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Initial thoughts on the "Mess at the Meadowlands"

Ummm, not great.

Clearly we have seen better performances from the Eagles, and there's really not much else to say about how we played in a crucial game.

It's hard to take anything away from a game like that. Our offense is one of the youngest in the league, and we have to expect games like this. Hurts played terribly, throwing two red zone interceptions when field goals would have been vital for us.

But the offensive struggles weren't only on him. It seemed like on a day when all we needed was one big play, everyone came up small. Jalen Reagor had two chances to win the game and couldn't haul in balls that were perfectly thrown. Nate Herbig committed a terrible holding penalty to take a touchdown off the board. Greg Ward dropped a touchdown pass.

But the obvious focus should be Hurts, who made too many mistakes. On the positive side, this was an uncharacteristic game. He had been excellent in avoiding red zone mistakes, and I have no idea what caused his short-circuit today. A larger concern is his passing. All of his progress he made over the past few weeks seemed to go by the wayside. He didn't have a great feel for the pocket and made throws to covered receivers.

This game left us with more questions than answers, which isn't great. Was the problem Hurts, his receivers or the play calling? Clearly on the last two plays the problem was Reagor, and it is becoming clear he needs to be replaced. John Hightower should at least get a shot at playing time from the practice squad.

At the same time, I don't think we need to completely panic about a performance in which we shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly. To quote Van Morrison, "Mama said there would be days like this." And this was just one of those days when nothing went right.

On the positive side, the defense played really well, which is encouraging. We gave the Giants every opportunity to run up the score on us and they were unable to do so, and really were lucky to squeeze out a win. Players like Alex Singleton, TJ Edwards and Avonte Maddox made plays all over the field. This is a good sign for the future.

But ultimately the story that everyone will focus on is the terrible qb play, and rightfully so. If we had better play from that position today, we would have won. There's no denying the fact that Hurts was the primary reason that we lost.

If you ask me what they should do at the position, my suggestion right now would be to hedge their bets. I would make any deal that I could to ensure that I had an extra first round pick in 2023 and give Hurts one more year to develop. Realistically, we aren't a Super Bowl team this year or next year, so pushing draft capital down the road would give us what we need to get a qb of Hurts has another bad year.

Focus this year on getting playmakers. This team desperately needs stars on the field. We seem to have a lot of players who are pretty good, but lack the real difference makers that other teams have. I like the young players on the offensive line, but who else is there that really screams "pro bowl" on this team?

Draft two quality players this year, and hope that the brain trust can hit on both of them. Also hope that our young players continue to improve. If we can put together a decent season next year, then we have draft capital to hopefully get two more pro bowl-level talents, and that will push us over the top. If we struggle next year, we will have the draft capital to upgrade at qb, and then a few years of cheap play at the position to make a run.

As far as the rest of this season, I am hoping that the coaching staff makes some changes, namely at wide receiver. I would also like to see some changes in the play calling. JJAW had another catch today on one target, so why isn't he getting more chances? I am not saying he is the answer, but for all of Nick Siriani's talk of competition, he seems unwilling to reward players who actually make plays. I know it is tough to make wholesale changes mid-season, but at this point Reagor is dead weight on the offense. Either find a way to use him differently or get someone else out there. But not changing anything seems to be the definition of insanity.