After a fine start, the suddenly swooning Philadelphia Eagles are in search an identity under first-year coach Doug Pederson.
The Falcons (6-3) will face the desperate Eagles (4-4) on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles, featuring rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, jumped out to a 3-0 start. But they have since hit hard times — four losses in five games — forcing safety Malcolm Jenkins to call a team meeting after a dispiriting 28-23 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday.
The message for the players and coaches meeting was simple: “stay together” and attempt to end their 1-4 tailspin.
“At the end of all of these games, we’ve had a chance to win,” Jenkins told the Philadelphia media.”So defensively, you never want to go out and give up the points. But we don’t care about stats, we don’t care about points. It’s about wins and losses.”
The Falcons, Cowboys (7-1), Minnesota (5-3) and Seattle (5-3-1) lead their NFC divisions. The Eagles are in the group of teams in pursuit, along with the Giants (5-3), Lions (5-4), Redskins (4-3-1), Saints (4-4) and Packers (4-4) .
Pederson, a former NFL backup quarterback and assistant coach under Kansas City’s Andy Reid, has made some dubious decisions along the way. Last weekend, he bypassed two field goals to go for it on fourth down against the Giants and the Eagles ended up losing by five points.
Pederson, who passed on 24- and 41-yard field goals, attempted to defend those shaky decisions.
“I still feel strong about those,” Pederson told the Philadelphia media. “I think the decision is to go for it. It shows confidence and belief in the guys.
“At that time, I felt like we were moving the ball and at the end of the day, when you look at it, we had more opportunities in this game. To me, in my opinion, it didn’t come down to those two plays. There were enough things in this game that cost us this football game, but I still stick by what I did, how I chose to go for it in both of those situations.”
Despite the spiraling record, Pederson believes the Eagles are headed in the right direction.
“We’re obviously building something here,” Pederson said. “But when you look at these games that we’ve been in at the end, the encouraging thing is we really should’ve won those games.”
The Eagles losses have been by one, seven, six and five points.
“The Detroit game, we had the lead (and lost 24-23),” Pederson said. “Dallas, we had the lead (and lost 29-23). And then (against the Giants), we had opportunities late in the game to take the lead and/or win the football game. So these are all things that, as we build this thing, we’re going to win these games down the stretch as we go.”
Wentz, the second player taken in the draft, has completed 177 of 275 passes for 1,890 yards with nine touchdown passes and five interceptions. The Eagles have been pleased with his play.
“The fact that Carson continues to make plays — and yeah, sure, we don’t like the interceptions and all that — but relatively speaking, he protects the football,” Pederson said. “And we’ve done a good job there. And our tight ends had a little bigger impact (against the Giants) and we’ve got to continue to work that.”
The Eagles wide receiver corps, which goes up against a Falcons pass defense that has allowed the most yards (2,606) and touchdowns (23) in the league, that is not very deep. Jordan Matthews leads the group with 42 catches for 507 yards and three touchdowns.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning tossed four touchdown passes against the Eagles’ secondary, but the defense has been solid. The Eagles give up 325.5 yards per game, which ranks sixth in the league. They give up 218.4 yards against the pass (sixth) and 107.1 yards rushing (18th).
The Falcons boast the league’s top scoring offense at 33.9 points per game. The offense is averaging 429.2 yards per game, which is second in the league.
“We feel like, as an offense, that when we have the ball, we have a lot of playmakers and weapons,” Falcons tight end Levine Toilolo said. “When we are rolling, it feels like everything that we are calling is working. That’s definitely a good feeling.”
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