WORST MOMENT : Philadelphia Eagles defense takes another major hit with loss of injury key player…….

The spiraling Philadelphia Eagles are no longer among the NFL’s elite

Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles have lost three straight games since starting the regular season with a 10-1 record.
Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles have lost three straight games since starting the regular season with a 10-1 record.

The defending NFC champions looked on course for a return trip to the Super Bowl after a 10-1 start. But a three-game slide has dropped them from the ranks of serious contenders

So much of the December NFL narrative is devoted to teams scrambling to qualify for the playoffs, but the end of the regular season is also a terrific chance for the diminishing handful of Super Bowl contenders to sharpen their tools, to separate themselves from the pack.

One of those contenders, the Philadelphia Eagles, had lost their previous two games but could have scored a get-right victory Monday in Seattle against the Seahawks. All they needed to do was prevent Seattle, down by four points, from driving 92 yards in less than two minutes.

Drew Lock of the Seattle Seahawks looks to pass during the second half of Monday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lumen Field.

Drew Lock’s late heroics rally Seahawks to 20-17 victory over reeling Eagles Read more
Eagles’ fans, who can find flaws in just about anything, probably would not have gotten too carried away had Philadelphia squeezed out a heart-thumping victory. After all, Seattle’s quarterback was the backup Drew Lock, starting only his second game in two seasons.

Besides, the Eagles’ beleaguered defense, run Monday for the first time by assistant Matt Patricia, the Bill Belichick protegee and former head coach of the Detroit Lions, did look a lot better (well, generally) than it had in lopsided losses to San Francisco and Dallas.

Well, guess what. Lock drove Seattle those 92 yards in 10 plays, and had 28 seconds to spare. He threw a 29-yard touchdown pass in the rain to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who’d squirted past the veteran Eagles cornerback James Bradberry, in one-on-one coverage.

The TD put Seattle ahead for good, 20-17. Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts threw an interception after taking the Eagles, who still had two timeouts, to within about 20 yards of what could have been a score-tying field-goal attempt. Hurts winced as he pulled off his helmet.

“I didn’t do my job good enough,” Hurts mumbled at a post-game news conference. But that was the nice thing to say, and Hurts was hardly alone in doing a poor job.

So the Seahawks (7-7) are still very much in playoff contention. Pete Carroll, their 72-year-old coach, can still tell people he has never lost to the Eagles as the coach of the Seahawks. The city of Philadelphia would have been in a rotten mood, anyway.

Upsets happen in the playoffs, but December serves as the time when the elite emerge, finding another gear. Philadelphia lost two of their last three regular-season games last year, and a fat victory over the 49ers in the NFC championship game, at least as far as San Francisco fans were concerned, carried an asterisk because quarterback Brock Purdy was injured.

This, though, was a killer loss for the Eagles, who gave Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs a memorable battle in the last Super Bowl – and had big plans to go back. The Eagles (10-4) should still win their last three games, but nothing is sure now.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba of the Seahawks catches a touchdown pass as James Bradberry of the Eagles defends in the last minute of Monday’s game at Lumen Field.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba of the Seahawks catches a touchdown pass as James Bradberry of the Eagles defends in the last minute of Monday’s game at Lumen Field.

The Eagles’ highly unpopular first-year offensive coordinator, Brian Johnson, will get buried on the sports-talk shows for another questionable game plan, which included an option play in which Hurts lateraled the ball to his tight end, Dallas Goedert, who gained one yard.

But it was the Eagles’ defense that caved in when Philadelphia needed the big plays, even though head coach Nick Sirianni had tried to address the problems with his defense by replacing Sean Desai, his first-year defensive coordinator, with Patricia on the sideline Monday.

“Listen, it was a tough decision to be able to do this,” Sirianni said after the game of the change in coaching responsibilities, “but, again, like I said, I did what was best for our football team. We’re always making adjustments, and that’s what I did.”

Much of the pregame chatter in Philadelphia during the week focused on how the Eagles, the grim losses to the 49ers (11-3) and Cowboys (10-4) notwithstanding, could still win the NFC East, and maybe a first-round bye, by sweeping their last four games.