Philadelphia Eagles biggest winners, losers following Week 9 loss to Chargers

Here are five Philadelphia Eagles that have to be better next week.

All of the duds come from the defensive side of the ball this week, but here’s something of note. Less than stellar performances from all of the guys on that side of the ball seem to be more about the calls they’re getting from the sideline than a lack of effort, lack of ability, or an unwillingness to make plays.

Steven Nelson, cornerback

It appears that part of the Chargers’ game plan was to attack Steven Nelson‘s side of the ball more often than they went at Darius Slay. L.A. picked on Nelson a lot, and they found a lot of success. Being asked to play so conservatively seems to have hampered him some, but too many big plays were given up by a very good player in this one.

Alex Singleton, linebacker

Where was Alex Singleton in this one? No seriously, what’s happened to him? It looks like the coaches are starting to trust T.J. Edwards and Davion Taylor more, but whether that’s the case or not, Philly needed more than two solo tackles and an assist from one of their best players, and they didn’t get that.

Derek Barnett, defensive end

Derek Barnett has four very costly penalties on the year and one sack. He represents over $10 million in dead cap space. Just let that sink in for a second.

Fletcher Cox, defensive tackle

Fletcher Cox has complained about not being able to play as aggressively as he would like to. We were also told that some of the reasons for Javon Hargrave’s quick start stemmed from the fact that offenses were keying on Cox.

Over the past few weeks, teams are keying in on Hargrave more often, so what’s the reason for Cox’s lack of production now? He had two solo tackles and helped out on another.

Jonathan Gannon, defensive coordinator

It’s hard to ask the same questions about Gannon’s defensive philosophy week after week without being frustrated. He’s too conservative, never brings a blitz, and looks like he has no idea what he’s doing.