When a team collapses the way the Eagles did this year, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for rosy, cheery, positive stories wrapping up the season.
The Top 10 Moments in Matt Patricia’s Eagles Coaching History wasn’t going to work, so we went the opposite direction.
Welcome to 10 Stats that illustrate what an absolute disaster the Matt Patricia Era was. We could have come up with 50.
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1. Remember Patricia’s very first game as defensive play caller? Everything was going fine for about 58 minutes. The Eagles led the Seahawks 17-13 in Seattle when Braden Mann dropped a punt at the Seahawks’ 8-yard-line after the two-minute warning. The Eagles were 1:52 from improving to 11-3 when Drew Lock drove the Seahawks 92 yards in 1:24, converting two 3rd-and-10s along the way with completions of 29 and 34 yards. It was the longest game-winning drive in the final two minutes against the Eagles in 16 years, since Brian Griese drove the Bears 97 yards in 1:43 and gave the Bears a 19-16 win over the Eagles at the Linc in 2007 with a 15-yard TD pass to Muhsin Muhammad with nine seconds left. Little did we know holding the Seahawks to 20 points would wind up as the highlight of Patricia’s tenure as Eagles defensive coordinator.
2. A week later the Eagles recorded their only win under Patricia, beating undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito and the Giants 33-25 despite allowing 22 points after halftime and nearly blowing a 17-point halftime lead. That’s the 2nd-most points the Giants have scored in a second half against the Eagles in the last 50 years. It was also only the sixth game in franchise history that the Eagles have had a lead of at least 17 points at halftime and then allowed 22 or more points in a second half.
3. If 22 points seemed like a lot to allow in a second half, the Eagles outdid themselves a week later, allowing 29 to the three-win Cards. After leading 21-6 at halftime – at home - they lost 35-31. How bad a collapse was that? It was only the fifth time in Eagles history they blew a 15-point halftime lead and the first time it happened when the Eagles had a winning record and the team they lost to had a losing record. The Cards’ 29 second-half points are the 2nd-most the Eagles have allowed after halftime at home since 1969. Arizona became only the 13th team with a losing record in the last 50 years to score at least 29 points in a second half against a team with a winning record.
4. The 51 points the Eagles allowed in the second halves of the Giants and Cards games are the most they’ve allowed in a two-game span since 1966, when they allowed 52 - 24 in a 41-10 loss to the Cards at Franklin Field and 28 in a 56-10 loss to the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl. It’s the most they’ve allowed in a two-game span in the second half at home in 82 years – since games against the Bears and Steelers at Shibe Park in 1941. It was also only the second time since 1969 the Eagles have had back-to-back games allowing at least 22 or more 2nd-half points.
Philadelphia Eagles
5. At least in the regular-season finale against the Giants, the Eagles didn’t have a 2nd-half breakdown. No, the breakdown at MetLife occurred in the first half, when the Giants took a 24-0 lead on their way to a 27-10 win. The 24-point halftime deficit was the Eagles’ largest in nine years, since they trailed the Packers by 24 (30-6) at halftime in a game at Lambeau that the Packers won 53-20 and it matched their largest halftime deficit since they trailed the Giants by 28 points (35-7) on the final day of the 2012 season – Andy Reid’s last game as Eagles head coach. Last time the Eagles fell behind by 24 points at halftime when they had a winning record was late in the 1960 season, when they trailed the Steelers 27-0 at halftime at Forbes Field on the way to a 27-21 loss. That was their last loss before they won the NFL Championship.
6. By allowing 22 points in the second half vs. the Giants, 29 in the second half vs. the Cards and 24 in the first half vs. the Giants, the Eagles played three consecutive games in which they allowed at least 22 points in a half for the first time in franchise history. Which is a 91-year history. Had never happened before.
7. The Eagles allowed 22 second-half points more in five games under Matt Patricia (twice) than in 177 games under Jim Johnson (never). The only time the Eagles allowed 22 points after halftime in Johnson’s 10 years as defensive coordinator was on Nov. 23, 2008, when the Ravens scored 26 points in the second half of that 36-7 win at M&T Bank Stadium – the game Donovan McNabb was benched for Kevin Kolb. But seven of those points came courtesy of Ed Reed’s 107-yard pick-6 off Kolb. So Johnson’s defense actually never allowed 22 points after halftime in 10 years. Patricia did it twice in seven days.
8. In the wild-card loss to the Bucs, the Eagles allowed 32 points and 452 yards to an offense that averaged 19.6 points and 313 yards during the regular season. It was only the second postseason game in Eagles history in which they allowed at least 16 points in each half. In the 1995 conference semifinal loss to the Cowboys at Texas Stadium, they lost 34-10, allowing 17 points in each half. Baker Mayfield became the second QB ever to throw for at least 330 yards and three TDs with no INTs against the Eagles in the postseason, joining Tom Brady, who did it in the Patriots’ loss in Super Bowl LII.
9. The Eagles allowed an average of 27.8 points per game under Patricia, their highest figure ever under any defensive coordinator. The previous high was 25.3 under Bill Davis, Chip Kelly’s defensive coordinator from 2013 through 2015.
10. Eagles edge rushers did not have a sack in the four regular-season games with Patricia as defensive coordinator. It was the first time since 2005 Eagles edge rushers went four straight games without a sack. During that four-game stretch, the Eagles ranked 31st in points allowed, 26th in sacks, 30th in rushing yards allowed, 22nd in passing TDs allowed, 27th in takeaways, 28thin first downs allowed and 27th in 3rd-down defense. They allowed seven touchdown drives of at least 70 yards, 4th-most in the league.
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