After four weeks of the 2024 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys have an even 2-2 record after road wins over the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants sandwiched around embarrassing home losses to the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens.
A record right at .500 plus the two terrible losses doesn’t have Cowboys Nation feeling so optimistic about the rest of the season. A defense that has suddenly become a sieve along with an offense that is incapable of running the ball isn’t exactly a recipe for success, but the needle points up from here.
The Washington Commanders have surprised us all behind rookie QB Jayden Daniels, rattling off three consecutive wins after an opening week loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. New York is in the NFC East cellar, managing just one win in their first four attempts.
That leaves one team, and the subject of today’s article, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles, led by their emotionally erratic head coach, Nick Sirianni, also sit with a 2-2 record, but their fanbase, and even some of their content creators on Twitter/X, are acting like the season is already over.
I can’t say I blame them. Their team hasn’t looked the best, and narrow wins over the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints haven’t been enough to quell the fears created by a last-minute home loss to Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons and a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on up in Philadelphia to cause such mayhem among the fanbase. The Cowboys’ biggest rivals are in shambles, and I’m loving every minute of it.
It Hurts So Bad
One of the reasons Eagles’ content creators on Twitter/X have gone into hiding is because their golden boy, QB Jalen Hurts, has not been the same player since the Super Bowl loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Eagles fans live their lives manipulating stats (*cough* total touchdowns *cough*), to make Hurts appear to be a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. It must be an exhausting exercise trying to hide Hurts’ league-leading 27 turnovers since the start of the 2023 NFL season.
Hurts’ last throw of the 2022 season was a Hail Mary that came up way short in the Super Bowl. Since then, he has thrown 19 interceptions and lost eight fumbles in 21 games. Not to mention the six other fumbles that the Eagles recovered themselves or his turnover rate would be worse.
Yes, Hurts has weapons to help him look better, and the lack of those weapons this season has exposed him. Speaking of those weapons…
Batman & Robin Can’t Save the Day
By Batman & Robin, I mean Hurts’ top weapons on the outside, wide receivers AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. Brown and Smith are battling injuries, leaving Hurts with not much talent to speak of behind them besides TE Dallas Goedert.
That’s okay, though, because good quarterbacks don’t need weapons, right? Quarterbacks with big contracts should just elevate the play of backups at the skill positions, right? That’s what has been expected of Dak Prescott according to Philly fans, but of no other quarterback who fits the same criteria.
Eagles fans love to shout to the mountaintops that Jalen Hurts was an MVP candidate in 2022 and was the sole reason Philadelphia made it to the Super Bowl. Yet, with Brown missing all but week 1, and Smith missing the game in Tampa Bay, Hurts couldn’t get the job done.
I don’t want to hear anything about bad defense because the level of hypocrisy in that statement might make my computer crash. Here is a tweet from one of the biggest content creators/spokespeople of the Eagles organization, Lord Brunson, days before putting out a video saying Hurts doesn’t control what his defense does, and shouldn’t be held accountable.
The level of coping in Philadelphia right now is hilarious, and they are all hoping a week 5 bye is the cure-all for what is ailing both their offense and their defense. Speaking of defense…
You Get a TD, You Get a TD, Everyone Gets a TD!
If you’re a Cowboys fan who is concerned about the defensive performance this season, go ahead and take a look at what is going on in Philadelphia, and you’ll feel better.
As bad as Mike Zimmer’s defense has been in Dallas, an over-the-hill Vic Fangio is having a worse time getting his players to buy into his new scheme and perform on the field. Here is where Fangio’s defense ranks through four games:
- Total Yards, 29th (365.8 yards per game)
- Passing Yards, 27th (237.0 yards per game)
- Rushing Yards, 21st (128.8 yards per game)
- Takeaways, T-31st (2 total takeaways)
- Turnover Differential, 31st (-6 differential)
The Eagles defense is in the bottom half of the league in points allowed (24.0 per game) while their offense is doing their best to keep up at just 21.5 points scored per game. I’m no mathematician, but I don’t think averaging fewer points scored than your defense is giving up is a formula for winning.
We are one more blowout loss away from watching HC Nick Sirianni blow up on the sidelines because the ball isn’t bouncing his way. His erratic emotions on the sideline remind me of a toddler. When things aren’t going well, he has no idea how to corral his emotions and keep even-keeled.
Then again, we are talking about a team whose fanbase was eating horse manure off the ground during their Super Bowl parade they love to bring up from seven years ago. I suppose we should come to expect this behavior from the city of Philadelphia, and that’s why they embrace Sirianni so tightly.
They will soon be calling for his firing if the season doesn’t get turned around, and I’m loving every minute of it.