Game Preview – LAR at PHI Posted: September 19th, 2020 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | No Comments » Tweet The great thing about sports is that you can get a chance at redemption. The Eagles had a bad loss in the season opener. Not all losses are created equal and that was a bad one. The coaches know it. The players know it. The fans know it. Heck, if you ventured into the Amazon rain forest you could find an isolated tribe that hasn’t ever seen outsiders and somehow they would know about Carson Wentz stinking it up last week. The Eagles can make last week a distant memory if they play well and win on Sunday when the Rams come to Philly. They have a chance for redemption. Doug Pederson’s team will get some help on the injury front. Miles Sanders and Lane Johnson will make their 2020 debuts. Derek Barnett will play. Brandon Graham won’t miss any time after going through the concussion protocol this week. The big focus will be on Wentz and the Eagles offense. Wentz looked terrific for most of the first half and then fell apart. He needs to play better and smarter on Sunday. Johnson will start at RT and Nate Herbig will be the RG. Johnson won’t be 100 percent, but his return should help. Herbig started slow, but played better as the game went along. He needs to build on that. The OL will have a huge challenge in trying to keep DL Aaron Donald under control. You aren’t going to shut him down. The goal has to be to limit his damage. I’ll be interested to see if they have him attack Seumalo or Herbig more. Herbig is the weaker player, but that’s kind of the point. Another DL could beat him. And Donald should win his share of battles vs Seumalo. The Rams will move Donald around. Eagles blockers must identify where he is. Wentz also needs to know where 99 is coming from. That will affect where he might need to move in the pocket. As Pederson talked about this week, improved protection is a group effort. Wentz can’t hold the ball as long. RBs need to do better at identifying blitzes and blocking rushers. TEs need to do their part when asked to pass protect. This isn’t all on the OL. But yeah, the OL must play better. Getting Sanders back will help the run game and also the pass game. Sanders is a gifted receiver. He’s also the Eagles best pass blocker in the backfield. Eagles receivers must play better. They showed their speed and talent, but made too many mistakes. That will happen when you have rookies and young guys playing a lot. It’s time for them to grow up in a hurry and make plays. The Rams ran for 153 yards last week. The Eagles played great run defense in the opener and will need to do that again. With Fletcher Cox and Malik Jackson controlling the middle of the line, that makes life a lot easier on the other defenders. I’m curious to see if Derek Barnett starts at RDE or if Josh Sweat keeps that role for now and Barnett comes off the bench. Barnett should be on a snap count since he’s missed a lot of time this summer. You don’t want to wear him down. There will be tremendous pressure on the back seven. The Rams use a lot of motion and fakes. Defenders must do their tape study and trust their eyes. If you guess, you will get burned. The Eagles are young at LB and Jalen Mills is new to safety. That group has to play smart and limit mistakes. The Eagles gave the Rams fits for much of their matchup in 2018. Schwartz said the Rams have changed their scheme since then so don’t make too much of that game. With Craig James out this week, the Eagles made a move. #Eagles have elevated CB Trevor Williams from the practice squad to the active roster for Sunday’s game against Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/FEpONjH1BM — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 19, 2020 Trying to figure out the intangibles for this game is tricky. The Rams won a big game last week so they should be confident. They do have to travel to the east coast for an early kickoff against an angry team. That should give the Eagles an advantage. But the Rams are healthier. But the Eagles have won two in a row in this series. Under Pederson, the Eagles generally respond well after a bad loss. Jimmy Bama ranks last Sunday as one of the 10 worst losses of the Pederson era so that bodes well for a good bounce back game from the Eagles. But this is a weird year and it looks like a weird Eagles team. Don’t take anything for granted. ***** #Eagles have Devonta Freeman in for a visit, according to the league transaction wire. — Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 18, 2020 Depending on how things go this week, the Eagles could be signing Freeman. They didn’t get enough out of the RB position last week, in terms of yards, big plays or blocking. The pressure is on. Produce or else. _

