Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Review – DAL 33, PHI 13

Posted December 15th, 2023 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles had a big opportunity with their trip to Dallas. A win would have given them a stranglehold on the NFC East and would have erased the memories of the previous week’s beatdown by the Niners. Unfortunately the Eagles seized that about as well as Nelson Agholor seized a deep ball post-2017.

The good news is that the Eagles failed as a team. The offense didn’t score a TD. The defense gave up 24 points in the first half and 33 for the game. The coaching staff didn’t have a good game. Gotta respect that kind of teamwork.

This game just counts as one L in the standings, but after the SF debacle, it is open season on ripping the Eagles and doubting them. And guess what? There isn’t much to say in their defense. Losing by 23 and 20 in key games against rivals means you deserve all the scrutiny you get.

All we want for Christmas is to see the Eagles win a game and show some signs of life. Monday can’t get here soon enough.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni loves big plays. He loves to attack. That’s great when it works, but it hasn’t worked recently. Sirianni and Brian Johnson haven’t done Jalen Hurts any favors with the continued focus on throwing downfield. Those plays aren’t far from working, but they still aren’t. And that makes things challenging. I did think the Eagles ran the ball well and I liked some of what they did offensively.

Whatever Sirianni’s message to the team was, it didn’t work. This was another sloppy performance. It’s one thing to lose because the other team is just better, but the Eagles were sloppy. And dumb, at times. That’s not good.

I got mad at Sirianni when he ran the push play on 3rd & 1 in the mid-4th Qtr. The Eagles were down 27-6 and driving. You need every second possible to pull off a miracle. The push play was a terrible choice. You’re going to burn 20 to 30 seconds running the play and then clearing the bodies. Sirianni did pull his starters late in the game. That was a smart move.

Sean Desai and the defense had a rough game. He just didn’t have a feel for what to call. He would blitz and Dallas would beat it. He played coverage and Dallas beat it. Desai just wasn’t able to affect Dak Prescott nearly enough. The defense did show some promise in the 2nd half. They scored 7 points, held Dallas to 9 points and 147 yards. They seemed to have more intensity and they certainly executed better. That was encouraging.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts did not have his A-game, going 18-27-197. He fumbled in Dallas territory. Ugh. The Cowboys blitzed him effectively and Hurts struggled with it. There was a 4th down pass to DeVonta that was stopped short due to the blitz. If Hurts makes a slightly better throw, that is a 1st down.

The whole offense was just off. DeVonta just missed a couple of key plays. One was a pass that got knocked out of his hands and the other was a long TD that was inches away. Hurts just missed a long play to AJ Brown. There was a sideline throw late in the half that was inches away from being inbounds.

Sometimes the throws weren’t good enough. DeVonta and AJ didn’t make the tough catches that they normally do. Each of them had fumbles in Dallas territory. You aren’t going to win a big game when your three best offensive players fumble. Ugh. AJ had an OPI penalty on a play that got the Eagles inside the 10. DeVonta did that last week. More sloppiness. You can’t have that stuff.

It was frustrating to see the Eagles throw short of the sticks on multiple 4th downs and 3rd downs. I’m a huge believer in the importance of run after the catch, but throwing short on key downs isn’t smart.

It was good to see Dallas Goedert come back. He was 4-30 and looked good.

The RBs were fine.

The OL was up and down. They did some good things in the run game. Pass protection was sloppy. There were times Dallas had to blitz to get pressure, but there were other times when the front four got the job done. Lane Johnson and Cam Jurgens struggled. There were too many missed blocks from the whole group. One run play failed when Jurgens and Jack Stoll both missed blocks. Jason Kelce got out in space a couple of times and failed to block his guy. The plays worked, but had potential for even more if he makes his blocks.

DEFENSE

Haason Reddick had a pair of sacks and was disruptive at times. The Eagles tried to spy Dak and it didn’t work too well. He didn’t run much in this game. Josh Sweat seemed to line up inside way too much. He’s better coming off the edge. Nolan Smith got playing time and looked good on some rushes. Brandon Graham drew a holding call.

