2 seed wouldn't be the worst thing so we don't have to face Dallas in the 2nd round.  Then hope maybe Dallas upsets the r9ers and we get a home game for nfc championship. 

 

 

 

Consider the run game fixed. 

36 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

they don’t have very good  receiving options outside of Smith and AJ Brown when goedert goes down.

We don't know.  They never play and if they do play,  they aren't targeted.

Other teams play more and throw to more than just their star WRs and TE. 

The Eagles throw to, and play, their starters more than any other teams in the NFL.

You can't say those other players aren't good,  you can only say that they don't play them and they don't throw to them.

Other teams have the stars rest occasionally.  Tyreek Hill is a bigger star than either of the Eagles star WRs.  Hill has played every game,  yet only 66% of the snaps. Smith is over 97%,  Brown is at 92%.   Goedert played over 90% in over half the games he played,  once he played 100% of the snaps.  Most teams don't do that.  Your starters get hurt and tired and the backups are unprepared.

5 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Consider the run game fixed. 

In fairness, pretty sure Stoutland likes Toth and thinks he can work with him or else they wouldn’t be bringing him back.  Just a guess. 

13 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

2 seed wouldn't be the worst thing so we don't have to face Dallas in the 2nd round.  Then hope maybe Dallas upsets the r9ers and we get a home game for nfc championship. 

 

 

 

 I like our chances at any seed.  Boom. 

10 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

2 seed wouldn't be the worst thing so we don't have to face Dallas in the 2nd round.  Then hope maybe Dallas upsets the r9ers and we get a home game for nfc championship. 

 

 

 

I tend to agree with this.  It could also be argued that 3, with Lions at 2, would also be fine,  especially if the Eagles rested their players in the last 3 games.  Vs the Lions at home with worn out players or vs the Lions in Detroit with more rested and healthy players?

6 minutes ago, twistr said:

All Sheil is trying to say is that for a long time the prevailing view out there in the NFL is that black players weren't smart enough to play QB and the common refrain as that started to falter was they couldn't read defenses, which is an obvious rehash of that same thought. Anyone who isn't racist knows this isn't the case, but it was so prevalent that it makes sense that if you are going to level that accusation at a black QB, in order to be beyond reproach and not let people just dismiss your analysis as racist, you should show your work. He's not saying that anyone who says that is racist, but that making sure it can't be taken that way is the best way to do things.

But that in of itself is racial bias.  Hurts is taking too long to get through his progressions as exhibited in his time to throw metric, and has shown on several occasions the propensity to bail out of the pocket (early) to the right, even when he doesn't have any available targets on that side of the field.  He's making bad decisions and turning the ball over more.  He simply hasn't been as good as he was last season; I think there are a few factors at play there:

-- New offensive coordinator

-- physical health

-- NFL defenses adjusting to what Hurts does best, and taking some of those things away in their game planning

-- Unreasonable expectations that he should be an MVP frontrunner every year

 

One thing the coaches should be doing to help him out -- knowing he prefers to escape right -- is always have an available outlet target on a route to the short right.  Whether that should be the default check-down route for the blocking TE/RB, or something else, there has to be something available to Hurts in that zone of the field instead of just throwing the ball away.

45 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Don’t disagree he needs to make those throws. He needs to do what he did with quez in that Niners game. Just throw it and if he doesn’t come down with it, nobody’s gonna sit there and say oh man that’s your fault jalen. However, I think the bigger issue is they don’t have very good  receiving options outside of Smith and AJ Brown when goedert goes down. And their receivers after those two aren’t very competent. They need a better 3rd Wr than quez, julio and even Oz. Oz is a 4th wr. They also need to get a better backup TE knowing goedert missed 3-5 weeks every year 

Ahhh, if Hurts were to plead his case that his WR's outside of Brown and Smith aren't that good, I don't think that is enough to justify missing open receivers. An open receiver is an open receiver, even if it were Covey. Hurts is getting paid to make those throws and decisions - he needs to be held to a high standard. For the most part Hurts has the time to scan the field, he just needs to make the right read.

The lack of success this offense is having right now, heck I would be happy with a dink and dunk offense if that's what it takes to keep the chains moving. And the way these ref's are throwing laundry around on the field, I would dial up some 1 on 1 deep passes that potentially draw flags. I could be wrong but you dang near got a 50/50 shot of the defender getting called for holding or pass interference, even on underthrown balls! Take advantage when and while you can. 

