The Philadelphia Eagles are not a good football team, it becomes more apparent with each passing week. In their Week 11 matchup against the Cleveland Browns, Doug Pederson actually looked like he had a solid game plan heading in.
His offense ran the ball eight straight times on the opening drive, getting the ball all the way down to the Browns 5 yard line, only to fumble away their best scoring opportunity of the game. It’s been that kind of season. Every good moment is followed by about 2-3 bad ones.
Howie, Doug, Wentz, they’re all to blame here. This season has been an organizational failure from the top down.
Let’s get into to some takeaways from this Week 11 embarrassment.
Carson Wentz should’ve been benched at halftime
What is it going to take for Pederson to pull the plug on Carson? He’s been arguably the worst starting quarterback in football this season, and he’s been allowed to get away with it with no repercussions.
This week was the week I finally said to myself, “we have to bench this guy.” Send a message, let your team know this kind of play is unacceptable. Wentz is a broken quarterback at the moment. If he’s the competitor, no non-sense, put your head down and work kind of guy, benching him should be a wake up call.
Wentz struggles in all facets of playing quarterback. Slow decision making, no internal clock while he’s in the pocket, poor accuracy. He doesn’t do anything well right now. Doug continually says during every postgame press conference that things need to change. Well, then change something! You’re the head coach, make a statement to your team.
When asked if he considered benching Wentz at any point during this Week 11 loss, Pederson said the thought didn’t even cross his mind. Part of me thinks he won’t bench him because it’s admitting failure on his part. Because truthfully, the stark decline of Carson Wentz is an organizational failure.
This guy had the city of Philadelphia in the palm of his hand three years ago, and now fans are calling for a second round, gadget quarterback to take over for him. Why? So we can watch this organization ruin another young quarterback?
At this point, with six weeks to go, it’s hard to envision Pederson surviving this. He continues to do the same things week in and week out, thinking things will all of a sudden turn around. That’s the definition of insanity. Doug Pederson is insane, literally.
No accountability on this team
Building off Pederson not holding Wentz accountable for his play, it’s become the norm throughout the entire roster. There are a handful of players who do not deserve to start, yet they’re out there on the field every week. I’ll just name three: Jason Peters, Alshon Jeffery, Jalen Mills. All are veteran guys who were here during the Super Bowl run, and each of them have young, promising backups who need to start seeing the field.
Peters was an absolute train wreck on Sunday. If he’s given the green light to start this week against Seattle, I’d fire Doug on the spot for making that decision.
When Alshon came back, I was actually kind of excited, I thought he may be able to contribute. I was wrong. He should not be taking snaps away from Travis Fulgham, Jalen Reagor, or Greg Ward. Since his return, he has 0 catches on 3 targets, with 1 drop and 1 interception while throwing his way. Put him on the bench and keep him there.
Then we have Mills, who’s on a one-year deal and probably won’t be here next season. What’s the upside to keeping him in the starting lineup? He is what he is at this point: a below average defensive back. K’Von Wallace is waiting in the wings and will be the starting safety for this team moving forward. Why are we delaying that inevitability?
This organization is in denial right now. They don’t want to admit they’re on the cusp of a full blown re-build. So they’ll keep throwing these washed up guys out there, thinking they’ll magically get hot and go on a run. Doug Pederson’s insanity is bleeding through the whole organization right now.
Pederson forgot that running the ball is the only way his offense can move the ball
We should’ve known that opening drive where Pederson ran the ball nearly every play wasn’t going to last. Miles Sanders’ fumble gave Pederson all the justification he needed to go away from the running game.
Sanders had 14 carries in the first half, and just two in the second half. What? I need Pederson to fill out a 5 W’s chart (who, what, when, where, and why) to explain what the hell he’s thinking.
I wouldn’t say the Browns are far and away the more talented team, but they recognize what they’re good at and they don’t deviate from it. The Browns only gained 18 rushing yards in the first half on 13 carries. In the second half, they stuck with it and gained 119 yards on 27 carries. Imagine that, a head coach that calls plays to his offense’s strengths. What a concept.
The Eagles were the opposite. They gained 96 rushing yards on 19 carries in the first half, and then only ran the ball 6 times after halftime for 10 yards. Why go away from what’s working? It’s unbelievable, but it’s also not unbelievable if you’ve watched Pederson call plays this season.
Insane. This team is insane.
The defense came to play, kind of
Jim Schwartz’s defense only allowed 13 points on Sunday, which should be enough to win any football game. But how many times are we going to see this defense give up a score right after their offense gains a little momentum?
After the Eagles got within two points on a Jake Elliot field goal, Nick Chubb went beast mode on Schwartz’s defense on that 54-yard run, leading to a Cleveland touchdown. This has been a trend all season. The defense just cannot keep momentum on their side, they just can’t do it.
But at the end of the day, this loss doesn’t fall on the defense. There’s only so much they can do when their offense is arguably the worst unit in the NFL. They’re not a great defense by any means, but they’re at least average. Average defense can win games in this league if they have a top-10 offense giving them leads.
We all know that isn’t the case with the 2020 Eagles, though.
The lone bright spot: Alex Singleton
Alex Singleton has really impressed me since he became the starting linebacker. He followed up his monstrous performance last week with another stellar outing against the Browns, recording 12 total tackles and 1 sack.
He has a little crazy in him, and I like that in my linebackers. He has potential to be a legit starter year for at least a couple seasons.
So there, at least there was one good takeaway from this game.
On to Seattle! Go team!
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