The Eagles are in freefall right now. They are arguably the biggest disappointment in the NFL this season, along with the Los Angeles Rams, sitting at 2-2 riding a two-game losing streak and getting ready to face the revamped Trevor Lawrence and a very good 3-1 Jacksonville Jaguar team that has given up an AFC-low 53 points this season.
The one benefit Eagles players will have is that the game is not being played at Lincoln Financial Field, where they would hear more venom from the fans on their way
to another miserable loss, but rather at 9:30 a.m. ET at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England.
This past week alone, the Eagles traded away the floundering Cam Jurgens to Baltimore for a 5th round 2027 pick and second-round 2028 pick, and lost all-time great Lane Johnson to retirement. They will be relying on Willie Lampkin to fill in for Jurgens at left guard in his first NFL start, rookie Markel Bell, who played well against the Los Angeles Rams last week, at right tackle, replacing Johnson, and someone no one heard of, Jake Majors making his first career start in place of the injured center Drew Kendall.
So, that means Lampkin and Majors will be making their NFL debuts and Bell will making his NFL second start against a possibly the best defense in the NFL. Not good.
Adding more flame to this combustible mess for the Eagles has been the emergence of Lawrence, who is coming around to look like the quarterback everyone projected him to be as the No.1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He is No. 6 in the NFL in passer rating (111.2), tied for No. 3 overall with 8 touchdown passes, and is averaging 210.8 yards a game passing. On the other side, the Eagles have not yet reached the quarterback, tied for 31st in the league with a scant 4 sacks.
That translates into plenty of time for Lawrence to sit back and shred the Eagles’ passing defense, much like 38-year-old Case “Montana” Keenum did and Rams’ future Hall of Famer Matt Stafford did last week.
Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio remains stubborn when it comes to the blitz as a way to stimulate a decent pass rush.
“No, I said I don’t want to blitz until I want to,” he said this week when addressing the media. “Again, it all depends upon the opponent. One of the reasons we played so well the first 10 series was — we weren’t [blitzing] because that quarterback [Stafford] could feast on it.
“They’re really good on offense. The quarterback [Lawrence] is athletic, got a big arm, he’s got a good group of receivers to throw it to. Their running back, 33 [Jacksonville Jaguars RB Bhayshul Tuten] runs really good, kind of a new guy on the scene and they do a good job. They got a very varied running game, a lot of different types of runs, multiple run game and they’re good at it.”
On the other side, Jalen Hurts has more to worry about. For one, it looks like no Saquon Barkley and DeVonta Smith again, and if anyone thought Hurts was running for his life the first four games of this season, wait until he meets Jacksonville. The Jags are giving up a scant 13.3 points a game, second in the NFL behind Minnesota, and the Eagles are No. 26 in the NFL, averaging as paltry 18.8 points a game.
Add a stubborn, elite defense against an offensive line featuring two starters making their NFL debuts, a shaky offense whose first-year offensive coordinator looks like he is learning as he goes along and a team filled with sagging morale and that brew smells like a recipe for disaster.
It may not only slam the door on the Eagles this Sunday but convince upper management it may be time to start a rebuild.
