Comments on that disaster of a game.

This is coming in several days than it would have normally as my brother and I went to the game and got home really late. We took my ten year old nephew to his first game (would have been nice if the Birds had bothered to show up for that, but more on them in a moment). Having watched the meltdown unfold in person, here are a few thoughts:

Philly deserved to lose that game; New York came out more mentally ready and played harder. I think this game is a testament to the downside of the Eagles' longstanding philosophy of minimal practice. It is my understanding that the Birds didn't get any real practice in this past week; just walkthroughs. That may do a good job of keeping everyone fresh, especially on a short week, but was clearly inadequate to prepare the team mentally for a physical game. There was a story floating around that the Birds were unaware of how athletic Jaxon Dart is, in part because of the lack of real simulation in practice of an athletic QB.

Far be it from me to question Vic Fangio, but... To be clear, Fangio has been running professional defenses for longer than I've been alive, so I'm already out of line, but the book on dealing with a player like Dart should have been simple: don't blitz, rush only three or four, use a spy (Campbell, Baun or Mukuba all would have sufficed) and play coverage. The Giants had no one on paper that should have been able to beat you downfield without Malik Nabers. Stay patient and let an inexperienced QB make the inevitable mistakes. Instead, it appeared that the defense blitzed on nearly every passing down and never used a spy from what I could see. That, coupled with the lack of preparation mentioned above, allowed Dart to make play after play.

The Giants didn't respect the Eagles' pass game at all. Watching it live really hurt, but for most of Philly's early plays, New York played just one high safety. They clearly had no concerns of any kind about the once-deadly Eagles downfield passing game. That did change a bit in the second quarter once Philly hit a few plays but this point is indicative of a real problem where none should exist (more on this in a bit).

Injuries didn't help. No excuses here (Philly is or should be good enough to beat the Giants shorthanded, as we saw in Week 18 last year), but losing Quinyon Mitchell to a hamstring in the second quarter really hurt the defense, as did losing Jalen Carter 15 minutes before kickoff (I knew Carter was ailing but the decision to hold him out literally came at the last possible moment; it flashed on the jumbotron right before the teams came out of the tunnels). The team missed Nolan Smith's relentless athleticism off the edge more on Thursday than before (who knew?), and Dickerson's absence was also notable. More on this shortly.

It's not totally fair to describe this game as a buttkicking. If you want to say that the Giants wanted the game more and were more physical in certain aspects, that's fair. But keep in mind that this game was largely a coin flip without the uncharacteristic turnovers; check out the box score:

You can look this up, but the Giants' edge in first downs, yards, plays and time of possession was entirely earned in their largely meaningless final drive. If you watched the game you know this already, but the two turnovers probably swung the bottom line by a good 14 points or so, and coupled with Jalen's unforgivable overthrow of a WIDE open Devonta Smith, this was really a 50-50 game disguised as a route. Having said that...

Time to find the 2025 Eagles' soul. Put another way, does this team have enough heart to come back from this? On paper, there's obviously no reason they can't. I'd have said that 4-2 was the most likely record after six games, so no ground is lost there. They are still on top of the division, thanks to another Commander choke job on Monday night, and will have tiebreakers on the only team ahead of them in the NFC standings (Buccaneers). This loss was so absurd that it could almost be discarded; what I mean by that is that no serious fan actually thinks the Giants are better than the Birds are, even now. The deeper issue is that the team appears to not be mentally ready to play, does not appear to be on the same page (AJ Brown, where's your head at?), seems to once again be mired in terrible or unimaginative offensive playcalling (2021 and 2023 all over again), and is significantly shorthanded at some key positions (Za'Darius Smith's sudden retirement really hurts and raises some uncomfortable questions). They are in for a real fight this weekend in Minnesota (did you know that the Birds haven't won in Minneapolis since the 2008 season?) and if Mitchell can't go, probably should not be favored.

To be clear, I do not think by any stretch the season is over. But, it's more than fair to point out that the team's to-do list is LONG if they want to have a shot at repeating:

1. Fix the pass rush, which is down to Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, Patrick Johnson and Jalyx Hunt as of right now. None of these guys have shown the ability to be a significant and consistent difference maker so far. Look for another trade here.

2. Deal with the CB situation. It's clear by now that we can't count on Adoree Jackson or Kelee Ringo to hold the fort and who knows when Jakorian Bennett will be back or if he can make a difference. Hopefully Mitchell won't be held back too long, and we just might need to bite the bullet and move Cooper DeJean outside for the rest of the season. A solution in the slot would need to be found but that's an easier fix than finding a true CB2; those guys are just not available on the open market or by trade.

3. They need to get healthy on the OL. The problems with the run game simply stem from the fact the Dickerson hasn't been 100%, Cam Jurgens isn't 100% and Tyler Steen isn't the monster that Becton was last year. Dickerson and Jurgens might be able to work back to closer to full health and Steen may settle in more (remember he only has seven career starts). That's a bit of a longshot but improving the interior OL will give more of a push for the run game than what we've seen so far.

4. Maybe the most important of all, FIX THE PASSING GAME. This thing should not be nearly as broken as it seems to be. Personnel wise, you'd be hard pressed to argue that this offense is worse than the 2022 unit that made explosive plays all year long. They retain six of the eleven starters, with notable upgrades at RB and WR3, as compared to that season. There's a bit of an issue with the Super Bowl hangover, a bit of an issue with yet another playcaller (Patullo makes five in as many years), but possibly the biggest problem is that the team has gotten too used to relying on the run game and a conservative mindset. That's fine and even preferable when the OL is healthy and getting monster pushes on every play, but that isn't the case this year, so they have to deal with it. There's no objective reason why the team can't come out slinging it one of these weeks and recover some of the old magic. Maybe that's a pipe dream, but if they can get some of that back it will not only restore the good vibes in the locker room but will open up room for Barkley in the run game (no more single high safeties) and take some pressure off the young defense. Figure it out, boys.

Looking ahead a bit, I do not like the Birds to win in Minnesota, especially if Mitchell is out or is balky. Too many good Viking WRs + weak Eagles secondary + seriously ailing Eagles pass rush = lots of Viking points. I hope I'm incorrect about that but on paper, that's where things stand. If the Birds figure out some things with the passing game and/or if Mitchell is fully healthy, that will help significantly. After that will be a revenge game against the Giants that Philly will not overlook like they did last week. Getting to 5-3 at the bye isn't the end of the world, especially since better days are likely ahead in terms of OL health and defensive experience. Hang in there, Birds fans!