Posted October 27th, 2023 | 2 Comments »The 6-1 Eagles face the Commanders, who have lost 4 of 5, this Sunday. Easy game, right? Not exactly. Washington has this annoying habit of playing better than they should when Philly is the opponent. The Eagles had to go to overtime to beat Washington in Week 4. And Washington could have won that in regulation if Ron Rivera didn’t wuss out and kick the extra point.
Timing is critical in the NFL. The week before the first PHI-WAS game, the Commanders were embarrassed by Buffalo, 40-3. Washington then had their best performance of the year when they played the Eagles. No matter how dysfunctional a team may seem, these are pro football players. They have talent and pride. Very few of them hit rock bottom and stay there. Washington showed a ton of heart when they played the Eagles. It wasn’t enough, but it almost was.
The Commanders got embarrassed last week. The final score wasn’t the problem. It was just 14-7. Washington fully expected to beat the awful NY Giants. Instead, the G-men controlled the game from start to finish.
DT Jonathan Allen was not happy afterward (NSFW).
Ugh.
I fully expect Washington to come out fired up and ready to go. That doesn’t make them any more talented or any less flawed, but it does make them dangerous. If a couple of things go their way, they can win this game. Jimmy Bama pointed out in his preview that WAS got some serious breaks in the first meeting. It doesn’t seem likely that stuff like that will happen again, but NFL games can be insane sometimes.
The Eagles are a better team this time around. In the first game James Bradberry played in the slot, Josh Jobe started outside and Terrell Edmunds was an awful starting safety. The Eagles secondary couldn’t stop Sam Howell. Well, they just shut down the Dolphins and now they can add Kevin Byard to the mix. The pass defense should be significantly better than Week 4.
The overall defense has played well three weeks in a row. They should be able to make that four weeks. The big X-factor to me is Howell’s running ability. He ran 6 times for 40 yards in the first meeting. He also scramble to buy time on some pass plays. The Eagles must do a better job of accounting for his mobility. Washington has given up 40 stacks, which puts them on a historic pace. The blocking isn’t ideal, but some of that is on Howell.
My guess is that the coaches will beat into his head this week that he must get the ball out quickly or throw it away. They know the Eagles have a lethal pass rush. The Giants only had 5 sacks going into the WAS game. They got to Howell 6 times and pressured him regularly. That feels like a rock bottom kind of performance. Howell has no choice but to listen to his coaches and get the ball out quickly.
It will be interesting to see how the Eagles defense Terry McLaurin. He was 8-86 in the first game. WAS also had big plays to WR Dyami Brown and TE Logan Thomas. I think having Byard instead of Edmunds will make a huge difference. I can’t stress enough how bad Edmunds was in the first game. He looked like a confused rookie in an old man’s body. Byard doesn’t need to turn into Brian Dawkins. Just be average and that’s a huge upgrade.
WAS will probably try to play small-ball. They did that last October and it helped them pull off a 32-21 upset. One thing that could help them is a hamstring injury to NT Jordan Davis. He is questionable for Sunday. Take him out and the Eagles run defense isn’t the same. Davis is a special player. The Eagles still have enough good DTs to play well, but no one can 2-gap like Davis.
The Commanders scored 31 points against the Eagles. In the three games since, they have averaged 17 points a game. The Eagles should be able to contain them, but WAS does seem to have some voodoo against the Eagles.
They will need to score points to have a chance to win this game. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense are having another strong year. They are third in yards and fourth in points. The Commanders have allowed 356 yards or more for six straight weeks. They limited scoring against the Falcons and the Giants, but this is not a good defense in 2023.
The first game was an AJ Brown showcase.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1708574647921623235
Brown went 9-175-2 and just dominated. WAS had to bench rookie CB Emmanuel Forbes. AJ will go against someone different this week, but WAS still runs a lot of man coverage. That will give him plenty of chances to make plays. If they focus on shutting him down, DeVonta Smith could have a breakout game. He posted huge numbers at Washington last year.
If WAS goes with a light box, the Eagles will feed D’Andre Swift. He now has four straight games with less than 80 yards. I’m sure the coaches would love to get Swift going.
The Commanders do have a good DL. If they are going to win this game, they need to win battles up front. Chase Young gave Jordan Mailata some trouble in the first meeting. Mailata needs to do a better job this time out. RG Sua Opeta is coming off his worst start. He’ll need to play better this week. WAS has a better DL than Miami.
Washington comes into this week as a desperate team. They started the season 2-0 and were full of hope. They are now 3-4 and in danger of seeing their season slip away. This will be a huge game for them.
Nick Sirianni had the Eagles fired up on Sunday night and they won a big game. Will they still be celebrating the Miami win? Washington is a rival so I would assume the Eagles will be focused on them and not still stuck on last week. If the Eagles are locked in, this is a game they will win.
