Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Winning

Posted November 17th, 2025 | 4 Comments »

Nick Saban is arguably the greatest coach in college football history. He’s certainly the greatest coach in modern history. Since retiring Saban has joined ESPN’s College Gameday show and has proven to be really good on there. He’s smart and insightful. He’s also funnier than most people expected.

Saban has mentioned multiple times this year that there were occasions when he wanted his team to lose. Huh??? Saban wasn’t happy with the way they played and felt that winning gave his players a false sense of confidence. He said that lessons from a loss would be taken more seriously. After a win his players would fall back on that fact and not pay as much attention to the issues. Saban felt losing a game might have made the team better in the long run.

Saban was a huge believer in process over results. Get the process right and the results will follow.

There is another coach named Nick who says the same thing, process over results. But he will also talk a lot about winning when he is questioned about his team’s erratic offense or some other issue that is hurting the team.

“As I watched football today, I feel like I saw a lot of teams waiting to lose,” head coach Nick Sirianni said after the Eagles’ 16-9 win over the Lions on Sunday Night Football. “Our team’s waiting to win because they know how to win. There’s something to be said for knowing how to win and knowing how to figure out ways to win.

“Do we want things to be better? Yeah, of course. You’re in a constant quest of getting better and we’re going to be crazy tomorrow about the things that — we are working tomorrow. I don’t care what time the game [ended] or whatever it is, we’re working tomorrow to get better and that will be our mission. You sense it in those moments from the coaches and from the players and from myself. We know how to win and we’re going to figure out a way to win the game.”

The Eagles do know how to win. Sirianni is a winner. The Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champs and they have the best record in the NFC. No one disputes any of that. At the same time, this team does have some issues that could come back to bite them in January or even February. Is the process what it needs to be? Those of us on the outside can only guess.

It does make me a bit nervous that Sirianni goes to the “We won” card so often. Maybe he feels he’s got to do that because Philly is such a wild media market. If he’s coaching the Jaguars he might be more transparent. Philly is a tough, demanding sports town. Sometimes winning isn’t enough. Did you do it the right way?

I don’t think anyone expects Sirianni to let us know what is truly going on behind closed doors. Coaches are secretive by nature. Sirianni is ultra-secretive. Sometimes that seems silly, but that’s who he is and I guess it does work for him. While we don’t expect Sirianni to share all the secret sauce, he would help himself by being a bit more open.

The OL has not had a good season. I feel like every week he talks about what a great OL the Eagles have. I hate to rip on the big guys, but anyone who studies the stats and watches the tape can see this group is wildly inconsistent. They looked really good a few weeks ago in the Giants game, but have been up and down the past two weeks.

The OL hasn’t been healthy at all this year. That’s the big issue. It isn’t lack of ability or that the guys forgot how to play. Is it smart to have the offense remain focused on the run with an OL that has struggled with run blocking? Is that good process? Maybe the coaches know some angle I don’t. Maybe they are doing this to play conservatively and avoid critical mistakes like turnovers.

Why does Grant Calcaterra continue to be used as a key blocker? He is not good. Some of his tape is awful. I do not understand why they insist on this. Put Cam Latu in that role. He’s a legit blocker.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2023 with an outstanding defense and an erratic offense (15th in scoring). Their QB had to make key plays to help them win key games. That team was great in one-score games. They won three playoff games by seven points or less. This Eagles team could follow a similar trajectory. The defense is starting to look great and Jalen Hurts can make key plays in big games.

It is possible that the offense can still come alive. They have had good flashes this year. We know the talent is there. The passing game was erratic last year, but got better as the season went along. Maybe that will happen again.

Maybe Nick will just give us this speech.

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that winning — for lack of a better word — is good.

Winning is right.

Winning works.

Winning clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of football.

Winning, in all its forms — winning in life, winning in money, winning in love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of Eagles fans.

And winning — you mark my words — will not only save the Eagles, but the entire city of Philadelphia.”

Some of you will think I’m nuts. Others will remember one of the greatest speeches in movie history and enjoy the reference.

*****

We did get some bad news on Monday.