Game Review – WAS 27, PHI 17 Posted: September 18th, 2020 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 1 Comment » Tweet What an incredibly frustrating, torturous game. This loss would have been bad at any time, but in the season opener coming off the weirdest offseason of all-time…this was especially bad. We waited months and months for that? Ugh. The Eagles looked so good in building a 17-0 lead. The revamped offensive line was having some issues, but getting the job done. Carson Wentz looked terrific. The offense was getting some chunk plays. And the defense was stifling. Life was good. Then the wheels came off. The game became a buffet of mistakes for the Eagles. Carson Wentz made some poor throws. He made some poor decisions. He held the ball too long and took bad sacks.

Multiple players dropped passes.

The OL struggled.

The defense couldn’t get key 3rd down stops. When they did, they couldn’t get key 4th down stops.

The defense couldn’t get Red Zone stops.

They had a chance for 2 takeaways and didn’t get either.

There was a missed FG.

There was a short punt.

Doug Pederson didn’t help matters with his play-calling or his game management. He and Carson were stuck in Aggressive Mode and that came back to bite them. Once things turned in favor of Washington, the Eagles just couldn’t make that one big play that they needed to make. You couldn’t help but flash back to the Carolina and Tennessee losses from 2018. So frustrating. So miserable. OFFENSE Carson Wentz was at his best and worst in this game. We’ll start with the good. He made some terrific throws. His deep ball to Reagor was right on the money. His TD to Goedert was a terrific touch throw. The TD pass to Ertz was a good read, good decision and good throw. Wentz was spreading the ball around and the offense looked good. Wentz used a hard count to draw WAS offside multiple times. He was playing like a smart, talented, veteran QB. Everything changed on a bad throw late in the first half. The pass was picked off and it was like a light switch. Wentz wasn’t the same player after that. He was picked off again on a very similar play. He had another throw almost picked off. Something about his passes to the left and by the sideline. CBs were ready to jump those throws. Maybe they saw something on tape. Can’t overstate it- Washington defensive staff put together a phenomenal game plan and they dominated up front. Wentz never found a rhythm. Eagles looked a little obsessed with deep shots. Need to be more efficient and patient. — Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 14, 2020 They created several clean run through pressures, the CB's played bail and kept their eyes on Wentz, allowing them to jump routes down the field. They took away the screen game. Those were 3 signs of a well prepared team. They don't have big time guys in the secondary. — Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 14, 2020 Playing behind a patchwork OL, Wentz (and his coaches) should have focused on playing it safe. Sacks and picks needed to be avoided at all costs. WAS could not sustain long drives. When in doubt, punt the ball and play defense. Sometimes analytics and attack mode aren’t the way to go. Use the old school eye test. RB Mixed day. Boston Scott, Corey Clement and Jason Huntley combined for 20 touches for 76 yards. They didn’t have much room to work with. Scott used his speed to get the most out of the space he did have. The biggest issue was pass protection. There were some bad reads on blitzes and some missed blocks. This group really missed Miles Sanders…as a runner, receiver and blocker. WR It was great to see young, fast receivers on the field. It wasn’t so great to see them making young player mistakes. John Hightower had a couple of drops. Jalen Reagor missed a block on a quick screen. Greg Ward had a bad block on a run play. The young receivers had some issues with their route running. The INTs from Wentz weren’t great throws, but he didn’t get help from his receivers either. JJAW had some good blocks, but was invisible in the passing game. This group needs to be more productive. The highlight of the day was Reagor hauling in a 55-yard bomb. DeSean Jackson was 2-46, but only played 37 snaps. Very weird situation. TE Dallas Goedert was 8-101-1. He added RAC yards on multiple catches and was very impressive. He made a great adjustment on the TD pass from Wentz. Goedert had to locate that over his shoulder. Ertz had a quiet day, going 3-18-1. He had a huge 4th down drop that killed a promising drive. Richard Rodgers had a bad block attempt on a pass play that helped lead to a sack. OL Such a mixed bag. The Eagles gave up 8 sacks, but check out this stat. Interesting nugget from ⁦@NextGenStats⁩. Wentz held the ball too much last week. Need more built-in layups. pic.twitter.com/0aTUpqrjP5 — Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) September 17, 2020 Wentz has to help his blockers out. He cannot hold onto the ball that long, especially when he’s got backups starting. Jack Driscoll made his NFL debut and did a solid job at RT. There were some bad plays, but he won his share of battles and looks like someone who should be starting in the future. Nate Herbig got his first start, playing RG. He didn’t play well in the first half. He wasn’t terrible, but that’s the best you can say. He settled down in the second half and played better. Still, there was a noticeable difference between him and Driscoll. Jason Peters was disappointing. He looked sloppy. The Eagles look dumb for the whole “he’s our RG” nonsense. They should have given him his money and had Peters getting every snap possible at LT. That also would have given more reps at RG to Herbig and/or Matt Pryor. Jason Kelce had some issues. The WAS DL is really talented and his athleticism wasn’t enough to handle those guys at times. Kelce did recover a Wentz fumble. Isaac Seumalo’s worst play came when he pulled to the right to pass block a DE. That’s tough and he didn’t do a good job of it. Jordan Mailata had come into the game and the Eagles did this to protect Mailata. It didn’t work. Mailata was up and down. He just doesn’t look natural at RT. He plays too upright. DEFENSE Such a mixed bag. They have the #1 defense in the league based on yards allowed. But they gave up 27 points and failed to make key plays that might have helped to win the game. WAS TD drives started at: PHI 45

