Mistakes and self-inflicted wounds.
That's been a theme for the Eagles both on the field and in their responses answering questions after brutal losses this season.
It's pretty clear most players and coaches think they have the talent to be a good team. In fact, they've brought back much of the roster that won the Super Bowl last season. So what's going wrong?
Doug Pederson has brought up "self-inflicted wounds" and mistakes about a dozen times since the loss to the Vikings went final. That includes penalties, missed chances and poor execution.
The Eagles have identified that "mistakes" are a huge problem. I guess that's a good thing, that they've identified a problem. But identifying a problem doesn't make it go away.
Could it be that players are trying so hard to not make mistakes that they're losing focus?
Pederson thinks so.
NFL
"I think that's part of it. I think guys are so intently trying not to mess up. And that's probably the wrong mentality. You should just be loose and go out there and play. But when we struggle starting games as fast as we have in the past or whatever it might be, guys probably put a little extra pressure on themselves to perform. And we can't do that either. That's not healthy either."
That's not healthy and it's a hard problem to fix. Because with every loss, the margin for error gets a little smaller. There's simply more pressure mounting with each passing loss. And now, the Eagles are on the road against a division opponent in the New York Giants, before coming home to face the Panthers and then heading to London to face the Jaguars. Things aren't getting any easier.
It certainly seems like these mistakes and "self-inflicted wounds" are compounding.
Malcolm Jenkins actually said losing because of these mistakes is actually more frustrating than if they were losing to teams that were simply more talented than them.
"If it were an issue of talent, we can live with that. But when you're losing games because you're committing penalties, or you're missing assignments, or you're throwing the ball away, [or] not taking the ball away, that's frustrating to each of us. We'll continue to trust in the process. If anything, we'll dive harder into the smaller details [and] put pressure on everybody to individually just get a little bit better and continue to compete."
The Eagles are committing too many penalties. No question about it. They're a lot closer to what they were in 2016 than what they were last season. Even Carson Wentz on Sunday night lamented the fact that the Eagles are a veteran team making rookie mistakes. Pederson agreed with him.
Another problem is that the Eagles just aren't good enough right now to overcome these self-inflicted wounds. The defense has given up too many big plays and the offense can't put more than 23 points on the board. Those inefficiencies are just magnifying all of these mistakes.
We've heard it over and over again from the Eagles. These are correctable mistakes. But that's not giving anyone solace when they aren't being corrected.