NFL-high 34 turnovers derailing Eagles' season

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The turnovers keep piling up. And so do the losses.

If there’s one common theme in the Eagles’ nightmarish eight days that transformed them from a 9-3 team hoping for a first-round bye into a 9-5 team that needs help just to reach the playoffs, it’s turnovers.

Lots and lots and lots of turnovers.

The Eagles committed four more turnovers in their 38-27 loss Sunday night to the Cowboys, and they now have an NFL-high 34 turnovers through 14 games.

That’s as many as the Seahawks, Patriots and Packers combined.

In the loss to the Seahawks, LeSean McCoy’s fumble deep in Eagles territory on the first play of the third quarter was the momentum turner. A quick Seahawks touchdown turned a three-point game into a 10-point Eagles deficit.

Sunday night, Josh Huff booted the opening kickoff, setting up a quick, easy Cowboys touchdown, Mark Sanchez threw two more interceptions and Brent Celek fumbled.

“It’s frustrating,” Jeremy Maclin said. “I feel like it’s the same thing week in and week out. Can’t turn the football over. Have to execute on offense.”

In their nine wins this year, the Eagles have 17 turnovers. In their five losses, they have 17 turnovers.

The only game they didn’t commit a turnover was against the Panthers, who they beat 45-21.

Last year, the Eagles had six games without a turnover. This year, they’ve had just one.

“That’s terrible,” McCoy said. “You can never get an offense started like that, and I’m just as guilty as everybody else when it comes to turnovers. We’ve just got to do better with it. Can’t turn the ball over and expect to win.”

Sanchez became the first Eagles quarterback in 26 years with four games with multiple interceptions in a season. And he’s done it in just seven games.

He now has nine interceptions in just seven games and one every 25 pass attempts. That’s the fourth-worst INT ratio in the NFL, behind only Kirk Cousins (one every 22.7 attempts), Josh McCown (23.2) and Blake Bortles (24.5).

Sunday night, the first was the costliest, coming in a four-point game late in the third quarter.

And then, with the Eagles trailing by eight midway through the fourth quarter, normally reliable veteran tight end Celek fumbled after catching a 14-yard pass from Sanchez, leading to a Dan Bailey field goal that made it a two-possession game.

“I don’t know how I fumbled,” Celek said. “Obviously I fumbled but I just have to hold onto the ball. There’s just no excuse. I’ve got to hold onto it. I wasn’t extending the ball, I guess it got knocked loose. I should’ve held onto it. Even looking at the replay, he didn’t do anything crazy to rip it out or anything. I don’t know.

“That was obviously a critical point in the game, when we needed to score, and I fumbled. Just unacceptable and bad. Horrible on my part.”

The Eagles are now minus-nine in turnover ratio, fourth-worst in the NFL. That would be their fourth-worst figure over a full season since 1973.

They’ve already had four games with four or more turnovers. The last time they had more was 1977.

“It's the same thing we talk about every week,” Chip Kelly said. “It sounds like a broken record, but we can't turn the football over and expect to win football games.

“We’re coaching it, and we are not doing the right thing so we'll continue to address it.”

The Eagles are fourth in the NFL at 29.7 points per game. They’re fifth with 388 yards per game. They’re in the top 10 in both rushing and passing yards.

Imagine if they could protect the ball? They’d be almost impossible to stop.

“I think it’s just too many missed opportunities,” Maclin said. “There’s plays to be made. I think everybody across the board has to go look back and reevaluate and correct it and get things right.

“It’s frustrating. Very frustrating. Just have to take care of the football. Just have to take care of the football. I don’t know what other way to put it. Take care of the football.”

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