Roob's Observations after Eagles get embarrassed by Cowboys

This was a travesty. This was an embarrassment. This was a disaster. This was a catastrophe. This was a nightmare.

For only the fourth time in Eagles history and the first time in more than 25 years, the Eagles blew a 21-point lead.

How can you go up 21-0 after three drives and then not even come close to scoring again?

This one is on the coaching staff. This one is squarely on Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo.

A 21-0 lead and a 24-21 loss.

This was horrifying.

1. The offense looked amazing! Incredible! Unstoppable! This was finally the offense we’ve been waiting for all year! For three drives. Then? They reverted back to the offense we’ve seen all year and that meant disaster. First three drives, they were varied, unpredictable and aggressive. They had a plan and they executed it to the tune of 21-0 after three drives. They looked incredible! Kevin Patullo was in complete command of the playbook, and the Eagles had the Cowboys off balance and overmatched. Those first three drives netted 21 points, 192 yards and 12 first downs. Then it all just disappeared. The Eagles’ final eight possessions – FINAL EIGHT POSSESSIONS – netted 107 yards, seven first downs and exactly zero points. The defense did its best against an explosive offense and kept the Eagles in the game, but you can’t hold down an offense like that forever. Especially when you have to run back on the field pretty much as soon as you get to the sideline. This was a travesty. How do you score 21 points on your first three possession and don’t even come close to scoring again?

2. This performance on top of 10 points in Green Bay and 16 against the Lions is just unacceptable, and if Patullo keeps calling plays, this team is not going to win the Super Bowl. It’s that simple. We’re 11 games in now. It’s not early in the season anymore. Look at the last three games: Ten points against the Packers. Sixteen points against the Lions. And no points over the final 41 ½ minutes against the Cowboys. Nick Sirianni has changed coordinators before. Shane Steichen replaced Sirianni as offensive coordinator halfway through the 2021 season. And then there was the Matt Patricia disaster late in 2023. One worked, the other didn’t work. But at least Sirianni tried something. Who should take over? I don’t even care. How can Jason Michael be worse? How can Scot Loeffler be worse? How can Parks Frazier be worse? It doesn’t even matter. With the talent this offense has, there’s absolutely no way this offense can be in this state. In shambles. Patullo isn’t the only problem, but he’s clearly the biggest one.

3. What do teams do when they go up 21-0 early in a second quarter? They run the ball. But the Eagles can’t run the ball. So they had to keep throwing, and they made some big plays in the passing game, but ultimately their inability to run the football and mix things up cost them the game. Those incomplete passes stop the clock, make the game longer and give the Cowboys more time to come back. Even with Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift the Eagles were able to hammer the ball when they had to. You get up 21 points, you have to be able to run clock. They can’t. Why not? Saquon blames himself, and he just doesn’t look like the same guy as last year. He says he’s healthy, but there’s something missing. The offensive line injuries are clearly a part of the issue. Play calling is part of the problem as well. It’s not any one thing, and that makes it harder to fix. But getting the running game going – whatever that takes – has to be priority No. 1 for Nick Sirianni and his staff right now.

Saquon had just 10 carries for 22 yards and once the Eagles took the 21-0 lead early in the second quarter, he had just six carries the rest of the game. On the one hand, would you like to see the Eagles at least try to run the ball with a big lead? Maybe. But they’ve just been so bad at it that whenever they try they wind up punting. Tank Bigsby got just one carry – for eight yards – and if you wanted to see him have a bigger role as a change-of-pace back it wasn’t going to happen. He’s still averaging over nine yards per carry (18-for-164) but he can’t make plays if he doesn’t get the ball.

4. OK, let’s get this one out of the way quickly because it’s just sickening. I can’t even believe it happened. Xavier Gipson should have been cut a month ago, but instead there he is catching a punt that was headed for the end zone on the freaking 2-YARD-LINE with five minutes left in a freaking TIE GAME and then dancing around inside the 10 like the football was a freaking LOAF OF BREAD and you could see the fumble coming a mile away. Now, the defense took him off the hook with a big 4th-down stop, but that was an awful play and it didn’t cost the Eagles the game, but it did cost the Eagles a possession and hurt their field position. He needs to be released Monday.

