Lions vs. Eagles Q&A: Five questions with Bleeding Green Nation

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1) The Eagles were blown out at home by a mediocre Tampa Bay team, but still sit just one game behind the Giants for the NFC East at 4-6. Is all hope lost for the Eagles fanbase, or is there still a belief that they can win that division?

I’d say most Eagles fans have given up on the season. I ran a poll on BGN on Monday morning asking if fans want to see the team tank for a draft pick or try to make the playoffs and 79% of 1211 voters said they want to see the team lose out.

The Eagles have been so awful recently. The offense is stagnant as can be. Sam Bradford has been uninspiring. Mark Sanchez isn’t any better. The offensive line isn’t reliable. The receivers can’t catch and even if they could they’re not really scaring anyone. The run game showed some promise for a six week stretch, but hasn’t done much recently.

The defense has been reliable for most of the season but they’re coming off their worst performance of the year.

The NFC East is awful, so it’s certainly not impossible for the Eagles to make something happen, but I’d say it’s highly unlikely at this point.

2) The Lions reportedly had a ton of interest in selecting wide receiver Nelson Agholor with the No. 23 overall pick in last year’s draft, before the Eagles ended up taking him three spots earlier. What’s his situation and why has he gotten off to such a slow start?

Agholor’s rookie season has certainly been a disappointment so far. After being drafted, there was buzz about him being a potential Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate. He looked good in spring and summer practices. He hasn’t lived up to the hype of being a first round pick so far, however.

It did look like Agholor was starting to make some progress when he finished the Eagles’ Week 4 game with three receptions for 64 yards. But then he suffered an ankle injury in Week 5 and didn’t return until last week. It doesn’t appear he’s 100%.

Agholor hasn’t been helped out by the fact he has quarterbacks who don’t really throw the ball deep. There have been times when he’s open down the field and the quarterback isn’t throwing passes his way.

3) What would you consider to be the largest reason as to why the Eagles have underachieved this season?

Chip Kelly really deserves all the blame. It’s his team. He’s the general manager and the head coach.

He didn’t pick the right players, especially at quarterback, and it’s costing him.  He failed to address the offensive line. He spent big money on a running back (DeMarco Murray) who was coming off a major workload. He invested in awful wide receivers such as Miles Austin and Riley Cooper and insists on playing them a lot for some reason.

Kelly hasn’t been a good coach this year either. He keeps saying that his offense is only responding to what the defense shows him instead of imposing his will on the defense. It’s hard to say Kelly is getting the most out of his talent on offense.

4) If you were to create a gameplan for the Lions’ offense, how would you attack the Eagles’ defense?

Philadelphia’s defense has really been the strength of the team for most of the season. I say "most" because the Eagles unexpectedly got destroyed by the Buccaneers last week. That was really surprising. The Eagles defense ranked No. 2 overall by Football Outsiders heading into Week 11’s game and then they put up a historically bad performance.

After seeing the Eagles struggle to cover Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson (and just about everyone else), I’d say the Lions should attack with the passing game. Get the ball to Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate.

5) Give us your prediction for Thursday’s Turkey Day game.

I feel like the Eagles defense can rebound after a bad showing against Tampa Bay, but I have no faith at all in this offense. It looks like Mark Sanchez is going to be at helm, so they’re especially bound for some costly turnovers. I can’t pick the Eagles to win. I call Lions, 20-12.