After the Philadelphia Eagles’ 33-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, coach Nick Sirianni tried to give a disappointed locker room some perspective.

“He said, ‘It’s early. We’re 2-2,’” said tight end Dallas Goedert. “‘It’s not college football. Our season is not over yet. We still have a lot of football ahead of us.’”

Sirianni had been a head coach long enough to know what the team was in for when it landed back in Philly that night.

The stress level in the birds’ condition is high. And as the Eagles head into their bye, they will face two weeks of testing before they have a chance to calm their nerves.

This isn’t a new phenomenon – it’s a byproduct of the city’s extraordinary passion – but the circumstances are making this fan base even more nervous than normal.

There isn’t much courage for turbulence at the moment, not after the 6-1 defeat at the end of last season. Sunday felt similar enough to the wild-card loss to Tampa in January — the defense was shredded, the players looked listless for much of the game — to stoke fears that something is fundamentally broken with this team.

The criticism is also being felt at the national level, and Sirianni’s job security has become a regular topic of conversation.

Is panic justified? Let’s take a closer look at the state of affairs.

The offense can still be their salvation

The staff remains first class. The offensive line is one of the best in the league, ranking fifth in both pass block win rate (68%) and run block win rate (74%). AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith are one of the best receiver duos in the game. Saquon Barkley was added to the mix this season and has been everything the front office could have wanted. He ranks third in rushing yards (435), is an explosive player waiting to be executed with four runs of over 20 yards, has scored five touchdowns and averaged 6.0 yards per carry.

There’s a lot of good here, but Jalen Hurts’ game needs to stabilize. He has seven turnovers this season – second most behind Will Levis – and 27 since the start of 2023, leading all players.

What we see in the game is different than what we saw this summer. During training camp, Hurts ran the offense with high efficiency. He quickly got the ball out of his hands with short and medium-difficulty rhythm throws, giving his playmakers creative options. The result was an interception throughout the camp. But through four games, Hurts ranks 32nd among QBs in average time before throw (3.1 seconds). He has to return to the fast game.

Brown (hamstring) has been off the roster since Week 1, and there were always a few bumps along the way as Hurts adjusted to new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s system — the fourth different scheme he’s had to learn in five NFL seasons . On the other hand, he’s being paid like a franchise quarterback (over $50 million per year) and has to play like one again.

The defense could be their undoing

It’s not hard to imagine an uptick in offense, but the outlook for defense isn’t nearly as bright.

General manager Howie Roseman will soon become a bigger focus of frustration if things don’t change for a defense that’s ranked low in many categories, including defensive efficiency (24th), opposing yards per play (30th) and points. Ranked in the bottom half allowed (23rd) and snack (T-28th).

His big free-agent splash on that side of the ball was edge rusher Bryce Huff, who has zero sacks and one solo tackle. The expectation was that he would develop into a three-down player, but his issues with the run have limited his playing time. The best edge player through four games was 36-year-old Brandon Graham. The other notable addition, safety CJ Gardner-Johnson, has produced mixed results.

The front office invested heavily in former Georgia players in recent drafts, using first-round picks on defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and edge rusher Nolan Smith Jr. Davis and Smith have failed to produce sufficient results so far, while Carter has has shown to be incredibly talented, but also inconsistent. Roseman seemingly nailed his most recent first-round pick, as rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell was mostly dynamite.

The bottom line is that the pass rush was anemic (their six sacks are the third fewest in the league), the back seven was up and down, and the tackling was a major problem (they missed 15 tackles against the Bucs alone). for counting the team).

Veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wasn’t the saving grace many were hoping for. As with Moore and the offense, expect some difficulty as players adjust to the new system. Ultimately, however, it could be a case of flawed roster construction.

The schedule is an ally

According to ESPN Analytics, the Eagles have the fourth-strongest strength remaining. Their next four games after the bye are against the Cleveland Browns (1-3), New York Giants (1-3), Cincinnati Bengals (1-3) and Jacksonville Jaguars (0-4). With all the hand-wringing, they could end up several games above .500 in the second half of the season.

And the NFC East remains a winnable division. The Dallas Cowboys (2-2) and Giants (1-3) have their own weaknesses, and it remains to be seen whether the Washington Commanders and their impressive rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels can remain a hot commodity.

The road to the postseason doesn’t seem to be that difficult.

Coaching is the wild card

On the other hand, this season was never about the opponent. Or the talent.

It was about whether this team could properly get off the mat after last season’s collapse and how well it would handle adversity when it inevitably struck in 2024.

At issue was whether CEO Jeffrey Lurie, who had been considering Bill Belichick at some point in the nine days between the end of last season and the organization’s signal that Sirianni would return as head coach, had made the right decision, especially given the season-long stretch Strain between Hurts and Sirianni during the 2023 campaign.

The support provided so far by Sirianni and his employees left a lot to be desired. Several of Sirianni’s decisions in the game, particularly on fourth down, backfired. The offense didn’t score a single point in the first quarter. The Eagles rank 20th in penalties per game (seven), have the second-most giveaways (eight) and have yet to win the turnover battle in four games.

All are largely a reflection of coaching.

When it comes to the details, Sirianni has a lot of little things that need to be sorted out.

But from a more global perspective, his main job is to keep this team from fraying. This offseason, he gave Moore control of the offense and took on more of a CEO role, with one of the main priorities being maintaining culture.

Things went wrong for him last season. In the end, it didn’t matter whether they played the Bucs, the San Francisco 49ers or the 6-11 Giants. They weren’t together enough to put on even a mediocre game.

Sirianni has a 36-19 record as a head coach. He led the Eagles to the postseason in each of his three seasons at the helm and nearly won a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LVII.

Will players respond to him the way they did in his first season, when they rebounded from a 2-5 start to the playoffs? Or is the team simply in a prolonged crisis that goes back to last season and from which there is no way out?

Both outcomes seem entirely possible. No wonder this fan base is in such a twisted state.