NFL will rue the day that teams let the 2-0 Eagles off the hook
The Eagles could be 0-2. They probably should be 0-2. Instead, they will make the NFL regret that they aren't 0-2.
Somebody needs to have a little chat with Bill Belichick, Kevin O’Connell, and the rest of the NFL.
You want to avoid Lincoln Financial Field in January? You want to make Jalen Hurts work a little bit? You want to keep the Eagles from treating the regular season like something other than a 17-game runway to the Super Bowl?
This ain’t how it’s done.
To quote the legendary Dennis Green and the NFL’s original meme-before-there-were-memes:
You had the Eagles where you wanted them. And you let them off the hook.
It’s too late now, judging by all glinting eyeballs you saw in the home locker room at the Linc on Thursday night. Jason Kelce, DeVonta Smith, Hurts — all of them had the same thing to say after the Eagles overcame both malfunction and dysfunction to claim a 34-28 win over one of the NFC’s leading pretenders.
The opportunities don’t get better than they were in Weeks 1 and 2. The Eagles spent the first six quarters of their season dousing themselves in gasoline only to watch the Patriots and Vikings make off with the matchbook.
The defending NFC champs should be 0-2. Instead, they are 2-0.
The rest of the season pretty much writes itself, doesn’t it?
“I think we are a work in progress,” Hurts said after the Eagles’ victory over Minnesota on Thursday night. “What better way to be a work in progress than sitting on two wins out of the gate in 10 days or however many days it was?”
I’m sure I’ll get some pushback from the home crowd, so let me at least explain what I mean when I say the Eagles should be winless. Rarely in the history of organized sport has a team caught a string of breaks like the one Nick Sirianni and the boys enjoyed from kickoff of their 25-20 win over New England until just after halftime of Thursday night’s win over the Vikings.
Consider:
The five fumbles that the Eagles recovered in their first 91 minutes of play were more than two NFL teams recovered all of last season.
The Vikings essentially spotted the Eagles at least 13 points with their four fumbles on Thursday night. Two of them came at the tail end of what should have been momentum-changing plays: a 20-yard punt return by Brandon Powell that would have set up the Vikings with a first down in field-goal range on the Eagles’ 34-yard line late in the third quarter; a 30-yard pass to Justin Jefferson that would have given them a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. The Jefferson fumble out of the end zone — which should have been virtually impossible given his body position and direction of momentum — not only erased a likely touchdown but put the ball back in the Eagles’ hands for a last-second field-goal drive.
The Patriots gifted the Eagles a score by setting them up with a first down at the New England 26-yard line after an Ezekiel Elliott fumble in the first quarter of their Week 1 win.
The Patriots also had: 1) a two-point conversion wiped out by a holding call; 2) an Eagles interception return for a touchdown off a deflection; 3) a series that began in field-goal range at the Eagles’ 28-yard line and ended with a punt at the Eagles’ 43 thanks to two offensive holding penalties and a reception for a loss of 4 yards; 4) an ill-fated decision to go for it on fourth down midway through the fourth quarter instead of kicking a field goal that, as it turned out, would have given them a chance at a game-winning field goal in the closing seconds.
» READ MORE: 5 darn good reasons not to freak about the Eagles after Week 1 of the NFL season
After each of these moments, you could almost hear the groans coming from @KShanahan49 in the NFL head coaches group chat. However you tallied up the missed points and altered win probabilities, one thing was abundantly clear: The Eagles were as vulnerable as we’ve seen them in more than a year. Two new coordinators. A short offseason. A rusty quarterback. A slew of new starters on the defensive side of the ball. A slew of injuries in Week 2. A deceptively tough schedule featuring a road game in New England followed by a Thursday night game at home.
Yet here they are, exactly where most people assumed, 2-0 with 10 days of rest to prepare for back-to-back games against teams quarterbacked by Baker Mayfield and Sam Howell.
“A lot of teams would like to be sitting 2-0,” Sirianni said after the win over the Vikings. “When you are in this position, and guys know that we aren’t playing to the best of our abilities, that’s when you can make a lot of growth.”
There was almost a smirking quality to their comments. You come at the king, you best not miss. The king comes at you with his shoes tied together and his pants on backward? You best not get down on one knee and offer to help him out.
Hurts, Sirianni, Kelce — all of them had the same thing to say on Thursday night after weathering another storm.
“Offensively, we’re really, really happy that we did a lot better this week,” Kelce said. “We adjusted better in game. I think that we’re going to continue to grow. Teams are going to keep doing this. They are going to keep running out chaotic things, eliminate the big play, find ways to throw us off. This is going to be the name of the game this season. We’re not going to see vanilla — it’s not going to happen. It’s going to be chaos.”
You could almost hear more groans coming from @KShanahan49 in the NFL’s head coach group chat. The Eagles should have needed to be better in Weeks 1 and 2. Instead, they are exactly where they need to be: undefeated with plenty of room for improvement. The rest of the league will rue the day they allowed this team to start 2-0.