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FOUR THINGS: WK 15: EAGLES – RAIDERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/12/11
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

ON Monday night we saw a resurgence of our run game, and our Defense collected seven sacks and two turnovers. There were some (ahem) other difficulties, but those are not characteristic of who we are; so it doesn’t bear worrying about at this point. This is a game for us to build on our strengths, and on the fixes we’ve made.

Our next opponent, the Raiders, are pretty damned awful at everything, on both sides of the ball. All the problems Eagles fans are imagining that we have, the Raiders actually do have. They are already officially, mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, and their players are now auditioning for jobs in 2026.

With a win we move to 9 – 5 and stop a three game skid. Our hold on the top spot in the division would also remain at 1.5 games over the team in second place.

A loss drops us down to 8 – 6. We’d still be on top of the division for the moment.

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The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics would give our Eagles the best chance to win this game. Often I list fundamentals, as some of the four things. BUT NO MORE! Unless something specific is needed, fundamentals like Running the ball; playing lots of Man Press; and Tackling instead of going for the strip, will be automatically included. (Like the five consonants and a vowel that Wheel Of Fortune automatically spots you.) So here are the Four Things that we need to focus on this week versus: the RAIDERS.

DT Jordan Davis is tied for the lead on the Eagles with 4.5 sacks

1) Try to Pick It: Fingers crossed that OLB Jalyx Hunt or DT Jordan Davis get their mitts on our former back-up, QB Kenny Pickett. This is our old pal’s first start of the year, vs an Eagles team he grew up rooting for and threw passes for, in the last Super Bowl. Butterflies are inevitable. His proud dad Ken, will almost certainly be in attendance.

Kill Kenny. Kill ‘im dead. Set the dogs on him. Get him flustered and running. He doesn’t have a guaranteed gig beyond this year, and if he doesn’t play well, it could be years before he sees meaningful snaps again. Put the pressure on him. Crack him. Break him. Also he’s been fairly easy to knock out of games. Beat on him.

2) Win On Third Down: With a back-up QB out there, and offensive line that sucks as badly as any in the sport, the Raiders aren’t likely to go for many 4th downs. So take care of business on third downs.

3) Fewer Comeback Routes: On every interception that QB Jalen Hurts threw on Monday night, the receiver was working back to the QB, and there was a defender sitting on the route. If that doesn’t demonstrate a high level of predictability, I don’t know how else to communicate it.

These routes (Curls, Hitches, Comebacks, et al), are part of of every team’s system, so we aren’t going to eliminate them from the playbook completely. However, if we could just go ahead and call fewer of them, and never have them run side by side, that’d be great. M’kay? Yeeeeah.

4) Second Half Run Game: We have to stop abandoning the run in the second half. That’s when it’s more dangerous, because it stacks fatigue in defenders, and eats up clock. It also keeps teams from teeing off on the QB. If we can get 12 hand-offs in the second half, we should be able to end our skid.

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If the Eagles do these Four Things, then we’ll be virtually impossible to beat. That being said…

Last game we went 4 for 4 and lost, because FIVE turnovers is too much for almost anyone to overcome. (I’m sure it’s been done in the history of the NFL, but it’s far from the norm.) That said, if we’re us, and we nail this list, we should be golden.

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WARNING: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know FOOTBALL and that’s it. If you use Four Things as a gambling tool, then you are a fool trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how this game went.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WK 13: Bears

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/12/01
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

EAGLES played to lose.

EAGLES 15 – Bears 24

 

EAGLES STATS:

Passing: QB Jalen Hurts (19/34– 55.8% – 230 – 2 – 1)

Rushing: RB Saquon Barkley (13 – 56 – 4.3 – 0 – 0)

Receiving: WR A.J. Brown (12 – 10 – 132 – 13.2 – 2)

Drive Killer: OLB Jaylx Hunt (TD: 0/Int: 1/ FR:. / 4th down stops: 0/ FF: 0)

Sack Leader: DT Jalen Carter (Sacks: 1.0/ FF: 0/ Tackles: 4)

Special Teams Ace: NA

****

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: BEARS did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Ground and Pound: “This cannot be yet another game where our Offensive Coordinator shelves Barkley, early. We’ve had three such games and all three have been losses. Rushing yards are not the only thing that a hand-off can produce. Run plays tire out pass rushers.”

