They revealed themselves for all to see as Phrauds, the Philadelphia Phrauds.
The Eagles, wild-card losers to the Bucs, could not stop the avalanche of dysfunction and disarray that sabotaged their Super Bowl dreams, and all bets are off on whether Nick Sirianni will survive this.
Sirianni has reached the playoffs in each of his three seasons, but owner Jeffrey Lurie has every right to ask the hard questions as to whether there is a collective vision shared by his emotional head coach going forward with the winds of change howling and heads likely to roll.
If Lurie identifies a better option, and they won’t be hard to find, no one should begrudge him for taking it. Not after this.
So much can change in the NFL from one season to the next, and after what we just witnessed in these playoffs from the Mike McCarthy Cowboys and the Sirianni Eagles, the gargantuan gap that the 2023 Giants failed to close on their division rivals suddenly doesn’t look as hopelessly gargantuan.
Much work to do by Brian Daboll to be sure, starting with filling the Wink Martindale defensive coordinator vacancy and resolving the future of his quarterback position and Saquon Barkley, but the 2023 Eagles were no longer feared in the art of trench warfare on both sides of the ball.
They will never forget the Phold of 1964, when the Gene Mauch Phillies choked away a 6 ¹/₂-game lead with 12 to play and lost the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals.
It stands as the most colossal collapse in Philadelphia sports history.
But these 2023 Eagles will not be remembered fondly in and around The City of Brotherly Unloved. Nor should they.
Because they Pholded down the stretch too:
An offense that had lost its identity.
A defense that too often looked soft.
Sirianni, among other things, was on the griddle for the panic move of taking the play-calling away from DC Sean Desai and handing it to Matt Patricia with nothing to show for a defense that could not stop the run or rush the passer the way it did a year ago.
He lost both offensive (Shane Steichen, Colts) and defensive coordinators (Jonathan Gannon, Cardinals) to head coaching jobs and suffered for it.
He needed a compromised Jalen Hurts to save the season … and perhaps his job.
Except Hurts was being asked to ignore the pain of a dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand and the absence of No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown (knee) and the loss of Julio Jones (concussion) in the second quarter.
He was being asked to find a way to recapture his 2022 magic in the face of a merciless Todd Bowles blitz and somehow will his staggering team to Detroit to face the Lions on Sunday in the divisional round. The Bucs stop there instead.
Hurts was being asked to overcome a reborn swaggerlicious Baker Mayfield scoffing at tender ribs and a tender ankle.
He was being asked to overcome a game plan that should not have neglected the run.
It was 16-3 for the Bucs late in the second quarter when Hurts delivered a 55-yard bomb to DeVonta Smith that set up his 5-yard TD pass to Dallas Goedert that made it 16-9. But not 16-11 because — surprise! — the Bucs stuffed the Eagles’ vaunted Tush Push.
It was late in the third quarter when Hurts held the ball too long in the end zone and surrendered an intentional-grounding safety that made it Bucs 18, Eagles 9.
Moments later it was Bucs 25, Eagles 9 when James Bradberry missed a tackle on Trey Palmer on what turned out to be a 56-yard Mayfield TD pass.
When Lurie fired Doug Pederson three seasons after winning Super Bowl LII, he said:
“My first allegiance is, ‘what will be best for the Philadelphia Eagles and our fans for the next three, four, five years?’ It’s not based on ‘does someone deserve to hold their job or deserve to get fired?’ That’s a different bar.
“It’s not about, ‘Did Doug deserve to be let go?’ No, he did not deserve to be let go. That’s not where I’m coming from, and that’s not the bar in the evaluation process.”
Sirianni will be the one most interested to know what the bar will be now.
These were the defending NFC champions, led by a quarterback who went eyeball-to-eyeball with Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LVII in a stirring 38-35 loss to the Chiefs.
This was the team that had started the Super Bowl hangover season 10-1 … and finished as the first team to start 10-1 and finish with 11 or fewer wins since the 1986 Jets.
This was the team that had blown a 21-6 halftime lead at the Linc to the woeful Cardinals, and rolled over to the woeful Giants and handed the NFC East title to the Cowboys.
Hurts so bad.
There have been other Philly Phlops — the 1981 Sixers losing the last three games of the Eastern Conference finals to the Larry Bird Celtics, the 1968 defending champion Wilt Chamberlain Sixers blowing a 3-1 lead to the Celtics in the Eastern Division finals. And even the 2023 Phillies losing Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park to the D’Backs.
Misery loves company.
Bye Bye Birdies.