There's contenders currently in the league right now that don't have near as much firepower as we have in Brown/Smith/Goedert/Swift. This offense should be giving more of our opponents headaches but we're not. 

I think part of the context missing here is that players that exploit the middle of the field, especially against a 2 safety zone look -- those are option routes where the QB and receiver need to be on the same page. It's not as simple as "Hurts doesn't see them" or "Hurts won't throw to them." He has to trust that someone like Stoll will read the defense the same way and sit down in the zone when necessary, take it to the sideline when called for, etc. He clearly doesn't trust Stoll, Grant or Albert O to be on the same page, and so he's basically looking past them in the progression and locking in on Brown and Smith.

I really think Goedert coming back is going to be huge Sunday.

32 minutes ago, twistr said:

All Sheil is trying to say is that for a long time the prevailing view out there in the NFL is that black players weren't smart enough to play QB and the common refrain as that started to falter was they couldn't read defenses, which is an obvious rehash of that same thought. Anyone who isn't racist knows this isn't the case, but it was so prevalent that it makes sense that if you are going to level that accusation at a black QB, in order to be beyond reproach and not let people just dismiss your analysis as racist, you should show your work. He's not saying that anyone who says that is racist, but that making sure it can't be taken that way is the best way to do things.

I dont agree. 

43 minutes ago, Random Reglar said:

It seems like the consensus here is that it would be best for the Eagles to be as hurt and tired and worn out as possible when the playoffs get here.   

The consensus is that if one of the 3 players who play almost all the snaps and get all the targets gets hurt and goes out,  then that player will be replaced, but that replacement player will never get targets.

I think the last 3 games should have backups playing.   I think the stars should rest at least some against the Giants x2 and the Cardinals.  I think the backups should be playing,  getting better, or at least the Eagles should know if those players currently suck or are good. 

DeVonte Smith has played 97.36% of all offensive snaps.   Is that normal for NFL teams to do with WRs?   No.   Compare Tyreek Hill.  66.24%.  

We've been playing from behind a lot and late into the games. I think that has a lot to do with playing time.

24 minutes ago, Random Reglar said:

We don't know.  They never play and if they do play,  they aren't targeted.

Other teams play more and throw to more than just their star WRs and TE. 

The Eagles throw to, and play, their starters more than any other teams in the NFL.

You can't say those other players aren't good,  you can only say that they don't play them and they don't throw to them.

Other teams have the stars rest occasionally.  Tyreek Hill is a bigger star than either of the Eagles star WRs.  Hill has played every game,  yet only 66% of the snaps. Smith is over 97%,  Brown is at 92%.   Goedert played over 90% in over half the games he played,  once he played 100% of the snaps.  Most teams don't do that.  Your starters get hurt and tired and the backups are unprepared.

No i will argue quez watkins is not good enough to be a no. 3 Wr. He’s proven that time and time again as he drops passes and can’t stay healthy either. He’s not good enough to be a No. 3 wr. There’s a reason why julio was on the street for half the year and has done next to nothing. He’s not good enough anymore. Add on Oz is what he’s been everywhere else. He’s a solid no. 4 receiver. Add on there’s a reason the broncos gave up on Albert O. It wasn’t cause he didn’t get chances there. He wasn’t good enough as a blocker and inconsistent in his pass catching/route running. Calcaterra and stoll are what they are backups that are limited. stoll has never been thought of as a good receiving threat coming out of college. And Calcaterra had issues health wise in college and isn’t good as a blocker.

naw i can safely say those guys aren’t good enough as your third options to sustain a consistent offense  

38 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

2 seed wouldn't be the worst thing so we don't have to face Dallas in the 2nd round.  Then hope maybe Dallas upsets the r9ers and we get a home game for nfc championship. 

 

 

 

Assuming the lions beat the Seahawks is risky. Considering the fact seattle went in there earlier this year and beat them. 

