In 2016, the Philadelphia Eagles continuously found themselves losing close games. First year head coach Doug Pederson and rookie Carson Wentz took the league by storm by starting the year off 3-0, winning all games by a collective 65 points. That didn’t last long before better teams began to expose a weak offensive line once Lane Johnson’s suspension activated.
They lost the next 4 of 5 games by one touchdown or less. Those teams do not make playoffs.
In 2017, the Eagles found ways to win the tight battles as well as getting a large lead and holding it. Weeks 14-16 were all decided by nine points or less and each game was decided at the very end, while weeks 5-12 were a cakewalk. The 2017 beat 4 of 7 opponents by 23 points or more in that stretch of the regular season. So why can’t the 2018 Eagles replicate that success? Are they just not running the ball effectively enough in the third and fourth quarters like they were in 2017?
This current Eagles squad has been beaten by a total of 15 points in their four losses— and it should probably be more than that, actually. They scored late touchdowns in two of those games and didn’t really have an opportunity of getting the ball back.
The three wins they have aren’t even impressive either. They’ve beaten bad teams in Indianapolis and Atlanta by a combined 10 points and blew out one of the worst New York Giants teams ever.
If they don’t start finding ways to win close games and continue to struggle to put up points on offense, this team may as well look to the draft and see what they need.
