8 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Hurts has done that in the past but it's substantially more this season - by quite a bit. That said, I am beginning to wonder if it is intentional - when McKee played every snap of his was at the 1 second mark - I thought for sure he was going to get called for delay of game at least twice out of 4 snaps.

It’s 100% Patullo. At 1 second the D can spring into action every time.

It’s really weird to have to debate the merits of the worst OC in Eagles history vs the best QB in Eagles history.

Hurts does not put Calcaterra in the game to block.

Hurts does not call cowards draws and runs into the line.

It’s fair to say the OL is worse this year but the D knowing what they are running and when they are snapping the ball is 100% Patullo. To deny this and instead blame Hurts means you are either very clueless or in a cult of Hurts hate.

Like blame Hurts for the Phillies hitting slump in the playoffs while you are at it.

Note: you is plural here and not directed at Ace

2 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

Did anyone ever see a replay of the play where Hurts scrambled and got hit on the sideline? That sure looked like it should have been a personal foul but they never bothered to show it on the broadcast.

100% should have been a penalty. Hurts came up hurting there too.

Just now, Ace Nova said:

For what it's worth - anyone who is still "banged up" including possibly Dickerson/Jurgens shouldn't play, imo - just the 100% healthy starters, imo.

I don't want to sound like a cliche, but everyone always says that there are no 100% healthy starters in week 18. That's why I want to bench everyone.

It's a slippery slope. If Dickerson/Jurgens/Lane don't play...do we really want to put Hurts behind that OL? And why put miles on Barkley just before the playoffs for him to get swallowed up in the backfield? And then why stick the defense out there for what will be a ton of snaps when a 2/5 starting OL just conceeds a ton of 3 and outs?

If they are going to play the starters, then Dickerson/Jurgens and Carter and whomever else is banged up kind of needs to play. Otherwise they'll just get launched into (and quickly out of) the playoffs with a tired team and a lousy taste in their mouth after coming out flat against the crappy Commanders. All in or all out, IMO. And I choose all out.

Hurts audibled a bunch last year. He shifted Saquon’s run direction a bunch.

He had time to do this and an actual OC with solid offensive framework.

2 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

They certainly got too conservative in the 2nd half. I'm going to go back and watch it again but my memory says they should have taken a couple more deep shots to help loosen the Bills secondary up. In any case, the team is sticking with their basic philosophy of leaning on the D and not turning the ball over. Without the dominant running game this year it means we end up in these super tight games where the O can't close and the D has to bail us out time and again. In the end of the day, they aren't changing anything at this point and if they want to move to a more traditional type of passing O at some point they will need to go thru the very risky process (both on the field and with the cap/draft implications) of moving to a new QB.

I think the OL will be better in two weeks once Lane is back and after having a week off for Dickerson and Jurgens. They'll also be able to go back to using Big Fred as the extra lineman in the heavy package instead of having to throw in Calcaterra. They don't have to be great but if they can run just enough to get some first downs it may very well be enough to allow the D to get the job done overall. The only team that I don't think we can keep off the scoreboard is the Rams but we've beaten them 3x in a row so maybe we just have their number.

People give them the benefit of the doubt that it's just them going into a shell, and that philosophy is a problem, but I also think KP can't adjust when the defense makes changes because it's happened in how many games this year? From week one vs Dallas when it happened it's been a problem to the 2nd QT when they played them a 2nd time to last night. They come in with a good plan, teams adjust, KP is lost and goes ultra turtle and they get blanked for a half.

6 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Sometimes it gets called, sometimes it doesn’t. Eagles just did almost the same thing to Dart and didn’t get called.

Hurts does this a lot. He slides late and then tip toes sidelines. He had room to safely and fully step out without inviting contact.

