Posted: December 30th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Getting HealthyThe Eagles have dealt with a lot of minor injuries this season. Luckily it seems like the team is getting healthy at the right time of the year.
It looks like Avonte Maddox should play on Sunday. He’s been out since Week 2. The Eagles have struggled with covering slot receivers since he got hurt. Maddox coming back could give a nice boost to a unit that is 30th in third down defense. He has practiced the last couple of weeks so hopefully that got some of the rust off him.
The return of Maddox gives Matt Patricia and the coaches some options. They have James Bradberry, Kelee Ringo and Eli Ricks available outside. They have Maddox and Bradley Roby for the slot. There are three safeties who have been playing pretty well recently. The coaches could rotate DBs to keep them fresh or focus on who they think gives them the best matchups. We’ll see what they do on Sunday.
Landon Dickerson will be back at LG. Sua Opeta played well last week, but Dickerson is an upgrade and can help the run game be dominant at times.
LB is up in the air.
Zach Cunningham is questionable for Sunday. Nick Morrow isn’t 100 percent, but should play. Shaq Leonard is coming off his best game so that means the team doesn’t have to rush anyone back. Ben VanSumeren did some good things so having him start again wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. If you need someone to chase Kyler Murray around, BVS is the fastest LB on the team and would make some sense from that perspective.
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The Cardinals are not getting healthier.
Murray has been sick this week, but he should be fine by Sunday.
The loss of Brown means one less weapon for Murray. Fotu is a massive (6-5, 334) run stuffer. The Cardinals run defense isn’t good with him. It should be even weaker without him.
The Cardinals have 16 players on IR as of today. The Eagles have 8. Arizona didn’t have a talented roster when the season started, but losing that many guys has made things even harder. They aren’t 3-12 by accident.
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It is amazing that Jake Elliott was plucked off the Bengals practice squad back in 2017. He’s now one of the best kickers in the league.
One of Howie’s best moves was signing Elliott.
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Speaking of great Eagles…
Allen is one of the best CB’s I’ve ever seen. He could cover. He could hit and tackle. And he was a big time playmaker. He absolutely deserves to be in Canton. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that he gets in.
One of my favorite Eagles moments of all time.
Go to YouTube and watch the clip. Amazing play. Secured the win for the Eagles in a wild game.
Allen picked off 54 passes in his career. He had 8 pick-sixes. Darius Slay and James Bradberry have combined for 47 picks and 4 TDs. That should give you an idea just how good of a playmaker Allen was.
I wish Seth Joyner would get some HOF attention, but off-ball LBs just don’t register. People love pass rushing LBs and MLBs. Joyner was a big time playmaker who could cover, play the run and blitz. He is one of the best LBs I’ve ever seen play. It kills me that he gets no real consideration.
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Posted: December 29th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 3 Comments »Eagles fans saw a matchup with the Giants as a “get right game”. They wanted a blowout and that’s just what the Eagles gave them…on the stat sheet. Unfortunately, the scoreboard told a different story. Three huge plays turned this from a blowout to a tight game.
Nick Sirianni preaches the importance of turnovers and explosive plays and you could see why. They almost cost his team the game. The Eagles were up 20-3 and in complete control. They fumbled a kickoff return in a fluky way. The Giants turned that into a short TD drive and made it 20-10. The Eagles then marched down the field. Jalen Hurts tried to hit Dallas Goedert on an out route, but the TE slipped. The ball went right to a DB and became a pick-six. The score was now 20-18 and the pressure was on.
The Eagles scored a TD and FG to make it 30-18. Game over, right? Nope. The Giants went deep and got a 69-yard TD pass to make it 30-25. The Eagles added a late FG and then got an INT on the final play of the game to win 33-25.
The Eagles out-gained the Giants 465-292. They kept Saquon Barkley under control. They shutdown Tommy Cutlets and got him benched. Jalen Hurts played his best game in a while. D’Andre Swift just missed 100 yards. Britain Covey had his longest punt return of the year. There was a lot to be happy about.
But the Eagles still made enough mistakes that the game was on the line at the very end. Take away the turnovers and you have a blowout. The problem is the Eagles have been making those mistakes for most of the year. It was good to see them make plays on offense, defense and STs. The coaches and players must find a way to eliminate the mistakes.
