PHILADELHIA – The popular Christmas song, “Last Christmas,” was playing in the locker room when the doors swung open following the Philadelphia Eagles 33-25 win over the New York Giants on Christmas Day at Lincoln Financial Field.
There was something not quite right with the mood despite the festive music, which stopped playing shortly after reporters entered.
Last Christmas, the Eagles were on their way to the No. 1 seed in the conference, piling up a franchise-record 14 wins en route to the Super Bowl.
This Christmas, well, they are trying to stay afloat in the NFC East and striving to find the form that made them 10-1 at one point in the season with the playoffs closing in.
After just having ended a three-game losing streak, you would have thought there would be some jubilation, some celebration. The Eagles, after all, gained a game on the Dallas Cowboys in the division standings and are now 11-4.
There was happiness, for sure, but nothing over the top.
When the locker room doors opened, quarterback Jalen Hurts was spotted in conversation with receiver DeVonta Smith. It appeared to be a one-sided talk with Hurts doing most of the talking and Smith leaning up against his stall.
Smith had a 36-yard touchdown catch, had four receptions for 79 yards, and went over 1,000 yards receiving for the second straight year.
“We’re not where we want to be,” he said. “I’m not satisfied. Yeah, we got 11 wins, I’m not happy. It needs to be better. What I want to do, what everybody else in here wants to do, what we want to be, we’re nowhere near that, so I’m not happy.”
Fellow receiver A.J. Brown wasn’t, either. The usually talkative Brown didn’t want to talk at all.
“I was taught that if I have nothing good to say about something, to not say anything at all,” he said. “I’ll take the fine if I have to.”
Like I said, something isn’t quite right.
The players talked this week about having uncomfortable conversations to find a way to right the ship.
Maybe that’s what was taking place between center and Jason Kelce long after most players headed into the night to see their families and spend what little time was left on Christmas Day.
Kelce and Hurts sat at the quarterback’s locker talking for about 10 minutes before Hurts went to the podium to talk with reporters. Kelce, who hadn’t even showered yet and was still in his game pants, seemed to be doing much of the talking and Hurts listened intently.
Asked about the uncomfortable conversations that took place during the week, Smith said in the postgame locker room: “I think sometimes you see it. Sometimes we’re still doing the same things. But overall, that’s part of the journey. You can’t expect to have a talk and go out there and everything is cleaned up. You’re still going to have problems, things like that, but we’re going in the right direction.
“I have all the confidence in the world we can fix it. I’ll never doubt we won’t be able to fix it, but we’re running out of time. We have two weeks. We have two weeks to get it together.”
