An Eagles MUST-WIN GAME vs. the Vikings? 🧐 What a 3-game losing streak would mean | First Take

An Eagles MUST-WIN GAME vs. the Vikings? 🧐 What a 3-game losing streak would mean | First Take

The Philadelphia Eagles are looking to snap a two-game losing streak when they head to Minnesota on Sunday. Jaylen Herz and AJ Brown were asked about the current state of the Eagles struggling offense. There is urgency. Obviously, I have urgency. There’s a a eagerness to get pointed in a direction and just go out there and execute and play clean. Um, it truly takes a unit. It starts with me and it starts with the direction we get from KP and we all have to help each other. We’re not letting a loss just humble us here. Can’t let it humble. You got to keep going. You know, they continue to find ways. This team is fine. This team is uh is motivated and uh trying to get on the same pitch. Just lacking lack of execution at the wrong time. You know, you know, if it’s first down and you get lack of execution, may not be in the world, but when it happened on third down or, you know, or be it puts us behind the sticks, you know, that’s that’s hard to recover in this league. So, I just think just being on the same page, the communication, lack of execution. RC, we’ll come to you first. Is this week a must-win for the Eagles in order for you to believe in them as a real threat in the NFC? Yeah, it’s a mustwin, but it’s fluid. It’s fluid, right? Because obviously because obviously things could change things could change as you get more information. But to me, the thing that’s been tremendous about the Philadelphia Eagles during this Super Bowl and championship run of theirs is their ability to adjust, their ability to handle adversity and persevere, to make changes, and to find ways to move forward that makes them better than they were the week before or the weeks before. We haven’t seen that from them this year. This year started with an ineptitude on offense and we’ve seen it continue throughout the season and after week after week after week, it’s getting worse. star player after star player is not producing as you expected them to. And it’s amounted to two losses against the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants, especially teams you’re supposed to be better than. And we know you have a better roster there. And so if you don’t win this game against the Minnesota Vikings, who aren’t the team we expected them to be coming into this season, I have no belief in you that this group of individuals can write the ship like we saw them do under Kell Moore last year. What? Must win. They If they lose, they’d be four and three. They could lose and still clearly be in first place. It’s not a must-win. That’s That’s outrageous. They got to play better. They You want them to to look better on offense. You want this run game to have a little bit more of an impact than it did last year. And it should because Minnesota defensively has not been great defending the run. But if they lose, are are we sitting here saying, “Okay, Philadelphia is sitting at four and three. We don’t believe in them as much as we believe in like the Washington Commanders. We got to take We got to take the the Washington Commanders over them. You watch that defense play. We’re going to sit there and say we we like them over Green Bay because Green Bay’s offensive line hasn’t been great this year. We’re going to sit here and say we like them over San Francisco cuz they’re dealing with a ton of in this is not a must-win. They got to play better on offense. They got to get back to being able to control the line of scrimmage, be less predictable in their play calls, create the one-on- ones outside, and Jaylen and AJ, Jaylen, Devonte to connect. If they do that, this will start to trend in the right right direction. This is by no means a must-win. If they lose, it’s not great, but none of they’ve earned our they’ve if the Chiefs have earned the benefit of the doubt, so have the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, the Philadelphia Eagles have earned the benefit of the doubt. You’re right about that. But here’s where I would challenge you on it. I do believe I don’t believe it’s a must-win, but I believe that’s by default. I think as you look at the NFC East, obviously the way the Commanders have been struggling, the way the F Dallas Cowboys clearly have no defense whatsoever, and although we’re excited about Jackson Darden and Sam Scatteraboo and these boys, they did lose to New Orleans in one of the last three games. That’s the one loss. They won the other two games. But so we get that part. Here’s what I would say to you to sort of support RC’s point. However, it’s not about the record with the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s about what we’re witnessing from them and where they are going forward. In the past, they’ve had issues. You’ve had an offensive coordinator, somebody that was experienced striking, then he departs, and then you bring in somebody that wasn’t a part of things and things go ary or you or you I’m sorry, you elevated from within and things go ary. You bring in Kell Moore, all right, he does a hell of a job. Y’all win a Super Bowl championship, he departs and you promote it from within to somebody that never did this before. These are issues that they’re having. and they’re looking at the offensive coordinator, not just themselves, and they’re thinking that they can do a lot better. And, you know, because