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Eagles-Saints: What we learned from the playoff loss

Ten day-after takeaways from the season-ending loss to New Orleans.

Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, one of the Eagles injured during the game, leaves the field in the fourth quarter against the Saints.
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, one of the Eagles injured during the game, leaves the field in the fourth quarter against the Saints.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

NEW ORLEANS — The Eagles came agonizingly close to pulling off the upset. They drove all the way to the Saints' 27 with two minutes left, and seemed on the verge of taking the lead, but a dropped pass that turned into an interception ended their hopes and the Eagles lost, 20-14, in a divisional playoff Sunday.

Here’s what we learned:

1. The Eagles were resilient, but they couldn’t overcome a maddening first three months of the season. If that game was played in Philadelphia, the Eagles likely would have won. That’s how important home-field advantage is in the playoffs.

The Eagles were talented enough to go 13-3 again. This team was built to repeat, and injuries aside, still could have gotten back to the Super Bowl. The Eagles blew games to the Titans and Panthers, and could have easily won either game against the Cowboys. We’re talking about a few plays in each game. A few bounces that could have gone the Eagles’ way, and they might have been the No. 1 seed.

But most of their troubles were of their own doing. Doug Pederson was terribly inconsistent both in his messaging and play-calling. Jim Schwartz had a couple of dubious game plans. Howie Roseman and the personnel department didn’t hit enough in free agency. Carson Wentz took a step back, a small one, but he wasn’t as dynamic as he was in 2017. The Eagles didn’t find their mojo until Wentz was sidelined with a fracture in his back and Nick Foles took over at quarterback. Wentz will be the starter next season, and Foles will likely be playing in another uniform, but the Eagles and Pederson must dig into that dichotomy.

» MARCUS HAYES: The Eagles lost, yes, but they had no business being there in the first place

I picked the Eagles to go 11-5 before the season. I thought they’d struggle early on with Wentz missing time and still recovering from knee surgery, and coming off the short offseason. I thought they’d gain steam down the stretch and make a run back to the Super Bowl and possibly win. They almost followed that formula, but not how I had expected. But there’s a reason no team has repeated in 14 years.

The Eagles have a lot of talented players returning. But there will be some significant turnover. They still have the two most important pieces — Pederson and Wentz — but Roseman and his staff must restock the cupboard and hit more in the draft with Wentz likely to get a significant contract extension this offseason. The 2019 season begins now.

2. Doug Pederson is a good coach. I was tough on him at various stages of the season. I didn’t love all the decisions he made during training camp. I thought he lacked aggressiveness for stretches of the season. He didn’t seem to know how to handle being the hunted.

But Pederson held the team together when all seemed lost — several times. I thought the Eagles might turtle up after the November loss to the Saints. But they won their next two. I thought they might start looking to the offseason after the second Cowboys defeat and after Wentz got injured. But they won at the Rams, somehow; beat the Texans and Redskins; and snuck into the playoffs. They eked past the Bears and battled toe to toe with a Saints team that had beaten them by 41 points just two months earlier.

Players like playing for Pederson, the importance of which can’t be understated. They played with great effort. I never saw quit. They played through injury. I can’t imagine how many bumps and bruises were hidden from the public. And they played till the final whistle. And that’s a credit to Pederson.

» MIKE SIELSKI: Despite the loss, give them credit: This team gave everything.

3. Alshon Jeffery has nothing to be ashamed of. It was a bad drop; there’s no question about that. When Jeffery let a Foles pass slip through his hands and to Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore, he fell to the turf and lay face-down for several seconds before his teammates scooped him up and comforted him.

Of all the Eagles receivers, he probably would have been the last one I would have guessed to make a mistake in a crucial moment. Jeffery is a clutch receiver, and his performance over the last five games was a major reason the Eagles even made the playoffs. They don’t win a title last season without Jeffery, who played all season with a torn rotator cuff. He was apparently playing with broken ribs Sunday, per tackle Lane Johnson.

To pin the loss on Jeffery would be foolish. All he did wrong was pick a bad time to be human.

4. Nick Foles is a starting NFL quarterback. He just won’t be one for the Eagles. I can think of more than a dozen teams that would be better off having Foles. There won’t be that many opportunities for him this offseason, though, if he does hit free agency. But I believe he’ll be starting somewhere.

Foles needs the right situation to thrive. He had the benefit of playing behind a good offensive line, with above-average skill-position players and for an offensive-minded head coach. But he has plenty of gas left in the tank and could help several teams.

I wrote about Foles for my column off the game. He was excellent in the Eagles’ first two series. He typically stays hot when he starts fast. But he got loose with several throws and missed open receivers. Still, he had the ball in his hands at the Saints' 27 with two-plus minutes left. I was betting on Foles at that point. He’d come through so many times before.

But he was on the receiving end of an unfortunate bounce and his second tenure with the Eagles came to a crashing end. Foles’ legacy in Philadelphia is secure. He now has a chance to start another in some other city.

