Eagles in panic mode: Matt Patricia fails in debut as DC, Birds lose third straight, more changes coming?

SEATTLE — At some point between their 20-point loss at Dallas last Sunday and the week that ensued, Nick Sirianni, and maybe his bosses, too, lost faith in defensive coordinator Sean Desai. He handed the reins of the defense to Matt Patricia, who’d made his bones running Bill Belichick’s defenses at the end of the Patriots’ dynasty.

Don’t be surprised if more big changes happen in the season’s final three weeks.

Patricia proved first to be a bad head coach, in Detroit, then a worse offensive coordinator, back in New England, before the Eagles convinced him to join their reconstructed defensive coaching staff. The Birds lost coordinator Jonathan Gannon, now the Cardinals’ head coach, and fired defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, after interviewing him for the coordinator’s job.

They hired Desai. Desai failed through 13 games. So, after working in a practice facility wrought with tension all week, Sirianni panicked. The Eagles gave up 109 points in the three previous games with Desai calling the plays. Sirianni considered it an emergency, so he broke the glass.

Sirianni was asked Tuesday if he was considering changing any coaching assignments, and he denied it. He was not being truthful; players said they knew all week Patricia was going to replace Desai. Sirianni insisted that neither general manager Howie Roseman nor owner Jeffrey Lurie suggested or influenced his decision.

“I made the decision,” Sirianni said. “I didn’t feel like we were coaching well enough on defense.”

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Patricia replaced Desai on the sideline, took over the mic, and followed with more failure.

The Eagles lost, 20-17.

They lost their chance to retain first place in the NFC East after Dallas lost at Buffalo.

They lost the chance to end their losing streak, which grew to three straight.

How?

They gave up a 92-yard touchdown drive that began with 1 minute, 52 seconds to play. It took the Seahawks just 84 seconds to drive nearly the length of the field. Patricia called a defense on the winning TD pass that made no sense: man-to-man coverage on third-and-10 from the Eagles‘ 29 with 33 seconds to play. Against Drew Lock.

Madness.

And that was that. They fell to 10-4, a game behind the 49ers in the NFC, tied with the Cowboys atop the NFC East. What now?

“Win or lose, you go through the same process,” Sirianni said. “We have to have the right answers. If that means changing up some schemes, if that means changing up like I did with the coordinators on defense, we’re going to do whatever we need to do to right this ship.”

That left the door open for more change. The Eagles have scored 49 points in the last three games combined.

Sirianni said Monday that he doesn’t plan to make more changes to his coaches’ responsibilities, but then, he had said that Tuesday, too. Don’t be surprised if offensive coordinator Brian Johnson finds himself off the sidelines sooner than later. After all, the Eagles have three easy games — two against the Giants, sandwiching Arizona’s visit — and the Cowboys play Miami and Detroit the next two weeks. The 49ers seem like a lock to take the No. 1 overall seed, but the Birds can still snatch a home game or two.

“We want to be able to win this division,” Sirianni said.

They won’t if Jalen Hurts continues to play poorly. It didn’t help Patricia’s cause that Hurts threw two fourth-quarter interceptions on deep passes that were wholly unnecessary; the first, midway through the period, deep to Quez Watkins, cost the Eagles a chance to burn clock and add points. Hurts had been sick, but he played badly.

It also didn’t help that penalties from veterans hindered the Eagles’ efforts all night.

Three weeks ago, these Eagles looked like a title contender. Now? They look like a fading pretender.

No excuses. This was the worst sort of loss. Last-minute. Last-gasp. Lasting effect.

They lost to a Seahawks team that had scored fewer than 17 points in three of its last four games, losing all four. They lost to Lock, who was making his second straight appearance in place of Pro Bowl starter Geno Smith, who has a groin injury. It was only Lock’s fifth start in the past two seasons. It was Lock’s first win in those starts.

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Patricia had to play, in frequent rotation, previously unemployed Shaquille Leonard at middle linebacker, overeager rookie Sydney Brown at safety, overmatched rookie Kelee Ringo at cornerback, and, in his first action with the defense this season, Patrick Johnson, a special-teamer whose position is listed as “linebacker.”

“I think we played better as a defense,” said James Bradberry, who gave up two big catches to DK Metcalf on the winning drive, and, earlier, was flagged for another pass interference penalty. “I didn’t play well, personally, but the defense played better as a whole.”

Bradberry also gave up the game-winning TD, without safety help, in third-and-10, on a non-blitzing call. It was, by far, Patricia’s biggest mistake.

However, for a while, Patricia made a difference.

The Eagles took a 17-10 lead and Patricia’s troops held, capped by a shared sack from Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox. Of course, on first down Lock overthrew Tyler Lockett, who was wide open 50 yards downfield, but let’s not split hairs.

On the nest drive Jalen Carter dragged Lock to the ground, but Lock appeared to get rid of the ball, which set up fourth-and-2 from the Eagles’ 18, and the Seahawks were preparing to go for it. However, with the play clock drained they called timeout, to the Eagles’ advantage. Sirianni challenged the call, and replays showed that Lock’s knee was down. The 5-yard loss convinced Carroll to kick a 43-yard field goal.

Brown and Bradley Roby blanketed Lockett on third-and-5, forcing a punt on the next possession.

And then, the 92-yard disaster.

Desai got demoted because the defensive players were complaining about the team’s strategies. They seemed confused. They seemed toothless.

And Monday?

“Guys were playing fast,” Graham said.

“We were more aggressive,” Brown said.

But the result remained the same.