2 minutes ago, Texas Eagle said:

Never thought we’d be here after the Bucs completely dismantled and embarrassed us

Ironically I think we're here partially because the Bucs dismantled us. Gave us good film and we went to work on fixing the issues.

The margin between 2023 Kelce and 2024 Jurgens is smaller than the margin between Bechton and RG Jurgens.

9 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

It’s pretty much an identical team to those Niners teams. 

Except Shanahan is near universally accepted as a top tier coach and Sirianni is a punchline amongst his own teams' fans. I really don't think and NFL team can be this consistently effective if Hurts and Sirianni are as ass as people think. 

Just now, DEagle7 said:

Except Shanahan is near universally accepted as a top tier coach and Sirianni is a punchline amongst his own teams' fans. I really don't think and NFL team can be this consistently effective if Hurts and Sirianni are as ass as people think. 

Hurts is. Siriani isnt.

6 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

The margin between 2023 Kelce and 2024 Jurgens is smaller than the margin between Bechton and RG Jurgens.

He’s been one of the best stories on the team this year given the expectations and shoes he has had to fill and it feels like he’s still not talked about enough. Outside of Saquon, it’s him, Baun, Quinyon, and DeJean who have been the best breakout impact players. Outside of some of the tush push fails, there has been zero drop-off going from Kelce to him. 

In retrospect, I think the debate about what was more responsible for the collapse last season can officially be settled. People argued offense vs defense and I think looking back it was clearly the defense. I felt that way to begin with, but I think it can be settled now. The Eagles offense has not been a dominant force this season by any stretch, but they've won 8 in a row because the defense is elite and keeps them in every game. In the 2nd half of last season, the Eagles defense was the worst in the league and couldn't stop anybody.

The offense fell apart too and certainly didn't help, but if you put this defense on last year's team, even with the turnovers and Hurts' regression, they finish as the #1 seed last year.

I wonder if Hurts would be willing to adjust his contract.

He’s throwing for about 200 yards per game and may not throw 20 TDs this year in an offense that doesn’t lean on him.  If Howie gets the ammo to do his thing, Hurts can be a perennial winner and fringe MVP candidate as the QB/leader of a stacked team that contends for SBs.

If Howie can’t make additions and has to struggle to keep the Bechton’s, Milton Williams, Braun’s of the roster because a system QB is about to average a $32m cap hit, then we go down a different path that is a lot closer to the consternation of the first 4 games of this season.

 

3 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

In retrospect, I think the debate about what was more responsible for the collapse last season can officially be settled. People argued offense vs defense and I think looking back it was clearly the defense. I felt that way to begin with, but I think it can be settled now. The Eagles offense has not been a dominant force this season by any stretch, but they've won 8 in a row because the defense is elite and keeps them in every game. In the 2nd half of last season, the Eagles defense was the worst in the league and couldn't stop anybody.

The offense fell apart too and certainly didn't help, but if you put this defense on last year's team, even with the turnovers and Hurts' regression, they finish as the #1 seed last year.

I think it’s fair to say the Eagles had the worst defense in the NFL last year.  2 teams were worse statistically, but they were trying to lose.  The turnaround was amazing.

Offensively, I do think the biggest difference is adding an MVP candidate franchise RB, a road grading RG, and the support of a defense that keeps games close whether the offense shows up or not.  I’m not sure much else has changed with the offense.  

29 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

If they can keep Barkley in peak form (that’s a whole other can of worms because I don’t think they’ll actually do it)….then I’m not sure they will need Hurts to win games with his arm.

It’s unprecedented in the last 30 years of football, but this could be the team and this could be the competitive landscape to actually do it.  This defense, this OL, 30+ carries from Barkley, and a turnover free game from Hurts with selective Qb runs and safe QB throws…the Eagles are probably a strong favorite to beat any team in the NFL in a given game.

BUT…the asterisk there is that it is tough to string together 3-4 such wins without breaking down Barkley.  At the very least, they HAVE to protect him in the last few weeks of the season. 

The one caveat I have to the Barkley wear and tear argument (different than the injury argument in my view) is that Barkley is not taking a lot of hard hits. I think he’s leading the NFL in average yards per carry before contact. A lot of his runs go to the perimeter. Etc. I’m not really seeing him get jacked up.

That all said, at some point we do need to use Gainwell more. It’s just a shame we always start so slow and can’t build up a quick lead in order to rest Barkley.