Despite the game being within one score, for three quarters, Eagles head coach Nick Siranni (all responsibility lies with him) simply abandoned the run. Handing off the ball just 13 times, despite averaging 4.3 per tote, is just mind-boggling. This wasn’t merely coaching malpractice. It was remedial in nature. It stunk of someone not being properly qualified before being hired.

Especially given all the time our Defense spent on the field. By which I mean the Eagles lost time of possession 20 minutes to 39. The Bears controlled the ball for nearly 2/3 of the game. They wore down a defensive line that is built more for rushing the passer. Particularly in cold and windy conditions. (NOT DONE)

DT Jalen Carter gets a sack after being called out in Four Things. I dare him to get THREE next week.

2) Put Their QB Down: We collected 2 sacks and hit their QB 6 times. We held him under 50%, and collected an interception to counter his single touchdown throw. We impacted him greatly. I mentioned Jaylx Hunt (3 – 0.0 – 1 – 0) and Jalen Carter (4 – 1.0 – 0 – 0), and both produced big plays this week. This, we can build on. (DONE)

3) Set Hard Edges: We came out firing. On the first possession, we had them go out on downs. Later in the game Hunt intercepted a Screen pass. These were not the only instances, but they were the most glowing examples. Over the course off the game, the weather and 42 hand-off got the better of our Defense that spent nearly 40 minutes on the field. We started strong, but couldn’t sustain. (NOT DONE)

4) Long, Slow Drives: Nope. Didn’t even try. I’ve never seen more amateurish coaching by this team. This wasn’t just a failure of play-calling. This was a failure to recognize environmental factors; to utilize environmental factors; to recognize basic tenets of the sport itself, which stretches almost a century back. (NOT DONE)

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This week’s Four Things score was 1 of 4. Next week we fly out to San Diego to take on a physical Chargers team. I somehow doubt they will fare as well as the Bears just did.

****

Game Hero: Nope. No one played up to that standard.

Game goat: Head Coach Nick Sirianni – The failure/inability to adjust, comes down to him. At this point, letting the team down has become a conscious decision. We know what is wrong. We know how to fix it. The decision to not, is exactly that: A decision.

Re-assigning play-calling duties is the cure here. While there are only three other people on the coaching staff who have play-calling experience, only one of them should be called on to guide the ship through this difficult period. That person is Sirianni himself.

Through rough water, the captain should take the helm. In this way, all decisions and fault will not be placed on others. It gives him an opportunity to show, rather than tell. To lead, rather than command. It would also allow us to see if there has been any growth in him, since he ran away from play-calling in mid 2021.

I have to wonder though. After going 10 – 0 to start 2023, Sirianni ushered us through a horrible collapse, and still managed to keep his job. That show of faith was rewarded with a Super Bowl win. Yet here were are again, looking at possibly another collapse. Honestly, how much embarrassment is Owner Jeffrey Lurie willing to endure?

Given the ages and contract situations of this roster, I wonder if Lurie would simply cut bait with Sirianni this time, and look for a head coach that wants to do their own play-calling. That way no one can poach our brain-trust, and our QB can finally enjoy some stability.

On The Whole: I was going to get into the sideline passivity of Jalen Hurts, since I really wish he was more into rallying his troops. Because to keep it a buck, I think it’s more what people don’t see from him, that keeps people from seeing him as elite. (But that’s a different article.) His attitude wasn’t great, but there were bigger issues.

What happened out there, is that the Bears heeded the weather, and wore us down with 42 hand-offs. It was Football 101, and you’d have to need remedial football classes to lose to it. Which is why we on the other hand, only handed it off 13 times, as we kept going three and out with 34 passing attempts. In gusty wind no less.

We were stupid and got the “L” that we earned.

