Game Review – PHI 41, DAL 7

Posted: January 3rd, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 1 Comment »

With all of the college bowl games this week, I’m a bit behind schedule. I still re-watched the Cowboys game from Sunday to see what stood out. The final score was 41-7, but the game felt very different early on. After the Eagles scored on a pick-six, Dallas marched down for a TD to tie the game at 7-7. The Eagles ran three pass plays and punted. After getting the ball back, the Eagles had three running plays and punted. There wasn’t a great vibe.

The game changed on a single play.

The Eagles woke up and dominated the rest of the game. It is funny how a single play can have that kind of effect. I listed to former Eagles scout Bryan Broaddus on a Cowboys podcast and he said the same thing. That play really changed the game.

Both teams had backup QBs playing. The diffence is that the Eagles had a bunch of top talent around theirs. Dallas still has some stars, but way too many mediocre guys in the lineup. They had some good moments, but made way too many mistakes.

COACHING

There weren’t a many strategic decisions for Nick Sirianni. He punted on an early fourth down near midfield. With Jalen Hurts in the game, he almost certainly goes for it. With Kenny Pickett, he punted. Sirianni had an interesting decision late in the 1st half. The Eagles led 17-7 and were at the 1-yard line with 2 seconds left. Sirianni could have played it safe and kicked, but went with the Brotherly Shove. Pickett scored and the Eagles led 24-7 at the half. The game was basically over at that point.

I thought Kellen Moore did a solid job with the offense and Pickett. Moore didn’t try to be too conservative. Pickett threw 14 passes in the first half and Saquon had 13 carries. Moore let him throw downfield. I liked what Moore did in the run game, getting creative and trying different things. They mixed in some toss plays that worked well. They used Tyler Steen as an extra TE. Solid plan.

Fangio and the defense dared Cooper Rush to beat them. He couldn’t. Nothing too complicated on that side of the ball.

*****

Since this was a blowout and several days ago, I didn’t want to do the normal format. I wanted to focus on a theme that stood out to me while watching live and the replay. Redemption.

A week ago the Eagles lost an incredibly frustrating game in Washington. Mistake after mistake ended up costing them the game. The Eagles are so good that they still should have won, but just couldn’t make the key play to seal the deal.

Sunday’s win over the Cowboys provided redemption for several of the players who made costly mistakes in the loss. DeVonta Smith dropped the pass that could have sealed the game last week. On Sunday he was 6-120-2 and just missed a third TD. He was tackled just short of the end zone. Smith had a favorable matchup against a bad CB and got the best of him over and over.

CJGJ got ejected in Washington. He picked off 2 passes against Dallas and scored the first points for the Eagles.

He now has 6 INTs for the season. Top defenses need playmakers at safety. CJGJ and Reed Blankenship have combined for 10 picks this season. That’s what you want when you play a lot of 2-high. CJGJ knows he hurt the team with the ejection. He played more under control against Dallas. Be emotional, but not too emotional. Sirianni joked about seeing CJGJ play peacemaker a couple of times in the game.

Kenny Pickett was okay against the Commanders. He played better in his first start for the Eagles. Pickett left the game with the Eagles up 27-7 in the third quarter. He threw for 143 yards and a TD. He also scored a TD on the push play. Dallas came in as a hot defense, but Pickett played well against them. He does need to protect the ball better. He had the ball stripped on a pass play, but a penalty wiped that out. He threw a pass over the middle that should have been picked, but got dropped. He got lucky, but needs to be careful in future games.

The Eagles defense gave up 36 points to Washington. That still blows my mind. I got a bit worried when Dallas moved the ball on the first two series. They tied the game up after the pick-six. Vic Fangio’s defense clamped down after that and didn’t let the Cowboys score another point. That took pressure off the backup QBs and made things easier for them. The defense had 4 takeaways so they were still making plays. They didn’t get burned by chunk plays the way they did in Washington.

The OL didn’t have their best game in last week’s loss. They played much better against Dallas. The OL opened enough holes that Saquon Barkley was able to run for 167 yards. The OL didn’t give up a sack. Pickett did get knocked out of the game on a hit by Micah Parsons. Pickett had moved out of the pocket on that and made himself vulnerable. There was also an earlier play that involved a big shot, but that came on a late hit and did draw a flag.

There were definitely some highlight blocks.

And

Grant Calcaterra was awful as an in-line blocker against the Commanders. He might have had his best game as a blocker against Dallas. It wasn’t great, but there was good effort and he won his share of battles. Calcaterra only caught one pass. It was an important one, though. As I mentioned above, that play changed the game.

The Eagles STs did not play well in Washington. KOs were short and the coverage was bad. Jake Elliott handled the KOs on Sunday and 5 of 7 were touchbacks. Good weather helped that a lot. When KaVontae Turpin did return two of them, he got a total of 48 yards. Dallas didn’t have a single drive start beyond the 30-yard line. Huge difference from last week.

MISC

Saquon Barkley was 31-167. He started a bit slow, but really got going in the second half. His long run was “only” 23 yards, but he still had some impressive moments. He caught a short pass in the flat and somehow the defender went over him and Barkley didn’t go down. He only added a few yards there, but that was impressive.

Barkley and Kenny Gainwell both had some good blitz pickups. Both RBs can be good blockers.

Tanner McKee made his NFL debut and went 3-4 for 54 yards and 2 TDs. Both TDs were good throws. The most impressive thing to me was the fact McKee was calm and looked natural out there. Some backups seem overwhelmed. McKee looked good.

AJ Brown finished 3-36-1. He made a sensational TD catch, but couldn’t get his second foot in so it didn’t count. Great effort. Pickett hit him for a TD that was wiped out by a penalty.

Nolan Smith had a chance for a great game. He just missed a sack late in the half. There was a play where Jalen Carter batted a pass and it came right to Smith. He got both hands on the ball, but still dropped it. Smith deflected a pass on third down to end a drive, but was called for a penalty and kept it alive. He did have 2 tackles, a TFL and a FF. Good, but could have been great.

Jordan Davis recovered a fumble. He showed good hustle in getting over by the ball and then did an amazing job of securing it with just one arm in a pile-up. That is one strong dude.

Thomas Booker played with a lot of energy. He finished with 5 tackles and half a sack.

Jalyx Hunt had 6 tackles and a TFL. I thought he played the run well.

Oren Burks got the start in place of Nakobe. Burks led the team with 8 tackles and added a FF. He was solid. There were times when he struggled to find the ball on cutbacks or plays that went away from him. He generally tackled well.

Jeremiah Trotter Jr played some snaps. He had 3 tackles and half a sack. He looked okay in coverage. Tackled well.

Quinyon Mitchell didn’t play well. He gave up several catches, including a TD. He failed to tackle a runner on a play that came at him. Not good effort on that. He got frustrated when CJGJ stole an INT from him. Mitchell did have 5 tackles and a PD (good coverage on a deep ball), but he wasn’t up to his normal standard.

ST

Jake Elliott handled KOs and was excellent.

Kenny Gainwell had a 36-yard KOR.

Sydney Brown is one intense STer. He got into a scuffle late in the game. He battles until the echo of the whistle and is very physical while doing it.

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One Comment on “Game Review – PHI 41, DAL 7”

  1. 1 The Linc - “Some people around the league are wondering” if Nick Sirianni can survive a first-round playoff exit - SportSourcio said at 1:04 PM on January 3rd, 2025:

    […] Game Review – PHI 41, DAL 7 – Iggles Blitz […]