Eagles Get Destroyed On Monday Night By Dallas

Well, that was not fun. After a disappointing game last week, the Eagles took the field in Dallas and got obliterated. The final score was 41-21, but the game was not even that close.

It's tough to place blame here, because there are so many different people to blame.

I'll start with Nick Sirianni, who made a list of mistakes last night. Just the play calling in general was bland, boring and couldn't move down the field consistency. There were multiple times where it looked like the offense was confused, and some guys were running the wrong routes. Sirianni's lack of agressivness was also an issue. He punted the ball on two 4th-and-short plays in the second quarter, basically not giving his offense a chance to make a big play. Not only that, the defense needed more rest, with them being on the field for almost the entire half. The most questionable thing that Nick did was not any of these, but his use of Miles Sanders. Sanders had two, yes TWO carries against Dallas. That is completely unacceptable. Especially when you are facing a Dallas team who has many injuries on their defensive line already. Corey Clement, who is now a Dallas Cowboy, had more carries then Miles Sanders. I don't even care if you want to split the snaps between Gainwell and Sanders, or even throw Scott in the mix, but anything less then 15-20 carries for the RBs is horrible.

I thought about including this in the Sirianni section, since it technically falls on him, but the amount of the penalties the Eagles have gotten this season is unreal. They had 12 last night, which brings them up to 35 on the season, well ahead of second place in the whole NFL(27). That also beats a franchise record that was 65 years old. I remember Sirianni talking all preseason about how he wanted his team to be as disciplined as possible, but they are the exact opposite. You can argue that a lot of the penalties were on makeshift offensive lineman who are playing their first game this year, but didn't Nick and Jonathan Gannon also say he wanted to make sure everyone was ready to play in a game whenever they were needed?

Let's talk about Jalen Hurts. Although Sirianni did not do him any favors, he overall just looked poor. The stat line really doesn't show how he played, since most of the yards were gained in garbage time: 25/39, 326 Yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 9 rushes for 35 yards. It's worth noting that both his interceptions were really bad. The first was intended for Jalen Reagor on a deep ball, but it was wildly underthrown. The second was the second play of the second half, where DeVonta Smith fell on an out route and Trevon Diggs took it all the way for a Pick 6. Although Smith should not have fallen, that ball is definitely getting picked regardless. The two touchdown drives were good, but it's really too little too late. If I was making a pie chart between the two, I would probably put Nick Sirianni at 60% blame and Jalen Hurts at 40% blame. The Eagles barely moved the ball at all in the first half, with the only score coming because of the defense. The second half was kind of just nothing of note.

The defense. Although Javon Hagrave and Fletcher Cox combined for a great play to get the Eagles on the board, the rest was ugly. The run defense looked like it did the first half in Atlanta, letting Zeke and Tony Pollard waltz through the middle. Ryan Kerrigan again did not register a stat, Derek Barnett had two more crucial penalties, Tarron Jackson did nothing of note and Josh Sweat played pretty good. Nothing else to really say about the defense, the Linebackers played poor as a result of the defensive line not getting pressure and the same goes for the secondary. K'Von Wallace left the game with a shoulder injury early, and never returned. Marcus Epps took his place and struggled.

Can we talk about some positives? There aren't many. Quez Watkins didn't have great stats, but he had a nice catch over a Cowboys defender. Javon Hargrave continued his dominance tonight, specifically with the strip sack in the end zone. It's early, but Hargrave is playing like an All Pro right now. Arryn Siposs had some great punts and Jake Elliott didn't miss any extra points. Andre Chachere played super well on punt coverage. Greg Ward had his first catch of the season for a touchdown. Yeah, that's about it.

In terms of injuries, there were only a few, but they were major. Isaac Seumalo was carted off the field late in the game, with the injury being designated as a foot injury. We have no update on him yet. K'Von Wallace, who left the game with a shoulder injury, is now being reported to miss 3-6 weeks with a likely IR stint. Hopefully Rodney McLeod can return this week, since he was projected to come back within 3 weeks and we are approaching Week 4. We'll see if Jordan Mailata comes back for next week.

Next week, the Eagles will head back home to face the Chiefs. The game is at 1:00 and we will dive more into it for the game preview on Saturday. Both teams are 1-2.