FOUR THINGS: WK 13: EAGLES – BEARS

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/11/27
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, stats, Super Bowl. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

SPLITTING with the Cowboys sucks, but we’re still atop the NFC East by a mile. Time to punch the clock and get to work, punching the ball out of the Bears hands. Despite their winning record, on average they allow as many points (26.5) as they score (26.3). Particularly through the air. Oh, and they also give up 5.2 yards per tote, on the ground.

Don’t let their shiny record fool you. The 8 -3 Bears just beat the 6 – 5 Steelers, but otherwise, their other seven wins are over: The giants, Dallas, Oakland, Minnesota, Washington, Cincinnati, and New Orleans. Only Dallas is .500. The rest are worse.

With a win we move to 9 – 3, still atop the NFC East, and very much in the hunt for the number one seed in the conference.

With a loss we’d be 8 – 4. Still firmly atop the NFC East.

****

The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics would give our Eagles the best chance to win this game. Often I list fundamentals, as some of the four things. BUT NO MORE! Unless something specific is needed, fundamentals like Running the ball; playing lots of Man Press; and Tackling instead of going for the strip, will be automatically included. (Like the five consonants and a vowel that Wheel Of Fortune automatically spots you.) So here are the Four Things that we need to focus on this week versus: The Bears

RB Saquon Barkley

1) Ground and Pound: We need to get the run game going. We don’t need huge splash plays. What we need is a return to our Offensive Line smacking motherfuckers in their mouths. Be physical and help RB Saquon Barkley to get 3 or 4 yards on first down, to open up options on second down.

This cannot be yet another game where our Offensive Coordinator shelves Barkley, early. We’ve had three such games and all three have been losses. Rushing yards are not the only thing that a hand-off can produce. Run plays tire out pass rushers. Also, a balanced attack keeps the opponent guessing instead of dictating.

2) Put Their QB Down: I don’t get this thing where professional athletes who get paid here to bring down QB’s, all of a sudden seem like they don’t know how to do it. We’re not going to rattle a QB who comes into the game with impression that we can’t sack him. This is where we’d like to see OLB Jaylx Hunt. (Did you see what I did there?)

Last year DT Milton Williams 5 sacks got him a massive contract. I wonder if DT Jalen Carter knows how much money he’s leaving on the table, by only having 1 sack so far this season. Meanwhile, DT Moro Ojomo has 4, which currently leads the team.

LB’s Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell combine to contain a Lions RB.

3) Set Hard Edges: Most of the Bears success in the run game comes from run to the outside. Get our DE’s up-field so we can either expose their RB to kill-shots, or delay his approach to the line of scrimmage. The idea isn’t to shutdown their run, just make it unreliable, and put the whole offense on their QB.

4) Long, Slow Drives Due to injuries, the Bears are thin on defense. Keep them on the field and wear them down. For this week, third and two should mean we’re calling a run play. And run the Hurry-up in the second half! When the fourth quarter rolls around, we want fatigue to be setting in for them.

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If the Eagles do these Four Things, then we’ll be virtually impossible to beat. That being said…

It’s time to start imposing our will again. We don’t need another week of RB Screens, and Hitch routes. Theres been entirely to much of that already. All it’s done is hold the team back, and get the Delaware Valley calling for one guy to get shit-canned.

Perhaps it’s time to learn a lesson. To evolve. Maybe listen to an outside voice. Run the ball. Actually sack the QB. These things should be an automatic for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. No more doublespeak. No more spin. We need to bear down and get our shit together.

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WARNING: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know FOOTBALL and that’s it. If you use Four Things as a gambling tool, then you are a fool trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how this game went.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WK 7: Vikings

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/10/20
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

BOMBS away!

EAGLES 28 – Vikings 22 

   

EAGLES STATS:

Passing: QB Jalen Hurts (19/23 – 82.6% – 326 – 3 – 0)

Rushing: RB Saquon Barkley (18 – 44 – 2.4 – 0 – 0)

Receiving: WR DeVonta Smith (11 – 9 – 183 – 20.3 – 1)

Drive Killer: OLB Jaylx Hunt (TD: 1/Int: 1/ FR: 0/ 4th down stops: 0/ FF: 0)

Sack Leader: OLB Joshua Uche (Sacks: 1.0/ FF: 0/ Tackles: 3)

Special Teams Ace: N/A

****

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: VIKINGS did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Get Barkley 18 Carries: Saquon had exactly 18 carries, and every single one of them mattered. Especially with us losing the time of possession 25 minutes to 34. More important than the 44 rushing yards, real hand-offs helped sell the play-action. The last three hand-offs were just to kill clock, and preserve players for next week.