Those two plays aren’t at all the same. In the first one Dart lowers his shoulder to deliver a hit. Completely different. The 2nd one is closer but Dart is still moving forward gaining yardage and tip toeing. Hurts has slowed way down and is clearly going out and is already nearly a full yard out over the boundary before contact.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

I think when you go a full half without completing a pass the refs no longer consider you a QB and treat you as a RB going OOB.

This was in the first half.

1 hour ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

I usually side with the defense on those types of plays because I’m conditioned seeing Mahomes pull his tip-toe on the sideline routine to draw a flag BS. But the fact that they didn’t show a replay tells me that he was clearly out and hit late.

They hardly ever show replays anymore. It's infuriating. But I saw a few replays online and Hurts was definitely still in bounds.

9 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Correct, which is why I'll always maintain Sirianni is a problem and call to move on from him the second there is cause to do so.

He is a clown who gets carried by good coordinators and talented rosters and acts like an idiot at times like after the game last night. I'd dump him on a second for a good offensive mind that is forced to keep Vic. This is the second year of a window he is sinking the team because of hiring bad coaches and being offensively inept himself. They have 11 wins because of Vic not him.

Of course they couldn't put the bears at one. That would make it to easy for us.

Curious to see what happens when Dean’s boo boo heals. I really liked the Dean on run downs and Campbell on passing downs rotation. However Campbell is playing himself into Dean getting a nice contract somewhere else next year. He’s an amazing football player.

7 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Hurts has slowed way down and is clearly going out and is already nearly a full yard out over the boundary before contact.

You're either in bounds or out. I don't care if you're "slowing down" or "clearly have the intention of running out of bounds". If you're still in, then it's fair game by the defense to light you up and they don't have to abide by some gentleman's agreement. If you don't want to get hit, then sacrifice the extra yard or two and take initiative to get out of bounds and out of harm's way. Quarterbacks, specifically Mahomes, have been getting away with this for a while now and it's not fair to defenses. They have every right to blow you up if you're still in bounds and if it was our defense on the other side doing it to Allen, people would feel the same way.

OK, well, had you told me before the season that we'd go into Buffalo and win a meaningful game in week 17, I'd have signed up for it and agreed to be happy no matter how it looked. Patullo is REALLY challenging that theory with the most frustrating, disjointed and conservative play calling...OK, I'm gonna be happy. And there is one massive hopeful sign if this coaching staff can figure it out.

OFFENSE

• Well, we're back to playing one half of football a week I guess. Am I supposed to be against us getting a 2 score lead at the half? This was Tampa and Denver all over again, but we actually scored in the 2nd half in those games. All the progress I hoped KP had made over the last 14 quarters (I thought the play calling was good in LA) went down the tubes in the 2nd half. But it felt like watching 2 completely different teams before and after halftime.

  • 1st half we moved the ball at will after the 1st 2 drives: 1st drive - didn't mind trying a deep shot on 1st down to catch them off guard, but maybe don't run an 8 yard out on 3rd and 10 guys? 2nd drive -- the return of the Will Shipley coward's draw. TD Drive -- nice call on the deep shot to AJ, great call on the TD to DG. 4th drive -- Hurts threw a dime to AJ, and that should have been PI and a touchdown. Also, after missing Smitty on 2nd down, threaded the needle beautifully on 3rd down (best throw of day). 5th drive -- would have liked a TD there, felt like we were a little slow, but at least we got points.

  • 2nd half...oh my. 1st drive of the half, we get a first down with 2 runs, immediately take out Latu and stop running. 2nd drive -- BS overturn on pass to Smitty (was a very nice throw by Hurts) kills drive. 3rd drive -- got ball inside the 1, conservatism actually called for. 4th drive -- hey, let's try running SB into a stacked box over and over again. 5th drive -- run, run, incomplete, punt again. 6th drive -- Smitty has to make that catch. Jalen made 2 good throws to convert, refs jobbed us on one and Smitty dropped the other. But everything was 3rd and long, must pass, no one open.