@mattwill

Eagles 31

Cowfrauds 23

Bonus: Goedert with a receiving TD

1 minute ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

No i will argue quez watkins is not good enough to be a no. 3 Wr. He’s proven that time and time again as he drops passes and can’t stay healthy either. He’s not good enough to be a No. 3 wr. There’s a reason why julio was on the street for half the year and has done next to nothing. He’s not good enough anymore. Add on Oz is what he’s been everywhere else. He’s a solid no. 4 receiver. Add on there’s a reason the broncos gave up on Albert O. It wasn’t cause he didn’t get chances there. He wasn’t good enough as a blocker and inconsistent in his pass catching/route running. Calcaterra and stoll are what they are backups that are limited. stoll has never been thought of as a good receiving threat coming out of college. And Calcaterra had issues health wise in college and isn’t good as a blocker.

naw i can safely say those guys aren’t good enough as your third options to sustain a consistent offense  

Idk.  I think the jury is still out on Quez.  I (still) don’t think they are using him right, tbh.   In college, (from the little I’ve seen) he seemed to excel on intermediate/deeper slants up the middle, not necessarily deep (outside) timing routes.  Then would use his speed to get a ton of YAC. 
 

That said, if he wants to be an NFL receiver he’s going to need to start coming down with the deeper outside (timing) throws as well. 

Everyone talks about Malik Nabers but I havent heard a peep about Brian Thomas Jr.

 

24 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

But that in of itself is racial bias.  Hurts is taking too long to get through his progressions as exhibited in his time to throw metric, and has shown on several occasions the propensity to bail out of the pocket (early) to the right, even when he doesn't have any available targets on that side of the field.  He's making bad decisions and turning the ball over more.  He simply hasn't been as good as he was last season; I think there are a few factors at play there:

-- New offensive coordinator

-- physical health

-- NFL defenses adjusting to what Hurts does best, and taking some of those things away in their game planning

-- Unreasonable expectations that he should be an MVP frontrunner every year

One thing the coaches should be doing to help him out -- knowing he prefers to escape right -- is always have an available outlet target on a route to the short right.  Whether that should be the default check-down route for the blocking TE/RB, or something else, there has to be something available to Hurts in that zone of the field instead of just throwing the ball away.

Not sure about bolded... that sort of comes with the territory of the new contract.   That puts him on the tier with Mahomes... who is an MVP frontrunner every year.    Hurts' contract puts him at $50M/year average... Mahomes is $45M/year average.    Only Burrow, Herbert and Jackson are higher.   So, yeah... the expectations go up when the salaries go up that high.  

He's still young and he's still got room to develop... but its also fair to say that he's not where his contract says he should be developmentally at this point.   The Eagles didn't have much of a choice and pretty much HAD to resign him and at that number... because that's the NFL.  But, when you get paid like that, expectations rise dramatically.  And that's ok.  If he isn't interested in those levels of expectations, then he likely should have asked for a lower salary, because the salary and the expectations go hand in hand.  

Based on AJ's comments and sentiments like these I think this team is going to be fired up on Sunday.  This team isn't used to losing and I know that they hate it as much as we do or more.

25 minutes ago, Maga301 said:

Ahhh, if Hurts were to plead his case that his WR's outside of Brown and Smith aren't that good, I don't think that is enough to justify missing open receivers. An open receiver is an open receiver, even if it were Covey. Hurts is getting paid to make those throws and decisions - he needs to be held to a high standard. For the most part Hurts has the time to scan the field, he just needs to make the right read.

The lack of success this offense is having right now, heck I would be happy with a dink and dunk offense if that's what it takes to keep the chains moving. And the way these ref's are throwing laundry around on the field, I would dial up some 1 on 1 deep passes that potentially draw flags. I could be wrong but you dang near got a 50/50 shot of the defender getting called for holding or pass interference, even on underthrown balls! Take advantage when and while you can. 

There's contenders currently in the league right now that don't have near as much firepower as we have in Brown/Smith/Goedert/Swift. This offense should be giving more of our opponents headaches but we're not. 

