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Following loss to Titans, Doug Pederson confronts his first crisis as Eagles head coach | Bob Ford

The coach's third season could go either way right now, heading into a difficult schedule stretch.

After overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans, head coach Doug Pederson said the team needs to improve its focus.
After overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans, head coach Doug Pederson said the team needs to improve its focus.Read moreDavid Maialetti

NASHVILLE — Welcome to the first real crisis of Doug Pederson's head coaching career. Yes, it is still early enough in the season to shake off whatever ails the Eagles, but they are 2-2 and heading into a scheduling stretch that will define this edition of the team.

It is only a crisis because Sunday's overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans was so out of character for the Eagles. Or, at least, that's supposed to be the case. Seasons end, however, and new ones begin and the reality that existed before can become a mirage.

The loss on Sunday was death by a thousand paper cuts. Penalties or drops crippled drives for the offense. Touchdowns turned into field goals. The defense was a step out of position on a very few critical plays — most notably that fourth-and-15 head-scratcher in the overtime. To a man, the players categorize the mistakes as fixable, and they are. But there are far more to fix than a year ago.

Sure, it was just one bad loss as September came to a close. But was it the new reality or just an aberration?

"I wanted them fixed weeks ago. I didn't want to be in this spot, at 2-2," said tight end Zach Ertz, who led the team with 10 receptions, but only two after halftime. "It's not like we're 0-4, but we can't rely on last year and say, 'We're just going to flip a switch and go win nine in a row.' Typically, we find a way to win. Today, we just dropped the ball and they beat us."

>> READ MORE: Who's trending up, who's trending down? Winners and losers from Sunday's loss

How they respond will determine if this is indeed Pederson's first crisis. As a rookie coach with a rookie quarterback in 2016, there couldn't actually be a crisis. They went 7-9 and six of the losses were by a touchdown or less. It was a fine start to his tenure. Last season, obviously, when you win 10 of your first 11 and go on to a championship, that's pretty smooth. Even the loss of Carson Wentz after the division had already been clinched became more of a unifying, us-versus-them rallying point than a crisis.

The difference this season isn't that the team is facing adversity. There is always adversity. The difference is how it is being handled. The defensive backfield has needed to be rearranged. The offense is still missing players at the skill positions. Those are challenges, but this is a challenging league. Say what you will, the 2017 Eagles would have won Sunday's game. The 2018 Eagles didn't.

"You have to hate this feeling more than you enjoy winning," Pederson said after the game. "Nobody's going to feel sorry for us with the injuries, there's no excuses. We can't feel sorry for ourselves."

That is what Pederson has to keep from creeping into the locker room. Once a sense of resignation takes hold, getting back to believing is difficult.

"A lot of it falls on my shoulders, preparing this football team during the week mentally, physically, having practice and all that," Pederson said, "but one thing that this team has (is) resiliency and just the ownership of doing their jobs, doing simple better, and just focus on their task and their job."

>> READ MORE: Eagles' issues in the secondary go beyond Jalen Mills in loss to Titans | Jeff McLane

The task between now and Thanksgiving to get things righted is daunting. The six-game stretch includes games against Minnesota, Carolina, Jacksonville, Dallas, and New Orleans. The other game is against the Giants. As the Eagles are currently playing, 3-3 would be an arguable prediction for that span, putting them at 5-5. Not good enough.

Along the way, they will have a bye week to catch their breath, and also the opportunity to get contributors like Mack Hollins, Mike Wallace, and Darren Sproles back from injury. Maybe they catch fire instead and it starts with paddling the Vikings next Sunday the way they did in the NFC championship game. It could happen, although in the game against the Titans they didn't look like a team about to bust out.

"I don't know, but we sure played like crap," defensive end Chris Long said. "Everybody's trying to get it fixed. Everybody wants to win. It isn't a decision we make that, 'OK, we're going to play like crap.' So, as far as ramping up urgency, we've been urgent. We're just making too many mistakes across the board. I'm disgusted with the way we played. But we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just need to stick to what got us here."

What got them where they went last season was the ability to keep wins from falling through the cracks that appear in every game. That wasn't the case against Tennessee. Maybe it's too early to declare a crisis, because we really don't know what one looks like under Pederson. But there's also no point in declaring a solution yet, either.

>> READ MORE: Alshon Jeffery put up the best numbers of his Eagles career

>> READ MORE: Offensive line can't protect Carson Wentz, allows four more sacks in loss to Titans