Welcome to The Linc, the daily Philadelphia Eagles links roundup at Bleeding Green Nation!
There’s plenty of blame to share but the head coach is lacking answers and that’s a pretty big problem. The team isn’t that far off from 0-4; they narrowly won their first two games. Of course, you can also say the Eagles were close to being 3-1. But that record would be masking a team that’s just not playing very well right now. We might be heading down a path where a reset is needed.
Let’s get to the Philadelphia
Eagles news and links …
NFL winners and losers: Nick Sirianni sucks – SB Nation
The Sirianni hot seat is real, or at least it should be. This team has churned through offensive coordinators since its Super Bowl win, routinely causing them to get blamed when things go wrong and the offense doesn’t reach its potential. This has to come back to Sirianni at some point, and it’s fair to question whether or not he’s lost control of the offensive side of the ball. One of the best traits the Eagles had at their zenith was a perfect understanding of who they are, their strengths, and not getting outside of that rubric. Lately it’s felt as if Philadelphia is playing aspirational football, forcing what they want to be, rather than accepting who they are right now — and playing to those strengths. It’s a weird situation, because Sirianni actually does have a lot of fantastic traits. He’s an excellent motivator, he developed a locker room culture that had more of a swagger an edge, but he’s sorely needing someone to assist with the strategic elements of the game. It’s not that Sirianni is incapable, but more that he looks like a coach who is underwater right now, trying to do too much at once. If he doesnt find a way of swimming soon, it’ll sink this entire season.
Roob’s Observations as Rams take advantage of injury-riddled Eagles – NBCSP
Second half. Again. Good lord. The Eagles have now been outscored 54-20 in the second half this year, 31-0 the last two weeks and they’ve been outgained by an average of 202-103. That’s insane. The Cowboys scored more second-half points today (28) than the Eagles have all year. The Rams outgained them 260-72 Sunday. How does an NFL team not understand you have to play 60 minutes to beat a good team? How can an entire team just fall to pieces when the game is on the line? How can so many players just stop making plays at crunch time? The Eagles on Sunday had four first downs in the second half and the Rams had 16. Seriously? Come on. And I put the blame for this squarely on the coaching staff, Nick Sirianni in particular. He’s responsible for everything we see on the football field. And what we’re seeing after halftime is a football team that’s inept, unprepared, overmatched and embarrassed on a weekly basis. Pathetic.
Eagles vs. Rams: 9 winners, 9 losers, and 4 IDKs – BGN
The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t really deserve to beat the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon. The Birds were outgained by 243 yards. That’s typically not a recipe for success. Neither is failing to convert a single third down despite having 12 chances to do so. Despite these struggles … and despite entering this game with a lot of key absences and only suffering more injuries during the day … the Eagles almost managed to steal this game. Almost. They were two yards away from going up 17 points with about 7.5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. If they score a touchdown in that spot, the conversation is a lot different than it is right now. But that’s not our current reality. The Eagles lost their second game in a row and one can only wonder if there are more losses on the way.
Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Rams game – PhillyVoice
They were 2-for-9 last week against the Bears. Add it up, and they are 2-for-21 on 3rd downs the last two games. #Math. Is it execution? Play calling? Scheme?”Everybody contributed to that,” Nick Sirianni said. “Everybody. There’s execution errors. There’s coaching errors. Everybody contributes to that.” It feels like “Everybody contributed to that” is a common answer too often, from the back half of the 2025 season, carrying through into 2026. What made the third-down ineptitude so egregious was that they weren’t even in a lot of third-and-long situations. […] They were in 3rd and 5 or less on seven of those 3rd-down opportunities. Other than the Tush Push (which also failed today), the Eagles just don’t seem to have anything they can go to to sustain drives.
Good Start Goes Bad – Iggles Blitz
I don’t know how to feel about the Eagles right now. I was impressed with the first half. I was depressed by the fourth quarter. And I’m definitely concerned by all the injuries. While I’m not confident in them, I don’t want to dismiss the positive signs from the Rams game. The safeties played well. The pass rush was good at times. The STs gave the team a big boost. Rookie Markell Bell did some good things in his first NFL start. But the offense…yikes. Regardless of who is out, the offense must handle the blitz better. That is on the OL, Hurts, the skill players and the coaches. Everyone owns some of the blame for those struggles. Teams will continue to attack until the Eagles show they can block it and/or burn it.
Sean Mannion, or Nick Sirianni, or Jalen Hurts has to decide on offensive identity after ugly Rams loss – Inquirer
After nearly reaching the quarter pole of the season, it’s become evident that Sean Mannion’s Eagles offense is disjointed, unimaginative, and ultimately, ineffective. Or is it Nick Sirianni’s offense? Or Jalen Hurts’? Or does it even matter who is given ownership of a unit that failed to capitalize on an impressive defensive performance against the Los Angeles Rams? Of course, everyone played a part in a 24-20 loss on Sunday. Vic Fangio’s defense could have gotten a stop on the Rams’ two late fourth-quarter touchdown drives. The Lane Johnson-less offensive line could have opened more holes and given Hurts more time. The wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends could have done something to convert just one third down. But the offense has reached an inflection point after its regression in each of the first four games, and it’s on the figureheads at the top to decide where to go from here. Should Sirianni allow Mannion to fully implement the Kyle Shanahan scheme that was at the core of his hiring? Or should they just abandon the under-center heavy system that has been woefully unproductive thus far?
