An old fashioned Eagles blowout would be good for the team’s soul. The terrible Titans present that opportunity.
Sure, a win on Sunday would be great. Signs of improvement would be nice. But what everybody really needs is a crooked number and a blowout.
Reasonable humans will enter Week 2 careful not to get carried away with the talent disparity between the Eagles and the Titans.
They will remind themselves of the relatively thin margins that separate teams in the modern NFL.
They will note the Eagles’ struggles in their last two games against a Robert Saleh defense. They will remind themselves of the disruptive potential of Titans All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons going against an Eagles interior offensive line that will be missing stud guard Landon Dickerson. They may even point to last year’s 34-17 Week 6 loss to a Giants team that featured play-caller Brian Daboll and wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, both now with Tennessee.
» READ MORE: A (Makai) Lemon of a debut, but maybe not really … and here’s your annual Week 1 disclaimer
All of which is great. If you happen to be a reasonable human.
The rest of us will be over here expecting a 40-spot.
Is that really too much to ask?
David Murphy alerts
There once was a time when watching an Eagles game didn’t leave you feeling the need to invest in one of those Guardian helmets. It was something you could do without completely dissociating from the world around you. You could watch an Eagles game and still do things that normal humans do: Laugh at jokes, eat potato chips at a reasonable pace, respond politely to innocent non-football-related questions from loved ones. The game would end and you would turn off the TV and you would say to yourself, “Hey, that was fun.”
I’m sure there have been a few moments like that since the Eagles won the NFC Championship and Super Bowl by a combined score of 95-45. But you will have to remind me of them.
Most of the Eagles games that I remember from the last year-plus involve fourth quarters like the one we endured last week. A two-possession game becomes a one-possession game and then a one-possession game becomes a potential loss. The false sense of security evaporates but doesn’t take with it the feeling that the Eagles are still the better team.
This isn’t an illusion. I went back and looked. In each of the last four games the Eagles have played, including the playoffs, an opponent has scored a potential game-winning or game-tying touchdown in the last three minutes of regulation. Two of those games broke in the Eagles’ favor due to failed two-point conversion. Last week it was Moro Ojomo spinning into the path of an attempted shovel pass after Antonio Williams pulled the Commanders to within two on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Daniels. In Week 17 of last season, it was Josh Allen plunging over right guard with eight seconds left and then throwing incomplete for Khalil Shakir on the two-point try as the Eagles pulled out a 13-12 win. In between those two wins came squandered late-fourth-quarter leads against the Commanders (in an irrelevant game) and the 49ers (in the playoffs).
Before the current stretch of squeakers, we saw:
Week 10: A game the Eagles lead 10-0 with 10 minutes left is eventually decided by a failed fourth-and-1 play with 1 minute, 26 seconds remaining near midfield and the Packers driving down 10-7. Somehow, Green Bay still got a chance at a 64-yard field goal attempt with two seconds left.
» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Titans in Week 2: Here are the numbers that matter
Week 11: Eagles lead 16-6 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, but come dangerously close to giving the Lions the ball down 16-9 with 1:51 remaining (pass interference on a third-and-8 incompletion to A.J. Brown).
Week 12: Eagles lead the Cowboys 21-0 early in the second quarter. They lose on a game-winning field goal by Brandon Aubrey with no time left.
Week 14: Eagles were up 19-16 with 2:16 remaining. Cameron Dicker hits a game-tying FG with eight seconds left and then a game-winner in overtime.
Every week, Nick Sirianni reminds us that winning is hard in the National Football League. Every victory is like a delicate child, something to nurture and cherish. And, look, Sirianni is right. Few coaches in NFL history have won games as often as he does. No coach has a better record than Sirianni’s 6-0 mark in Week 1. It says something about the coach and his team that they are as unconvincing in losing as they often are in winning.
But, please, convince us. Forget all of that mumbo jumbo about a win being a win on any given Sunday. Wins are great. They’re much better when you feel good about them. That’s not only true from an entertainment standpoint. Look at the energy flowing out of Chicago and Baltimore. Imagine how a locker room feels when its head coach says he wants to set the single-season scoring record and then the team backs him up by hanging 59 points on a playoff team on the road in Week 1? Whatever their faults, Ben Johnson’s Bears have a self-replicating swagger. Same goes for the Ravens under Johnson acolyte Declan Doyle. A very good way to build political capital as a 30-year-old first-time play-caller is to rack up 506 yards and 41 points in your debut. Wins matter most of all. But the manner of victory isn’t irrelevant.
As somebody who has spent plenty of time in Eagles postgame locker rooms across a wide-ranging gamut of seasons, I will tell you I firmly believe the team would benefit greatly from one of those god-that-felt-good kind of victories. Not that they doubt themselves. Not that they lack confidence. It’s simply good for the soul to blow a team out of the building now and then.
» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 2 vs. the Titans
The Titans are an opportunity. They allowed 30+ points in nearly half their games last season. Among the teams that scored 30 with 350+ total yards were the Seahawks, Patriots, Rams, and 49ers. Good teams take advantage of these opportunities. It is an opportunity for DeVonta Smith to cook as WR1. It is an opportunity for Jalen Hurts to do as he pleases from the pocket. It is an opportunity for Sean Mannion to give everyone the peace of mind that Doyle instilled in Ravens fans last week.
Sure, a win would be great. Signs of improvement would be nice. But what everybody really needs is a crooked number and a blowout.
The Eagles eked out a season-opening win over the Washington Commanders thanks, in large part, to Jalen Hurts channeling the elements of his game that make him so dangerous. But when it comes to other areas of the offense, concerns from last year still linger. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and David Murphy assess Hurts’ performance, Sean Mannion’s debut as offensive coordinator, and warning signs on the offensive line Listen here.
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