The Birds Fly to London Shorthanded — and That’s When We Find Out Who They Are

PHILADELPHIA — There’s a version of this season a lot of people around here already had written. Saquon Barkley in the backfield, DeVonta Smith on the outside, Jalen Hurts under center, and a trip across the Atlantic as a victory lap for a 4-0 or 3-1 football team. That’s not the team boarding the plane this week. The team boarding the plane is 2-2, banged up in a way that would make a lesser fan base reach for the panic button, and headed to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday morning before most of South Jersey has finished its first cup of coffee.

I grew up in Camden watching the Birds, and I’ll tell you what I told my old man on the phone this week: this is the kind of stretch that tells you the truth about a roster. Anybody can win when the whole starting lineup is healthy. London is going to ask a different question.

Two backs down

Start with the backfield, because that’s where it hurts most. Barkley went down with a hamstring injury early against the Rams and didn’t come back. The word out of the NovaCare Complex is week-to-week — not season-ending, which matters — but his status for London is genuinely in doubt, and a hamstring on a running back who makes his living on the cut is not something you rush. Then there’s Tank Bigsby, who was supposed to be the insurance policy. Bigsby was hurt in that same game and is headed to injured reserve for core muscle surgery, with a timeline that stretches out around six weeks. So of the two backs the Eagles counted on to carry the load, one is out and the other, as of this writing, has not practiced.

That’s before you get to the passing game. Smith — the WR1, the guy Hurts trusts when the pocket collapses and the play breaks down — was ruled out against the Rams with his own hamstring issue, and the early read is that it’s a multi-week problem rather than a one-game absence. By the time Sunday’s game against Los Angeles was over, the inactive and injured list read like a depth chart: Smith, Barkley, Bigsby, Dallas Goedert, Lane Johnson, Quinyon Mitchell, Jonathan Greenard, Zack Baun. That’s not a bad week. That’s a gauntlet.

That’s not a bad week. That’s a gauntlet.Samuel Banks

The kid at right tackle

Here’s where I’m supposed to tell you the sky is falling. I’m not going to. Because what I keep coming back to is the kid at right tackle.

When Johnson sat out the Rams game for personal reasons — two days before he announced his retirement after 14 seasons — the Eagles turned to Markel Bell for his first career start, and the sky did not, in fact, fall. That’s the thing about this organization over the last few years — the next-man-up stuff isn’t just a locker-room cliché on a motivational poster. Howie Roseman has built a roster deep enough that a rookie tackle’s debut becomes a footnote instead of a disaster. Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion stood up at his Tuesday press conference and talked about the running back room with the kind of calm that only comes when you believe in the guys behind the guys. He talked about third down, about the things this offense has to clean up, and he did it without flinching.

I believe him, mostly. But belief gets tested in a foreign country at 9:30 in the morning Eastern time, with a long flight behind you and half your skill-position talent in street clothes. The Jaguars are not a pushover, and a 2-2 team cannot afford to come home 2-3.

What to watch Sunday

What I’ll be watching Sunday isn’t the final score so much as the character. Does Hurts spread it around and trust the receivers who are still standing? Does whoever lines up at running back — and it may be a committee nobody outside the facility could’ve named in August — run downhill and protect the football? Does that offensive line, patched together with a rookie at right tackle, give the quarterback a clean pocket in an unfamiliar stadium?

This region doesn’t love the Eagles because they’re easy to love. We love them because they grind, because they reflect something about how working people around here get through a hard week. A healthy Eagles team in London would’ve been a nice postcard. A shorthanded one that finds a way to win? That’s the team South Jersey actually recognizes in the mirror.

Kickoff is 9:30 a.m. Set the coffee maker the night before. We’re going to find out who these Birds are before lunch.

Based on reporting from The Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC Sports Philadelphia, PhillyVoice, and the Eagles’ official press conferences.