Monday’s loss to the Chargers was not a pretty one for the Eagles offense, which was led by a career-worst performance from Jalen Hurts.
The Birds (8-5) are now riding a three-game losing streak, but they still sit in the driver’s seat in the NFC East with the Cowboys hot on their heels. That streak has not been good for their position in the NFL power rankings. Here’s where the Eagles stand heading into Week 15 …
ESPN: Ninth
The Eagles dropped three spots from sixth after their 22-19 loss to the Chargers. Tim McManus pointed to the Birds’ poor third-down conversion rate and high three-and-out percentage as some of the most shocking statistics from their skid.
“The Eagles have been among the worst on three-and-outs for most of the season — shocking giving all the talent on that side of the ball,” McManus wrote. “But a mix of pre-snap penalties and a substantial drop in rushing success has prevented the offense from getting into a flow. They ranked 11th in third-down success rate last season (40.28%) but entered Monday’s game near the bottom at 34.46%.”
The Ringer dropped the Eagles to seventh, their lowest rating of the season. Diante Lee has the Birds on fraud watch given the team’s deterioration compared to how it looked one year ago.
“Philadelphia’s offense has spent this entire season seemingly afraid of the shadow cast by its own immense roster talent, running away from any bit of discomfort and hoping that the rest of the league would quietly submit instead of challenging the Eagles’ right to the NFL throne,” Lee wrote. “Complacency kills in this sport, and it’s only the Eagles’ fault that they’ve allowed complacency to ruin two of their past four seasons.
“While the Eagles offense has failed to evolve, their opponents have been picking away at every weak spot, notably Kevin Patullo’s scheme and the play of Jalen Hurts. The typically risk-averse QB committed five turnovers in Monday’s loss to the Chargers, a new low point for the Eagles’ passing offense. Philadelphia still has a comfortable lead in the NFC East, but this offense hardly looks like a playoff-caliber unit.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts committed five turnovers in his team’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Athletic: 12th
Josh Kendall and Chad Graff gave their most pessimistic take on every NFL team in this week’s power rankings. For the Eagles, that worst-case scenario is that A.J. Brown has been right about the offense all along.
“The mercurial wide receiver has been advocating for a more wide-open offense (and himself) all year long,” Graff and Kendall wrote. “The last month has suggested he was right. The Eagles act like they’re getting extra points for degree of difficulty on offense, and Jalen Hurts isn’t making things much easier. He turned the ball over twice on one play Monday night and finished with four interceptions (one of which bounced out of Brown’s hands) and a 31.2 passer rating. Philly has lost three in a row.”
NFL.com: 13th
Eric Edholm said that time is running out for the Eagles to figure themselves out on offense, and the group wasted another elite performance from the Birds defense.
“It’s hard to blame a defense that held the Chargers to 3.9 yards per play and didn’t allow a touchdown after Los Angeles’ opening drive,” Edholm wrote. “The Eagles consistently got good starting field position from the return teams but had eight empty drives and went 0-for-2 in the red zone. After a third straight loss, this will be another long week in Philly. If the Eagles can’t get right in Sunday’s home game against the lowly Raiders, the reigning champs are in serious trouble.”
The Eagles continue to spiral, losing their third consecutive game on Monday night in overtime against the Los Angeles Chargers behind an uncharacteristically bad performance from quarterback Jalen Hurts.
While it was once again a bad showing from the offense, it appears that offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, the target of much criticism this season and even recent vandalism, is escaping the bulk of the blame — at least for one week — thanks to Hurts’ struggles in LA.
Here’s what the national media, including a few former Eagles, had to say about the team’s performance …
“If you were going to tell me going into last night that somebody was going to throw four interceptions, I would have thought it’d probably be the guy with only one hand,” ESPN’s Dan Graziano said on Get Up, referencing Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert’s broken non-throwing hand.
No one has defended Hurts more than former Eagle LeSean McCoy over the course of the season, but even he didn’t have much to say in Hurts’ defense after Monday night’s performance.
“Did he play bad?” McCoy said on Speakeasy. “Yes. Did he play horrible? Hell yeah, but he ain’t no four-pick-type quarterback. He had a bad game. A lot of quarterbacks have that.”
“You guys have been waiting for a moment like this,” McCoy said later in the show. “You talk about Jalen Hurts all the time and you try to bash him. The truth is, all he does is win. You can’t really bash him.”
His podcast cohost Emmanuel Acho wasn’t buying his defense of the Birds quarterback, especially after a third straight loss.
“Do your job,” Acho said. “… He’s been average all season, and he was atrocious today. He was the reason they lost today.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts on the sideline during the loss to the Chargers on Monday.
On First Take, Stephen A. Smith said the Eagles ultimately lost because Hurts and the offense once again failed to step up and deliver in a big moment. While not all of Hurts’ turnovers were his fault — one slipped right through A.J. Brown’s hands — his game-sealing pick was a bad mistake.
