The Eagles are so bad that all you can do is laugh through the seven-game losing streak
The point is, no one, Merrill Reese least of all, should have to suffer through what this Eagles season has become. They dropped their seventh straight, 19-11, to the New York Giants on Sunday.
The Eagles honored Merrill Reese at halftime Sunday for his half-century of broadcasting their games, which was appropriate because it felt like their 19-11 loss to the Giants took that long.
Reese has long maintained that he has no desire to retire as the team’s play-by-play voice, of course. But it seems safe to say that, if you had told him in 1996 he’d have had to call this monstrosity 30 years later, he would have stepped away from the job and started practicing to be the golf pro at Blue Bell Country Club while he still had a chance.
The point is, no one, especially the loyal and Kelly green-blooded Reese, should have to suffer through what this Eagles season has become. They’re 2-7 and have lost seven straight games, and there were just two mildly reassuring things to remember coming out of their haplessness Sunday.
» READ MORE: Grading the Eagles' 19-11 loss to the New York Giants
One, they have their bye this week, so everyone can engage in more enjoyable autumn activities, like picking apples, going on a hayride, or pouring a cup of hot cocoa down your pants. Two, if the Giants, who are now 5-2-1, really are the best team in the 2026 NFC East, then the 2026 NFC East is the worst division in NFL history, and maybe it won’t take much rebuilding for the Eagles to return to contention sometime soon.
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The Giants are nothing special: They committed nine penalties and struggled to move the ball most of the day themselves. But then, the Eagles are nothing even ordinary. At the moment, just playing somewhat competent football appears beyond their capability. They did not gain a first down in the second half until the fourth quarter was more than halfway finished. They started a quarterback, Joe Milton, whom they signed just three weeks ago; it took him until the game’s final two minutes to surpass 100 net passing yards. On his first play, he false started. He also was sacked seven times — a figure in line with the general confusion that has been the defining feature of the Eagles’ offensive line all season — including once by Giants linebacker Arvell Reese on a hit so clean and brutal that it called to mind Lawrence Taylor freight-training Ron Jaworski in the mid-1980s.
“We just want to be on the same page,” center Drew Kendall said. “I don’t think any of us were.”
Braden Mann, who earlier had provided the Eagles’ best moment Sunday when he uncorked an 86-yard punt, dropped a snap and commenced with the game’s most comical sequence: picking up the ball, scurrying to his left, and, while on the run, booting it out of bounds.
Sean Mannion went a long way to answering the question, Is the big problem with the Eagles’ offense the players or the coordinator? On an important fourth-and-1 call, he had Milton line up in the shotgun and hand the ball to Saquon Barkley on a slow-developing run-pass option play. It lost yardage.
When Jameis Winston, who stepped in at quarterback when J.J. McCarthy left briefly with an injury, found tight end Isaiah Likely alone in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown, three Eagles defenders clustered in the center of the field, the trio appearing puzzled over who was supposed to have covered Likely. Linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. seemed to take the blame, so at least that mystery was solved. On the last play of the game, in a situation where every team at every level of football plays it safe, the Giants blitzed. They blitzed. And they sacked Milton, because of course they did, because the Eagles never offered a reason all day to think the Giants wouldn’t sack Milton there.
“Hard to be positive,” tackle Jordan Mailata said, “when you play like that.”
Too true, Jordan. This is bad, as bad as everything around and about the Eagles has been in years. Mark Twain is supposed to have said that comedy is just tragedy plus time. Sorry, in light of Sunday, there was no sense waiting. All the possible lamentations for this Eagles season have been used up. Jalen Hurts’ blood clots, the void left by Jeff Stoutland’s departure, Nick Sirianni’s future, the injuries, Howie Roseman’s subpar decisions during the offseason, the excruciating end of that Jacksonville game last month: Those sad and serious topics have all been covered.
Sirianni tried to avoid or downplay the necessary questions about whether he’ll make any changes to his coaching staff during the bye. “I don’t think you change just to change,” said a head coach who has had three quarterbacks start and four take snaps for him in nine games. Merrill Reese capped his broadcast by wondering aloud what the Eagles might do at Tuesday’s trade deadline. There’s nothing else left to wonder. Might as well get jokey. We’re gonna need some laughs to get through the next two months.
With the Eagles’ season gradually going up in flames, there’s been plenty of external fingerpointing. The offense, specifically the line, has drawn considerable ire, especially in light of the Eagles parting ways with longtime, beloved assistant coach Jeff Stoutland. Stoutland’s track record on the offensive line is Hall of Fame-worthy. This year, with Chris Kuper as Stoutland’s replacement, the line has regressed.
Should Kuper shoulder most of the blame? What really happened between Stoutland and the Eagles that caused their relationship to fall apart? The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane dives deeper into one of the biggest “what ifs” from a frustrating season, framing Stoutland’s exit around four key questions. Listen here.
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