Game Review – PHI 38, WAS 31

Posted: November 3rd, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 4 Comments »

Weird things happen when the Eagles play Washington. You may remember the Body Bag Game. There was the wild 1989 game where the Eagles trailed 37-28 late. I got so mad that I stormed out of my dorm room and went for food. I got back as the Eagles were wrapping up at 42-37 win. There was a 2002 game that was delayed after police used pepper spray to break up a fight in the stands and the spray drifted onto the sidelines. There was the Michael Vick 59-28 game in 2010.

Weird stuff happened last week.

The Eagles fumbled twice inside the 3-yard line. I can’t remember the last time an NFL team did that. After falling behind 14-3, the Eagles went on a 35-10 run to take control of the game. Sam Howell started 16 for 17, with his only incompletion being a deep ball. Washington had two TD drives that were 54 seconds or less.

Weird stuff.

Thankfully the Eagles were able to overcome a sloppy performance and win the game.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni didn’t have to make many strategic decisions. The Eagles went for it once on fourth down. He opted for the only FG attempt on 4th & 8 from the 33. That was a smart decision. If you want to appreciate Sirianni, just look at how bad Ron Rivera was. He failed to challenge on a 4th down play where DeVonta trapped the ball. Rivera said he hadn’t seen a good replay. That was an important enough moment that you take the risk and challenge. Rivera failed to go for 2 when his team scored late. That didn’t end up making a difference, but it could have been important.

Brian Johnson had some good moments. He dialed up the play that resulted in Julio Jones first TD catch as an Eagle. He called an RPO where Dallas Goedert had a catch and run on 3rd & 2 that went for 16 yards. He called the play where Hurts throws the ball to AJ 8 times for 130 yards and 2 TDs. I like that play. The Eagles were 8 of 13 on 3rd downs, 1 for 1 on 4th down and 3 for 5 in the red zone. The failures were due to turnovers, not scheme.

Sean Desai didn’t have his greatest game. I fault the players for most of the issues, but there were some things I didn’t like. I do give Desai credit for making changes. He tried blitzing early on and that didn’t work so he went away from it. He used different combinations of players, trying to find one that would work consistently. That didn’t happen.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts started a bit slow and then got hot. He ended up 29-38-319 with 4 TDs. No INTs, but he did fumble once on a push play at the goal line. Hurts made some good throws. I liked how he spread the ball around.

AJ – 8 catches
DeVonta – 7 catches
Gainwell – 5 catches
Goedert – 4 catches
Swift – 2 catches

Hurts performance was even better when you consider he was playing on a sore knee (bruise). You could see how he was affected when Casey Toohill chased him down from behind. That doesn’t happen to a healthy Hurts.

D’Andre Swift was 16-57-1. His long run was only 9 yards. He had some good short runs, but just couldn’t get free at the second level. The blocking wasn’t great and also give the Washington defense some credit. They played the run well. Kenny Gainwell was 2 for -4 on the ground, and with a fumble. That was bad. He did catch 5 passes for 30 yards.

AJ Brown was awesome.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1718693627776364613

Are you tired of seeing that yet? AJ made the same catch in practice on Friday so Hurts was confident when he threw the pass to him. AJ finished 8-130-2. He made plays all over the field. Both TDs were on the left side. He just missed on on the right side. He was a force over the middle as well.

DeVonta was 7-99-1. His TD came on a blown coverage. Hurts made it seem like there was something the Eagles wanted to exploit, which is exactly what they did.

There was one bad moment for him. Swift caught a quick screen out left. DeVonta missed his block and the play was stopped for a short gain. If he makes that block, Swift might have had a TD. Johnson made a really good call there, but they just didn’t get it blocked right.

Julio finished 1-8-1. Oz was 1-5.

Watching live I thought Goedert caught more than 4 passes. He finished 4-36. I didn’t think Jack Stoll blocked well in this game.

The OL was up and down. Sua Opeta once again struggled at times. He isn’t a good run blocker. He doesn’t get movement at the LOS. He also isn’t good at the second level. He’s normally solid in pass pro, but gave up some key pressures in this game. Lane Johnson still wasn’t 100 percent and was sloppy a couple of times. He still had some great plays.

Landon Dickerson had some struggles in pass pro. He was too grabby with his hands. Jason Kelce and Jordan Mailata played pretty well.

DEFENSE

Washington made a concerted effort to get the ball out as quickly as possible. They allowed almost 6 sacks a game coming into this contest. The Eagles finished with 1 sack and 4 QB hits. Howell got the ball out super quick and also used his feet well.

Haason Reddick got the sack on a 4th down late in the game. We can start calling him The Closer. He’s at his best late in the game.

Reddick should have had a sack earlier in the game but Howell threw the ball into an OL as he was going down. Josh Sweat was only credited with 1 QB hit, but I felt like he got the most consistent pressure.

Fletcher Cox played a lot of snaps and played hard. He made a hustle play to stop a screen. He chased the ball. He broke up a pass at the line. Very active game for the old man. Jalen Carter had 1 QB hit, but was quieter than expected. Marlon Tuipulotu had 3 tackles and played with good energy. He chased the ball out wide a few times. Milton Williams was disruptive and finished with 2 QB hits.