Fletcher Cox had a strip sack and batted a pass. Jalen Carter got the fumble from Cox’s sack and ran that back for a TD. That brought some life to the game, but Dallas had a big third down conversion on the ensuing drive and that was pretty much it. Jordan Davis had 5 tackles and played the run well.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1735003384715825488

Zach Cunningham led the team with 9 total tackles. It was good to have him back. Nick Morrow had 6 tackles, but struggled vs the run. He did have a couple of good pass breakups. Shaq Leonard got mixed in. He looked rusty.

Sydney Brown played his best game so far. He was credited with 8 tackles and a PD. That was an impressive play where he went up and almost picked the ball off. He had good coverage on Lamb on another deep ball and kept that from being a catch. Brown also flew down him on a run play and stuffed it for minimal gain.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1735002217180975533

Reed Blankenship had a concussion and missed the 2nd half. Kevin Byard was disappointing. He missed a tackle on an early run play. He just didn’t didn’t make plays when they were needed.

Darius Slay had 3 PDs and was solid in coverage. He did get called for PI on one play. James Bradberry was disappointing again. Dallas went after him a few times and those plays worked well. He did get called for PI on one. Bradley Roby was up and down. He had some good moments, but bad ones as well. On Lamb’s TD, Roby was chasing him across the field. Roby started looking at Dak and left Lamb alone. Why???? Kelee Ringo got his most PT. It didn’t go well. He gave up catches and drew flags. Not an ideal combination.

ST

Michael Clay called a fake punt and the Eagles executed it perfectly. Braden Mann hit Zaccheaus for a gain of 28 yards. That play led to a FG. Great call.

Jake Elliott hit both FGs.

Britain Covey had an 18-yard PR.

Dallas became the first team in NFL history to hit 2 FGs of 59 or more yards in the same game.

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Free Advice

Posted December 12th, 2023 | 3 Comments »

Hey Eagles, you have one month of football left in the regular season. Tick-tock, gents. You have problems and they need solutions. There are no magic elixirs, but you can surely figure out ways to get better on third downs and in the red zone. If not, you’re going to have a lot of time off in January and nobody wants that.

Your schedule gets easier so you have a solid shot to win out and be the NFC East champs. That would be cool, but we want a Super Bowl. Ask Buffalo fans about division titles. They’ve won 3 in a row, but they’d kill for another chance to play in the Super Bowl.

Beating Seattle, Arizona and the Giants isn’t as important as solving problems. The Vikings went 13-4 last year. They got to the postseason and got exposed by the Giants. Then those same Giants came to Philly and got destroyed, losing 38-7. The last thing we want is to see our team go 14-3 and then get have an embarrassing loss in the playoffs.

Football ain’t that complicated.

Block better.

Tackle better.

Cover tighter.

Catch the damn ball when it’s thrown to you.

And for god’s sake, hold onto the friggin ball when you’ve got it in your hands.

Play smart.

This roster still has plenty of talent. Nobody has to be Superman. Do your job. And do it well.

Winning games is important, but playing good football is more important. That will translate to the postseason. This can still be a good season. A couple of bad games can be a bump in the road if you use the final month to get your act together.

The last couple of weeks were miserable. We had to watch you eat shit sandwiches served by Brock Purdy and Dak Prescott. That’s about as bad as it gets. All we want for Christmas is some good Eagles football.

*****

This is one of the reasons I still think this team can do some damage. They don’t just have a good record. They are tied for the best record in the league despite playing a brutally tough schedule. That has to count for something.

*****

Seattle is middle of the road. This will be an interesting test. If they light up the Eagles, that would be a bad sign. The Seahawks do have some serious weapons, but that offense is erratic.

As I think about the recent stretch of games, I’m reminded of being in the ocean. You get knocked down by a wave and it tosses you around. You get your feet under you stand up and boom – there’s the next wave. It knocks you right back under water and spinning around like a sock in a washing machine. You stand back up and the next wave comes in. It can get you flustered.

Eventually you get up and are able to make it to shallow water where the waves crash harmlessly into your legs.

The Eagles got pummeled by recent teams. Maybe this week they’ll be able to get their feet under them and settle things down.

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