Game Review – WAS 27, PHI 17

What an incredibly frustrating, torturous game. This loss would have been bad at any time, but in the season opener coming off the weirdest offseason of all-time…this was especially bad. We waited months and months for that?

Ugh.

The Eagles looked so good in building a 17-0 lead. The revamped offensive line was having some issues, but getting the job done. Carson Wentz looked terrific. The offense was getting some chunk plays. And the defense was stifling. Life was good.

Then the wheels came off.

The game became a buffet of mistakes for the Eagles.

• Carson Wentz made some poor throws. He made some poor decisions. He held the ball too long and took bad sacks.
• Multiple players dropped passes.
• The OL struggled.
• The defense couldn’t get key 3rd down stops. When they did, they couldn’t get key 4th down stops.
• The defense couldn’t get Red Zone stops.
• They had a chance for 2 takeaways and didn’t get either.
• There was a missed FG.
• There was a short punt.
• Doug Pederson didn’t help matters with his play-calling or his game management. He and Carson were stuck in Aggressive Mode and that came back to bite them.

Once things turned in favor of Washington, the Eagles just couldn’t make that one big play that they needed to make. You couldn’t help but flash back to the Carolina and Tennessee losses from 2018. So frustrating. So miserable.

OFFENSE

Carson Wentz was at his best and worst in this game. We’ll start with the good. He made some terrific throws. His deep ball to Reagor was right on the money. His TD to Goedert was a terrific touch throw. The TD pass to Ertz was a good read, good decision and good throw. Wentz was spreading the ball around and the offense looked good. Wentz used a hard count to draw WAS offside multiple times. He was playing like a smart, talented, veteran QB.

Everything changed on a bad throw late in the first half. The pass was picked off and it was like a light switch. Wentz wasn’t the same player after that. He was picked off again on a very similar play. He had another throw almost picked off. Something about his passes to the left and by the sideline. CBs were ready to jump those throws. Maybe they saw something on tape.

Can’t overstate it- Washington defensive staff put together a phenomenal game plan and they dominated up front. Wentz never found a rhythm. Eagles looked a little obsessed with deep shots. Need to be more efficient and patient.

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 14, 2020

They created several clean run through pressures, the CB's played bail and kept their eyes on Wentz, allowing them to jump routes down the field. They took away the screen game. Those were 3 signs of a well prepared team. They don't have big time guys in the secondary.

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 14, 2020

Playing behind a patchwork OL, Wentz (and his coaches) should have focused on playing it safe. Sacks and picks needed to be avoided at all costs. WAS could not sustain long drives. When in doubt, punt the ball and play defense. Sometimes analytics and attack mode aren’t the way to go. Use the old school eye test.

RB

Mixed day. Boston Scott, Corey Clement and Jason Huntley combined for 20 touches for 76 yards. They didn’t have much room to work with. Scott used his speed to get the most out of the space he did have. The biggest issue was pass protection. There were some bad reads on blitzes and some missed blocks. This group really missed Miles Sanders…as a runner, receiver and blocker.

WR

It was great to see young, fast receivers on the field. It wasn’t so great to see them making young player mistakes. John Hightower had a couple of drops. Jalen Reagor missed a block on a quick screen. Greg Ward had a bad block on a run play. The young receivers had some issues with their route running. The INTs from Wentz weren’t great throws, but he didn’t get help from his receivers either. JJAW had some good blocks, but was invisible in the passing game. This group needs to be more productive. The highlight of the day was Reagor hauling in a 55-yard bomb. DeSean Jackson was 2-46, but only played 37 snaps. Very weird situation.

TE

Dallas Goedert was 8-101-1. He added RAC yards on multiple catches and was very impressive. He made a great adjustment on the TD pass from Wentz. Goedert had to locate that over his shoulder. Ertz had a quiet day, going 3-18-1. He had a huge 4th down drop that killed a promising drive. Richard Rodgers had a bad block attempt on a pass play that helped lead to a sack.

OL

Such a mixed bag. The Eagles gave up 8 sacks, but check out this stat.

