I don't think I heard Quinyon Mitchell's name called _at all_ last night.  It's been a LONG time since we had a lockdown corner like that.  I mean, maybe Eric Allen, but I don't think that's a fair comparison.  (Q needs a pick 6, too 😉 ).  

CBs don't win DROY, but my man deserves consideration.

22 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

He tried to keep CJGJ.  Edwards was going to Chicago regardless.  Epps and White weren't playing at a pro bowl level.

Hargrave was the only really talented guy to get big money elsewhere.  

Trying and failing is still failing. And say what you will about Epps and White, but they were still better than who came in to replace them. 

53 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

We are second in the league in second half points scored.

Just like in Remember the Titans, our offense is  "...like Novacaine. Just give it time, it always works.”

Fitzpatrick mentioned on the postgame, and I 100% agree, that the only way this team is "get-able" is an opponent jumping out to a quick lead where the offense isn't afforded an entire half to iron-out their issues.

Look at the difference it made when the Eagles pulled back into the game last night to make it 12-10.

All of a sudden, Quinn wasn't so comfortable with settling for a FG to take a 1 point lead, and both the Eagles offense and defense ramped up the intensity and it was like a tsunami. 

 

I love how the coaches are managing the roster and this season. After a total collapse they're showing a patience that I wasn't sure they'd have.  But this is something to work on the rest of the way.  The good news is that the Eagles don't have to get on a plane again after next week, hopefully until going to the SB. 

 

 

Tip of the cap to old Yac Ertz. He's playing pretty well for a 34 year old. He would have been a nice piece to add as TE2 this last offseason. 

30 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

I think he's overrated by some.  He's basically a jag.  He's better than Boston Scott, but not by much.  He'd be really good as a #3 RB, he's barely passable as a #2.  He generally gets what is blocked for him.  He almost never makes guys miss.   If Barkley misses time, this offense can't sustain itself with him as the lead runner.  It would need a major overhaul for those games.

I'm not a Gainwell fan by any means, but he definitely had some juice last night. Not sure what it was, but he looked much better than he has since all of this season and last.

1 minute ago, EricAllenPick6 said:

Wholeheartedly disagree.  Jordan Davis does a lot of stuff that doesn't show up on a stat sheet.  Instead, it shows up as guys like Baun and Nakobe Dean being able to get free because Jordan Davis occupies so much space.  That's valueable.

He has a few good runs, he's got a nice burst, but probably highly replaceable.  @Iggles_Phan said Correll Buckhalter, and I think that's a fantastic comparison.  Gainewell is a good change of pace guy.

Hargrave was MASSIVELY overpaid by a team that was desperate to win a championship.  Hargrave had a career year on a team that had a lot of talent. 

I think Buckhalter was much bigger and a more violent runner than Gainwell.  He was about 20 pounds heavier and a few inches taller.  Buckhalter was more like Demarco Murray as a runner.  

Just now, LeanMeanGM said:

Tip of the cap to old Yac Ertz. He's playing pretty well for a 34 year old. He would have been a nice piece to add as TE2 this last offseason. 

He was Washington's best receiver last night.  He's an upgrade as a blocker over Calcaterra but I don't think he's as good as a receiver at this point.  He does still know where to go and has good hands.  Those sorts of farewell tours never seem to work out for us.  My guess is he still isn't a big fan of Howie. 

2 minutes ago, Freshmilk said:

  His draft status is no longer important.  It's his current value to the team.  Right now, he is an important piece.  Not top dollar important, but pretty good dollar important. 

It is important in terms of evaluating Howie's drafting and the value he's brought in.  Davis is not a bust, but he's not worth the investment.  So, in evaluating Howie's defensive draft picks in the last 3 years, he'd be towards the bottom of the success list.   Meanwhile, Carter, Mitchell and DeJean would be high at the top, while Smith and Dean would be ascending.   If Davis were a 3rd round pick, he'd be an "A-/B+" for me.  But, as a top half of round 1 pick that they traded up to get, he's more like a "C".   

Just looking at the top 3 rounds:

2022 - Overall... B/B+
Davis - C
Jurgens - A
Dean - B (and rising)

 

2023 - Overall... A-/A.   Carter being such a game wrecker now elevates the entire thing.
Carter - A (finally living up to the potential and the hype from the pre-draft)
Smith - C (and ascending quickly.  Going into this season he was looking like a bust.  That has dramatically changed)
Steen - C+/B- (solid backup at this time, this could rise if he becomes a starter next year)
Brown - B (solid ST player, chance to become more, this grade could rise)

 

2024 - Overall... early returns look like an A/A+
Mitchell - A/A+.  It would be nice if he finished on one of these INTs.
DeJean - A/A+.  Inserting him into the lineup vastly improved the entire make up of the defense.
Hunt - I.    Too soon to know.