COACHING
Nick Sirianni didn’t have a lot of key strategic decisions. The Eagles played with the lead for the entire game. They went for it on fourth down twice and were 2 for 2. Some people have been critical of the final drive, saying Sirianni got too conservative. The Eagles ate up 4:22 and got a FG. They only left 1:10 on the clock. That’s a good final drive. The Eagles had marched down the field to begin the drive, but got stuffed on the final two run plays. The Giants sold out vs the run. It is fair to question if the Eagles should have mixed in a play-action pass there to try for another first down. That could have sealed the game.
There was a troubling sequence before halftime. Kenny Gainwell ran toward the sideline, but didn’t get out of bounds. The play ended at :50. Sirianni didn’t call a timeout until the :31 second mark. He said in a PC that he didn’t want to leave too much time for the Giants. Huh? The Eagles lost 19 valuable seconds. They then got the ball down to the 9-yard line. Jalen Hurts took a bad sack and the team had to use their final timeout. On the final play of the half, Hurts scrambled. He had a chance to go out of bounds inside the 10 with :12 left. Instead, he cut back to the inside. Only a horrible penalty by the Giants saved him. The clock should have run out, but the Eagles got to kick a FG to end the half. Bad sequence for both Sirianni and Hurts.
Brian Johnson and Sirianni did make some changes to the offense. They ran more pistol than usual. They used more motion. That could have been done as a counter-measure to all the Giants blitzing. Or maybe the coaches just wanted to mix in more motion. They used more 12 personnel than recent weeks and even mixed in some 13 personnel looks. The coaches also spread the ball around more on offense.
The biggest complaint with the offense is how they handled the blitz. The Eagles had downfield routes a lot of the time. Hurts didn’t have time to get the ball to those receivers. There were a couple of passes to RBs in the middle of the game. That was a good adjustment. Unfortunately they went back to the downfield routes after that. The coaches need to work on this.
Matt Patricia called a good game for the defense. The DBs seemed more comfortable in coverage. There was less man coverage and that was part of it. Personnel usage was good. We saw more of Eli Ricks and Kelee Ringo outside. James Bradberry was moved around. He still played all 63 snaps, but was outside, in the slot and also on TE Darren Waller. The Eagles held NY to 4 for 14 on third downs and 3 for 5 on fourth downs. That’s better situational football.
OFFENSE
Jalen Hurts played well. He went 24-38-301 with a TD and a pick. He was 8-34-1 as a runner. The best throw was his pass to AJ on 3rd & 20.
https://twitter.com/AidanDoc_/status/1740084486409425352
He also turned lemons into lemonade on this play.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1739407853436416185
You love to see Hurts the playmaker. Defenses can’t account for that. Hurts also had some good throws within the framework of the offense. He hit DeVonta for a 36-yard TD. Hurts had a clean pocket and a wide open receiver. He hit DeVonta on the move with a perfect throw so that he didn’t have to break stride and could fly through the defense and into the end zone. Hurts had some good throws to Goedert as well.
The INT was a bad luck play. Goedert slipped as he cut to the outside. The ball went right to the DB. The play before that, Hurts almost got picked off over the middle. He failed to see a LB on the backside. Got lucky that wasn’t picked.
I already covered the sequence just before halftime. Hurts admitted his mistake after the game. I’m guessing he really wanted to get into the end zone and took a chance. Well, that was a dumb chance to take. He got bailed out by a Giants player who committed a dumb penalty. Hurts must be smarter than that, especially at this time of the year.
D’Andre Swift had a very good game. He was 20-92-1 on the ground. He was 18-97 before losing yards on the last two runs. Swift made good reads and good decisions. He also smartly made sure to get down inbounds when running late in the game. Kenny Gainwell had his best game of the year. He was 6-41 on the ground and 3-38 in the air. His highlight was a 22-yard run that helped the offense get into scoring position.
DeVonta Smith was 4-79-1. His catch and run for a TD was the kind of play this offense has been missing. Not every big play has to be a downfield throw.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1739412522065953051
My only complaint with Smith came on the first run play of the game. He failed to block his DB. Swift had a TD with a decent block. The play still got to the 1, but you want that to be a TD so you don’t have to rely on Hurts and the sneak.
AJ Brown started slow, but heated up in the second half. He finished 6-80 after starting just 1-7 in the opening half. AJ did have a drop, but took a big hit on the play and the ball got jarred loose. He made some key catches that kept the chains moving.
