The Day After: Angry Eagles Missing the Point

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles should be upset with themselves, a narrative Jalen Mills expressed moments after a 27-17 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday and one Doug Pederson latched onto during his Monday morning radio spot with the team's flagship radio station.

"I'm pissed off at myself (and) I'm pissed off at the way we played," Pederson told WIP Sports Radio. "It frustrates me to no end. We have too much pride, I have too much pride. These players have too much pride. We work our ass off during the week. It is frustrating. It is frustrating. Blame it on me all you want. I'll handle it with the players, you can blame it on me. I'm a big guy. It's fine."

"I have too much pride. These players have too much pride. We work our ass off during the week. It is frustrating. It is frustrating. Blame it on me all you want. I'll handle it with the players, you can blame it on me. I'm a big guy. It's fine."https://t.co/2JICRJqUJS
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) November 16, 2020

Shouldering the blame is what good coaches need to do so Pederson checked the box there.

The more concerning part is the haughtiness that accompanies that sentiment which marches on unabated even as Super Bowl LII drifts farther away off in the distance of the rear-view mirror.

There is a constant belief inside the NovaCare Complex that the 3-5-1 Eagles are beating themselves.

"We're self-inflicted ourselves," said Pederson. "We are killing ourselves. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. All of those cliche little statements are still showing up and it's frustrating."

From the press box at MetLife Stadium it sure looked like the New York Giants were the better football team on Sunday afternoon, and back on Oct. 22 when the Giants held a 21-10 advantage with less than six minutes to go the Pederson himself admitted New York had his team beat before the miracle comeback.

So maybe Occam’s Razor applies here and the young and improving Giants are better than Philadelphia right now.

On Sunday, once Giants Killer Boston Scott went 56 yards to the house early in the third quarter, the thought was that order would be restored.

Until Sterling Shephard beat Avonte Maddox with a beautifully run slot fade for 27 yards and then former Eagles receiver Golden Tate went up over Nickell Robey-Coleman for 38 yards.

Of course, you could make a strong argument, those consecutive plays on the subsequent drive did restore order - for the better football team.

Yes, there were too many penalties by the Eagles, and an 0-for-9 on third down is always about execution especially on the manageable opportunities that favored the offense.

But, the Giants played better on both fronts, their talented defensive line eating up a banged-up Eagles interior and their fast-improving O-Line more than holding its own against what is supposed to be Philadelphia's strength, the defensive front.

The Giants are still learning how to win under rookie head coach Joe Judge and second-year quarterback Daniel Jones but New York is clearly the ascending team here after years of making poor decisions in the post-Tom Coughlin era.

The Eagles, meanwhile are the ship passing in the night, creeping toward the storm that looks worse than the end of days-like supercell that greeted us all on the Jersey Turnpike traveling back from MetLife Stadium, the result of standing pat for far too long with an aging and expensive roster.

Like any emotion, anger is the enemy of logic.

The Eagles are living in a perpetual Super Bowl stasis and believe they are better than the Giants, something 1,470 days of dominance will feed into.

Here's the tough love, though.

The Eagles have been mediocre since that cold winter's night in Minneapolis back in February of 2018 and they are only getting worse, pissed off or not.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Tuesday and Thursday on "The Middle" with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, and Barrett Brooks on SportsMap Radio and PhillyVoice.com. He’s also the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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