Hall of Fame sports writer offers searing criticism of Eagles season

You could watch a ton of football or write about the Philadelphia Eagles for the next 20 years. Ray Didinger has forgotten more about this team than most will ever know. He’s a five-time Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year, among other things. Oh, and did we mention that he’s a Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame member?

He co-authored Football America: Celebrating Our National Passion with Don Shula in 1996. In 2005, he co-wrote The Eagles Encyclopedia with Robert S. Lyons. We won’t even get into how long he has educated sports fans about the game we love. Let’s say he’s one of those guys everyone should pay attention to when he speaks.

Recently, he appeared on 94 WIP-FM’s Morning Show and asked an intriguing and essential question… “What does this team do well?”

“Right now, they don’t do anything well,” Didinger continued. “The only thing that you can say they do well is they have a really good punter, and they have a placekicker who hasn’t missed a field goal attempt. Other than that, this team isn’t doing a single blessed thing well. “You’re 4-2, but how do you look as a team? And right now they just look awful, predictable… Right now, if you looked at that and you didn’t know the history of this team, you didn’t know the pedigree (and) somebody just slapped the tape on and said, ‘Take a look at this team. Tell me what you think.’ You’d say, ‘Yeah, they stink.”

If an angry fan on X makes such a statement, it may not be taken as seriously. When stated by Ray Didinger, this is almost biblical.

What’s sad is he’s right. Questions need to be asked. What does this team do well? That leads to questions that we’re certain the coaching staff and leadership are asking. How does this get corrected?

Four straight wins to begin the season masked many of the deficiencies that terrified us. Two losses in succession play into the theory that the Eagles’ ongoing issues have finally caught up with them.

This team needs depth at cornerback and edge rusher. The running game needs to be more productive. There isn’t much that can be done about injuries, but fingers are crossed that this team can get healthy.

There is no perfect roster. Every NFL team has chinks in its armor. Every franchise has several areas that it hopes can be improved upon. The team that does the best job of doing so will put itself in the best position to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Despite the tough start, there’s no reason why the Eagles can’t still be the team.

This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Ray Didinger unloads on the Eagles’ underwhelming season