Game Review – DET 27, PHI 24

Posted: September 24th, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Game Review – DET 27, PHI 24

This isn’t going to be a normal review. This is a short week so things are a bit condensed.

The Eagles lost on Sunday, with emphasis on them losing. Sometimes the other team outplays you. You tip your cap and move on. You can live with a game like that. The losses that haunt you are the ones filled with mistakes. Think back to CAR and TEN last year. Ugh.

  • 7 dropped passes
  • 2 lost fumbles
  • 3 offensive pass interference penalties
  • 100-yd KO return for a TD
  • offside on 3rd/goal that led to TD

That is how you give a game away.

The bad news is that the Eagles made that many mistakes. Even worse, the timing of some of the mistakes was crushing. Nelson Agholor fumbled in Detroit territory. Instead of the Eagles going down and kicking a FG to cut the lead to 14-13, the Lions went down and kicked a FG of their own to extend the lead to 17-10.

The KOR came right after the Eagles had taken a 3-0 lead. All the momentum went away on that one play and the Eagles were off-balance the rest of the first half.

Agholor dropped a third down pass near midfield. That ended a promising drive.

Carson Wentz was off-target with a pass on 3rd/goal. If he makes a better throw, the Eagles had a real chance for a TD on the opening drive.

There were two dropped passes on the final drive. One would have put the Eagles in FG range. The other would have put the team in position to score a TD. Critical errors.

There is some encouraging news. All of that sloppy play happened. The Eagles were missing their two best WRs. They played three different guys at LT. They got the short end of the stick on a few calls by the officials. All of that and the Eagles lost by 3 points. This is still a talented team. This is still a resilient team.

Of course, that means nothing if they don’t start winning.

QB

Wentz played well, going 19-36-259. He had 2 TDs and no picks.

Some people have criticized Wentz for not finding a way to win the game. He made some good throws late in the game. His receivers just let him down. Were they perfect throws? No, but they rarely are in the NFL. You get to this level by being able to make tough catches. If you need a perfect pass, the NFL isn’t for you.

Wentz did make some sloppy throws that hurt. He was off-target on 3rd/goal to Hollins. That could have been a TD. Wentz connected on a couple of downfield throws to Miles Sanders if the passes were a bit better, Sanders had chances to make even bigger plays.

Wentz had another play to Sanders that didn’t work. Wentz moved to his right to avoid pressure. He was off-balance and threw down the field. Sanders was wide open, but the pass was over his head. That was under tough circumstances so you can’t blame Wentz. It was just a play that stood out because i could have been so huge. That could have been a TD. It reminded me a bit of Wentz to Sproles for the TD vs Pittsburgh back in 2016.

There were some terrific throws. It didn’t count, but Wentz hit Sproles on 4th/5 with a perfect pass. Penalty wiped that out. Wentz made a good throw to Goedert that should have been a TD, but got dropped. Wentz made some impressive touch throws as well.

The Eagles ran lots of empty sets. They let Wentz adjust plays at the LOS. He used a hard count twice to get the Lions to jump. One of Wentz’s smartest moments came on a tipped pass. The ball came back to him and he slammed it into the ground. There is no reason to catch that and try to run. Wentz did run 4 times for 33 yards.

RB

Miles Sanders was the headliner, both good and bad. He was 13-53 on the ground and once again showed good speed and athleticism. Sanders was 2-73 as a receiver. He showed the ability to get down the field and catch the ball. Those big plays led to points. The downside? He fumbled twice, losing one. You cannot do that in the NFL.

Jordan Howard was 11-37 and ran for a TD. He had a couple of really impressive runs early on. His physicality is great to watch. He gets low and punishes tacklers. The whole team seems to respond to his best runs. It would be great to see him get more opportunities. Howard had a pass thrown his way and dropped it.

Darren Sproles had a quiet game, 2-4 on the ground. He had one pass thrown his way. Sproles pushed off and was called for OPI.

WR

Nelson Agholor was 8-50 and had a pair of TDs. He showed great effort on one, as he fought his way into the end zone. Unfortunately he also dropped a key pass and fumbled. Such a frustrating player.

Mack Hollins was also up and down. The good, going 4-62 and making some quality catches. The bad, there were 2 OPIs and a key drop on the final drive.

JJAW was 1-10 and had a brutal drop on the final drive. Not ideal.

TE

Zach Ertz was 4-64 and played well. The problem with him is that he was only 1-6 in the second half. The Lions tightened their coverage and shut him down.

Dallas Goedert didn’t play much, logging 9 snaps.

OL

I didn’t get to study the line play as much as I would have liked. Isaac Seumalo played better this week, but still needs to improve. He remains the weakest link in the chain.

Jason Peters left the game due to illness. Andre Dillard took over. He was okay, but struggled with power rushes on some plays. Dillard hurt his knee so Big V then took over at LT. Peters came back into the game in the second half.

DL

Too quiet of a game. No sacks, no TFLs, no FFs, no PDs. That isn’t to say the DL was terrible, but they weren’t disruptive enough and they didn’t make plays. Brandon Graham had a chance to make a couple of plays, but just couldn’t get it done. Vinny Curry had the biggest hit on Matt Stafford. Fletcher Cox got penetration on the first play of the game, but wasn’t disruptive enough.

The low moment of the game came after a turnover. Only 3 DL were on the field. We don’t know who specifically is at fault, but very well could have been Curry. Derek Barnett was injured at that part of the game.

LB

Zach Brown led the team with 7 tackles. He also had a TFL and PD. He’s good when he can run to the ball, but isn’t as good vs inside runs.

Nigel Bradham had a quiet game. He was in on 4 tackles and had a PD (more luck than skill).

Nate Gerry was in on a couple of tackles.

DB

Ronald Darby was once again targeted. He led the team with 6 solo tackles, despite only playing 23 snaps. That’s not a good sign for a CB. That’s…wow.

Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas played most of the game outside. Jones had a TFL and PD and did some good things in coverage. Douglas broke up 2 passes and had 2 TFLs.

Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod were solid. Andrew Sendejo broke up a downfield pass on third down.

STs

Cameron Johnston averaged 48 yards on three punts. One of them hit near the goal line and then went straight for the sideline. Amazing control on that kick.

Jake Elliott hit his only FG. Most of his kickoffs were good, but the first one wasn’t deep enough.

Malcolm Jenkins blocked a FG late in the game. Douglas picked it up and returned it deep, but that was negated by a block in the back penalty on Jenkins. As Jimmy Bama pointed out, if you watch the play, you can see that was tough. The player stopped and Jenkins ran into him. Frustrating and costly penalty.

The Eagles return game was quiet.

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