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The Eagles lost a close game to the Lions on Sunday, and the reaction around the league was pretty consistent in terms of power rankings:
SBNation - 10th (last week: 5th)
A fall from five to 10 isn’t a deep fall so to speak, but the Philadelphia Eagles looked very mortal on Sunday against the Detroit Lions — a team that looked like one the league’s worst in the first four weeks.
The Eagles defense shredded everyone in the first four weeks and actually did a good job slowing down the Lions offense after spotting them an early lead, but a controversial fumble and a rare rookie mistake by Carson Wentz opened the door for the Lions to steal the win back.
It shouldn’t be a huge concern for the Eagles, but the team doesn’t look like it’ll breeze through competition the way it did the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago.
Both Doug Pederson and QB Carson Wentz took their first career losses this past week, but a one-point road loss is nothing to stress over. A loss this week at the Redskins, however, won't help in their pursuit of the Cowboys in the NFC East.
NFL.com - 9th (last week: 6th)
Hard to get after Carson Wentz for chucking the deep ball ( that was ultimately intercepted) on the Eagles' last-gasp attempt in Detroit. Wentz has performed brilliantly, and he threw his first pick on the 135th pass of his young career. Now, Ryan Mathews' fumble? Dude. It's third-and-2, and the sweep play didn't have a prayer of making the first down. Cover up the ball. At the very least, carry the ball in the offside arm. Mathews' primary job was to run the clock down, which requires keeping the ball. Obvi.
Power Rankings side note: Yes, the Eagles blew out the sixth-ranked Steelers in Week 3, but that Pittsburgh team did not have Le'Veon Bell in the fold yet. Now that he's back, this is a different Steelers squad. It's like the Pats with Tom Brady. In case you were wondering.
As I mentioned yesterday in Winners and Losers, the Eagles have a really tough schedule coming up. We’ll get to see how rookie quarterback Carson Wentz and rookie coach Doug Pederson handle some adversity.
Rookie QB Carson Wentz showed he’s human after all on the Eagles’ final snap of Sunday’s loss, throwing a game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter. The Eagles have an incredibly tough road ahead after feasting on easy opponents to start the year. We’ll see what they’re really about in the coming weeks.
Pro Football Talk - 9th (last week: 5th)
The next hurdle for the new-look Eagles will be to learn how to win close games.
Bleacher Report - 7th (last week: 5th)
Philadelphia's biggest opponent wasn't wearing Honolulu Blue on Sunday.
It was wearing black and white stripes. Philadelphia couldn't get out of its own way in a game it probably should have won in Detroit.
The flags kept on flying. Coordinator Jim Schwartz's defense was too aggressive when it hit a sliding Matthew Stafford and took his helmet off on separate plays. Both 15-yard flags kept Lions drives going.
Penalties erased big offensive plays too. Example: Ryan Mathews busted a huge run with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter that was instantly brought back on a holding call. It's clear this team was rusty coming out of its early bye week.
Carson Wentz was still impressive, but even he couldn't get his team out of its perpetual 1st-and-20 hole in Week 5.
Looking ahead: Darren Sproles has had a Darren Sproles-y year. He'll continue that against a Redskins defense that's allergic to tackling.
Power rankers were pretty consistent, the Eagles dropped between three and six spots, for an average of 9th. That’s fair. The Eagles lost to a bad team, but lost only by one on the road in a game with controversial calls by the refs, and that wasn’t lost on people.
A win against the Redskins should help, they average a ranking of 15th.