Last year, the Eagles didn’t get their second loss until December. This year, they could get there by Week 3.
On Sunday, operating on a short week after Monday night’s home meltdown against the Falcons, the Eagles visit the 2-0 Saints. The team that crumbled once adversity arrived in 2023 will need to find a way to keep it from happening again, against the hottest offense in the NFL.
It’s impossible to know whether it will happen again because we still don’t know exactly what happened before. And when it happened before, the Eagles never had a loss quite like this one, where the game was over. Until it wasn’t.
And then, after an ill-advised decision to throw, the defense was thrust back into action — possibly after they had flipped the switch to “off” and couldn’t turn it back on.
And then, with a chance to win the game with a walk-off field goal, an interception was thrown. Quarterback Jalen Hurts took the blame for the game-ending pick. The deeper question is whether and to what extent he defied the play call or the progression to air it out at a time when a big gain wasn’t needed.
Only the people in the locker room know what happened last week, and last year. And only the people in the locker room can keep the Eagles from picking up their second loss far earlier than they did a year ago.
