Game Review – PHI 22, CAR 16

Posted: December 12th, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 2 Comments »

The blowout that wasn’t. The Eagles were big favorites over the Panthers. As the old saying goes, that’s why they play the games. Carolina was tough and competitive. The Eagles were sloppy. There were five lead changes and the game went down to the final minute. This wasn’t what anyone had in mind.

The Panthers are playing their best football of the season at this point. Bryce Young made some terrific plays and gave the Eagles defense fits with his mobility. The pass rush got pressure on a regular basis, but only sacked him once. RB Chuba Hubbard really impressed me. His final numbers were good, not great, 26-92-1. But he got every inch possible. If there was one yard available, he got two. He broke tackle after tackle. These weren’t highlight runs, but rather the kind of plays that coaches will love. If you remember the days of Miles Sanders leaving yards on the field, Hubbard was the opposite of that.

The Eagles ran the ball well and the defense was effective. The passing game was the big issue. There is no way a team with Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Miles Sanders and a good OL should pass for 98 net yards for an entire game. Carolina covered better than I thought, but Hurts had issues. He was hesitant to pull the trigger on several plays. He was errant with some throws. This was not a good performance for him. The passing game struggles led to several days of dumb drama.

If a couple of plays had gone differently, the Eagles might have won in a more comfortable fashion. The flip side is that the Eagles might have lost if one key play had gone the other way. While this was a flawed performance, the Eagles made enough plays to win the game and that does matter.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni has drawn criticism for one key decision. Facing 4th & 8 from the CAR 36 with 3:05 left, Sirianni had three choices. He could have opted to try a FG, gone for it or punted. He punted (after taking a penalty to back up 5 yards). Some critics thought he should have gone for it. If you get the first down, you have a great chance to close out the game. Not many wanted the FG, since Jake Elliott hasn’t hit a kick from 50+ all season.

I was okay with the punt. Carolina’s longest drive to that point was 69 yards. If the Eagles could pin the Panthers deep, they had a good chance to keep them from scoring a TD. The Eagles pinned them at the 2 and the strategy did work. Some will point out that it only worked because Xavier Legette dropped a TD pass. But that’s part of the idea. Carolina is a team that makes mistakes. If you force them to drive the long field, chances are they are going to come up short at some point.

Every game is different. Sirianni has made plenty of aggressive decisions. He went conservative in this instance. I don’t think he’s going to suddenly become a passive coach.

Kellen Moore had a terrific plan for the run game. They were creative and it worked well. The Eagles ran for 209 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per carry. The passing game was less impressive. Hurts performance made it tough to judge, but there weren’t many plays with Eagles receivers running open. The red zone offense was good, with the Eagles going 3 for 3. Moore called good plays down there.

The defense only allowed 16 points, but didn’t play as well as they could have. They should have done a better job against the run. They were a bit sloppy with the pass rush. Mobile QBs require a really disciplined rush. Vic Fangio said the Eagles didn’t do a good job on the TD pass they gave up.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts was 14-21-108 with 2 TDs. I wish this was one of those games where the film looked better than the numbers. Nope. Hurts was hesitant on multiple plays, not throwing to open receivers. He failed to see a wide open AJ Brown on the first series of the game. He was too high on a throw Johnny Wilson, the tallest receiver in the league. Hurts was late on a couple of throws.

Hurts didn’t have a good game, but he did make the plays necessary to win. He was good in the red zone. Both TD passes were good throws/plays. Hurts had a couple of great scrambles. He fought off tacklers and took off up the middle for big gains. He was 8-59-1 on the ground.

There were some bad decisions on the final drive. Hurts took a sack instead of throwing the ball away. He was able to overcome that with a good throw to AJ. He then had a delay of game penalty that led to Sirianni’s punt decision. You can argue that Sirianni is more at fault for the penalty.

Saquon Barkley had another impressive showing, going 20-124. He didn’t have the long TD run in this game. He came close a couple of times, but got tripped up by the last defender.

On a day when the passing game struggled, Barkley showed just how valuable he is. Kenny Gainwell was 3-26, including a 20-yard run.

AJ Brown went 4-43. He had a couple of key catches. DeVonta Smith had a catch along the sideline on 3rd down that went for 27 yards and he also caught a TD. Grant Calcaterra had his first NFL TD. He got open across the middle. He finished 3-16.

