Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

2025 Game Review – PHI 16, DET 9

Posted November 21st, 2025 | Comments Off on 2025 Game Review – PHI 16, DET 9

We finally got the heavyweight battle we had been waiting for. Lions vs Eagles. But it sure didn’t turn out as expected. There were a pair of talented offensive lines and big time playmakers all over the field. Those guys took a back seat to the defenses. The Lions D was very good. The Eagles D was great. That’s the best regular season showing in a while. Only the Super Bowl performance from last year would be better in recent memory.

Detroit entered the game as the #2 scoring team in the league. They were coming off a 44-point performance and had only been held to less than 24 points twice this year. The Eagles held them to just 9 points, their lowest total in 36 games. The Lions were 3 for 13 on third downs and amazingly 0 for 5 on fourth downs. That is insanely good defense by Vic Fangio’s unit.

Jared Goff was completing 74 percent of his passes coming into the game. He finished 14 for 37, the worst showing of his career. There were a couple of drops, but most of this was due to the Eagles. The line got regular pressure on Goff and made him uncomfortable. They sped him up and caused errant throws. The coverage was also really good. The Eagles DL batted down 5 passes. The coverage guys broke up 5.

I said before the game that the team who won the line of scrimmage would win the game. The Eagles did both. They out-rushed the Lions 148-74. Jared Goff was hit 7 times, Jalen Hurts only twice. The Lions won their share of battles, but the Eagles won the war.

The windy conditions were a factor for both teams. You can see where Detroit needs their dome conditions. The Eagles can win in any environment.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni had a mixed performance. One of the things that struck me leading up to the game was someone asking an Eagles player if this was a big game and they were fired up for Detroit. The player said no, that’s not how we do things. Sirianni always preaches that the biggest game is the next game. Don’t get up or down for opponents. The Eagles weren’t nervous or out of control. They played with energy and emotion, but very much under control. I think that is a result of Sirianni’s messaging.

The biggest issue with him was the fourth down decision late in the game. The Lions had already stuffed the Tush Push and were having all kinds of offensive troubles. I certainly understand having confidence in your guys, but that sure seemed like a spot to punt. Another week and another fourth down decision that made things harder than they had to be.

Sirianni was wise to kick FGs in a couple of other occasions. This was a game where points were critical. Dan Campbell kept going for it and it ended up hurting his team. He was chasing points.

Kevin Patullo did not have a good game. He was going up against backup CBs on an aggressive defense. You want to use crossing routes and double moves to cause them problems. Patullo spread them out and ran a lot of hitches and vertical stuff. Normally vertical is good, but it was a windy night and deep throws weren’t working for either team. The offense really struggled, despite having good field position. The Lions have a good defense, but shouldn’t have shut the Eagles down that badly.

Vic Fangio had a great night. He was able to generate a rush with his 4-man DL and then mix in blitzes when he wanted to. That made Jared Goff uncomfortable. There were plays when Goff had time and hurriedly got the ball out, which resulted in errant throws.

Michael Clay’s unit had a solid night, despite the conditions. The highlight was the Eagles stuffing a fake punt.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts was up and down. He finished 14-28-135 in the air and 10-31-1 on the ground. Hurts forced a deep ball into double coverage. Nowhere close to being completed. On the next play he had DG open down the seam and was off target. There was a bobbled exchange on an RPO late in the half. Thankfully that got recovered by the Eagles.

Hurts did have some good moments. With the team backed up, he moved right and hit Dotson for a good gain that flipped the field. The Eagles were backed up on another drive and he hit DG for a gain of 17. Hurts hit AJ on a couple of good plays. There was a big gain to Saquon that was wiped out by a penalty. Give Hurts credit. He did enough that his team won the defensive battle. Goff didn’t.

Saquon finished 26-83. Best run came early on Flip 90. Went for 14 yards, outside to the left. There were a couple of runs later in the game that were close to breaking for good gains. Barkley caught one pass for 7 yards. Tank Bigsby was 4-34 on the ground. He had a 17-yard run on the TD drive. Get this man the ball a bit more.

AJ Brown got a ton of chances. 11 passes were thrown his way. He finished 7-49. He slipped, but made catch on initial third down. AJ caught 2 passes on the TD drive. There was a deep ball thrown his way. AJ slowed down on the play and the ball was incomplete. Not a great look.

