8 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Week 1 is always weird, and division games are always tough, so a win is a win. And there were plenty of things to like. But plenty to be concerned about as well, and it's time to say thanks and best of luck to one of our favorites.

Offense

• Overall, the boom or bust nature of the offense simply won't work over the long term. Winning a game, and outgaining the opponent, when we only had 10 first downs and forced zero turnovers...that can't have happened too often in history. But looking at the drives that failed:

  • second drive of game, set back by Jurgens hold and then the 5 yard loss on dumb screen to Lemon

  • 1st drive of 2nd half, -1 yard run and -3 on play to Lemon (theme here)

  • Next 2 drives, sacks and negative runs

• Let's just deal with it now - Landon Dickerson almost personally lost us this game. He is just unplayable, and we need to stop fooling ourselves. He was a warrior in 2024, but he wrecked his body and it's over. With no guaranteed money left after this year, you make him a post June 1 cut (hopefully he retires) and spread the $23.6mm in dead money out over 2 years (save $9mm in 2027, take $15.3mm in 2028). Kendall is a much better option. This is a test for Nick - will he do what needs to be done.

  • I thought, other than the 2 flags, Cam was better than last year and would have looked better if the guy to his left wasn't a turnstile. I'd give him more time

• Sorry @HazletonEagle, but Hurts basically single handedly won us this game on offense. The 3rd and 18 conversion saved the game, and he looked quicker overall. The 1st 2 TD throws were both high level - perfect placement to Goedert, and stood tall against a free rusher (thanks Landon) to hit Wicks. Reminded me of the game against Dallas last opening day when he basically willed the team to a win. To put up a 122 rating and 3 TDs with that OL debacle was unreal. And hopefully he'll get more comfortable going forward. Hurts was the biggest positive on offense by far.

• Hard to judge Barkley when they simply couldn't block. But on the few occasions where he had room, he looked decent. On one early run he basically ran into Smitty and tackled himself...

  • Also, we need to see more Tank

• Smith and Wicks did their jobs, and Goedert...thank God no one wanted to pay him this offseason. The manufactured touches for Lemon are too obvious. Again, Landon being a turnstile makes it hard to know what could have been if Hurts had more time.

Defense/Special Teams

• I "think" the defensive line played well despite the lack of sacks - Daniels was under constant pressure and only completed ~50% if his passes. But...they clearly got gassed in the 4th quarter. Part of that is week 1, it was hot, and Washington dominated TOP. Want to see the snap count analysis, but felt like JC barely came off the field (he was very disruptive). Thought Carter, Davis, Ojomo and Nolan played well, Hunt was a little disappointing given all the TC hype.

• Baun is just absurd. We may need to find a way to keep him after this year.

• Campbell had a bad mistake on a 3rd and long conversion. Otherwise, I thought he looked solid.

• Q and Riq completely shut down the outside receivers. McLaurin was a non factor all game.

• Coop...I think he may have hurt himself early in the game. But, this was a lot like when he played Thielen - shifty vet gives him the business. Diggs was eating him alive. Hopefully it was just a bad week.

• Felt like our kickoff coverage kind of sucked

Again, a win is a win. And I hate to just make it about one player but...Landon Dickerson is done.

Agree with all of that. I really hope they don’t wait with Dickerson. They need to cut their losses and move on and right away.

44 minutes ago, wussbasket said:

Always nice to see preseason champ Ty Robinson get zero defensive snaps.

I think I've upgraded myself to a certified Wicks hater. Outside of those 2 catches where Sainristill decided to not cover him, he was lining up incorrectly, dropping balls, and downright awful at blocking. There is no way this team can run a successful WR screen if you have Smith and Wicks out blocking in front.

I would really like to see Lemon run a route that's more than 5 yards deep. No clue what they are doing with him.

It's my belief that a full season will net a very negative impression of Wicks. He'll put up some numbers here due to a complete lack of other options and lack of attention (Jordan Matthews, Travis Fulgham, Greg Ward, Agholor, others).

