PHILADELPHIA − It was telling that in the Eagles‘ locker room after their most embarrassing defeat of the season, heck, in five seasons, that running back Saquon Barkley was being lauded for playing through a back injury after missing two games with a hamstring injury.
Or than left guard Landon Dickerson, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, was calling his performance “(expletive) frustrating” after returning from missing five games because of a knee injury.
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Barkley and Dickerson were introspective, accountable, and most of all, furious at yet another Eagles defeat, this time 38-21 to the Cowboys.
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“These guys work their (butt) off to come in here and compete every day, and yeah, I wasn’t good enough,” Dickerson said.
Added Barkley: “I truly love this game, and I feel like if you’re able to go, sometimes you gotta push your body to the limit. And I’m trying. It’s just not responding the way I want it to respond right now. And it sucks because I’m trying to be the best leader (possible), and it’s hard when you’re not able to be out there and perform for your team.”
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Dickerson, a mountain of a man at 6-foot-6, 329 pounds, was near tears as he spoke. Barkley, meanwhile, kept playing, or trying, after hurting his back on the second play of the game. Instead of sitting in the locker room, he was walking up and down the bench encouraging his teammates.
Then afterward, he was somber and defeated.
This is what losing should feel like. If only the defensive players shared that same anguish and despair.
Instead, the Eagles didn’t sack Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who picked them apart for 212 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. They didn’t even lay a finger on him, literally − the Eagles had exactly zero QB hits.
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They also barely laid a finger on running back Javonte Williams, who gashed them for 155 yards on 25 carries.
It’s ironic that the Eagles’ offense was the albatross through the first six games while the defense gave the Eagles a chance. This time, the offense actually got it going against the Cowboys. They opened the second half with a drive that lasted 9 minutes, 16 seconds, resulting in Tanner McKee’s 4-yard TD pass to Makai Lemon.
The Eagles led 21-20.
Then the Cowboys marched down the field and scored and added the two-point conversion for a 28-21 lead. The Eagles started the next drive at their 15. Tyler Steen was called for holding, then McKee was sacked after Dickerson was beaten.
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Dickerson cited as those two plays as the “(expletive) two plays that lose us the (expletive) game.”
The Eagles punted, and the Cowboys kept scoring.
The Eagles have lost five straight games. The 2-5 start ties the worst record in Nick Sirianni’s five-plus seasons as head coach. That happened in 2021. Back then, Sirianni showed his team a picture of a flowerpot growing roots underneath the ground as a sign that the Eagles were building something.
That Eagles team recovered by going 7-3 to make the playoffs. This season? The flowers have wilted and the ground has dried up.
How else to explain the defensive surrender?
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Well, don’t ask defensive tackle Jalen Carter, edge rusher Jonathan Greenard or cornerback Riq Woolen. They all declined interviews after the game.
It’s easy to see why. Greenard, whom the Eagles traded for last spring, then signed to a four-year contract worth as much as $100 million, has barely played because of injuries. And when he has played, he’s been invisible, as in zero tackles, zero sacks, zero QB hits against the Cowboys
Carter, signed to a record contract for a defensive tackle, was mostly invisible, with just two tackles, as was his fellow defensive tackle Jordan Davis, with four tackles.
Combined, the two signed contracts during the offseason worth as much as $230 million.
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As for Woolen, he might as well have been invisible. He was beaten for a Cowboys touchdown to CeeDee Lamb and torched on a 30-yard completion from Prescott to Lamb near the end of the first half that set up a chip-shot field goal.
“Not to look at the past, but we made a lot of plays the last couple years,” DeJean said. “And there have been plays that we’ve made (in the past) that we just haven’t made this season.”
Sure, there has been a lot of attrition this season. Right tackle Lane Johnson abruptly retired, center Cam Jurgens was traded, wide receiver DeVonta Smith has been sidelined three times now because of a recurring hamstring injury, and Barkley has only played two full games this season because of various injuries.
And, most prominently, quarterback Jalen Hurts was lost for the season with blood clots that spread to his lungs.
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Sure, any team would be hard-pressed to overcome all of that, in addition to growing pains from first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and his new system.
But as Sirianni has said repeatedly each week, including after the latest indignity: “I’ll never use (injuries) as an excuse because at the end of the day, all that matters is if we won or lost, and if we continue to get better. We didn’t do that. No one’s going to feel sorry for us, and our job is to get whoever’s on that field ready to play in the game.”
Of course, who’s on the field could change again in the two weeks leading up to the Nov. 10 NFL trade deadline. Eagles GM Howie Roseman has already turned Jurgens into a second-round pick in 2028. This after trading wide receiver A.J. Brown in June for a first-round pick in 2028.
Roseman can’t trade everyone. But he can trade pending free agents like tight end Dallas Goedert, Woolen and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo. And he can trade edge rusher Nolan Smith before the deadline. All of them can bring back decent value.
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But the real work comes after the season, with Sirianni’s future and Mannion’s in the balance. And it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Roseman to draft Hurts’ eventual successor.
In reality, Roseman was hoping to gradually transition to a young nucleus in 2028 while the Eagles remained playoff and Super Bowl contenders in the interim. But with every loss, every sign of surrender, that time frame moves up. Even Sirianni knows this.
“We’ve got 10 more games, and then we’ll see after that,” Sirianni said. “No one’s writing off anything.”
That might have already happened.
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Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl. Sign up for the “Eye On The Eagles” newsletter, emailed to your inbox every Friday morning. Read his coverage of the Eagles‘ championship season in “Flying High,” a hardcover coffee-table book from Delaware Online/The News Journal. Details at Fly.ChampsBook.com
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Should Eagles tank? Trade, fire everyone? Signs they already decided
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