After looking like the most complete team in the NFL for much of the season, the Philadelphia Eagles are keeping things a bit too close for their fans' comfort down the stretch, with their once-perfect record now boasting three losses and their number one seed – and a first-round Bye – in the playoffs still not secured heading into the final game of the regular season.

Though their defense looked great in Week 17, allowing just 13 points to a potentially good Saints offense, the offense, which was designed around the strengths of Jalen Hurts, fell apart with the should-be MVP on the sideline instead of under center, scoring just 10 points and looking downright underwhelming for basically the entire contest.

With one game left to play and a spot in the postseason guaranteed regardless of how Week 18 shakes out, the Eagles will keep their playoff streak alive under Nick Sirianni regardless, but if they can get better efforts out of these three performers, specifically in the regular season finale – assuming Hurts can't go – it could serve as a sign of better things to come moving forward.

3. A.J. Brown

How did a wide receiver who nearly cracked the 100-yard mark play poorly, let alone count as one of the players most responsible for a loss? Well, because of one specific play and one specific play only: the Marshone Latimore pick-six.

Now, as Minshew will tell it, this particular play was on him, as he assumed the defense would cover the same play the team ran earlier in the contest the same way, which ultimately wasn't the case.

“We ran that same play earlier and it was the same coverage and they made a great adjustment to jump the route,” Minshew said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I should have seen that leverage when we made the motion. I assumed since it was the same coverage, [Lattimore] was going to play it the same, but he made a great adjustment and made the play to beat us.”

That's all well and good, but upon further review, Brown just sort of stops running his route in the middle of it and secedes the valuable interior leverage that Latimore used to intercept the pass and run down the field for the uncontested touchdown. Even if the loss wasn't solely on Brown, that effort certainly rubbed some fans the wrong way and may stick with them for longer than it should.

2. Shane Steichen

There was a time when Shane Steichen looked like a shoo-in to become an NFL head coach in 2023; he was the architect of one of the best offenses in the league, had experience calling plays, and had a reputation for being very team-friendly, as folks like Phillip Rivers endorsed.

After two-straight weeks of being outgunned by lesser teams, that opportunity is far less of a guarantee.

Despite being without Hurts in the rushing game, Steichen opted against riding his Pro Bowl running back, Miles Sanders, heavily against a below-average Saints rushing defense, instead throwing the ball twice as often as he ran it despite averaging 4.5 yards per rushing attempt. For all of the hype Steichen received for being offensively accommodating, he didn't put his quarterback in the best position to succeed, and unfortunately, the Eagles weren't able to overcome this disadvantage to leave Week 17 with the number one seed secured and a better draft pick secured, what with Howie Roseman having secured New Orleans' 2023 first-round pick on a trade last spring.

1. Gardner Minshew

For most of the 2022 NFL season, there was a small but vocal minority of Eagles fans who lived and died by one simple mantra: Gardner Minshew could have the offense looking just as good as Jalen Hurts. Call it the leftover remnants of the pro-Carson Wentz crowd mixed with a few legitimate Minshew Maniacs, but this segment of the Eagles faithful genuinely – plus Chris Sims – believed that the hype around Hurts' MVP run was overblown and that a quarterback like Minshew, who was an accurate Air Raid specialist at Washington State and in Jacksonville, could run the offense efficiently.

Four quarters later, that crowd has grown oddly silent.

To say Minshew played badly would be an understatement; sure, the fourth-year quarterback's state line looked alright, completing 18 of his 32 passes for 274 yards, but he showed very poor pocket awareness, being sacked six times due largely to indecision, and threw a brutal pick-six to effectively seal the loss when Philly had a legitimate chance to tie or take the lead down to just three. Just awful stuff all around.