September 19, 2021
The Eagles offense left a lot on the field in Sunday afternoon's disappointing 17-11 loss to the 49ers, their first loss of the Nick Sirianni era.
Whether it was missed open receivers by Jalen Hurts, Jalen Reagor stepping just of bounds before touching the ball on a would-be touchdown pass from Hurts, or Sirianni completely wasting a 91-yard bomb to Quez Watkins by making some... questionable... play calls inside the 10 yard-line, the Eagles really hung their defense out to dry.
Which is a shame.
"A lot of pops that we didn’t capitalize on," Hurts said, later saying he blames himself for letting his teammates down. "We have to learn from today. A lot of things that happened out there were things that we could control. A lot of those wounds out there were self-inflicted."
In the first 28 minutes of the game, the defense was stout, suffocating 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and making the run game more or less a non-factor.
But a lead that should have been at least 17-0 wound up being just 3-0 as the Niners took over at their own three with a few minutes left in the first half, following a botched pseudo-Philly Special attempt that left a lot to be desired. So what did San Francisco do? They slowly marched to the end zone, of course, taking advantage of a tired and therefore soft Eagles secondary.
Even trailing 7-3, the Eagles had momentum and confidence heading into the second 30 minutes, but something was off when they returned to the field.
In the second half, with the Eagles offense sputtering and Hurts taking perhaps too much time to make his decisions behind an offensive line that lost Brandon Brooks to injury, the defense once again let the Niners methodically get down the field and score — this time on a 93-yard, 16-play drive that saw them convert four third downs.
"Lack of consistency and finish," Hurts said, diagnosing his biggest issues in the setback. "Finish. Finish. Finish. This game we didn't finish more than we did."
Late in the fourth, with the 49ers dropping back to avoid the deep shot, the Eagles offense finally came to life as Hurts scampered often and eventually into the end zone to cut the Niners' lead to a single possession. But with no timeouts remaining, the Birds couldn't get the ball back in the remaining four minutes.
"We had multiple opportunities to steal that game," Lane Johnson said, "and I thought the defense played a heck of a game. On offense, I could have done a lot better. A lot of guys could have executed a lot better, but we didn’t.”
Maybe the 49ers are simply a lot better than the Falcons — and the evidence presented on Sunday suggests they are — but the Eagles seem to have regressed just one week after a dominating 32-6 opening day statement.
It was hard not to be struck by the impressive play from the Eagles defense in that game — a unit many expected to be somewhere in the middle of the pack among NFL teams this season. In Week 1 against a Falcons offense with weapons that can do some damage, Philly held Atlanta to just 260 total yards, and just 136 through the air.
Philly's defense looked similarly scary in the first half against the 49ers, but a Brandon Graham Achilles injury (that will reportedly end his season) saw them lose momentum, confidence and control. It's hard to expect even the best of defenses to post a shutout, especially when the offense is struggling to get anything going, but Philadelphia comes away from the first two games with defense as a clear strength after having allowed just 17 points to the Niners.
Javon Hargrave looked fantastic — especially early — with two tackles for loss while the defense as a whole held San Francisco to 3.1 yards per carry on 38 rushing attempts, a mark that would have been the best in the NFL last season. Garoppolo's 6.3 yards per attempt would have been the seventh best defensive mark for any team last year.
There is a lot of good to build on, despite the Birds not having a single forced turnover.
However, it does become worrisome that the Eagles will be facing two games in a row against the Cowboys and Chiefs in the next two weeks, two offenses that can sling the ball all over the field. The Eagles offense will need to help the defense against these two soon-to-be foes, as the fresher the defense is the sharper it can stay.
"Round 3 is coming up. And Round 3, the bell is going to ring regardless of if we win or we lose," Sirianni said after the loss. "We have to put ourselves in position to win Round 3 by correcting this tape hard, by rehabbing hard, by meeting hard, by walking through hard and by practicing hard to put ourselves in position to win a division game... it's about how you learn from this, pick yourself up and go back to win Round 3."
If the Eagles defense can handle tests against two of the best passing offenses in the game, then we'll know Jonathan Gannon's boys can really play. But there is only so much they can do when Hurts and the offense can't score.
It's worth remembering that the Eagles over under to start the year was only 6.5, with Jeffrey Lurie calling it a "retooling" season. Eagles fans may need to come to terms that the losses may pile up and it could get worse, before the schedule eases and things get better.
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