Following a 10-1 start, the reigning NFC champions appeared to be headed back to the Super Bowl. However, a three-game losing streak has eliminated them from the running for the title.
A significant portion of the December NFL story is around teams battling to make it into the playoffs; yet, the conclusion of the regular season presents an excellent opportunity for the few remaining Super Bowl contenders to improve and set themselves apart from the others.
Despite having lost their previous two games, the Philadelphia Eagles, one of those contenders, had a chance to defeat the Seahawks on Monday in Seattle. All they had to do was stop Seattle from scoring four points and travelling 92 yards in under two minutes.
Even while they can find fault with almost anything, Eagles supporters probably wouldn’t have gone too crazy if Philadelphia had pulled off an incredible triumph. Ultimately, Drew Lock, the backup quarterback for Seattle, had only started two games in the previous two seasons.
In addition, the struggling Eagles defence, led for the first time on Monday by assistant and former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia, a protégé of Bill Belichick, did appear to be much better than it had been in the team’s crushing defeats to Dallas and San Francisco.
Guess what, though? With 28 seconds remaining, Lock completed 10 plays to get Seattle those 92 yards. He found wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had slipped past the seasoned Eagles CB James Bradberry, in one-on-one coverage, and completed a 29-yard touchdown pass in the pouring rain.
Seattle was ahead 20–17 after the TD. After leading the Eagles, who still had two timeouts, to within approximately 20 yards of what would have been a game-winning touchdown, Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts threw an interception.
Hurts said, “I didn’t do my job well enough,” during a news conference after the game. However, Hurts wasn’t the only one who performed poorly—that was just the polite thing to say.
The Seahawks (7-7) are thus still very much in the running for the postseason. Their 72-year-old coach, Pete Carroll, is still able to boast to people that in his seven years as the Seahawks’ coach, he had never lost to the Eagles. Philadelphia would have been in a foul temper anyhow.
While upsets sometimes occur during the playoffs, December is when the best players come to the fore, discovering a new gear. Last year, Philadelphia had lost two of their final three regular-season games; also, quarterback Brock Purdy’s injury cast doubt on the team’s triumph over the 49ers in the NFC title game, at least in the eyes of San Francisco supporters.
However, this was a devastating defeat for the Eagles, who had high hopes of winning back after giving Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs a thrilling game in the previous Super Bowl. Though nothing is certain right now, the Eagles (10-4) should still win their next three games.
Brian Johnson, the Eagles’ very unpopular first-year offensive coordinator, will be forgotten on sports talk shows for another dubious play call, one that had Hurts laterallying the ball to his tight end, Dallas Goedert, who gained one yard.
Although head coach Nick Sirianni attempted to solve the defense’s issues by replacing Sean Desai, his first-year defensive coordinator, with Patricia on the sidelines on Monday, it was the Eagles’ defence that crumbled when Philadelphia needed the big plays.
After the game, Sirianni said of the switch in coaching duties, “Listen, it was a tough decision to be able to do this, but again, like I said, I did what was best for our football team.” We’re constantly
