With the Eagles on their bye week, the coaches will have time to self-scout and figure out what needs to be fixed. I can make a couple of suggestions on areas that definitely need some improvement.
The Eagles were the #1 running team after Week 5. They averaged more than 160 yards a game to that point. Since then the Eagles have not had more than 109 rushing yards in a game. What happened?
The injury to Cam Jurgens is a key part of this. The run game isn’t magical. The Eagles have a great OL that can open holes and create good opportunities for the RBs. Jurgen’s absence has hurt that. Sua Opeta replaced him initially. Opeta struggled to get movement at the line of scrimmage. He also didn’t do a good job of blocking in space. You either want a mauler, an athlete or both. Opeta was none of those things.
There was a red zone run in a recent game where Jalen Hurts was stopped for a minimum gain. Watching live, we all blamed Brian Johnson for a bad call. Rewatching the game, you could see the design of the play actually worked. Opeta failed to block his guy and that defender made the tackle. Any kind of block there gives Hurts a chance to score. The whiff meant the Eagles got nothing.
Putting Jurgens back at RG will give the Eagles someone who can get movement and who excels in space. That will help a lot.
One thing we have to realize is that defenses are playing the Eagles differently. Last year they finished 5th in the league in rushing yards. This offseason defenses seemed to decide that the key to stopping the Eagles was taking away deep balls. They played light boxes and kept safeties deep. The Eagles ran wild on the Vikings and Bucs. Defenses seemed to adjust after that and dared Hurts to beat them.
Hurts has been red hot the past three weeks and the Eagles are averaging 32 points a game. We could see defenses shift back to being more coverage-based than focusing on the run. We’ll have to see how that plays out.
Nick Sirianni pointed out that the Eagles run RPOs a lot and that some of the short passes that work so well are like runs. That’s true to a certain extent, but the Eagles need to be better when they hand the ball to the RB. D’Andre Swift is a talented runner. There is no reason he should be averaging less than 4 yards a carry over a four-game stretch. That tells you something is up with the run game.
The coaches need to adjust the plays they are calling and/or the situations they call them in. They need to come up with some ways to get Swift into space. When he has room to run, Swift can be very dangerous. He just hasn’t had much room in recent weeks.
Hurts and the passing game are really clicking right now. If the run game can get going, the Eagles offense will be even harder to stop.
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The pass defense is a big issue, especially the nickel position. CeeDee Lamb gave the Eagles fits. You know future opponents will study that and do a lot of the same things.
Getting Bradley Roby healthy will help this situation a lot. He is a veteran player and has a lot of experience in the slot. Eli Ricks is a rookie and is built more to play on the outside. Playing nickel against Lamb is not something he’s built to do, at least as a rookie.
The Eagles cannot just count on getting Roby healthy. He might get hurt again. They need to figure out some other ways to handle slot receivers. There isn’t an obvious solution on the team.
One of the other things the Eagles must figure out is how to fix James Bradberry. He was one of the best corners in the league last year. This season Bradberry is more of a speed bump than a stop sign. Heck, I’m not sure he’s even that right now. Beyond struggling in coverage, Bradberry isn’t tackling well so short gains become medium gains. I don’t know what the coaches can do, but they need to figure out something to try. Bradberry is hurting the defense.
I do think more practice and game time will help the secondary to gel. You can’t have that many new faces coming together and playing at a high level right away. It takes time for them to get on the same page. Sean Desai must figure out the best way to use his players.
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The Eagles have fixed some issues already.
The team was 27th in red zone offense. They are now up to 13th. The coaches have gotten better with play-calls and the players are executing better.
The pass rush has picked up. It felt inconsistent early on. The DL is playing much better now.
It seems like the Eagles have found a solid punter in Braden Mann.
Sirianni and his staff usually do a pretty good job of solving problems. It helps having a talented, versatile roster. It also helps that Howie Roseman will look for talent year round. This team has Super Bowl potential. If the coaches can find some more answers, they will have an even better chance of getting back to the big game this year.
Time can be an amazing healer. Even though the Eagles won on Sunday, I was incredibly frustrated. The overall game didn’t bother me, but the final 46 seconds sure did. It was hard to separate my feelings on that last minute from the overall game right away. And I certainly wasn’t alone.
