to toe with the reigning Super Bowl champions during the first game of the season, and they squeaked out a win against the Chargers yesterday on a last-second field goal as time expired. This game will be a true test to see what this Eagles team is made of coming off a loss at home. Just like last week, I do believe that this game is certainly winnable, but there are some major changes that are needed to win this game.

Conclusion

Well, the Eagles certainly “Eagled” yesterday. With that being said, if I had one word to say to Eagles fans after suffering a loss after this week, it would be this: Relax. We must remember that Hurts is a young QB who just made his 6th start in the NFL, Sirianni just coached his 2nd game in the NFL in a head coaching position- there will be growing pains throughout this process. The fact of the matter is: the Eagles lost this game because of themselves. I don’t want to hear excuses about the refs missing a delay of game that would’ve backed SF up during their final drive; you always have to beat the opposing team as well as the refs. All that being said, this is a long season. The Eagles certainly have surprised people with how they have played, and I expect that as the season goes on, the Eagles will improve. Now is not the time to panic. As always, Go Birds!

Subscribe to our posts and bookmark these feeds:

• Eagles News
• NFL News
• NFC East News