It's time to admit a couple things, Eagles fans:
Philly has been playing with fire a lot so far this year. The team opened 5-0 but was three plays away from being 2-3. To my mind, those three plays were the Slay pick six against New England, the fumble-turned-touchback by Justin Jefferson and Ron Rivera's cowardly refusal of a two point conversion at the end of regulation. Note that I'm not saying that Philly deserved to lose those game, just that they easily could have. Stringing semi-fortunate wins together always seems to bite a team eventually, and that happened today.
Jalen didn't have a banner day for the Birds. By my count, today was the fourth 2023 game of his that lands on that "average to awful" spectrum. The first interception wasn't his fault (Dallas Goedert failed to finish that catch and the bounce was very unlucky), but the simple fact is that Jalen didn't do much at all for his team, especially in the second half when it mattered most. Once again, many of the biggest plays that came in the passing game were AJ Brown YAC bursts. The two interceptions with the game in doubt were total killers, and he nearly had a third deep within his own territory in the 4Q. I can't be TOO hard on Jalen; he was running for his life for most of this game after one of the worst pass blocking performances I can remember was turned in by this patchwork OL.
What else can be said here? We can't really blame this one on injuries, although Philly dealt with plenty (Jalen Carter, Cam Jurgens and Darius Slay didn't suit up, and the team lost Eli Ricks, Reed Blankenship and of course Lane Johnson to injuries today), as the Jets lost about as many players, either in the runup to the game or during the game itself. There must be something cursed about that turf.
There is fault to be found with the coaching (why, oh why, were the Birds passing on that last interception? Under no circumstances should that have been anything other than a run play; force Zach Wilson to march 50+ yards without any timeouts). Jake Elliott going off-script to miss a relatively short FG late doesn't help, and neither did Swift's fumble that led directly to a Jets FG. DeVonta Smith had two uncharacteristic drops, including a huge one that would have set Philly up in the red zone. The defense played well but it's hard to get too excited about shutting down a Jets team led by Zach Wilson, that was missing two starting offensive linemen and had a gimpy Garrett Wilson. My biggest note, though, is to point out how ordinary Eagles QBs look without Lane Johnson. I have pointed this out in each of the last two preseasons, but today's loss drops the Birds to 16-25 (39%) when Johnson misses at least 50% of the offensive snaps. Philly is 81-45-1 (64.2%) when he exceeds 50% of the snaps. Unfortunately, Lane is believed to have a high ankle sprain, which may keep him out a month or more, depending on the severity.
Silver linings? The Eagles dominated this game everywhere but the scoreboard (348-244 yardage, 24-17 FD, 69-59 total plays). I'm not using injuries as a excuse for this particular game as the Jets had just as many, but I do think we'll see a healthier Eagles team in future weeks, and such a team will be more successful. Taking a bloody nose just before the ridiculously difficult stretch of schedule will do this team some good psychologically; they'll gain some humility, lose the pressure that comes from being the last undefeated team, and gain the edge that always seems to come from a week of exposure to the brutal Philly media. They'll need those lessons, and to get Lane Johnson back healthy ASAP (get well soon, big guy): a visit from the Dolphins awaits.
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