Lane has been banged up in multiple games this year. He missed most of the win over the Rams. You never want to be without a great player, but there is something to be said for having healthy players on the field. Fred Johnson played in Lane’s place for parts of the last two games. He wasn’t as good, but is healthy.

This will affect depth. If anyone else gets hurt, Matt Pryor is the top backup. That’s not ideal. And Fred was good as the 6th OL. It will be interesting to see if that role goes to Pryor or someone else.

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D Dominates Detroit

Posted November 17th, 2025 | 4 Comments »

The Lions had 546 yards and 44 points in their win last Sunday. But that was against Dan Quinn and his “defense”. Vic Fangio’s unit proved to be a hell of a lot more formidable. They held Detroit to 317 yards and 9 points. That is the lowest point total for the Lions in 36 games.

That is some impressive defense.

Jared Goff came into the game completing 74 percent of his passes. The Eagles held him to 14 of 37, the worst passing day of his Lions career. This wasn’t luck. The Eagles pass rush kept Goff under constant pressure and the secondary did a fantastic job in coverage. The Eagles only finished with 2 sacks, but had 7 QB hits and the DL had 5 pass deflections. They made Goff uncomfortable all night long. Cooper DeJean picked off one of the deflected passes.

Fangio was masterful with how he called defenses. He mixed blitzes in effectively. Dan Campbell has gotten a ton of credit for what he’s done as a play-caller over the past couple of weeks. Fangio kept Campbell and the Lions from getting into any kind of rhythm.

It is great that the Eagles defense played so well because the offense had another off night. They finished with only 272 yards. They started three drives in Detroit territory and turned that into only a pair of FGs. The Eagles defense held the Lions to 3 for 13 on third downs and an amazing 0 for 5 on fourth downs. Those stops kept giving the Eagles offense good field position. The offense did just enough to win, but a better effort could have made this a very different game.

Jalen Hurts really struggled early on. He was just 9-18-63. Hurts was off target with several throws and couldn’t get comfortable. He was better in the second half, even though his numbers still weren’t great. He did go 10-31 on the ground. A couple of those were designed QB runs that proved to be key in moving the chains.

Both teams were heavily affected by windy conditions. Philly’s deep passing game didn’t deliver at all. The Lions missed a PAT because of the wind (and a penalty that pushed the kick back). Dan Campbell and Nick Sirianni made some strange decisions about when to be aggressive and when to be conservative. This wasn’t a game that will be studied by young coaches, at least not for the right reasons. Sirianni went for it on 4 and 1 late in the game. That got stuffed and set up the Lions to kick a FG and make the game closer than it should have been. Detroit stuffed the Tush Push multiple times.

The Eagles came out throwing, hoping they could take advantage of the Lions beat up secondary. I’m sure they also wanted to get the ball to AJ Brown so they could solve that situation. Detroit’s backups played surprisingly well and kept the Eagles offense under control. Brown was targeted 11 times. He finished 7-49. His biggest impact may have come at the end of the game when he drew a questionable PI call that allowed the Eagles to run out the clock.

The defense had a lot of heroes. It really was a group effort. Jordan Davis played the run well and batted down 3 passes. Jaelan Phillips had a sack and a couple of QB hits. He was disruptive. Jalyx Hunt had 3 QB hits. Quinyon Mitchell played like a shutdown corner.

Nakobe Dean deserves special mention. He only had 3 tackles, but had a sack and 2 QB hits. He also was sensational in coverage on a couple of different plays against speedy receivers.

This is the second week in a row that he simply ran over the blocking back. When Dean blitzes, dudes better be ready. He goes full speed and isn’t going to be blocked easily. It is great to see him playing better than ever after last year’s injury.

I know the offense is frustrating. I get it. They deserve a lot of criticism for their performance over the past two weeks. At the same time, you need to celebrate just how good the defense is. They faced a pair of good offenses and limited them to a total of 16 points…combined. Detroit played really good defense and made things tough on the Eagles. Hurts was able to do just enough to lead his team to a win.

The Eagles are now 8-2. They are atop the NFC standings. They have beaten the Rams, Bucs, Lions, Packers, Vikings and Chiefs. That’s a lot of contenders, or teams we thought would be contenders. The offense must get better, but this team is starting to look like it will be in the Super Bowl hunt once again.

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