December 20, 2023
The Eagles are in free fall after dropping their third straight to a Seattle Seahawks team on Monday night that was clinging on for its playoff life.
The offense was an inefficient and indecisive mess, again.
And the defense, while maybe getting a temporary boost from the switch to Matt Patricia, eventually got figured out by Drew Lock, Kenneth Walker, and DK Metcalf and could do nothing to stop it.
At 10-4, they're still going to the playoffs, but with Super Bowl aspirations and a chase for the No. 1 seed in the NFC rapidly slipping away from increasingly uninspiring play, the situation sure feels dire right now.
The good news: If the Eagles are going to bounce back and course correct within the final three weeks of the season, they'll get the 5-9 New York Giants at home on Christmas day to start with in the first of two.
And they'll be heavy favorites going in, according to the sportsbook:
| Sportsbook | Spread | Money Line | Total O/U |
| DraftKings | PHI -11.5 | NYG +490 PHI -675 | 43 |
| FanDuel | PHI -11.5 | NYG +490 PHI -670 | 42.5 |
| BetMGM | PHI -12 | NYG +500 PHI -700 | 42 |
| UniBet | PHI -12 | NYG +460 PHI -670 | 42 |
| PointsBet | PHI -12.5 | NYG +500 PHI -750 | 42.5 |
The bad news: I mean, you've seen this defense the past three weeks. If Drew Lock can get to them, what's stopping Tommy DeVito? (Plus, if you remember Joe Webb, the Eagles have a weirdly awful history against QBs coming out of nowhere yet thrown straight into the fire.)
But glass half full, right?
The Eagles need this one to stay ahead in the NFC East, while the Giants only really have pride – and spoiler – to play for.
After that heroic overtime run into the end zone against the Bills less than a month ago, the case felt solidified: Jalen Hurts was the MVP. Stats be damned, the at the time 10-1 Eagles just kept finding ways to win, and Hurts someway, somehow was always leading them to it.
Then they crashed into a wall hard against San Francisco, got rocked by Dallas the week after, and collapsed in Seattle on Monday night, with Hurts especially looking off in the last two.
His MVP stock took a hit after the blowout loss to the 49ers, but now it's plummeted all the way down to +2000, per DraftKings, essentially taking him out of the conversation while Brock Purdy has risen to the top.
The current MVP odds from DraftKings:
| Player, Pos. | Team | Odds |
| Brock Purdy, QB | SF | -200 |
| Lamar Jackson, QB | BAL | +450 |
| Dak Prescott, QB | DAL | +700 |
| Christian McCaffrey, RB | SF | +1000 |
| Josh Allen, QB | BUF | +1200 |
| Jalen Hurts, QB | PHI | +2000 |
| Tyreek Hill, WR | MIA | +2500 |
| Patrick Mahomes, QB | KC | +2500 |
Hurts has fallen under the 200-yard passing mark four times this season and twice in the past two games. He's also up to 12 interceptions on the season, double of what he threw in last season's MVP-caliber campaign.
Then that commitment comment slipped after the loss to Seattle.
Jalen Hurts was asked a question about the two-minute offense. He then brought up commitment.
— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) December 19, 2023
Here is the full quote as well as the follow up:
"I've been talking about execution all year. Being on the same page, everyone being on the same page. We didn't execute. I don't… pic.twitter.com/Yh398dFpHi
Again, the situation feels dire.
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