Lane Johnson Injury and Bad Wide Receiver Play Rendered Healthy Defense Irrelevant in Loss to Pats

Eagles fans, boastful yet pessimistic by nature, didn't expect much from Sunday's game against the Patriots. In fact, most had very little faith in their pass defense to shut down Tom Brady, a sentiment echoed by most analysts.

But when the dust settled, Philly fell just 17-10 to New England, and it was abundantly clear the loss did not fall on the defense. In fact, a resurgent pass rush battered Tom Brady all day long, and the secondary held up when necessary. Of course, the Eagles' atrocious wide receiver corps failed to deliver when pressed into action. Can't go two-for-two, folks.

The defense did its job in limiting Tom Brady to 216 passing yards and no touchdowns on 26-of-47 passing, which is indicative of how dominant the D was Sunday against a prolific Patriots offense that's one of the best in the league.

However, Carson Wentz and the offense couldn't get anything going, and while the Patriots defense is top-notch, the wide receiving corps could have definitely mustered more than 22 yards through over three quarters of football.

Wentz didn't have Alshon Jeffrey or DeSean Jackson at his disposal today, meaning that his top targets were Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor, but those numbers are unacceptable as long, as you have NFL-level wideouts available to throw to.

Philly, by that metric, did not.

This was a winnable game for the Eagles, who had the chance to make another statement against a Patriots team they beat two years in the Super Bowl.

Instead, they folded as quietly as possible, failing to score a single point after a Dallas Goedert touchdown early in the second quarter. The Patriots proceeded to score 17 unanswered points in the form of three Nick Folk field goals and a Julian Edelman passing touchdown to Phillip Dorsett.

Of course, this wasn't all on Wentz or the patchwork wideouts. In case it wasn't already clear to the Philly Faithful, it was also made evident that the team's offense really depends on the presence of star tackle Lane Johnson, who was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with an apparent head injury, and whose absence torpedoed any cohesion Philly began with.

Without Johnson, Wentz's passer rating drops by nearly 20 points; that sort of drop-off can't be sustained in the NFL, and that presumed lack of protection is on the other Eagles' linemen.

Sunday very much could have been Philly's day. Instead, the incompetence of the offense, especially the wideouts, means that the Eagles will head into a tough matchup against the Seattle Seahawks next week on the heels of a tough loss.