4 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Well, very nice to get back to winning games, and had we lost to Wentz the city may have imploded. There was a lot to like from the passing game and the red zone defense, but still a ton of work to do. And that's the best game Wentz has had for us since tearing his ACL.

• Hurts: that's the best regular season game I have ever seen him play. 3 TDs, over 300 yards, perfect passer rating. When he locks in and gets in a zone, he's basically unstoppable. In that way, he's a little like Foles, who was the streakiest QB I've ever seen. When Foles was on, he was basically Manning/Brady/Montana, but he'd also have long stretches of being off. McNabb was like that as well at times. The use of more under center passing, and of course the play action deep shot to DeVonta...both nice to see. Hell, he even threw over the middle. The 3rd and long conversion to AJ was the play of the game, IMO. But this is how we did things last year when we were strongest -- limited throws, but a high YPA.

• We only had 4 drives in the 2nd half -- TD, missed FG, TD, end of game. So basically the offense was 4/4 in the second half. That's very encouraging. In the 1st half, after the opening TD, we blew a drive thanks to a false start on 3rd and 1 (the pass to Smitty was close on 3rd down, but it was a tough catch). Then we have a -6 yard run to kill our next drive (3 and out), a holding penalty and sack on the drive after that, and then the end of the half. If we could just stop beating ourselves...

• Barkley still has plenty of juice, as evidence by the play where he made a massive spin move and got free instead of getting dropped for a loss. And we ran well on the first drive, but once Cam went out, it was over. Patullo still tries to force these runs up the middle when we clearly are better getting to the edges. The toss play from under center is our best run right now.

• Bigsby should get more carries. And Shipley more on 3rd down -- his blitz pickup looked good.

• I'm sorry, but Jeff Stoutland has to catch some ish at this point for sticking with Toth. I get liking Toth's versatility, but being bad at all 5 OL positions isn't useful. Big Fred is a good backup OT, Pryor is a solid backup G, and they just need to dress Kendall as the backup C or slide Landon over and put Pryor at LG. The entire run game vanished the second Toth came in. He's just not an NFL player.

• AJ and Smitty, what else can I say? They both balled out and just ABUSED Isaiah Rodgers. AJ had a quasi drop on the drive before the half, but other than that, they were basically flawless. I hope Jalen just keeps giving AJ chances deep anytime he is one on one.

• Other than Toth, the OL seemed better this week against a tough defense. The pass protection was very strong.

• Having only 3 edge players healthy (Hunt, Uche and P. Johnson), all of whom are undersized, was a real issue against the run. I'm a little stunned Minny only ran for 89 yards, with only 61 from the backs. Davis, Carter, Ojomo and the LBs did a great job stuffing them inside, but really thought they'd run to the edges more (they had success while doing it). Maybe KOC isn't quite that big a genius.

• Campbell really isn't big enough to play edge on running downs. But having him, Dean and Baun on the field together does make some sense. I think they keep tinkering with 3-3-5 looks where one of Baun or Campbell brings pressure. But don't love him as an edge on 1st downs. Hopefully BG and Nolan coming back makes that less of a need.

• Dean really is great against the run.

• Q was excellent on JJ, and Coop was strong as well. Jackson wasn't terrible before getting hurt, but Ringo...maybe glue the dreads back on.

• Mukuba and the missed tackles are going to cost us a game at some point. I am in favor of him playing and learning, but can someone teach him to tackle please.

• Gipson was an improvement on KR, not sure why Dotson was still at PR. And Shipley can't return KOs.

• Come on Jake...

Great point about the first half drives. Three-and-outs aren't ideal, but a few a game isn't a disaster. If they had been sprinkled through the game, the perception would have been different.

The presence of play-action was a great step in the right direction. Now get Hurts to run the ball more.

1 minute ago, DrPhilly said:

Patullo hasn’t been good but a gimpy LG,C and Steen isn’t the same as the 3 pro bowl guys playing league best iOL last year. Not even close. Eagles probably have the leagues worst push up the middle this year.

Well when you design plays to invite 8-9 in the box and continue to run straight into it that will happen.

Just now, Wentz_Era said:

In a rudimentary way. They’re very balanced when operating well.

What’s happening right now is like what we saw when Castillo was asked to plan around Washburn’s and Bowles conflicting concepts. There is zero complimentary calls.

Sure but don’t underestimate the OL issues. Also, no one runs as much as the Eagles over the last three years. Yes they aim for a balance but very run heavy relative to other teams.

1 hour ago, Wentz_Era said:

I thought you were crazy when you predicted this paper tiger in SF.

My perspective on the 49ers benefits from living in Northern California. The sports radio is very Niners-centric. The Niners equivalent of Merrill Reese is Greg Papa the younger brother of deceased Philadelphia sportscaster Gary Papa.

12 minutes ago, Wentz_Era said:

This team is just far too talented to be so completely inept for such large swathes of games and need hero ball to be productive. They really need to study what they saw yesterday, the creative ways that Addison was schemed open and spread things out. The OL is going to continue to get abused playing in a condensed phone booth.

8 minutes ago, DaBirds said:

I cannot believe the narrative in the media that TJ caught that ball or that the call was somehow controversial. Just ridiculous

Let's concede that for a moment. Give them 4 more points. What's the final score?

Oh, they still lose? Sour grapes and morons go well together.

The OL and Patullo are problems 1A amd 1B. Pick the order.

You could see the difference in how the offense operated with the 5 starters and when Jergens went out. With Jergens, they were getting push and opening holes in the run game. With Toth, getting pushed back with Barkley getting hit in the backfield.

Howie needs to stop screwing around and get an IOL who is at least NFL quality. Toth isn't it.