Britain Covey got mixed in and had a catch for 7 yards. He showed good RAC ability. They ought to use him more often.
Dallas Goedert had a strong game, going 7-71. He did slip on the INT, but that felt like bad luck more than anything. Jack Stoll did a good job as a blocker. No targets for him. Grant Calcaterra had his best game of the year. He was 2-21. He also had some good blocks.
The OL had a new look, with Cam Jurgens returning to RG and Sua Opeta playing LG with Landon Dickerson out. The line played their best game in a while. Hurts was sacked once and hit 3 times despite a lot of blitzing. The run blocking was excellent. Jordan Mailata and Opeta got good movement on that last drive. Jurgens played well in his return to action.
https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1740085083925823531
Jason Kelce had a bad snap and a penalty. Mailata had a bad block in the back penalty.
DEFENSE
Haason Reddick had a good game. Could have been a great game with a break or two. He had 2 tackles, a TFL and 4 QB hits. He just missed sacks a couple of times. He chased the QB and forced errant throws on multiple plays. His TFL blew up a fourth down run.
Josh Sweat got some pressure, but wasn’t nearly the factor Reddick was. Sweat’s highlight is when he looped inside on a stunt and forced the QB to move. That led to a sack. Brandon Graham played on the edge and inside. He wasn’t credited with any tackles/hits. Nolan Smith played edge and also got some snaps at off-ball LB. He was in on 2 tackles. His hustle on screens is impressive. Pass rush still needs work.
Fletcher Cox was the best DT in the game. The stat sheet shows 5 tackles and a QB hit. He was disruptive on multiple plays. Jordan Davis played the run well. His highlight is when he tackled DeVito on a run up the middle. That could have been a nice gain, but Davis shed his blocker and got hold of DeVito. Jalen Carter didn’t play much. He was penalized for not getting off the field in time on a fourth down. That helped the Giants extend a drive. Carter jumped offside on another fourth down. The refs called a penalty on the OL so Carter got lucky on that. Sirianni said his lack of snaps was due to BG getting more inside reps. Maybe. Or maybe Carter was being punished for dumb mistakes.
The Eagles did get pressure in this game, but they couldn’t finish plays. That continues a frustrating trend.
Shaq Leonard played his best game as an Eagle. He led the team with 7 tackles, 2 TFLs and a sack. He was at his best attacking up the field.
Ben VanSumeren played his best game so far. He was in on 6 tackles. I didn’t see a lot of mental errors. He was fast and physical. Really encouraging start for him.
The Eagles played a lot of 3-safety sets. Reed Blankenship had the green dot helmet and ran the defense. He had 6 tackles. He broke up a pass late in the game. Had a chance for a pick, but couldn’t get his hands on the ball cleanly. Blankenship made one huge mistake. He was caught flat footed on a play late in the game. The WR went deep and ran right by him. That became a 69-yard TD.
Kevin Byard had 3 tackles and was solid in coverage. Sydney Brown wasn’t credited with any tackles. He drew a penalty for a hit to the head of the sliding QB. Brown did show good speed and range.
Aside from the big play to Slayton, WRs had 37 receiving yards. Give the CBs credit for some of that. They covered well and did a good job with the zone coverage. Kelee Ringo had 5 tackles, a PD and an INT to seal the game. He’s come a long way since last summer. The raw talent has always been there. It sure looks like the coaching is starting to make a difference with him.
Bradberry had 3 tackles and broke up a pass. The Giants burned Bradberry a couple of times on the final drive when he was covering Waller. Bradberry had terrific coverage on one of the plays. Eli Ricks had a solid game. Bradley Roby played some slot snaps. He had really good coverage on one sideline throw and kept a pass from being completed. Roby might have gotten away with PI on the final drive. Lots of contact, but no call.
ST
Britain Covey had a 54-yard PR that set up the first TD of the game. He just didn’t have quite enough speed to score on the play. Covey made a smart move on a short punt. He came up aggressively and got it on the bounce and returned that for 11 yards. Taking away the bounce/roll and adding the return made a difference of at least 20 yards of field position.
Jake Elliott had another perfect game.
Boston Scott tried to return a kickoff to open the third quarter. Olamide Zaccheaus got throw backward by a Giant player and hit Scott, knocking the ball loose. The Giants recovered and scored a short TD a few plays later.
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