“You can’t make that throw,” Smith said. “You’re in field-goal range, in a position to tie. You know how much is on the line. Dallas has a tie on its record in your division and they’re tugging at your heels. …
“If you’re playing this game like Jalen Hurts has shown he’s capable of playing this game, that is a mistake at that particular moment in time that you simply cannot make. He made it, and once again we find ourselves sitting here talking about the Eagles offense, because the Eagles defense, outside of the 80-yard drive to open the game, put the Chargers pretty much on lock and key.”
"Jalen Hurts and that offense didn't answer the call, and that's why the [Eagles] lost this game." 👀@stephenasmith reacts to the Eagles' MNF loss to the Chargers 🏈 pic.twitter.com/Cwm756KM0g
So, is there hope that the Eagles can turn it around in time for the playoffs? Or is the offense doomed to repeat the collapse of 2023?
“I thought they would [turn it around] until last night,” Jeff Saturday said on Get Up. “When you look at the way that they’re moving, the only thing that feels different about this than a couple years ago, their defense can win games, and they’ve already beat the best teams.”
Despite the concerns, the First Take panel still believes the Eagles will ultimately win the NFC East and make the playoffs.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are going to win the NFC East, they are,” Chris Canty said. “When you look at the remaining schedule, they’re going to cruise to 11 wins.
“That’s not the conversation we should be having about the Philadelphia Eagles. The conversation we should be having about the Philadelphia Eagles is how can they position themselves to go back-to-back, because that’s all anybody was talking about after Super Bowl LIX. … We were ready to compare the Eagles to those modern-day dynasties. They are a far cry from that.”
"The Philadelphia Eagles are going to win the NFC East."@ChrisCanty99 believes the Eagles will win the NFC East despite their recent struggles 👀 pic.twitter.com/5ReiFyCS9G
Saturday said he thinks the Eagles listened too much to outside noise about the offense, and moved away from the more conservative style that won them games last year.
“I’m very concerned, because I don’t think they know who they are,” Saturday said on First Take. “… It was such a boring offense to watch, but they won that way. It was a very low-risk, high-reward profile that they were playing under. I understand their run game was struggling, their offensive line wasn’t the same, they’re not as dominant, I get all of that, but there is a style of play that translates to wins for the Philadelphia Eagles.”
Could that mean more Saquon Barkley moving forward? If so, it’s something LeGarrette Blount would endorse.
The former Eagles running back said on Good Morning Football that the Birds need to find a way to get Barkley more touches in order to improve the offense. Barkley showed off a bit of the explosiveness from last season with his fourth-quarter, 52-yard touchdown, but a struggling and injured offensive line has prevented the running game from reaching its full potential.
“You’ve got to get him more and more touches,” Blount said.
One disgruntled Eagles fan with access to the traffic signs near Lincoln Financial Field chose to display just one message on Monday morning: “Fire Kevin Patullo.”
The broadcast of Friday’s loss to the Bears, the Birds’ second in a row and fourth of the season, caught fans streaming toward the exits after the Bears’ touchdown late in the fourth quarter. But don’t take those early departures for lack of passion.
One fan made a Fire Kevin Patullo website, recounting the Eagles offense’s many struggles so far in 2025.
“We don’t need to pass for 250+ yards a game … but we could,” the site’s intro reads. “We don’t need to rush for 100+ yards a game … but we could. We shouldn’t go 0-8 passing in ANY half … but we did. We should run when we’re up 14 pts in the 2nd half … but we didn’t. We should NEVER run just 1 time in a half … but we did. We shouldn’t run the ball when it’s 3rd and long … but we do.”
Another fan apparently told his new girlfriend that they needed to stop talking until the end of the season, since the Birds have been playing badly ever since they got together.
“I like you a lot so don’t take that as a dismissal, just need to turn our luck around for the Birds and I think you’d understand that too,” he wrote to her on Snapchat.
Like any good Eagles fan, she was fine with it since it was “for the Birds,” she replied. After posting it on Reddit, a few r/Eagles users offered to pay for their next date after the season if the Birds turned their luck around.
Meanwhile, NFL Network analyst Rich Eisen took to YouTube to implore Eagles fans to stay calm, considering the Birds are still 8-4 and extremely likely to make the playoffs.
“I understand, one year, 10-1, making the playoffs and then they got one-and-doned, and you’re afraid that’s going to happen again, because of what I said, of too many mistakes, but everything I just said is fixable,” Eisen said.
With five games left in the regular season, the Eagles are running out of time to fix it.
It really was a Black Friday in Philadelphia after the Eagles suffered another disappointing loss, this one to the Chicago Bears, 24-15.
A few days later, everyone from former Birds to your extended family has spent the holiday weekend talking about where the Eagles offense has gone wrong this year. Here’s what some of the national media are saying …
Nick Sirianni calling plays?
Should Nick Sirianni step in to call plays on offense for the rest of the season? Sirianni hasn’t called plays since the early days as the Birds’ head coach, before Shane Steichen ultimately took over the reins and didn’t look back.
On NFL Countdown on Sunday, Rex Ryan said that Sirianni should consider it. Alex Smith appeared to agree.
“They don’t outcoach anybody on the offensive side of the ball,” Alex Smith said. “A.J. Brown took a lot of flak a few weeks ago, he was the lone bright spot. He doesn’t look that wrong now. There’s clearly something wrong there on offense.”