What is the Eagles’ offensive identity? Not ‘good enough,’ says Nick Sirianni after loss to Rams | The Early Bird – PHLY Eagles
An optimist’s view would also point to the fact that the Eagles have been here before with Hurts under center and Sirianni at the helm. You might remember the team also got off to a 2-2 start in 2024. The offensive line implored Sirianni to pivot toward more of a run-first approach, Sirianni shaved his head, and the Eagles went on a magical run to Super Bowl LIX and left Caesars Superdome with the organization’s second Lombardi Trophy. That page doesn’t seem to be in Sean Mannion’s 2026 playbook, though. The Eagles ranked fifth in EPA/rush through the first four games of 2024. This season, they’re 24th. They’ve had moving pieces along the offensive line in three of the first four games and Barkley has now suffered a stinger and a hamstring injury already this season. Backup running back Tank Bigsby also suffered an apparent injury late in the fourth quarter. What is apparent is that the Eagles now have an urgency to figure out what this year’s about face is going to look like. A training camp spent harping on under-center formations and play-action passing concepts hasn’t kept them from ranking in the bottom five in the NFL in terms of usage in both categories. Less than a week removed from challenging his teammates to ask themselves “who are we?” in the wake of the loss to the Bears, Hurts didn’t have much of an answer himself to explain the second defeat in a six-day span.
How concerned should the 2-2 Eagles be after their collapse against the Rams? – The Athletic
They need to fix the infection — not mask it. “Get up,” Hurts told his teammates after the game. “To me, it’s a pretty simple fix: Double down on practice and again, be very hard on yourself,” Mailata said. “We can’t take anything personal because this is what we get paid to do. We get paid to play this game, and we’re not doing a good job of it right now.”
Judging overreactions to NFL Week 4: Patriots, Rams are back? Eagles in trouble? – ESPN
The Eagles will miss the playoffs. […] Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION Philadelphia doesn’t look very good. Running back Saquon Barkley left this game because of a hamstring injury. Receiver DeVonta Smith was ruled out Friday because of his own hamstring injury. The offense looks as stuck in the mud as it did last season, and the defense, which was supposed to carry the Eagles through the offense’s inevitable early-season growing pains, has not gotten the stops it needs. Meanwhile, Dallas’ offense looks kind of unstoppable, and the Giants … laugh all you want, but John Harbaugh is the coach there now. They will win the games they’re supposed to win — and some they aren’t. If the Eagles keep struggling with these injury issues, and their offensive line continues to look like a shadow of its dominant 2024 self, they could be the third-best team in their own division. And it would be tough to make the playoffs from that spot.
With Sunday’s win, Rams put themselves back in the playoff picture – Turf Show Times
It’s early in the season, but the Los Angeles Rams maybe, kinda, sorta just saved their season by beating the Philadelphia Eagles and rising to 2-2 instead of falling to 1-3. Look, it’s a 17-game season, the Rams maybe, kinda, sorta could’ve come back from a 1-3 reord, but 2-2 is so much better. It’s gives them some breathing room. Now, there’s a lot of games to go, the Rams could falter over the next few weeks, but this win, for now, puts the Rams firmly back in the playoff conversation in a real way. It’s a week-to-week league, the Rams can be happy for this week, but they need to keep winning. That’s the trick.
Giants-Cardinals ‘things I think’: First-place Giants just keep ‘throwing punches’ – Big Blue View
The veteran head coach’s impact has been central to the Giants’ early-season success. Harbaugh made players — many of them used to losing with the Giants — believe they could win if they earned the right to win. He drove them hard during the spring and especially in the summer, harder and longer than most were accustomed to as NFL players. Harbaugh made them believe that the hard work, and the bond they developed through their shared effort, would callous them and help build the toughness to earn the opportunity to win. Be truthful, Giants fans. Would the team have won either of the Week 3 and Week 4 games it was victorious in last season? Almost certainly not. A year ago, the Giants blew five fourth-quarter leads. In each of the last two weeks, they have won games that felt as though they were about to be lost. That maybe should have been lost.
10 thoughts on the Cowboys win over the Texans – Blogging The Boys
Did you really expect anything less from the Dallas Cowboys than a game that would push your heart rate to maximum capacity? At times it was frustrating, other times exhilarating, but in the end, the Cowboys pulled off a thrilling 34-30 come-from-behind victory over the Houston Texans, providing fans with another wild late-game finish. There is never any shortage of excitement with this football team. Regardless, they got the win, and here are 10 thoughts on this almost disappointing, but then very satisfying, chaotic game.
Key takeaways from Washington Commanders loss to Indianapolis Colts – Hogs Haven
The Commanders had to deal with some adversity trying to reach an even record during Sunday morning’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. Jayden Daniels practiced some this week and then wasn’t able to go, as expected after a dislocated left elbow suffered in Week 2. Washington felt super comfortable with Marcus Mariota calling offensive signals and could hold a similar game plan with mobile quarterbacks capable of making all the pre-snaps checks required of David Blough’s offense. Then the Commanders had to handle another quarterback blow. Like, playing a seventh-round pick in Athan Kaliakmanis in a real-life NFL game. So, yeah, Washington had to deal with some adversity. They eventually succumbed to it. It was easy to imagine a path to victory for the Commanders had the quarterback situation been normal, but it most certainly was not. That led to a 30-13 loss to the Colts on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
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