Game Review – PHI 35, TEN 10

The Eagles have had the best record in the league for a while, but after narrow wins over the Colts and Packers, some people started to question just how good the team was. Some of that is just human nature. The Eagles had gotten a lot of praise for a long time. That gets to be a boring narrative. Close wins gave everyone a chance to come at them from a different angle.

Are the Eagles really that good?

We all thought the Titans would give them a challenge and a good chance to show what they could do against a good team. By halftime you could see these teams weren’t close. The Eagles are a Super Bowl contender. The Titans are a solid team that has feasted on weak opponents. The Eagles dominated Tennessee and showed the world not to start overlooking them.

Beyond the Titans being a good team, they have a reputation as a physical team. The Eagles completely shut down their run game and really got after QB Ryan Tannehill. The Eagles OL gave Jalen Hurts a ton of time and he shredded the Tennessee secondary.

This really was a dominant performance. And I think it got everyone’s attention. The messaging on the Eagles has changed. People are back to seeing them as being 11-1 for a reason. The Eagles are a damn good team.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni didn’t have many tough decisions in this game. The Eagles got up 7-0 early and led almost the rest of the game. It was tied at 7-7 for a few minutes. He did challenge one play and that was denied. Not his smartest challenge, but it didn’t affect the game very much.

His aggressive nature is a lot of fun. Leading 28-10, Sirianni went for it on 4th down in the red zone. He could have kicked the chip shot FG to go up 21, but wanted to work some more clock and get the TD. Both happened. You watch coaches like Todd Bowles and decisions are made with so much fear. It’s no fun and it doesn’t work well in today’s NFL.

Sirianni and the offensive coaches were smart to go pass-heavy in this game. Tennessee played the run well. The Eagles mixed in some runs, but threw the ball a lot. It was working great so it makes sense to stick with it.

The Eagles did have one trick play that didn’t work great. One defender got penetration and threw off the timing.

Jonathan Gannon had a good gameplan for the defense. They focused on taking away Derrick Henry and forcing Tannehill to beat them. They threw some creative coverages at Tannehill and that forced him to hold the ball at times. That helped the Eagles get 6 sacks.

When Gannon faces a one-dimensional team and focuses on stopping the run, the Eagles get that done. They loaded the box and played great team defense.

OFFENSE

453 yards
3 of 11 on 3rd downs
3 of 3 on 4th downs
2 of 2 in the red zone
6 plays of 20 or more yards

Penalties were a huge issue, mainly the OL. There were at least five false starts. There were multiple holding calls, including one bogus call on Kelce. Usually you don’t score 35 points when you have a lot of penalties, don’t get takeaways and don’t have favorable field position. The Eagles only had one scoring drive start beyond their own 32-yd line. That tells you how good the passing game was.

QB

Jalen Hurts was great, going 29-39-380 with 3 TDs. He was up and down early on. He hit DeVonta for a 34-yard TD, but the ball was underthrown. Luckily DeVonta adjusted and made the grab. On the next drive, Hurts bounced a pass on third down when he had an open receiver. After that, he settled in and started dropping dimes.

Hurts made used the middle of the field really well. He hit AJ and Quez for good gains when they were on the move. He hit Stoll and Calcaterra with really nice throws that got the Eagles good yards down the middle. The throw to Calcaterra was really impressive.

Nice ball up the seam to Grant Calcaterra pic.twitter.com/c2KzP4VTX2

— Shane Haff (@HAFFnHAFF_TPL) December 4, 2022

Hurts hit AJ for two deep-ball TDs. One throw was easy, but the other was fantastic. AJ wasn’t open at all and Hurts dropped it out of the sky right where AJ could make a play on it. TD. There was a long TD that got wiped out. Hurts put that ball too wide. AJ couldn’t get it and keep his feet in. TV analyst Greg Olsen called it a perfect throw. I don’t know what these guys are looking at sometimes. Hurts had a good deep ball to DeVonta that the DB broke up. The deep ball was a key weapon on Sunday.

There wasn’t a whole lot of running. Hurts was 5-12-1 on the ground. Two of those were sneaks. The passing game was so effective they didn’t need to use him as a runner very much. The TD was a designed run to the outside and it worked well. Hurts had outstanding protection so he didn’t have to scramble much.

It was interesting to see Hurts throw to the RBs so much. They caught 6 passes. Some were over the middle and others to the outside. A lot of that looked designed to get the ball to them.

Gardner Minshew played in the 4th Qtr. He made two good throws. One was caught, one dropped.

RB

Miles Sanders didn’t get a lot of work in this game. He was 10-24-1 as a runner and 2-14 as a receiver. One good run was wiped by an illegal shift penalty that didn’t affect the play. Ugh. There were two runs where Sanders fought to get first downs on short yardage situations. It impressed me that he seemed to know what he needed and was able to fight through traffic to move the chains. Nothing came easy.

Kenny Gainwell was 3-15 as a runner and 3-38 as a receiver. He looks very natural catching the ball and playing in space. He was elusive after the catch.