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Posted October 27th, 2023 | 4 Comments »Nick Sirianni loves to talk about the dawg mentality. Focus on the game at hand. Don’t get too high or too low. Just keep grinding. But Sunday night was different. Sirianni talked after the win about using outside criticism to motivate his team. This game had a more important feeling about it. Sirianni didn’t want to take any chances. He wanted his players fired up and ready to play.
The Eagles were coming off a frustrating loss to the Jets. There was criticism to be sure, but not as much as Sirianni had his team believe. He focused on people doubting that the Eagles could beat the high-flying Dolphins. But oddsmakers had the Birds as 3-point favorites and the bulk of the predictors on pre-game shows picked the Eagles. Truth be damned, Sirianni told his team they were underdogs. He wanted them to play with an edge. They did and won the game.
It is hard to say how much the psychological side of things really mattered, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The truth is that this game was a test for both teams. The Eagles patchwork back-seven had to deal with a dynamic offense. Forget stopping it, could they slow Miami down? The Dolphins needed to show they could beat a good team and prove that they weren’t just putting up gaudy numbers on bad defenses.
The Eagles won 31-17 and that was a huge boost for the team’s confidence and the defense to be sure. That group showed what they are capable of doing if they play smart football and execute their assignments.
It is hard to say what that game meant for Miami. It was their worst showing of the year. Some people will say they got exposed. There is a bit of truth in that, but there were also circumstances that must be taken into account. They were missing two starting OL and had a third guy get hurt early in the game. If the Eagles played without Jason Kelce, Jordan Mailata and Sua Opeta, you would expect some struggles. Miami also lost WR Jaylen Waddle for part of the game to a sore back.
A lot of people have talked about officiating. The Dolphins were called for 10 penalties (70 yards). The Eagles…zero. That is a huge discrepancy. But look at the penalties.
Delay of game
False start
Holding (RG put choke hold on the DL where everyone could see it)
Offside (DT’s head was over the ball)
Offside on the same DT
False start
These were the kind of blatant calls being made against Miami. Those aren’t judgment calls. There were two controversial calls that benefited the Eagles. One was a roughing the passer. The DL shoved Hurts to the ground. This one you can argue was late or not. The ref called it and that helped the Eagles. The penalty came on 2nd&10. The Eagles might have converted without the penalty so I don’t see this as being a huge deal.
James Bradberry got away with a facemask and/or pass interference. Blatant miss. That came on a 4th down and stopped a scoring drive. Critical mistake by the ref. The Football Gods were not pleased. On the very next play, Hurts threw a pick-six and the Dolphins had their revenge.
Some Dolphins fans and writers would have you believe the Eagles got this tremendous advantage with the officiating. I just don’t see it that way. The Eagles did benefit from the calls above, but the majority of the penalties were obvious calls against Miami due to sloppiness. That’s on the Dolphins, not the refs.
The Eagles were clearly the better team on Sunday night. A rematch could be very different. Give the Dolphins their starting OL and I’m sure they would play better. Still, the Eagles had their share of injuries to deal with. They also might be in better shape down the road.
COACHING
Sirianni pushed all the right buttons in getting his team ready to play. He also had an excellent game in terms of key decisions. The Eagles went for it on 4 fourth downs, converting all of them. Sirianni thought he would need TDs to beat Miami. He was aggressive and didn’t want to settle for FGs. The most surprising came in the early 4th quarter when Sirianni went for it from his own 26-yard line. The Eagles were up 24-17. Sirianni wanted to keep the clock running and go get more points to stretch the lead. His aggressive decision-making led to a TD and a 31-17 lead.
Brian Johnson caught a lot of flak on social media for the first red zone series of the game. The first play was a QB run to the right. It got stuffed. On re-watch, the play would have worked if Sua Opeta blocked his man. Might have been a TD. The call was fine, the blocking wasn’t. On third down, Hurts ran a QB draw that got stuffed. The defense baited him on this. They gave Hurts an open look and then the safeties changed the call before the snap. That had blitzers coming upfield and they clogged the running lanes.
Johnson called a better game than some think. The Eagles finished with 31 points and 355 yards. They went 4 for 6 in the red zone, with them taking a knee inside the 10 to end the game. The Eagles got the ball out quicker in this game and finally had success with the TE screens.
Sean Desai did a great job with his gameplan for the Eagles defense. I wrote about that here.
OFFENSE
Jalen Hurts played well, going 23-31-279 with a pair of TDs. He was 11-21-1 on the ground. This was a game where Hurts used his arm, legs and mind. He used hard counts and delayed snapping the ball to see if Miami would reveal blitzes. They did several times and he was able to make better reads because of that. Really smart move by him and the coaches. Hurts did all this while not at 100 percent. You could tell something was bothering him in the first half. He was then the last Eagle to come out of the locker room. He had a brace on his left knee. It says a lot that Hurts played through the injury and pain and still led his team to a huge win.
Hurts seemed to focus on getting  the ball out quicker. That worked well. The Eagles were able to sustain drives and had five of them go at least 60 yards.
