Thoughts on the game…

• Biggest takeaway from me? Hurts delivered on the deep ball. It’s his "fastball” as a passer. When he hits on those in high leverage moments, he’s the best can be. Was nice to see after a frustrating month.

• Patullo is still bad. Hoping we can land McDaniel as a "senior offensive assistant” after he gets fired.

• I want to see less Saquon for a bit. The iOL is a mess right now, the run calls are predictable. His huge workloads aren’t getting the team anywhere and wearing him down for no reason. Shipley and Bigsby are intriguing backs - use them to their strengths.

• Speaking of the iOL… I never want to see Toth play football again.

• Kickoff return is still terrible. Seems like we either have a bad return or a decent return called back from a penalty on every single one.

• Was great to see Dean playing again. Good run defender, great timing on his rushes, lots of fire on the field. Looked really good to me.

• Mukuba is a limited, massively high variance player. I don’t trust him at all in coverage before the receiver breaks. The lateral quickness isn’t there, and he’s gonna get Moss’d several times per season. People wrongly assume that because he played nickel in college that he was good at it. He really wasn’t. He and CB2 have been the biggest liabilities so far on defense, more than the pass rush.

• My biggest fear? Howie Golden Tates us again, this time for an edge.

57 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

One more thing...I don't think Campbell has been quite as good this year as an off ball LB as the hype would suggest. That's not to say he's been bad or even disappointing, but I'm not seeing anything precociously special to be perfectly honest.

Nakobe Dean was outstanding today and a huge boost for the defense. Given that he is the elder statesmen and immediately played so well, I think it's really hard to put him on the sidelines.

With the imminent and severe need at edge and how downhill explosive Campbell is, I just don't understand why they can't lean into him at edge.

Because he is not very good at edge. He is a LB. Vic gonna have to get creative.

12 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Something I just thought of, giving me some more hope with Hurts

They had the passing game come alive in the 2nd half of the rams game for the comeback win.

He started pretty good the next week, and then got concussed. I insist regardless of not being diagnosed. Things went south. He missed deep balls. He was off the mark, and/or late on his bread and butter short throws to AJ.

The following week he started pretty well again, but then started holding the ball longer, missed deep balls, and was off the mark on his bread and butter short stuff to AJ. I believe he wasnt fully recovered from the concussion, or re-rung his bell at some point in this one.

Today, coming off extended rest, he did not look concussed. Began opening up the passing game in the 2nd half (like in the Rams game) and did just enough to win once again. For the first time in weeks.

So, hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Maybe this offense would by flying already if not for the uncalled late hit that injured him weeks ago. Maybe they are about to take off now, as long as he stays healthy.

Yup, I think he might have been wearing more armor today - not good for the speed, but better for withstanding some hits in the pocket.

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

Going well in Minnesota

I don’t know why pro athletes or celebrities even bother. Use social media to smash and ignore all the stupid ish

1 minute ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I don’t know why pro athletes or celebrities even bother. Use social media to smash and ignore all the stupid ish

Not sure how the positive reinforcement is worth the flip side; of course Twitter is just a news feed to me - a cultural divide.

5 minutes ago, Saltpeter said:

Kickoff return is still terrible. Seems like we either have a bad return or a decent return called back from a penalty on every single one.

I posted about this earlier but it is the most infuriating part of the team to me right now, because it should be the easiest to fix. Field the ball, don’t commit a penalty, and you’re basically guaranteed to start at at least the 25 every time. The penalties that pin the offense inside the 15 are killer. It feels like every other team basically starts at the 35 against us.

a few moments later

I don't get how Bryce Huff sucked so bad here.

1 hour ago, we_gotta_believe said:

One of us used data and facts to back up our arguments and the other one uses feelings. This is true.

During his career Hurts is the best at Intended Air Yards.

• This means he is great at what QBs used to do which is throw the ball down the field.

• Guys like Herbert and Mahomes lately and Purdy throw a ton of line of scrimmage or 3 yard passes.

During his career Hurts is among the best at Completion % Above Expected.

• This means he makes the difficult throws more than almost any other QB

BASIC is season passing yards and passing TD totals. Its Street and Smith lookups from 1984.

There are 3 loser stats pushed hard by morons.

1st is EPA per play. This pretends a football game is about inching the ball towards field goals and touchdowns instead of making the right plays and not making the wrong plays to win the game.

Its OK as a stat in context with everything else but close to useless on its own.

• The best EPA play might be Nick Mullens. He is a god of EPA

QBR and PFF rankings mean as much as someone says here on the boards.

• Both are calculated AFTER the game is over. They already know who won.

• QBR is so pathetic that they keep the formula a secret. ( I can calculate passer rating after every play since its a publicly available formula)

• The Tom Brady of QBR is Charlie Batch.

So Hurts is a first ballot HoF level player in

• record

• playoff record

• SB appearances

• SB win

• SB MVP

• MVP voting (2nd in 2022)

• passer rating (he was 19th, pulling away from Josh Allen last week before today)

• passer rating in the playoffs

• low INT %

• low playoff INT% (he is 6th)

• QB rushing yards

• QB rushing TDs

• playoff completion % (5th all-time) (Foles is #1)

• SB completion % (1st all-time) Hurts is 73.3% Aikman is 70.0 and no one else is 70 or above) - min 40 attempts

• SB rushing TDs (he is 2nd with 4, 1 behind Emmit Smith)

• most rushing yards by a QB in a SB game (he is 1st and 2nd)

• The only 10 rushing 10 passing playoff TD in NFL History. He is 27

• The only player to lead the playoffs in rushing and passing TDs in a playoff year ( 5 and 5 in 2024)

There is a stat called ANY/A that is pretty useful for pocket QBs and QBs in general but it ignores QB runs and rushing TDs.

