EAGLEMANIACAL.com

PHILLY wins a street fight.

EAGLES 34 – Commanders 31 (OT)

EAGLES STATS:

Passing: QB Jalen Hurts (25/37 – 67.5% – 319 – 2 – 0)

Rushing: RB D’Andre Swift (14 – 56 – 4.0 – 1 – 0)

Receiving: WR A.J. Brown (13 – 9 – 175 – 19.4 – 2)

Offensive Line Report: (TFL: 0/ Sacks: 3/ Scrums Won: 3/ Scrums Lost: 0)

Drive Killer: N/A (TD: /Int: / FR: / 4^th down stops: / FF: )

Sack Leader: LB Nicholas Morrow (Sacks: 3.0/ FF: 1/ Tackles: 11)

Special Teams Ace: K Jake Elliott 4/4 FG including OT game winner

****

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these Four Things articles. It’s to point out what we need to address BEFORE the game. Then AFTER the game, there’s a no-bullshit assessment of whether or not the Eagles did any of what they needed to do, to ensure the win.

So how much of what I mentioned in Four Things: COMMANDERS did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Unleash Reddick: Didn’t happen. OLB Haason Reddick (2 – 1.0 – 0 – 0), all 230 pounds of him, spent the day playing DE in a 4 – 3 alignment. Although DE Brandon Graham (no stats), was listed as a starter at the beginning of the game, it was Reddick who spent most of the day there.

To his credit, Reddick did record his first sack of the season, but the new defensive scheme is keeping him from being the player he was last year, when the Eagles frequently rushed five players with Reddick mostly at OLB, not DE. Is there a difference? You saw those games, and you watch these. So you tell me. (NOT DONE)

2) Finish in the Red Zone: On the day we had ten possessions, three were touchdowns, four were field goals, three were punts. Only two of our drives saw the red zone. One produced the 5 yard touchdown run from Swift, the other a 36 yard field goal by Elliott. That puts us at exactly at 50% in terms of touchdown production.

I said that touchdowns are the mission, and right behind that, I said that coming away with a field goal, beats coming away empty handed. Again, we only saw the red zone twice, but we scored a TD 50% of the time, and points 100% of the time. It’s good to have high standards, but folks, we also have to remember to be reasonable. (DONE)

3) Get ‘Em Down: Last year, the Commanders beat us by running 44 times for 142 yards (3.2 ypc). They didn’t do a great job of it, just a committed one, and our inability to tackle on 3^rd and 4^th and short, resulted in 1^st down after 1^st down. So of course they started out trying that approach again.

Getting the Commanders RB’s on the ground was done resoundingly. Their RB’s combined rushing numbers (20 – 64 – 3.2 – 1 – 0), produced the same overall average, but moment to moment they weren’t able to duplicate last year’s game flow, and had to lean on the pass in this one. (DONE)

4) Make Penny Make Sense: This one was contingent on RB Rashaad Penny being on the active roster for this game, but he was left inactive instead. So this one almost shouldn’t count for this week. But…

Real talk? With the Eagles piss-poor commitment to running the ball in this game, I doubt that Penny would have seen a single touch. (NOT DONE)

****

So this weeks Four Things was a dissatisfying 2 of 4. This is how you end up having to win it in overtime. Next week we head out to Los Angeles, to take on the 2 – 2 Rams, who also needed OT to win this week.

****

Game Hero: Lots of people will tell you it was Jake Elliott, or A.J. Brown, but for my money it was Nick Morrow. I was high on his signing to replace Kyzir White, and felt a little salty when he was cut this year.

The Eagles brought Morrow back due to the LB Nakobe Dean (foot) injury, and he’s been an unsung impact player every week. He had a fumble recovery vs Minnesota; he recorded the safety vs Tampa Bay; he notched 3 sacks, a forced fumble, and 11 tackles in this game. He has done nothing but ball-out since he got here, and it’s high time he got his flowers.

Game goat: Defensive Coordinator Sean Desai – For the third straight week, I’m naming the same person. I’ve been complaining about the cushions that we give WR’s for weeks now. Cut to this game. On 3^rd and 6, with 9:21 left in the 4^th quarter, our CB’s lined up with 5 yard cushions. Commentator Daryl “Moose” Johnston even mentioned how weird that was. We would give up an quick, uncontested 7 yard pass on the outside, for a 1^st down.

Desai is not only misusing Haason Reddick, but his coverage concept is resulting in easy completions like we were giving up under Jim Schwartz, and Bill Davis. I was no fan of Jonathon Gannon, but his man concepts at least forced QB’s to read, meaning hold the ball. That helped result in sacks. Remember those?

Speaking of Gannon, we lamented his inability or unwillingness to make in-game adjustments. Desai seems to have caught that same disease, because not only is he not making adjustments in-game, but he also seems to not make them game-to-game. We are discussing the same problems every week!

As of now, the giants and the Seahawks have yet to play, but at the moment, we rank as the 5^th worst pass defense in the NFL. With CB’s Darius Slay and James Bradberry making 80M$ over the next three years. With a deep and talented defensive line, featuring DT’s Fletcher Cox and Jalen Carter, we rank 27^th out of 32.

Player talent is not the issue. We’ve seen these players perfom better under other leadership. It feels as if at DC, we’ve gone from Jimmy Johnson, to Barry Switzer.

On The Whole: I can’t be too angry at a 4 – 0 team. It just feels ungrateful. There’s much to clean up, but between rust from not playing guys in the preseason, rookie coordinators, a rash of injuries in the Secondary, at RB, and our signal calling MLB; look, this team being 4 – 0… I will take it. And I will show gratitude for it.

That said, we need to see improvement soon. The winning will stop if we don’t flat out fix a few glaring issues. An evolution on Defense, and more commitment to the run, being the primary two. This game featured 37 passes, 9 Jalen Hurts runs, and just 18 hand-offs. 

You know, because of the Eagles coaching staff’s resistance to learning, I have QB Marcus Mariota on my bench in fantasy football. At this pace, the question isn’t if. It’s not even when. It’s “How long this time?”