17 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

IWhen you say RPO, who was the run going to? There's no way that was a RPO. Hurts gets the snap and drops back three steps. I disagree that AJ and Devonta are blocking. They engage but Devonta quickly gets off the block. He is getting into his route without regard to what Hurts is doing. I am glad you agree that it wouldn't have been a TD if he had thrown it to Dotson because the safety would have made the tackle.

Could have been a hurts run. Or a RSO. Brown looks like he cleared a lane up the sideline for Barkley.

Jurgens first play

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Watch IMG_2569 | Streamable

11 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Eagles are a running team with a strategy built around a league best OL.

They became a running team out of necessity. They also have 2 elite, and highly paid WRs and a supposedly top 3 QB. So, they're not just built to be a run team. They became that when they couldnt pass last year.

@vikas83

Shipley has been pretty good on KRs or do you mean you just don’t want him risking injury?

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

They did actually do a pretty good job. I think Hurts got a generous spot on the conversion and it was likely short, but it's almost impossible to tell.

If anything, I think Eagles should hope more teams do that. The Eagles can counter with plays off the Tush Push and now have really only 10 defenders at most, less if the two guys pushing the horizontal guy can't get up and out of their stance. That could be a big play waiting.

That makes a whole lot of sense on a 3rd and 1 tush push ( I wanted to say Brotherly Shove but that name never took hold).

@vikas83

Shipley has been pretty good on KRs or do you mean you just don’t want him risking injury?

1 minute ago, HazletonEagle said:

They became a running team out of necessity. They also have 2 elite, and highly paid WRs and a supposedly top 3 QB. So, they're not just built to be a run team. They became that when they couldnt pass last year.

They ran a ton in ‘22 as well and only left it when Hurts was injured in ‘23. They tried to change that early ‘24 but Hurts turned it over too often and was bad in the pocket.

1 hour ago, HazletonEagle said:

Figured you were just trying to pick out the ones you take issue with and not talking about the majority of the blog who disagree with you and say that Patullo is the main issue. At least you finally manned up and said it. What a puss.

You sound butt hurt HE.

Could you imagine if the members of the looney tunes brigade were still in here? 4for4, DUM, and that other guy who wanted his kid to fight people in the parking lot? This blog would be bonkers right now

Be thankful for the small things in life

1 hour ago, HazletonEagle said:

Brings up a safety issue with that defensive tactic from a different angle. If a player is lined up basically on all fours at the OLs feet, and there are 2 other DL standing up, is that not the definition of high/low? Thats illegal and should be a 15 yard penalty against the defense.

Good point

5 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

@vikas83

Shipley has been pretty good on KRs or do you mean you just don’t want him risking injury?

He can't stay healthy doing it. And the returns have been OK, not great. You have 2 guys on the 53 who are supposed to be KRs -- Gipson and Bigsby. If Bigsby is that bad at it, then find someone else. We need Shipley for 3rd down.

11 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Let's concede that for a moment. Give them 4 more points. What's the final score?

Oh, they still lose? Sour grapes and morons go well together.

Hard to say what happens though. If they counted it as a TD, there are still 3 minutes on the clock with a two minute warning. Instead they kick the FG, waste the 2 minute warning and gave the Eagles the ball with only 1:52

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

He can't stay healthy doing it. And the returns have been OK, not great. You have 2 guys on the 53 who are supposed to be KRs -- Gipson and Bigsby. If Bigsby is that bad at it, then find someone else. We need Shipley for 3rd down.

Yeah that’s what i thought you meant. As for Bigsby, I don’t remember him being effective elsewhere as a KR but maybe I just missed it.

25 minutes ago, Wentz_Era said:

Nah. The #1 problem is patullo. The OL would be fine if he could design anything that works with the established blocking schemes.

Oline might be the root of the problem and the OC hasn't adapted because he's just not a good OC

1 hour ago, HazletonEagle said:

Brings up a safety issue with that defensive tactic from a different angle. If a player is lined up basically on all fours at the OLs feet, and there are 2 other DL standing up, is that not the definition of high/low? Thats illegal and should be a 15 yard penalty against the defense.

Or he gets himself injured, and it becomes the big topic for the next tush push vote

19 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Sure but don’t underestimate the OL issues. Also, no one runs as much as the Eagles over the last three years. Yes they aim for a balance but very run heavy relative to other teams.

I've said a few times in the last month that guard needs to be a target. I'm biased towards wanting MB back that won't happen but if they can get someone the offense may look much better. If they can start running again and sucking up clock the defense won't be as worn out.

5 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Hard to say what happens though. If they counted it as a TD, there are still 3 minutes on the clock with a two minute warning. Instead they kick the FG, waste the 2 minute warning and gave the Eagles the ball with only 1:52

Sure, butterfly effect and all... but the Eagles immediately went down the field and just ran out the clock.. they could have even gotten a FG easily and then the Vikes need to get back into the End zone again, something they struggled with a bunch. And who says the Eagles don't score another TD on that last drive. Maybe Hurts floats the deep ball to AJ a little more since a TD makes the game out of reach and he scores on that play.

Ultimately, it wasn't even a catch. There was clear evidence that the ball was jarred loose by the ground. Incomplete by EVERY definition of a catch. And even with those extra points, that's not proof that they win. it wasn't the last play, it wasn't even the last potential scoring drive, as the Eagles were clearly in FG range at the end. Just a bunch of sour grapes... and morons sucking them up.

Basically, PFT is the one that had been going nuts about the Hockenson non-TD. Florio is a massive Vikings fan, so he won't shut up about it. The rest of the media runs with it.