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Eagles vs. Raiders: 4 winners, 9 losers, 3 IDKs

Stock report from Philadelphia’s Week 7 loss.

New England Patriots v Philadelphia Eagles Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

The Eagles are 2-5 after losing to the Raiders. I guess it’s time to hand out some winners, losers, and IDKs.

WINNERS

DALLAS GOEDERT

Goedert finally got to be a full-time TE1 this season. He ended up leading the Eagles in receiving with three catches for 70 yards (and a successful two-point conversion). Goedert was the best thing the Eagles had going for them on offense.

AVONTE MADDOX

Goedert’s housemate also played well. Maddox was targeted five times but allowed just 20 yards on four receptions. He allowed just a 43.8 passer rating when the ball was thrown his way. His red zone interception inspired hope that it might be a good day for the Eagles. Alas, it was not. Regardless, the Eagles might have a long-term slot corner in Maddox.

DEREK CARR

The Raiders’ quarterback completed 31/34 of his attempts. Lol. 31/34! 91.2%! And with 9.5 yards per attempt! Carr was only hit twice and sacked zero times on 35 dropbacks.

ZACH ERTZ

We all know Ertz loves Philly but he must be glad to be with a 7-0 Cardinals team instead of wasting his body to play for this trash version of the Eagles. Ertz made history in Arizona by becoming the first player in NFL history to score touchdowns in back-to-back games for different teams. YAC Ertz also set a record for his longest touchdown reception. (Previous high was 35 yards in 2014.) Good for Zach.

LOSERS

THE EAGLES

They’re 2-5. They will be 2-6 if they lose to the winless Detroit Lions, which hardly seems unthinkable.

The Eagles “only” have the NFL’s 10th worst point differential. It would be worse if they weren’t so good at scoring in garbage time.

Sure, it’s not like anyone (reasonably) expected the Eagles to be great this season. But looking this incompetent and getting destroyed by the Raiders? That’s a bit much. The Eagles weren’t facing some absolute juggernaut.

As we outlined leading up to the game, there was evidence to suggest Las Vegas was worse than their 4-2 record indicated.

For starters, Las Vegas has the second-worst point differential of any team with at least four wins. Their +3 in net scoring isn’t astronomically better than the Eagles’ -15.

At least one advanced metric indicates the Eagles are actually the better team. Football Outsiders’ DVOA has Philly ranked 18th overall while the Raiders are three spots below at 21st.

How can this be? Well, it’s not exactly like the Raiders have the most impressive resume. Beating the Ravens in Week 1 was legit. But they trailed most of that game and almost choked it away in overtime. The other quarterbacks Las Vegas has beaten: Ben Roethlisberger (at the end of his rope), Jacoby Brissett (in overtime), and Teddy Bridgewater. Not exactly a murderer’s row there.

And that article was written BEFORE Darren Waller — the Raiders’ best offensive weapon — was unexpectedly ruled out for Sunday’s game.

There are no good excuses for the Eagles to get dominated liked they did. They were coming out of a mini-bye. They had a lot of Eagles fans in the stands.

The inconvenient truth is that they’re just a bad football team with an overly involved owner, an uninspiring front office, an overmatched coaching staff, a limited starting quarterback, and an unremarkable roster.

EAGLES FANS

The Eagles are exhausting. They’re not good. They’re not fun. They’re not showing promise for the future.

This coaching staff might be a lost cause. There isn’t a clear path to a new franchise quarterback. The general manager isn’t likely to be held accountable for his many mistakes and it’s hard to trust him to maximize the Eagles’ potential three-first round picks.

It’s become all too easy to feel apathetic about this team. What are you really missing if you check out?

JEFFREY LURIE

The Eagles are victims of their own hubris. They think they’re so much better off as an organization than they actually are. The reality is they’re among the worst teams in the NFL since the start of last season.

Lurie should’ve wiped the slate clean after last season. Instead, he doubled down on Howie Roseman.

Thus far, there are no signs of the Eagles being on the right path to create a dominant football team. 2016 was nowhere near as discouraging.

If nothing else, Lurie hiring a new general manager and new coaching staff would be interesting. Which the Eagles haven’t been in some time now.

But we all suspect that’s just not going to happen. The expectation is that the Eagles will continue to believe they know more than everyone else.

Maybe they’ll be right. But they’ve given little reason to believe that’s the case. It sucks to be in a position where you’re feeling supremely skeptical and you have to hope you’re wrong.

HOWIE ROSEMAN

The Eagles are 97-93-1 since Howie Roseman first became general manager in 2010. They are 48-44-1 since he was reinstated in 2016. They are 25-32-1 since winning Super Bowl LII. Why does the owner treat him like he’s above reproach? What has Roseman done recently to inspire confidence the Eagles are on the right track? The trade with the Miami Dolphins was really good work by him. But, again, what’s the confidence level in him actually properly executing those picks? Roseman is in large part responsible for the mess the Eagles find themselves in. It would be certifiably insane to allow him to pick a fourth head coach.

