Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Preview – PHI at TEN

Posted September 18th, 2026 | No Comments »

One team in this game has Super Bowl aspirations. The other team will be in contention for the number one overall pick. I’ll let you figure out which is which. But the beauty of the NFL is that you never know for sure what is going to happen. I was surprised that the Cardinals beat the Chargers last week. I was shocked that Arizona made it look so easy. They never trailed and out-gained LA by 125 yards. Crazy stuff.

You can bet that Nick Sirianni has talked to his players about the need to show up focused and ready to go. The Eagles have a lot more talent, but they also had more talent when they played the Jets in 2023. The Eagles lost that game, 20-14. Robert Saleh was the coach of that Jets team and is now running the show in Nashville. He’d love to upset the Eagles for a second time.

The focus in the game will once again be on the Eagles offense. They were inconsistent last week and need to show signs of improvement this time out. The Birds will try to get the run game going. They should have better success this week, for a few reasons.

First,  there will be a new LG and someone who is actually healthy. Drew Kendall is expected to get the start (more on that later). He had a strong summer and is a good fit for the new scheme. He doesn’t have much NFL experience or time playing guard so there will be a learning curve. Still, the fact he’s healthy will make a world of difference. Dickerson got beat way too often in Week 1.

The Eagles OL will benefit from game tape. They can study themselves from the opener and see what went right and what went wrong. They can also study the Titans game tape and that will help them be better prepared.

Lastly, Tennessee runs a more static front than Washington. The Commanders blitzed more than half of the game and that made it challenging for the OL to know who to block. The Titans were one of the least blitzing teams last week. This game will be more about execution than identifying defenders and knowing who to block. I’m sur e Saleh and Gus Bradley studied the Washington tape and will mix in some of what they did, but that’s just not their style of defense.

If the Eagles can have a more consistent run game, the whole offense will open up. Jets RBs had 32 carries for 142 yards last week. If you block DT Jeffery Simmons, you have a chance to move the ball on this defense.

The Eagles only ran 53 plays last week and only had 10 first downs. Both numbers need to go up this week.

I mentioned earlier that Kendall is expected to get the start. Sirianni talked about Fred Johnson and Willie Lampkin as options as well. He’s doing this to keep the Titans from knowing for sure until Sunday. Johnson is 6-7, 326. Kendall is 6-4, 308. Lampkin is 5-11, 290. They have different skill sets. I don’t think preparing for the three of them will make a substantial difference, but Sirianni loves his secrets. Don’t give up any info earlier than you have to.

Improved OL play will help the passing game as well. Geno Smith was 19 for 24 last week vs Tennessee and wasn’t sacked once. Hurts was 14 for 25 vs Washington and got sacked 3 times. Give Hurts a cleaner pocket and his numbers should go up. It will also help if the Eagles face fewer 3rd & long situations.

As for the Eagles defense, they won’t be facing a dynamic QB or offense this week. Tennessee gained 195 yards and scored 10 points last week. Cam Ward is 3-15 in his 18 career starts. The Titans have scored more than 24 points three times in that stretch. Ward is an athletic QB with good mobility, but he doesn’t like to run. He moves around to buy time as a passer. That would be great if he had a better OL and his receivers got open more consistently. Ward has developed bad habits with his mechanics and that leads to some erratic throws.

Cooper DeJean struggled last week so the Titans may try to go after him. DeJean had problems with a talented veteran receiver in Stefon Diggs. Tennessee may try to see if Wan’Dale Robinson can have some success. I would expect a better performance from Coop this week. He knocked the rust off in the opener and then sat out some practices this week. That extra rest could help on Sunday.

Jalen Carter missed some time with a wrist issue, but will play. He will be going against a rookie RG. Carter needs to win this matchup. The Eagles posted good pressure numbers last week, but some context is needed. They covered well so Jayden Daniels had to hold the ball longer than usual, giving the rushers more time to get to him. Vic Fangio expressed some disappointment with the pass rush. They have a favorable matchup this week and should win that battle, even with Jonathan Greenard missing another game.

The Eagles schedule gets a lot tougher over the next month so they need to win this game and play better football. Let’s hope Sunday is a major improvement over what we saw in Week 1.

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Titans Talk

Posted September 17th, 2026 | No Comments »

Tennessee went 3-14 in 2024 and that earned them the #1 overall pick. They drafted QB Cam Ward and thought they had a cornerstone player to build around. The team went 3-14 again last year and then lost to the Jets in last week’s opener. They are 6-29 in their last 35 games. Not good.

Robert Saleh was hired in the offseason to turn the team around. Losing to the Jets 23-10 and being out-gained 367 to 195 was not the start anyone expected or wanted. Saleh is taking a lot of heat for his team’s poor performance and he’s not had great messaging when talking to the media.

Yikes.

That’s not very inspirational. That’s not what you want your new team or your new fans to hear. Saleh struggled as coach of the Jets, but he’s been a terrific defensive coordinator. Maybe he’ll figure things out over time.

His key task is getting Ward to play well and to have a functional offense. Last year they were 30th in points and 31st in yards. So how did the offense do in the opener?

That makes the Eagles look like the 1999 Rams. Ugh. There is a lot of blame to go around. Ward hasn’t shown signs of becoming the player they hoped for when drafted first overall. The OL has been a mess for a few years. They don’t have a great set of playmakers. And now Ward and his teammates are learning a new scheme. That’s not off to the greatest start, as you’ll see below.

The Titans didn’t have a single play go for more than 14 yards. If you want to know what the Eagles offense would have looked like without the explosives, there you go. And it wasn’t pretty.

So what about the Titans defense? They were dead last on the stat below.

Saleh runs a 1-gap attacking defense that is built on making plays. They didn’t make many plays and gave up 152 yards on the ground. That’s not a winning formula.

This has to be really frustrating since they thought they made some key defensive improvements in the offseason. They had a great player to build around in DT Jeffery Simmons. He’s the best DT in the league. They traded for DE Jermaine Johnson and spent a first round pick on Keldric Faulk so they’d have the edge rushers that scheme requires. They added DL John Franklin-Myers to give them another guy who could get upfield and make plays. Tennessee drafted LB Anthony Hill to upgrade the middle of the defense. They added CB Alontae Taylor to shore up the back end of the unit. On paper this defense should be competitive. They struggled against the Jets.

Hill did have a good game and showed real promise.

This is not a good team right now. They are at the bottom of the league with the Browns and Dolphins. Tennessee has the potential to turn things around if the coaches can get some things straightened out and if the players live up to their potential. There is a lot of work to be done by everyone involved.

*****

There was some question about what the Eagles would do with their OL now that Landon Dickerson is on IR. Based on comments by Jalen Hurts it sure sounds like Cam Jurgens will stay at center and Drew Kendall will be the LG. That makes the most sense to me so I’m glad they’re going with this plan.

As for Dickerson, I found this quote to be interesting. Sometimes we forget about the human element when talking about football.

Hopefully Dickerson gets healthy so he and his bestie can play together later on this season.

*****

The Eagles put Britain Covey on the roster to fill one of the open spots they had. The other spot is still open. That’s curious.

They did add TE Josiah Deguara to the practice squad. He played for GB from 2020 to 2023 so he has familiarity with the scheme. Deguara is 6-2, 240 so he’s more of a FB/TE hybrid. Think of him as a Cam Latu type.

*****

There wasn’t a doubt.

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