Lane Johnson Calls Eagles 35-0 Performance 'Terrible'

PHILADELPHIA - Lane Johnson got the night off during the Eagles' 35-0 preseason drubbing at the hands of the New England Patriots but the All-Pro right tackle isn't taking Nick Sirianni's competition mantra lightly.

“It’s terrible,” Johnson said on the preseason loss when appearing on the JAKIB Media Live Postgame Show which also includes SI.com's Eagles Maven.

“Anytime you don’t put up anything [on the scoreboard], I don’t care what you’re doing. If you’re in the nature of competing and being in competition, that’s unacceptable.

"I don’t care if it’s preseason or whatnot, there’s still a standard to play at this level and represent yourself and to represent this team.”

Johnson's harsh words came after 60 minutes of scoreless football and a running 52-0 mark through the last six preseason quarters for Philadelphia and its rookie head coach.

The Patriots, who were in town early for joint practices earlier in the week, had their troubles at the NovaCare Complex but when the bright lights came on Cam Newton and Mac Jones led an offense that piled up 486 total yards to just 163 for the Eagles in one of the most lopsided preseason losses in franchise history for Philadelphia.

The context is that the Eagles decided to sit many of their typical healthy starters like Johnson, Brandon Brooks, and Jason Kelce on the offensive line and Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Josh Sweat on the defensive line.

Add cornerback Darius Slay to that list and banged-up defenders like DT Javon Hargrave and DE Derek Barnett before topping it off by Jalen Hurts' late scratch due to a stomach infection and you'll quickly realize that the product on the field Thursday night in South Philadelphia will have little resemblance to the one that hits the turf in Atlanta for Week 1 of the regular season.

Johnson, for one, doesn't want to hear the excuses, however.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We haven’t done nothing yet. We haven’t accomplished anything yet, so moving forward, we have a lot of work to do and that’s coming from me and the veterans.."

Sirianni has continuously expressed that the Eagles feel they will have an advantage early in the regular season because opponents won't have a firm grasp on their schemes so vanilla has been the flavor of the month in August for the Eagles.

"Again, one of our biggest advantages is that people don't know exactly what we're going to do," Sirianni explained after the game.

“I think we’re keeping some stuff under wraps right now,” linebacker Alex Singleton added. “Like anything, the preseason, you have joint practices to kind of work through situations that you might not necessarily see until the season.

"When the preseason games come, you shrink down that playlist, 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.”

The disconnect comes with Sirianni constantly preaching the idea of competition from the day he arrived in Philadelphia and at least one player has taken that sentiment to heart.

“Anytime you’re between those lines, it doesn’t matter, that’s how people get elevated, demoted. That’s really a place of opportunity," Johnson said. "It wasn’t a good outing by us tonight.

"We’re not where we need to be."

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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.