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Look, it’s never good to lose any football game 5-0 to the Cleveland Browns. Even if it’s just a preseason game, a pretend match-up in which only minimal game-planning is involved, it still sucks to get shut out to a team that didn’t win a single football game a year ago.
“Bad Nick Foles” was on full display last night. Halapoulivaati Vaitai looked as if he was eaten by sand monsters. The rest of the offensive line couldn’t keep defenders off the quarterbacks all night, and turnovers were rampant.
The defense played very well, however, and that’s good. The defensive line created pressure all night, and some young players got some much-needed reps in what is the closest thing these teams can do to replicate real, regular season game action.
But in three games, the Eagles have been outscored 73-34 by the Steelers, Patriots and Browns.
The Eagles’ Super Bowl odds have dropped from 8/1 to 10/1, per @BovadaOfficial. pic.twitter.com/ZvpMT91hwO
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 24, 2018
A few weeks ago, the Eagles were No. 2. Now, they’re No. 5 and falling.
Cancel the sesason.
Look, I get that some of you are worried. But don’t be. You haven’t actually seen the Philadelphia Eagles yet.
Oh sure, there were lots of players wearing green Eagles jerseys last night, and many of them will play a significant role on this team in 2018, provided they are healthy enough to do so. But for those of you concerned about the performance of the first-team offense, take heart.
You haven’t seen the first-team offense.
You haven’t seen Carson Wentz, who stands a decent chance to be ready for Week 1, and will almost certainly be there for Week 2. You haven’t seen Alshon Jeffrey, who may also miss Week 1 as he recovers from rotator cuff surgery. You haven’t seen Nelson Agholor, who is dealing with a lower body injury, but should be ready for the opening game against Atlanta. You didn’t see any of the team’s top three running backs, Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement or Darren Sproles. And you didn’t see Jason Peters.
What you saw a lot of was Vaitai struggling to keep his head above water, allowing rushers unimpeded access to the backfield. You saw Foles struggle in ways we’ve seen before. You saw Nate Sudfeld, who has promise, but is raw. You saw lots of Wendell Smallwood, Josh Adams and Matt Jones. You saw a ton of DeAndre Carter, Shelton Gibson, and Greg Ward.
You get the idea.
These are not the players who are likely to lead this team back to the playoffs. These are not the players upon whom defense of the Lombardi Trophy will rely.
The defense looked good. Foles is what he is — great at times, downright awful at others — and virtually everything else on offense was second and third-string players trying to make it all work with very little game-planning put in place.
Sure, we’d all feel better today if Foles and the gang had performed better against Cleveland, but don’t let what you’ve seen in the preseason, specifically from the offense, make you feel worried about the regular season.
You didn’t see the Philadelphia Eagles last night. You only think you did.
Poll
On a scale of 1-10, how concerned are you about the Eagles? (10 being the most concerned)
This poll is closed
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27%
1 - No worries.
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12%
2
-
18%
3
-
10%
4
-
10%
5
-
7%
6
-
6%
7
-
3%
8
-
0%
9
-
2%
10 - Freaking out!