This was over before it started.
By the middle of the fourth quarter on Sunday, that reality finally reached the fans by the show of large sections of empty seats at Lincoln Financial Field.
Get ready for a lot of that in the coming months, because the rest of the Eagles’ 2026 season will be devoted to evaluating who to keep and who to discard after the Eagles fell to the Carolina Panthers, 25-14, at the Linc.
The Eagles are now 2-4—and through, regardless of how bad the NFC East looks.
It was the Eagles’
fourth-straight loss, making it the first time they have lost four-straight games since Doug Peterson’s 4-11-1 season in 2020—and the first four-game losing streak in Nick Sirianni’s tenure.
Going to the Linc are still great ways to fill autumn Sunday afternoons, sans winning.
But after the greatest four-year stretch in Eagles’ history, with the mounting cracks in the wall the Eagles were bound to collapse.
They have.
The Eagles may be expecting Tanner McKee to be the next coming of Nick Foles (or Tom Brady, according to Zack Baun). The problem is this fanbase knows Nick Foles. It watched Nick Foles win a Super Bowl.
Tanner McKee is no Nick Foles.
Tanner McKee is no answer to Jalen Hurts for the fools out there who thought he was.
Eagles’ fans, that loyal fanbase, get it. They abandoned the home team well before Panthers’ kicker Ryan Fitzgerald’s missed extra point went spinning right to the background of vast empty seats with 6:33 left to play.
No one wanted to sit through the inevitable.
The Eagles are falling with nothing available to pick them up. They were down to rookie Keyshawn James-Newby and Arnold Ebitketie as their edge rushers for the majority of the game after Nolan Smith was lost to a concussion in the second quarter.
Carolina’s Bryce Young is blossoming into a franchise quarterback. He completed 20 of 39 for 281 yards and two touchdowns, while McKee struggled through major portions of the game, completing 26 of 45 for 215 yards and a touchdown.
Against Carolina, the Eagles passed 45 times and ran the ball 13, against one of the NFL’s worst rushing defenses. Right now, Eagles’ offensive coordinator Sean Mannion is making Kevin Patullo look like Sid Gillman, if that’s possible.
It was interesting that Hurts was nowhere to be found on the sideline.
And if anyone had not noticed, there is a new “King” in Philly, LeBron James and the 76ers will open their season on Tuesday against the defending NBA champion New York Knicks. Numerous Eagles may be courtside.
They should thank the Sixers, because the old king, the Eagles, are losing their glare and fading from the eye of the Philly sports storm.
The Eagles’ over-under apathy line is mid-November. By then, the Flyers may even double the Eagles’ victory total.
There was a pinch of good, undermined by piles of bad and a mountain of ugly in the Eagles’ 25-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
The Good
The Eagles forcing a three-and-out with 9:46 to play after the DeVonta Smith score brought the Eagles to within 19-14.
Smith’s great leaping 19-yard touchdown catch with 10:42 left to play. It was a great pass thrown by McKee, who found Smith over the shoulder of Panthers’ rookie cornerback Will Lee in the right corner of the end zone. It brought the Eagles within a score of the Panthers, 19-14. Earlier, Smith’s 16-yard reception gave the Eagles a first down on a third-and-seven on the Eagles’ sixth possession at the Carolina 40. It was the first positive in what was otherwise a dismal first half for the Eagles.
The 18-yard reception to Dallas “Cheeks” Goedert on the Eagles’ second drive of the second half—it was a rare second-half first down for the Eagles, who quickly squandered it with a two-yard run, six-yard McKee sack and a McKee incompletion.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. coming up with a touchdown-saving tackle on Bryce Young’s eight-yard scramble on a third-and-nine from the Eagles’ 11 on the second play of the fourth quarter.
Dameon Pierce’s two-yard, second-quarter touchdown run with 2:42 left in the first half, thanks largely to the dubious 22-yard pass interference call on a pass to Goedert, who had his pants pulled down two plays prior. It snapped the 57-minute, 21-second home scoring draught the Eagles had under Sirianni, who last saw his team score at home on a Darius Cooper 10-yard touchdown reception with :03 left in the half on Oct. 4 against the Los Angeles Rams.
A pair of Pierce nine-yard runs on the Eagles’ third possession, bringing the ball to the Eagles’ 49, the deepest penetration the Eagles had to that point.
Nolan Smith’s eight-yard sack on Carolina’s second drive. It was the first good thing that happened to the hapless Eagles. It may have more to do with Bryce Young holding the ball too long than anything Smith did, but it was a minus positive play for the Eagles when everything was going backwards. Smith was lost in the second quarter due to a concussion.
The Bad
Receiver Dontayvion Wicks going down with yet another Eagles’ injury after a 17-yard reception on a third-and-five play with 12:47 left and the Eagles down 19-7.
The first half. The Eagles got plenty of help from eight Carolina penalties for 105 yards, including the big one when Goedert went quarter moon on a 22-yard interference call, which led to the Eagles’ first score. The Eagles were outgained 178-110 in the half, and averaged 3.3 yards per play and 3.5 yards per pass play to 7 yards for the Panthers.
Punter Braden Mann booting a rare bad 23-yard punt midway through the second quarter. The ball landed at the Eagles’ 35, and led to the first touchdown of the game, when Bryce Young hit Tommy Tremble for a 12-yard score with 8:08 left in the first half.
