Gameday – PHI at IND

Posted: November 20th, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Gameday – PHI at IND

Before I get into today’s game, a personal note. I didn’t post a game review for Washington or a game preview for Indy because I was under the weather. My apologies for that.

Today’s game is going to be interesting for a few reasons. First, we’ll see how the Eagles respond to losing. Will that get them fired up or will it erode their confidence? I’m guessing Nick Sirianni will have his team locked in.

We’ll see the debut of Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh. They should improve the run defense. With Jordan Davis and Marlon Tuipulotu out for a while, the defense needs more big bodies. I’m curious to see how they play and if they can offer an immediate impact. Neither has played at all this year.

Some feel Washington gave the rest of the league a blueprint on how to beat the Eagles. There is some truth to that, but I’m not sure as much as people have made it out to be. WAS played ball control and it worked because they were insanely good on third downs. Teams can’t count on going 12 for 14. That’s not sustainable.

The other X-factor in there was the Eagles turning the ball over three times (four if you count the end of the game). If the Eagles protect the ball, they probably win. They didn’t and Washington made them pay. We’ll see if that becomes a trend or is an anomaly. The Eagles had done a phenomenal job of protecting the ball this season. We knew they would slip up at some point.

The Colts will be an interesting challenge. They are a mediocre team, as their 4-5-1 record would indicate. Their defense is 4th in yards allowed and 11th in points allowed so they will be tough on the Eagles offense.

This could be a big day for DeVonta Smith. I’m sure AJ Brown will be itching to get involved after having such a quiet game on Monday night. He’s not the kind of guy who wants to have limited production in consecutive games. Still, Jalen Hurts isn’t going to force things. He throws to the open guy. Against the Colts D, that might just be DeVonta.

We know Hurts won’t be targeting Dallas Goedert. He’s on IR for the next month or so. How will his absence affect the passing game? Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra have a big opportunity to step up and show what they can do. They don’t have to be Goedert, but do need to be functional and help the offense. Tyree Jackson is active and will see his first game action of the year. I’m guessing he gets mixed in, but maybe the coaches will use him more than that. They have seen him at practice for the past few weeks.

Goedert is a big part of the RPO game. The Eagles have smart coaches so it will be interesting to see how they adjust that part of the offense.

The Colts offense has only scored more than 20 points twice all season. One of those games was last week when they put up 25 points on the struggling Raiders. Indy used a quick passing game and strong run game to keep the chains moving. Almost all of Matt Ryan’s passes were inside of 10 yards. That helped to offset the OL’s pass pro issues.

RB Jonathan Taylor came back from injury and gave the offense a real jolt. He ran for 147 yards, including a 66-yard TD run. Taylor will be a tough test for the Eagles D. He can be a workhorse RB, but also has the speed to deliver big plays (like last Sunday). The Eagles must tackle well or he can make them pay.

The Colts OL has been banged up all year. The Eagles DL should win this battle, but they should have handled Washington’s OL better than they did last week.

I am curious to see how Jonathan Gannon calls this game. Will he keep two safeties high to limit big plays or will be load the box? Indy will likely throw short passes again this week so it would make sense to have more guys in the box to help play the run.

This is Week 2 of the Jeff Saturday experiment. He led the Colts to a win in his debut, but I’m guessing the Eagles will present a much tougher challenge. Could this be the kind of game where we’ll see his limitations? The Colts led for almost the entire game last week and never trailed by more than one point. I’m doubting Saturday will have favorable circumstances like that today. How will he respond? How will his team respond?

The Eagles have some interesting questions in this game and they need to come up with some good answers. Part of that will be on the coaches and part on the players.

Jalen Hurts is one driven player. Between him and Sirianni, I think the Eagles will right the ship today. It might not be easy or pretty, but they need to get back to winning as they solve the problems that have popped up.

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