“They were in a similar situation last year, when all of a sudden they stopped and said, who the hell are we?” Ryan said. “Get back to running the dang football, whatever it takes. You’ve got to get Jalen Hurts involved. You can scheme, too! Ben Johnson schemed the hell out of them, and you’ve got better players than Ben Johnson does.”
Kevin Patullo has been with the Eagles since 2021 but is in his first season as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Nick Foles weighs in
Nick Foles sees everyone’s frustrations with the Eagles offense, but he’s not ready to pull the plug on offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo just for the sake of making a change.
Foles doesn’t believe Sirianni wants to call plays himself, and the solution to the Birds’ offensive woes in the long term might be outside the building.
So, in the short term, Foles pitched a few potential solutions, including moving Patullo up from the sideline into the booth.
“Being a pass game coordinator, [Patullo’s] role was to be in the box, to be in the booth, to oversee what is happening on the field from an up-above perspective, not being on the sidelines with the players and feeling the emotions from the sideline,” Foles said. “He was in a controlled environment to see coverages, to see plays, and to make recommendations for the passing game.”
Foles is incorrect in saying that Patullo worked from the box as passing game coordinator. He actually worked from the sideline, but the point remains.
Being on the sideline surrounded by the players provides a different perspective than being up in the box, which is also where Vic Fangio calls plays from. It’s a less distracting environment, and it can be easier to make adjustments as the drive develops instead of waiting to watch tape on delay.
“Get out of the sideline, get away from the emotions, because that could be clouding your vision,” Foles said. “You have a different perspective from the sideline. You can’t see the coverages as they’re forming. You can’t see the defensive alignments very well.”
Chris Long agreed with Foles that it’s hard to bring in a new coordinator or replace the coordinator at this point in the season.
Brian Daboll was fired as Giants head coach on Nov. 10.
The Eagles could explore bringing in an outside consultant to help improve Hurts and the offense’s performance, but Long is not sure who stands out as a potential candidate aside from fired Giants coach Brian Daboll.
“You look at a lot of these Eagles coordinators that have had success, they’re not homegrown,” Long said. “The ones that are homegrown, they’re just not working out. You’ve got problems everywhere.”
After Super Bowl LIX, Long said many, including himself due to his connection to the Birds, got a bit too “fanboy-ish” about the Eagles and about Hurts’ skill set, and their shortcomings are in full focus now.
“We get so hyperbolic about everything in pro sports,” Long said. “If we’d all just said, the quarterback’s not a perfect quarterback, you have to build around him … It’s not just the roster, because the roster was in pretty good shape when we rolled it out this year. It’s got to be the scheme, too.”
The Washington Post’s opinion section enlisted nine writers to share which American city they think deserves the title of the nation’s best sports city.
Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston — even the likes of Kansas City and Cleveland got a mention. Which city was snubbed? Philadelphia.
Taking a look through the comments of their recent Instagram post promoting the list, not to mention the nearly 800 comments on the column itself, we’re not the only ones who raised an eyebrow at the exclusion of Philly from the list.
So we got nine of our own writers to argue why Philadelphia is the nation’s best sports city. Enjoy.
It means more to us
Mike Sielski, sports columnist
Philadelphia is America’s best sports city because sports — not national sports, not the Olympics, but the teams and athletes here — is the lingua franca of the town and the great connector of the city and its surrounding suburbs and communities. Do you flinch when someone says the name Chico Ruiz or Joe Carter? Do you smile at a random mention of Matt Stairs or Corey Clement? Then you know and love Philadelphia sports.
It’s America’s best sports city because Philadelphia is a provincial, parochial region where the love of and devotion to the teams’ histories and traditions are passed down from one generation to the next — a succession of unbroken bonds over a century or more. Did you sit out on your front stoop on a summer night and listen to Harry and Whitey call a Phillies game over the radio? Do you still sync Merrill and Mike’s broadcast to the TV telecast? Do you know who J.J. Daigneault is? Then you know and love Philadelphia sports.
It is America’s best sports city because you can walk down the street here after an Eagles loss or a Phillies loss or a Sixers loss and know that those teams lost just from the vacant looks on the faces of the passersby. Do you turn up the talk-radio station on those terrible Monday mornings? Do you remember where you were when Kawhi’s fourth bounce fell through the net? Then you know and you live and you die with Philadelphia sports.
Most of all, Philadelphia is America’s best sports city because people here care more and sports here matters more than it does anywhere else. If you don’t believe me, go ahead. Tell a Philadelphia sports fan that your city, your teams, your traditions are better. Go ahead. Dare ya.
Philly fans celebrate the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win in near City Hall.
Nobody parties like us
Stephanie Farr, features columnist
Philadelphia is undoubtedly the best sports city in the United States and it has everything to do with our fans, who are as passionate and dedicated as they come. Here “Go Birds” is a greeting, talking trash is an art form, and being a part of it all is totally intoxicating, even if you’re completely sober (which, to be fair, most of us aren’t).
