And none of the Philly's players you mentioned are considered the best at their position in the NFL. Dallas is down 3 players that are considered by many as the #1 players in the NFL at their respective position. Not making excuses for Dallas but the drop off is significant.
Peters is considered one of the best LT's in the NFL. Jordan Hicks might be the best cover LB in the NFL, as noted by former players. The drop from Sproles to Barner on ST's is huge. Enough of the ******** that "we lost 3 top players at their position." If you had competent backups and decent players surrounding those "3 best players" we wouldn't be in this position.
Vikings are on their 3rd QB. Commanders are missing half a team. Patriots always deal with injuries. Pats and Vikes made sure those losses didn't hurt by having innovative coaching and NFL-level reserves, as well as actual NFL players starting in other positions. Eagles lose Jordan Hicks, but since they have other good LB's like Kendricks and Bradham, it doesn't hurt them as much, unlike some of the slop we put out there. Their backup LT makes ours look like swiss cheese, so again they can withstand the loss better than us. Those DB's who are JAG's and low would picks for the most part look a lot better than ours, although they not have more talent. Why? Because they coach these players to be ready. I don't know what we do.
Look at their defense in the second half. Why did they get so much pressure on Dak in the second half? Because their coaches adjusted by shifting the focus of attack against our o-line. Their LB's started to sweep out wider, knowing that Dak would be flushed because their line is good enough to hold the one-tech while smashing the 3 and 5, forcing Dak to run for his life---where he would ofter find a speedy, competent Eagle LB waiting to turn him back. They attacked 3 and 5 tech, had pursuing LB's at the second level, and Garrett looked lost, just watching his o-line get the crap beat out of them---sometimes by all Eagle backups---because they put real NFL players to pick up the slack when, or if, starters get hurt. Case in point this year is Cox missing a few games and Allen stepping up.
We didn't lose because we didn't have Zeke, Lee, or Smith, but we lost because we had nothing as good as the Eagles besides those three to man up and take over. Add in our coaching staff from 20 years ago, and we have what we have.
The Vikings are 7-2 with Case Freaking Keenum. The Eagles are 9-1 without three key players. Those two teams prepared; ours did not.
