Game Review – SF 42, PHI 19

Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail. The Eagles were most certainly the nail on Sunday. Watching live, it was easy to see which team played faster and more physically. Re-watching the game, it was worse than I thought. The Niners played with a level of physicality and urgency that the Eagles just weren’t ready for.

To be fair, if the game was stopped at the end of the first quarter, the Eagles would have won a shutout and would be very happy. Unfortunately football games last four quarters and SF decided to kick some ass for the last three quarters. They did so much ass kicking that the entire team should be listed on this week’s injury report with a sore foot.

The good news is that this was just one game. Whether you lose by 3 or 23, there is one L that is added to the record. That’s it. As good as SF was, the Eagles still have the better record. That could change of course, but that’s up to the Eagles. Play better and win out, this game is a distant memory.

If the players let this linger in the back of their minds, the Eagles could have issues moving forward. We’ll find out Sunday what’s going on with this team.

*****

I’m going to do this review a bit differently. The coaching and execution were hard to separate so I’ll tie them together.

*****

OFFENSE

The Eagles came out throwing the ball. You could tell that Brian Johnson and Nick Sirianni wanted to strike quickly. They wanted chunk plays. The strategy had mixed results. The first two drives were successful, but not due to downfield throws. They were both greatly aided by slants that AJ Brown turned into good gains.

The Niners covered well. Their DBs were aggressive, but the officials called the game in a way that let them be physical so that worked well. The Eagles struggled to adjust to that. On the first couple of red zone trips, the Eagles forced the ball to AJ. He was tightly covered. The plays had little to no chance to succeed. Those were bad plays.

The Eagles settled for FGs on both drives. Even though they dominated the first quarter, the score was only 6-0. The Eagles desperately need at least one TD in a game like this. You aren’t going to beat SF kicking FGs.

It is hard to totally criticize Johnson because Jalen Hurts was so up and down. He held the ball over and over, looking for big play opportunities. The offense gained 333 yards and scored 19 points against a Top 5 defense so it isn’t like they turned into the Jets or Patriots. But the offense wasn’t efficient. It wasn’t good. It felt random.

Jimmy Bama wrote a piece on Hurts and showed some plays where he didn’t make good reads or throws. Nick Sirianni said the Stoll non-play was for a reason. Stoll wasn’t part of the read on that. Still, there were a lot of plays where Hurts was hesitant and didn’t make good decisions. The Eagles needed a great game from him. They didn’t get it.

Hurts got knocked out of the game for a few plays. Marcus Mariota took over for him. Mariota was okay in his limited snaps.

It might have helped if Johnson called more quick passes. That could have helped Hurts get in a rhythm and might have opened up more down the field stuff.

The stars of the game were DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown. Smith was 9-96-1 and made some terrific catches. Brown was 8-114 and was outstanding after the catch. These guys made plays and moved the chains. Quez Watkins went 3-28. He had one frustrating play. He went deep. Hurts underthrew the ball. Quez went up for it and the DB hit him. Quez didn’t really sell the contact very well and there was no call for PI. Again, the refs were letting them play so that wasn’t totally on Quez.

Kenny Gainwell was 5-42 as a receiver and had a couple of nice plays. Boston Scott was 1-27. D’Andre Swift was a non-factor, going 6-13 on the ground and 2-7 in the air. Yikes. Swift didn’t have much room to work with. He also didn’t have the burst to get into space.

Blocking was an issue.

Watch these plays, for example and look at the missed/poor blocks.

AJ for a would-be TD.
Kelce has a big whiff.
OZ (with a tough assignment) can't get his angle.
Mailata not getting any push.

It's all over the place. https://t.co/PUTeq984uL

— Brent Cohen (@EaglesRewind) December 6, 2023

The OL was outstanding in pass pro for most of the game, but run blocking was a real problem. I do wonder if some of this is due to the Eagles not doing enough RB runs in recent weeks. I’m not going all “establish the run” on you, but running the ball and running RPOs are different. There are times when OL want to fire off the ball and go get after defenders. You do that on defined run plays to the RB.

The Eagles as an organization talk all the time about how they invest in the line of scrimmage. Games are won up front, they say. They can also be lost if the OL/DL don’t play at the level you need them to.

DEFENSE

Sean Desai is a talented young DC. Kyle Shanahan is the best offensive mind in the NFL. I don’t think I need to tell you how that battle turned out. Desai might have had some good ideas. Shanahan had better ones. In Desai’s defense, this was the worst possible game to be missing Zach Cunningham. The Niners attacked the middle of the field all game long and ate the Eagles alive.

Think back to the Miami game. Someone asked Desai how his defense would handle their speed. He talked about how physicality could get the best of speed. Sure enough, that worked against Miami. The Niners were faster and more physical, a deadly combination. That’s how they scored TDs on 6 consecutive drives. Yikes.

The DL did some good things. They started red hot. Haason Reddick was disruptive early on. That made you think we were going to see the good version of the defense. SF had consecutive 3 & outs to start the game. Brock Purdy didn’t look comfortable at all. Things fell apart for the Eagles after that.

The Eagles didn’t make plays. There was a ball that fell in the middle of a trio of defenders. No one could get to the ball. Reed Blankenship  broke on a pass and got his hands on it, but couldn’t secure the ball. Darius Slay just missed a pass breakup on a couple of plays.

The Eagles did make mistakes. Josh Sweat had a couple of offside penalties. One of them came on a third down in the red zone and kept a TD drive alive. That was a 4-point mistake. Tackling was a huge issue. SF had multiple big plays where defenders failed to make tackles. No scheme is going to work if guys miss tackles in the open field. Especially against the best YAC team in the league. Watching Brock Purdy run through Bradley Roby’s attempted “tackle” was depressing.

Bradley Roby missed tackle… pic.twitter.com/mulqvML3oa

— Rage Against the Cowboys (@FurtherAM) December 3, 2023

Buddy Ryan is spinning in his grave. A chance to pound a QB in space and you do that? Ugh. If that doesn’t make you take up sniffing glue, nothing will.

Beyond missed tackles, I was very discouraged by multiple plays where defenders had runners/receivers coming at them and the defenders were flat-footed. They let the offensive players be the aggressor. Don’t let the guy run to you. Go get him. Attack. That would infuriate me if I was part of the staff.

The LB play was a real problem. Nick Morrow against Christian McCaffrey wasn’t a fair fight. CMC ate him up. Christian Elliss struggled to get off blocks and to the ball.

Eli Ricks had a rough game. SF attacked him several times and had success on every play. He’s a UDFA learning to play the slot so you can forgive him for struggling.

*****

Nick Sirianni got some heat for a couple of things. He punted on 4th & 3 from his own 32 late in the 3rd Qtr. The score was 28-13. The offense wasn’t exactly clicking at this point so I can live with the punt. In hindsight, he should have gone for it. SF marched right down the field and scored.

Sirianni left his starters in the game even though it was a blowout for the last 5 minutes. He’s a hyper-competitive person and didn’t want to give up. I get that. But he’s coaching a team that has been through a grueling stretch. Pull your guys and worry about next week.

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