Nobody celebrates a major win like Philly — by partying in the street with Gritty and Ben Franklin impersonators, dancing with Philly Elmo and his drum line, and climbing greased poles. When the Phillies won the NLCS in 2022, I watched Sean “Shrimp” Hagan climb a pole and shotgun seven cans of Twisted Tea thrown to him by the crowd. To his credit, at some point Hagan realized he was too drunk to get down safely and waited for firefighters to bring a ladder.
“It couldn’t have happened without the crowd being so [expletive] Philly,” he told me. “What other city’s first thought when they see a guy on a pole would be to throw him a beer?”
Do our Bacchanalian celebrations border on absolute lawless anarchy? Yes, but if you want to live safe and know how something will end, go watch a Hallmark movie. This is Philly, where we are fueled by the raging fire of a thousand losses — even when we win — and we thrive off the unpredictability of life.
In my early 20s, I lived in Tampa for a brief stint. The downtown area is small enough that all of its neighborhoods are in proximity to each other. My apartment was in a section popular among locals for its dining and nightlife scene. But it was close enough to the hotel district to be in the eye of the storm when the Eagles came to town.
One Saturday evening in late October, we were sitting at a popular outside bar when the place was suddenly overcome by a wave of midnight green. Everywhere you looked, there were packs of Eagles fans who looked like they hadn’t seen the sun in two months. They swaggered through the place in their Brian Dawkins jerseys with zero regard for humanity. They ordered their Bud Lights in multiples of two and yelled Eagles chants at each other as horrified young women clung desperately to each other and wiped errant sloshes of domestic Pilsner off each other’s going-out clothes. A friend of mine stepped off the patio to have a cigarette. He returned with a stunned expression on his face. “An Eagles fan just peed on my foot,” he said with a mixture of anger and respect.
Tampa got the last laugh the next day when Matt Bryant kicked a walk-off field goal from 62 yards out. But I always think of that weekend when people ask me if Philly sports fans are as crazy as their reputation.
An Eagles fan sits on top of the traffic light post at the intersection of Broad and Pine Streets after the team won Super Bowl LIX in February.
There are a lot of different prerequisites that a city needs in order to consider itself a great sports town. For instance, it must be an actual city, one with history and character that stands on its own even without sports. Furthermore, a great sports town requires a certain level of market penetration. Sports must sit atop the pedestal in a way that it doesn’t in places like New York and L.A. There must be a critical mass of folks who are born and raised, which eliminates pretty much any city south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Mississippi. The list is a short one. Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Detroit, maybe Milwaukee.
From there, the thing that sets Philly apart is the people. They are a strange lot, prone to overexcitement and, every now and then, over-indulgence. But, man, do they care. You see it any time one of their teams hits the road. You hear it, too. There is an energy that is difficult to define but impossible not to feel. It’s the secret sauce of this place. And, yeah, it’s the best.
A veteran Eagles reporter wrote recently that last Sunday’s Eagles-Cowboys game was the Birds’ worst ever loss to their rival. They blew a 21-point lead, exposed some glaring flaws, and lost on a walk-off field goal. Fair point. But it was pushed back immediately on social media. You think this loss was bad? That’s what makes Philadelphia a great — maybe the greatest — sports city. We celebrate our wins like no other but we also wear our losses forever. This was a brutal loss but we still remember that botched chip shot on Monday Night Football in 1997. And that blowout loss in the playoffs while we were stuck inside during the Blizzard of ‘96. Oh yeah, remember what happened in 2010?
I don’t know if any city in the U.S. holds onto losses more than Philly. We do that because we care. We lose sleep when the Phillies blow a save, have a bad week if the Eagles lose, still can’t believe they didn’t call the Islanders offside, and are still waiting for Ben Simmons to dunk it. So yeah, that’s why it means more here when the teams do win. Because we care so much when they lose. You can have L.A., Seattle, and Kansas City. I’ll stay in Philly.
A Phillies fan holds up a sign paying tribute to another viral Phillies fan before the team’s 2025 home opener.
We feed off being underdogs
Julia Terruso, politics reporter
Look, I’m not pretending to be neutral here. I went to spring training in Clearwater in pigtails as a child. I fell in love at an Eagles tailgate and flew to London to watch the Phillies play the Mets on my honeymoon. But even non-Philadelphians would be out of their minds not to put us in the top three — let alone the top nine.
Rooting for the Phillies, Sixers, Eagles, and Flyers is a cross-class, cross-generation rite. We’re one of only eight U.S. cities with all four major teams, and our stadiums are actually accessible — yes, Los Angeles, I’m looking at you. Tickets are (mostly) affordable, the crowds are electric, and the fervor is real. We boo because we care. And unlike other cities, we don’t sneer at bandwagoners. The citywide greeting is “Go Birds,” and the uniform is fair game for the lifer who knows about pickle juice and The Process, along with the new Fishtown transplant who couldn’t diagram a wheel play but looks fantastic in kelly green — because everyone looks fantastic in Kelly green.
But the thing that really makes Philly a great sports town is our shared history of heartbreak and near-misses that drives us forward. We’re used to being underestimated. So go ahead, leave us off your list, WaPo. Underdogs run on disrespect, and we’ve got miles to go.