That all said, I’m very much open to taking one of the many highly rated RBs in this year’s class. I doubt the top players will fall to the bottom of the first like they may have in previous years, but we should absolutely try to get a blue chip backup for next year who can eventually take over the starting position.

 

44 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

Except Shanahan is near universally accepted as a top tier coach and Sirianni is a punchline amongst his own teams' fans. I really don't think and NFL team can be this consistently effective if Hurts and Sirianni are as ass as people think. 

I consider Shanahan and Sirianni opposite ends of a mirror.  Shanahan is a gifted offensive architect but not much of a coach, while Sirianni needs help to design and implement a proper scheme, but does a lot of the actual coaching work very well.

57 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

It’s pretty much an identical team to those Niners teams. An elite RB, great offensive line, good receiving options, and a top defense. It’s Hurts’s job to just get the ball to the playmakers and not turn it over. He adds the extra element with his legs though. 
 

I know everyone keeps saying he’s going to have to win games with his arm eventually, but they passed that first test today in not needing him to do that against a top offense. He’ll most likely need to if they run into Detroit in the playoffs or Buffalo in the Super Bowl but I guess you worry about it then. 
 

I think everyone in the building knows it’s Saquon’s offense, including Hurts, and they’re at least riding that into a fight for the #1 seed. It’s the biggest strength on the team. Ideally you’d want an elite passing attack to complement that but they are what they are through 12 games and I don’t see much improving on that end. The health of AJ and DeVonta will be paramount the rest of the way. It shouldn’t be this way, but the passing game craters when one of them is out. If they can stay healthy, I think the chance is always there of the passing game looking somewhat competent enough to beat top teams when paired with the rushing attack and the defense. 

Except the run game wasn’t doing ish all first half AND Hurts marched the offense down the field in the middle of the second qtr running and throwing IN THE MIDDLE of THE FIELD (where idiots thought he couldn’t for some reason)…for a game leading score off of a Brotherly Shove. This is after throwing the first TD to Geodertt. I know some of the no pxxxxxy gettin fanbase whacks off so much they now suffer partial blindeness. …BUT that is what happened in the game that was on TV.

1 hour ago, DaEagles4Life said:

 

Probably my favorite play by the D today 

DeJean’s wrap up tackle of  Derrick Henry was my favorite.

42 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I wonder if Hurts would be willing to adjust his contract.

He’s throwing for about 200 yards per game and may not throw 20 TDs this year in an offense that doesn’t lean on him.  If Howie gets the ammo to do his thing, Hurts can be a perennial winner and fringe MVP candidate as the QB/leader of a stacked team that contends for SBs.

If Howie can’t make additions and has to struggle to keep the Bechton’s, Milton Williams, Braun’s of the roster because a system QB is about to average a $32m cap hit, then we go down a different path that is a lot closer to the consternation of the first 4 games of this season.

 

If I remember correctly I think Jalen already structured his contract so that the first two/three years had minimal cap hits. 

 

9 minutes ago, D.WATSfromda757 said:

Except the run game wasn’t doing ish all first half AND Hurts marched the offense down the field in the middle of the second qtr running and throwing IN THE MIDDLE of THE FIELD (where idiots thought he couldn’t for some reason)…for a game leading score off of a Brotherly Shove. This is after throwing the first TD to Geodertt. I know some of the no pxxxxxy gettin fanbase whacks off so much they now suffer partial blindeness. …BUT that is what happened in the game that was on TV.

We didn’t even have 2 consecutive Barkley runs until our 4th possession. The run game didn’t work because we didn’t even attempt to run the ball.

Once we did start running consistently, the Ravens defense had to sell out against our ground game which opened up the slants to Brown and eventually the TD to DG.

1 hour ago, AmericanEagle77 said:

He's a pain in the ass by default but it looks like he's not too much of a pain in the ass for Fangio's coaching, and I think considering the Dolphins last year, he deserves credit for that. Fangio is the type of guy that will make sure he understands his responsibilities, and him playing assignment sound is really all I wanted from him. He's trusting his guys rather than focing attempts to make plays, and that's exactly what I wanted him to become, because that's what safeties are supposed to do.

Maybe he just needed some old school cranky football guy who would shove his foot up his ass if he Fed up, who knows. But he's no longer playing selfish football, and that's exactly what I like to see. Credit to him.

Great assessment.  CJ in 2024 is a much better Safety than CJ in 2022.  Consistency trumps flash.