of their experience and their championship pedigree, that they should know what it takes to write the ship. If you will go out there and lose three games in a row, it’s going to tell us something about the Eagles that we may not have thought about because nobody expects them to lose three games in a row. That’s where I think RC is coming from. I know that’s where I’m coming from. Am I right, RC? No. Listen, absolutely. It’s not about the the the numerical probabilities of them hosting a playoff game or them winning the NFC East or looking at the rest of the NFC and saying, “Okay, they can beat Washington. They can compete with Tampa Bay.” I’m not talking about all those things. We understand that about the Eagles. But as the season goes along, things change. Nolan Smith being injured. Jaylen Carter, Quinnan Mitchell. This isn’t the defense that we watched play last year that dominated the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. And we’ve in the Super Bowl, we’ve had so much focus on what’s happening with Jaylen. We’re not or with this offense. We’re not looking at this team in its totality. They’re going to need to play better ball. In playing better ball, you have to go out and win games against teams like the the Minnesota Vikings. You lost at home to the Denver Broncos where you were blanked late in that football game after Saquon Barkley catches the rail route for a touchdown. You were absolutely dominated by Jackson Dart and the New York Giants. If you come back this week and lose to the Minnesota Vikings, yes, I have less faith faith in a Philadelphia Eagles team that loses three games in a row to three teams that I do not believe can win the Super Bowl than I do in the Kansas City Chiefs who I’m watching play and I’m seeing their quarterback play at a high level. I’m seeing their defense come along. I’m seeing them get under center with their quarterback and the run game start to evolve. Yes, the Kansas City Chiefs have earned more cache for me to believe that they can write the ship than the Philadelphia Eagles team who if they lose this week and they don’t play well and the film doesn’t say they’re getting better have not shown me that Kevin Patulo understands how to move them forward much like Brian Robinson didn’t years ago. I will give you 30 seconds. Figure it out. Three teams that are clearly better than them. Detroit, Tampa Bay, and Seattle. Okay, it doesn’t necessarily matter the win loss in Philly. I agree. They have to play better. That being said, we got to stop talking about teams and knowing they’re losing starters or missing really impactful players because of injury if they’re coming back. We’ve done this with the Bills this week. Eight starters are out Monday Night Football. They’re going to be a different team once they get healthy. Philadelphia has to in part defensively, to your point, RC, get healthy and play better. But it’s not like this is a a talent or a lacking talent roster. They’re still very talented, but they’re just not as good as those three other teams. Astute analysis, but that was 35 seconds instead of 30 seconds. It wasn’t 35. Don’t let that happen again. Don’t let that happen again. It’s time to go on. It’s time to move on. The rivalry game in the NFC East Sunday as the Commanders visit the Cowboys. Dak Prescott is six and0 in his career as a starter at home versus the Commanders who are coming off a tough loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday night. Prescott is on fire to start the season, ranking third in total QBR, second in passing touchdowns while completing 70 72% of his passes, good for fourth in the league. Jaden Daniels will be playing in his third game since missing two with a knee injury. He has yet to find his offensive rookie of the year form from last season, ranking in the bottom half of the league in most categories. Right here back on first take. Dan, let’s start with you. Who has the edge in this game? Dak Prescott or Jaden Daniels? Jaden Daniels. He’s going against the Cowboys defense. This Cowboys defense is a very poor unit. This Did you Did you just in insult uh the Commander defense? Did you just say look at look at how their defense is playing? Did you just say that? I did. They give up 13 yards per completion. The Commander defense, right? That’s outrageous in the NFL. Okay, I’m not sitting here telling you that’s a good unit either. I think that’s a unit that’s going to keep this team out of the the playoffs and being in a playoff contention football team. But who has the advantage in this game is Jaden Daniels. No, every quarterback that has played against Dallas defensively has had a fantastic game. So, this is so much more about who Jaden has to go against. Washington, while been bad, at least as moments when they’ve been good, Jaden Daniels has played very well this year. Even without Terry McCor, I thought he played very well the other night. He obviously has a good connection still with Zack Erge. Debo’s be very good. Their offensive line can run the football. He made one poor decision in the red zone to force the interception. But this is a very simple thing. Any quarterback going against the Cowboys defense has the advantage. You do know that news that CD Lamb is expected to return this Sunday, right? You knew that. So you’re saying this even though you know that CD Lamb’s coming back. This has everything to do with the Cowboys defense. Got it. RC. Yeah. I mean, whoever got to go first was going to say the