Stand on the South Street bridge at 7 a.m. and you’ll know the time of year, and that says it all. The rivers of medical professionals walking and biking back from their night shifts, and those heading to their morning duties, give it away in unison. Red caps? It must be October. Kelly and midnight green beanies? The NFL playoffs are coming. Blue or black starred jackets? The NBA playoffs are underway and our hearts will soon be broken, again.
I am a Philly transplant who comes from the tradition of European soccer, where rivalry between teams from the same city is the driver of passion. I always thought that there is nothing more electric than winning a derby game, and having your team crowned as the city’s best. But Philadelphia taught me that I was wrong. There is something more electric: a city united, together, declaring love to its teams in every nook and corner.
Jubilant Eagles fans dance around a fire on Broad Street after the Birds beat the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
Philadelphia isn’t just the best sports city in America (“next year on Broad?”), it’s an organism that breathes sports fandom unlike any other place.
The days of throwing snowballs at Santa or batteries on a hated player are far gone. This is the city that gave a struggling shortstop who just arrived in town a standing ovation, that travels in droves so E-A-G-L-E-S chants come through the broadcast of every away game, and has a community of sickos who rode with its Sixers through one of the weirdest experiments in NBA history.
The electric energy isn’t confined to the city lines. It’s a moment that every Philadelphian cherishes. Don an Eagles hat in any other city in America, or even abroad, and you are more likely than not to lock eyes with a stranger passing by.
“Go Birds,” they inevitably say.
“Go Birds!” you respond.
Nothing beats that. And if you don’t like it. All good. We don’t care.
The Washington Post’s opinion section has been having a rough go of it. Which makes me wonder if this list, too, had to be cleared by the Amazon overlord, and maybe Jeff Bezos just hates Philadelphia?
I mean … Cleveland?
The size and scale of the two recent Eagles parades speak for themselves. The fact that there used to be a jail in the bowels of Veterans Stadium speaks for itself. Attending one Phillies playoff game at Citizens Bank Park would speak for itself. “Go Birds,” is a passing “hello” to a fellow Philadelphian in another town, a phrase of familial camaraderie. Due respect to Los Angeles, a city I love to be and eat in. But the sheer number of sports that happen in a place doesn’t make it a good sports city. That’s not human. People and passion make a place.
The Penn Relays at Franklin Field are one of just a few annual sports traditions in Philadelphia.
We have much more than pro sports
Tommy Rowan, cheesesteak/Philly history expert
A criteria would have helped, but really, any discernible or coherent formula would have really pulled that Washington Post list together. Here, instead, are three reasons why Philadelphia is one of the cornerstone cities in American sports …
History: The fabric of American sport was woven here. The Heisman Trophy is named after John Heisman, who played at Penn. The Phillies are one of the key reasons fans are allowed to keep foul balls that land in the stands. All because an 11-year-old Phillies fan didn’t blink when the team had him thrown in jail for larceny.
Tradition: We’re more than pro sports. We’ve hosted the annual Army-Navy game, and the Dad Vail Regatta, and the Penn Relays. Tennis found an American foothold at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Passion: Support is an undergarment. This city has passion. Fandom here is passed down from generation to generation, just like their houses. And sure they’re loud, and they generally take it the worst of any fanbafan base. But they’re vocal, they’re informed, and they care. These teams mean something to these people.
Sports fans start young in Philly, as fandom gets passed down from generation to generation.
We know our stuff
Ariel Simpson, sports trending writer
Oct. 9 was a tragic day for Philly sports fans. The Phillies season ended with a heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Eagles suffered a devastating 34-17 loss to the New York Giants, and the Flyers dropped their season opener to the Florida Panthers.
That very next day, I wandered the streets of Philadelphia in what felt like a walk of shame. The heartbreak could be seen on each fan’s face as they still sported their favorite team’s colors. And when asked about the losses, each fan gave me a full breakdown of what needs to be done in order for the teams to be more successful.
That’s what makes Philly such a great sports city. Not only are the fans passionate, but they are knowledgeable when it comes to their sports teams. Sure, sometimes they may rush to call for a head coach to be fired or boo their own teams, but that’s only because they care so much.
They wear their heart on their sleeves and they expect more from each team. And when they do succeed, they show up and celebrate like no other. If you need an example, look no further than the city greasing its light poles in an attempt to stop fans from climbing them in celebration.
The Phanatic even cheered on a local Eagles fan in a push-up challenge against former NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez, who dropped down to attempt a few of his own.
Even Jason Kelce was on-site with New Heights and made a brief appearance on the telecast, sharing why he believes Eagles fans are the “best in the world.” More on that in Monday’s edition of The Inquirer.
“‘Wit’ or ‘wit’out’ a consistent offense, they’re still 8-3,” sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung said.
Someone gave them the right intel for where to go. Shout-out to the Philadelphian on Prime Video’s staff, although brutal to use such a great cheesesteak to explain the Eagles’ struggles.
