Motor City Madness

Posted: October 31st, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 1 Comment »

For three hours, the Eagles looked like a good team. They ran for 236 yards, converted in the Red Zone, only had two penalties and played aggressive defense. The Eagles were so good they sat multiple starters for the entire fourth quarter.

This is the 2021 Eagles I’m talking about, in case you’re confused.

As good as the Eagles looked in their 44-6 win, the Lions were the opposite. Forget about bad, they were awful. Atrocious. Reprehensible. Embarrassing. The Lions came into the game 0-7, but they had been competitive in every game. They were a couple of field goals from also being 2-5.

Not on Sunday. Detroit hit rock bottom. And they kept digging. They could not compete with a 2-5 team. Maybe the Lions didn’t take the Eagles as seriously, coming off a pair of losses. Or maybe all the close losses drained them of their emotion. Whatever the reason, Detroit looked awful. Most of the national coverage I’ve seen isn’t about the Eagles dominance, but rather the Lions embarrassing performance.

I mention this for a reason. Anyone who thinks today’s win means the Eagles have solved their problems needs to pump the brakes. Enjoy the win. Sunday was fun (for a change). But…

The Lions are the worst team in the NFC (maybe the NFL) for a reason. The Eagles were missing their starting RB and still ran for 236 yards. Many of those yards were easy. That made it fun to watch, but you sure can’t count on the team doing that every week.

Jalen Hurts finished 9-14-103 as a passer. The Eagles threw when they wanted to. They probably could have won this game without attempting a pass.

It was fun to see Nick Sirianni dial up run plays and stick with them. RBs were 37-144 and even ran for 4 TDs. Jordan Howard got his first playing time of the year and looked good. I love a physical, downhill runner. His style worked well with the gameplan and the Lions lack of a run defense. When you’re playing a bad run defense, don’t dance around. Run at them and make them tackle you.

Boston Scott played his best game of the year, going 12-60-2. His downhill style and good burst were a good fit for the gameplan. He and Howard made an interesting combo of RBs.

Sirianni said the Eagles went run heavy because they thought that was the way to attack Detroit’s defense. Don’t count on this as the new offense.

No matter what, it was fun for a day.

The Eagles defense also looked very different. They blitzed and had safeties coming down into the box to help with run support. Put simply, they were aggressive. The Eagles came up with 6 sacks and also scored a TD. Avonte Maddox punched the ball out after a short catch. Darius Slay scooped it up and raced 33 yards for a TD. Finally, Big Play Slay made an appearance.

How good was the defense today? Ryan Kerrigan had 2 pressures. The boys up front made plays and that helped the back seven to play a lot better.

There was also a personnel change.

TJ Edwards seemed to be the guy who played more in his place. Edwards led the team with 13 total tackles. He also had a pair of TFLs and a QB pressure. He looked like…a LB. Wilson has been a major failure this year so it was good to see him benched.

Marcus Epps had his best game of the year. He didn’t make any big plays, but had 7 solo tackles, broke up a pass and was a physical hitter to anyone coming over the middle.

The DL was the group that really stood out. Josh Sweat had a pair of sacks and only holding by the LT kept him from getting a third. Derek Barnett, Hassan Ridgeway, Milton Williams and Tarron Jackson also had sacks. Ridgeway and Jackson each forced fumbles. Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave were disruptive. Jared Goff didn’t look comfortable in the pocket.

By calling a more aggressive game, I think Jonathan Gannon brought out the best in his players. They had some extra pep in their step. They flew to the ball. They tackled well. Detroit loves to throw short and get RAC yards. The Eagles really limited those.

There was no run game for the Lions. D’Andre Swift was 12-27 on the ground. The team ran for 57 yards.

I think the defense can have success against other teams if Gannon will turn them loose more often. We won’t know for sure until we see them in action, but the defense looked really good in scrimmages against the Patriots and Jets this summer. There is potential for the group. Gannon pushed the right buttons today. It will be interesting to see how the defense plays in upcoming games.

As much fun as the win over the Lions was, I do have one complaint.

I wanted the shutout.

I started to get excited in the first half when Dan Campbell went for it on fourth down instead of kicking the easy FG. Once we got to the end of the third quarter, I started to believe it could really happen.

We even got halfway through the fourth quarter before Detroit scored. They ran for an 8-yard TD and I yelled out “NO!!!!!!!!!!!”. What a horrible way to lose a shutout.

For those who don’t know, I’m obsessed with the Eagles getting shutouts. They have only had three since 1993. They had shutouts against the Giants in 1996 and 2014. The Eagles beat WFT 24-0 in the 2018 season finale.

I got 3.5 quarters of shutout football on Sunday so I should be thrilled with that, but I was being greedy.

Happy Halloween everyone. We finally got a fun, relaxing Sunday. Let’s hope there might be one or two more coming our way this year.

_

One Comment on “Motor City Madness”

  1. 1 The Linc – Lane Johnson says he was “living in hell for a long time” – Therapy Box said at 9:18 AM on November 1st, 2021:

    […] Motor City Madness – Iggles BlitzI mention this for a reason. Anyone who thinks today’s win means the Eagles have solved their problems needs to pump the brakes. Enjoy the win. Sunday was fun (for a change). But… The Lions are the worst team in the NFC (maybe the NFL) for a reason. The Eagles were missing their starting RB and still ran for 236 yards. Many of those yards were easy. That made it fun to watch, but you sure can’t count on the team doing that every week. Jalen Hurts finished 9-14-103 as a passer. The Eagles threw when they wanted to. They probably could have won this game without attempting a pass. […]