Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

All On The Line

Posted October 9th, 2023 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles had the best OL/DL in the league last year. Other teams saw that and came after some of the players. DT Javon Hargrave signed with the Niners. RG Isaac Seumalo signed with the Steelers. Andre Dillard signed with the Titans.

We are five games into the 2023 season and the Eagles once again have the best OL/DL in the league. Amazing.

Let’s start with the DL. Hargrave is out, but his replacement is Jalen Carter, who has a legit shot to be the Defensive Rookie of the Year. Carter makes splash plays every week and just jumps off the tape when you watch him.

Rookies shouldn’t play like that. Wow. That looks like Fletcher Cox in his prime. Instead that is Carter in his second month as a pro. He leads the team with 3.5 sacks and 2 FF. He is second with 4 TFLs. Carter isn’t just flying upfield. He’s a key reason the Eagles have the top ranked run defense in the NFL. You can make a legitimate argument that Carter is an upgrade on Hargave. I did not anticipate saying that. I figured I would be preaching patience with the young fella while he adjusted to life in pro football. Carter is making the league adjust to him. What a stud.

Cox missed Sunday’s game in LA. Did you even notice?

Milton Williams isn’t making a lot of plays right now, but he is being disruptive. Watch 93 and you see him affecting the offense. Last week he had a key TFL in overtime that helped to get the ball back to the Eagles. Check out this hustle play from the Rams game.

https://twitter.com/Eaglesfans9/status/1711151666009894918

He had a similar play to that against WAS as well. The stat sheet doesn’t show much, but the game tape tells a different story. Williams is helping the Eagles front give offenses a hard time.

The OL had a new RG in Cam Jurgens. He has played well this year. Some wondered if Jurgens had the size/strength to succeed at OG at this level. After four games the answer is a resounding yes.

The Eagles were very happy with the updated version of the OL. Then Jurgens got hurt against Washington and that meant Sua Opeta would have to replace him at RG. Nick Sirianni praised him for an “outstanding” performance against WAS.

Opeta got the start in LA, his first since 2021. How would he handle a starting role? How would he handle going up against future HOF player Aaron Donald? Let’s take a look and see.

How is it that the Eagles have that guy on the bench and other teams struggle to find five starters? The Jeff Stoutland era has spoiled Eagles fans. And I think we’re all very happy about that. Thanks Stout!

Donald was a non-factor on Sunday. He was credited with 4 tackles, but no plays (sacks, TFLs, QB hits, FF, FR). Donald isn’t the guy he was a few years ago, but he’s still a disruptive force against most OLs. Not on Sunday.

The rest of the OL has continued to play at a high level. Just watch other teams try to run the push play. It works some of the time, but is far from automatic. When the Eagles run it, it is close to automatic.

Dickerson and Kelce are the keys to that play. They get low and then Dickerson explodes off the ball to create movement. Then Jordan Mailata uses his power to cave in the pile. It is impressive that they get so much movement even when teams know that play is coming.

You have to give Howie Roseman, the scouts and the front office a lot of credit for building great lines and then being able to rebuild them. That’s not easy.

*****

For a while, it felt like the offense was a bit off. That’s not the case anymore.

The Eagles are 2nd in yards and 5th in points.

The one area where they must improve is the red zone, where they are just 27th. If the Eagles scored a few more TDs instead of FGs, this offense could be the best in the NFC. I’m still leaving the Dolphins as the best in the league.

Scoring TDs would also take some of the drama out of these games. The Eagles are 5-0, but they’re playing with fire as they let teams hang around. They need to do a better job of putting them away.

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Eagles Stifle the Rams

Posted October 9th, 2023 | 3 Comments »

More than a few people thought the Rams had a good chance to upset the Eagles on Sunday. The Rams were only 2-2, while the Eagles were 4-0. But it was the style of play and matchups that everyone felt gave LA a chance in this game. That held true for a while, with the Rams leading 14-10 late in the first half.

Then the Eagles took control of the game. They added a TD to go into halftime up 17-14. The Eagles dominated the second half and won the game 23-14. There were only six points scored in the second half, but the Eagles offense gained 250 yards and moved the ball up and down the field. The Rams? Not so much.

That is some stifling defense.

The game sure didn’t start that way. Cooper Kupp made his season debut and Matt Stafford got him the ball early and often.

Kupp finished the game with 8 catches. The Eagles adjusted to him as the game went along and found ways to slow him down. Part of this was on better coverage and part was on a better pass rush. There were times when Kupp was open downfield by a step and Stafford didn’t have time to get off a good throw. The DBs weren’t blanketing him, but they covered well enough that Stafford had to make tough throws. The DL did their part and those plays ended as incompletions.

The Eagles tried different players in the slot. Bradley Roby made his Eagles debut and did some good things. Mario Goodrich played some. I’ll need to re-watch the game to really understand what worked and what didn’t.

It was easy to see the pass rush pick up in the second half. Stafford was sacked 3 times, including a pair by Haason Reddick to close out the game. Josh Sweat didn’t get a sack, but got pressure several times. Jalen Carter had a sack in each half. Some of this pressure was simply due to Eagles rushers winning one-on-one battles. It also felt like Sean Desai was more aggressive with blitzes.

The Rams defense focused on trying to make the Eagles play small-ball. So the Eagles did that. And did it very well. They had four drives of at least 10 plays. They had three others that had at least 7 plays. That is some serious ball control. You do that by winning on third down. The Eagles went 13 for 18, which is mind-blowing since the Rams came into the game ranked second in the league in third down defense. The Eagles converted over and over and over.

Jalen Hurts played his best game of the season. He was 25-38-303 as a passer and 15-72-1 as a runner. That was his best running game of the year. His legs were a real weapon in this game.

Dallas Goedert had his best game of the year, going 8-117-1. It was good to see him come alive. AJ Brown stayed red hot and went 6-127. He had some big time catch and run plays. His 38-yarder late in the half set up a TD.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1711199299395043343

None of this happens without the Eagles OL having an outstanding performance. They made Aaron Donald a non-factor. He still doesn’t have a sack against the Eagles in his career. Crazy. The Eagles ran for 159 yards and Hurts had plenty of time to throw on most of his attempts. The big guys up front controlled the line of scrimmage, even without RG Cam Jurgens. Sua Opeta started in his absence and played well.

The only real complaint with the Eagles offense is them bogging down in the red zone. They finished 2 for 6, but one of those was intentionally conservative to work the clock so it is really 2 for 5. The failure to score TDs kept the Rams in it. This was a one-score game until the 4:06 mark. One mistake could have turned a good game into a disaster. Thankfully the Eagles never made that huge mistake. But they must improve in the red zone. Kicking field goals won’t beat good teams.

Give the Rams credit for playing hard and really battling. The Eagles just had too much talent and played a cleaner game. They are now 5-0 for the second straight season. They aren’t perfect to be sure, but they just keep winning.

Not bad.

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