 

 

And in the span of about 8 months, my overall happiness with Howie's drafting has shifted dramatically.  He's finally added defensive talent!!! And our last Pro Bowler to be drafted by the Eagles won't be Fletcher Cox in the 2012 draft!  We might see 3 Pro Bowlers from these recent drafts in the very near future... 

Someone's in denial.

Baun will be back barring him having a major drop off over the second half of the season. Also, guys like Sweat and possibly CJGJ, Slay and Bradberry will all probably be gone next season, so the defense isn't going to have a ton of high priced players on it. It's going to be a super young defense. They'll pay a pass rusher in free agency but other than that it's all going to be draft picks and young guys.

11 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Hiring Desai and Matt Patricia was more of the problem.  

They were huge downgrades as well

8 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

 

With our new generation of young exciting players, the Eagles might become a favorite of the media rather than a whipping boy of the media.

7 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I'm not a Gainwell fan by any means, but he definitely had some juice last night. Not sure what it was, but he looked much better than he has since all of this season and last.

He did on a few plays. As this season goes on I'd like to see them use SB when they need to, but towards the end of games I'd like to see the kid or Gainwell get more carries. All these hits take a toll on soft tissue as the weeks go on. If they are going anywhere they need him as healthy as possible.

14 minutes ago, EricAllenPick6 said:

Wholeheartedly disagree.  Jordan Davis does a lot of stuff that doesn't show up on a stat sheet.  Instead, it shows up as guys like Baun and Nakobe Dean being able to get free because Jordan Davis occupies so much space.  That's valueable.

I agreed it was valuable, I even called it "very" valuable.  But, that doesn't make it worthy of a premier pick.  He needs to play more than 30-40% of the snaps.  A top of the first round guy needs to play at least 2/3 if not nearly all the snaps to be worth it.   He needs to be logging Fletcher Cox level snap count, Vince Wilfork level snap counts.   Right now, he's not even close to that.

Valuable?  No doubt.  Not worthy of pick 16, however.  

Did Nick kick the XP to go up 26-10 just to give Jake a chance to straighten himself out?

Should have gone for two there, no brainer.

10 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Tip of the cap to old Yac Ertz. He's playing pretty well for a 34 year old. He would have been a nice piece to add as TE2 this last offseason. 

Has anybody in the league had as many reviewed catches as Ertz?  He makes such fantastic grabs for a TE, and seems to be a leader for the Commies.  Jayden is lucky to have him.  

6 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Someone's in denial.

Only Giants fans believe this.

 

13 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I'm not a Gainwell fan by any means, but he definitely had some juice last night. Not sure what it was, but he looked much better than he has since all of this season and last.

I think the juice was that the OL made the holes so wide that I could have picked up 5 yards easily.   The difference between him and Barkley is stark.   Gainwell had juice and turned it into 10 yard runs.  Barkley at the same stage of the game had juice and took two long runs to the house.  

15 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Tip of the cap to old Yac Ertz. He's playing pretty well for a 34 year old. He would have been a nice piece to add as TE2 this last offseason. 

Could've signed him last year when Goedert was out. Our backup TEs were doing nothing. A bunch of fans here said it was pointless he wasn't the same player. I said he doesn't need to be a starter, just a backup to contribute. But now we have Calculator out there making plays so we're good.

4 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

Did Nick kick the XP to go up 26-10 just to give Jake a chance to straighten himself out?

Should have gone for two there, no brainer.

I think so.   And frankly, I know it wasn't the 'analytics' move, but it was the smart 'football' move.   You need to be able to trust Jake.  He needs the chance to get out of the yips and what better way than to kick more often.  They will lose games that they should win if their kicker can't finish the drives with points when called upon.

4 hours ago, Frankfurteagle89 said:

Big win last night. I really was expecting a loss after that first half. The offense was sputtering and our kicker was being a leftist with his kicks. 
Thought our defense was not going to hold up (still expecting bad things after 1 1/2 seasons of bad play), but they are starting to sell me more and more that they’re for real. They were the main reason we won because they kept us in the game until the offense finally came alive. 
 

Two huge plays that made it possible were the stop on 4th down (actually the stops on 2nd and 3rd down also go into that equation) and the fumble recovery by Calcaterra. Way to hustle!

 

Feels good to be in this position and with the defense coming together, we might have a realistic shot of going on a playoff run.

I realize this may be a controversial take ... and it is subject to All 22 confirmation or refutation ... but as I was watching the Eagles Offense in the first half, and especially the Hurts throws toward the sidelines, I wondered if those throws out of bounds were an overreaction by Hurts to the first half of the Cowboys game, where he clearly held on to the ball too long and took a sack rather than throwing the ball out of bounds.  Clearly that was not the intention on the sideline pass to AJ that sailed way over his head.  That was a bad pass, but it possibly suffered from the rhythm of throwing the ball away that had happened two or three times in the first half.