5. Jim Schwartz is a good defensive coordinator. Schwartz has somehow become a target for fan ire. I can understand the criticism after the Titans, Panthers and first Saints games. And maybe you could single out a few individual calls Sunday. But I felt, overall, that Schwartz called a solid game.

His defense held Drew Brees and one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses to 20 points at home. He was without his best player (Fletcher Cox) for extended stretches, lost seven other players (Rasul Douglas, Chris Long, Brandon Graham, Michael Bennett, Nigel Bradham, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Avonte Maddox) for periods, and still had the Eagles within striking distance. He didn’t blitz much (the right decision vs. Brees). He went more zone than man-to-man (also the right decision considering his personnel in the secondary). And he used a fair amount of his dime package to offset the Saints’ advantage in speed.

I need to look more closely at the third-and-16 play the Saints converted in the third quarter. The Eagles played soft, understandably, but they weren’t in Schwartz’s sticks zone. Maddox and Bradham had underneath on the right, but Saints receiver Michael Thomas somehow caught a pass between them and ran for additional yards to pick up the first down.

Long third and fourth downs were a problem for the Eagles defense this season. Too many were converted. I don’t know if it was more scheme or execution, but it’s fair to question Schwartz’s calls there. However, I think that he had a good season, especially when you factor in all the injuries.

» DAVID MURPHY: The Eagles needed to be perfect, and they weren’t

6. Injuries happen, but the Eagles had far too many. It might have just been bad luck or circumstance, but the Eagles lost significantly more games to injury and placed more players on injured reserve than ever before. The IR list is long: Mack Hollins, Rodney McLeod, Jay Ajayi, Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills, Corey Clement and a few others lower on the list of importance.

Mike Wallace and Richard Rodgers missed most of the season. Darren Sproles, Sidney Jones, Tim Jernigan, Isaac Seumalo, Jordan Hicks, Maddox, and of course, Wentz, missed at least three games. There was a spate of injuries Sunday, the most devastating being the torn Achilles tendon guard Brandon Brooks suffered.

I wrote twice about the injuries and the need for answers in relation to the Eagles' medical staff. They didn’t bring back their head trainer and their top two doctors despite last season’s Super Bowl, and there were far too many abnormalities for the new staff and the hiring not to be questioned. Roseman, who is responsible for the medical staff, will face those queries the next time he’s available.

I’m sure the Eagles are trying to dig deep into why they suffered more injuries than most teams. I’m sure fans want to hear an explanation.

» READ MORE: Brandon Brooks tears Achilles, Jason Kelce discusses retirement

7. The Eagles need a dynamic, multi-threat running back. Ajayi’s season-ending knee injury hurt, but he was unlikely to be back next season. The Eagles should bring Wendell Smallwood, Josh Adams and Clement back. I think Sproles’ days in Philly might be over, even if decides to not retire. But they need a lead back in the mode of an Alvin Kamara or a Christian McCaffrey.

Finding one is easier said than done. But Roseman might need to expend an early-round pick on that kind of prospect. The Eagles haven’t drafted a running back earlier than the fourth round since 2009, when they took LeSean McCoy in the second round. The Eagles took a swing on Donnel Pumphrey in the fourth round of the 2017 draft, a historically great year for quality running backs, but whiffed. The Eagles, overall, need to get younger and faster. They can address both at running back.

8. Jason Peters might have played his last game for the Eagles. You can never count the big guy out. There have been other seasons when it looked as if he might not be back. But Peters’ season fittingly ended as too many of his games did this season: with him on the sideline watching his replacement, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, at left tackle.

Peters will turn 37 this month. He had a solid season when he did play — and he took at least one snap in all 18 games — but I don’t know how reliable he can be after 15 NFL seasons. He was coming off the ACL injury, so that might have had something to do with some of his other leg injuries, but he’s not the same player he was five years ago, let alone two.

The Eagles don’t have an obvious replacement. Johnson could slide over from right tackle. Big V is probably best suited as the swing guy off the bench. Jordan Mailata has potential, but throwing him out there might be too great a gamble. The Eagles are likely to draft an offensive lineman early. Maybe bringing Peters back for one last go-around makes sense.

9. The Eagles will look vastly different next season. Graham, Hicks, Ajayi, Darby, Sproles, and Wallace are just some of the notable unrestricted free agents. The Eagles must also make contract decisions on Foles, Peters, Bennett, and Long, among others. But they will have salary-cap space and 10 draft picks to restock. I’ll have a later story this week on whom I think the Eagles should keep or let go, but the next three months should be active.

10. And a few leftovers: Tight end Dallas Goedert played only 36 percent of the snaps. He played about as much against the Bears. When the Eagles won their last three of the regular season, he was on the field for more than 60 percent in each game. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The Eagles must find a way to utilize both Zach Ertz and Goedert next season. … Adams didn’t play a single snap. He played only one snap in Chicago. His production decline late in the season and his fumble in the Texans game were probably reasons for the slight. … Cre’Von LeBlanc played a good game, even aside from his early interception. Could he be an option in the slot next season?