If the Eagles had lost the game, that would have been an all-time Philly choke job. Letting Dallas get down to the 6-yard line was shocking and almost disastrous. The Eagles had a similar situation back in 2006.
LITO SHEPPARD APPRECIATION TWEET ❕❕
Not only was it Dallas Week but Terrell Owens’ return to Philadelphia. It came down to the wire but you know how this one ended. pic.twitter.com/6hA6Y2bW8x
We now look back on that game and that moment fondly. That day, I was in dis-belief. Michael Lewis had a 57-yard PI penalty that moved the ball deep into Eagles territory. Sound familiar?
While I was livid that day, I can now look back and enjoy talking about the game. Time heals all wounds, even ones caused by horrific last minute PI penalties. Now that I’ve had some time to decompress from Sunday’s near debacle, I feel better.
The Eagles won a big game. Dallas is one of the best teams in the league so beating them shouldn’t be taken lightly. And Dallas played well. Dak Prescott probably played his best game of the year. He put up better stats against the Rams, but their defense isn’t nearly as talented as the Eagles. Dak also got to play with the lead throughout that game. The Eagles made him play from behind for at least half the game.
I thought the Eagles did a good job of limiting Micah Parsons, but Baldy showed you how disruptive he was even if he didn’t make a ton of plays.
I know you didn’t come hear to read my praise of the Cowboys, but I think it is important to point out that Dallas showed up and played well, unlike the SF game. The Niners loved their beatdown of Dallas (and we did too). But you can’t take much from that game. Dallas just got overwhelmed. I’ve said a few times this season that my goal is for the Eagles to to everything they can to prepare for the Super Bowl. Beating Dallas on a day when Dak played well and their defense made plays will help you get ready for big games to come.
There are mistakes to fix. The Eagles know they must get the nickel position fixed. Getting Bradley Roby back will help, but they can’t count on just him. Sean Desai will need to come up with other ideas in case Roby gets hurt again.
The pass rush got 5 sacks and 10 hits on Dak. He used his legs to mvoe away from pressure and buy time. Desai can look at that and decide how the Eagles will handle him differently in the next game.
The Eagles offense was good until the final few drives. Bad field position and the strategy to force Dallas to burn timeouts caused more conservative play-calling. Nick Sirianni will have to think long and hard if that’s what he wants to do in the future. There is no obvious right or wrong. He either needs his offense or defense to execute better the next time around.
It is interesting to see how Jalen Hurts has become such a good pocket passer. He’s completed 73 percent or more of his passes in three straight games. He has a rating of 109 or more in each of those games. Hurts is doing this while dealing with a sore knee. He can’t run around and make things happen the same way he did last year. He’s got to be able to run the offense from the pocket and then mix in runs here and there.
The Eagles are 8-1. They have arguably the best offense in the league. They have one of the best pass rushes in the league. ESPN had a good segment on Sunday morning showing that the Eagles had more pressures of 2 seconds or less than any other team (42). Those pressures are more valuable because it even affects teams who try to get the ball out as quickly as possible. QBs will hold the ball against some defenses because they are looking for the big play. They might get pressured 3 or 4 seconds into a play. That is worlds different that getting there in 1.8 or 2.0 seconds flat.
We still haven’t seen the Eagles play their A-game and really blow the doors off an opponent. That should happen at some point. For now we can embrace the fact they continue to win. And that’s not a fluke.
As long as Hurts is the QB, the Eagles should continue winning games. The upcoming gauntlet will be a great test for him and the team. It should be exciting to see how the Eagles handle this 5-game stretch.
So relax and enjoy Sunday’s win over Dallas. Forget the final minute and focus on the final score.
PHI 28 DAL 23
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One of the unsung heroes in the game was LB Zac Cunningham. He had 10 tackles, a TFL and a PD. I thought he played well and helped the Eagles do some good things on defense. Imagine in the summer if I told you Nakobe Dean got hurt in a big game and didn’t play much. You would have real concerns about the LBs. Cunningham turned out to be an excellent signing and he’s bee a solid player for the Eagles so far.
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The Eagles might have actually found an effective punter. Braden Mann averaged 51.8 yards per punt on Sunday. His final punt backed Dallas up and put them in tough field position. His 48.1 average for the season puts him in the middle of the league. That is fine for a team that focuses more on scoring than field position.