Bowen: Eagles still learning the hard way

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - This was just another gosh-darned learning experience, the Eagles assured us Sunday, and who are we to argue with a group that by this point surely has earned a couple of Ph.D.s and a visiting professorship at the Sorbonne?

They lost for the fourth time in five games Sunday, 28-23 to a New York Giants team that didn't do much to nail down the victory. The Eagles couldn't reach out and take it. Or, more correctly, they couldn't reach out to the correct side; Carson Wentz's 17-yard fourth-down pass to Jordan Matthews in the end zone went to Matthews' outside shoulder when Matthews was expecting it to his inside shoulder with a minute and 23 seconds remaining, so the fact that Matthews was open for the touchdown that could have changed the look of the season at the midway point ended up not meaning much.

"I gotta go get the ball. That's my mindset," said Matthews, who caught six passes for 88 yards, on 10 targets. "We gotta win. We've been in these situations a couple games now. It's time for us to start winning these ballgames . . . That's on everybody."

Wentz, who has had the ball with a chance to win in every Eagles loss and hasn't been able to do that, said he wanted to place the pass "obviously a little more inside. I didn't want to fade him too much like that. That's red-zone football; you've got to be precise down there, and we just missed that one."

So much for Jordan Hicks' diving interception of an Eli Manning pass that Connor Barwin had tipped, setting up that last, best chance, from the Giants' 34 with 1:48 remaining. Great clutch play. Could have changed everything. Changed nothing.

Maybe it's time to acknowledge that the one game the Eagles have managed to win since their 3-0 start, they gave the ball away on three successive possessions. The only thing that saved them was that the Minnesota Vikings, who haven't won since, were even more intent on self-destruction.

Rookie quarterback, rookie head coach, talent-challenged group of receivers. All of those Eagles issues were on display Sunday, plus a few more.

"I feel like we're learning," Pederson said after sliding to 4-4, 0-3 in the NFC East. "We're working through a lot of things. We've got some young guys on offense, obviously, we're working through and we're learning how to execute and finish and do all the things we need to do to win these games.

"I could sit up here and say it'd be great to be 6-2 or 5-3, but we're not. We're 4-4. There's a lot of football left. This is a good football team. I believe in these guys. We come to work for another game next week."

Yes, they do. At home, finally, but against 6-3 Atlanta and the league's most prolific offense, the Falcons with the luxury of nine days' rest. Then the Eagles travel to Seattle. Then Green Bay comes to Philly. Which of these teams isn't at least as good as the 5-3 Giants?

Pederson apparently enthralled his players afterward with a talk about how when he was the Chiefs' offensive coordinator last season, they started out 1-5 and finished 10-6. Of course, the Eagles' problem isn't so much how they started out but how they are playing right now, at this very minute, in the middle of their season.

Look for talk radio to debate whether the loss was more Pederson's fault or Wentz's. In the end, it might not matter - neither Pederson nor Wentz was good enough to win what looked like the most winnable game on the Eagles' November schedule.

Rookie QB Wentz, you just might have heard by now, threw interceptions that led to touchdowns on the Birds' first two possessions, digging a 14-0 crater in a divisional game on the road, the sort of thing that rarely turns out well. Incredibly, it almost did turn out well, and probably would have, had Pederson not passed up a couple of first-half field goals for fourth-down conversion attempts that failed. (And had one of the first-half field goals Pederson actually deigned to try not been blocked.)

"I'm going to continue to stay aggressive that way," Pederson said. "Trust in the guys, and let let our guys play."

Wouldn't it show just as much trust to kick field goals, and figure you'll get back down there for touchdowns again, eventually?

"I think it's a momentum thing . . . It's an opportunity for us to score seven points over three. I truly believe in our defense and special teams . . . If we don't start the ballgame the way we do, it's different. It's totally different. I'm going to continue to show confidence in our guys and believe in our guys," Pederson said.

The Eagles, who had been 5-for-5 on fourth down this season, were 1-for-4 there against the Giants and didn't look good on any of the misses. On third down, they were 3-for-15. This rendered moot the fact that the Birds were able to gain 443 net yards, including Wentz's season-best 364 passing yards, on hitting 27 of 47, but with no touchdowns and the two horrible picks.

"It's a reality check, obviously," said tight end Zach Ertz, who finally was able to get Wentz's attention, for eight catches on eight targets, 97 yards. "We pride ourselves on being a good offense, but each of these four losses it's come down to us not making plays, and we feel like we have the talent as an offense to be great. It's one thing to say something, it's another to go out there, make plays, and win the game. We have the guys, we have the talent . . . It's all about execution, and we're not getting it done."

Later, Ertz declared: "We are going to right the ship. It's not like we're in complete panic mode at 4-4, but at the same time, the margin of error has certainly dwindled for the rest of the year."

Wentz also was in a declarative mood. "We never lose our confidence. We never lose our composure. Every guy in there strictly believes we're going to win . . . I haven't seen that waver yet, but it's just one of those things," he said. "We haven't gotten it done, and you guys can call it what you want, we've just got to find a way to finish these ballgames."

Starting them better would also help. The Eagles' second play from scrimmage, second-and-3, Wentz was flushed from the pocket. Instead of throwing the ball away, he tried to hit Nelson Agholor, Wentz throwing on a dead run. The ball flew over Agholor to Giants safety Landon Collins. Two plays later, Manning managed the first of his four touchdown passes, and the Birds got the ball back.

Third-and-5, no great pass-rush pressure, but Wentz threw late across the middle, over 6-5 Dorial Green-Beckham, which ought to be a harder thing to do than it turned out to be. The other safety, Andrew Adams, cradled this gift. Three more Giants plays, 14-0, and after that it was all desperation. The desperation came close to working, but that isn't the way you win in the NFL very often.

"Minus all the mistakes and all that, we played a good game," said corner Leodis McKelvin, who ran into Jaylen Watkins on the Giants' second touchdown throw, then later gave up a 46-yard completion to Victor Cruz that set up the Giants' third touchdown, on which McKelvin beaten by Odell Beckham Jr.

In fairness, it seemed McKelvin was trying to say that the defense, which allowed just seven second-half points, wasn't dominated, drive after drive, it just made some big early mistakes. Manning was intercepted twice in a span of three fourth-quarter possessions. The game was there to be won. But once again, it didn't happen.

Safety Malcolm Jenkins, caught flatfooted on Manning's final touchdown pass, called players together afterward and told them they were beating themselves. In some instances, they are. But in other instances, they aren't winning individual battles. Manning, protected by a so-so offensive line, took just one sack Sunday. Green-Beckham seemed to be jogging slowly in the general direction of three end-zone fades Wentz threw him, as if he thought he was a decoy. And so on.

"We believe we can get ourselves out of it, because we've been in every game we've played," defensive end Brandon Graham said. "The ball is going to start bouncing our way. I really believe that, because we have an unselfish team, everybody comes to work every day, nobody points fingers, and as long as we don't start that, we should be in good shape . . . We are going to get it corrected."

@LesBowen

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