Eagles not hitting ‘panic button’ amid late-season struggles

Every button Nick Sirianni pushed in the first three months of the season seemed to work perfectly for the Philadelphia Eagles. They were dominant at times, healthy, and cruising towards a division title and the top seed in their conference. They even had both virtually locked with three weeks to go.

Then came Jalen Hurts’ injured right shoulder. Then they lost a nail-biter in Dallas on Christmas Eve. Then they fell apart at home against the Saints last Sunday. And suddenly the Eagles were clinging to their spot in the standings, looking like they lost their momentum at the worst possible time.

So maybe now Sirianni has one more button to push?

“Again,” the Eagles coach said last Sunday after that ugly, 20-10 loss to the Saints, “I’m not ever going to be somebody that’s going to hit a panic button.”

At least not yet.

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Even if Sirianni isn’t ready to panic, he knows his team is in its first crisis of the season. A Super Bowl run looked inevitable in mid-December when they were 13-1, Hurts was one of the favorites to be the NFL MVP, and they had a three-game lead in the NFC East and the entire NFC with just three games to go.

But the injury to the SC joint in Hurts’ right (throwing) shoulder in Chicago in Week 14 led to two straight losses, which dropped the Eagles to 13-3 and gave the Dallas Cowboys (12-4) and San Francisco 49ers (12-4) an opening to catch up. Now, they have to win on Sunday at home against a Giants team that is expected to be resting all its key players. If they lose, the Eagles could lose the conference’s top seed, the division, their first-round bye and a home playoff game, too.

Maybe more importantly, a loss would send them into the playoffs on an unthinkable, three-game losing streak. They will have lost their momentum, their mojo, their air of inevitability.

And they will be out of time to pick any of that back up.

“You’ve got to find a way to stop the bleeding,” Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith said. “Right now, we’re not playing our best ball, so we’ve got to find a way to stop the downpour, and find a way to get back on track.”

“We have no room for error,” linebacker Haason Reddick told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It just shows that we have more work to do than we thought.”

It will obviously help that the Eagles are expected to get Hurts back Sunday. He has had a spectacular season and is the centerpiece of their offense, and he has clearly been missed during the two-game slide. They missed his mobility when backup quarterback Gardner Minshew was sacked six times against the Saints, and the Eagles’ offense managed just 313 total yards. 

And they missed Hurts’ ball security one week earlier in a 40-34 loss in Dallas. Hurts had just seven total turnovers through the first 14 games of the season. Minshew threw two interceptions and fumbled once, leading to 17 Cowboys points.

But there’s more to the mini-slump than just that. The Eagles’ powerful rushing attack, which had been averaging 158.7 yards per game — including an average of 53.3 from Hurts — disappeared. With Hurts out, they had a total of 151 rushing yards in the last two games.

And then there’s the defense that gave up 419 yards and 40 points to the Cowboys. Dak Prescott, despite being sacked six times, threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns against an Eagles secondary that hadn’t been exposed like that all year. And the Eagles’ rushing defense, which briefly looked like it had fixed its issues in late November, has slipped back to its old bad form giving up an average of 131 rushing yards over the last four games.

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There’s a bad vibe in Philadelphia right now. Craig Carton and Geoff Schwartz discuss whether Jalen Hurts can bounce back and secure a top spot in the playoffs.

The loss of safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson (lacerated kidney) and cornerback Avonte Maddox (toe) hasn’t helped, but that brings up another issue: The Eagles’ run of good health seems to be over. After having a virtually blank injury report for most of the season, they’re now dealing with those injuries in the secondary, a neck injury to defensive end Josh Sweat, a groin injury to right tackle Lane Johnson, a knee injury that is limiting running back Miles Sanders, and, of course, the big one to Hurts.

“We’re going to be all right,” defensive end Brandon Graham said. “I’m not panicking at all. We’re in the postseason. Let’s just get this one win so that we can breathe a little bit and get some guys back.”

Maybe that is all they need — to just survive this stretch, earn that No. 1 seed, and get healthy during their bye week. Maybe that’s enough to get the Eagles looking like the Eagles again.

Of course, there’s a chance it’s not. After being the NFL’s hottest teams all season long, they will be one of the coldest teams heading into the playoffs. The bye week and a return to health might not be enough to overcome what they’ve lost and get them back into their Super Bowl-ready gear.

“As far as momentum, I don’t really think about that stuff too much,” Sirianni insisted. “I just want to go out and perform that day. I think that’s kind of been my message to the team at all times. You’re just trying to work on the day at hand, right? Try to go 1-0 that week, then you worry about the next week later and the momentum of the next week later.

“So it’s not something that I think a lot about to be quite honest with you.”

Time for Eagles to panic?

Former Eagle LeSean McCoy weighs in on Philadelphia’s 20-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 17 and says he believes there is no need to panic.

His players don’t seem too worried about it either. 

“This team doesn’t flinch,” Minshew said. “We’ve gone through a lot, and adversity is hitting us now. That is OK. We are ready for it.”

“Maybe (adversity) is OK, too,” Graham added. “Life has a way of showing you when you look back on it. Sometimes you say, ‘I’m happy that didn’t happen because if this didn’t happen, this wouldn’t have happened.’ It’s just how you look at it.”

Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s a good thing the Eagles get a taste of adversity before they begin the playoffs. Maybe it’s better that their problems are exposed now, before someone else exposes and eliminates them. Maybe all they need is a few players back, a little urgency, and the reminder that they’re not as unbeatable as they once seemed.

But as Reddick said, “There’s no room for error.” A two-game losing streak erased their entire cushion. And now their time to fix their problems is almost up.

So no, they’re not panicking in Philadelphia — at least not yet. The Eagles’ situation is far from dire. It’s just a little more urgent than anyone ever expected it would be.

“We’re here now,” Sirianni said. “We’re 13-3 right now with a chance to go 14-3 to win the division. All our goals are in front of us. Any time you lose a game, any time you don’t perform the way you think you should perform you’re going to be upset and humbled. But that’s not a bad thing.

“We’re going to double down on the things we think are true and that we know are true,” he added. “And we’re going to get better from this.”

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Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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