Seahawks 26, Eagles 15

A man dropped a ball, and the world cried out, “How?”

Seven players were hurt, and with each injury the cacophony of concern grew louder still.

A quarterback caught a touchdown pass, and defeat was accepted.

The Eagles played a football game on Sunday, and nothing went right. They lost to the Seahawks, 26-15, in a three-hour exercise in futility.

With no help around him from the start, Carson Wentz hardly stood a chance against a stout Seattle defense. But by the time he lost his two best running backs — Ryan Mathews to an MCL sprain, and Darren Sproles to an injury of his own — and his wide receivers refused to catch any pass directed their way, the rookie quarterback would’ve been better served asking to be benched.

The Eagles finished Sunday’s game with 308 yards of offense. It wasn’t nearly enough against a Seattle defense whose strength is its secondary, and who has plenty of offense to carry the team the rest of the way.

The ground game, before Mathews and Sproles were forced out of the game, appeared to be a weapon. The Eagles’ only scoring drive of the first half, a 13-play drive which ate over seven minutes of clock, saw Doug Pederson call eight runs.

But when Sproles and Mathews exited, so too did the Birds’ chances of making this a game.

Meanwhile, when the Eagles were on defense, Jim Schwartz’s unit couldn’t do much of anything to keep Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense in check, a Seattle offense which entered Sunday’s game averaging 65.6 rushing yards per game in its last six outings.

The Seahawks piled up 152 yards on the ground, Wilson picked apart a woeful Eagles secondary, particularly Jalen Mills, and Schwartz’s unit, believed to be the team’s only chance against a markedly better team, looked overmatched all afternoon.

Seattle was leagues better, period.

It was a frustrating afternoon, but it was a wake-up call. The Eagles have beaten so-called contenders — the Steelers, Vikings, and Falcons — who aren’t true contenders. They lost Sunday to a real contender, a team with a well-rounded defense and a potent offense. They weren’t able to strike on offense, nor contain on defense.

With a couple key injuries and a bevy of mistakes, Doug Pederson’s Eagles were rendered talon-less.

Now the Eagles are 5-5, a record befitting the consistency of their play so far this year, especially Sunday.