• Hurts was better than you'd think for only scoring 13 points and passing for only 110. 3 of his 4 best throws were all "incompletions" -- the dime to AJ where they missed PI, the overturned catch to Smitty and the last 3rd down pass that went through Smitty's hands (touch catch, but one that has to be made and ball was only place it could be). The more disappointing thing, and this is play calling, is only 3 carries for 5 yards in those conditions? It's raining cats and dogs, passing is going to be tough, and you don't run the QB at all? If we were worried about injury, then don't play him. Hurts has always been a rhythm passer who excels in empty and tempo -- asking him to move at a sclerotic pace kills everything.

• 26 carries for 82 yards isn't great, especially against a terrible run defense. But...and tell me if you've heard this before...after 11 for 51 in the 1st half, Barkley carried 8 times for 17 yards in the 2nd half (15 of which came on his 1st 2 carries of the second half). So 6 carries for 2 yards after that. Oh, and that's when we decided to take Latu off the field, use Goedert as a lead blocker (huh???) and also try and have Calcaterra block again. The fascination with using 2 TEs who can't block in heavy personnel is...something. Unless Latu was hurt, I have no idea what they were thinking.

  • Now, here's my silver lining. If when Lane comes back, we can go back to using Big Fred as the 6th OL/extra TE. That's what we did to run it well before the bye. Pryor sucks at being the 6th OL. Maybe someone can send an anonymous letter to the Novacare begging for a jumbo set with Fred, Latu and DG as the 3 TEs?

• Rough game for Smitty -- that was a catch, but he had 2 "drops" and one of them really hurt. AJ was good, but thought he could have fought harder on that deep ball where the PI wasn't called and maybe force the refs to throw a flag.

• Cam Jurgens just needs to be benched. I'm actually calling for Brett Toth.

• 3-3 without Lane in meaningful games...guess we have to take that?

DEFENSE

• Jalen Carter...wow. The guy was an absolute monster. His sack was a thing of beauty, and the blocked extra point saved the game. A healthier Carter makes the entire pass rush so much better. Davis was great again, and Ojomo is playing better than Milt at like 5% of the cost.

• Phillips, Hunt and Nolan were all getting consistent pressure. Hunt's big sack on Allen on 3rd down to take them out of FG range was huge. Only complaint is Phillips dove too early trying to catch Allen from behind on Buffalo's last drive. But that whole line had to be exhausted (pass rush disappeared by end of game as they were worn down). Buffalo ended up running 73 plays and having the ball for 35 minutes...

• Jihaad Campbell reminded everyone why we are going to let Dean go this offseason. He's getting better against the run, and his pass defense is amazing. Baun also blanketed Cook on a deep shot. Still so weird to have great corners.

• Q got jobbed twice -- that wasn't PI (certainly if they didn't call Buffalo on the AJ pass), and then the guy didn't catch that bomb (it hit the ground). Coop was Coop, but gotta say that Adoree once again held his own. Having Q on the short side and Adoree on the wide side has saved the secondary. Holding Allen to an 88 QB rating is a hell of an accomplishment.

• Reed had a good game and brought the wood on some hits. Epps is the weak link, but he was fine -- the catch by Cooks on him was just a great play as Epps was there. He was brutally picked on a goal line play too. Epps should stay on the field even if Mukuba recovers.

My personal opinion -- Washington may be looking to take cheap shots after the last game. Give the starters the week off. I'm not afraid of going to Chicago if we have to. This defense needs a rest, and no matter what the offense does, it will be dismissed as being "only Washington."

11 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

Those two plays aren’t at all the same. In the first one Dart lowers his shoulder to deliver a hit. Completely different. The 2nd one is closer but Dart is still moving forward gaining yardage and tip toeing. Hurts has slowed way down and is clearly going out and is already nearly a full yard out over the boundary before contact.

Didn’t mean the first one, that was just included in the tweet because it was quoted

10 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

Go Birds

23 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

It would be very Dan Campbell to beat the Bears in a meaningless game to help us get the 2 seed. It would also be very Eagles to lose to the Commanders to squander it.