DeVonta dropped a third down pass. Wouldn’t have moved the chains, but would have made it close. He finished 1-8. Jahan Dotson was 2-43. His highlight was a 34-yard catch that flipped the field.

Dallas Goedert had early drop. He finished 2-24. Grant Calcaterra didn’t have any passes come his way. His blocking ranged from mediocre to bad. Very frustrating to see him used as a lead blocker so much. Kylen Granson caught 1 pass.

The OL did a good job in pass pro, but was up and down with run blocking. Lane Johnson had early holding call that wiped out good gain to Saquon. He suffered foot injury late and got replaced by Fred Johnson. Fred was okay. He didn’t sustain blocks very well.

Landon Dickerson got stood up on multiple short yardage plays. Bad leverage, poor push. He was beaten badly in pass pro on one play and Hurts had to throw the ball away. Jordan Mailata had a holding call that wiped out a first down run.

Cam Jurgens got hurt late and was replaced by Brett Toth.

Aidan Hutchinson finished with half a sack and 1 QB hit. All 3 OTs did a solid job on him. The Eagles also had TEs help. There was one play where two TEs blocked Hutchinson on a pass play. That didn’t end well, as you would have guessed.

DEFENSE

As good as the Eagles defense was, I have to mention Jahmyr Gibbs. He finished with 146 total yards and delivered several big plays. There were times when multiple tacklers were around him and Gibbs just weaved through them before exploding upfield. That dude is something else.

The impressive thing about the pass rush is that it was a group effort. This wasn’t a case of one player dominating a backup. Jaelan Phillips went up against a stud RT in Penei Sewell. Phillips had 1 sack and 2 QB hits. He used a variety of moves to beat Sewell and pressure Goff. One of the highlight moments came when Phillips and Jalyx Hunt hit Goff on the same play, a fourth down near the goal line.

Hunt had 1 tackle and 3 QB hits. He just missed getting to Goff on a couple of plays. Nolan Smith had 1 tackle. He disrupted a screen pass by getting out into the flat. The team is easing him back in. Brandon Graham was disruptive on a couple of plays.

Jordan Davis won NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance. He deflected 3 passes. The first was picked off and set up a short FG. Davis played the run well. He got in on a tackle of Gibbs about 30 yards downfield. Such a different player this year.

Jalen Carter was disruptive. He had 5 tackles and 2 pass deflectionw. Blew up 3rd/short. Then helped stuff 4th/short. Moro Ojomo made the tackle on the initial fourth down stop. Got low and got the RB by the legs. Detroit tried to run a fake punt on the next fourth down. Ojomo blew that up by getting under the blockers and pushing them back. The runner had no chance. Ojomo had 3 tackles and was disruptive on a regular basis. This play was fun to watch.

That had to make Reggie White smile.

Nakobe Dean played one of the best games of his career. He only had 3 tackles, but had a sack, FF and a couple of QB hits. He also was great in coverage on a couple of speedy guys, forcing incompletions on two key plays. Dean isn’t as fast as Gibbs or Jameson Williams, but covered both really well. Zack Baun led the team with 7 tackles. He had a TFL when he shot upfield to stuff a run. He was very good in coverage as well. Jihaad Campbell had a couple of tackles, playing both inside and outside.

The stat sheet shows Reed Blankenship with 4 tackles. Put on the tape and you can see that he did impact this game. He was good in run support. He was good in coverage. This hit was his highlight moment.

That had to make Brian Dawkins smile.

Drew Mukuba came up aggressively in run support on a couple of plays. He finished with 4 solo tackles and made sure to keep everything in front of him.

Quinyon Mitchell had another great game. They didn’t come his way much, but had no success when they did. He finished with 1 tackle and 2 PDs. Adoree Jackson played the best game of his Eagles career. He had 4 tackles and a PD. Jackson had good coverage on a 4th down pass play in the end zone. That was incomplete. He also had good coverage on a 3rd down that came his way and then broke up the pass on 4th down. Great sequence for him. He got burned by Williams on a crossing route. Williams is one of the fastest receivers in the league and out-ran the whole defense.

Cooper DeJean had 3 tackles, 1 INT and 2 PDs. He had a strong night in coverage. My only complaint is that he didn’t run the INT back for a TD. Slacker.