Teams have been absolutely selling out against the run, to prevent Saquon from beating them. Too often this season the Eagles have allowed themselves to be victims of that. Today, we took massive advantage of it. As a result, I think next week, the run game will have much better production. (DONE)

2) Lead the Receivers: I said “Throw the ball to our receivers on the move.” Boy did we ever! Our WR’s averaged 23.3 yards per catch this week! Hurts had five pass plays where the ball was in the air for 20 or more yards. Strikes of 37 (TD), 79 (TD), 28, 26 (TD), and 45 yards, ALL of those passes hit receivers while they were on the move.

WR A.J. Brown draws first blood with a 37 yard TD catch and run.

DeVonta Smith and WR A.J. Brown (6 – 4 – 121 – 30.3 – 2) accounted for 304 of Hurts 326 passing yards. They showed the NFL what can happen if too many resources are committed to stopping our run game, without enough respect for our passing game. Expect more room for Saquon to run, in the near future. (DONE)

3) Pinch the ‘A’ Gaps: We held Minnesota to 89 total yards rushing, but our DT’s still spent too many plays crashing directly into offensive linemen, and not the gaps beside them. As a result we really didn’t get much quick penetration. We made playing defense, harder on ourselves than it should have been. (NOT DONE)

4) Contest TE Releases: We started out doing this on the opening drive; but as the game wore on, I’m not sure if we kept doing it, or if they were just trying chip on the way out. Doesn’t matter. It resulted in few easy TE looks, poor production (10 – 7 – 52 – 7.4 – 0) and the QB reading longer. Which were exactly the tactic and goal. (DONE)

++++

This week’s Four Things score was 3 of 4, in a game that we controlled from the outset. Next up, we host a giants team that will be coming in with more confidence than they should. Ahhh, youth!

****

QB Jalen Hurts gunning down the Vikings defense.

Game Hero: Jalen Hurts: While the true foundation of this offensive explosion is Saquon Barkley, it was Hurts who executed and capitalized on the opportunities provided to him. There were no weird overthrows from clean pockets, or unseen receivers running wide open, this week.

Instead, Hurts put on an absolute clinic, with a completion percentage above 82, and a perfect QB rating of 158.3. If your fetish includes QBR numbers, his was 95.2 (whatever that means). I don’t get into the weeds on such metrics. I care about yards and touchdown to interception ratios. Hurts had 326 yards and a 3:0 ratio. He was HIM.

Game goat: CB’s Adoree Jackson/Kelee Ringo: All these guys do is tackle, and neither does so very reliably. Is it possible to get rookie CB Mac McWilliams some snaps?

On The Whole: We controlled the game from start to finish, and doled out gut punch after gut punch, as we went. We repeatedly rocked Minnesota, and we played keep away with the lead, from the moment we went up 7 – 0. But we never got the knockout.

Pass rush, specifically sack production, continues to be a point of worry. Allowing QB’s to constantly escape a tackle, keeps opponents in manageable down and distance situations. As a result, we’re keeping opponents in games that they shouldn’t be in.

OLB Jaylx Hunt returning an interception for a touchdown

We did the same thing again, this week. We just won a game in which we scored 4 touchdowns, over an opponent who scored only 1, and difference in the final score was just 6 points. SIX. Something is very not right with that.

Again, opposing time of possession this week, was 34 minutes them, to 25 us. Part of that is our run game not eating clock. The other part, is when third and ten becomes first and ten, after a QB scrambles away from a sack, 16 yards up the middle. That one happened TODAY!

It’s a detail, but it has a huge ripple effect. We have to start getting QB’s on the ground.