The OL had a good day. They gave Hurts plenty of time to throw on most dropbacks, which is part of what made his performance so frustrating. Hurts was sacked 4 times, usually on well-timed blitzes.

The OL did a lot of pulling and moving in the run game. I don’t recall seeing OTs pull that much in a long time.

Mekhi Becton had some really impressive blocks in this game.

That is good stuff.

There were some missed blocks by the OL, but they played a strong game overall.

DEFENSE

The front did a solid job against the run, but failed to make plays often enough. Give Hubbard credit for some of that. He broke a lot of arm tackles and fought for every yard he could. It felt like Jordan Davis slanted and moved more than most games. He was disruptive at times, but only had 1 tackle. Jalen Carter had another good game. He had a pair of TFLs and 3 QB hits. Milton Williams got into the backfield multiple times, but couldn’t make any plays. He had a crucial offside penalty that helped keep a drive alive. Give Moro Ojomo credit for hustle. He had 2 tackles and 2 QB hits. There were multiple that he chased Young out wide and kept him from getting loose.

Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt combined for 1 QB hit. They got pressures, but struggled to get to Young cleanly. Sweat had a chance to sack Young in the end zone on the final drive, but just couldn’t get him down. Smith played hard and pursued well. Hunt had one really impressive play when he dropped into coverage. Young started to run and Hunt chased him down and made the tackle.

Zack Baun had another terrific showing. He had 11 tackles, a sack, 3 TFLs and 2 QB hits. He blitzed a few times and was disruptive. Baun also lined up on the edge a few times to give CAR a different look. Nakobe Dean led the team with 12 tackles. Several of them were downfield, after the runner had already gained a few yards. Baun had a chance to tackle Young on a scramble and whiffed.

CJGJ made a key play on the initial 3rd down.

I hoped that might set the tone for the game, but CAR never backed down. CJGJ left the game a couple of times after big collisions, but came back both times. He finished with 6 tackles and 2 PDs. It looked like he might have been at fault on the late play where Legette got open deep. CJGJ and Slay were the DBs in the area.

Tristin McCollum got his first start. He finished with 4 tackles and a PD. McCollum was okay, but missed a couple of tackles and was a little off in coverage. He looked at his best when playing in the box.

Darius Slay had 6 tackles and a couple of PDs. He made some big plays on the final drive. Slay got burned a couple of times earlier in the game. Quinyon Mitchell gave up a couple of short catches. Cooper DeJean got an education, courtesy of Adam Thielen. DeJean covered him a lot and gave up several catches. Thielen is a great route-runner so there is no shame in getting beaten by him. DeJean had 5 tackles and a TFL.

ST

Braden Mann did a great job on the late punt. He put it inside the 5 and Avonte Maddox caught the ball at the 2. That was great execution by the two of them. Maddox and Kelee Ringo did a good job in punt coverage throughout the game.

Jake Elliott missed another long FG. Wind was an issue, but this is a troubling issue. Those three points would have been huge.

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2 Comments on “Game Review – PHI 22, CAR 16”

  1. 1 The Linc - Jeffrey Lurie just got richer - SportSourcio said at 12:03 PM on December 12th, 2024:

    […] Game Review – PHI 22, CAR 16 – Iggles Blitz […]

  2. 2 The Linc – Over View – Your Daily News Source said at 5:32 PM on December 12th, 2024:

    […] Game Review – PHI 22, CAR 16 – Iggles BlitzJalen Hurts was 14-21-108 with 2 TDs. I wish this was one of those games where the film looked better than the numbers. Nope. Hurts was hesitant on multiple plays, not throwing to open receivers. He failed to see a wide open AJ Brown on the first series of the game. He was too high on a throw Johnny Wilson, the tallest receiver in the league. Hurts was late on a couple of throws. Hurts didn’t have a good game, but he did make the plays necessary to win. He was good in the red zone. Both TD passes were good throws/plays. Hurts had a couple of great scrambles. He fought off tacklers and took off up the middle for big gains. He was 8-59-1 on the ground. There were some bad decisions on the final drive. Hurts took a sack instead of throwing the ball away. He was able to overcome that with a good throw to AJ. He then had a delay of game penalty that led to Sirianni’s punt decision. You can argue that Sirianni is more at fault for the penalty. […]