Ben Johnson took his high school postgame celebration — a riff on Billy Williams’ “Good, better, best” Hall of Fame speech — and brought it to his first head coaching gig in Chicago.
Johnson played high school football at A.C. Reynolds in Asheville, N.C., and graduated in 2004. Prime Video resurfaced a clip from Johnson’s high school days.
What exactly is the wedge buster sandwich? I had many questions, and, to be honest, I still can’t quite tell what’s in it. But the wedge buster is Prime Video’s response to the Thanksgiving meal served by Fox at the end of Thursday’s game, an extremely large sandwich made with pizza crust that the winning team gets to eat postgame.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo did nothing to calm the heat around the Birds offense in the first half, with the team scoring just three points and compiling 83 yards of offense and two first downs.
There wasn’t much more to say about the state of the Eagles at halftime.
“Kevin Patullo does not have the answers,” former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman said. “He’s shown incompetency over the last couple games. … We need a little wingardium leviosa.”
Sherman waved a little Harry Potter wand to emphasize his point, but it’s not the first time he’s criticized Patullo.
Eagles fans
The broadcast got lots of mileage out of disappointed Eagles fans at the Linc, including my close personal friend, Philly Sports Santa, and the Grinch.
The Bears wanted to weaponize that atmosphere entering Friday’s game.
“If their offense goes three-and-out starting the game, they’re going to start booing them,” Bears safety and Philly native Kevin Byard said. “It’s one of those environments where it’s going to be very hostile. So hopefully we can start fast and kind of get the crowd against their own team.”
Prime Video even did a b-roll segment of Eagles fans — and even Santa — headed for the exits after the Bears took a two-score lead in the fourth.
Al Michaels finally asked a Tush Push question we haven’t heard before: Who on the team is the best at pushing Jalen Hurts on the famous quarterback sneak?
It took him a bit to get into his story because just after starting it, Hurts fumbled the ball and then the broadcast cut to commercial, leaving the captive audience (me) waiting for the end of the story.
“You know what, I was always good without being pushed on the quarterback sneaks,” Hurts told Michaels. “I don’t need to be pushed.”
“You know who might vote against the Tush Push? Hurts!” Michaels said.
“He might be the first one!” color analyst Kirk Herbstreit said jokingly.
Two-point conversion
Herbstreit and Michaels were surprised to see Nick Sirianni and the Birds go for two down nine points in the fourth with just over three minutes to go.
Had the Birds kicked the extra point, they could have made it a one-score game, although they would have needed to go for two if they managed to score another touchdown.
“To me, it was a no-brainer,” Herbstreit said. “You’re down eight, you’ve got all three timeouts and the two-minute warning, you stop them on three runs, with A.J. Brown and that offense.”
Instead, the Birds remained down nine points, which made a comeback nearly impossible. That said, the Eagles needed to go for two at some point anyway if they were going to tie the game. By going for two first, you have all the information about what the rest of the game needs to look like instead of running the clock down to near zero and then failing on the two-point try.
Since Lane Johnson was first drafted by the Eagles in 2013, the team is 15-25 without him. For comparison, the Birds are 120-62-1 when Johnson has played.
The right tackle’s absence hurt the Birds’ offense in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys, Jason Kelce said on Monday Night Countdown, but it wasn’t the only problem.
“He has meant so much to the Philadelphia Eagles,” Kelce said. “In pass [protection] they leave him one-on-one on an island at a higher rate than anyone in the league. He does it all extremely well, but it’s not just him this year, the whole offensive line has been banged up.”
The struggles for the Eagles O-Line has stuck out for Jason Kelce 👀
"This year is the first year they have really struggled to run the football. … It is crippling this offense." pic.twitter.com/DU88ZiOPmG
Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson have both been injured up this year, with Jurgens missing two games due to a knee injury and Dickerson missing one with an ankle injury. The left guard also tore his meniscus in preseason.
“They’ve been a top 10 rushing unit, as an offense, the Eagles have, every year since Jalen Hurts has been the starter. This year is the first year they have really struggled to run the football,” Kelce added. “A lot of it comes down to being banged up and not being the cohesive unit they have been, and healthy, in the past, but it is crippling this offense right now.”
The longtime Eagles center wasn’t alone. Super Bowl-winning defensive end Chris Long also pointed to the Eagles’ offensive line struggles as a major reason for the offense’s continued inconsistency.
“This team has been built around the offensive line since we won a championship,” Long said on his Green Light podcast. “That team was built around the offensive line. This team is built around the offensive line. We always talk about, who’s the main character. The main character has always been the offensive line.”
“Now the main character is not perfect, it puts strain on the passing game. You can talk about the coordinator — I don’t know how much of it is the quarterback or the coordinator just not knowing what the [expletive] to do. If anything short of a Super Bowl, you’re going to hear a lot of stuff come out about the behind the scenes, because it’s just not functional right now.”
Chris speaks on the Eagles offensive struggles and why the main character has always been the offensive line pic.twitter.com/nIFp25siZL
Long questioned what the team will look like in a “post-[Jeff] Stoutland” world because the driving force of the team has always been the running game and the high-powered offensive line — and Stoutland has been the coach of that unit for more than a decade.
