Postgame Report: Eagles Embarrass Themselves On A Monday Night

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles went to the locker room at halftime having been stepped on the whole first half.

The play was bad, but the coaching was terrible – three runs against a team with a decimated defensive front? It takes skill to call plays that poorly.

There was a brief glimmer of hope on a single, scoring drive where the offense got jolted by a huge catch from Quez Watkins and then there were real plays called that targeted the tight ends and running backs who have been open on nearly every play this season, but the plan went back to forcing it to Devonta Smith on almost every play (other than ridiculous plays like a non-run where all the offensive lineman ran downfield and didn’t block) and somehow the Dallas defense was able to catch on. It’s truly a mystery how.

It could be a tight end or a running back if they ever got clean passes in the rare cases the coach chooses to utilize them, but Watkins was the clear performer who made the most of his night. He caught both of his targets for 46 yards, including a 41-yard snag that was all him after Hurts just heaved a ball into the air and he had to fight through the defender to even have a chance at it.

Brandon Graham must have been really missed and Gannon must have forgotten to make any adjustments after that embarrassing second half last week, but at least Hargrave was strong once again. He and Fletcher Cox are the only defenders who didn’t seem to screw up in this one and Hargrave was actually extremely disruptive early on. He lost some momentum with Cox out and after the defense had played a lot of snaps, but he really did about as much as could be expected from what was largely a one or two-man show for most of the night. Six tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and a tackle for loss.

• Isaac Seumalo looks likely to miss some time, which is bad news considering second-round pick Landon Dickerson was pretty bad the entire game. If he keeps playing like this and Nate Herbig is already on the field, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Brett Toth or Jack Driscoll taking over before Brandon Brooks has a shot to return.
• Nick Sirianni has been an embarrassment. The Eagles could hire someone off social media to make these play calls if they wanted. I’m sure there’s someone else out there that likes rock-paper-scissors, too. That makes a cute story.
• The Cowboys have no defensive line and somehow the running backs got a total of three carries the whole game? How oblivious do you have to be to call runs so infrequently, especially when your quarterback isn’t doing anything productive.
• Speaking of awful play, Jalen Hurts not only appeared rattled, but was missing easy passes (two yard attempts with no pressure included), was apparently incapable of seeing the white jerseys breaking on the WR routes the whole game and broke into no-gain runs multiple times instead of looking at his open targets. Absolutely not NFL caliber play and that needs to change quick if he wants to stay in the league.
• Fans of the yellow flags rejoice, the Eagles landed 13 more penalties tonight. This may be the most undisciplined team the league has seen in years. It’s as though the players haven’t read the rule book. If only there was like a staff of coaches or something that had it as part of their job to make sure that got cleaned up after the first two games.
• With the utter lack of development and adjustments, it may be time to look to the draft already. Luckily, it’s not just the Eagles that are awful as the Dolphins and Colts join them among the bottom-tier teams in the league, so the Eagles could be looking at three of the top-ten picks in the draft or at least two in the top ten of each of the first two rounds.

Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys – September 27, 2021