Hurts is not great at this one since he takes more sacks buying time for big plays but he is still 25th best all-time he is also 25th in the playoffs.

Another next level stat that I started tracking on my own is how QBs do in 1 score games where their defense gives up 23+

This means no cheap wins. You have to earn it, You have to rise to the occasion.

You also get no credit for 2 score wins in high scoring blowouts. so 37-24 would not qualify.

This includes losses like 23-17 or 23-20 and all in all, most QBs are below .500

Hurts is the best I have tracked so far (including 2-0 this year)

• Hurts is 12-5 for .706

• Mahomes is now .641 (since he is 0-2 this year)

• Brady was .573

• Almost everyone else is around .500 or much worse.

• Josh Allen is .385 now

• Burrow is .333

• Only Flacco and Bortles are worse. (of the 40 or so QBs I have checked)

https://www.eaglesmessageboard.com/topic/10129-hate-to-say-it%E2%80%A6-hurts-got-paid-he%E2%80%99s-done/page/80/#findComment-2066873

But yeah, lets pretend you need to be basic to appreciate Hurts.

Huff is suchba big mystery. Only Saleh can make him play? FYI Both him and Sweaty have 5 sacks each :(

lol

This Penix is definitely a guy I’d be very happy to let someone else draft. No idea what the Falcons were thinking.

I beat my Penix too Tirico...

Huff is definitely getting 8 sacks the way he playing.

Bryce Huff is like the Niners best player, he gets pressure on every play and the Eagles had the best defense in the NFL since the legion of boom last season and he barely played. Pretty crazy if you think about it.

Baffling how they couldn't find a way to use him.

So far on the season the Eagles have lost 12.5 sacks worth of players to other teams.

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

lol

This is textbook not a catch. Its the video that should be included for teaching refs.

The 2 refs that thought it was a catch after a review should be fired tomorrow. They are too stupid to be refs.

The ball hit the ground and it came lose in his hands.

Don't let it hit the ground.

If you do let it hit the ground, it can't move. Not at all.

It can't move when it is on the ground and it can't move while you are finishing the catch.

Its very simple. TJ should suck less next time.

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

lol

Wasn’t it in the final 2 minutes of the half?

16 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Bryce Huff is like the Niners best player, he gets pressure on every play and the Eagles had the best defense in the NFL since the legion of boom last season and he barely played. Pretty crazy if you think about it.

Baffling how they couldn't find a way to use him.

So far on the season the Eagles have lost 12.5 sacks worth of players to other teams.

That is what Howie envisioned when he signed Huff. Biggest offseason miostake Howie made was dumping Huff. Rodgers was a FA but Huff was under contract. Vic obviously wanted Huff gone. Vic isn't perfect either.

39 minutes ago, Saltpeter said:

Thoughts on the game…

• Biggest takeaway from me? Hurts delivered on the deep ball. It’s his "fastball” as a passer. When he hits on those in high leverage moments, he’s the best can be. Was nice to see after a frustrating month.

• Patullo is still bad. Hoping we can land McDaniel as a "senior offensive assistant” after he gets fired.

• I want to see less Saquon for a bit. The iOL is a mess right now, the run calls are predictable. His huge workloads aren’t getting the team anywhere and wearing him down for no reason. Shipley and Bigsby are intriguing backs - use them to their strengths.

• Speaking of the iOL… I never want to see Toth play football again.

• Kickoff return is still terrible. Seems like we either have a bad return or a decent return called back from a penalty on every single one.

• Was great to see Dean playing again. Good run defender, great timing on his rushes, lots of fire on the field. Looked really good to me.

• Mukuba is a limited, massively high variance player. I don’t trust him at all in coverage before the receiver breaks. The lateral quickness isn’t there, and he’s gonna get Moss’d several times per season. People wrongly assume that because he played nickel in college that he was good at it. He really wasn’t. He and CB2 have been the biggest liabilities so far on defense, more than the pass rush.

• My biggest fear? Howie Golden Tates us again, this time for an edge.

Good post, agreed on all points.

13 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Bryce Huff is like the Niners best player, he gets pressure on every play and the Eagles had the best defense in the NFL since the legion of boom last season and he barely played. Pretty crazy if you think about it.

Baffling how they couldn't find a way to use him.

So far on the season the Eagles have lost 12.5 sacks worth of players to other teams.

I might be misremembering - but thought in the first quarter of the season, Vic tried to treat him like a starter but he’s not good against run or in coverage so pretty limited schematically. Then BG kind of stepped up and Huff became more of a situational 4pt pass rusher and began looking better as that was the role he had previously with the Jets. Then he got hurt, and subsequently with the emergence of Jalyx got squeezed out. Obviously, the vibes couldn’t be great if Huff was scratched for the SB while BG got in as one of the walking wounded.

16 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Wasn’t it in the final 2 minutes of the half?

I believe it was actually run like the three or four minute mark. But it was definitely not a catch. It hit the ground and he rolled over and didn’t have possession of it.

38 minutes ago, manz2821 said:

Huff is suchba big mystery. Only Saleh can make him play? FYI Both him and Sweaty have 5 sacks each :(

I believe Huff only has 4

53 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

I don't get how Bryce Huff sucked so bad here.

It's the same exact reason that countless other NFL players look drastically worse or better when they go from one team to another, scheme fit or lack there of. Vic wasn't having a guy who is a complete liability in the run game on the field very often, period. If you noticed in the game tonight Huff was rarely out there on the field other than obvious passing situations. I think that was an issue from the jump and then there was a confidence/attitude issue for Huff here and it just went downhill quickly.