When a team collapses like the Eagles did this year, there aren't many opportunities for rosy, happy, positive stories to end the season.
The top 10 moments in Matt Patricia's Eagles coaching history wouldn't work, so we went in the opposite direction.
Welcome to 10 stats that illustrate what an absolute disaster the Matt Patricia era was. We could have gotten to 50.
1. Do you remember Patricia's very first game as a defensive player? Everything went well for about 58 minutes. The Eagles were leading the Seahawks 17-13 in Seattle when Braden Mann punted at the Seahawks' 8-yard line after the two-minute warning. The Eagles were 1:52 away from improving to 11-3 when Drew Lock drove the Seahawks 92 yards in 1:24, converting two third-and-10 yards with completions of 29 and 34 yards. It was the longest game-winning drive in the final two minutes against the Eagles in 16 years since Brian Griese drove the Bears 97 yards in 1:43 to give the Bears a 19-16 victory over the Eagles at Linc in 2007 with nine seconds left a 15-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad. Little did we know that getting the Seahawks to 20 points would be the highlight of Patricia's tenure as the Eagles' defensive coordinator.
2. A week later, the Eagles recorded their only win under Patricia, defeating undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito and the Giants 33-25, despite allowing 22 points after halftime and nearly blowing a 17-point halftime lead. That's the second-most points the Giants have scored in a second half against the Eagles in the last 50 years. It was also only the sixth game in franchise history in which the Eagles had a lead of at least 17 points at halftime and then allowed 22 or more points in the second half.
3. While 22 points seemed like a lot in the second half, the Eagles outdid themselves a week later, allowing 29 on the three-win cards. After leading 21-6 at halftime at home, they lost 35-31. How bad of a breakdown was that? It was only the fifth time in the Eagles' history that they had blown a 15-point halftime lead, and the first time it had happened when the Eagles had a winning record and the team they lost to had a losing record had. The Cards' 29 points in the second half are the second most points the Eagles have allowed at home after halftime since 1969. Arizona became just the 13th team with a losing record in the last 50 years to score at least 29 points in the second half against a team with a winning record.
4. The 51 points the Eagles allowed in the second half of the Giants and Cards games are the most they have allowed in two games since 1966, when they scored 52 in a 41-10 loss to the Cards at Franklin Field :24 allowed and 28 in a 56-10 loss to the Cowboys in the Cotton Bowl. That's the most they've allowed in the second half at home in two games in 82 years – since games against the Bears and Steelers at Shibe Park in 1941. It was also only the second time since 1969 that the Eagles came back -consecutive games that allowed at least 22 or more points in the second half.
5. At least in the regular season finale against the Giants, the Eagles didn't have a second-half mishap. No, the collapse at MetLife occurred in the first half when the Giants took a 24-0 lead en route to a 27-10 win. The 24-point halftime deficit was the Eagles' largest in nine years, as they trailed the Packers by 24 (30-6) at halftime in a game at Lambeau that the Packers won 53-20, their largest halftime deficit in history On the final day of the 2012 season – Andy Reid's last game as head coach of the Eagles – they were 28 points (35-7) behind the Giants. The last time the Eagles fell behind by 24 points at halftime with a winning record was late in the 1960 season, when they trailed the Steelers 27-0 at halftime and suffered a 27-21 loss at Forbes Field. That was their last loss before winning the NFL Championship.
6. By allowing 22 points in the second half against the Giants, 29 in the second half against the Cards and 24 in the first half against the Giants, the Eagles went three consecutive games in which they allowed at least 22 points in a half for the first times in franchise history. This is a 91-year story. Never happened before.
7. The Eagles allowed 22 more second-half points in five games under Matt Patricia (twice) than in 177 games under Jim Johnson (never). The only time the Eagles allowed 22 points after halftime in Johnson's 10 years as defensive coordinator was on November 23, 2008, when the Ravens scored in the second half of that 36-7 win at M&T Bank Stadium – the game against Donovan McNabb – He came on as a substitute for Kevin Kolb, who scored 26 points. But seven of those points were thanks to Ed Reed's 107-yard pick-6 to Kolb. So Johnson's defense actually never allowed 22 points after halftime in 10 years. Patricia did it twice in seven days.
8th. In the wild-card loss to the Bucs, the Eagles allowed 32 points and 452 yards while the offense averaged 19.6 points and 313 yards in the regular season. It was only the second postseason game in Eagles history in which they allowed at least 16 points in each half. In the 1995 conference semifinal loss to the Cowboys at Texas Stadium, they lost 34-10, allowing 17 points in each half. Baker Mayfield became the second QB ever to throw for at least 330 yards and three touchdowns without INTs in the postseason against the Eagles, joining Tom Brady, who did so in the Patriots' loss in Super Bowl LII.
9. The Eagles allowed an average of 27.8 points per game under Patricia, the highest ever under a defensive coordinator. The previous high was 25.3 under Bill Davis, Chip Kelly's defensive coordinator from 2013 to 2015.
10. The Eagles' edge rushers didn't have a sack in four regular-season games with Patricia as defensive coordinator. It was the first time since 2005 that the Eagles' edge rushers went four straight games without a sack. During that four-game stretch, the Eagles ranked 31st in points allowed, 26th in sacks, 30th in rushing yards allowed, 22nd in passing TDs allowed, 27th in Takeaways, 28th in first downs allowed and 27th in 3rd down defense. They allowed seven touchdown drives of at least 70 yards, the fourth most in the league.
Subscribe to Eagle Eye wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | stapler | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube
Comments are closed.