It’s been over eight months since I’ve experienced an Eagles loss. Watching Sunday’s game I felt frustrated, disgusted, bored and depressed. This was an insanely winnable game. I laughed at the 49ers losing to Cleveland and their backup QB. I thought, “Those cocky jerks! They were too busy talking shit to Dallas and buying into their own hype that they looked past Cleveland. And now the Eagles will be a game up on those suckers for the one seed!” And then the Eagles were terrible on Sunday. And yet I still thought they would win it until the very end. I would’ve felt gross inside but at least they’d still be undefeated. The Chiefs win so many ugly games they deserve to lose, why can’t we? And then we lost. And I got smacked in the face with the reality of this team.

I tend to overreact when the Eagles are doing well. I also tend to overreact when they lose. Here are some of my knee-jerk reactions after their first loss EVER to the Jets.

Hurts has regressed to 2021. In his first full season as the starter he was a hard worker and a great leader and he took the Eagles to the playoffs, but he had a lot of turnovers and was inaccurate and was missing wide open guys and then they got destroyed in the wild card game. The team wasn’t ready to say he’s “the guy,” but then he took a huge leap last year and brought us to the Super Bowl. He signed a huge contract and we expected him to be even better than 2022, but it’s never felt totally right this year. Today was really bad. That last INT was terrible. If he takes a knee on that play we win the game. We punt and there’s no way Zach Wilson is driving down the field with no timeouts and getting the winning FG. Instead Hurts did THE worst thing possible. He threw it right to a Jet and then gave a kinda lame effort to tackle him.

And even after all of that, Hurts got the ball back with almost two minutes and two timeouts. I was so sure he’d lead us to the win. The Jets were playing with back up corners and we had A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith and Dallas Goedert! That last drive was so uninspiring, and it may not be all Hurts’ fault but he didn’t save the day. I had so much confidence in Jalen Hurts because I assumed he was the guy from last year, but he looks a lot like the guy from the year before. Is it the big contract? The endorsements? The new Offensive Coordinator? That brings me to my next knee-jerk reaction.

The Eagles miss Shane Steichen. Remember when we thought the Eagles would repeat in 2018 but the whole season felt off? The magic was gone. Part of it was that Wentz became a shell of himself when he watched Nick Foles lead us to glory. It broke him as a man and as a player, I believe that. But the Eagles also lost their Offensive Coordinator when Frank Reich went to Indy. The offense became stale and boring and I kept hoping for the 2017 Eagles offense to show up but they never did. Now Indy took Steichen and our offense looks discombobulated all the time. The personnel hasn’t changed except for the running back. The major change was the coordinator. We’ve seen a lot of outbursts with teammates yelling at each other and coaches this season but it’s been only offensive players. The defense is actually playing pretty well. They’ve had so many injuries and they’ve still been playing great run defense and making plays when they need to. I like Desai better than Gannon, that feels like an upgrade. But the offense. Eeesh. I’m rooting for Brian Johnson, and I’ve been trying to stay patient but I do not like this offense right now. We have so much talent but it looks like a struggle out there. The play calling seems odd and guys are dropping balls and fumbling and yelling at each other. It feels like we’ve got a race car that’s ready to rip around the track but the driver can’t drive stick. It’s frustrating to watch and I feel like they need a bye to find a way to fix this.

Something is going on with Devonta Smith. It looked like Smith was bitching to Sirianni last week (presumably about not getting enough balls). He followed that up with two drops on Sunday including an egregious drop that I think would’ve sealed the game. I really think the whole game changed with that drop. That’s not like him at all. Devonta has been my favorite Eagle since we drafted him but he’s not himself. When A.J. Brown bitched on the sideline he followed it up by dominating for four straight weeks. Brown’s our best weapon by far but I used to think Smith was. What’s going on? Is it the new coordinator? Is it a rivalry with Brown? He got frustrated on the field with Quez Watkins last week and seemed to get frustrated with Hurts today (can’t blame him). He seems off. Maybe he’s tired because he’s a new dad. I have a four month old, I get it. But I feel like lots of players have babies and play to their ability. I’m concerned. I miss the old Devonta Smith.

We’re F’d if Lane Johnson is out for a while. The Eagles’ record with Lane Johnson is 84-47-1. Without him they’re 13-22. They’re just not the same without him. He may be their MVP.

D’Andre Swift may not be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Fumbles really upset me.

Should we be looking at other kickers? The best kicker in the NFL doesn’t miss that one.

This is the most painful loss the Eagles have ever had. I can’t think of a worse one.

Jeffrey Lurie should sell the team. Enough is enough.

Some of these may be a bit dramatic but it’s been a long time since we lost and I’m having a hard time. I realize that the Eagles are tied for the best record in the league. I should be happy! My friend who’s a Lions fan is overjoyed about being 5-1. He’s used to losing. I’m not. I expect the Eagles to win every single game. That’s not really fair but I think it’d be easier if they’d played great and just came up short. They didn’t play great and they’ve seemed off all year. They have three more games before the bye and they could lose them all. They come out of the bye and play K.C., The Bills and then the 49ers. They gotta get this thing figured out this week. I don’t wanna see this season spiral the way I’m spiraling right now.