Because of the inconsistencies from half to half, Long is also worried about a potential playoff matchup. The team is talented enough to pull out wins, but it has been very up-and-down.
“They’re almost better off being down 14 points because it forces them to open the offense up, rather than being up 14 points, a la the [Los Angeles] Rams game,” Long said, referring to the Week 3 win when the Eagles rallied from a 26-7 deficit.
There are a lot of questions surrounding the Eagles after their collapse in Dallas on Sunday, their third loss of the year, and easily their worst.
Here’s what former players and media are saying about the game and where the Birds go from here …
Who deserves the blame?
The Eagles got off to a hot start on offense against the Cowboys, building an early 21-0 lead, and looking like an offense finding the form that had evaded it in previous matchups against Detroit and Green Bay.
But the Birds failed to score a single point after that, going scoreless over the game’s final 40-plus minutes and allowing the Cowboys to come all the way back to win the game, 24-21.
Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton said on First Take on Monday that, despite being extremely high on many of the Birds’ players, it’s concerning that there hasn’t been one game where the Eagles’ offense has truly put it all together and shown what they are seemingly capable of for 60 minutes.
“A team of that caliber, we don’t expect those things to happen to them,” Newton said. “The thing that’s alarming is, the first three drives you score, you come out with a bang, we impose our will. The last eight drives, nothing. The frustration stems from, when are the Philadelphia Eagles are going to put it together, all together?
“You’re starting to say, is it the offensive coordinator? Is it the quarterback? The players? That’s where my frustration comes in. When you have that much talent, and to not have one game — here we are in [Game] 11 — to not be able to say, they figured it out.”
"A team of [the Eagles'] caliber, we don't expect those things to happen." ✍️
So, how concerned should fans be about the state of Kevin Patullo’s offense right now? ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky says very.
“I’m very concerned about the offense, because it’s not good enough to beat good teams,” Orlovsky said. “It will not be good enough to beat a team like the Packers in the playoffs, the Rams in the playoffs, the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs.
“They’re one-dimensional. They’re pass-only success when it comes to the offense’s ability. Their offensive line loses one-on-ones, they’re predictable in the run game, Saquon [Barkley] has not made people miss in space nearly as much as he was last year, and their routes — you can be predictable on offense if you’re creative with your route concepts. They’re not.”
.@danorlovsky7 says he is very concerned about the Eagles' offense 😳
Damien Woody and Rex Ryan agreed on Get Up that the Eagles’ offense was “elementary,” especially compared to more advanced NFL offenses like the Los Angeles Rams or even the Dallas Cowboys. In 2024, the Birds were able to crush teams up front with their offensive line, but Woody, a former NFL offensive lineman, said they can’t do that anymore.
“Their offensive line is nowhere near what it was in previous years,” Woody said.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Nick Foles discussed on his podcast what he sees as the biggest issues with the Eagles’ “superpowered” offense, which hasn’t been able to get into a good rhythm this year.
Dallas Cowboys cornerback Daron Bland defends A.J. Brown in the first quarter at AT&T Stadium on Sunday.
Foles, like Orlovsky, called out the Eagles’ route designs, which haven’t put A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in the best position to get open, which in turn prevents Barkley from finding the holes he found last year. The former Eagles quarterback told co-host Evan Moore that the Birds utilize “simplistic” route trees (or the combination of routes a player can run at a given time) that don’t create space for the players, forcing them to get open and make plays on their own.
“The great teams, those guys are wide-open. Even when I’m watching with [my wife] Tori, she’s like, ‘Why are these guys so wide-open?’” Foles explained. “And I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a complementary route to a deep route. … You need those downfield shots because it puts more pressure on the [defensive backs], it opens up more one-on-one matchups, but you’ve got to have complementary [routes], because then the DB can’t key and can’t guess.
“So the creativity is key as a play-caller, and calling the plays at the right time. … There’s just an art. And I don’t see that this year. I don’t think anyone sees it. Fans that are passionate Eagles fans — because I’ve been to Philly several times — and you hear, every time I run across Philly fans, ’Man, what do you think is going to happen with the offense? What’s going on? Is this Jalen [Hurts]?’ I’m like, ‘Listen, it’s a team thing. Kevin Patullo is probably a great dude, a great coach, but there’s an art to play-calling that not everyone has and it’s not showing up this year.
“They’re in more of a trajectory of the 2023 season … I would argue that they’re more on that trajectory than last year’s trend line, but at the same time, I do know that they have the players.”
The Eagles went up 21-0 early in the game but allowed 24 unanswered points from the Cowboys to lose, 24-21, Sunday in Dallas. If you turned the game off in rage after the Eagles’ second-half fumbles and miscues, here’s everything you missed on the Fox broadcast …
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing offense have earned a lot of critics through the first 10 games of the season. The Birds ranked 28th in passing yards per game coming into Sunday.
But one person who’s not criticizing Hurts and Kevin Patullo’s offense? Tom Brady.
