Preseason Blowout No Reason to Panic, Though Some Disturbing Trends Emerging
PHILADELPHIA – If this was the regular season, say for example the Sept. 12 opener in Atlanta, a 35-0 loss like the kind witnessed Thursday night against the New England Patriots at Lincoln Financial Field would leave a mark, an ugly black-and-blue bruise that would be difficult to heal.
As it was, this was an August exhibition game, one the Eagles played without three-fifths of their starting offensive line, as center Jason Kelce took a seat with the right side of that line, Brandon Brooks and Lane Johnson.
As it was, Jalen Hurts developed a stomach infection just prior to kickoff and didn’t play.
As it was, the defensive line was without Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Javon Hargrave, Josh Sweat, and Derek Barnett. Cornerback Darius Slay sat out, too.
As it was, the Eagles aren’t showing much of their playbook.
So, let’s not overreact to this stinker, especially considering that the Eagles played two very competitive practices against the Patriots earlier in the week. This wasn’t the same Eagles team anyone who watched those two practices saw.
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“I think we’re keeping some stuff under wraps right now and, like anything, the preseason – you have joint practices to kind of work through situations that, as a team, you might not necessarily see until the season,” said LB Alex Singleton, who followed up last week’s seven-tackle performance with seven more this week.
"When the preseason games come, you shrink down that play list, so when you get into certain situations, you’re not going to pull out something that you’re going to use in the regular season, so you kind of have to sit back and play the calls that are going to come. At a certain point in that second quarter, they know the calls that are going to come, so it’s just kind of how it is in the preseason.”
All that said, there are some disturbing trends that have developed in these first two preseason games.
The Eagles aren’t doing a good job converting third downs or stopping them.
Against New England, the defense allowed the Patriots to convert 5 of 9 third downs. Last week against the Steelers, they gave up 11 first downs in 17 third-down situations.
Rookie WR DeVonta Smith made his preseason debut Thursday night
Offensively, the Eagles are now a collective 2-for-18 on third down in two games after going 2-for-10 against New England.
That inability to convert and defend third downs is a big reason why their time of possession has been so underwhelming – 22 minutes, 56 seconds vs the Patriots; 18:45 vs. the Steelers.
“You have to come out and prove it every day in this league,” said quarterback Joe Flacco. “Just because you do something one day doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed anything the next. Practices aren’t games.
“We have to learn how to carry one thing into the next and keep building on things and stacking positive days. The more of those that you have and the more that you do, then the more wins you come away with. It’s just part of the learning experience and hopefully, we can take out of it what we can and get the positives and move on in a positive way.”
Something else proving problematic is the inability to stop the run.
Granted, Thursday night’s starting D-line was rookie Milton Williams, T.Y. McGill, Hassan Ridgeway, and rookie Tarron Jackson.
The third team D-line entered with just under five minutes left in the first quarter and went: Matt Leo, Raequan Williams, Marlon Tuitupolu, JaQuan Bailey.
New England had a field day, running for 207 yards and piling up 486 yards of offense to the Eagles 82 yards rushing and 163 total yards. The Steelers ran for 156 yards.
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Asked what his message to the team was in the aftermath of a 35-0 nothing loss, head coach Sirianni said: “It was that in the NFL, right, you look at our practice this week, we had a good day on Monday. Tuesday, we competed pretty hard against the Patriots, and today wasn't good enough.
“The message was this is like a season. You have to stack practices on top of each other, stack quarters on top of each other, stack plays on top of each other, stack games on top of each other. So, it's not good enough to come out, play a good game one day, compete the next day and play a little bit better than okay and play bad the third day.
“That's just not going to work in this league, and that was a good example for our guys to see that's just not what we do. We have to come out and play every day and compete every day.”
They have one more game to learn that lesson when they practice twice against the New York Jets in Florham Park, N.J. on Tuesday and Wednesday before playing the preseason finale on next Friday.
After that, the games start to count, and if there are any more 35-0 losses, well, get the ice packs ready.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
