Early in my career I read somewhere that you are supposed to give criticism in the form of a sandwich and this is the method I used to conduct performance reviews for many years. You say something nice and positive first (that's your first piece of bread), then you get into the "meat" of your criticism, and you finish up again on a positive note (last piece of bread).

I am going to do the opposite with the Philadelphia Eagles. I spent most of my day yesterday spewing venom at them. Well mostly their fans, but also the franchise for glorifying and celebrating their fans behaviour. The Eagles are actually only my 4th most hated NFL team. Imagine how I feel about the other 3.

Anyways, since I spent yesterday throwing well deserved stones at them and they have at least one more game this season where I can joyfully spend hours slagging them (Go Commies), I will take this opportunity to give the "meat" of my praise to them.

Let's rewind to the 2022 season. The Eagles were flying high. They finished 14-3 and made it all the way to the Super Bowl (wouldn't have if Purdy didn't get hurt on the first drive of the NFC Championship game but he did). Hurts was at the top of his game, playing behind a great OLine as a dual threat runner and passer. The defensive line was the among the best in the league. They ended up losing the Super Bowl to the Chiefs by 3 points (no shame in that- I know another team that did that recently). A great season overall, the future was bright, they had their "star" QB.

Fast forward to the 2023 season. The Eagles look like they are still the class of the NFC starting 9-1 (even though the foundation was cracking- they were winning but not playing well at all). Then in early December the 49ers rolled into Philadelphia and utterly embarrassed and dominated the Eagles 42-19. After the game 49ers DE Nick Bosa said "we gave the league the play book, hopefully they use it" and boy did they ever. The 49ers revealed every weakness of the Eagles- their QB was mobile but was not a good pocket passer, they didn't have a dynamic run game if you shut down their QBs running ability, you could frustrate the heck out of their prima donna WRs by being extremely physical with them, the Eagles pass rush was stout but not as good as the previous year and their secondary was like swiss cheese, their coaching and play calling was mediocre and pedestrian. The league saw all this on full display and took the ball and ran with it. The Eagles of 2023 were never the same after that game. They lost 5 out of 6 of their remaining games, limped into the playoffs as the 5 seed and got destroyed by a mediocre Buccaneers team in the Wild Card Round. The Eagles were broken and the future was no longer bright.

So what did the Eagles do? They fixed their problems. Their Head Coach needed help so they brought in a young play caller Kellen Moore to be OC and a veteran play caller Vic Fangio to be DC. Their QB needed help, he wasn't a dual threat if they didn't have an outstanding RB to pair him with because teams could just contain him in the pocket, so they signed Saquon Barkley. Their defense was a mess so they signed two Linebackers and a defensive back. They also drafted heavily on the defensive side of the ball, further remaking their secondary with 2 cornerbacks with their first two picks. The year prior they had a similar approach taking defensive players with the first 4/5 picks.

So, while I despise the Eagles, and immediately after this post I will move onto my next slice of hate bread, I do have to give them full credit for understanding what was broken with their team and moving swiftly to correct it.

Go Commies!

Sats for all, GR