The 2016 Philadelphia Eagles started their NFL season with three promising wins:
Win vs. Cleveland Browns
Win vs. Chicago Bears
Win vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
What soon followed was, back to back losses to two teams that quite frankly the Philadelphia Eagles had no business losing to.
Loss vs. Detroit Lions
Loss vs. Washington Redskins
The last two games were what Eagles fans kind of expected to begin the season. What was, expected from the Eagles were early struggles out of the gate. A 3-2 start wasn’t expected especially a blowout win against the Steelers in Week 3, 34-3.
Fast-forward two weeks later and the team that was expected to struggle out of the gate actually struggled as the season progressed. Firstly, allowing self-inflicting penalties in back to back games isn’t going to win you games in the NFL.
Against the Detroit Lions:
14 Penalties, Totaling 111 yards
Against the Washington Redskins:
13 Penalties, Totaling 114 yards
Giving up yards of that caliber will not win you games. Ironically enough the Eagles lost both games by a Total of 8 points so in spite of the mistakes and penalties made by the Eagles they kept it close in both games albeit in sloppy fashion.
A fumble and a late interception in the 4th quarter of the game V.s. Detroit Lions changed the outcome of the game and could have allowed a possible come from behind win for the Eagles.
Starting a Rookie at the Right Tackle (RT) position after your starting RT is suspended for PED drug use and seeing your rookie struggle from the beginning is also a way to lose the game.
Staying on the subject of starting a rookie at RT; Doug Pederson has kept to his method of preaching patience by stating that rookie RT Halapoulivaati Vaitai will remain the starting RT going into this week’s game versus the Minnesota Vikings.
By stating this Doug is trusting in the rookie’s development as the weeks go on and as a player it is an encouraging sign that your Head Coach sees as a player that they can flourish, he sees that as a player they have the skills to succeed and after a bad first performance you can only go up from that point. It looks bad and desperate on behalf of the Head Coach if he just gives up on his rookie Right Tackle after one game; you can lose the trust and confidence in your players by doing that.
Doug Pederson’s method on patience might be frowned upon after losing the last two games to sub-par teams but it is a method that could pay off dividends in the long run for the Philadelphia Eagles. Halapoulivaati Vaitai with more playing time could develop into a potentially solid starter or a strong backup for the Eagles in the short term and in the long term.
Developing the youth now is a smart move and one that screams “Patience” by Doug Pederson and the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles must see what they have now so they know what to address in the future to help build a contender.
Look as a die-hard Eagles fan I rather them not lose these games especially after starting 3-0 but facing bumps along the road was meant to happen sooner or later. I have the utmost confidence that Doug Pederson and the Philadelphia Eagles will right the ship that is there 2016 season.