Eagles injuries can't just be bad luck
Lane Johnson wasn’t even around to get introduced.
By the time Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth started to introduce the Eagles offensive starters to a nation of Sunday Night Football fans, Johnson was being led to the locker room for evaluation. An altogether too familiar sight for Eagles fans.
The Eagles Pro Bowl right tackle would eventually return in the second half but, at one point, only Jason Kelce was left from the teams projected starting offensive lineup. Even Kelce, caused some concern heading to the sideline to check on a balky hamstring.
“We had a few extra o-linemen up today,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “We have some guys battling through some things. I thought overall that the line played well. I thought the offensive line, with all the moving pieces we have, really stepped up.”
And that’s not the worst of it. The four available receivers for Carson Wentz to throw to in San Francisco, had less than 100 career NFL catches, total. Subtract half of the league’s best tight end tandem, Dallas Goedert, and things looked even worse. That’s just the offense.
“You can’t really make it up, the injuries and the situations we’ve been put in,” Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz said. “That’s the hand we’re dealt. The guys have been ready and working their tails off for the moment when it comes. You saw tonight, guy making plays that were maybe on the practice squad or other things. Obviously, the o-line has young guys who have been stepping up, filling in and doing an amazing job.”
Any time Darius Slay or Fletcher Cox, who missed time while taking in IV fluids, hobble over to the sideline with even the slightest of nicks or bumps, and the entire Delaware Valley catches its breath.
“That’s just the way it has been in the four or five years I've been here,” Eagles defensive back Jalen Mills said. “That’s kind of in the DNA for this team. We embrace that. There’s no better way to do it. We have guys who are hungry to get an opportunity. The guys are making the most of it. They’re also helping us get a win. That speaks to the character that we have and also the coaching staff, coaching them up and giving those guys a chance.”
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Are the Eagles unlucky?
If they are, then they’re more unlucky than the unluckiest of the unlucky.
Are the Eagles cursed?
Well, the team beat the William Penn curse. So there’s that. But maybe there is some ill-considered Mummers Parade ju-ju haunting the team. That doesn’t sound very likely, though.
Are the Eagles injuries a coincidence?
Two of something is a coincidence. Five, 10, 15, 20 injuries are a pattern.
“You try not to think of those scenarios,” Pederson said. “You try not to think negatively. It is what it is. We are where we are. My hat’s off to those guys in the locker room. They don’t listen to the outside noise. They come out here and compete. That’s all I can ask of them.”
Don’t forget, even the miraculous Super Bowl 52 run the Eagles put together came in the midst of what then was thought of as an unusual run of injury luck.
Remember, Jason Peters and Carson Wentz watched their teammates win the Super Bowl from the sidelines. So did special teams captain Chris Maragos and Darren Sproles and Jordan Hicks.
Since then the Eagles needed miraculous late-season win streaks to return to the playoffs. In each case, injuries put the Eagles into a hole they barely dug themselves out of.
If it feels like you’ve seen this movie before, you have. It’s been held over for a fourth consecutive season. Sunday night was no different.
“This was a tough road game,” Pederson said. “To come here on the road, traveling east coast to west coast to play on a Sunday night is tough on the guys. They seem to find a way.”
The Eagles have made changes to its sports medicine department and to the sports science program that former coach Chip Kelly championed in his otherwise lamented tenure. The strength and conditioning department has been led by Josh Hingst since 2013, since the Chip Kelly Era.
As the Eagles parade to and through the blue medical tent on the sideline each Sunday continues, one question remains.
Do the Eagles look strong? Or conditioned?
Tom Rimback grew up reading the Burlington County Times and Courier Post sports sections and began writing for the BCT in 1996. He has covered everything from Super Bowls and Final Fours to Tri-County Swimming but he’s happiest on a sideline interviewing South Jersey scholastic athletes. Follow him on twitter @RimbackBCT. Email or call him with story ideas at trimback@thebct.com or 609 871-8067 and, most importantly, support local journalism with a subscription to the Burlington County Times.