It’s Another ‘Wait Another Year’ for Eagles

By Zach Gershman, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

The Green Bay Packers had enough of the losing and decided to come down to South Philly and lay a hurting on the Birds.

The Packers entered the game with a four game losing streak and the Philadelphia Eagles headed into the game on Monday night with a loss to the Seahawks looming over their heads. The loss to Green Bay has slimmed the Eagles playoff chances a major amount, as they have a record of 5-6 and are in last place in the NFC East.

Ahead of the Monday night game, where the Eagles inducted Jeremiah Trotter and Merrill Reese into the team’s Hall of Fame, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson had a lot more on his plate than anticipated. He had to deactivate Nelson Agholor and bring up Paul Turner from the practice squad. With the Eagles at 5-5, there was also the reminder that the team still had a chance to make noise in the playoff race, especially if they could take a key Monday night win.

Rookie Carson Wentz had a historic start to his career, but has slowed down recently. In his last two games, he’s 47-for-81 for 472 yards passing, but in those games the team has combined for a total of 28 points compared to their opponents at 53 points.

With Jordan Matthews’ early exit, Wentz’s top three receivers were Dorial Green-Beckham, Bryce Treggs and Turner. That is not enough options for a rookie quarterback with a banged-up offensive line. Treggs and Turner combined for a total of one catch. Yes, you read that correctly, one total catch out of two receivers who fans begged to be a part of the main roster.

Regardless, Green-Beckham led all receivers with six catches for 82 yards. Wentz finished 23-of-35 for 240 yards with one interception, 33 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown. Rookie Wendell Smallwood was the Eagles' leading rusher with 37 yards. These are solid performances by the numbers, but clearly not enough to get the job done with limited weapons.

The team has said they are not in rebuild mode but signs show they might just be. They have a losing record with five games left to play and three of the next five being against NFC East opponents. The fans are distraught by the team’s recent performances and most believe that the birds that run the Linc will not be playing beyond the New Year's Day finale.

After a promising start, Philadelphia will need to wait another year to get a solid postseason run.

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