With 11 minutes left in the first half, Carolina already had six plays of 10 yards or more to the Eagles’ one. The Panthers came into the game No. 2 in the NFL with 20 plays of 20+ yards (behind Buffalo’s 22 plays) and 67 plays of 10+ yards.
The Eagles punted on their first five drives and went three-and-out on three of their first five drives.
Tight end Johnny “Who” Mundt getting flagged for a 10-yard holding penalty, negating McKee’s 20-yard completion to Cooper. It set the Eagles back to their 21 and eventually placed them in a third-and-12, which they typically failed to convert.
Pierce dropping a pass while wide open on the Eagles’ third drive.
False start on Jordan Mailata on the Eagles’ third drive. Not good when the only vested starter on the offensive line gets flagged for a false start.
The Eagles giving up 26 yards to Trevor Etienne on the Eagles’ first punt. It gave Carolina great field position to the Panthers’ 39, and eventually led to a 3-0 Panthers’ lead on a Fitzgerald 47-yard field goal with 10:50 left in the first quarter, which banged off the right goal post and went through.
The Ugly
In their six games this season in the second half, the Eagles have now been outscored 68-30 in the second half, with just 10 points scored in the second half over the last four games. They scored 10 points and 149 yards against Washington, 10 points and 125 against Tennessee, 0 points and 54 yards against Chicago, 0 points and 66 yards against the Los Angeles Rams, 3 points and 84 yards against Jacksonville, and 7 points and 112 yards against Carolina, which averages out to 98.3 yards and an NFL-low 5 points a game in the second half. They have now converted 12 of 45 third downs in the second half.
Yeah, it may seem like we’re picking on poor Cooper DeJean here, but again, he failed in two clutch situations. On first-and-10 with the Panthers at the Eagles’ 19, because of a DeJean penalty, he completely blew a coverage failing to pick up tight end Tommy Tremble with 6:33 to play. Tremble blew right by DeJean, who knew he blew the coverage and went scurrying after him. By then, Tremble was wide open standing in the end zone. On a critical third-and-one with less than a minute left in third quarter, Chuba Hubbard ran right through DeJean for 19 yards to the Eagles’ 12, giving Carolina a fresh set of downs. One play prior to the Tremble touchdown, DeJean was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty with 7:00 to play after Hubbard converted a third-and-one at the Eagles’ 34. Cooper’s 15-yard flag brought the ball to the Eagles’ 19. Not a good series for DeJean, who has not had a good year, yet gets rarely called out for it.
Panthers’ Anthony Tyus’ partially blocked punt with 8:24 left to play, which resulted in Mann’s nine-yard punt. Trotter was supposed to pick up Tyus and let him through, giving Carolina the ball at the Eagles’ 48.
Center Jake Majors’ low snap for minus-eight yards on first down on the drive after the Eagles held Carolina to a three-and-out and the Smith touchdown. It was a great way to kill momentum, which forced the Eagles eventually into a third-and-18.
Moro Ojomo, among many others, getting called for a two-yard encroachment call early in the fourth quarter, giving Carolina a first down when the Panthers were facing a fourth-and-one. It led Carolina to a 19-7 lead with Chuba Hubbard’s one-yard touchdown with 13:34 left to play.
Zack Baun getting beat by Jalen Coker for 32 yards on a third-and-eight on Carolina’s third possession of the second half to the 42.
For the sixth-straight time this season, the Eagles went three-and-out on their first drive of the second half.
Quinyon Mitchell has been great all season, but not here, when Young found Tetairoa McMillan, and Mitchell lost him, for a 21-yard reception on a third-and-15 to the Carolina 31 with less than two minutes left in the half.
Jordan Davis, whose name was hardly called for anything six games into this season, had his No. 90 called for roughing the passer call on the Panthers’ fifth drive. It came as Young completed a 17-yard pass to Tetairoa McMillan to the Eagles’ 24. The Davis’ penalty was half-the-distance, bringing the ball to the Eagles’ 12. On the next play, Young hit Tremble for a 12-yard touchdown with 8:08 left in the first half.
The first play. There was McKee pointing and motioning where players were supposed to be on the first play of the game, and it seemed like no one was where they were supposed to be. McKee wound up flat on his stomach, sacked for an 11-yard loss by Carolina linebacker Bobby Okereke. No one bothered to pick up Okereke at all, and he came through the gap between right tackle MarkelBell and right guard Tyler Steen. Carolina overloaded left, Bell kicked out and Steen blocked down. Back-up running back Dameon Pierce tried blocking safety Nick Scott and missed. McKee wound up picking the grass chunks out of his helmet. The Eagles looked disjointed, no one seemed to know what they were doing.
The first two drives. Nothing like facing the old third-and-21 on the opening drive. After being sacked for 11 yards and throwing a near interception, the Eagles gained a whole zero yards on their first drive. On the next drive, the Eagles and McKee outdid themselves. They went minus-3 yards. McKee looked terribly overwhelmed that early.
The first quarter. The Eagles ran five negative plays and have now been outscored 30-3 in the first quarter this season, which is the fewest points any team in the NFL has scored in the first quarter this season. Carolina outgained the Eagles 78 yards of total offense to 37 for the Eagles, who crossed midfield once on three drives.