“You hear critiques about the style of the passing offense, that it’s remedial, I totally disagree,” Brady said. “He’s got a lot of full-field reads, he’s looking to the right, he did a great job earlier in this game on that comebacker to Saquon Barkley, scanning the field. He just doesn’t put the ball in harm’s way, and that’s what you need from your quarterback.”
Brady continued to praise Hurts during the game. He also complimented Hurts’ chemistry with A.J. Brown, despite the discourse off the field in recent weeks.
“It doesn’t look like there’s any issue to me,” Brady said.
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had a touchdown called back because he didn’t get his second foot down before touching the pylon.
Pylon cam
It didn’t occur to me that the pylon cam wasn’t in the actual pylon, and that there was a separate pylon that contains the camera.
But after Brown’s near touchdown was called back because he didn’t get his second foot down before touching the pylon, the instant replay clearly showed two pylons, just inches away from each other.
sometimes the pile on counts sometimes the pile on doesn’t count? #FlyEaglesFly robbed of a 2nd aj brown td #nfl refs are lost sometimes the ball can hit the pile on sometimes that doesn’t end the play lol pic.twitter.com/JKHvmeBbPo
“Really good skills to differentiate the actual pylon from the pylon cam,” play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt said. “Could have knocked them both down.”
“We have way too many pylons down there. A.J. did a great job,” rules expert Dean Blandino said.
Is it necessary for the pylon cam to also be shaped like a pylon? Feels like there could be a clearer way to differentiate.
Jalen Carter lasted longer than five seconds on the field in the rematch vs. the Cowboys — unlike his early ejection in the season opener for spitting on Dak Prescott.
That doesn’t mean he cooled down with the trash talk. After Prescott’s red zone interception, Carter had a few choice words for Prescott, which got caught on the broadcast.
“Nick is definitely letting the ref know. ’It didn’t look like what it was. We weren’t trying to pick him,’” Brady joked.
The refs followed that up with a Brown false start in the fourth quarter, so clearly they were not intimidated.
Eagles punter Braden Mann had to re-punt late in the game because of a penalty on Kelee Ringo.
Confusing re-kick
Brady and Burkhardt were confused after the Eagles had to re-punt the ball on fourth down, after Braden Mann booted one more than 70 yards.
The pair theorized the kick potentially hit the scoreboard, which is an automatic re-kick, but after reviewing the tape, they couldn’t figure out where that could have happened.
“If it hits the scoreboard, that’s basically a do-over,” Burkhardt said.
It turned out, the Eagles had committed a penalty on the play, and the Cowboys elected to have the Birds attempt another punt. It worked, and Dallas got better field position the second time around.
“They had a player going out of bounds on the play, the Cowboys took a penalty and elected to re-kick,” Blandino said.
More than a thousand Flyers fans came to Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday to pay tribute to Bernie Parent, the legendary goaltender who backstopped the Flyers’ only two Stanley Cup victories.
Diane Gobeil came armed with a copy of The Inquirer from 1974, after the first Stanley Cup victory. She was 14 when the Flyers won the 1974 Stanley Cup, and said she’d never seen her hometown in Delaware County so engaged and excited about anything before that team.
“I never saw the city more excited than that time,” Gobeil said. “He deserved [for] us to come back and say goodbye to him.”
Fans clad in Parent jerseys lined up to look at the memorial display. Jon Levinson, 62, came down from North Jersey to celebrate Parent, his all-time favorite professional athlete, who won his entire family over to Flyers fandom.
Fans look at and take photos of the Bernie Parent memorabilia on display at the Bernie Parent Celebration of Life on Friday.
He met Parent last December at a signing event in Philadelphia, and said it was the happiest moment of his life. When his friend pointed out he had two daughters, he just laughed. “My daughter’s a huge Flyers fan too, so it’s OK. She would understand.”
Levinson came down for the opening game this season to pay tribute to Parent, and is also attending Saturday’s tribute game against the Blues.
“You listen to all the speakers today, and for all the wonderful things they said, I don’t know if they even truly painted an accurate portrait of what Bernie meant to the city of Philadelphia, to the fan base, to Ed Snider youth hockey, to everybody,” Levinson said.
The celebration was an important night for Snider Youth Hockey, the program founded by former Flyers owner Ed Snider and Parent was heavily involved in. Snider youth hockey players handed out programs, and a number came in Snider Hockey jerseys to pay tribute to him. Kenyatta Johnson donated $5,000 to the Ed Snider Foundation, which was doubled by Scott Tharp, president and CEO of Snider Youth Hockey and Education.
His work with Snider Youth Hockey was just one way Parent, who lived in Avalon, N.J., until his death, impacted the local community. To the fans, Parent was so much more than just a hockey player.
He inspired Marion Powell to run her first marathon after she met him in New Jersey a few years ago, and used his book, “Journey through Risk and Fear,” as a motivator when training got hard. She spoke to him again in August, and told him she was running her second marathon in October.
“Bernie has been my biggest motivator, my biggest inspiration,” Powell said. “My daughter told me, when I was training for the marathon, I was on like mile 18 on a run, and she told me Bernie passed away, and I just finished the marathon a month ago.
“When you have an inspiration, it keeps you going, no matter how hard it is.”