PHI 20

PHI 48 The two FG drives also started in Eagles territory. Jim Schwartz will tell his players that they weren’t good enough. And he’s right. But they did a lot of good things as well. There was confusion in the secondary on the TD pass. WAS used motion to confuse the DBs. The coaches must clean that up or the Rams will eat them alive. WAS finished 36-80 on the ground. That included a 19-yard run and a 20-yard run. Take those away and you’ve got 34 runs for 41 yards. That is great run defense. DL Malik Jackson was a disruptive force. He had a couple of big QB hits. He was only in on two tackles, but he clogged running lanes and blew up blockers all game. Fletcher Cox didn’t have highlight plays in the passing game, but he was a force against the run. WAS averaged 2.2 yards per carry and Cox is a big reason for that. He was tough in the middle. I was pleasantly surprised by T.Y. McGill. He was quick off the ball and disruptive. McGill had half a sack and hit the QB a couple of times. Josh Sweat flew off the edge for a strip sack. He was in on 3 total tackles and had a solid game. Brandon Graham didn’t get a lot of pressure. He did have on TFL on a run play. Vinny Curry was in on half a sack. Genard Avery played some and also got in on half a sack. LB Nate Gerry led the team with 10 total tackles and 2 TFLs. Tackling in space has been an issue in the past, but it wasn’t in this game. Duke Riley was more impressive. He was in on 6 total tackles and had half a sack. He looked good in coverage and his athleticism showed up throughout the game. T.J. Edwards only played 20 snaps, but did a solid job. Rookie Shaun Bradley played in some packages and had a tackle. S Rodney McLeod led the team with 6 solo tackles and broke up a couple of passes. He played well. Jalen Mills made his debut at SS and had a solid game. He had 4 solo tackles, but didn’t make any plays. Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace each played a few snaps. CB Darius Slay was the real deal. He kept Terry McLaurin under control. When Slay was on him, McLaurin only had 2 catches. That’s what you want from a true #1 CB. Avonte Maddox was more up and down. He had 4 solo tackles, a TFL and a PBU, but also gave up some catches. He dropped an INT after making a good read and break on the ball. Nickell Robey-Coleman had a couple of poor tackling attempts. One came on a 4th down play. He tried to hit a RB instead of wrapping up. That was frustrating. Cre’Von LeBlanc played a small role. SPECIAL TEAMS Jake Elliott came up short on a 53-yard FG. Dave Fipp said it was his fault for sending the FG unit on the field late. Also didn’t help that Wentz took a long sack to force the long FG. Cam Johnston averaged 54 yards per punt. Unfortunately he had a 43-yarder when the team was backed up deep. That set WAS up in terrific field position. The return game was quiet. Reagor muffed a punt, but Craig James recovered it. Rudy Ford was excellent in coverage. _

