Eagles Playoff Chances ‘Drop’ After Loss to Giants
The Philadelphia Eagles playoff chances took a slight hit after Sunday's sloppy loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.
According to the ESPN Football Power Index, the team would have had a 56% chance of making the postseason, if they had taken care of business against the Giants on Sunday. That number sits at just 26% now with just five games left in the season.
They still sit just a half game behind the No. 7 seed in the NFL Wild Card race, Minnesota, and are now 2.5 games behind Dallas for the NFC east crown.
If the eagles could have closed the deal against the Giants, they would be sitting in the No. 7 spot in the NFC playoff race at 6-6 and would have been just 1.5 games behind the Cowboys for the divisional crown.
We might look back to Jalen Reagor's back-to-back drops on the games final drive, with the game on the line as the moment that shifted the season, but Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni doesn't see it that way.
"It never comes down to one play," explained Sirianni. "We turned it over four times. There's a lot of other things at play there. I know he's going to want that one back, we're going to need him as we continue on this stretch."
It's difficult to defend Reagor, who did make a nice catch earlier in the game, a highlight reel 21-yard grab down on the 2-yard line.
However, it was his two big-moment drops, including the ball bouncing off his helmet and then dropping the final pass of the game, that is making his selection as No. 21 pick even more of a head-scratcher.
So far in his sophomore season, Reagor has struggled, catching just 25 passes for 201 yards and two scores in 12 games. He actually had a better rookie year, catching 31 passes for 396 yards in just 11 games.
Regardless of his struggles his teammates are still supporting him.
"It's not on Jalen Reagor," said Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. Its not on anybody else late in the game. Put it on me."
Hurts is is right, he did have his struggles, throwing two costly red zone picks. Overall he completed 14-of-31 passes for 129 yards and three interceptions.
For what its worth, Reagor did step up and faced the music after the game.
"You got to take the heat," Reagor admitted. "You have bad days, you have good days, you just got to move forward. Tomorrow I still have to be here, I have to go practice, you can't dwell on it. Just me taking ownership and moving forward."
Reagor of course is known as the guy who was taken one spot ahead of Minnesota stud wide out Justin Jefferson, who already has 67 catches this season for 1,027 yards and six scores after a monster rookie season where he had 88 grabs for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns.
Forget Jefferson, who looks like he was the obvious choice, the Eagles also took Reagor ahead of guys like Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman Jr., Chase Claypool and Brandon Aiyuk, all of which would look good in Eagles green.
Plays like Sunday sure won't help fans forget about that.