The Philadelphia Eagles are in full-on disaster mode at the moment. The possibility of the season being lost is tremendous, making the meeting Jason Avant called a necessary one.
ESPN reports Eagles star receiver Jason Avant has called a players-only meeting to corral the troops ahead of their matchup against Washington on Sunday.
The meeting’s purpose was simple: To bring the players together, form a fraternity, and make this squad believe that the season was salvageable.
Middle linebacker Jamar Chaney described the emotions and temperature of the room to ESPN:
Everybody was calm. You don’t want to get heated right now; it ain’t no time to panic. We know what we’re capable of doing, and we’re not going to panic. We’ve had a few bad games, four bad games, but at the end of the day, we don’t think those four teams are better than us.
Losing is infectious. It is easy for a team to become embroiled in finger-pointing and blame. This meeting was necessary to have this team united as they move to the meat of the schedule.
The Eagles’ latest loss illustrated that their issues are not just personnel-related. A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that a young linebacker corps made the Eagles susceptible to the run.
There was also the note of Michael Vick and the beating he was taking early in the season. Those things are fixable. The schemes on both sides of the ball can be tweaked to limit the issues.
However, on Sunday, we saw the Eagles devolve into a malaise of mental errors. A late encroachment call on Juqua Parker cost the team a possible late surge. That was just one of many errors that illustrated the Eagles have lost focus and desire.
The quickest way to get that back is for the players to get together and dedicate each game to one another. It sounds beyond hokey, but this is the only way the Eagles get back on track.
The Eagles may be floundering, but they are not about to go out without a fight.
