Chip Kelly, Eagles Fail In 38-24 Thrashing To Washington
Philadelphia, PA (CBS) — Darren Sproles is used to winning and he couldn't hide the anger in his face nor his eyes. The Eagles' explosive Pro Bowl return man expected more—a lot more from this season and this team. The hollow eyes and listless faces around the Eagles' dejected locker room on Sunday in the bowels of Lincoln Financial Field spoke volumes.
Now it's over—finally. The teasing and cajoling this Eagles team has done this season can now twist and swirl down the drain, leaving scattering remnants of what could have been on the rim.
By the 7:41 mark of the fourth quarter, it had become a tired, familiar refrain. The Eagles had seemingly surrendered—and so too had the fans. Large sections of seats were left empty. They didn't even bother booing. They just left.
Washington sealed its first postseason berth since 2012 and its second in the last eight years with a dominating 38-24 victory over the Eagles, which fell to 6-9 and were eliminated from the playoffs for the second-straight season after committing their NFL-high 20th and 21st turnovers at home this year. It's the third time in 2015 that the Eagles gave up 30 or more points, which is the third time they allowed that to happen at home in franchise history.
"I'm hot right now," Sproles said. "We've had it. The last two weeks we've been killing ourselves, turning the ball over. This is a playoff team. I think it is. We had some bad games early, and then we were still in it and all we had to do today was close these last two games out and we didn't do it. We can be so much, I feel. Because we have the players. I don't know what happened this year, I don't know."
The Eagles took the opening kickoff 80 yards over six plays, for a 7-0 lead after Ryan Mathews scored from a yard out. Then the Eagles' offense curled up and withered, while Washington took a lead it would never relinquish scoring on successive first-quarter drives.
On the Eagles' eight first-half possessions, they went touchdown, punt, punt, punt, punt, field goal, fumble and punt. After the Mathews' 1-yard score, the Birds then produced 40 yards of total offense on their next four drives, going three-and-out on two of those four drives.
The game and failure of this season has to fall on the ineptitude of Chip Kelly and his player-personnel decisions. He let go of LeSean McCoy for a skittish, oft-injured linebacker, Kiko Alonzo, cut Evan Mathis, plunged a pile of money into slow tailback DeMarco Murray, which could have been spent on retaining Jeremy Maclin.
And though Sam Bradford has been serviceable, he was placed in a position to fail, without any weapons around him, and an aging offensive line that had problems meshing.
In the home finale, Bradford finished 37 for 56, for 380 yards, with a touchdown. He was also sacked 5 times for minus-27 yards.
But it was those little things that kept adding up—and eventually hurting. Like the 7 times the Eagles were flagged, amounting to 45 yards in penalties. In one sequence in the second quarter, Lane Johnson and Matt Tobin were penalized on consecutive plays. Then there was Bradford, who overthrew a wide-open Nelson Agholor in the end zone with 5:30 left in the third quarter, with the Eagles down 23-10. That came after Bradford missed an open Zach Ertz down the sideline with 10:25 left in the first half. Ertz would have easily scored if the pass was on target.
Murray closed his first season as an Eagle at home rushing for a mere 15 yards on 6 carries, including a fumble, which resulted in a 17-yard TD fumble return by DeAngelo Hall with 3:15 left in the third quarter. That pretty much clinched it for the Redskins.
From there, it turned comical. Apathy had set in a month ago.
"It's been a frustrating year and there's nothing really more to say to that," safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "We have talent on this locker room. We have guys that can play, but for whatever reason, as a cohesive unit, we're not that good. Everyone in this organization has a hand in that. We can't figure it out. There's a lot of things missing, and it's obvious by the way we're playing. We have talent and we have people that care. It's why we showed those flashes when everyone is clicking. I look at every locker in here and I looked these dudes in the eyes, we have talented players. For some reason, as a cohesive unit, we're just not that good. It's one thing that bounces around. Last week it was the tackling. There's nothing successful about this season at all. It's definitely a failure. It hurts more when you have the opportunity to make the playoffs and you don't get it done. Guys are working hard. It's just not getting solved. No one in this organization can look at themselves and feel they did really well this year."
