Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Tough Times

Posted January 1st, 2024 | 5 Comments »

As Charles Dickens famously said, it was the worst of times, it was the worsterer of times. That’s the way things feel in regard to the Eagles right now. There are all kinds of issues from Sunday’s debacle. There are questions about what will happen next Sunday. The playoffs are two weeks away, but nobody feels good about that right now. Then we’ll have all kinds of questions about the offseason.

Football is supposed to be a fun distraction from real life, right?

Ugh.

There is an upside to losing 4 out of 5 games. Jeff Lurie, Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni will go into the offseason knowing some things need to be changed and/or fixed. If you think back to 2010, that team had some flaws, but Andy Reid and the front office focused on the highs. They made moves to put that team over the top. The 2011 Eagles started 4-8 before getting hot and finishing at 8-8.

There won’t be any cherrypicking with this season. The issues are blatanly obvious to everyone. That doesn’t mean solving them will be easy or that we’ll all agree on what should be done. The 10-1 start will be a distant memory. The focus will be on the blowout losses to SF and Dallas, as well as the choke jobs against Seattle and Arizona. Your suffering will not be ignored.

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More than a few people are talking about whether Nick Sirianni should be fired. I don’t think things have gotten to the point where you fire him. It may sound good to hold someone accountable, but you have to follow that up with the question of who replaces him. There is no guarantee you’re going to find a better coach.

I do think Sirianni will need to have good answers for Howie and Lurie in the offseason. Too many fans and media people get frustrated with Sirianni’s non-answers in his press conferences. That is Coachspeak 101. Go read Finding the Winning Edge by Bill Walsh. Coaches have one message behind closed doors and another one for the public. You don’t air all your dirty laundry. You keep that in house.

Just because Sirianni isn’t ripping guys in the media doesn’t mean he’s blind. Watch his actions. Quez’s playing time went down in a big way the last two games. That’s not an accident. That’s Sirianni telling him his performance isn’t good enough.

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The biggest thing for Sirianni is explaining what happened to the defense. Part is personnel, part is scheme. Part might be leadership. He needs to be able to present a plan for how this stuff is getting fixed. This is hard to watch.

Getting lit up is bad. When it looks easy for the other team, that is unacceptable.

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Howie will have some things to answer for as well. The back seven is a mess. The front office took calculated gambles on some players and they just haven’t worked out this year. I understand that when you pay a QB big money you’ll have to cut corners in some other spots. But there are too many whiffs.

Maybe there is some disconnect between the personnel staff and the defensive staff. All I know is that the performance by the back seven is a huge issue and has hurt the team all year long.

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I am curious to see how the Eagles respond this week. There is enough talent and leadership on this team that they should be able to regroup and focus on the task at hand. Go beat the Giants and play with some pride. Close the regular season on a positive note.

Dallas plays a struggling Washington team on Sunday. If the Cowboys win, as they should, they’ll be division champs and the #2 seed. That game is at the same time as the Eagles. Sirianni talked about trying to get his team out of their rut, regardless of what that means for seeding and the division. He wants to play to win.

No one will have any confidence in the Eagles in the playoffs regardless of what happens on Sunday. How could you after seeing them get out-physicaled by the Cardinals?

Sirianni isn’t worried about perception. He’s focused on trying to get his guys a bit of confidence as they head to the postseason.

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If you want to cleanse your palate and see some good defense, here you go.

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Gannoned

Posted December 31st, 2023 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles wanted a blowout. Instead, they got an L. The defense did not force a single punt by the Cardinals. They allowed 29 points in the second half. That absolutely blows my mind. This was easily the low point of the Nick Sirianni era.

What an embarrassing day.

We can obsess on who to blame for this fiasco and the late season meltdown, but the bottom line is that this is simply a flawed team. One week the offense is good, the next they struggle. One week the defense is solid, the next week they’re invisible. The overall team just makes too many mistakes and often they come at critical moments.

A glaring issue to me is that too often the team plays as individuals, not a collective unit.

Great play by Williams, but his first instinct is to celebrate. The ball is still loose. If he stays on Murray, a teammate might have had a chance to get to the ball. There was a play where Haason Reddick took a step to the inside and Kyler Murray ran wide. Reddick must keep contain on that. Defense requires all 11 guys to do their job.

The Cardinals scored points on 6 of 8 drives. They had an INT on one, but even that came in the red zone. The only drive without a first down was when they kneeled before the half. Not one legit defensive stop all game long. That is nuts.

I thought Sydney Brown’s pick-six was the kind of play that would fire up the defense and get them going. That was a great moment, but it proved to be the last big thing the defense did.

The Eagles offense played well, but had a couple of 3 & outs that ended up proving costly. Jalen Hurts had a good game, going 18 for 23 with 3 TDs.

There was a frustrating sequence late in the game. The Cards scored to tie the game at 28-28. They tried an onside kick, but the Eagles recovered. That put them in scoring territory with 5:26 left. The Eagles got down to the 20 and things looked good. That’s when things went bad. A holding call on Jordan Mailata forced the Eagles into 1st & 20.

QB run
QB run
Perimeter screen

Those plays netted 4 yards and the Eagles had to settle for a FG.

Nick Sirianni explained that the QB runs had a chance to work based on the defensive fronts Arizona was showing. Unfortunately the runs didn’t work. The screen was an attempt to get into better FG position. It sure would have been nice to throw the ball to AJ or DeVonta or Goedert and let your stars make a play. The Eagles went conservative and it backfired.

The Eagles now need luck to win the division and host a playoff game. There was a time when this team was 10-1 and in position to be the number one seed in the NFC. Now they might be a wild card team. I wrote recently that the Eagles did not have a realistic shot to win the Super Bowl this year. This team was too flawed. Now this team might get bounced in the opening weekend.

The whole organization deserves a lot of scrutiny after this debacle. The coaches will focus on the game tape, looking to see what can be fixed. Sirianni can’t think long term right now. He’s got to focus on beating the Giants next week and whatever comes after that. When the season is finally over, he’s going to face a lot of tough questions from Jeff Lurie and Howie Roseman, as well as every Eagles fan he runs into.

What a crappy way to wrap up 2023. Ugh.

Happy New Year

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