I’m only asking this of non-cult members who are aware of the rest of the league and different perspectives.

Think about the Bears perspective. Do you want to risk injury in a divisional revenge game only to lock up the 2 seed for another divisional revenge game? I’m not saying they tank this week but maybe they rest all the banged up guys and playing GreenBay in 2 weeks is not important to them?

The Packers already beat them and only lost on an onsides kick in the other game.

1 minute ago, pgcd3 said:

I mostly agree but we've had some decent starts to games only to turtle later which suggests the original gameplan was OK but the OC can't counterpunch

Their second half statistics kind of allude to this

3rd time this season they’ve been completely shutout for a 2nd half

7th time this season out of 16 games they scored 7 points or less in a half

Eagles have scored 2+ tds in 7 of 16 2nd halves

Going by yardage though 17 weeks

Week 1 (Dallas): 1st: 216 total yards 2nd: 86

Week 2 (KC): 1st: 109 total yards 2nd: 113

Week 3 (Rams): 1st: 28 total yards 2nd: 260

Week 4 (TB): 1st: 201 total yards 2nd: -16 (take safety away it’s still below 25 yards)

Week 5 (Denver): 1st: 199 total yards 2nd: 122

Week 6 (giants): 1st: 224 total yards 2nd: 140

Week 7 (Vikings): 1st: 102 total yards 2nd: 229

Week 8 (giants): 1st: 207 total yards 2nd: 214

Week 10 (GB): 1st: 101 total yards 2nd: 159

Week 11 (lions): 1st: 125 total yards 2nd: 119

Week 12 (Dallas): 1st: 191 total yards 2nd: 108

Week 13 (bears): 1st: 63 total yards 2nd: 234 (deceiving as they had about 100+ yards in garbage time)

Week 14 (chargers): 1st: 153 total yards 2nd: 145 (OT: 52)

Week 15 (raiders): 1st: 204 total yards 2nd: 212

Week 16 (wash): 1st: 179 total yards 2nd: 211

Week 17 (Buffalo): 1st: 179 total yards 2nd: 16

So basically 6 2nd halves with big drop offs (75+ yards). They’ve had some and first halves with better second halves (3) but it’s less. really bears game they had a lot of garbage time yards so that game is kind of deceiving. Really the bigger issue is they’ve played 9 games where they really played well for a half and bad for the other

21 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

You did just open door #2, which is fair. If you fire Sirianni, then you have access to every OC in the NFL to come here as the HC.

They aren't firing Sirriani. That's silly. His results have been historical. There are quite a few OC's who became head coach at the same or even after that are long gone. Even the best of them not named Reid haven't won more than one championship themselves at best. It's an obsession of this board to get the next McVay but those guys are very hard to find and quite frankly this board takes shots at McVay too

5 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

OK, well, had you told me before the season that we'd go into Buffalo and win a meaningful game in week 17, I'd have signed up for it and agreed to be happy no matter how it looked. Patullo is REALLY challenging that theory with the most frustrating, disjointed and conservative play calling...OK, I'm gonna be happy. And there is one massive hopeful sign if this coaching staff can figure it out.

OFFENSE

• Well, we're back to playing one half of football a week I guess. Am I supposed to be against us getting a 2 score lead at the half? This was Tampa and Denver all over again, but we actually scored in the 2nd half in those games. All the progress I hoped KP had made over the last 14 quarters (I thought the play calling was good in LA) went down the tubes in the 2nd half. But it felt like watching 2 completely different teams before and after halftime.