NICK SIRIANNI

To Sirianni’s credit, the Eagles had a good opening script. They actually ran the ball (!) and did it from under center looks as opposed to relying on RPOs.

After that, though? The Eagles went five straight drives (excluding a sixth where they kneeled to end the first half) without getting points. They went just 111 yards on 31 total plays. For perspective, the Raiders had a 10-play, 96-yard touchdown drive to give them the lead they never looked back from.

And it’s not like the Raiders have some amazing defense! Las Vegas ranked 15th in both DVOA and offensive points per game allowed entering Sunday.

In an NFL where it’s never been easier to move the ball and score points, the Eagles continue to make it look so difficult. That is, until they start to come alive in meaningless garbage time.

The offense is broken and that ultimately falls on Sirianni. So do the game management issues, such as him declining a holding penalty that would’ve forced a punt on 4th-and-3 to instead allow the Raiders to convert a 3rd-and-long.

Sirianni is an inexperienced head coach and it’s possible he’ll improve with time. To this point, though, he hasn’t done enough to really justify a longer look. Where’s the intrigue? I’ll give him props for going for it on a 4th-and-short early in the game and going for the surprise onside kick. But he’s been inconsistent with his aggressiveness this season.

Sirianni is hardly the only issue with the Eagles. If you’re of that belief, you really need to zoom out and take a look at the bigger picture. But no can deny this head coach isn’t giving the Eagles an edge over their opponents.

JONATHAN GANNON

The Eagles’ defense is so pathetic. Jonathan Gannon got all this hype for ... exactly what reason, again? For a master plan to simply sit back and allow the offense to take anything they want underneath as long as big plays are prevented? Where is the creativity from this defensive coordinator? What happened to “not having a scheme” and coaching to his player’s strengths?

The Raiders had a league-low 3.3 rushing yards per carry entering this game. Their running backs averaged 4.4 against the Eagles.

The passing defense was obviously even worse. And it was hardly just one bad game.

Speaking after the game, Fletcher Cox and Rodney McLeod made comments that didn’t exactly support a full buy in to what Gannon is running. Probably not a good thing to be losing player support by Week 7.

Gannon is in serious jeopardy of being one-and-done if the defense doesn’t turn things around. And hopefully not just by merely benefiting from struggles of really bad quarterbacks, like they did with Sam Darnold.

JALEN HURTS

The box score says Hurts completed 52.9% of his attempts for 236 yards (6.9 average), two touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 94.7 passer rating. And that he ran for 61 yards on 13 attempts. Not a bad showing, right?

Wrong! We all know those stats lie. Hurts compiled a bulk of his production in garbage time. He absolutely contributed to the ineptitude following the Eagles’ first scoring drive. He continues to struggle with accuracy, such as when he threw behind DeVonta Smith on a slant route. Or when he threw too low to Smith. Or when he overthrew Quez Watkins deep.

There’s some merit to the idea that Sirianni isn’t setting up to thrive. But could Hurts reasonably be better than he has thus far? Absolutely. He misses routine throws on a regular basis. Youth and inexperience isn’t what’s preventing him from being an elite quarterback. There’s been no reason to believe such a ceiling exists for him.

The Eagles need a franchise quarterback. Hurts still has some more time to prove himself but it’s very unlikely that he’s The Guy. Aside from accumulating fantasy points and padding stats in garbage time, what does he do especially well?

JORDAN MAILATA

The Eagles’ starting left tackle allowed seven pressures in 41 pass blocking snaps. That’s really bad. Mailata clearly seems to be hampered by the knee injury he’s been playing through. Also probably doesn’t help that the Eagles have been flipping him between left and right tackle.

MILES SANDERS

Just when it finally looked like Sanders was going to see a big role, he got hurt. The Eagles’ starting running back was carted off the field with a towel on his head and an upset look on his face.

I DON’T KNOW

DEVONTA SMITH

It looked like Smith had three drops. Pro Football Focus only credited him with one since the others came on inaccurate throws by Hurts. Smith did have a really nice sideline catch at one point. Not the first time he’s done that this season. It’s frustrating that Smith hasn’t exploded more like, say, Ja’Marr Chase has this season. It’s not all his fault, to be clear. He’s not being done favors by the quarterback.

JALEN REAGOR

Can we say that Reagor’s leaping contested catch was a positive play for his development? Maybe it’ll help him build some confidence? I don’t know (hence why he’s in this section). Might’ve just been a meaningless good play in garbage time. Reagor was invisible when the game was actually competitive. The most he was noticed outside of his score was when he ran for zero yards and complained about not getting a helmet-to-helmet call ... to no avail.

KENNETH GAINWELL

The good: Gainwell had 61 yards and one score on nine offensive touches. The bad: Gainwell fumbled right after the Raiders took a 14 to 7 lead. There is pressure on Gainwell to step up moving forward if Sanders misses time.

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