The Philadelphia Eagles were the better team on paper going into their Monday Night Football game last night. The Green Bay Packers didn’t care.
The Eagles had the better defense and home field advantage, we were told all week.
The Packers put the highest point differential on the Eagles all year. 14 points. The Eagles lost by two touchdowns, their worst loss of the season. Which happened to be at home, where they hadn’t lost all season.
The Eagles were bad in every aspect of the game. For a team that was once dominant at home, it was a shame to watch them fall flat on their faces.
Nelson Agholor was not active, Jordan Matthew’s was injured in the game, leaving Dorial Beckham-Green and rookies Paul Turner and Bryce Treggs as primary targets. Treggs was targeted three times and had one catch for 11 yards. Turner was not targeted once.
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Dorial Beckham-Green led the team in receiving yards with 82 yards on six receptions. Darren Sproles had five catches for 48 yards.
In the run game, Ryan Mathews was out with injury which gave a opputunity to Wendell Smallwood but he only had nine carries. Why did the Eagles lose focus on the ground game so easily? I guess it didn’t help that they were playing catch-up the entire game.
The Packers scored first on an easy touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams. Adams who has struggle since entering the leauge burned cornerback Leodis McKelvin which seems to be a common occurrence for all WRs.
Adams took a shot at the other side and scored on Nolan Caroll as well. Adams only had 6 receptions. But he had 2 touchdowns and 113 yards. Now here lies a problem for Philadelphia.
McKelvin constantly gives up touchdowns, Caroll, not as much, but still. It could have been worse too. Late in the game, Jalen Mills took over McKelvin’s spot and Mills didn’t allow a single passing touchdown. Why have Mills not taken over the position permanently? We have no idea.
The Eagles front four couldn’t get to Aaron Rodgers at all. When Jordan Hicks finally tripped him up, Rodgers was injured and still carved up the Eagles defense for the rest of the game. Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox had costly penalties. Cox on a third-down play that ended up giving Green Bay a new set of downs and ultimately a touchdown.
Even the coaching was questionable. Doug Pederson threw two challenge flags on plays that really didn’t matter. He lost one challenge and on the other, he gained two yards and was out of challenges for the rest of the game.
I have no idea what happened to Jim Schwartz defense, but I know he was not pleased in the least.
On a night where Jeremiah Trotter and Merrill Reese were inducted into the Eagles Hall Of Fame, the Eagles have their worst performance of the year in front of the home crowd.
Technically the Eagles are alive in the playoff race but don’t kid yourselves. The Eagles who played last night may not win another game this season.
The Eagles haven’t won a divisional game all year, they have three home divisional games coming up. The Eagles also play two road games against the Baltimore Ravens who sit atop their division and the Cincinnati Bengals who might be the Eagles best chance for another win. Unfortunately, the Eagles have won only one road game all season.