November 02, 2021
Are power rankings completely dumb and meaningless? Yes. Yes, they are. However, personally speaking, whenever I see them, I click. And now that I've sucked you in with promises of many power rankings, you'll read it and like it.
Here's where people around the country have the Eagles ranked heading into Week 9 of the 2021 regular season. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.
Biggest Achilles' heel: Inexperience
Nick Sirianni is a first-year head coach surrounded by the youngest coaching staff in the NFL. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has started 12 games in the NFL and doesn't have a primary wide receiver over 23 years old. The result is inconsistency in both game plan and performance. The Eagles have beaten a pair of teams by 26-plus points and have also been manhandled at times. You never know what you're going to get.
#JimmySays: And yet, with all the inexperience noted above, they still have a lot of older players who aren't going anywhere because they have untradeable contracts.
Finding ways to take pressure off Jalen Hurts should be an every week goal for the Eagles. Perhaps it already was, but they actually found solutions through the running game in a 44-6 win over the Lions. Eagles running backs rushed 39 times for 165 yards, with Jordan Howard and Boston Scott each scoring twice. The blowout victory was especially important for rookie head coach Nick Sirianni, who would have found himself under extreme scrutiny had Philadelphia faltered against the winless Lions. The Cowboys are running away with the NFC East, but the Eagles can keep themselves in the postseason picture with a win over the slumping Chargers on Sunday.
#JimmySays: An unlikely win over the Chargers — the Eagles are home dogs on Sunday — would indeed put the Birds in decent position for a wildcard. I mean, if the season ended today, the 4-4 Panthers would be in. Chasing a first-round blowout loss doesn't feel like an ideal outcome for the long-term health of the team, though.
Time for a quick tour of the NFC East, where the Eagles are second in the standings and second in these power rankings, despite coming in at No. 26. The Eagles have a positive point differential on the season—better than the Browns, Steelers, Chargers and Chiefs—thanks to a pair of blowouts in Weeks 1 and Week 8. That was a well-timed win, because Nick Sirianni’s agriculture lesson was meme fodder anyway, but it would have been much more mean-spirited if the team had lost. (This is true of most things in sports though—fun when you win and mocked when you lose.)
#JimmySays: That last point in parentheses is so true.
No analysis given specifically for the Eagles here, but they remain at the very edge of "the muddled middle."
Two weeks ago, they ran the ball once before halftime. Sunday, they ran it 46 times with three guys getting at least a dozen carries. Guess which game they won...
#JimmySays: The game they ran it a lot, probably.
Given the final score of Sunday's victory over the winless Lions, one might think the Philadelphia Eagles fixed many of the issues that have plagued the team, if only for one week.
However, this blowout said a lot more about how bad the Lions are than anything good about the Eagles.
This isn't to say that there weren't positives. The Eagles' struggling ground game got going, with Boston Scott and Jordan Howard combining for 117 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries. The Eagles defense completely stymied the Lions, allowing just 228 total yards and sacking Detroit quarterback Jared Goff five times.
But the Eagles managed just 350 yards of offense, with quarterback Jalen Hurts completing just nine of 14 passes for 103 yards before giving way to backup Gardner Minshew in the fourth quarter.
Hurts getting pulled likely had more to do with the score than his pedestrian stats, but with some already anticipating a change under center in the City of Brotherly Love, Hurts can't afford many more duds this season.
#JimmySays: Lol what? They were up 38-0 when Minshew came in. There's no "likely" about it.
Running back Jordan Howard might end up as the most all-time frustrating touchdown vulture in fantasy football history. He reemerged from the practice squad after Miles Sanders' injury and immediately scored two short touchdowns. He might be playing that role until he's 35.
#JimmySays: I'll take that bet.
They looked like a good team against the Lions. But it's hardly looked like that for much this season. The defense was dominant. The Chargers will be a challenge this week.
#JimmySays: CBS with the 🔥 analysis as always.
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