The Eagles’ veterans and culture were supposed to save them from collapse. So much for that.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The elevator doors slid open at the bottom floor of MetLife Stadium, and Jeffrey Lurie, perhaps knowing that plenty of eyes would be upon him, stepped out of the car with a smile across his face.

“How are you doing?” he said.

Good. Got to ask. Do you have anything to say?

He didn’t. He shook his head no and walked down a long corridor to the visiting locker room here, to an Eagles team that had just embarrassed itself again — this time to the Giants, 27-10, on Sunday — that has lost five of its last six, that is falling apart unlike any since the first year of Lurie’s tenure as owner.

That 1994 club, though, was different. That team lost its last seven to finish 7-9 and assure Rich Kotite’s firing, sure, but those Eagles didn’t have the pedigree of this one. Those Eagles didn’t have the benefit of the doubt that this one had earned and has spent the last six weeks throwing away. Those Eagles didn’t have the kind of leadership core that this one has — Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox — the kind that was supposed to be the safeguard against this kind of collapse.

“Obviously we didn’t expect this to happen, especially with the way the season started,” Kelce said. “It has been a colossal letdown for the last month and a half. It’s a major letdown. But we don’t have the luxury to woe-is-me or [bleeping] pout. What you do is go back and work. That’s all you can do. You have one option: Go back and try to make corrections. Try to fix it.”

They usually did. That’s the difference. That’s the stunning part of the Eagles’ plunge from 10-1 and the toast of the NFC to 11-6 and a wild-card game in Tampa that many people now would be shocked to see them win. They usually fixed it. A couple of sloppy performances to cap that 2017 regular season? No problem. They fixed it and won the whole damn thing. A 6-7 record and the playoffs looking like a pipe dream in 2018? No problem. They fixed it. They won their final three games, sneaked into the postseason, and won a road game there. A 5-7 record and injuries up and down the roster in 2019? No problem. They fixed it. They won their final four games and finished first in the NFC East.

“This,” Kelce said, “has been slightly different.”

So what did those teams summon then that this one hasn’t?

“I don’t know,” he said. “There’s so much, to be frank, that I think we’re struggling with right now that it would be hard to pinpoint that — offensively and defensively, an awful day. There are ups and downs in the season, but we’ve certainly really, really dropped off toward the end of this season. This last month and a half has been pretty brutal.”

There has been nothing like it in the recent history of Philadelphia sports. Maybe even the not-so-recent history. The quick and easy comparison is to the 1964 Phillies, but it’s not a perfect one. The Phillies hadn’t reached the playoffs for 14 years before that season, and they wouldn’t reach the playoffs again for another 12 thereafter — ‘64 was the single chance for a sliver of light amid a quarter-century of darkness.

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The Eagles are, or at least have been, among the NFL’s elite franchises for a while now, and it’s not just that they’re losing. It’s that they’ve gone from being the best team in the NFL (record-wise, anyway) to playing like the worst. They know it, yet they have been powerless to stop it, even with those vets still around to draw on those good times and late-season comebacks, even against three opponents that were presumed to be inferior to them: the Seahawks, the Cardinals, and the Giants.

“The feeling I’m getting from this team is very scary right now,” Cox said. “I see everybody sad. We just got beat up pretty good by a really bad football team. Let’s just say that.”

Kelce, Graham, and Cox have been here together for 12 years. They are the foundation of an organizational culture that Lurie and the Eagles have long touted as a fundamental key to their success. But time has a way of cutting into that culture, of muting the influence of veteran leadership in a locker room. “We’ve got some players who are learning in these spots right now,” Graham said, and it’s never been harder for this trio to make up the difference in that experience and savvy.

The credibility of a leader is often directly proportional to the quality of his play, and while Kelce, Graham, and Cox are still solid, there’s no denying the regression in their games, no matter how slight it might be. Cox had 43 tackles and seven sacks in 2022; he finished this season with 33 and five. Graham went from a career-high 11 sacks last season to three this season. Kelce is heading to another Pro Bowl, but even he would have to acknowledge that he hasn’t been quite as sharp as he was a year ago. The Eagles still ask so much of these three. After all this time, they might finally be asking too much.

“It’s like, ‘What are we going to do?’” Graham said. “We’re going to see what we’re made of.”

It sure feels like they’ve spent the last six weeks showing us. Yeah, Jeffrey Lurie smiled that smile Sunday night, and there was a time when he could count on the Eagles’ longtime core to help him keep the faith. This team is different. This team needs more than Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, and Fletcher Cox can give. This team is a goner, and there’s nothing for anyone to say.