Philadelphia Eagles fall flat in Thanksgiving Day loss to Detroit

“We’ve got to do a better job of getting to the quarterback”.

Tom Brady and the Patriots are on deck.

That’s how many Chip Kelly has coached the Philadelphia Eagles over a span of three seasons since coming to the NFL Straight Outta Eugene.

For years on the wrong end of Thanksgiving blowouts, the Lions (4-7) jumped on the Eagles from the outset Thursday, scoring touchdowns on two of their first three possessions and holding Philadelphia (4-7) without a first down the entire second quarter. Definitely not the kind you want to talk about it during the second helping of pumpkin pie. It also was their first Thanksgiving loss. Left tackle Jason Peters, plagued by injuries all season, left the game with an ankle injury as well. I’m not comparing myself to J.J.in any way. “We have to try to pull together as a team, as a unit, and try to get wins”. We don’t lose like this being an Eagle. “There are a lot of things that we need to get corrected and the road is getting no easier from here on”. If the others hadn’t gotten injured, the Eagles might be 0-11. Philadelphia is now only 1 1/5 games behind the Giants (5-5) and a-half game behind Washington (4-6).

“We got through the first quarter without him having a catch and I was sitting there going, ‘Man, we’ve got to get 81 the ball, ‘” Stafford said. He had 1,845 yards past year!

Sanchez started in place of Sam Bradford, who was inactive for the second consecutive game because of a concussion and separated left shoulder. Sanchez, incredibly, lost despite not throwing a pick.

Just one day before losing to the Lions, there was a report that an unnamed Eagles starter said that Chip Kelly “is losing the team” and his “bullshit methods aren’t working.” They had no answers for Calvin Johnson, who caught a touchdown pass whenever he was in the mood, and they made Matthew Stafford look like the greatest QB who ever lived. Josh Huff failed to bring a couple of returnable kickoffs out of the end zone.

Pass the air sickness bag, please.

In the locker room, not one player dared to state the obvious, for obvious reasons. “There are doubters and people that don’t trust their teammates, that don’t trust their coaches”. You win some, you lose some. “And right now we’re not doing it”.

NOTES: The Eagles lost cornerback Nolan Carroll for the rest of the season with a broken ankle suffered in the first half of Thursday’s loss. Two series’ later it was confirmed. But yes, (Thursday) was a very good example of three guys embracing their role and functioning in it very well.” In Thursdays win Abdullah had 100 all-purpose yards (68 rushing), while Bell had 82 (25 rushing) and Riddick had 68 (6 rushing).

For the season, Johnson has 67 catches for 911 yards and six touchdowns.

Johnson came into the game with eight receiving touchdowns on Thanksgiving, the most in league history.

Taking advantage of Johnson in one-on-one coverage, Stafford threw 4- and 3-yard TD passes to Johnson in the third quarter.

Eagles veteran corner Byron Maxwell struggled against the big guy on crossing patterns. It’s not that Mark Sanchez was bad against the Lions – that’s all relative, of course – but he’s been a turnover machine his entire career, and that’s the one thing Kelly’s offense can’t afford because it requires quarterbacks to think on the run.

Jason Jones has quietly had easily his best season as a Detroit Lion.

On the list of personal disappointments, Kelly had no problem prioritizing this setback. It would be a desperate or deluded team president who risked his own future on Kelly’s right now.

“Didn’t coach well today”.