  • 1st half we moved the ball at will after the 1st 2 drives: 1st drive - didn't mind trying a deep shot on 1st down to catch them off guard, but maybe don't run an 8 yard out on 3rd and 10 guys? 2nd drive -- the return of the Will Shipley coward's draw. TD Drive -- nice call on the deep shot to AJ, great call on the TD to DG. 4th drive -- Hurts threw a dime to AJ, and that should have been PI and a touchdown. Also, after missing Smitty on 2nd down, threaded the needle beautifully on 3rd down (best throw of day). 5th drive -- would have liked a TD there, felt like we were a little slow, but at least we got points.

  • 2nd half...oh my. 1st drive of the half, we get a first down with 2 runs, immediately take out Latu and stop running. 2nd drive -- BS overturn on pass to Smitty (was a very nice throw by Hurts) kills drive. 3rd drive -- got ball inside the 1, conservatism actually called for. 4th drive -- hey, let's try running SB into a stacked box over and over again. 5th drive -- run, run, incomplete, punt again. 6th drive -- Smitty has to make that catch. Jalen made 2 good throws to convert, refs jobbed us on one and Smitty dropped the other. But everything was 3rd and long, must pass, no one open.

• Hurts was better than you'd think for only scoring 13 points and passing for only 110. 3 of his 4 best throws were all "incompletions" -- the dime to AJ where they missed PI, the overturned catch to Smitty and the last 3rd down pass that went through Smitty's hands (touch catch, but one that has to be made and ball was only place it could be). The more disappointing thing, and this is play calling, is only 3 carries for 5 yards in those conditions? It's raining cats and dogs, passing is going to be tough, and you don't run the QB at all? If we were worried about injury, then don't play him. Hurts has always been a rhythm passer who excels in empty and tempo -- asking him to move at a sclerotic pace kills everything.

• 26 carries for 82 yards isn't great, especially against a terrible run defense. But...and tell me if you've heard this before...after 11 for 51 in the 1st half, Barkley carried 8 times for 17 yards in the 2nd half (15 of which came on his 1st 2 carries of the second half). So 6 carries for 2 yards after that. Oh, and that's when we decided to take Latu off the field, use Goedert as a lead blocker (huh???) and also try and have Calcaterra block again. The fascination with using 2 TEs who can't block in heavy personnel is...something. Unless Latu was hurt, I have no idea what they were thinking.

  • Now, here's my silver lining. If when Lane comes back, we can go back to using Big Fred as the 6th OL/extra TE. That's what we did to run it well before the bye. Pryor sucks at being the 6th OL. Maybe someone can send an anonymous letter to the Novacare begging for a jumbo set with Fred, Latu and DG as the 3 TEs?

• Rough game for Smitty -- that was a catch, but he had 2 "drops" and one of them really hurt. AJ was good, but thought he could have fought harder on that deep ball where the PI wasn't called and maybe force the refs to throw a flag.

• Cam Jurgens just needs to be benched. I'm actually calling for Brett Toth.

• 3-3 without Lane in meaningful games...guess we have to take that?

DEFENSE

• Jalen Carter...wow. The guy was an absolute monster. His sack was a thing of beauty, and the blocked extra point saved the game. A healthier Carter makes the entire pass rush so much better. Davis was great again, and Ojomo is playing better than Milt at like 5% of the cost.

• Phillips, Hunt and Nolan were all getting consistent pressure. Hunt's big sack on Allen on 3rd down to take them out of FG range was huge. Only complaint is Phillips dove too early trying to catch Allen from behind on Buffalo's last drive. But that whole line had to be exhausted (pass rush disappeared by end of game as they were worn down). Buffalo ended up running 73 plays and having the ball for 35 minutes...

• Jihaad Campbell reminded everyone why we are going to let Dean go this offseason. He's getting better against the run, and his pass defense is amazing. Baun also blanketed Cook on a deep shot. Still so weird to have great corners.

• Q got jobbed twice -- that wasn't PI (certainly if they didn't call Buffalo on the AJ pass), and then the guy didn't catch that bomb (it hit the ground). Coop was Coop, but gotta say that Adoree once again held his own. Having Q on the short side and Adoree on the wide side has saved the secondary. Holding Allen to an 88 QB rating is a hell of an accomplishment.

