Eagles' ugly football strategy

The Eagles live and die by ugly football. In Week 4, it crushed them.

“The Eagles live and die by ugly football. In Week 4, it crushed them.”

Eagles' early struggles

They were already down Dallas Goedert, Zack Baun, and DeVonta Smith well in advance of this Sunday's home game against the Rams, then lost Lane Johnson at the last second and Saquon Barkley just minutes in.

First half collapse

Through most of the first half, Jalen Hurts had to be a regular escape artist out of a quickly collapsing pocket.

Offensive line struggles

Through most of the first half, Tank Bigsby, in place of an injured Barkley, was left running into yellow and blue-colored walls from an already banged-up offensive line that's already struggled to adjust to a more lateral-moving offense.

Early lead

They walked away with the opening lead, on a Matthew Stafford interception that floated straight into Andrew Mukuba's grasp, which flipped into a 29-yard Jake Elliott field goal.

First half performance

He tossed a highlight-reel throw off his back foot to Darius Cooper in the end zone. Then, after a fortunate tip from Michael Carter that redirected into a huge Cooper DeJean pick and a generous defensive pass interference penalty brought the Eagles down into the red zone, Hurts was finally able to sit in the pocket, wait, and spiral another score to Cooper for a 10-point lead just before the half came to an end.

Second half collapse

But then the offense seized up through the second half, again, leaving it as a requirement for the defense to make every last stop.

Third down struggles

The Eagles went 0-for-12 on third downs and 1-for-4 on fourth downs for the entire game, and when they did finally have crucial points right there in front of them late into the fourth quarter, they passed on the field goal that would've made it a six-point game.

Fourth quarter collapse

Instead, they went for it, tried, and failed on a Hurts incompletion that ricocheted off the fingers of Cooper at the goal line.

Rams scoring drive

The Rams responded with a 10-play, 98-yard touchdown drive to make it a 20-17 game, and then another 10-play, 79-yard scoring drive that sent LA ahead 24-20 and whittled the time left for the Eagles to just a 1:10.

Final play

And there were no more miracles. Hurts got sacked twice, the offense didn't go anywhere, and the whole miserable day folded on a dead-on-arrival Hail Mary from 4th and 25.

Eagles' performance

The Eagles' defense devolved into a mess of killer penalties, open seams, and a pass rush that started to show signs of life, but then just ran out of gas, while the offense stopped resembling anything competent.

Eagles' identity

They can't start a game, and it's a dice roll now if they can even finish one, suppose it depends on how bad talent-wise the other team is compared to them.

Eagles' future

They're an ugly, aggravating, miserably frustrating team to watch week in and week out. When they win, sure, they can brand it as tough, but you can see all the holes and shortcomings that really didn't need to be there.