Interesting nugget from ⁦@NextGenStats⁩. Wentz held the ball too much last week. Need more built-in layups. pic.twitter.com/0aTUpqrjP5

— Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 17, 2020

Wentz has to help his blockers out. He cannot hold onto the ball that long, especially when he’s got backups starting.

Jack Driscoll made his NFL debut and did a solid job at RT. There were some bad plays, but he won his share of battles and looks like someone who should be starting in the future. Nate Herbig got his first start, playing RG. He didn’t play well in the first half. He wasn’t terrible, but that’s the best you can say. He settled down in the second half and played better. Still, there was a noticeable difference between him and Driscoll.

Jason Peters was disappointing. He looked sloppy. The Eagles look dumb for the whole “he’s our RG” nonsense. They should have given him his money and had Peters getting every snap possible at LT. That also would have given more reps at RG to Herbig and/or Matt Pryor.

Jason Kelce had some issues. The WAS DL is really talented and his athleticism wasn’t enough to handle those guys at times. Kelce did recover a Wentz fumble. Isaac Seumalo’s worst play came when he pulled to the right to pass block a DE. That’s tough and he didn’t do a good job of it. Jordan Mailata had come into the game and the Eagles did this to protect Mailata. It didn’t work.

Mailata was up and down. He just doesn’t look natural at RT. He plays too upright.

DEFENSE

Such a mixed bag. They have the #1 defense in the league based on yards allowed. But they gave up 27 points and failed to make key plays that might have helped to win the game. WAS TD drives started at:

PHI 45
PHI 20
PHI 48

The two FG drives also started in Eagles territory. Jim Schwartz will tell his players that they weren’t good enough. And he’s right. But they did a lot of good things as well.

There was confusion in the secondary on the TD pass. WAS used motion to confuse the DBs. The coaches must clean that up or the Rams will eat them alive.

WAS finished 36-80 on the ground. That included a 19-yard run and a 20-yard run. Take those away and you’ve got 34 runs for 41 yards. That is great run defense.

DL

Malik Jackson was a disruptive force. He had a couple of big QB  hits. He was only in on two tackles, but he clogged running lanes and blew up blockers all game. Fletcher Cox didn’t have highlight plays in the passing game, but he was a force against the run. WAS averaged 2.2 yards per carry and Cox is a big reason for that. He was tough in the middle. I was pleasantly surprised by T.Y. McGill. He was quick off the ball and disruptive. McGill had half a sack and hit the QB a couple of times.

Josh Sweat flew off the edge for a strip sack. He was in on 3 total tackles and had a solid game. Brandon Graham didn’t get a lot of pressure. He did have on TFL on a run play. Vinny Curry was in on half a sack. Genard Avery played some and also got in on half a sack.

LB

Nate Gerry led the team with 10 total tackles and 2 TFLs. Tackling in space has been an issue in the past, but it wasn’t in this game. Duke Riley was more impressive. He was in on 6 total tackles and had half a sack. He looked good in coverage and his athleticism showed up throughout the game. T.J. Edwards only played 20 snaps, but did a solid job. Rookie Shaun Bradley played in some packages and had a tackle.

S

Rodney McLeod led the team with 6 solo tackles and broke up a couple of passes. He played well. Jalen Mills made his debut at SS and had a solid game. He had 4 solo tackles, but didn’t make any plays. Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace each played a few snaps.

CB

Darius Slay was the real deal. He kept Terry McLaurin under control. When Slay was on him, McLaurin only had 2 catches. That’s what you want from a true #1 CB.

Avonte Maddox was more up and down. He had 4 solo tackles, a TFL and a PBU, but also gave up some catches. He dropped an INT after making a good read and break on the ball. Nickell Robey-Coleman had a couple of poor tackling attempts. One came on a 4th down play. He tried to hit a RB instead of wrapping up. That was frustrating. Cre’Von LeBlanc played a small role.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Jake Elliott came up short on a 53-yard FG. Dave Fipp said it was his fault for sending the FG unit on the field late. Also didn’t help that Wentz took a long sack to force the long FG.

Cam Johnston averaged 54 yards per punt. Unfortunately he had a 43-yarder when the team was backed up deep. That set WAS up in terrific field position.

The return game was quiet. Reagor muffed a punt, but Craig James recovered it. Rudy Ford was excellent in coverage.

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