Some Context

Posted: September 9th, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

The Eagles played the second game of the NFL season. Since then we’ve had a chance to watch the rest of the league play. We can now put the Eagles performance into a bit of context since we have other games to compare it to.

After watching football on Sunday and Monday, I feel better about the Eagles. Jalen Hurts threw a couple of bonehead INTs, but the team still piled up 410 yards and 34 points. The new OL played well and all the skill players looked like stars. To quote Dennis Green, "They are who we thought they are.” And that’s a good thing.

The Lions were the #5 scoring team in the league last year. They were at home and facing a very young Rams defense. The Lions struggled on offense for much of the game. They won it in overtime despite playing a very banged up Rams team.

The Falcons had high hopes entering the season. They lost to PIT 18-10 and only had 226 yards. The Steelers have a good defense, but Kirk Cousins didn’t look comfortable and that should have the Falcons worried.

Cousins is coming off an Achilles injury and doesn’t look right. He didn’t plant his foot and drive the ball. He might be okay physically and just doesn’t have his confidence back. Injuries are not easy to come back from. If Cousins struggles, the Falcons might need rookie Michael Pennix to play some this year. That’s not ideal for a team that hoped to win their division.

The Bengals played the Pats and lost 16-10. Cincy has started slow in the Joe Burrow era, but this feels a bit different with their receiver issues that weren’t there in the past. The Pats should be one of the worst teams in the league. That’s not someone you want to lose to.

The Giants lost 28-6 to the Vikings. Both teams should struggle this year. Still, the Giants have to be disappointed with such a bad showing to start the season. They weren’t even competitive. Daniel Jones was as bad as ever and they can’t really do anything about that until the offseason.

Dallas dominated the Browns. What an ugly game. Cleveland was missing both of their starting OTs. That’s not good in any game, but proved to be disastrous against the Boys. Dallas had 6 sacks and lived in the backfield. Deshaun Watson looked terrible. Browns fans have to be incredibly discouraged by that game. They hoped Watson would be improved and the defense would be the same juggernaut unit from last year. Neither of those proved to be true. And now Watson is facing new allegations.

Buffalo beat the Cardinals 34-28. The Bills defense has a pair of new starting safeties and lots of young players in the back seven. The defense could not stop Arizona in the first half. They did tighten up in the second half, but also got lucky that Kyler Murray didn’t see a wide-open Marvin Harrison Jr late in the game. Josh Allen and the offense were outstanding. The Bills could prove to be very good this year, but their defense has work to do.

The Eagles came out of their game pretty healthy. They played a tough team and won. The offense was excellent and still has room to improve. The defense did have issues, but nothing that can’t be fixed. They showed playmaking ability and made key plays to help secure the win. The next game for the Eagles is the Falcons and the immobile Kirk Cousins. You know the DL is looking forward to getting after him and playing on a good surface after slipping and sliding around Brazil.

*****

It might not have seemed like Jalen Carter did that much in the game, but he was more disruptive than you might have realized.

Carter’s ability to push the pocket could be huge vs Atlanta.

http://igglesblitz.com/2024/09/some-context-2/

Week 1 = sloppy football. We do see it every year. That’s why it is important we don’t overreact and panic to what we saw from our Eagles on Friday night. That said… Some of what we saw is very similar to what we say last year and so that’s something to keep an eye on.

With 2 new coordinators, this is the time of the season to iron out kinks, develop consistency and reduce mistakes.  If you can do that while winning a game against a good opponent on a lousy field, that's a really good first step.  Confidence will also reduce the learning curve which will lead to more consistency.

The only thing that stopped the eagles offense on Friday was the Eagles offense.   The INTs were terrible, the fumbles on the tush push are inexcusable.  The eagles defense had that unbelievable drop of a pick 6 by Nakobe Dean.  Just fixing those mistakes alone and it could've added 14+ points.

Atlanta is going thru similar issues with a new coaching staff, a new QB coming off a major injury, and a lot of other new faces.  They didn't look anywhere near as good as the eagles. 

So I'm expecting a big win on Monday.

10 hours ago, birdman#12 said:

The only thing that stopped the eagles offense on Friday was the Eagles offense.   The INTs were terrible, the fumbles on the tush push are inexcusable

You are absolutely right what stopped us what our own mistakes. Without those we probably score 40+ points against a good team on a poor field with flag happy officials. The problem is Jalen and it was the same nonsense we saw last year. Maybe he fixes it but at some point this may just be who he is.

19 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

You are absolutely right what stopped us what our own mistakes. Without those we probably score 40+ points against a good team on a poor field with flag happy officials. The problem is Jalen and it was the same nonsense we saw last year. Maybe he fixes it but at some point this may just be who he is.

I've been saying for quite a while now that the most important thing Hurts needs to do in his development is get thru his progressions and decision making quicker.  He looks too long at Brown and Smith because he seems to have trouble with anticipation of a receiver getting open. He rarely gets to his 3rd or 4th read before the pocket disappears.  That's why a 3rd WR here almost doesn't matter.  He also continues to force a ball when throwing it away is a better option. 

Brown and Smith are great WRs, but it Hurts can't anticipate them getting open, he'll hold the ball instead of going to his 3rd and 4th read....

With that being said, I hope working with Kellen Moore will eventually help that issue.....but it's a hard thing to change.  Hurts needs to start with protecting the ball.

 

4 hours ago, birdman#12 said:

Hurts needs to start with protecting the ball.

And that’s the thing he doesn’t need to be special in this offense. He doesn’t need to try and play hero ball. He needs to take what’s there, he needs to look after the ball and he needs to make smart decisions. If he does that this offense has more than enough weapons to go far this year.