Five reasons for the Eagles’ loss to the Detroit Lions | Paul Domowitch

The Eagles lost to the Detroit Lions, 27-24, Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

Here are five reasons for the defeat:

In putting together their 53-man roster, the Eagles made a concerted effort to fortify Dave Fipp’s special teams. His units played very well in the first two games but had a huge early meltdown Sunday, giving up a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to the Lions’ Jamal Agnew.

Undrafted rookie linebacker T.J. Edwards, who made the team largely because of his special-teams ability, made the first mistake, taking a poor angle to Agnew, who was cutting toward the left sideline.

Then safety Rudy Ford, who was acquired from Arizona in a late-August trade strictly because of his special-teams prowess, flat-out missed Agnew.

Safety Andrew Sendejo, another usually dependable special-teams player, couldn’t get off his block. Same with defensive end Josh Sweat, which allowed Agnew to get to the sideline and make it to the end zone without ever getting touched.

Later, the Eagles also gave up a 24-yard punt return to Agnew, though that didn’t end up leading to points.

Malcolm Jenkins came up with a huge special-teams play late in the game when he blocked a 46-yard Matt Prater field goal attempt, which Rasul Douglas returned to the Detroit 22-yard line. At the very least, that would have put the Eagles in range for a game-tying Jake Elliott field goal.

But Jenkins was called for an illegal block in the back on Lions tight end Jesse James during Douglas’ return, which moved the ball back to midfield. Four straight Carson Wentz incompletions later, the Eagles were 1-2.

Eagles receivers dropped six passes against the Lions, most of which had a significant impact on the game.

Nelson Agholor, who had two costly drops last week against the Falcons, had a drive-killing drop in the second quarter on a third-and-6 play. Running back Jordan Howard had a third-quarter drop.

Then, in the fourth quarter, tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert and wide receivers Mack Hollins and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside all had drops.

Goedert, who played only nine snaps in the game because of a lingering calf injury, dropped a pass in the end zone with 9 minutes, 7 seconds left in the game. His injury probably contributed to the drop since he had to extend his body on the play.

The Eagles ended up scoring later on that drive anyway (on a 2-yard touchdown catch by Agholor). But they needed two Lions penalties to keep the drive alive and lost two minutes off the clock that would have come in handy later.

With 1:36 left in the game after Jenkins’ field-goal block, Hollins dropped a second-and-10 pass over the middle that would have given the Eagles a first down at the Detroit 35 and put them back in Elliott’s field-goal range.

Then, on a last-gasp fourth-and-15 play, Arcega-Whiteside, whose ability to make contested catches was a big reason the Eagles took him in the second round of the draft in April, was unable to hang on to a — wait for it — contested ball at the Detroit 3-yard line against Lions cornerback Rashaan Melvin. It wasn’t a blatant drop like Hollins’ or Agholor’s. But it’s still one he should have/could have caught.

Carson Wentz, who threw two interceptions last week against the Falcons, didn’t have any Sunday. But Agholor and rookie running back Miles Sanders had costly fumbles in the second quarter when momentum shifted and the Eagles went from three points ahead to 10 points down.

Sanders fumbled twice on one possession. He lost the ball on a first-down run at the Philadelphia 30, but left guard Isaac Seumalo recovered it. Three plays later, however, he fumbled again, and this time, the Lions recovered at midfield.

A 44-yard run on a reverse by J.D. McKissic moved the ball to the Philadelphia 7. But the defense held and made the Lions settle for a Matt Prater field goal.

But on the Eagles’ next possession, Agholor fumbled the ball away. He ran a 5-yard stop route in Detroit territory. He caught the pass, then dropped the ball as he turned to run. Lions cornerback Darius Slay, who recovered the fumble, returned it 38 yards to the Philadelphia 22. The defense held again, but another Prater field goal put the Lions up, 20-10.

The Eagles didn’t have a sack against the Lions, and laid a hand on quarterback Matthew Stafford just four times. Part of that had to do with the fact that the Lions, like the Falcons a week earlier, used a lot of six- and seven-man protections. But even when they didn’t, the Eagles’ front four wasn’t able to get a lot of pressure on Stafford.

Stafford didn’t light up the Eagles — he completed just 18 of 32 attempts, averaged just 6.3 yards per attempt, and threw only one TD pass. But he made plays when he needed to make them.

Jim Schwartz sent five or more rushers after Stafford eight times (25%). That percentage is a little higher than usual for him, and it didn’t work very well. Stafford completed 6 of 8 passes for 91 yards against the blitz. His lone touchdown pass, a 12-yarder to Marvin Jones at the beginning of the fourth quarter that gave the Lions a 27-17 lead, came against a seven-man rush that isolated Jones on cornerback Sidney Jones.

With Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson out, Lions coach Matt Patricia had a simple defensive game plan: Double tight end Zach Ertz and play man coverage on the rest of the Eagles receivers.

The strategy worked pretty well. Ertz had four catches for 64 yards, including a pair of 23-yard receptions. But he had just one third-down reception (for 12 yards) and no red-zone catches.

The Eagles’ biggest pass play was a 40-yard completion to Sanders on their first possession that was mainly the result of a Lions coverage snafu. On his other 35 throws, Wentz averaged just 6.2 yards.