But now is not the best time to argue that considering the numbers he put up yesterday. We lose the game without his impact. I was happy to be wrong in week 1 and ideally that will continue. But, sort of like you said, my opinion on him has not pivoted yet.

3 hours ago, NYEagle said:

5. Baun? He's here, he's there, he's everyf'in where Zach Baun, Zach Baun......

Just now, eagle45 said:

It's my belief that a full season will net a very negative impression of Wicks. He'll put up some numbers here due to a complete lack of other options and lack of attention (Jordan Matthews, Travis Fulgham, Greg Ward, Agholor, others).

But now is not the best time to argue that considering the numbers he put up yesterday. We lose the game without his impact. I was happy to be wrong in week 1 and ideally that will continue. But, sort of like you said, my opinion on him has not pivoted yet.

There have been elite level WRs that have actually had drop issues. If his production is enough, the drops will mostly get overlooked/excused.

Yesterday, he showed potential for elite level production. If he was targeted all game long, he could have had 150+ yards.

4 hours ago, Mortimer said:

My bonus pick was correct. Hurts threw three TDs.

You are absolutely right! My bad. I have edited the post to add you.

The back up to Dickerson can’t be that bad, he is unplayable, it’s a blessing we won.

3 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

His usage of hands is like he's playing in boxing gloves. When he bothers to engage, that is. You can surmise from the cut up he's going through the motions out there

11 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Week 1 is always weird, and division games are always tough, so a win is a win. And there were plenty of things to like. But plenty to be concerned about as well, and it's time to say thanks and best of luck to one of our favorites.

Offense

• Overall, the boom or bust nature of the offense simply won't work over the long term. Winning a game, and outgaining the opponent, when we only had 10 first downs and forced zero turnovers...that can't have happened too often in history. But looking at the drives that failed:

  • second drive of game, set back by Jurgens hold and then the 5 yard loss on dumb screen to Lemon

  • 1st drive of 2nd half, -1 yard run and -3 on play to Lemon (theme here)

  • Next 2 drives, sacks and negative runs

• Let's just deal with it now - Landon Dickerson almost personally lost us this game. He is just unplayable, and we need to stop fooling ourselves. He was a warrior in 2024, but he wrecked his body and it's over. With no guaranteed money left after this year, you make him a post June 1 cut (hopefully he retires) and spread the $23.6mm in dead money out over 2 years (save $9mm in 2027, take $15.3mm in 2028). Kendall is a much better option. This is a test for Nick - will he do what needs to be done.

  • I thought, other than the 2 flags, Cam was better than last year and would have looked better if the guy to his left wasn't a turnstile. I'd give him more time

• Sorry @HazletonEagle, but Hurts basically single handedly won us this game on offense. The 3rd and 18 conversion saved the game, and he looked quicker overall. The 1st 2 TD throws were both high level - perfect placement to Goedert, and stood tall against a free rusher (thanks Landon) to hit Wicks. Reminded me of the game against Dallas last opening day when he basically willed the team to a win. To put up a 122 rating and 3 TDs with that OL debacle was unreal. And hopefully he'll get more comfortable going forward. Hurts was the biggest positive on offense by far.

• Hard to judge Barkley when they simply couldn't block. But on the few occasions where he had room, he looked decent. On one early run he basically ran into Smitty and tackled himself...

  • Also, we need to see more Tank

• Smith and Wicks did their jobs, and Goedert...thank God no one wanted to pay him this offseason. The manufactured touches for Lemon are too obvious. Again, Landon being a turnstile makes it hard to know what could have been if Hurts had more time.

Defense/Special Teams

• I "think" the defensive line played well despite the lack of sacks - Daniels was under constant pressure and only completed ~50% if his passes. But...they clearly got gassed in the 4th quarter. Part of that is week 1, it was hot, and Washington dominated TOP. Want to see the snap count analysis, but felt like JC barely came off the field (he was very disruptive). Thought Carter, Davis, Ojomo and Nolan played well, Hunt was a little disappointing given all the TC hype.