• Reed had a good game and brought the wood on some hits. Epps is the weak link, but he was fine -- the catch by Cooks on him was just a great play as Epps was there. He was brutally picked on a goal line play too. Epps should stay on the field even if Mukuba recovers.

My personal opinion -- Washington may be looking to take cheap shots after the last game. Give the starters the week off. I'm not afraid of going to Chicago if we have to. This defense needs a rest, and no matter what the offense does, it will be dismissed as being "only Washington."

Do you think the coaching issues are Siri or Patullo? Or just a combo?

2 minutes ago, SkippyX said:

I’m only asking this of non-cult members who are unaware of the rest of the league or different perspectives.

Think about the Bears perspective. Do you want to risk injury in a divisional revenge game only to lock up the 2 seed for another divisional revenge game? I’m not saying they tank this week but maybe they rest all the banged up guys and playing GreenBay in 2 weeks is not important to them?

The Packers already beat them and only lost on an insides kick in the other game.

Yes. They have been a loser organization recently and are on the rise. Even last night in defeat they showed they belonged in the playoff race. You keep doing what you have been doing to get there and keep the momentum going heading into the playoffs.

6 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

You're either in bounds or out. I don't care if you're "slowing down" or "clearly have the intention of running out of bounds". If you're still in, then it's fair game by the defense to light you up and they don't have to abide by some gentleman's agreement. If you don't want to get hit, then sacrifice the extra yard or two and take initiative to get out of bounds and out of harm's way. Quarterbacks, specifically Mahomes, have been getting away with this for a while now and it's not fair to defenses. They have every right to blow you up if you're still in bounds and if it was our defense on the other side doing it to Allen, people would feel the same way.

As I've said now three other times, that's fine if that is how the league wants to set it up and in that case they need to clearly communicate the change. That type of play has been called a penalty when it comes to QBs for at least the last 50 years.

8 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Didn’t mean the first one, that was just included in the tweet because it was quoted

Ok. I think in the end of the day you and I agree 100% that the most important thing is that they call it consistently.

10 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

OK, well, had you told me before the season that we'd go into Buffalo and win a meaningful game in week 17, I'd have signed up for it and agreed to be happy no matter how it looked. Patullo is REALLY challenging that theory with the most frustrating, disjointed and conservative play calling...OK, I'm gonna be happy. And there is one massive hopeful sign if this coaching staff can figure it out.

OFFENSE

• Well, we're back to playing one half of football a week I guess. Am I supposed to be against us getting a 2 score lead at the half? This was Tampa and Denver all over again, but we actually scored in the 2nd half in those games. All the progress I hoped KP had made over the last 14 quarters (I thought the play calling was good in LA) went down the tubes in the 2nd half. But it felt like watching 2 completely different teams before and after halftime.

  • 1st half we moved the ball at will after the 1st 2 drives: 1st drive - didn't mind trying a deep shot on 1st down to catch them off guard, but maybe don't run an 8 yard out on 3rd and 10 guys? 2nd drive -- the return of the Will Shipley coward's draw. TD Drive -- nice call on the deep shot to AJ, great call on the TD to DG. 4th drive -- Hurts threw a dime to AJ, and that should have been PI and a touchdown. Also, after missing Smitty on 2nd down, threaded the needle beautifully on 3rd down (best throw of day). 5th drive -- would have liked a TD there, felt like we were a little slow, but at least we got points.

  • 2nd half...oh my. 1st drive of the half, we get a first down with 2 runs, immediately take out Latu and stop running. 2nd drive -- BS overturn on pass to Smitty (was a very nice throw by Hurts) kills drive. 3rd drive -- got ball inside the 1, conservatism actually called for. 4th drive -- hey, let's try running SB into a stacked box over and over again. 5th drive -- run, run, incomplete, punt again. 6th drive -- Smitty has to make that catch. Jalen made 2 good throws to convert, refs jobbed us on one and Smitty dropped the other. But everything was 3rd and long, must pass, no one open.

