By Tucker Bagley, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
For the second straight week, the Eagles let discipline get in the way of any potential success on the field. They struggled with penalties and it hurt progress on both sides of the ball.
There is a lot to go over from the 27-20 loss to the Redskins, so let's get to it.
Going Deep
After three weeks of stellar play, the Philadelphia Eagles are struggling. Back-to-back losses and back-to-back sub-par performances by Jim Schwartz's defense really brings to light one issue that has seemed to follow Schwartz around for the majority of his coaching career: discipline.
During Schwartz's five-year tenure as the head coach of the Detroit Lions, his teams were in the Top-10 of the league in penalty yardage four times and watched four of his players get arrested a total of seven times in a single offseason. Despite the extreme lengths he has gone to in order to prove his no-nonsense approach, Schwartz has always struggled to reel in his players into a disciplined, controlled environment.
Which brings us to the 2016 Eagles and yesterday's debacle. One week after committing 14 penalties and gift-wrapping a game for the Lions, the Eagles committed another 13 penalties, abandoned gap assignments and played with zero fundamentals in a frustrating loss to the Redskins.
“I know we don’t necessarily see ourselves as an undisciplined team, but the numbers will tell you that we’re an undisciplined team that beats themselves,” Malcolm Jenkins told Zach Berman. “In the first three weeks, that was really one of our strengths: We played very patient, very sound football. We just eventually broke our opponents. It’s been the opposite of that the past two weeks. Our opponents stayed back and stayed steady, and we beat ourselves. And once we get down, they pour it on. So we have to take a hard look in the mirror and fix that problem first.”
The issue isn't Schwartz's personality or the make up of his defenders. Instead, his simplified scheme, built to make the 11 men on the field play as fast and as aggressive as possible. But that aggression has gotten away from the Eagles in the past two weeks as they've been gashed for huge gains on the ground and flagged for numerous, avoidable penalties. Schwartz gives his players a lot of freedom on the field and as frustrations have mounted, their attention to detail has diminished, and as a result, so has their collective performance.
To his credit though, Doug Pederson has taken full credit for the Eagles struggles, falling on his sword, just like his mentor would do on a weekly basis.
“It starts with me,” Pederson said. “I have to go back and evaluate. It is just a discipline thing. I have to look if our guys are in position, are they out of position, are they moving their feet, not moving their feet. Whatever they are doing to cause the penalties – some of them are legit, obviously – but it is an area we definitely have to clean up.”
The Eagles still sit in a good position at 3-2 with a stud quarterback, but the loose ends need to be tied up quickly. Hopefully these past two weeks will force the Eagles to reflect on their mistakes and get back to playing solid, sound football. If not, things could start to spiral out of control very quickly.
Injury Report
Did Not Play: Leodis McKelvin (hamstring)
Bennie Logan: Logan went down with a groin injury in the second quarter, but was able to walk off under his own power. After being tended to on the sidelines, the defensive tackle's day was declared done after the half. In his place Beau Allen played fairly well, picking up a tackle for loss, but if Logan is out for an extended period of time, it would be a huge hit to the middle of the Eagles' defense.
Marcus Smith: Just like Logan, Smith went out with a groin injury in the second half and failed to return. Smith made one of the few highlights for the Eagles, pressuring Kirk Cousins into an ill-advised throw that was picked off by Jenkins and returned for a touchdown. The third-year player has shown flashes during his limited snaps this year, but he still has yet to become a consistent contributor.
Nolan Carroll: Carroll went down in the third quarter after trying to make a tackle on a screen pass. However, he was able to return to the field on the very next series, which was good news for an Eagles secondary that was already without services of Leodis McKelvin.
Measurables
19:46: Nineteen minutes and 46 seconds ticked off the game clock during yesterday's game where the Eagles ran just one offensive play, a kneel-down to end the first half. Fourteen points were scored by the Birds during this stretch, but Carson Wentz and company never set foot on the field. The Redskins, on the other hand, ran 39 offensive plays.
In real time, this stretch lasted over one hour and 13 minutes. Here's a list of things the offense could've done in that time instead of stand there on the sideline: bake a pan of brownies, take a yoga class (especially if they ate all those brownies), drive from Philadelphia to Ocean City, NJ, drive from Ocean City, NJ to Philadelphia, go through the Wendy's drive-through 24 times, or any one of these autumn-themed crafts.
Seriously though, what transpired during the second quarter was amazing.
2: The Eagles defense prides itself on getting after the passer, but they registered no sacks and just two quarterback hits on Kirk Cousins yesterday. Cousins has always given the Eagles fits, but for a unit who was sacking quarterbacks on more than 10 percent of their dropbacks, just two hits is pitiful. Granted, the Redskins quick-hitting offense leaves little time to rush the passer, but Cousins was often able to stay in the pocket or roll out and hit receivers down the field. The Eagles even admitted after the game they were blitzing at a higher rate than they normally do, but still they were unable to get their hands on Cousins, outside of a late hit by Fletcher Cox.