• Baun is just absurd. We may need to find a way to keep him after this year.

• Campbell had a bad mistake on a 3rd and long conversion. Otherwise, I thought he looked solid.

• Q and Riq completely shut down the outside receivers. McLaurin was a non factor all game.

• Coop...I think he may have hurt himself early in the game. But, this was a lot like when he played Thielen - shifty vet gives him the business. Diggs was eating him alive. Hopefully it was just a bad week.

• Felt like our kickoff coverage kind of sucked

Again, a win is a win. And I hate to just make it about one player but...Landon Dickerson is done.

Boom of bust, of course, is acceptable in week 1 (especially considering it's a brand new offense). I think we didn't learn a ton about the offense yesterday.

I agree that Hurts pretty much dragged the team to a win on offense. My "negative" caveat to that is that Hurts wasn't running Mannion's offense. Hurts was dragging an under-talented offense, often off script, with a handful of big plays to victory. That's great on Hurts. But with the OL playing the way it did and all the coverage just rolling to Smith...everything we saw that went right on offense was more of a consequence and adaptation than it was design or fit. Hurts rand around for his life and did an incredible job making the best of it.

Ironically, that's kind of what Hurts does best. We all complained that he left meat on the bone when he had all pro-bowl talents at WR, WR, TE, RB, and straight across the OL. And his mediocre pure passing ability probably did fail to maximize that offense. This is not a good OL or a talented offense. They've got an OL that is going to force the QB to break the pocket, a running game that needs the QB's legs to get it going, and only 1-2 reliable reads to telegraph to. This is a perfect offense for Hurts to rescue and make his own plays. It's not exactly a perfect offense and that's not the long-term plan for how to run it...but Hurts played the role of salvage QB yesterday and played it exceptionally well.

37 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

It wasn't just Dickerson, every OL gave up at least one pressure in that game. It was clearly more than just losing individual matchups. I don't think it's cause for alarm yet, but I'll say I'm tucking it away in the back of my mind for down the road that the worst the OL has looked in like 5 years is the first game without Stoutland.

Yep, we'll see how it goes. I think the quality of the OL is declining in general too. No OL position is as good/talented as they were 2 years.

5 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

It's my belief that a full season will net a very negative impression of Wicks. He'll put up some numbers here due to a complete lack of other options and lack of attention (Jordan Matthews, Travis Fulgham, Greg Ward, Agholor, others).

But now is not the best time to argue that considering the numbers he put up yesterday. We lose the game without his impact. I was happy to be wrong in week 1 and ideally that will continue. But, sort of like you said, my opinion on him has not pivoted yet.

My line of thinking has been Smith and Goedert are going to be the top 2 targets for the season. We all know Goedert is going to miss 4-6 games. So who is the 3rd receiver that's going to step up?

I've been down on Wicks all camp and heading into the season. He's has 3 seasons in the NFL on one of the most WR friendly offenses, and he got worse every year to the point of getting phased out. Those you mentioned (Jordan Matthews, Travis Fulgham, Greg Ward, Agholor, others) had stretches, but never became reliable targets.

9 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

I could cut him some slack for the first play as the entire OL and Barkley did a horrible job diagnosing that rush. After that it got pretty bad.

4 hours ago, eagle45 said:

I think the fact that they are losing yards on passes at the LOS says something about the OL and the blocking of skill play. And the fact that Lemon is unusable beyond the LOS right now says something about him.

Here’s a question for you. Does the fact that Wicks was unused from the middle of the Second Quarter onward say something about him?

42 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

It wasn't just Dickerson, every OL gave up at least one pressure in that game. It was clearly more than just losing individual matchups. I don't think it's cause for alarm yet, but I'll say I'm tucking it away in the back of my mind for down the road that the worst the OL has looked in like 5 years is the first game without Stoutland.