The Long Haul Posted: September 16th, 2020 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | No Comments » Tweet Week One was great for about an hour. Then the wheels came off and the Eagles turned a 17-0 lead into a mind-numbing 27-17 loss. Sunday turned from a day of excitement (Football is back!) to a day of misery (Damn, football really is back). Things got a little better on Sunday night when Dallas lost and then on Monday night when the Giants lost. Misery loves company. As frustrating as Sunday was, you have to remember that this is the start of a long season (hopefully anyway). The Eagles have gone 13-3, 9-7 and 9-7 in the last three years. Doug Pederson is far from perfect, but he’s always found a way to right the ship. On Sunday we saw one good half of football and one bad half. The good half involved an impressive passing game, stifling defense and solid STs. The bad half involved poor blocking, poor QB play, turnovers, sloppy coverage, a missed FG and questionable coaching decisions. I came away feeling the Eagles problems were fixable. Adding Lane Johnson and Miles Sanders to the offense will help. The run game will get going. The Red Zone defense should get better. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic. This team is a mystery with new faces and a very weird offseason. I just believe a team with Pederson, Wentz and a good defense should get things sorted out. The biggest issue is injuries. You can’t fix those. Roster Move: #Eagles have signed G Sua Opeta from the practice squad to the active roster and signed TE Jordan Franks to the practice squad.#Eagles have placed DE Vinny Curry and CB Craig James on Reserve/Injured. — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 15, 2020 Curry and James are expected to be out 3 to 4 weeks. Roster Move: #Eagles have agreed to sign G Jamon Brown to the active roster from Chicago’s practice squad. pic.twitter.com/k9XXDYq5HG — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 15, 2020 The Eagles lose a pass rusher and a CB/STer. They add a pair of guards in Opeta and Brown. We don’t know if Lane Johnson or Jack Driscoll will play this week so I get wanting to add bodies. It is just interesting that they chose two guards. I guess Matt Pryor will focus all of his time on OT this week. No matter who starts, the OL must be better. Jason Peters did not play well on Sunday. The young guys got the attention, but it was the oldest guy who struggled. I don’t know if he was rusty or Chase Young is just that good. Jeff Stoutland has a busy week ahead of him. Brown does have 47 games of starting experience. He’s played LG and RG. He has started for the Rams and Falcons. Brown gives the team someone who could start or come off the bench and contribute. The last few weeks have been brutal on the injury front. Don’t the Eagles deserve some good injury news? ***** Getting Driscoll back would help. He showed real potential in the opener. Driscoll is also versatile. The Eagles have had him play C, G and T this summer. He’s at RT for now, of course. One guy that really stood out to @BenFennell_NFL and I on film? Rookie Jack Driscoll in his first start. Model of consistency. Couple of mental busts, which is to be expected for a rookie, but consistent technique, knee bend, hand usage and effort for 50 snaps #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/y1YEqAVIWZ — Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) September 14, 2020 Driscoll has things to work on, but he looked good at time on Sunday. He showed real talent. ***** Sunday wasn’t great for a few teams. SF lost to the Cardinals. The Niners receiving corps was decimated by injuries and their passing game was a mess. Detroit somehow became a team that people thought could surprise this year. The only surprise on Sunday is that they blew a big lead and lost to the Bears. The Saints beat Tom Brady and the Bucs 34-23, but that was a weird game. Drew Brees wasn’t impressive. The Saints only gained 271 yards and star receiver Michael Thomas got hurt. The Colts and new QB Philip Rivers lost to the Jags. Dallas lost to the Rams. They also lost their starting TE and MLB for the season. Time will tell who the good teams are. Anybody can start hot. Football is a marathon. You’ll know who the good teams truly are by the end of the season. I think the Eagles will be one of them, but boy they have to play better and in a hurry. _