The highlight moment came on this play.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1716264066753458460
The Eagles were 4 for 4 on the push play. That shows up on the stat sheet as just a few yards rushing, but those were back-breaking plays. They kept the Eagles long drive going and kept Tua standing on the sidelines and watching. It had to be torture for him to see the Eagles march down and score a TD late to go up 14 points.
Jalen did have his issues. He fumbled the ball while in the pocket and Miami recovered that. He also threw the pick-six. That was some bad luck, but Jalen can’t make that throw. There are times just to take the sack and move on. He forced the ball on a couple of plays and got lucky that those were just incompletions.
D’Andre Swift was limited for most of the game, but had a 22-yard run late that sealed the deal. He finished 15-62 on the ground and caught 3 passes. He had some terrific moves in space. On the best he broke Jerome Baker’s ankles and got upfield for a few more yards.
Kenny Gainwell was 8-16-1. The TD was impressive. He spun his way into the end zone.
The offensive star of the night was once again AJ Brown. He was 10-137-1, his 5th straight game of 125 or more yards. AJ did a good job of moving the chains for most of the game, but added a 42-yard play that led to a TD. AJ did catch a TD. He caught the ball in traffic, split defenders and got into the end zone. He caught several short balls, but those helped Hurts get the ball out quickly and kept the chains moving.
DeVonta Smith was 4-49. He made a couple of tough grabs. He just missed another one. I also thought DeVonta blocked well. Julio Jones made his Eagles debut and was 1-3.
Dallas Goedert came up big in a big game, going 5-77-1. The TD came on a screen. It was great to finally see that play work. Goedert had space to run and Mailata was out in front to take care of anyone in the way. Goedert added RAC yards on a few catches. He is such a good athlete that you want to see him on the run with the ball.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1716259894297497775
The OL was up and down. Sua Opeta had his worst game of the year. He missed some blocks and other times just didn’t execute well. He’s better in pass pro than the run game right now. He doesn’t get much push.
Lane Johnson played on a sore ankle and it showed. He gave up more pressure than he normally does. Lane still had a solid game.
Jason Kelce had some terrific blocks on run plays. Landon Dickerson was outstanding on the push plays. He’s the guy that no one talks about, but he’s crucial on those. Mailata did a really good job on Goedert’s screen.
DEFENSE
Who do you start with? Sirianni said Josh Sweat was the defensive player of the game. He had 2 sacks and got pressure on several other plays. He was solid vs the run. Sweat also made a terrific play on a screen when he recognized the play and went chasing after the RB. Sweat was disruptive all game long.
Haason Reddick could have just as easily been the star. He had 2 TFLs on run plays and did a strong job of setting the edge. He came close to sacks on multiple plays.
Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett played the run well. Nolan Smith got his first NFL sack. He was unblocked and that seemed to surprise him on the play. Managed to get Tua down.
Jordan Davis was a friggin stud. He was credited with 2 tackles and 0.5 sacks. Beyond that, he was dominant vs the run. Davis just ate up blocks and gave the RBs nowhere to go. He also got pressure on multiple pass plays.
Jalen Carter only played 19 snaps, but made his presence felt.
Fletcher Cox had half a sack and was good vs the run. Milton Williams had 3 tackles and played the run well.
Zac Cunningham played all 49 defensive snaps. He was credited with 2 tackles, but I think he was in on more than that. He didn’t get burned in coverage. I thought Miami might really go after him, but they didn’t.
Nakobe Dean had 3 tackles. He looked pretty good. He was solid in coverage and played hard. Nick Morrow had a TFL on a run near the goal line.
Sydney Brown and Terrell Edmunds were the starting safeties. Brown played fast, but his tackling needs work. He was credited with 3 tackles. He was aggressive and confident. I didn’t see any major blown coverages. Edmunds played his best game as an Eagle, but he was still just so-so. He led the team with 9 tackles and looked good in coverage on a couple of plays. He also gave up the only TD. He somehow seemed surprised by Tyreek Hill’s speed and let Hill get behind him. Ugh. Kevin Byard will be a major upgrade.
Big Play Slay had a good showing. He had 4 tackles, a TFL, 2 PDs and an INT. The pick came in the red zone on a play where he read the routes and left his guy to go get the ball. Smart, instinctive and good hands. Huge play. Slay was good vs the run. He did give up some catches.
James Bradberry was up and down. He just missed an INT. He had tight coverage on a 4th down pass, but got away with a facemask on that. He gave up some catches. Bradberry was only so-so as a tackler.
Josiah Scott and Eli Ricks split time in the slot. Scott had 1 tackle, but that came vs Hill in space. Scott did a great job of not letting Hill get by him. Ricks is playing well. He knows how to use his length. He broke up one pass, but generally covered well.
ST
Jake Elliott hit his only FG. He had some short kickoffs, but that was due to windy conditions.
Braden Mann only had one punt, but it went 57 yards.
Boston Scott had a 38-yd KOR.
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