Why we manage to win...

We are first in RZ offense and are 4th in RZ defense.

We are 8th in turnover margin and first in fewest giveaways.

37 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

I'm still dumbfounded that people are buying the argument that it's hard for refs to call a false start properly so they should ban a certain play. Let's face it Lane has been borderline falsestarting on pass plays for years. If you slow it down there are probably false starts a lot more than they are called everywhere. It's just such a weak argument for banning a play. The irony is that the true way to ban the play is to say you can't aide the ball carrier forward at any point but they don't want to do that because it's tough to officiate

I don’t buy the argument it should be banned because it’s tough to officiate but they really do such a bad job officiating it. I don’t mean the slow-mo replays of a guy jumping a half second early either. The two non-calls last night were really bad.

12 minutes ago, Eagles1960 said:

Carter's agent is Drew Rosenhaus. Eagles won't be getting any bargain price. Would like Blankenship to stay. He is very solid and his worth goes way beyond the stat sheet. They don't have anybody close to replacing him on the present roster. He will get a middle class coantract and I don't want to se the Eagles make the same mistake as they did with Rodgers.

The other was Davis

Apparently the mystery is solved....

In a way, having them making the call sort of makes me feel better about it. Although questionable - showed they still believed in their connection enough to want to make that play. Good for them - hopefully they'll learn that it may have not been the best option in that particular scenario going forward. A 7 yard quick slant or quick out to AJ may have been a better option imo. (Already worked twice during the game).

If AJ caught it then there would be a different tune. Most would say something along the lines of "it worked" instead of blatantly hating the idea to go for it on 4th

After all most say "a win is a win" when it's this ugly

6 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

It's gonna be like the Milton Williams situation. Would love to keep him but won't be able to afford it. Hopefully Campbell levels up to the point where we won't miss him.

Meanwhile, Dean can help us win one more SB this year!

1 minute ago, Mike030270 said:

If AJ caught it then there would be a different tune. Most would say something along the lines of "it worked" instead of blatantly hating the idea to go for it on 4th

After all most say "a win is a win" when it's this ugly

I can’t speak for others but I’d still be crucifying the decision even if they scored a TD there.

15 minutes ago, Eagles1960 said:

Carter's agent is Drew Rosenhaus. Eagles won't be getting any bargain price. Would like Blankenship to stay. He is very solid and his worth goes way beyond the stat sheet. They don't have anybody close to replacing him on the present roster. He will get a middle class coantract and I don't want to se the Eagles make the same mistake as they did with Rodgers.

Guarantee that anyone who is critical of Blankenship (a solid player) and thinks he should walk would complain next season. Howie would have to sign a cheap free agent replacement and the quality would decrease.

We are now 18-28 all time in the regular season against the Packers. We started out 1-17 through 1970. That makes 17-11 since.

We are 3-1 in the post season, including the NFL Championship in 1960.

3 minutes ago, Ace Nova said:

Apparently the mystery is solved....

In a way, having them making the call sort of makes me feel better about it. Although questionable - showed they still believed in their connection enough to want to make that play. Good for them - hopefully they'll learn that it may have not been the best option in that particular scenario going forward. A 7 yard quick slant or quick out to AJ may have been a better option imo. (Already worked twice during the game).

The bad decision isn't the actual play throwing it deep to AJ. The bad decision is running any play, period.

Once the (bad) decision to run a play is made, the throw to AJ is as good as any other option.

It's still not clear whether they were instructed by the coaches to run a play or not.

If they were, the blame goes on the coaches.

If they were told not to run a play by the coaches, then it's on Hurts and Brown.

1 minute ago, NOTW said:

Guarantee that anyone who is critical of Blankenship (a solid player) and thinks he should walk would complain next season. Howie would have to sign a cheap free agent replacement and the quality would decrease.

It sucks having a bunch of young, talented players.

55 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Umm, yeah. Still really a long injury history though…

I just made a long post about the tough decisions coming up.

It might come down to Nolan Smith vs Jaelan Phillips.

Nolan Smith is homegrown first round pick, guys love him and a lot of us view him as a well-liked energizer bunny in the mold of BG. He has tremendous hustle, plays the run like a guy 70 pounds heavier and brings juice with his pass rush. He too is often injured at 6-2 238. The options with Smith are as follows if I'm not mistaken:

-play out his 4th year

-pick up 5th year option with no extension and he plays 2027 at $14 million+

-extend

-trade before May 1

We couldn't have asked for a better first game for Jaelen Phillips. He played 78% of the snaps. He's the starter from day 1 and played the game of his life. 6 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits, 7 pressures and 1 FR. Can we expect that week in and week out? Can he stay healthy? If he plays to that level, he's getting a Josh Sweat contract. His options look to be:

-Extend now (we know the Eagles are anti-extensions during the season)

-sign to a new deal after the season

-let walk, collect comp pick (3rd/4th in 2027)

Nolan Smith is younger 25 in January, Phillips is 27 in May. Smith is homegrown. Both players have had major injuries. Jaelen Phillips has never played as a part of a winning organization with the culture like the Eagles have. He might flourish here. He also might play himself out of the Eagles price range. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out after the season is over.

