ClutchPoints
Perhaps Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni wants to move on from the meltdown, but the fans aren’t ready. And here is the Eagles’ panic meter after the latest offensive collapse against the Cowboys.
The Eagles completely blew a 21-0 lead on the road against the Cowboys. They lost 24-21 and wasted a chance to basically wrap up the division title. Also, they opened the door for many questions about their worthiness to defend their Super Bowl title.
Where is the Eagles’ panic meter? It’s 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. And here’s why.
Let’s be straight about this. The panic meter goes up any time a team loses. After the Eagles’ win in Week 11 over the Lions, the panic meter landed at 3. A spike was expected after the loss to the Cowboys.
But it shouldn’t have spiked that high. The reason it did is that the Eagles did not look like a Super Bowl team. Championship teams don’t turn the ball over on back-to-back touches in a tie game in the fourth quarter.
Saquon Barkley fumbled, and the Cowboys recovered. The Cowboys were forced to punt, but Eagles returner Xavier Gibson inexplicably fielded the punt at the 1-yard line. After a short return, he fumbled.
Another thing championship teams don’t do is get sacked on a third-and-two play with under two minutes to go in a tie game. Incomplete pass? Sure. Run play gets stuffed? Understandable. But on third-and-two in that situation, the ball comes out.
Saquon Barkley was open in the flat. Dallas Goedert had inside position in the middle of the field. Either of those options gives the Eagles a chance. Say what you want about Jalen Hurts. He did win the Super Bowl. But this was an awful decision that shows Hurts won’t be able to lead his team back to the big game in 2025.
But what is the biggest reason for the rising panic meter?
After Barkley’s historic season in 2024, the Eagles have lost their ability to block for the poor guy. Why? One reason is a lack of preparedness, according to guard Landon Dickerson. Talk about throwing an offensive coordinator under the bus, Dickerson seemed to do exactly that, according to a post on X by Jeff McLane.
Landon Dickerson on the #Eagles’ run game struggles: “They gave us a defense that they rarely run and we just didn’t execute the game plan we had.” Asked what defense, he said, “Just five-down fronts. It’s not usually, typically something they were running a whole lot, and turns out that was their flavor of the day.”
Asked how the O-line can counter different schemes, Dickerson said, “I think a big thing is … time on task. Obviously, you can’t run every play to every defense during the week, so I think we really just have to hone in on having a game plan for every defense...
