The Philadelphia Eagles’ loss to the Rams in Week 4 doesn’t seem that bad in isolation. It was a close loss to a good team, the defense was strong, and at first glance you might mistake the game for just a bad break. Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that Philadelphia simply isn’t performing up to the capabilities of its roster. You follow the org chart all the way to the top when that happens, and the buck stops with Nick Sirianni.
Sirianni has remained Teflon for several years now, because that’s what happens when you win a Super Bowl. I caught a lot of criticism from Eagles fans for criticizing Sirianni since then, suggesting that the victory was perhaps a more important byproduct of the coordinators than Sirianni’s genius, and suggesting that the man at the top may not have been the football genius he is portrayed to be.
Offense is a major problem for the Eagles. This has been a problem not only this season, but over the last 21 games. It’s been atrocious throughout the 2025 season, and it’s been just as terrible so far this year. When Steichen left the Eagles after the 2022 season, the team ranked 3rd in yards and points scored, the following year it fell to 7th and 8th, respectively – which it did for two years. Then came the cliff, with Philadelphia falling to 19th and 24th last season and now they are 25th in yards and 24th in scoring. Sirianni keeps rearranging the deckchairs on his offensive Titanic, but the result is the same.
On Sunday, they were 0 of 12 on third down, 1 of 4 on fourth down. It’s a systemic coaching failure, and when your starting quarterback is only able to complete 12 passes for 93 yards against a defense that doesn’t have Myles Garrett OR Aaron Donald, that’s a major problem.
There are a myriad of issues with the Eagles offense right now. Jalen Hurts seems afraid to use his legs to gain yards, which is either an internal issue with the QB – or something the team has kept him away from. As a result, you have a quarterback whose career has been defined by combining the threat of his arms and legs to justify his abilities, but eliminating half of that threat leaves him a demonstrably mediocre player.
The situation is made worse by the fact that Saquon Barkley is injured. We don’t know the severity of the injury at this time, but even a few missed games will be a colossal problem with the Jaguars, Panthers and Cowboys on the roster – three teams that have offenses that could put pressure on Philadelphia to match them. These are also three teams the team should be able to beat easily, as are the Titans and Commanders – with the Eagles struggling to score possession wins on both.
The Sirianni harness is real, or at least it should be. This team has used offensive coordinators since winning the Super Bowl, which regularly leads to them being blamed when things go wrong and the offense doesn’t reach its potential. That has to come down to Sirianni at some point, and it’s fair to question whether or not he’s lost control on the offensive side of the ball. One of the best traits of the Eagles in their prime was a complete understanding of who they are, their strengths and not going outside of that rubric. Lately it feels like Philly is playing ambitious football, forcing what they to want to be, rather than accepting who they are in this moment – and building on those strengths.
This is a strange situation, because Sirianni actually has many fantastic traits. He’s a great motivator, he developed a locker room culture that had more of a swagger side to it, but he badly needs someone to help him with the strategic elements of the game. It’s not that Sirianni is incapable, but rather that he’s like a coach who is currently underwater, trying to do too much at once. If he doesn’t find a way to swim soon, he’ll sink all season.
Before Sunday Night Football Bryce Young was the best statistical passer in the NFL, but that looked a bit like fool’s gold. With the eyes of a nation glued to the diminutive Panthers QB, he had arguably the best game of his career, with an unflappable performance in the pocket that saw him dismantle a hapless Lions defense.
It was the culmination of everything leading up to this point. Young faced early adversity with terrible coaching and no quality receivers during his rookie season. He was benched to try to rebuild the Qb early in year two. Now the resurgence has come and Young has become incredible. Not only is he the best deep passer in the league, but his ability as a distributor is currently unmatched in the league. This is a Panthers team with deep issues on their offensive line, they were without their No. 2 and No. 3 receivers Sunday night, but Young still managed to finish with 329 yards and 2 touchdowns.
This is Bryce’s world, and we live in it.
Loser: Houston Texans
The equivalent of Sunday dinner in the NFL, because every week they are cooked. At 0-4, the playoff window is quickly closing and the team has transformed into a grotesque caricature of itself from a year ago. In 2025, this was an organization that had a brilliant defense and an offense that just couldn’t help enough. Now, offense is no longer the focus, as defense has become a total responsibility.
Against the Cowboys, the Texans gave up 399 total yards and had absolutely no answer for CeeDee Lamb, who finished with 17 receptions for 189 yards and a TD. By giving up an astonishing 28 first downs, the Texans allowed Dallas to dominate time of possession and ensured that the Texans simply didn’t have enough chances.
Things are deeply, deeply wrong with this Texas team. They wasted some games they should have won easily in the first part of their schedule, and now they’re going through a really shaky stretch heading into their bye. They should take on the Titans without much trouble, but the Jaguars and even the Giants are a different story now. This team could very well be 1-6 entering their bye week, which would completely dash their playoff hopes.
DeMeco Ryans doesn’t seem to have an answer to stop the bleeding. The mood is completely abnormal with Houston, and they seem miles away from the Jaguars and Colts at the top of the AFC South.
Another week, another 49ers win despite their ridiculous number of injuries. It would be easy to discredit the win against the Broncos without Patrick Surtain Jr, but ultimately San Francisco found itself without many players who could have influenced the game.
I fervently supported Shanny for Coach of the Year in 2025 for the way he handled his team through injuries, and the same thing is happening once again. The 49ers just haven’t stopped and are planning something special again. This team is almost too strong that a substation can’t stop them…almost. We will have to see what happens in the coming weeks.
Who are your nominees for the biggest winners and losers of week 4?
Gn sports
