PHILADELPHIA _ The Eagles are not back, as they thought last week. They lost a 17-0 fourth-quarter lead and could not capitalize on a chance to win the game in the final seconds. They were left stunned while walking off the field in a 21-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
They fell to 3-4, dropped their second game at home this season, and need to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in London next weekend to avoid a losing record at the midpoint of the season.
The Eagles brought a 17-0 lead into the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough. The Panthers opened the quarter by converting two third downs on their way to their first touchdown of the game. Curtis Samuel rushed 14 yards around the right side to finish a nice drive by the Panthers, although they missed the extra points and the Eagles still had an 11-point lead.
The lead seemed safe, but the offense started to stall. They were forced to punt after only one fresh set of downs, and the Panthers took possession from their 13-yard line with just fewer than seven minutes remaining. Cam Newton converted all six of his pass attempts, finished by an 18-yard touchdown. A two-point conversion made it a three-point game, and the Eagles defense needed the offense to come through with a long drive.
The offense went three-and-out.
The Eagles punted the ball away, and the Panthers regained possession down three points with 2 minutes 17 seconds remaining. Newton threw three consecutive incompletions, and the Panthers were backed up to a fourth-and-10. The Eagles' fourth-down defense plagued the team during a Week 4 loss to Tennessee, and the same thing happened on Sunday. Newton flailed a pass to former Eagle Torrey Smith, who got the first down _ and more. He ran after the catch for a 35-yard gain, and it quickly became quiet at Lincoln Financial Field. It became even quieter when Newton hit Greg Olsen for a one-yard touchdown to take a 21-17 lead with 1 minute, 22 seconds remaining.
For the first time all afternoon, the Eagles were trailing.
There was a sign of life when Carson Wentz threw deep on the first play of a potential game-winning drive and Alshon Jeffery drew a pass interference. The 48-yard penalty gave the Eagles the ball at the 22-yard line. There was renewed life, too, when a Wentz interception was overturned. But the Eagles could not take advantage of those chances. Wentz was sacked and fumbled and fourth-and-2, and the Eagles were left with the cold reality that they coughed up a 17-point lead.
Wentz finished 30 of 37 for 310 yards and two touchdowns. Zach Ertz had nine catches for 138 yards and Alshon Jeffery had seven catches for 88 yards and a touchdown.
It was a scoreless first quarter after the Eagles squandered a scoring chance on their second drive. They brought the ball 62 yards, but a chop block by Dallas Goedert set them back to a first-and-25, from which they couldn't recover. They needed to settle for a 36-yard field goal attempt, which Jake Elliott missed wide right.
At one point in that drive, Panthers safety Eric Reid hit Wentz after a handoff. Ertz did not take kindly to Reid's hit, and charged at Reid. Both players were flagged for unnecessary roughness, but it was an emotionally charged game for Reid. He needed to be restrained during the opening kickoff after shouting toward Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, and also appeared to have words for Jenkins after the first drive of the game. Reid had called the Players Coalition, of which Jenkins is a co-founder, an "NFL-funded subversion group."
The next time the Eagles had possession, they didn't settle for a field goal. Wentz relied on his top targets throughout the drive, with all four completions to either Ertz or Jeffery. The touchdown was an 11-yard pass to Jeffery, who found the end zone four times in four games this season.
Elliott had a chance to redeem himself after the Eagles forced a three-and-out. They went 60 yards on six plays with the help of big gains by Ertz and Jeffery, but couldn't reach the end zone. Elliott hit a 46-yard field goal to give the Eagles a 10-0 lead.
The Panthers almost cut that to a seven-point lead late in the second quarter, except they had two false starts when they set up for field goals. What started as a 39-yard attempt had been pushed back into a 49-yard attempt in the wins, and the Panthers decided to punt instead of try the field goal. They went into halftime with a 10-0 deficit even though the Eagles had outgained them by 139 yards.
After the Panthers needed to punt on their opening drive of the third quarter, the Eagles went on perhaps their best drive of the season. More than nine minutes elapsed while the Eagles totaled 17 plays for 94 yards. They converted only one third down _ an impressive eight-yard rush by Smallwood on a third-and-6 _ but Wentz only had one incompletion on the drive. He also rushed for a first down on a fourth-and-inches before he hit Goedert for a one-yard score to give the Eagles a 17-0 lead.
That seemed like it would be enough. The Eagles found out the hard way that it was not.
