So much of the December NFL narrative is devoted to teams scrambling to qualify for the playoffs, but the end of the regular season is also a terrific chance for the diminishing handful of Super Bowl contenders to sharpen their tools, to separate themselves from the pack.
One of those contenders, the Philadelphia Eagles, had lost their previous two games but could have scored a get-right victory Monday in Seattle against the Seahawks. All they needed to do was prevent Seattle, down by four points, from driving 92 yards in less than two minutes.
Eagles’ fans, who can find flaws in just about anything, probably would not have gotten too carried away had Philadelphia squeezed out a heart-thumping victory. After all, Seattle’s quarterback was the backup Drew Lock, starting only his second game in two seasons.
Besides, the Eagles’ beleaguered defense, run Monday for the first time by assistant Matt Patricia, the Bill Belichick protegee and former head coach of the Detroit Lions, did look a lot better (well, generally) than it had in lopsided losses to San Francisco and Dallas.
Well, guess what. Lock drove Seattle those 92 yards in 10 plays, and had 28 seconds to spare. He threw a 29-yard touchdown pass in the rain to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who’d squirted past the veteran Eagles cornerback James Bradberry, in one-on-one coverage.
The TD put Seattle ahead for good, 20-17. Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts threw an interception after taking the Eagles, who still had two timeouts, to within about 20 yards of what could have been a score-tying field-goal attempt. Hurts winced as he pulled off his helmet.
“I didn’t do my job good enough,” Hurts mumbled at a post-game news conference. But that was the nice thing to say, and Hurts was hardly alone in doing a poor job.
So the Seahawks (7-7) are still very much in playoff contention. Pete Carroll, their 72-year-old coach, can still tell people he has never lost to the Eagles as the coach of the Seahawks. The city of Philadelphia would have been in a rotten mood, anyway.
Upsets happen in the playoffs, but December serves as the time when the elite emerge, finding another gear. Philadelphia lost two of their last three regular-season games last year, and a fat victory over the 49ers in the NFC championship game, at least as far as San Francisco fans were concerned, carried an asterisk because quarterback Brock Purdy was injured.
This, though, was a killer loss for the Eagles, who gave Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs a memorable battle in the last Super Bowl – and had big plans to go back. The Eagles (10-4) should still win their last three games, but nothing is sure now.
The Eagles’ highly unpopular first-year offensive coordinator, Brian Johnson, will get buried on the sports-talk shows for another questionable game plan, which included an option play in which Hurts lateraled the ball to his tight end, Dallas Goedert, who gained one yard.
But it was the Eagles’ defense that caved in when Philadelphia needed the big plays, even though head coach Nick Sirianni had tried to address the problems with his defense by replacing Sean Desai, his first-year defensive coordinator, with Patricia on the sideline Monday.
“Listen, it was a tough decision to be able to do this,” Sirianni said after the game of the change in coaching responsibilities, “but, again, like I said, I did what was best for our football team. We’re always making adjustments, and that’s what I did.”
Much of the pregame chatter in Philadelphia during the week focused on how the Eagles, the grim losses to the 49ers (11-3) and Cowboys (10-4) notwithstanding, could still win the NFC East, and maybe a first-round bye, by sweeping their last four games.
Then the Cowboys were overrun Sunday in Buffalo by the gasping Bills (8-6), who were considered to be Super Bowl contenders at the start of the season. San Francisco must play Baltimore (11-3), winners of eight of nine and the AFC leaders, in a huge Christmas night game.
So Monday night was a gigantic opportunity for the Eagles. They were not hammered as Dallas was Sunday, but the long Seattle drive by the backup QB that led to a last-minute loss was excruciating and deflating. Declare it now: the 49ers stand tall over the NFC pack.
As the Eagles won 10 of their first 11 games, somehow losing only to the awful Jets, it became a popular sport in Philadelphia – for both fans and players – to point out that the team had not put together a commanding performance. The 49ers and Cowboys exposed their flaws.
The defense was a big issue. Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat whispered to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter after the 33-13 loss to Dallas that “I’m not used to our group not taking care of each other when it comes to pressure.” Cornerback Darius Slay underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Saturday, forcing the Eagles to start two rookies in the secondary.
Through three quarters, the dangerous Seattle receiver DK Metcalf had one reception, for eight measly yards. The Eagles had problems tackling Seattle running back Kenneth Walker III, but the Seahawks could punch in only one touchdown in their first eight drives.
Then came the ninth. Metcalf caught three passes for 58 yards, including an astonishing six-yard reception in which he appeared to snag Lock’s pass with just his left arm before it hit the turf. He also split Bradberry and Sydney Brown to drag in a critical 34-yard reception.
The Eagles season will continue. Games against the New York Giants (5-9) sandwich a game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-11), so Philadelphia still can win the NFC East with a sweep. Even if the Eagles don’t earn a first-round home playoff game, they could face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-7), the worst NFL division leader.
But a radical defensive fix looks now like a panic move. Hurts, who played Monday despite being physically ill, now has 12 interceptions in 14 games this year, compared with 19 interceptions in the first 45 games of his career.
Ten months after they made it to the Super Bowl and wanted more, the Eagles are no longer elite. San Francisco tower above them.