Boston Scott was 6-16 on the ground. That came late in the game. He also caught one pass.

WR

AJ showed his old team what a big mistake they made in letting go of him. He was 8-119-2 and both of the TDs were deep balls. He ran good routes and got open. He made catches while covered. He even ran over a DB. You could see just how physically special he is. You just don’t trade away guys like that. The wildest sequence came when AJ thought he had a long TD down the right sideline. It was ruled that way, but you could see he was out. The play was reviewed and overturned. On the very next play, he caught a 40-yd TD down the left side. Wow. AJ sold his route well and then tried to break up the field. The DB got in his way and AJ ran over him and was wide open. Easy TD, well easy at the end.

AJ Brown is a bully pic.twitter.com/Xb6W0bXMyK

— Laurie Fitzpatrick (@LaurieFitzptrck) December 4, 2022

The other TD came when the CB was all over him. Hurts put the ball on them and AJ was able to haul it in. He drew a PI call that set up a running TD. He caught several passes that were short and helped move the chains. You could really see his full skill set in the game. Special dude.

DeVonta was 5-102-1. His route running was a thing of beauty. He’s so fluid that it gives DBs fits. He got wide open on the first 3rd down of the game and it was an easy pitch and catch from Hurts. DeVonta ran a beautiful route later on the drive and was wide open inside the 5. Hurts was a little off with that throw, but DeVonta adjusted and made the grab and then got in for the score. Just missed a big play in the second half. The CB got his arm on the ball and knocked it away.

Quez Watkins was 5-37. They used his speed horizontally in this game rather than vertically. They had him going E-W and it worked well. There were even a couple of designed plays where they “threw” it to him on a jet sweep (almost a handoff). Hurt his shoulder at one point, but doesn’t seem too serious.

Zach Pascal caught a couple of passes. He did have one drop on a throw from Minshew.

TE

Jack Stoll had the best game of his young career, going 3-41. All three throws were over the middle. Two were short and Stoll made nice grabs on those. One was for 26 yards. Stoll ran a good route and Hurts put the ball right on him. You can see he’s got the potential to be a good backup TE. Blocked well in the run game.

Grant Calcaterra caught one pass for 19 yards. He was open, but in some traffic. Hurts made a good throw and got the ball to him. Calcaterra’s blocking needs work. He’s feisty, but not nearly strong enough. There was a goal line sequence where DE Bud Dupree was tossing him around like a rag doll. But Calcaterra kept him occupied and away from the RB so that worked in a way.

OL

The OL had a strange day. They gave Hurts great protection. They also had a boatload of penalties. They were up and down with run blocking. Give credit to the Titans. They decided the Eagles weren’t going to beat them on the ground.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1599874360973484032

Jordan had a key moment when he recovered the fumble after sack. It was his guy who got to Hurts, but good job to stay alert and get to the ball.

Jason Kelce had a beautiful block on Sanders TD run. Kelce got under the DT and just drove him to the side and into the end zone. Such a stud. He also had this play.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1599889588730089474

Isaac Seumalo and Landon Dickerson each had holding calls, but they kept the Titans DTs under control and that’s huge. Tart and Simmons have wrecked some games this year. They combined for 1 tackle and 1 QB hit. The Eagles dominated the inside.

Lane Johnson shut down his side, as usual.

Andre Dillard played RG late in the game. I thought he looked very natural playing there. Was effective on runs and passes. I thought he would be completely lost at OG. And moving to the right side would make things worse. Not the case at all. This was 10 plays in a blowout, but still encouraging.

DEFENSE

209 yards
4 of 14 on 3rd downs
1 of 2 on 4th downs
0 of 2 in the red zone
2 plays of 20 or more yards
0 takeaways
6 sacks, 9 QB hits
5 TFLs

No points in the second half.

Tennessee had a TD drive where scrambles were the key weapon. They had a FG drive based on one long play. The rest of the game was dominance by the Eagles D.

DL

Javon Hargrave had another outstanding game. He had 3 tackles and a sack. He got pressure on multiple plays and was good against the run.

Josh Sweat had 4 tackles, 2 sacks and 3 QB hits. He was disruptive all game long. They played him on the right and left sides. Sweat won going wide or shooting inside. He was good against the run. He jumped offside on 3rd/4, which extended the drive (ended in a TD). That was his bad play for the game. Very active and very disruptive.

Look at how much (lateral) ground Josh Sweat covers with this inside jump swipe move!! pic.twitter.com/eFPxTzC0XP

— Josh Cohen (@JCohen_NFL) December 5, 2022

Fletcher Cox had a sack and a couple of tackles. The sack was a hustle sack. Chased Tannehill out of bounds. Wisely made sure to let go of the QB as he went out so not to draw a flag. Good against the run.

Linval Joseph was in on a couple of tackles, but that undersells his value in this game. Helped clog the middle. Ate up blockers and worked to get free when he could. Such a natural NT.

Ndamukong Suh was in on 3 tackles. He was stout vs the run and got some pressure on the QB. He flushed him once, giving a sack to BG.

