It must have been a fluke.

Somehow, on October 10, the Eagles got a win against the Panthers, thanks to stellar defensive play and turnovers. They had almost no offense whatsoever and only benefitted from good field position from the defensive turnovers. But, a win is a win, and the Panthers had one of the best defenses in the league.

However, after the win against Carolina they had the Buccaneers at home and got completely destroyed and looked like nothing was working. The Buccaneers at one point had a 28-7 lead in the third quarter. The Eagles offense had nothing against a Bucs defense with numerous injuries to valuable players.

The Eagles only source of life came from Buccaneers mistakes in which they had two big defensive pass interferences that got the Eagles within their 25. The Eagles were able to score two touchdowns after those penalties. After that the Eagles had three and outs and a missed field goal and interception. The Buccaneers were completely dominating the Eagles in all aspects.

Then, in the middle of the fourth quarter, the defense got a huge stop on fourth down near midfield, giving the Eagles momentum. It was looking like we could be heading to another W. Sirianni even finally decided to run the ball and the Eagles finally looked like an efficient offense for once. They drove the ball down the field and scored, narrowing the Bucs lead to eight. Sirianni made a gutsy call and went for two, and the Eagles converted. Things were looking up.

At 28-22 in the fourth quarter, the Eagles defense stopped Brady the last couple of drives the Eagles looked like they had a shot. In typical Eagles form, there was an unnecessary “taunting” call which gave the Bucs 15 free yards. Once again Eagles penalties come back to bite them (currently, heading into week eight, the Birds are the most penalized team in the NFL). After that Brady just methodically ran out the clock and drove the Bucs downfield until the end of the game. 

A couple of takeaways here. For one, the Eagles lost a close game that should never have been close, as they had such an abysmal offense. Hurts only threw for 115 yards with one touchdown and rushed for 44 with two touchdowns. Miles Sanders, who was supposed to be their premier back, had only nine carries for 56 yards, most of which were RPOs and on the Eagles last drive.

Sirianni continues to struggle with play calling and getting the Eagles offense going. He also continues to put the blame on himself when talking about the lack of run game. 

“ Either way, it didn’t work,” he said following the Bucs game. “We were bad in the first half, and I put that on me first.” 

Sirianni has said this or something like this for multiple weeks, yet the outcome has not changed and the Eagles look like they have no offense. The run game was going in their first win and the offense looked dominant then since they have barely run and their offensive play has been little to nothing.

Hurts summed up the Eagles gameplay with his post-game words. “We started off slow. This whole year, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot.” With the exception of the Chiefs game, Hurts has not looked like the quarterback fans expected. He’s made a number of very poor decisions, and has made, quite frankly, just some really bad throws, especially in the Bucs game. The Bucs had one of the worst passing defenses, and the Eagles have a talented receiver in Smith, yet he got a measly two receptions. The Eagles have just been destroying themselves, and by the time they get into the game, it is too late.

If the Eagles did not look bad already, they also just traded Zach Ertz for a cornerback no one has heard of and a fifth round pick. The defense has kept them in games, and Ertz was the only positive throughout almost the entirety of the Bucs game. 

The Raiders game last Sunday had to be some sort of breaking point.

“Disheveled” is the best word that comes to mind following this game. They finally use Sanders more, and then he gets injured after only his seventh offensive touch. 

At points on Sunday, the scoreboard seemed close. The first drive of the game resulted in a touchdown. But by the third quarter, the Eagles had no shot — they were down 30-7.

The fourth quarter was just painful. A brief comeback in the fourth quarter was fleeting; it was a game full of punts and fumbles. After watching an eight-play drive that went 22 yards, followed by a nine-play drive that went an abysmal 26 yards, followed by a one-play drive that resulted in a fumble, I felt like I was in a nightmare loop of bad football.

Only the Eagles can have this kind of luck. They’re a mess, and have more problems than just coaching and Hurts — the whole team looks awful. The Eagles arguably have the NFL’s weakest schedule the rest of the year; maybe they have a shot to make the playoffs and rebound from this 2-5 start. 

Either way, something — or someone — has to start cleaning up this mess.