There is no sugar-coating it anymore: the Eagles were simply not a good enough team.
Through 13 weeks, the Eagles had a 9-3 record and looked well on their way to another division title and a home playoff game, perhaps one against a more favorable opponent.
The Eagles never really beat a good team this season, even their Week 2 win over the Indianapolis Colts. More than anything, the Eagles had a chance to assert themselves at the top of the NFC. A loss to Seattle, a loss to Dallas and a loss to lowly Washington have changed the tune.
This is not a playoff team, and that will possibly be made definite by the Cowboys later on Sunday after the Eagles Saturday loss to the Redskins.
Every week, it was the same tune. This team had to cut down on turnovers. They could never avoid the costly turnover that provided the opposition with momentum and created headaches for Eagles fans.
Mark Sanchez' interception in the final two minutes of Saturday's loss was the Eagles version of Tony Romo. A drive with promise, set to extend the Eagles season another week, set to give the Eagles hope for the division title, was erased with one errant pass.
Season over.
But what cost the Eagles long before the interception was the penalties, the missed field goals, the overall missed opporunities.
The Eagles would have won on Saturday if Cody Parkey had made the two field goals. But for a rookie kicker who barely missed, you give him the benefit of the doubt.
The Eagles left seven points on the field with their offense as a whole when they failed to advance a yard after recovering a fumble to start the second half. Forget the missed field goal. If Sanchez makes a play, the game is likely over in a different sense and the Eagles are still looking at a meaningful game against the Giants next week.
Instead, the mistakes in the redzone haunted as well. The Eagles left points on the field too many times this season. A three-point loss to Washington should have been avoided. The Eagles couldn't make enough plays to do that.
And as the season dragged on, the secondary just continued to struggle. This is a coaching problem, not a personnel problem.
Everyone knows what the Eagles had this season. Everyone knows about the dumb penalties Cary Williams takes or the constant struggles of Bradley Fletcher. But it took until Week 16 for Billy Davis, Chip Kelly and company to see the light and try something different.
Playoff teams are constantly trying to get better. When they lose, as the Eagles did to Seattle or Dallas, they want to come back better than they were that week. They want to prove they aren't the team that lost a week before.
A 9-3 team in playoff position lost to a very capable playoff team in a sloppy game. They didn't respond with the division on the line. And then with the playoffs on the line, they didn't get any better.
The Eagles regressed as the season carried on. In the stretch run, when the Eagles made noise to become a playoff team a season ago, this team faded.
So the Eagles are finally meeting a fate they deserve. They will likely not make the playoffs this season. And they can blame their own mistakes for it.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
