Fact: Having AJ Brown And DeVonta Smith In Your Lineup Is Much More Conducive To Winning Football Games
Heather Barry. Getty Images.The Eagles' loss to the Bucs was one of the more demoralizing in a long line of horrific losses the Eagles have suffered over the years. The offense couldn't do a damn thing, the defense couldn't do a damn thing, special teams couldn't do a damn thing, and the Eagles looked like one of the worst coached teams in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Under any other circumstances, I'd hope it would have been a fireable offense for Nick Sirianni. The only issue is that the Eagles were without AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Lane Johnson. 3 pretty frickin' key members of an Eagles offense that desperately needed to get themselves back on track.
So after a bye week and heading into a must-win week 6 matchup against the Browns, the Birds got all 3 back in the lineup. And…well…it sure as shit wasn't pretty. It was actually pretty god awful for a while. Without those 3 in the lineup, the Eagles lose this game by double digits. But with all 3 of them back in?
AJ Brown is so back.
DeVonta Smith is so back.
Lane Johnson is so back, holding onto this block just long enough for Jalen Hurts to cleanly get that pass off downfield to AJ Brown to lock up the W.
Again, it was ugly as shit for the majority of the afternoon. This team was coming off a bye and was tied 10-10 with the goddamn Cleveland Browns at halftime after a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown. There were "Fire Nick" chants raining down from the crowd. It was a rough day out there for Saquon Barkley. Luckily the Browns' offense is such a joke that the defense was able to get themselves off the field every once in a while on 3rd down. Winning by 4 as 9.5 favorites isn't the most confidence boosting performance in the world out of the Eagles, but 3-2 is always going to be better than 2-3. Which is exactly where this season would be right now if this team needed to play another game with Jahan Dotson as WR1.