FWIW, the OL really was not good last year. Even Mailata wasn't great.

Impressed with Lemon's effort in blocking here.

3 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

Yep, we'll see how it goes. I think the quality of the OL is declining in general too. No OL position is as good/talented as they were 2 years.

Yeah one of the reasons I thought the offense would be bad again this year is in general I didn't think this offense was as talented as a lot of people. The way people would talk, they talked like this is still a top 3 most talented offense in football and it was Patullo's scheme that held them back and I so disagreed with that. For one, they lost AJ. But also it's not 2024 anymore. I don't think you're ever getting that Barkley again, but the biggest drop off is the OL and I just don't think they're close to as good as that anymore. And that's not just Dickerson either.

Priority #1 going forward in future years is rebuilding that thing.

1 minute ago, pgcd3 said:

Impressed with Lemon's effort in blocking here.

Perhaps Makai should be blocking on the WR screens rather than the target.

3 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Has he been used beyond the LOS yet?

Is that because of the user or the usee?

4 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Here’s a question for you. Does the fact that Wicks was unused from the middle of the Second Quarter onward say something about him?

Did the SM forget about him or did the Commanders' defense adjust to what he/the offense was doing? I haven't seen the stills yet of him with the mailbox flag up.

1 hour ago, NOTW said:

In the 2nd half, they targeted Smith and Goedert more. If they would have kept throwing to Wicks, fans would complain why were they forcing it to Wicks and not others. There were big plays to Goedert including a TD, a Smith had a 10 yard then 31 yard pass. So they were clouding Smith, yet they were able to get him the ball for some nice gains. They also tried (and failed) to get the screen game going by passing to Barkley and Lemon.

The OL also blocked poorly so when Hurts got sacked or had to take off to run for a first down, who knows what the plan was or who might have been targeted.

It's week 1. They got the ball in the hands of Wicks, Smith and Goedert, plus some screen attempts to Barkley, Shipley and Lemon. Hurts threw 3 TD passes. They won the game. New OC, new scheme, Mannion never called plays before. New OL, new blocking scheme. A mostly new WR group.

As expected, growing pains. As the weeks go on, defenses will have film on them and make their adjustments, and the Eagles Offense will review their own film to make adjustments to what they're doing and try to improve.

Btw week 1 last year Hurts has less pass yards, no pass TDs, the top receivers were Goedert with 7 catches for 44 yards and Jahon Dotson with 3 catches for 59 yards. AJ Brown had 1 catch for 8 yards, Smith had 3 catches for 16 yards.

No. But they missed AJ Brown.

3 hours ago, UK Eagle said:

My football team over here changed head coaches over the summer and with a new playing style, it's been a bit choppy at times. Early on, some players looked like they were overthinking things and not read/reacting; as time is going on, things are better, but they still have periods in games where you think, WTF are you doing. I suspect what we see in 2 or 3 weeks time on O will be a lot better than we saw last night.

To give some respect to Dickerson, perhaps he's adjusting to a different style of OL play and needs time to get confident in his body and what he's technically doing.

The Philadelphia Union have experienced the same thing this season. They lost their first six games of the season, had the worst record in MLS for the first half of the season, but in their last ten games are 8 wins 2 ties and no losses. And their last three games have been shutouts by a combined score of 12-0. They have improved that worst in the league record into one that has them in the Playoffs.

3 hours ago, eagle45 said:

Daniels is one of the most elusive QB's they'll play all year. The pressure was good, but they did a poor job finishing. Much of that may have been Daniels.

Curious to see if the rush brings home more sacks once they get passed that.

Agreed 100%

Epic hate watch week 1:

• Patriots lose and Maye looks like ass against a real team again

• Rams smoked in Australia

• Justin Herbert exposed...AGAIN

• And LOL Dallas