PHILADELPHIA — Anybody else having a tough time deciding which is more insane, changing the defensive coordinator after a 10-3 start or keeping him on staff while the guy who replaced him calls the plays?
It’s another extremely odd page in the Eagles’ playbook, one rivaling Chip Kelly’s macho power struggle victory in 2015 that basically kicked Howie Roseman out of the executive offices on Mahogany Row and sent him to a faraway region of the NovaCare Complex.
Unlike Trader Howie, who bounced back from the organizational embarrassment to help construct a Super Bowl champion (with Joe Douglas, don’t forget), defensive coordinator in name only Sean Desai will need a miracle to regain his spot calling the plays.
Amid that management dysfunction, how can we blame Eagles players for pointing fingers at each other in this three-game meltdown, where head coach Nick Sirianni has done just about everything that he could think of short of taking out the paddles and shocking his flatlining team back to life?
For now, disorder still rules. Matt Patricia will call the defensive plays for the second straight game while Desai supplies input so valuable only Sirianni knows what it is. There is a conspiracy theory making the rounds that the Eagles privately are keeping Desai around in the hope that he gets a promotion elsewhere because it might get them a compensatory pick to add to their draft capital. Another episode for the next what-went-wrong day.
What we do know is Sirianni’s strategy of toughening up his team with a full-padded practice failed in the 20-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The Eagles came out strong but finished miserably. The coordinator shuffle didn’t work, either. The Eagles allowed marginal backup quarterback Drew Lock to march the Seahawks 92 yards in 84 seconds for the win.
We also know the Eagles had a players-only meeting after the setback in which some of the captains stood tall to apologize for their sins and others spoke of coming together for the stretch run that begins Monday when the Eagles oppose the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field.
There was a lot of healing to be done. Quarterback Jalen Hurts accused himself and his teammates of not providing enough commitment to the cause. Receiver A.J. Brown lashed out on social media at critics accusing him of getting a lot of his targets because he’s buds with Hurts. Darius Slay, the team’s top cornerback, is rehabbing a repaired knee that was injured months ago but flared up right before Patricia was promoted. (The inference there is that Slay still dislikes Patricia from their sour ending in Detroit, though Slay very publicly said he and Coach P apologized to each other.)
Unless a player breaks the code of silence, we’ll just have to guess what was said by the players, though rest assured, players provided vague excerpts of what’s going on in their inner sanctum.
Brown, for example, became emotional as he attempted to explain what a critical stage of the season the Eagles are in. With three games remaining, the Eagles (10-4) cannot afford another loss if they have any hope of passing the San Francisco 49ers (11-3) for the conference’s No. 1 seed, because the Niners own the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Eagles also have to keep pace with the Dallas Cowboys (10-4) to win the division pennant.
“I know I’m working my tail off, and trying to do whatever I can to help this team win,” Brown said in a rambling answer. “So that’s why you see that little frustration that comes in and stuff like that, because I know I dedicated my life for this. I sacrificed time with my own family for this game, to be with my teammates to win games. So, it means a lot to me. It means the world to me. I told (people) on the way home (from Seattle), we got home at 7 in the morning, and I’m damn near crying on the way home. It means a lot to me.”
Brown followed by echoing what other teammates said last week, a sign that the players are trying to pull together before it’s too late.
“We feel the frustration of this city,” Brown said. “We feel that. We want to do it for y’all. Most importantly, we want to do it for our teammates, our brothers that we go to war with. We’re working hard. We’re giving blood, sweat and tears to this game. So, fans, I don’t want them to think that we don’t care, that we’re not trying our best. But we’ve got a standard. We’ve got to uphold the standard. We don’t want any excuses either. We’re 10 times harder on ourselves than anybody can be on us. Not to preach or stuff like that.”
Not to preach or stuff like that, but understood.
Now all the Eagles have to do is win.
To contact Bob Grotz, email rgrotz@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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