• Hurts was better than you'd think for only scoring 13 points and passing for only 110. 3 of his 4 best throws were all "incompletions" -- the dime to AJ where they missed PI, the overturned catch to Smitty and the last 3rd down pass that went through Smitty's hands (touch catch, but one that has to be made and ball was only place it could be). The more disappointing thing, and this is play calling, is only 3 carries for 5 yards in those conditions? It's raining cats and dogs, passing is going to be tough, and you don't run the QB at all? If we were worried about injury, then don't play him. Hurts has always been a rhythm passer who excels in empty and tempo -- asking him to move at a sclerotic pace kills everything.

• 26 carries for 82 yards isn't great, especially against a terrible run defense. But...and tell me if you've heard this before...after 11 for 51 in the 1st half, Barkley carried 8 times for 17 yards in the 2nd half (15 of which came on his 1st 2 carries of the second half). So 6 carries for 2 yards after that. Oh, and that's when we decided to take Latu off the field, use Goedert as a lead blocker (huh???) and also try and have Calcaterra block again. The fascination with using 2 TEs who can't block in heavy personnel is...something. Unless Latu was hurt, I have no idea what they were thinking.

  • Now, here's my silver lining. If when Lane comes back, we can go back to using Big Fred as the 6th OL/extra TE. That's what we did to run it well before the bye. Pryor sucks at being the 6th OL. Maybe someone can send an anonymous letter to the Novacare begging for a jumbo set with Fred, Latu and DG as the 3 TEs?

• Rough game for Smitty -- that was a catch, but he had 2 "drops" and one of them really hurt. AJ was good, but thought he could have fought harder on that deep ball where the PI wasn't called and maybe force the refs to throw a flag.

• Cam Jurgens just needs to be benched. I'm actually calling for Brett Toth.

• 3-3 without Lane in meaningful games...guess we have to take that?

DEFENSE

• Jalen Carter...wow. The guy was an absolute monster. His sack was a thing of beauty, and the blocked extra point saved the game. A healthier Carter makes the entire pass rush so much better. Davis was great again, and Ojomo is playing better than Milt at like 5% of the cost.

• Phillips, Hunt and Nolan were all getting consistent pressure. Hunt's big sack on Allen on 3rd down to take them out of FG range was huge. Only complaint is Phillips dove too early trying to catch Allen from behind on Buffalo's last drive. But that whole line had to be exhausted (pass rush disappeared by end of game as they were worn down). Buffalo ended up running 73 plays and having the ball for 35 minutes...

• Jihaad Campbell reminded everyone why we are going to let Dean go this offseason. He's getting better against the run, and his pass defense is amazing. Baun also blanketed Cook on a deep shot. Still so weird to have great corners.

• Q got jobbed twice -- that wasn't PI (certainly if they didn't call Buffalo on the AJ pass), and then the guy didn't catch that bomb (it hit the ground). Coop was Coop, but gotta say that Adoree once again held his own. Having Q on the short side and Adoree on the wide side has saved the secondary. Holding Allen to an 88 QB rating is a hell of an accomplishment.

• Reed had a good game and brought the wood on some hits. Epps is the weak link, but he was fine -- the catch by Cooks on him was just a great play as Epps was there. He was brutally picked on a goal line play too. Epps should stay on the field even if Mukuba recovers.

My personal opinion -- Washington may be looking to take cheap shots after the last game. Give the starters the week off. I'm not afraid of going to Chicago if we have to. This defense needs a rest, and no matter what the offense does, it will be dismissed as being "only Washington."

If we are going to bench Jurgens then I’m going Kendall. I rather see what Kendall can do and get him experience. I imagine the drop off from Toth to Kendall is not exactly much. Plus i think Kendall has more upside than Toth.