Thoughts?

4 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

Fitzpatrick mentioned on the postgame, and I 100% agree, that the only way this team is "get-able" is an opponent jumping out to a quick lead where the offense isn't afforded an entire half to iron-out their issues.

Look at the difference it made when the Eagles pulled back into the game last night to make it 12-10.

All of a sudden, Quinn wasn't so comfortable with settling for a FG to take a 1 point lead, and both the Eagles offense and defense ramped up the intensity and it was like a tsunami. 

 

I love how the coaches are managing the roster and this season. After a total collapse they're showing a patience that I wasn't sure they'd have.  But this is something to work on the rest of the way.  The good news is that the Eagles don't have to get on a plane again, hopefully until going to the SB. 

 

 

The good news is the defense is playing well enough to keep them in every game.  I do think they can't continue to let teams get a lead early in games.  If they are playing Detroit in Detroit, playing from behind will not work.  

1 minute ago, NOTW said:

Could've signed him last year when Goedert was out. Our backup TEs were doing nothing. A bunch of fans here said it was pointless he wasn't the same player. I said he doesn't need to be a starter, just a backup to contribute. But now we have Calculator out there making plays so we're good.

Calcaterra's fumble recovery was as big a play as there was in the game.  Maybe not bigger than other plays, but certainly not less important.  If that's a turnover, that's a potential game changing moment.  And he might have saved the game in that moment!   Goedert really needs to work on his ball security.  He's a dangerous threat, but also a liability when he's turning it over.

Well, that went from stressful to easy really fast. Very weird game -- we were dominating them all game in yards, 3rd down conversions, plays, TOP, etc. but thanks to stalling in the red zone and Jake forgetting how to kick, we were trailing for most of the game.

OFFENSE

- I'll call it a C+/B- game from Hurts. I'm moderately convinced he actually got a slight concussion on the failed trick play -- in the post game press conference, he said something along the lines of "I beat the test," and then the sunglasses on ESPN. Looking at the drives, we get stopped by a holding call on the 1st drive and then Jake hooks a kick. 3rd drive drops by Smitty and Dotson kill the drive. 4th drive the stupid trick play and Jake misses another. He pulled it together for the FG at the end of the half, but missed wide open receivers for a TD. So the 1st half was rough. Then...we scored on 4 straight possessions to start the 2nd half (5 straight overall). Thursday night, and I think he got his bell rung -- did what was necessary to win. Thankfully the defense kept us in the game. 

- I'm not really sure what else to say about Saquon. But credit to Kellen and Nick for sticking with the run game. We were dominating TOP, plays run and yards through 3 quarters, and the body blows finally paid dividends in the 4th. As awesome as Saquon is...he wasn't touched on either TD run. The first one was a great play by Lane, and the second he saw the cutback lane and took off behind Cam. Clearly Howie looked at the yards before contact we generated for Sanders and Swift and realized getting Saquon those kind of opportunities would be special. How many times did we fail to grind out the clock last year in the 4 minute drill? Saquon is the ultimate closer.

- Welcome back Jordan. Fred filled in admirably, but the protection was so much better with Jordan in there. And Lane remains the best in the game.

- Weird to see Smitty drop one, and that was a brutal 3rd down drop by Dotson. Seemed the Commies were taking away the deep shots, and their rookie corner played well.

- Thank you Grant. Saved the game.

DEFENSE

- I'm going to harp on this every week -- Jalen Carter is the best DT in the game. I know, Chris Jones is awesome. But Jalen is just destroying plays. I think he played every snap, was constantly in the backfield, and basically blew up 2nd, 3rd and 4th down on that drive. 

- Jordan Davis really had a sneaky good game eating up lineman to allow others to wreck the game.

- Sticking with Georgia Boys, Nolan Smith is starting to justify being a 1st round pick. Very nice speed rush on the sack, and he plays the run well -- physical and tons of effort. His emergence has helped dampen the impact of Huff underperforming.

- Zack Baun needs an extension, now. That pass breakup on the Commies 1st drive was excellent. He actually did miss some tackles, and it's amazing that I find that stunning now.

- Dean played well, and his 3rd down tackle on Daniels in space was excellent.

- Quinyon Mitchell should be DROY and an all-pro. They never threw at him. It's bananas how good he is as a rookie.

- The Commies were averaging 29 points and over 400 yards per game coming in. We held them to 10 pts and just over 200 yards before garbage time. It's time to accept that we have an elite defense.

SPECIAL TEAMS

- You get one game, Jake. Next time AJ is going to punch Rick Lovato.

It's a foregone conclusion we're going to lose Roy Anderson and Christian Parker in the offseason no matter what happens