Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

The Good Days

Posted February 7th, 2025 | 1 Comment »

The Eagles are about to play in their third Super Bowl in eight years. Regardless of whether they win or lose, it is important to know that this is a special time. These are the good days.

Between 1981 and 1999 the Eagles won a total of 2 playoff games. This year alone the Eagles won 3 playoff games and might add a fourth W to that total. Lamar Jackson just finished his sixth year in the league. He is 3-5 in the playoffs and hasn’t reached a Super Bowl. Winning in the postseason is not easy. Do not take it for granted.

You’ve probably seen the meme about the Trotters. Jeremiah Trotter played in the Super Bowl in 2004. His son is about to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday. The last time the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl, Papa Trotter was still in college. That’s pretty friggin crazy.

2024 has been an amazing season for the Eagles. They went 14-3 and finished with the number one defense. Saquon Barkley ran for 2000 yards. We saw Dallas Goedert go for 61 yards to set up the winning TD against the Saints. We saw Cooper DeJean put King Henry down with authority. We saw BG blow up the Rams. Zack Baun gave Eagles fans the best LB play they have had since the days of Seth Joyner, Byron Evans and William Thomas. Jalen Hurts only threw for 2903 yards and 18 TDs, but he ran for 14 TDs and always seemed to make the key throw the Eagles needed to win. We got to hear Jordan Mailata do a hilarious Bane impression in the middle of a playoff game.

This team has been both fun and good.

Nick Sirianni loves to talk about his team being connected. This group of players has given off good vibes all year long. You wondered how things would go with key leaders like Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce retiring. Jordan Mailata became more of a vocal leader. The young guys stepped up and helped this team to be as cohesive as ever. New guys like Mekhi Becton and Barkley bought in right away. When you have a talented roster that connects like that, special things can happen.

These guys seem to genuinely care about one another. That has helped them to play at a high level and accomplish some amazing things. Stop and think about Saquon Barkley for a second. He has three TD runs of 60 or more yards in the postseason. Most RBs wouldn’t do that in a career, let alone a three-game span. Barkley has given us a lifetime of memories in just one season. I can’t wait to see what he does on Sunday.

I will write a preview on Saturday, but I will say for now that the more I think and study up on the game, the more confident I get. Maybe that is a result of too much PBR over the years. I just keep coming back to the Eagles having so many good players and this team being so good since the bye week. This feels like a special team.

We’ll find out soon enough.

Make sure you enjoy this team and this experience.

*****

One of the best things about this team is that it is young. Mr Bama wrote about that earlier this week.

The Chiefs have been on an amazing run in recent years. Maybe the Eagles have a run of their own. We probably should save that discussion until after we see what happens in the big game.

*****

If you want a good omen for the weekend, here you go.

Eric Allen is the best CB in Eagles history. They’ve had some great players, but EA was special. He could cover, tackle and make plays. Buddy Ryan left him on an island a lot of the time and that pressure helped turn Allen into a Hall of Fame player. I’m really happy he got voted in. I was worried he would miss out on the honor of making it to Canton.

But wait…what does Allen getting in have to do with the Super Bowl? Let’s go back a few years.

That was the day before Super Bowl LII. You might remember the Eagles won that game.

_

Reasons to Worry About Sunday

Posted February 6th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

In the previous piece I referred to the Chiefs and Eagles as evenly matched. That drew some questions. I think just about everyone agrees that the Eagles have the better roster, 1-53. The Chiefs are good. Damn good. The Eagles are just better. But…

KC has the better coach and the better QB. It is hard to quantify the difference that can make. Andy Reid has been an NFL head coach for 25 years. He’s been the play-caller for most of that time and has a ton of tricks up his sleeve. He knows how to put together a masterful gameplan. He knows what to say to get his team ready. I think Nick Sirianni is a good coach. Reid is an all-time great.

Mahomes makes history every season. Not team history, but league history. He will go down as one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game. Jalen Hurts is hoping to have the title of best Eagles QB of all time. That’s a big difference.

Having a Hall of Fame coach and QB can mask for deficiencies at OG or DB or whatever position you want to point out. Reid and Mahomes haven’t lost a playoff game since January of 2022.

