Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Preview – ATL at PHI

Posted September 15th, 2024 | Comments Off on Game Preview – ATL at PHI

Before I get into discussing the game, I’m sorry for the lack of activity recently. I’ve been under the weather. I’m on the mend now and hopefully will be a full go for the game.

Now let’s talk about the game. This felt like a solid win until we got the AJ Brown news.

The Eagles are the better team with or without AJ, but he is a huge part of the offense. The game feels closer now. It will be interesting to see how Kellen Moore calls the game without his best weapon. He still has plenty of weapons to work with.

Saquon Barkley
DeVonta Smith
Dallas Goedert

This game presents an opportunity for the other guys to step up, mostly Jahan Dotson. He was targeted once last week, but didn’t have a catch. Dotson will definitely be targeted more than once on Monday night. If he can make some plays, it will make Howie Roseman’s trade look pretty smart. This is the kind of situation they got Dotson for.

Parris Campbell is likely to be elevated for this game so the team will have another veteran receiver in the mix. He could be the guy with one target and no catches.

The other skill players will have more chances to make plays. Maybe they go with more two RB sets and have one of the backs line up in the slot. Maybe the Eagles run more 12 personnel and Grant Calcaterra gets his chance to shine. Maybe this is the Britain Covey game.

It will be very interesting to see how Jalen Hurts performs without AJ in the lineup. AJ led the team with 10 targets last week. He is Hurts go-to guy. The Falcons will focus their coverage on DeVonta so that means Hurts must spread the ball around. The Eagles offense tends to funnel the ball to the stars. With AJ out the offense will have a different look.

Hurts forced two throws last week that were picked off. Let’s hope he got that out of his system. Nick Sirianni preached the importance of protecting the ball this week. The whole team got the lecture, but Hurts needed to hear it more than anyone. Those decisions were troublingly bad. If they go away, fine. If they don’t, we’ve got a real issue.

The Eagles might not put up 34 points as they did in the opener, but the Falcons shouldn’t be scoring a ton themselves. They didn’t score 30 points in any game last year. They only put up 10 points last week.

Atlanta has good weapons. The problem is that Kirk Cousins isn’t healthy and that limits what they can do.

It is possible that Cousins needed a game to get comfortable and that he’ll look a lot better this week.

I would hardly say that’s impressive mobility. Cousins will probably be better this time out, but I don’t see him making some crazy jump. Facing a stationary target will give the Eagles pass rush a chance to shine. They struggled on the slippery surface last week. That won’t be an issue this time out. The pass rushers need to be disruptive this time out. With Cousins being a pocket passer, Jalen Carter will be especially important. If he gets free up the middle, Cousins won’t have anywhere to go.

The Falcons had a chance to study coverage breakdowns from the Eagles opener. You can bet they’ll try to replicate some of those situations. Eagles LBs were sloppy and gave up some big plays. Vic Fangio will coach his guys up on that. You’d rather give up a play in front of you than to be overly aggressive and get beat behind you.

The Eagles didn’t tackle well last week and that was a point of emphasis in practice. Hopefully that pays off against Atlanta.

I don’t know who the intangibles favor in this matchup. The Falcons are coming off a frustrating loss. The Eagles are coming off a big win. Would you rather be desperate or confident?

Sunday’s games included more than a few surprises.

NO 44
DAL 19

MIN 23
SF 17

LV 26
BAL 23

TB 20
DET 16

You can bet Sirianni will use those scores to remind the Eagles that anything can happen and they better play their butts off.

We saw the Eagles potential in the opener. They had some dominant moments mixed with with real sloppiness. The goal this week is to play a cleaner game and go beat the Falcons.

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Some Context

Posted September 9th, 2024 | Comments Off on Some Context

The Eagles played the second game of the NFL season. Since then we’ve had a chance to watch the rest of the league play. We can now put the Eagles performance into a bit of context since we have other games to compare it to.

After watching football on Sunday and Monday, I feel better about the Eagles. Jalen Hurts threw a couple of bonehead INTs, but the team still piled up 410 yards and 34 points. The new OL played well and all the skill players looked like stars. To quote Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they are.” And that’s a good thing.

The Lions were the #5 scoring team in the league last year. They were at home and facing a very young Rams defense. The Lions struggled on offense for much of the game. They won it in overtime despite playing a very banged up Rams team.

The Falcons had high hopes entering the season. They lost to PIT 18-10 and only had 226 yards. The Steelers have a good defense, but Kirk Cousins didn’t look comfortable and that should have the Falcons worried.

Cousins is coming off an Achilles injury and doesn’t look right. He didn’t plant his foot and drive the ball. He might be okay physically and just doesn’t have his confidence back. Injuries are not easy to come back from. If Cousins struggles, the Falcons might need rookie Michael Pennix to play some this year. That’s not ideal for a team that hoped to win their division.

The Bengals played the Pats and lost 16-10. Cincy has started slow in the Joe Burrow era, but this feels a bit different with their receiver issues that weren’t there in the past. The Pats should be one of the worst teams in the league. That’s not someone you want to lose to.

The Giants lost 28-6 to the Vikings. Both teams should struggle this year. Still, the Giants have to be disappointed with such a bad showing to start the season. They weren’t even competitive. Daniel Jones was as bad as ever and they can’t really do anything about that until the offseason.

Dallas dominated the Browns. What an ugly game. Cleveland was missing both of their starting OTs. That’s not good in any game, but proved to be disastrous against the Boys. Dallas had 6 sacks and lived in the backfield. Deshaun Watson looked terrible. Browns fans have to be incredibly discouraged by that game. They hoped Watson would be improved and the defense would be the same juggernaut unit from last year. Neither of those proved to be true. And now Watson is facing new allegations.

Buffalo beat the Cardinals 34-28. The Bills defense has a pair of new starting safeties and lots of young players in the back seven. The defense could not stop Arizona in the first half. They did tighten up in the second half, but also got lucky that Kyler Murray didn’t see a wide-open Marvin Harrison Jr late in the game. Josh Allen and the offense were outstanding. The Bills could prove to be very good this year, but their defense has work to do.

The Eagles came out of their game pretty healthy. They played a tough team and won. The offense was excellent and still has room to improve. The defense did have issues, but nothing that can’t be fixed. They showed playmaking ability and made key plays to help secure the win. The next game for the Eagles is the Falcons and the immobile Kirk Cousins. You know the DL is looking forward to getting after him and playing on a good surface after slipping and sliding around Brazil.

*****

It might not have seemed like Jalen Carter did that much in the game, but he was more disruptive than you might have realized.

Carter’s ability to push the pocket could be huge vs Atlanta.

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