Zach Cunningham looked like the best LB to me. He had 5 tackles and 2 PDs. He had really good coverage down the right sideline. It took a perfect pass to beat him. Cunnigham still almost broke that up. Nakobe Dean led the team with with 12 tackles and 2 TFLs.

Reed Blankenship came back from injury, but didn’t have his best game. He struggled early on. I don’t know if he was trying too hard, but he was out of position multiple times. Reed settled down. He finished with 8 tackles and made the defensive play of the game when he picked off Howell and returned the ball deep. Kevin Byard made his Eagles debut and finished with 7 tackles. He didn’t stand out, good or bad. He did seem comfortable all over and got more aggressive as the game went on.

Sidney Brown played a lot in the slot. He had 8 tackles and 2 early TFLs. He also had the hit of the game.

Boom. Brown is meant to play safety. He is a hitter and tackler, not a cover guy. Eli Ricks also saw time in the slot. I thought he was good in there. He did get called for an early PI that was ticky-tack.

Darius Slay didn’t make any big plays. He did finish with 3 tackles. He was beaten deep, but Howell was off-target because of pressure. James Bradberry struggled. He did break up a pass, but was beaten for a TD and just didn’t look great in coverage. He also didn’t tackle well.

ST

Jake Elliott was 1 for 1 on FG.

Braden Mann averaged 58.5 yards per punt. Maybe the Eagles have found a punter.

Britain Covey had a PR for 25 yards. He ran into Nolan Smith or he might have gotten more.

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Youth Movement

Posted: October 31st, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 4 Comments »

Howie Roseman is the NFL’s preeminent trader. So what did he do on NFL trade deadline day? Nothing. The Eagles didn’t make a single deal. They traded away DT Kentavius Street on Monday, but were silent on Tuesday.

Does this mean Howie thinks the roster is all set? The fact they didn’t make a deal doesn’t mean Howie didn’t try. You know he worked the phones harder than I do the bottom of a Funyuns bag, looking for that last tasty morsel. Nothing came of all the calling. I’m guessing this is a combination of there not be compelling targets and also not finding the right prices.

  • The Giants traded 29-year old Leonard Williams and his 1.5 sacks and 5 QB hits to Seattle for a 2nd round pick and a 2025 5th round pick. That seems nuts to me.
  • The Packers traded 29-year old Rasul Douglas and a 5th round pick to Buffalo for a 3rd round pick. Douglas was lights out in 2021 and he’s been erratic since then.

With prices like that, Howie decided to stick with the guys he already has. If you think about the potential weak spots on the team, there is young talent already in place.

LB – Nakobe Dean

SAF – Reed Blankenship, Sydney Brown

CB – Eli Ricks, Josh Jobe, Kelee Ringo, Mario Goodrich

Edge – Nolan Smith

That is a talented group. They are also unproven, which can be dangerous for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. The old coaching axiom is that you would rather play a rookie a week too late than a week too early. Missed assignments can kill you.

Howie traded for DE Robert Quinn last year and that proved to be a waste. He traded for WR Golden Tate in 2018. That helped the team win a wild card game. Was that worth the 3rd round pick they gave up for him? Very debatable.

If you’re desperate, make the trade. If the value is right, make the trade.

The Eagles aren’t desperate this year. We have to guess that the value wasn’t right. Rather than force something, you go with the young players already in place. Draft picks like Sydney Brown and Nolan Smith will need to step up. Nakobe Dean is in Year 2, but still young. He needs to prove the team was right to count on him as the key LB this year. Ricks is a UDFA. That means there is less pressure on him, but this is a huge opportunity. If he plays well, Ricks could earn a job and prove he’s a good role player (or even better).

Brown certainly did some good things against WAS.

History tells us not all of the players will work out as hoped. The only way to find out though is to play them. See who can handle it and who can’t. The Eagles have a strong enough core that they should be able to play the young guys and still win games. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year while playing four rookie DBs.

We’ll have to see how things play out for the Eagles.

*****

The Eagles were desperate for a safety and made the deal for Kevin Byard last week. They got a good price so Howie was very smart to make that deal. That gave him the flexibility to be a careful shopper this week.

*****

Sean Desai was asked about the late TD his defense gave up to Washington. He became visibly frustrated. Not at the question, but at the drive that his defense allowed. I was happy to see his reaction. You could tell he was ticked off.

D’Andre Swift was wrong to score on the trick play, but the Eagles defense should not surrender a 49-second TD drive to Sam Howell. Desai said his coaching was to blame, but a lot of that was on the players. Hopefully that drive will stick in their memories the next time they have to protect a lead.

*****

It is certainly fair to be critical of Brian Johnson and the offense at times. I think we also need to understand that side of the ball is still pretty darn good.

2022 – 3rd in yards, 3rd in points

2023 – 3rd in yards, 3rd in points

Johnson hasn’t made things look as easy as Shane Steichen did. Steichen is one of the best play-callers in the league. You don’t lose someone like him without feeling it. But let’s make sure to appreciate Johnson for doing a good overall job, especially for someone new to being an NFL offensive coordinator.

The drop-off from 2017 to 2018 was significant. This is nothing like that.

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