Amon-Ra St. Brown got covered by all the DBs and they did a great job on him. 12 passes were thrown his way and he only caught 2 of them. That’s really impressive.

ST

Jake Elliott hit 3 FGs and his only PAT. He was solid on kickoffs as well.

Braden Mann averaged 41.3 yards per punt. 4 of them were downed inside the 20. No touchbacks.

Xavier Gipson had a punt bounce in front of him and the ball then hit him. He got it out of bounds.

The Lions tried their fake punt. The Eagles stuffed it.

_

Some Day

Posted November 19th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

I fell in love with the Eagles during the Gang Green era. The players were great. The uniforms were great. The team was a lot of fun, especially with a rambunctious coach like Buddy Ryan. Those were good days.

If we say that era was 1986-1994 (I know that includes Rich Kotite as well), those teams won…one playoff game. They beat the Saints in a wild card game in 1992. I still love those teams. The players were special and there were a lot of great memories. Just not nearly as much success as we wanted. Still, to man

Think about the current era. The Eagles have been to three Super Bowls in the past eight seasons. They won two of them. Two Lombardis. I can’t stress to some of you younger fans how hard that is for some of us old peeps to comprehend. Two.

The Eagles are 24-3 in their last 27 games. The current team is 8-2 and has the best record in the NFC. This team could very well make it back to another Super Bowl. Nick Sirianni has one of the highest winning percentages in NFL history. The amount of success is crazy and shouldn’t be taken for granted.

There will be a time in 20 or 30 years when people look back on this as the good old days. There will be stories about Jalen Hurts playing his best in big games. Nick Sirianni will be regarded as the best coach in team history and fans will talk about his remarkable ability to win games. I’m assuming Vic Fangio will still be alive through some advanced medical technology and will still be running the defense from a special hyperbaric chamber.

My generation talks about sacking Troy Aikman 11 times or the House of Pain game or the Body Bag game. That generation will be able to talk about Saquon running for 2,000 yards, winning NFC championships in blowout games and destroying the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Which memories would you rather have?

I’m going over all of this to make sure you enjoy the current success. Winning can come and go. Dallas fans were on top of the world in the mid-90s. They have had a lot of disappointment since then. The Giants won two titles in five years, but have become one of the worst teams in the league. Does Washington even have fans?

It is absolutely fair to complain about the offense. There is nothing wrong with complaining about Sirianni’s fourth down calls in the last two games. That’s part of being a sports fan. Just make sure you don’t overlook all the good stuff. These are good days.

*****

I thought about this because Tuesday was Seth Joyner’s birthday. He’s one of my all-time favorite players. Seth was smart, athletic and fierce, which is a great combination for a linebacker. He could stuff the run, cover well and make plays as a blitzer. Joyner finished his career with 24 INTs, 29 FFs and 52 sacks. That is one hell of a playmaker.

*****

One of my big frustrations as a football fan is the lack of context that analysts offer. The Eagles offense did stink the past two weeks. They also played in cold weather night games against the #6 and #5 defenses in the league. The Cowboys defense looked terrific on Monday night They were going against one of the worst OL’s in the NFL and an offense that is 30th in points and yards.

We love to talk about results, but need to do a much better job of putting them into context.

Dallas is 30th in the NFL in yards allowed. If the Eagles score 31 points and put up 400 yards on them that won’t suddenly make Kevin Patullo a genius.

The Eagles have played against 5 of the Top 10 defenses in the league. Let’s see how the offense does as they go against mediocre or flat out bad units. Maybe the offense will start to show signs of life. If not, there will be real reason for concern as we head into December and January.

*****

I’m reading a book about Bill Walsh called The Genius. Back in 1981 the Niners traded for DE Fred Dean about a month into the season. Dean played 11 games for SF and had 12 sacks. He gave them a force off the edge and took their defense to the next level. In the five games without him, opponents averaged more than 20 points per game. In the 11 regular season games with Dean, SF only gave up more than 17 points once. And they won the SB.

I’m not saying Jaelan Phillips will have the same impact as Dean, but he sure is off to a good start. The rest of the defense is coming together nicely. Still, there is no denying that Phillips has made a definite impact so far and the defense has gone to the next level.

_