You sit down to a plate of freshly baked cookies, still warm from the oven. You pull a tumbler out of the cupboard and head to the fridge. Reach in and grab the milk, open the carton and whew. What is that?
The foul stench means there will be no milk and cookies.
Just in case the Eagles folded the carton closed and put it back in the fridge, hoping it would be better next time.
Over the last six weeks the Eagles have been comically bad. And that’s not funny.
With their fading NFC East championship hopes on the line, the Eagles were embarrassed by the hapless New York Giants and their 28th-ranked defense.
The same team that rolled off a 10-1 mark through 11 games has now lost five of its last six games with just a dicey six-point win over these same Giants to show for it.
Somehow, the defense has been worse than the team as a whole, making pedestrian quarterbacks look like hall of famers.
DeVonta Smith, D’Andre Swift and Fletcher Cox were ruled inactive before the game.
Before halftime, the Eagles lost A.J. Brown to an apparent knee injury. Quarterback Jalen Hurts suffered a dislocated ring finger on his right, throwing hand.
Starting rookie safety Sydney Brown was ruled out with a knee injury. Safety Reed Blankenship was ruled out with a groin injury sustained while intercepting a pass in the end zone. Guard Cam Jurgens left with an eye injury.
Each of those injuries will likely impact the team’s playoff chances in a Super Wild Card game in Tampa.
Hurts returned briefly, throwing an interception on his final regular-season pass. After that, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson and Dallas Goedert were shut down for the day. On the defensive side, Brandon Graham and Haason Reddick left the game as well with an eye on Tampa.
There is a very good chance that Cox, Graham and Kelce have played their last home game in Philadelphia, unless one of the other two wild card playoff teams beat the Cowboys or 49ers. Johnson could be on that list as well.
That’s four players with more than a decade of service for the Eagles and their final memories of their time together will be as dismal a stretch of games as the team has had since the dying days of the Rich Kotite era.
Only the epic Phillies collapse of 1964 rivals this team’s fall. Thanks to an expanded playoff field, at least the Eagles get a playoff game. For everyone under the age of 60, you can google the ’64 Phils.
So the Eagles took the long somber late night ride down the New Jersey Turnpike heading for a week of preparation for another playoff run.
The Eagles put the carton back into the fridge.
The playoff cookies are baked and ready to eat. Anything is possible.
Maybe the milk won’t be spoiled this time.