same thing here. Like this is about the Dallas Cowboys on defense. You go to Bryce Young, you go to Caleb Williams. Hell, Caleb Williams, this is what got him started on the right track this season. And now they’ve won three games in a row. When you watch Jaden Daniels and you go back to the Chargers game, his connection with Debo Samuel, his will, his energy late in that game and still his ability even coming off of the knee injury to use his running skills to create first down, to create extra plays against a team that already has difficulty putting pressure on the passer and also can’t stop the running. So now, Bill Crosky Merritt is going to be able to get things going. And now the play action game um opens up. Now the zone read game opens up and also you look at this Washington offense like Luke McAffrey is coming along. Zack Z has making is making plays in the red zone and if not for the turnovers, two fumbles, one by Krosky Merrick, one by Jaden Daniels and obviously the red zone interception last week against the Chicago Bears isn’t close. I expect Jaden Daniels to have a day and rebound from what we saw Monday night. I’m wondering, do y’all take into consideration two things? Number one, he missed two games with a knee injury. We’re talking about Jayen Daniels here, right? So, as a result of that, he might not be looking to be as mobile as we’re accustomed to seeing him because obviously that’s something that that’ll put you in danger number one. And number two is McLuren. Noah Brown, are they expected to be back? Neither. I think they just put Noah Brown. I want to say they put Noah Brown on IR or something. McGoren. So, so what I’m saying to y’all is this. Y’all picking Jaden Daniels cuz he’s going up against the Dallas Cowboys defense, but he’s not 100% healthy even though he’s out on the field. And on top of it all, his two primary weapons at the receiver spot are going to be out and CD Lamb is returning. Y’all still y’all still sure that y’all want to stay with that pick right now with that selection? Are you still sure about that? Well, this is but this is why the question really is a flawed question. Hey, don’t give me that flaw. Don’t play the producers. Don’t play the producers. Okay. You You knew what the question was and you still came up with that answer. No, because own I’m not changing my answer at all. The question really is who’s got more pressure to ball out on Sunday because both these dudes are going to play good. So we did so we didn’t use your language. We didn’t say ball out. So those so because of that the question the level of substance that you what? Let me ask you a question. Yeah. RC’s right. Let let me ask you a question. All right, let’s pivot the question. Honest question here. Let’s pivot the question. Let’s pivot the question. Do either Does anybody out of the group of three think Dallas is a real playoff contending football team? No. Okay. Do you think Washington is? I think they can be. There you go. I think they can be, but again, I’m bringing up the fact that their two primary wide receivers are going to be out. Their quarterback is not 100%. And CD Lamb is returning. So, I’m comparing Jaden Daniels potential performance to that of Dak Prescott. If Dak Prescott is playing like a league MVP and balling out and has been doing so even with CD Lamb out, my god, considering the way George Pickkins has been looking, what if CD Lamb comes back and he’s ready to roll looking good and Pickkins is still rolling. Do do we recognize that the Cowboys could put up 40 again? Okay, if the Cowboys put up 40 and win, they’re 33 and one. I don’t really believe anybody’s going to sit here and say they’re a playoff contending football team. The question The question was not about them being a playoff contending team. The question was, who has the edge, Dak Prescott or Jaden Daniels for this one game? Go ahead, RC. Mr. Mr. Stephen A. Mr. Stephen A, what we’re doing here is having a fluid show and we’re evolving within the question because the thing we should be talking about is headed into this season, Jaden Daniels was one of these guys we had outside of the big four and Matthew Stafford. Jaden Daniels was supposed to be taking that next step and becoming a top tier quarterback along with bringing his team that went to the NFC Championship last year back to those same heights. As of now, it doesn’t feel like that with the Washington Commanders. Part of that is defense. Part of that is injuries. if he doesn’t come in and play extremely well, not just well, extremely well against this Cowboys offense, I mean defense, if they don’t figure out a way to get a win against a Cowboys team, then I agree with Dan. No matter if they win this game or not, no matter how they play, how well, how bad, we don’t see as a championship contender, we have to start speaking about Jaden Daniels and the Washington Commanders differently. I think that’s the big question about what we’ll get in this game. Dan Olowski and Ryan Clark got the producers to actually change the bar and change the question. They’ve edited the show over my authority. You know what we’re doing?

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark and Dan Orlovsky weigh in on the state of the 4-2 Philadelphia Eagles, then dive into the Washington Commanders-Dallas Cowboys matchup.

0:00 Jalen Hurts’ comments
4:53 Potential three-game losing streak
7:35 Commanders vs. Cowboys preview

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