Posted October 15th, 2023 | 2 Comments »The Eagles had great fortune last year when it came to injuries. They had to deal with some, but overall the team stayed healthy and there weren’t a lot of personnel challenges. 2023 has been a different story.
Starters/Key Players out for the Jets game
RG Cam Jurgens
WR Quez Watkins
DT Jalen Carter
DB Avonte Maddox
CB Darius Slay
FS Justin Evans
That’s not ideal, but the Eagles sure can’t complain to the Jets. They are overwhelmed by injuries right now, even getting bad news on Saturday afternoon. Sauce Gardner will miss the game due to a concussion.
Yikes.
The Jets will have multiple backups playing in the secondary. The Eagles will likely coming out throwing, hoping to test that group. Dealing with AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith isn’t easy when you’ve got starters. When backups are in, good luck.
It will be interesting to see what the Jets do schematically. Do they roll the dice and blitz? Do they focus on coverage and hope the DL can get pressure?
The Eagles will once again have a cobbled-together secondary of their own. Josh Jobe and James Bradberry will play outside. Bradley Roby will be the nickel. It sounds like Sydney Brown will play, but with him being a rookie and less than 100 percent, the coaches may prefer to start Terrell Edmunds. Hopefully his pride will kick in and he’ll play better than he did in the WAS game.
It will be good to see Nakobe Dean back on the field. He did some good things in the opener before getting hurt. I will be interested to see if he replaces Morrow or they get creative with all three LBs. It is funny that a couple of months ago the idea of depth at LB seemed crazy. Now the coaches have to figure out who they want to play and how to get the most out of the trio.
Morrow has shown the ability to be a playmaker. Cunningham is the best run stuffer and is the biggest of the trio. Dean is the best all-around player and most talented. The LBs need to play the run well so maybe the coaches go with Dean and Cunningham.
Zach Wilson did have some success against the Eagles in 2021. He led them to 18 points in the first half and finished 23-38-226 with 2 TDs. Those were the days when Jonathan Gannon was coaching like the anti-Buddy Ryan. I think Sean Desai will be more aggressive and Wilson will have to earn anything he gets.
This would be a great week for the Eagles pass rush to dominate. If they can beat up on Wilson, it will take pressure off the backups in the secondary.
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Posted October 13th, 2023 | 3 Comments »The Jets expected to be Super Bowl contenders when the season began. Then Aaron Rodgers got hurt and the world changed in a big way. Zach Wilson took over at QB and the offense went from explosive to repulsive. The Jets do have talent, but this is a flawed team.
The Jets have:
- Elite CB
- Elite DT
- Explosive RB
- Outstanding LBs
- Star WR
- Good pass rushers
They are dead last in the NFL in passing yards.
They can’t block anyone.
Somehow the defense isn’t as good as it should be.
Talented, but flawed.
The Jets are 2-3. In the two wins, they ran for at least 173 yards, forced at least 3 turnovers and had a return TD. That formula works for everyone. The problem is that you can’t count on a great rushing performance, multiple takeaways and non-offensive TDs.
In three losses, the Jets averaged 13 points a game and struggled to move the ball.
When the Jets have the ball, the interesting matchup will be RB Breece Hall against the Eagles top-ranked run defense. Kyren Williams went 13-53 last week and that’s the best any RB has done against the Eagles this year. Hall has two games with 100+ rushing yards. He went for a total of 83 yards in the other games.
https://twitter.com/NYJetsTFMedia/status/1712875381462569379
Watch that clip and you can see that run is more about bad defense than great offense. Still, Hall did explode up the field and take full advantage of the room to run. He can absolutely fly. I would be shocked to see him have holes like that against the Eagles.
Jalen Carter is out this week and that will hurt, but Fletcher Cox returns and Jordan Davis will be clogging the middle as usual. If the Eagles shut down the run game, all the pressure is on Wilson and the passing attack. Not good news for the New Yorkers. Wilson has a passer rating of 73.4 and has only thrown for more than 200 yards in one game.
Wilson isn’t a good QB, but he also has a porous OL in front of him. The Jets have multiple backups playing. Even with the Eagles missing Carter, this is a game where they should get regular pressure. Haason Reddick will go against the backup RT. This could be another week for him to add to his sack total.
Darius Slay and Justin Evans will miss the game so the Eagles could be vulnerable on the back end. That makes it all the more important for the pass rushers to get to Wilson and force him to get the ball out quickly. We’ll see if the Eagles go with Sydney Brown or Terrell Edmunds at safety. Brown isn’t 100 percent, but he’s more athletic and more talented than Edmunds.
The Jets had a top 4 defense last year in yards and points. Expectations were sky high for that group. They are 14th in points allowed and 22nd in yards allowed. They are especially vulnerable to the run, giving up at least 134 yards in each of the last four games. You can bet the Eagles will try to run on this team. You want to pound on their front and not let them get after the QB.
Sauce Gardner was sick late in the week, but he’s expected to play. Fellow CB DJ Reed will miss the game due to a concussion. If the Jets put Gardner on AJ Brown, this could be a week where DeVonta has a big showing. He should be able to eat up their backup corners.
The Jets will have a tough choice in whether they focus on the run or coverage.
https://twitter.com/lawlornfl/status/1712992175091290150
DT Quinnen Williams is the one guy up front who can wreck games. I’m sure the Jets will try to have him go against Sua Opeta as much as possible, but Opeta and the OL shut down Aaron Donald last week so they have a good idea of what they’re doing.
The Eagles will be focused on red zone offense, after getting off to a slow start. The Jets are #3 in the league in red zone defense so this will be a tough test for the Birds.
That seems like a noteworthy difference. Let’s see if they try feeding Swift in the red zone and how that works. The Jets struggle for every point so scoring TDs instead of FGs makes it all the more difficult for them to keep up.
I am curious to see how the Eagles coaches approach this game. Will Brian Johnson prefer to run on them or attack the banged up secondary? Will Sean Desai blitz Zach Wilson and try to overwhelm him or let his DL do their thing?
The Eagles are the better team and should win this game. The Jets are dangerous because they can make plays on defense and then have weapons in Hall and Garrett Wilson on offense. If the Jets don’t come up with big plays, I think they will really struggle in this game.
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This is so dumb it actually made me laugh.
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