Socks

[time2rock]

Socks

Posted: December 25th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

You wanted a bright, shiny new fire truck. Or a bike. Or the hottest video game. The Eagles gave you socks for Christmas. It sure as heck wasn’t what you wanted, but you needed them. We all wanted a blowout win and the Eagles were up 20-3. The Giants cut that to 20-18 and made everyone nervous. The Eagles held on for a 33-25 win.

There are plenty of critical things to say about the performance, but the Eagles desperately needed a win and got one. They are now 11-4 and have a one-game lead in the race for the NFC East.

Let’s talk about what went right. The Eagles gained 465 yards and scored 33 points. Britain Covey had a 54-yard punt return. The defense limited the Giants to 292 yards and 18 offensive points. They were only 4 fo 14 on third downs. LB Shaq Leonard played his best game. There really is plenty to be happy about.

Unfortunately, there were some serious issues as well. Turnovers almost cost the Eagles the game. Boston Scott fumbled on a KOR and set the Giants up at the 14-yard line. Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six when Dallas Goedert slipped and the ball went right to the DB. Those mistakes cost the Eagles 15 points. Take them away and you do have a blowout. Turnovers have been a problem all year. Today’s plays were more fluky than most turnovers, but they were still costly. I’m just not sure how you fix the ones like we saw against the Giants.

I was frustrated with some of the stupidity and sloppiness in the game. There was a troubling sequence before halftime. Kenny Gainwell ran toward the sideline, but didn’t get out of bounds. The play ended at :50. Nick Sirianni must have thought he did get out. The Eagles didn’t call a timeout until the :31 second mark. They lost 19 valuable seconds. The Eagles then got the ball down to the 9-yard line. Jalen Hurts took a bad sack and the team had to use their final timeout. On the final play of the half, Hurts scrambled. He had a chance to go out of bounds inside the 10 with :12 left. Instead, he cut back to the inside. Only a horrible penalty by the Giants saved him. The clock should have run out, but the Eagles got to kick a FG to end the half.

For a coach and team that preaches the importance of situational football, that is awful. The Eagles might have had to settle for a FG anyway, but they should have had several more chances to get into the end zone. Ugh.

Jalen Carter failed to get off the field on 4th & 5. That drew a penalty and helped the Giants extend a drive. DeVonta Smith failed to block on a Swift run that should have been a TD. The Eagles scored a TD on the next play, but Swift should have gotten into the end zone earlier. Jordan Mailata had a block in the back penalty that was just dumb. Reed Blankenship let Darius Slayton run right by him late in the game on a 70-yard TD pass.

If you hoped this game would make you feel better about the Eagles, I’m sorry. That just didn’t happen. They did build a good lead at 20-3, but couldn’t build on that. Instead, they let the Giants get right back into the game. The Eagles never did trail, so that is something to be happy about.

The Eagles did make some key plays in this game.

One of the problems the offense has had is not enough yards after the catch. DeVonta took care of that.

Goedert hasn’t been involved in the offense enough in recent weeks. He was 7-71 against the Giants and made some important grabs.

Grant Calcaterra had his best game as a pro, both as a receiver and blocker. This was really impressive.

That play showed you how special Hurts can be when things breakdown.

He also came up huge on 3rd & 20.

Hurts was a mess last Monday. He got healthy over the week and played much better this time out. If Hurts plays well, the Eagles have a chance to beat any team in the league.

The Eagles started well in this game. They just didn’t have the killer instinct to close it out the way you want. That’s something that they’ve got to work on. Don’t overlook just how important it was for the Eagles to get a win. There are mistakes to clean up, but the players can feel good about winning and what did go right.

*****

Nick Siriani was doing some yelling on the sideline late in the game. There was some animated discussion between him and some players. Sirianni was asked about it after the game and said it wasn’t a big deal. It was heat of the moment kind of stuff.

DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown were ticked after the game. We don’t know if that was at Sirianni or something else had them upset. We’ll see if there are any hurt feelings as the week goes along or this was just heat of the moment stuff.

http://igglesblitz.com/2023/12/socks/

[birdman#12]

The offense has been doing the same nonsense all season.....and there is a lack of urgency.

Sirianni has let this offense do the same crap all year....without holding bryan johnson accountable......maybe that's why there is so much tension and arguing with the offensive players.  Hurts looks PISSED when he comes to the sideline after a baffling play call.

The ONLY good thing in this game was the win......but there were so many mistakes, so many idiotic playcalls and dumb decisions that tells you that things really aren't improving.  

[UK_EaglesFan89]

It’s one of those isn’t it… It could have been a dominant win but it wasn’t. There seem to be reasons to be a little bit more positive but there were concerns. It’s been like that all year for us. Wins haven’t been convincing but we’ve beaten some good teams. Losses have been either full of mistakes or real beat downs. Or both. This is a team who can still go far in the play offs but that probably won’t due to those continued issues.

[LacesOut]

It's week 15 and they are NOT getting better.

Penalties, turnovers, no pass rush, no turnovers from the D, UGH. 

Just a weird season.