8 hours ago, Waiting4Someday said:

The defense took another step tonight. The offense is what it is, especially against a good GB defense, but Lane lives to play another day. This is good, time to rest.

When the defense is playing well, while the offense finds its way, you get ugly wins. A lot of times when the offense is playing well while the defense finds its way you get a lot of pretty losses. I'll take the ugly wins.

2 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

When the defense is playing well, while the offense finds its way, you get ugly wins. A lot of times when the offense is playing well while the defense finds its way you get a lot of pretty losses. I'll take the ugly wins.

TBH for football "purists" and "defensive guys" last night's win was much more of a "defensive showdown" in cold weather, windy conditions than an "ugly win" imo.

Hunt would have killed that guy

10 minutes ago, Arsenal79 said:

The bad decision isn't the actual play throwing it deep to AJ. The bad decision is running any play, period.

Once the (bad) decision to run a play is made, the throw to AJ is as good as any other option.

It's still not clear whether they were instructed by the coaches to run a play or not.

If they were, the blame goes on the coaches.

If they were told not to run a play by the coaches, then it's on Hurts and Brown.

Exactly correct, and I think it's clear they were told to run a play

2 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Hunt would have killed that guy

Great reaction by the ref! lol

18 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I don’t buy the argument it should be banned because it’s tough to officiate but they really do such a bad job officiating it. I don’t mean the slow-mo replays of a guy jumping a half second early either. The two non-calls last night were really bad.

Agree, the first two calls that were missed, one against GB, and then the one against PHI were obvious without slo-mo but were just ignored. Officiating in general has regressed, where with the inclusion of newer technology combined with human officiating it should improve year over year, or at a minimum become more consistent.

22 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I don’t buy the argument it should be banned because it’s tough to officiate but they really do such a bad job officiating it. I don’t mean the slow-mo replays of a guy jumping a half second early either. The two non-calls last night were really bad.

Notice that announcers call any play where the QB sneaks it a "tush push" now whenever it promotes their agenda. Even when there is no tush being pushed. Jordan Love did one where his OL was standing up, so not in the Eagles crunched down stance. He took the snap and lunged forward without even being pushed. And they refer to it as a "tush push" and how hard to officiate it is.

Shows that the push itself has nothing to do with how hard it is to officiate and morons just use that as an excuse because they hate how unstoppable the play is.

One thing that was obvious to be last night is as good as Parsons is, he's a full tier below Myles Garrett. I used to think they were 1A and 1B, but Parsons goes through stretches where you don't notice him and Garrett is impacting every play. When you watch full games of both every week you really notice the difference.

As an aside, if Phillips keeps this up, there's no chance Howie is letting him walk at only age 26.

10 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Guarantee that anyone who is critical of Blankenship (a solid player) and thinks he should walk would complain next season. Howie would have to sign a cheap free agent replacement and the quality would decrease.

It's not that simple. Blankenship wants to get paid more than just a solid player. It's why he ditched his agent. He wants to get PAID. The truth of the matter is he's not worth a contract more than what a solid player would get. He's put together a vey solid 4-year career for an UDFA. He's this era's Quinten Mikel. He played much better last year. He hasn't made any glaring mistakes this year, but he also isn't making many big plays. The argument can be made that not giving up big plays is all you can ask for, because we know what the outcome is from a lesser player. I have no problems with Blankenship and it'd be great to keep him here...if the price is right.

It's all part of the puzzle of who fits the Eagles plans and budget. Overpaying for Blankenship just to be solid might take dollars away from brining back another important piece.

He leaves early, but Lane is good at it.

8 hours ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

Another weird one last year was Cincinnati. The score made it look like an easy romp but in that game, our defense never forced a single punt. There were moments in that game that the Bengals seemed to move the ball at will.

I think "40-6" has distorted the memory of what last year was really like.

That Super Bowl was a perfect storm, but even as good as the offense was that game, they weren't even really that dominant in that game. The defense was SO dominant that a slightly above average offensive output turned into a rout, because the Chiefs couldn't do literally anything offensively, so no time came off the clock, and the defense scored 7 points and set the offense up for another easy 7. So that 24-0 halftime score was really a 10-0 halftime score based on the offense and a 14-0 contribution by the defense. The offense wasn't great for long portions of the year last year, but the running game was the constant they could rely on when things weren't going great and one long run could cover a multitude of sins during the game, also because they could just sit on the ball at the end of the game and just end it like a boa constrictor taking down its prey.