3 minutes ago, TEW said:

We didn’t even have 2 consecutive Barkley runs until our 4th possession. The run game didn’t work because we didn’t even attempt to run the ball.

Once we did start running consistently, the Ravens defense had to sell out against our ground game which opened up the slants to Brown and eventually the TD to DG.

So what? 

I'm not saying that we will, but we could definitely run the table. Divisional games are always games that can go either way, regardless of how good or bad the teams are. So I'm not guaranteeing anything, but looking at what's ahead, the Steelers might be the toughest game. 

Going into Landover against the Redskins might be tough too, but we'll see. 

Looking at the Lions schedule coming up, if they lose to the Packers next week and we beat the mighty Panthers, we're in the #1 seed slot. 

Go Pack, Go! 

42 minutes ago, D.WATSfromda757 said:

So what? 

You said the run game wasn’t doing sh**.

This statement is factually wrong. The run game was doing great early, we just refused to actually use it more than once in every 3 downs.

In reality, the run game was the only thing working early and, as usual, Hurts was not good in the first quarter with multiple drive stalling incomplete passes.

38 minutes ago, D.WATSfromda757 said:

So what? 

You said the run game wasn't doing ish, it's because they weren't using it. They opened the game with a 13 yard rush and then threw 3 straight times and punted. Next drive Barkley had a 10 yard run, then they threw 3 times and punted. The run game was fine, they didn't commit to it at all and that's why the offense didn't do ish until they actually committed. 

2 minutes ago, devpool said:

You said the run game wasn't doing ish, it's because they weren't using it. They opened the game with a 13 yard rush and then threw 3 straight times and punted. Next drive Barkley had a 10 yard run, then they threw 3 times and punted. The run game was fine, they didn't commit to it at all and that's why the offense didn't do ish until they actually committed. 

Seriously…

Its like some people watched a completely different game.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

I wonder if Hurts would be willing to adjust his contract.

He’s throwing for about 200 yards per game and may not throw 20 TDs this year in an offense that doesn’t lean on him.  If Howie gets the ammo to do his thing, Hurts can be a perennial winner and fringe MVP candidate as the QB/leader of a stacked team that contends for SBs.

If Howie can’t make additions and has to struggle to keep the Bechton’s, Milton Williams, Braun’s of the roster because a system QB is about to average a $32m cap hit, then we go down a different path that is a lot closer to the consternation of the first 4 games of this season.

 

We can afford all of them by saving the money on Slay and Bradbury contracts after this season and into the future. 
 

We will be able to do the same in 2 seasons if Huff doesn’t show up. 
 

We’ve all seen Hurts be the best player in a Super Bowl in the past decade - not many teams can say that with the QB they’ve paid. Browns, Jags, Giants, even Jets come to mind. Even the Lions, can’t say that. Hurts seems to have a ton of value in culture and team, as well ass showing nice stretches where he takes care of the ball, winning games in crunch time, and being dynamic against a defense. Could he be better, yes, but he’s one of the last people that needs a demotion. 
 

Give me 17/21 for 200 2 TDs and maybe a rushing TD and the highest 3rd/4th and 1 conversion rate in the league. With a super heavy run game and read option threat to keep ball control and control pace. 

32 minutes ago, VaBeach_Eagle said:

I'm not saying that we will, but we could definitely run the table. Divisional games are always games that can go either way, regardless of how good or bad the teams are. So I'm not guaranteeing anything, but looking at what's ahead, the Steelers might be the toughest game. 

Going into Landover against the Redskins might be tough too, but we'll see. 

Looking at the Lions schedule coming up, if they lose to the Packers next week and we beat the mighty Panthers, we're in the #1 seed slot. 

Go Pack, Go! 

They have a ton of big games, our record worst should be the Steelers - they have Packers. Bears who they just eeked out,  Bills, 49ers,  Vikes (week 18 so might be resting). If we get HFA versus Jared Goff I feel very good about our chances. 

16 minutes ago, GoEagles614 said:

They have a ton of big games, our record worst should be the Steelers - they have Packers. Bears who they just eeked out,  Bills, 49ers,  Vikes (week 18 so might be resting). If we get HFA versus Jared Goff I feel very good about our chances. 

I'm not going to get too ahead of things because any of the playoff teams could beat any of the others, but I don't have any 'fear' of any of them. We're capable of beating any team... if they play up to their potential.