Brandon Graham had 3 tackles and a sack. Suh moved Tannehill off his spot and BG was there to clean up. On the very next play, BG got the RB for minimal gain. He still has moments when he is very disruptive.

Jordan Davis only played a few snaps. He aggrivated the ankle injury and left the game for a while. He was back in late.

LB

Haason Reddick played well. He helped cause the first sack. Caused Tannehill to step up, where Hargrave got him. Lost contain when he rushed too deep and Tannehill scrambled for 17 yards. Lost contain on 4th down and Tannehill ran for a 1st down. Some wondered if those were stunts. The first clearly wasn’t and I don’t think the 4th down was either. Reddick went at the RT and then cut inside. That looked like him trying a move rather than a designed stunt. Usually you go hard inside right away on those. Reddick has to be more cognizant about losing contain against QBs who can run.

He did have 2 sacks and 4 QB hits so he was important. One one of the sacks, he just exploded by the RT. Tannehill had no chance. That was a thing of beauty. The Eagles did have him drop back a few times to mix things up.

When you shut down Derrick Henry, the ILBs must have played well. TJ Edwards led the team with 6 tackles. He also had a PD. Edwards was physical and tackled well. He showed great hustle in chasing plays from behind a couple of times.

The Eagles defense held Derrick Henry to just 30 yards on 11 carries on Sunday

✅ Gap Integrity
✅ Aggressiveness Downhill
✅ Sound Tackling

Just great stuff all around – outstanding from @TJEdwards8, @MEpps_6, @miltonw_12 @bigplay24slay and others!! #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/0bXhvml18n

— Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) December 5, 2022

Kyzir White had 5 tackles. He also played the run well and used his speed to get outside on some pass plays. He had a PD when he broke up a screen to Henry. It was close to a FF, but Henry never cleanly secured the ball because White got there so quickly. White did leave the game for a while with a minor injury.

That opened the door for Nakobe Dean to get his first significant playing time on defense. Dean came in and made his presence known right away. He drew a holding call while still making a tackle of Derrick Henry. Dean then got out wide to make a tackle in space. He finished with 5 tackles and a TFL.

I liked what I saw from Dean. He was physical on inside plays. He looked good when he had to run outside. He was decisive and played at full-speed. Some guys who get on the field with little experience look nervous or unsure of themselves. Dean looked like he knew what he was doing.

Christian Elliss played some LB snaps late and looked good. He finished with 3 solo tackles. I liked how strong and physical he was.

SAF

Marcus Epps was in on 2 tackles. He did help in run defense even when he didn’t make the tackle. Epps played in the box and wasn’t afraid to get in traffic and clog running lanes. He was solid in coverage except for one play. Epps was playing back and saw the TE settle in front of him. He flew upfield and tried to get the ball. He missed. The TE made the grab and took off for a big gain. When playing an offense that lacks weapons, don’t go for the ball. The reward isn’t worth the risk.

Epps had a big hit on Burks in the end zone. He was flagged, but it wasn’t dirty. Epps tried to break up the pass with a timely hit, but receivers are considered defenselss during the catch and given extra protection. I don’t blame Epps for that hit. He is at fault for not shading more to the middle of the field earlier. Had he done that, he might break up the pass and avoid the flag.

Reed Blankenship had another strong start. He had 3 solo tackles. I was impressed with how quickly he diagnosed plays and then flew upfield to get in on the run or pass. He broke up a pass by getting a quick break and then getting a hand on the ball.

CB

James Bradberry had 2 tackles and 2 PDs. Good game. He had a strong tackle of Henry on an early run. Right at LOS. That was a great sign. Bradberry isn’t a consistently good tackler. Seeing him come up vs Henry like that told me the defense was locked in. Bradberry had a PBU where he ran the route even better than the WR. He’s so smart. Read a quick screen perfectly and jumped the route. Could have had a pick-6, but couldn’t get his hands on the ball cleanly.

Darius Slay was in on a couple of tackles. Didn’t have many throws come his way.

Josiah Scott had a couple of tackles and a PD. Gave up a TD to Burks. Coverage wasn’t bad, but Burks was just bigger than him. That’s the play where Epps had the big hit and got flagged.

ST

Jake Elliott hit all 5 extra points.

Arryn Siposs averaged 43 yards per punt. One was downed inside the 20. He had pressure on a couple and that seemed to affect him.

Britain Covey turned into Brian Westbrook/DeSean Jackson/Brian Mitchell for a day. Covey had punt returns of 20, 16, 27 and 25 yards. He put the offense in good field position a couple of times. Covey got good blocking and that gave him room to run. He averaged 17.5 yards on 6 returns.

Boston Scott was the KOR. His long return went for 26 yards.

Christian Elliss played in his first game and made an immediate impact on STs. On the first punt, he flew down the field and leveled the PR. Jack Stoll was in the area, but pulled up before hitting. You can see the difference in a LB and a TE on that play.

Dean had a big hit in coverage. Shaun Bradley had a couple of good plays as well.

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