Notable Quotes
Fletcher Cox: "It's the second week for me to do really dumb s—. I need to evaluate myself first and take my thumb and point it at me."
— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) October 16, 2016
Speaking of Cox's late hit, it was nice to hear the All Pro defensive tackle own up to his mistakes. The past two games, Cox has extended drives with unnecessary hits on the quarterback, giving opponents free points. Cox has been a dominating performer this year and his play hasn't been an issue, but the penalties are a microcosm for what is hindering the Eagles defense.
"I wanted to save the time. We had discussed it prior to the play, if something negative would’ve happened we were gonna use the timeout, save the time."
-Doug Pederson on the Eagles decision to use a time out before punting on their last drive.
Alright, let's set this straight. So Pederson says they called the time out because they didn't want the clock to run while they were getting the punt squad situated. The Eagles were then left with just two time outs, meaning the Redskins could have run 40 seconds off the clock, had the Eagles stopped them on third down, before punting the ball.
Here's where that argument falls flat. There is no way the Eagles would have been able to waste those 40 seconds between third and fourth down, especially if the punt squad was ready to get on the field. Hell, when they punted in the first quarter, only 28 seconds ran off the play clock before Jon Dorenbos snapped the ball, and that's with the team taking their time.
So, had they not used the time out, sauntered on to the field, lined up and punted, only 28 seconds would have run off the clock. Twenty-eight is less than 40. Boom, math.
Weekly Awards
Offensively Overmatched Award: Halapoulivaati Vaitai
Man, Big V was awful. He allowed Ryan Kerrigan to run all over him and just didn't seem like he belonged from the get-go. And the sad thing is, the Eagles will probably go back to him next week. He can't be worse than he was yesterday, but he didn't do much that showed he can turn things around in just one week. Convention would say to kick Allen Barbre to right tackle and allow Stefen Wisniewski play left guard, but Pederson is a players coach.
As we noted above, he has his players' backs and has created this "us against the world" stigma in the Eagles locker room. The players trust him. How would it look if he claimed a guy was ready all week only to get yanked after one performance? Now, Pederson may change his mind if the team realizes just how overmatched Vaitai was, but it says here, No. 72 will be lining up at right tackle next Sunday.
Defensively Overmatched Award: Connor Barwin
Barwin has been the consummate pro during his time with the Eagles and has been one of the team's best players, but he was a liability yesterday. The Redskins ran all over him and the right side of the Eagles defense. Barwin was just beaten by Trent Williams again and again as the game went on. Once again, he isn't a guy worth worrying about, we know he can turn it around and play at a high level, but yesterday's performance can't go unnoticed.
Three-Step Drop
1. Last week, I pleaded for the Eagles to give the ball to Wendell Smallwood and Kenjon Barner. Well, the Eagles listened, but maybe they shouldn't have. Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles rebounded from last week's dud to combine for 80 rushing yards on 13 carries, while the young guys toted the rock eight times for just 12 yards. Although, yesterday was the healthiest Mathews has looked since going down with a concussion last year. So that's a sliver lining moving forward.
2. We won't know much until the all-22 film comes out on Tuesday, but the Eagles wide receivers really struggled again. Through five games, Jordan Matthews is the only wide receiver to put up over 60 yards in a game. Brent Celek and Sproles have each done it once. As for the rest of the Eagles receivers, Nelson Agholor's 57-yard performance against the Browns is the highest yardage output of the season. In fact, since the start of 2015, Matthews is the only Eagles wide receiver to have a 100-yard game. It's starting to get to the point where we have to wonder if this is as good as it gets for this bunch and their immense potential will never be realized.
3. We've made it this far without talking about Wentz, but here we go. The statline will say he had a rough game, but outside of a couple of sacks, Wentz played fairly well. With his limited time on the field, it was hard for the rookie to get into a rhythm, especially under the pressure the Redskins were putting on him. Still, he made a couple plays that only a few people on this planet can make and reminded fans that he can be very, very special down the road.
Who's Next
The Eagles welcome back an old friend in Sam Bradford along with the rest of the red-hot Minnesota Vikings next Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. The Vikings had this week off and remain the only undefeated team in the NFL, thanks to their stellar defense.
Even if the Birds were coming into this game with a bit of momentum, it would have been a tough contest, but now, coming off back-to-back losses, they may find it rough sailing against Mike Zimmer's squad. The Vikings play aggressively on defense and could make Wentz's life miserable if the offensive line can't figure things out in practice this week. Maybe the Eagles come out with some desperation and steal a victory at the Linc, but after these last two weeks, a three-game skid seems more likely.
