What a way to end the season.

That was a doozy. By FAR the most entertaining Eagles game of 2020. It was a sloppy and shameless and outrageous tank that had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Social media was awesome. We were all having a great time watching the Eagles screw the Giants out of a postseason berth while securing the #6 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft.

At the start, it felt like the fourth preseason game, with a bunch of guys on the field that we had never heard of. There was nobody in the stands. It’s almost as if the game didn’t matter.

And it didn’t. Not one bit, so in that regard it was perfect. A well-executed tank and loss for preferable draft position. The Eagles sat down ten starters, had Rudy Ford playing corner, and deployed the formidable duo of Matt Pryor and Brett Toth at the tackle positions. Then Nate Sudfeld came in and threw an interception and bobbled a shotgun snap. He took a horrendous sack to set up 3rd and 18. T.Y. McGill then pretty much clinched it with a fourth down neutral zone infraction and ensured himself a spot on next year’s practice squad for taking care of business.

Sudfeld and McGill did the job. They got the memo. This was akin to John Chaney sending in the “goon” to foul St Joe’s players back in the day, only this time it’s not necessary for Doug Pederson to suspend himself in punishment.

And look, I know people are upset about trying to lose, and the “integrity of the game,” and all of that, but multiple teams rested multiple starters yesterday. The Jaguars and Jets pretty much tanked the entire season. What the Eagles did amounts to jockeying for position within NFL draft framework, and the bottom line is that the Eagles benefit from losing the game and improving their draft position.

This was a one-game tank. It wasn’t Russian collusion or Hillary’s emails. It’s not that big of a deal. If the players are upset about it, then they should have gone out and won more than four games.

The difference between pick #6 and pick #9 doesn’t seem like much on the surface, but for teams looking to trade up for a franchise quarterback, it absolutely matters. If Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are off the board, and maybe a team is interested in trading up for BYU’s Zach Wilson, then the Eagles at #6 are in a prime position to entertain trades. Perhaps they move down the board, gather assets, and try to plug myriad gaping holes on this team. OR, they stand pat and target one of the stud receivers, like Ja’Marr Chase or DeVonta Smith, who might not be there at #9 overall.

It matters, even if Jalen Hurts reacts this way:

Hurts has every right to be upset with the tank, but he won’t be complaining next year if he’s throwing to a bona fide WR1 that the Eagles drafted #6 overall. The only real issue is Howie Roseman getting it right and not screwing it up, which is a huge risk.

1. Hurts so what

Maybe Jalen didn’t get the memo about losing, because he played hard and put the Eagles in position to win.

He went 7-20 with an interception and ran the ball for 34 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The stats don’t jump off the page, but they also don’t matter one bit when you don’t have your best offensive skill players and best linemen out there. I don’t know if we saw anything over these four games that definitely says Hurts is or is not the Eagles quarterback of the future, but he did everything he was asked to do by the Birds.

There is a third scenario to consider, beyond trading one of Carson Wentz or Jalen Hurts. You could possibly trade both for a draft pick haul and then take a QB at #6 overall. That would be contingent on Wentz making a concession to facilitate a deal, but it’s something to think about.

Also, apropos of nothing, this was a laugh out loud moment:

2. The interception

What happened on this one?

Looked like a timing route and Zach Ertz just got jammed up and couldn’t detach himself in time. Never got his head around and it was picked off:

That’s within five yards of the line of scrimmage, so that contact is allowed. The defensive player can’t grab and hold, but he can jam and disrupt, and that’s what Kamren Curl did.

If this was Ertz’s last game as an Eagle, it’s a bummer it ended like this. Jason Kelce, too? Maybe. Would have preferred to see a respected veteran go out under better circumstances, but it was already a joke that these guys had to play in empty stadiums for the majority of the year.

3. the ESPN BOMBSHELL report and postgame quotes

Sunday morning, there was a report from Chris Mortensen saying that Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson’s relationship was damaged beyond repair.

We knew a reporter was going to ask about this after the game. At Crossing Broad sportsbook, we had Jeff McLane at -125 to ask the question, with Tim McManus at -110.

The winner was actually Dave Zangaro, a +225 underdog, who got this response out of Doug:

“Look I’ve answered this question quite a bit, and you know how I feel about Carson Wentz. I’ve got the utmost respect for him. I feel like we can together get these things corrected and get back on track. That’s my mindset going into the offseason. That’s where I’m at. All of this other stuff I believe is just sort of what’s out there. I haven’t really seen any of that stuff. I have total faith and total trust in Carson Wentz and myself together to get the job done.”