Open wide receivers if you don’t trust them to catch it aren’t gonna get the throws. This is like throwing to quez repeatedly cause he’s open. We damn well know there’s a good chance he’ll screw it up or won’t come down with it. That’s a problem. We’ve known Watkins isn’t good enough to be a 3rd Wr in this offense. We saw it through critical times last year. We know Stoll and Calcaterra are one dimensional players at their position. Stoll good blocking tight end and Calcaterra bad blocker but ok receiver out of college. Julio probably should be retired. I like Oz but he’s more of a 4th wr than a 3rd.

right now you don’t have goedert cause he was hurt for a quarter vs  Dallas and 3 games. You’ve also seen over that span an inconsistent passing game. Prior to that injury the passing game seemed to be finally getting on the right page with consistency. Which goes back to you have 3 reliable options. Currently the eagles have two and if I’m a DC I’d take one of smith and brown away and force you to beat me with 1 reliable WR and tip my cap to you if you can beat me with smith, Oz, Watkins, julio, stoll, Albert O and Calcaterra  

i’m not saying he shouldn’t throw to those guys when they’re open. Because they’re open you have to just hope that they make the play. The bigger issue to me is the trust isn’t there because I think we all know none of these guys are consistent enough to be your third option if Dallas Goedert gets hurt. That’s the reality to why the passing game the last 3 weeks has been inconsistent.  

6 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Idk.  I think the jury is still out on Quez.  I (still) don’t think they are using him right, tbh.   In college, (from the little I’ve seen) he seemed to excel on intermediate/deeper slants up the middle, not necessarily deep (outside) timing routes.  Then would use his speed to get a ton of YAC. 
 

That said, if he wants to be an NFL receiver he’s going to need to start coming down with the deeper outside (timing) throws as well. 

I’m past the point of giving quez the benefit of the doubt. We are in year 4 and he has the same exact issues he had as a rookie. We can blame coaches but there’s been opportunities for him to make plays and come down with some throws and he doesn’t. I do not think he’s reliable enough to be your 3rd Wr. 

Losing always brings out the doubters. Even the doubts that we have kept hidden within ourselves while things looked awesome. Look at how our conversation about Hurts changed this week after 1 loss. We knew this team was flawed but no one focused on things as much and complained as much when they were able to eek out wins. After a loss, now we magnify everything and it sounds horrible. 

Keeping perspective, as bad is it all sounds right now as we focus on and dissect all the flaws, this team is STILL good enough to win the super bowl this year. 

And we will be back to talking about them in that light soon enough. 

I really think its probably still unrealistic to expect this team to win in Dallas this week when we just saw the effects of their fatigue matched up against an elite team with extra rest last week. And we get the same kind of game this week.

But I do expect them to win out starting in Seattle.

 

However, as we get closer to the weekend, Im beginning to feel like they may have an inspired performance and overshoot my expectations by beating Dallas, and then winning out. 

1 hour ago, vikas83 said:

If he's just serviceable, it's an upgrade. I think that is possible.

This.

When you are signing players in December who were cut from other teams, some fans act like it's week1 of free agency and are critical if the player isn't great.  It's picking up scraps because you are desperate at a position, have injuries and just need some depth. When you're in that situation, if the player comes in and contributes anything it's a plus.  

4 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

I really think its probably still unrealistic to expect this team to win in Dallas this week when we just saw the effects of their fatigue matched up against an elite team with extra rest last week. And we get the same kind of game this week.

But I do expect them to win out starting in Seattle.

 

However, as we get closer to the weekend, Im beginning to feel like they may have an inspired performance and overshoot my expectations by beating Dallas, and then winning out. 

I do think they are pissed off.

That game against SF should have been closer but the schedule has completely screwed them over this year. Between the multiple rain games that they have had to endure and then the short turnaround against well rested teams it has not been easy on them. Then you have all the pundits saying that they are frauds because they lost against SF and somehow they are lower in the rankings because of that game even though they have a better record then every other team in the league.

They will come out fired up for this game.

15 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Idk.  I think the jury is still out on Quez.  I (still) don’t think they are using him right, tbh.   In college, (from the little I’ve seen) he seemed to excel on intermediate/deeper slants up the middle, not necessarily deep (outside) timing routes.  Then would use his speed to get a ton of YAC. 
 

That said, if he wants to be an NFL receiver he’s going to need to start coming down with the deeper outside (timing) throws as well. 

I didn't address it during or after the game, but Quez really could have (should have) helped Hurts out on that long throw.  It was a slight underthrow, but either 1) catch the ball, because he got two hands on it, or  2) stop and initiate contact with the DB, who was basically just screening the WR on the throw.  I think there still could have been a flag there, but the ref gave SF the benefit of the doubt that the DB barely turned his head in time, even though he contacted Quez.

Didn't like the play from Quez there.