Knee-Jerk Reactions: Eagles Lose 4th Game In 5 Weeks
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- And just like that, the Philadelphia Eagles are 4-4 and in last place in the NFC East.
The Eagles lost another heartbreaker 28-23 on Sunday to the New York Giants. They're now 0-3 against NFC East opponents.
- Another head-scratcher from Doug Pederson.
- The Eagles outgained the Giants (443 to 302), had more first downs (21 to 16), and won the time of possession battle (32:40 to 27:20). The turnover battle was even at two-two.
- So how do you lose that game?
- You go 3-15 on third down, 1-4 on fourth down, and 2-6 in the red zone.
- Pederson chose to go for it twice in the Giants' red zone, in the first-half: 4th-and-2 from the NYG 23 down 14-3 (a Carson Wentz read-option keeper) and 4th-and-1 from the NYG 6 down 21-10 (a Darren Sproles off-tackle run).
- Amazingly, the Eagles lost by five points.
- The way Pederson is handling the running backs is truly mind-boggling.
- An offense that is already limited with weapons has given up completely on their most well-rounded running back, Ryan Mathews.
- Mathews had just five carries for 15 yards, despite scoring a touchdown this week. Last week was the same story, as he had four carries for 10 yards and a touchdown.
- Mathews played just 11-percent of the snaps this week.
- Wendell Smallwood ran well on Sunday, carrying twice for 25 yards, including a 19-yard run. But that was it. Two carries.
- Darren Sproles received 15 carries and 18 touches, just one week after he had an 80-plus percent snap share for the first time in his career.
- By making Sproles --- because of two Mathews fumbles (I guess?) -- their lead back the Eagles have effectively made themselves easier to defend.
- Bryce Treggs, in his first career game, made more of an impact in one game than Josh Huff did in two and a half seasons.
- Just two catches for Treggs, a 5'10 WR out of Cal with 4.4 speed, but one was a 58-yard catch that set up a touchdown. The Eagles only had two of those all day.
- I wrote about Treggs before the game. He can play and he's probably the Eagles' second most valuable receiver already, which is sickening.
- Dorial Green-Beckham was brutal on Sunday: zero catches.
- His routes are lazy and he seems disinterested. We're starting to realize exactly why the Titans just bailed on the dude.
- Nelson Agholor had a fumble and another drop, and didn't help Wentz on his first interception, but Agholor found a way to compile four catches for 41 yards and make a play or two. Finger swirl.
- Zach "I refuse to break a tackle" Ertz caught a hollow eight balls for 97 yards.
- Carson Wentz will be fine, I think.
- These kind of things happen with rookie quarterbacks, they throw interceptions on the road. All quarterbacks throw interceptions, actually.
- More importantly, it's about how they respond.
- After his second INT and the Giants took a 14-0 lead with 9:43 left in the first quarter, Wentz was 26-46 for 357 yards and the Eagles outscored the G-men 23-14.
- Nevertheless, the interceptions are somewhat concerning because his mechanics aren't great and the misses are high.
- After the two touchdowns off turnovers, the defense only allowed 14 points and forced two interceptions of their own.
- The Giants only averaged 2.3 yards per carry for the game.
- Both Rodney McLeod and Malcolm Jenkins struggled, combining for just six tackles. Those guys rarely have down games, let alone together.
- The corners, Leodis McKelvin and Jalen Mills, struggled -- McKelvin especially.
- Jordan Hicks had another strong game with seven tackles and that incredible 4th quarter interception (on a Connor Barwin deflection).
- Fletcher Cox went sackless again so you'll hear the critics, but Cox was solid recording 5 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1 pass deflection. He saw a ton of double teams as well.
- After losing four games in five weeks, the Eagles get the gauntlet of their schedule: Atlanta, at Seattle, Green Bay, at Cincy.
