Anyone who’s played Madden understands that this was one of those games where the computer decides you simply aren’t going to win. Unfortunately, there is no reset button in the NFL. When the schedule makers put this gauntlet of games together for the Birds, we knew they weren’t going to make it through unscathed. There was bound to be a loss or two in here somewhere. This week, the 49ers entered Philadelphia looking for blood. They’ve been talking trash since losing the NFC Championship Game in Philly last year. They dressed in all-black coming into the stadium. Everything about their words and actions told you they were a desperate team, hungry for some payback. And give them credit, they backed it up. Anytime there’s a game in which your team absolutely gets its brains beat in, you can start to talk to yourself. You begin to either rationalize what you saw, analyze it, and try not to overreact, or take in the beating viscerally and personally, taking a flamethrower to the entire place in the hopes it’ll make you feel better. Either reaction is understandable, if more or less volatile than the other. The Eagles’ 42-19 beatdown at the hands of the 49ers is pretty simple. A tired Eagles team got bullied by a talented and, on this day at least, better-coached squad. Most of us believed the Birds’ run of comeback wins against some of the best teams in the NFL meant they would follow suit and handle a San Francisco team they had dominated in the NFC Championship Game 11 months before, but there were many outside of Philadelphia (especially the Vegas oddsmakers who were, once again, on the money by making the Eagles a 3-point home underdog) who knew the 49ers were a tough match-up for Philly. That said, no one saw a monumental butt-kicking coming. In the wake of this shellacking, here are 6 lies and 6 truths we’re telling ourselves as we’re left to deal with the aftermath of the Eagles’ humiliation on Sunday.

Lie: The Eagles are overrated and stink
Truth: The Eagles are still a really good football team

The Eagles have not played a complete game yet this year. They’ve trailed at halftime in each of their last five games. They’ve been out-gained by 95+ yards in each of their last five. Continuing to beat good teams playing this way was unsustainable and it caught up to them on Sunday. And yes, you have to look at the 49ers offensive roster and what the Eagles had in the back half of the field on Sunday and admit who the better unit was. San Francisco’s offensive DVOA is No. 1 in the league for a reason, and without Nakobe Dean and Zach Cunningham to at least help at linebacker, Shanahan picked on Nicholas Morrow and Christian Elliss all day long. Great point by @RoobNBCS — the only 3 linebackers the Eagles had available today were guys they cut & brought back. That’s something within their control they did not address. Also, no way you should get blown out on a day when Hurts had so much time to throw. THAT surprised me— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) December 4, 2023

But think about what the Birds accomplished in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s game against San Fran. There’s not a team in the NFL that would’ve beaten Miami, Dallas, Kansas City, Buffalo and San Francisco in a 6 week stretch.When everyone buries the Eagles tomorrow, please try to remember they still have the best record in the NFL with the hardest strength of schedule.— Mark in Philly (@MarkHenryJr_) December 4, 2023

In the last few weeks, the Eagles beat Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Yeah, Brock Purdy beat them on Sunday, but let’s not forget this team is still 10-2, still owns the best record in the NFL, is still one game up on the rest of the NFC and has played the most difficult schedule in the league. One awful, brutal, horrific outing against the undisputed best team right now doesn’t change that. They were also done in by the law of averages, which simply does not allow you to continue a streak of five straight wins in games in which you trailed by at least 10 points and being 5-0 when trailing at halftime. There’s a reason this part of the schedule was called a “gauntlet.”

Lie: The defense was uninterested
Truth: The defense was tired

I love Seth Joyner, but I disagree with this take. Over the long haul, the Eagles’ preference to spend money on the defensive line and at cornerback over the safeties and linebackers is a good strategy, but against the 49ers, it bit them bad. Sean Desai did not have a magical adjustment to make at halftime. They couldn’t take away Purdy’s first reads and force him to hold onto the ball long enough for a tired pass rush to get to him. And, yes, this defense was tired. Here’s why. Against the Bills last week, the defense was on the field for 92 plays. Against the Chiefs, it was 74. They were playing for the third time in 13 days, while the 49ers were playing for the first time in 10 days. Here’s the reality: 49ers are really good. And Eagles just beat the Cowboys, Chiefs and Bills, back-to-back-to-back. After the first quarter, 49ers did a great job of exploiting mismatches. Even if the Eagles could have survived Morrow and Elliss getting trucked, team had no legs— Les Bowen (@LesBowen) December 3, 2023

Darius Slay looks tired and slow. Haason Redick and Josh Sweat are playing too many snaps. The defensive line rotation has taken a hit with injuries. Nolan Smith has been a non-factor. Communication in the secondary continues to be a long-standing issue. Those are not excuses, but if it looks like the Eagles were disinterested in this game, it’s more likely they were simply exhausted.

Lie: Brian Johnson and Sean Deseai are to blame for this loss
Truth: Nick Sirianni has to be better as the executive head coach

If you’re not going to call the plays so that you can oversee everything happening on the sidelines, then you need to have more of a feel for the situation than Sirianni showed in the second half. Down 28-13 and facing a long 4th-and-1 inside his own 35, there was absolutely no reason for the Eagles not to go for it. Sure, had they not converted, the Niners would have already been in field goal position and the game would have been over, but one of the defining characteristics of Sirianni’s Eagles is their aggressiveness. They are the bullies. Not only that, the likelihood of the defense getting a stop after the punt in that spot was not great, as nearly everyone online vocalized in real time. But perhaps even worse was Sirianni’s decision to put Jalen Hurts back into the game trailing by three scores after he had just gone into the locker room under the concussion protocol. Even if they weren’t concerned about a concussion, the last half of the 4th quarter should have been Marcus Mariota time. There’s no way D’Andre Swift should have been on the field late in the game to absorb that soul-crunching hit that would have rattled the bones of even the toughest player in the game, especially when he was grossly under-utilized when it actually mattered. And for everyone concerned about the lack of a consistent Eagles’ running game this season, that falls as much on Sirianni as Johnson. Sirianni, as the head of the coaches, is in charge of the gameplan. He’s in charge of the personnel usage. If there’s something happening he doesn’t like, he has the ability, as the sideline CEO, to step in and change something. The fascination with Kenny Gainwell is mind boggling, as is the desire to jam Quez Watkins on the field whenever he’s healthy, who played 64% of the offensive snaps, with Olamide Zaccheaus at 33% and Julio Jones at 14%. These are the types of things that should not happen when you’ve got a CEO head coach. It was a weird mix of passivity and then over-aggression/bravado for those decisions to live next to each other, and pointed to a day in which Sirianni, who is…