5. I really don’t think the defense played terrible. You hold this offense to 24 points you should win the game. The offense just kept giving the Cowboys opportunities and ultimately they had too many chances, especially down three defensive backs by the end. I saw some good things from the defense. Two more 4th-down stops. Two takeaways. Another sack by Nakobe Dean. But they had to defend 12 possessions, and that was one too many. They also were pretty banged up by the end of the game so there are some concerns there. I still believe this is a very good defense, and they’re going to have to be while the offense sputters around like they have most of the year. But this team just doesn’t have a margin for error. The way things are going, if the defense isn’t great they’re not going to beat many teams. The defense was pretty good for the most part Sunday. Just not good enough to make up for an inept offense.

6. Nick Sirianni has historically been very good in these situations, guiding his team through adversity. He’s just really good at it, whether it’s reaching the playoffs his first year after a 3-6 start or winning 10 straight after a 2-2 start last year bouncing back from the 2023 collapse and winning a Super Bowl a year later or winning four straight after the losses to the Broncos and Giants. It’s what he does best. Building a culture where guys are at their best responding to adversity. So that’s why I’m optimistic that the Eagles are going to be OK. Will they win a Super Bowl? Not without big changes on offense. But they have talent all over the place on both sides of the ball, and this doesn’t feel like 2023 to me, because that was just an atrocious defense and it wasn’t fixable. I believe that this team’s issues are fixable. We’ll see if they can figure it out, but the talent is there, and Sirianni has his work cut out for him getting that done.

7. Braden Mann is a punting God. Averaged 50.0 on five punts with three inside the 20. Well inside the 20. Second quarter, he had a 45-yarder down to the 32. The Cowboys made him re-kick because of a penalty. Big mistake. He booted the next one 54 yards down to the 28. And then to open the third quarter, with the offense sputtering badly, he had consecutive punts of 58 yards down to the 7, 48 yards down to the 4 and 41 yards to the 11. Incredible stuff. The Cowboys had three straight possessions from their own 8-, 4- and 11-yard-lines. Mann may have been the Eagles’ best player Sunday.

8. If you just looked at the stats and saw Jalen Hurts with some solid numbers – 289 passing yards, three total touchdowns – one passing, two rushing – and no turnovers and then you saw A.J. Brown with eight catches for 110 yards and DeVonta Smith with six catches for 89 yards, you’d think the passing game finally got going. And at times it did. At times it looked fantastic. It was good to see A.J. and DeVonta both get really involved. But the long gaps where the passing game sputtered are concerning. One more touchdown on the Eagles’ last eight drives, and there is no Cowboys comeback. The one play that was really damaging came with the game still tied at 21-apiece just after the 4th-quarter two-minute warning and the Eagles facing a 3rd-and-2 on their own 37-yard-line. That’s when Hurts dropped back and just danced around and took a 13-yard sack, essentially ending the last-ditch chance to score for the first time since early in the second quarter. I couldn’t help think that if the Eagles had any faith at all in the running game, they’re pounding it there. Third and two??? Get the first down, drive down the field, kick a field goal, go home with the dub. Hurts played well, made some big throws, made big throws to Smith and Brown. Definitely some things to build on. But can’t take that sack.

9. Something that struck me as the Eagles began struggling and the Cowboys sensed that this game was winnable – and it was still 21-0 at this point – is that the vibe on the Cowboys’ sideline – their body language, their demeanor, their energy – was different than what we saw on the Eagles’ sideline. The Cowboys just seemed to have a swagger that the Eagles didn’t have. And as they began mounting their comeback, cutting the lead to 14 and then seven points, they just seemed to be the more charged-up team. They never believed the game was over. They never believed the Eagles were the better team. As the game went on, you could just sense that the Cowboys were the more confident team. I don’t think the Eagles’ demeanor was terrible, but you could see a difference. It just seemed like the Cowboys knew they were going to come back. And then they did.

10. The Eagles have played 1,371 games since the franchise was founded in 1933, and this is only the fourth time the Eagles have led by as many as 21 points and lost. Late in the 1945 season at the Polo Grounds, they led the Giants 21-0 in the third quarter on three Steve Van Buren touchdown runs, only to lose 28-21 on four late TD passes by Hall of Famer Arnie Herber. Good ol’ Arnie. In 1985 they led the Vikings 23-0 early in the fourth quarter at the Vet and lost 28-23, leading to Marion Campbell’s firing two weeks later. And on opening day 2000 –Andy Reid’s first game as a head coach – they led the Cards 21-0 early in the second quarter before losing 25-24 at the Vet on four Vikings TDs in the final 8 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter. Four times in 1,371 games.