There is not any music within the locker room after the Eagles’ lackluster loss to the 49ers abruptly lower brief their title protection on Wild-Card weekend.
Instead, the soundtrack goes like this: clap, CLAP; clap, CLAP; clap, CLAP. It’s complicated at first, there was little to applaud within the 23-19 upset. But it’s not the sound of congratulations, it’s the sound of goodbye. Over and over gamers strategy each other grasp palms (clap) to tug one another in for a half hug and a slap on the again (CLAP).
“I was emotional coming in here, just knowing that the guys I came in with, it’s not going to be the same,” Reed Blankenship stated.
Saquon Barkley, the Eagles star operating again who completed the sport with over 100 dashing yards but additionally a pair key missed catches, stated he got here into the day “super confident” the workforce would determine it out when it mattered most.
But ultimately, after it grew to become clear that the inconsistency that plagued the offense was the id of the offense, he needed to admit: “It’s been the same thing all year, we just didn’t do enough.”
Barkley defended the play calling, which appeared uncreative and even timid at instances.
“I don’t think we were playing conservative,” he stated. “I think it comes down to execution.”
And on Sunday, the execution fell frustratingly simply brief in an ideal encapsulation of the season-long middling malaise.
So how will the 2025 Eagles — a workforce with Super Bowl aspirations however an absence of explosive offense — be remembered?
“I think everyone will just remember this game,” Blakenship stated.