What Went Right Posted: September 14th, 2020 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | No Comments » Tweet Sunday’s loss to Washington was torturous, frustrating and a royal pain in the butt. We waited months and months to watch that? Ugh. But I don’t believe in gloom and doom. Even in a bad game like that, there are positives. Let’s talk about them. I have not re-watched the game. I have not studied all-22 tape. I’m going off what I saw when I watched the game live. Jalen Reagor – The Eagles first round pick only caught one pass, but it went for 55 yards. That would have been the Eagles longest pass play in 2019. Reagor was picked to give the team an explosive playmaker and he showed that ability. Reagor got open deep a few times. On the catch, he showed the ability to track the ball and make a tough downfield grab on the move. Next up is to get him more touches. Reagor did muff a punt early on, but bounced back from that. Reagor bombs, anyone?#PHIvsWAS | #FlyEaglesFly 📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/7RMEGjwIPT — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 13, 2020 Darius Slay – Washington receiver Terry McLaurin went 5-61. Last year in two games he was 10-255-2 against the Eagles. Slay gave up some catches, but kept him under control and out of the end zone. That’s a huge difference. Slay is off to a good start. Young LBs – Nate Gerry, Duke Riley and TJ Edwards combined for 9 solo tackles, 2 TFLs and 0.5 sacks. They helped keep the WAS running game under control. It looked like they were solid in coverage. I didn’t see any missed tackles, but I’ll need to check the tape on that. Gerry in particular played well. Encouraging start for the young guys. Dallas Goedert – DG went 8-101-1 on Sunday. He made an impressive adjustment on the ball on his TD catch. He added RAC yards on multiple catches. He might not be the Eagles primary TE, but he is one of the best TEs in the league. https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/1305205837607120899 The STers – Some might have questioned why the Eagles kept Rudy Ford, Marcus Epps and Craig James. You saw their STs value on Sunday. Ford had 3 tackles in punt coverage. James recovered the muffed punt. Epps had an impressive tackle in coverage. STs matter more than most people realize. The Eagles built their roster accordingly and it worked in the opener. DL – It is hard to say a lot about the Eagles DL without studying the tape, but they looked good to the naked eye. Malik Jackson got a big hit on Haskins on the initial third down. Jackson then stuffed a run play. Brandon Graham had a TFL on a run away from him. Fletcher Cox didn’t make any big plays, but he clogged the middle. WAS averaged 2.2 yards per carry. There wasn’t any room to run. Josh Sweat flew off the edge for a strip sack. The ball was there for the taking, but WAS got to it first. That would have given the Eagles the ball around the 10-yard line and almost certainly guaranteed points. Not getting the fumble proved to be huge. Graham left the game with a possible concussion. There was a report that his tests came back negative. We’ll have to wait for confirmation. Vinny Curry’s hamstring injury looked more serious. He could miss some time. Backups T.Y. McGill and Genard Avery had good moments. McGill was quick off the ball and disruptive. He had half a sack. Avery also had half a sack. He didn’t stand out as much. Jack Driscoll – For a rookie making his debut, Driscoll did some good things. He held his own early on. I’ll need to really study the tape, but there were some encouraging signs. If you think back to 2016 when Big V took over at RT, his first game was against WAS. Big V got benched because he couldn’t get the job done. The offense looked good with Driscoll out there for most of the first half. The Eagles might have found a quality backup at RT. He’s another guy that we’ll have to wait for an injury report on. Hopefully it is minor. ***** Dallas lost to the Rams on Sunday night. That made the Eagles loss a bit easier to take. WAS sits alone atop the division at 1-0. Dallas lost a couple of players to season-ending injuries. I’m not saying that with any sense of satisfaction. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Just pointing out the fact that the Cowboys and Eagles both had rough days on the scoreboard and otherwise. _