A follow-up from McManus about his relationship being “fractured,” and if that is true:

“I don’t understand where these are coming from. My relationship with Carson has been good. It’s been professional. We’ve communicated over the last month of the season. I know he’s frustrated. He was a starter, I get that, it’s understandable. But I have so much confidence in him and myself that we can work on the things we need to work on and get it done.”

Doug did a nice job saying absolutely nothing to the media. It was a masterclass in lying.

4. feeding the troll

Here’s resident sports troll ESP checking in on Sunday night:

Hmm well that’s an assertive take. He might not be wrong! Dak Prescott is a free agent, the Washington QB situation is unstable, and Daniel Jones is just okay.

Problem is, Eliot said this two days ago:

Ah, wait, what? The Eagles have the best quarterback in the division? But they should consider drafting a first round quarterback?

Seems like we have some contradictory trolling here. When you do goofy and disingenuous WIP-style hot takes, you sometimes say something that is the total opposite of what you said two days ago.

5. stud receivers that don’t play for us

While watching Jalen Reagor and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside on Sunday night, this tweet popped up:

Man that’s painful. Those guys don’t play for us, but they could have! Howie didn’t want ’em.

To reiterate that column from a few weeks back, Reagor could eventually become a great player. He left Sunday night’s game with a head injury and had the hand/thumb issue earlier in the year, so he had a rough go of it in year one. It’s disappointing that he had to deal with those injuries this season and hopefully he comes back next year with a clean bill of health and gets a full offseason with the first team offense.

But the bottom line is that Jefferson was ready to go right away, and the Eagles passed on him. They passed on Metcalf, too. Reagor finished his rookie season with 31 receptions for 396 yards and a touchdown. He might be a fantastic player at some point, but Jefferson and Metcalf already are fantastic players.

6. Mistakes and breaks

Gotta be honest, this list is totally incomplete because I wasn’t paying full attention to the game:

Mistakes:

  1. Hurts/Ertz interception
  2. Reagor dropping what looked like a catchable ball
  3. having Greg Ward return punts, just put Reagor back there next year
  4. Quez Watkins dropped screen pass
  5. leaving Hurts in the game too long, should have brought in Sudfeld earlier
  6. Sudfeld interception, dropped snap, sack*

*it’s not a “mistake” if it helps achieve the goal

Breaks:

  1. nobody cares

7. Ancillary wins and losses

In place of our typical entry here, since the game didn’t matter, here’s Michele Tafoya referring to Nate Sudfeld as “Sunburn” –

Poor Michele. She was probably rattled after witnessing that horrific display of football. I don’t blame her for slipping up there, because we were all kind of gobsmacked by the way that game played out in the second half.

8. Doug’s best call?

I liked the decision to punt on 4th and short after the first drive. They were, after all, trying to lose the game, and Washington getting the ball got the Eagles closer to that goal.

Likewise, the decision to go for it on 4th and goal at the end of the third quarter had a chance at failure, so that ultimately helped the tank as well.

The best thing about this, however, was angry Giants fans who think the Eagles should have made a respectable effort to win the game. They fired off tweets like these:

Yeah? Guess what Giants fans? If you weren’t 6-10, you wouldn’t have ended up in this position. All you had to do was win seven games, then your lame asses wouldn’t be at home crying on Twitter. Get your house in order before you start complaining about Doug Pederson doing what’s best for his franchise.

9. Doug’s worst call

Waiting until week 17 for the Greg Ward pass?! And there was the John Hightower gadget play in there, too. Makes you wonder where all of this unique stuff was during the regular season. How much of the playbook was even used this year?

Not a good season for Doug, not at all. He gets another crack at it next year, and he has to be a lot better.

10. a broadcast for the ages

What a rollercoaster ride. We had Cris Collinsworth complaining about the tank throughout the entirety of the fourth quarter, and then when the game was over he accidentally said “Washington Redskins” and had to be corrected by Al Michaels. Talk about the cherry on top.

My other favorite part of the broadcast is when NBC took us on a lovely gondola ride down the Schuylkill River, which Philly native and NBC Sports Philadelphia alumnus Colleen Wolfe clipped:

Come join us for a lovely boat ride down the scenic Schuylkill River! It’s dirty and full of trash and debris, but nonetheless a pleasant journey.

Tell ya what, though – I’ll give NBC a pass for this.

Why?

Because we always complain about seeing the same things on national broadcasts. We always see the Liberty Bell, or Art Museum, or some guy making a cheesesteak. We clamor for variety, and this time they gave it to us. This was a different kind of bump shot, so kudos to the NBC folks for adding some different b-roll this time around (b-roll is a TV term that means video).

It reminded me of this clip:

Good morning, and on a serious note, thanks to everybody who read the Takeaways column this year. It was a tough season for Eagles fans, but we try to keep it fun around here, and we needed humor to survive the 2020 campaign.