November 25, 2025
Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles can't Tush Push their problems away.
The Eagles flew back to Philadelphia as the current No. 2 seed in the NFC.
And maybe they take that as the silver lining, a show that things aren't as bad as they seem after a disastrous collapse on Sunday, and that with a couple days of practice, they can bounce right back against a Chicago Bears team that is right on their heels as the No. 3, but is still somewhat unproven in the conference hierarchy.
The Birds are 8-3 after all, and have repeatedly found ways to win, which they've kept priding themselves on, for as ugly as the weeks have looked and as frustrating as they have gotten to watch.
It's a different season, sure, but this is still a group that's not all that far removed from a Super Bowl run and all of the trials and tribulations that it brought.
They'll figure it out, the glass half full perspective would go...
Except the Dallas Cowboys picked that glass up off the counter and slammed it to the floor, or rather, Xavier Gipson dropped it trying to pull it out of the dishwasher mid-cycle, while Kevin Patullo could think of no better ideas to clean up the shattered pieces than to run through the pile in bare feet.
Take whichever visual you would prefer on that. The point is, reality hit the Philadelphia Eagles like a brick to the face on Sunday down in Dallas.
Yeah, they're 8-3, but they're lucky to be.
They had a 21-0 lead on Dallas, and with the names they have on paper, there was no reason for them not to cruise to a key divisional win. But then the offense just pulled itself away from what worked through its first three possessions, it couldn't get the run game going with Saquon Barkley again, and the defense, for as strong as it's been, it was left out there too many times and got too banged up down the stretch to hold the game together again.
They lost, they did it to themselves, and the Cowboys were hardly the first opponent to rally against the 2025 Eagles. They were just the latest to do it successfully.
George Pickens and the Cowboys picked apart a banged-up Eagles secondary in their comeback.
Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images
The Rams were a miracle field goal block away from catching the Eagles in Week 3, Baker Mayfield's gunslinging was backing them into a corner against the Bucs in Week 4, the Broncos staged an 18-point fourth-quarter comeback in Week 5, the Vikings were allowed to hang around with Carson Wentz as their QB for probably way longer than they should've, and it took the Philly defense making stops over and over again within the final few minutes of the Packers and Lions games to survive each of those.
Then Dallas caught them, with an aggravatingly uncreative and predictable offense, untimely injuries that made for exploitable matchups on defense, and crippling penalties that built up to a major disadvantage in lost yardage.
But that just might be what the 2025 Philadelphia Eagles really are: undisciplined, uninventive, and uninspired.
They've just managed to mostly get away with it up until Sunday, to sell the idea that they're still a legitimate Super Bowl contender, that they're still the elite of the NFC.
Then reality hit them like a brick to the face, with a blue star painted on.
DeVonta Smith and the Eagles' passing attack lost its bite after they went up 21-0.
Here's another dose of reality by the numbers: Yes, again, the Eagles are 8-3, but...
• Their third-down conversion rate of 34.6 percent on offense ranks 27th in the NFL.
• Their formerly dominant rushing attack ranks 21st in yards per game at an average of 110.5.
• Their 84 flags on offense is the seventh-highest total in the NFL and has cost them a whopping 721 yards, which is more than Barkley's current rushing total (684 yards) and A.J. Brown's receiving yards (567).
• The defense has come up with a lot of crucial stops in the past few weeks, but their passing yards allowed per game (225.0, 11th) and rushing yards allowed per game (115.1 , 14th) are both within the league's top half for the most yardage given up.
This Eagles team just isn't like last year's, where the 2024 squad was definitely imperfect, but always had the running game behind Barkley going for them, along with a young defense that was gradually growing more confident and taking on more responsibility as it went, until it all clicked.
But the 2025 group, that running game is gone, and Barkley seemed at a loss after Sunday to figure out why. It rarely seems to have a cohesive and well-thought out gameplan on offense in general, and now the defense is getting banged up and buckling under the weight of having to save the day over and over again.
If anything, this team is veering closer and closer to the 2023 version of the Eagles that spiraled, after walking a dangerously fine line for weeks.
And if you'll remember, that team went 10-1 while priding themselves on just knowing how to win, in the face of various and mounting concerns.
Then they couldn't anymore, and couldn't do anything to stop it.
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