*****

It feels like the key to this game is Jalen Hurts vs Steve Spagnuolo. Hurts can be erratic. There are times when he looks mediocre. There are times when he looks great. Just think back to the NFC title game. That was the good version of Hurts and the one Eagles fans want to see on Sunday.

Hurts played brilliantly in the last SB against Spags and the Chiefs. He threw for 304 yards and a TD. He ran for 70 yards and a TD. If not for a fumble that went back for a TD, it would have been an amazing performance. I re-watched part of that game recently and it didn’t feel like KC blitzed much. Hurts had a clean pocket a lot of the time and that helped him to play well. He was only sacked twice for a loss of two yards.

The PHI-KC game from 2023 was different. Hurts was 14-22-150 with an INT. He was sacked 5 times. Two of the sacks were by QB Trent McDuffie. I re-watched part of that game and Spags was more aggressive with blitzes. I’m guessing Spags will stay aggressive this time out since it worked last year. And Hurts has to handle that.

Hurts has done a great job of protecting the ball this year. He has taken more sacks than you like. Those sacks can be drive-killers, especially against a defense like the Chiefs. If they get you in 3rd & long, you know they will blitz. They aren’t afraid of being wrong.

Spags doesn’t need to call a great game. He just needs great calls on a few key plays and that can help KC win. Just think back to the blitzes that killed Buffalo’s late drive.

I also want to mention Mekhi Becton. He is still learning to play OG. There are times when blitzes will confuse him and a free rusher will go right by him. You know Spags is going to attack Becton and see if he can get a free rusher to make a game-changing play.

*****

Mahomes ran 58 times this year, his lowest total since 2019. In the regular season he is judicious about running the ball. The postseason is a different story. The Chiefs get aggressive. Mahomes has 18 runs in just two games. And some of this is by design.

Mahomes is a great passer. He is a dangerous scrambler. KC because even tougher to defend when they start using his legs by design. That puts even more pressure on the defense. The fact they used those plays against Buffalo tells you how worried they were about winning that game. Thankfully the Eagles have seen them and can prepare.

*****

The Eagles passing offense came alive against Washington. Hurts made quick reads and good throws. He didn’t take sacks. He spread the ball to his key guys and led the offense to a bunch of yards and points.

But it was against Washington.

Throwing the ball against KC is going to be a very different story. They have good rushers. They have a great DB in McDuffie. And they have players who know the scheme and have played together.

*****

The Eagles have not done a good job of putting teams away this year. They blew late leads against the Falcons and Commanders, accounting for two of their losses. Each loss involved a brutal dropped pass that would have sealed the win.

  • They led the Jags 22-8 and had to hold on for dear life, with an INT in the end zone in the final minute.
  • They led WAS 26-10 and let them score late to make it 26-18. The Eagles recovered the onside kick to seal the win.
  • They led the Ravens 24-12 with 1:03 left and let a late score cut that to 24-19. The Eagles recovered the onside kick to seal the win.
  • They led the Panthers 22-16. Carolina should have had the go-ahead TD, but the receiver dropped the pass.
  • The Eagles had chance after chance to create real separation from the Packers, but only won 22-10.
  • The Eagles led the Rams 28-15 with less than 5 minutes to go. They gave up a quick TD to make it 28-22 and the Rams got into the red zone at the end of the game before the Eagles had a fourth down stop to seal the win.

Kansas City is Rasputin. You have to shoot them. Then stab them. Then burn them and put their ashes on a rocket to Mars. The Eagles led 24-14 at halftime of SB LVII and the Chiefs blew threw that lead in a heartbeat. The Niners had late leads in two Super Bowls and lost them both to KC. Buffalo had a 3-point lead with 13 seconds left and lost a few years back.

If the Eagles get a lead in the second half, they cannot let up at all. KC is relentless and they do have some voodoo they unleash late in games.

*****

Saquon Barkley was the most dynamic runner in the league this year. He’s 3 TD runs of 60 or more yards in the playoffs. The Chiefs have struggled against the run in recent weeks, but one thing they don’t do is give up long runs.

The longest run allowed by KC this year was just 34 yards. They only allowed 7 runs of 20 or more yards. If the Chiefs can limit Barkley to reasonable gains, that takes away a key part of the Eagles offense.

_