Yesterday afternoon, the Philadelphia Eagles took on the Tennessee Titans in a sloppy effort, losing in overtime by the final score of 26-23. Here are three key takeaways from yesterday’s loss:
D-Back Disaster
One day, we are going to accept the fact that Jalen Mills just is not that good. Now, I don’t want to put all the blame on Mills as quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Titans’ offense had a field day against multiple players, but it became clear early on that Mills would be the first target.
Mariota finished the game with 344 passing yards and two touchdowns. Out of those 344 yards, 161 came from the hands of receiver Corey Davis who hung in the area of Mills for much of the game.
Of course, we cannot have the discussion about the defensive backs without mentioning that overtime disaster. With the Eagles needing a stop to win the game, they all but ensured that the Titans would get the victory.
Things got started when the Eagles had a perfect game-ending opportunity with the Titans in a 4th and 15 situation before giving up a wide-open 19 yard completion to receiver Taywan Taylor.
Then on a 4th and 4, Mariota threw an incomplete pass, seemingly giving the Eagles the win before a Sidney Jones pass interference was called to give the Titans a new set of downs.
The disaster would end with Mariota finding Davis in the middle of the end zone for the walk-off touchdown.
Wentz Under Pressure
Eleven hits and four sacks! It’s safe to say that the offensive line did an abysmal job at protecting Wentz who played just his second game since tearing his ACL nearly 10 months ago.
There were many times during yesterday’s outing where Eagles receivers did not have a hard time getting separation from Titans defenders. That showed on plays such as the 56-yard bomb Wentz threw to receiver Jordan Matthews for the Eagles first touchdown of the game.
While we thought that would create some momentum for the offense, Wentz spent much of the rest of the game running for his life, failing to get anything going through the air as the Titans had fun blitzing all afternoon. The staple came by way of a fourth quarter fumble which helped set up a Tennessee field goal.
Identity Issues
One topic that has been recently discussed, including by Wentz, is the Eagles’ struggle to find an identity on offense. While the team has somewhat got a pass with key injuries interfering with the lineup, the Eagles have struggled to adapt, and that continued to show yesterday.
While we cannot discount the absences of Darren Sproles and Corey Clement as well as a banged up Jay Ajayi and just-returning Alshon Jeffery, the Eagles once again ran into a pit they have been struggling with all season: getting anything going early on offense.
The Eagles would punt on every drive until midway through the second quarter when Wentz hit Matthews for a touchdown. Just as they have in the last few weeks, the Eagles were able to put points on the board later in the game, but this week showed that the momentum came too late.
The run/pass ratio was also a low-point of the game. The Eagles got Ajayi going in moments throughout the game, but seemed to abandon the run too prematurely at times, leading to mishaps such as a disappointing number of drops and Wentz taking eleven hits.
The offense will need to completely tune up if they are going to get anything going next Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings defense.
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