The Philadelphia Eagles are still tied for first place in the NFC East, but there are some serious flaws that need to be worked out. Against the Minnesota Vikings, the secondary was terrible and there were a couple of questionable coaching decisions that led to a 38-20 loss. So how can the Eagles fix it?
Let's break down three things the Eagles need to do to turn their season around.
3. The secondary needs to step up
The Eagles are expected to get a big boost in their secondary this week with Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills expected to return to practice, but even before they got hurt, they struggled. Rasul Douglas and Sidney Jones were a big part of the reason that Kirk Cousins threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns.
Philadelphia is giving up the fifth-most passing yards in the league and that isn't good enough for a team that wants to win the Super Bowl. The Eagles really should be trying to make a trade for Jalen Ramsey or another good cornerback on a bad team, but if they can't swing that, the guys they have need to step up in a big way.
2. The offensive impact players need to make a bigger impact
Carson Wentz has been playing well most of the season, but some of the other impact players like Alshon Jeffery and Zach Ertz need to have bigger contributions. On the season, Ertz has caught 33 passes for 366 yards and one touchdown.
Jeffery caught 10 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings, but on the season he has been a disappointment.
When the team needs a big catch, Jeffery and Ertz need to step up, because against the Vikings, both guys missed a couple of passes they could have caught.
1. The team needs to focus on winning games
Leading into the Eagles game, Zach Brown talked about how Kirk Cousins was the weak link of the offense and they hoped he would throw the ball a lot.
Cousins did throw a ball lot and he proved that maybe he wasn't the weakest link on the team. The Eagles have since released Brown, but it appears they haven't learned their lesson about trash-talking the upcoming opponent.
This time it was coach Doug Pederson who guaranteed the team would beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. All that does is put unnecessary pressure on the team and will cause a lot of backlash if they lose.
Maybe the team should focus on just winning the game instead of trying to win the game in the media.