Locked In

Posted: October 6th, 2022 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

The Eagles are 4-0 and the last undefeated team in the NFL. This week they’ll be facing the Cardinals, who got off to a 7-0 start last season. A year ago the Cards were the team hearing questions about the Super Bowl and whether their quarterback would be MVP. They fell apart, going 4-6 after the hot start. They got blown out in the wild card round in the playoffs.

The Eagles feel different. This feels like it was built to last. The 2020 Cardinals got off to a 5-2 start before going 3-6 to close out the season. Fading down the stretch wasn’t new to that organization. Last year’s Eagles got off to a 2-5 start before they closed out the season on a 7-3 run. The 4-0 start feels like a continuation of something that began last year.

One of the keys to this year is that the Eagles feel like a complete team. The offense and defense are both highly rated. STs needs work to be sure, but the key parts of the team are playing at a high level. Last year Arizona’s offense was red hot, piling up yards and points. Their defense was opportunistic, but hardly anything special. For the season, they had four games where they held the opponent to less than 400 yards. They only had one game where they held an opponent to less than 10 points.

The Eagles have held the last three opponents to less than 265 yards. They’ve already had two games where the opponent was held to less than 10 points. This isn’t all about Jalen Hurts and the offense. The Eagles defense is off to a terrific start.

The Eagles are really strong up front on both sides of the ball and that is critical. Playing in crappy conditions on Sunday, the Eagles went to their ground game and put up 210 yards on the top run defense in the league. The Eagles OL was dominant. The Jags OL is still in the process of being built. Their RT gave up two strip-sacks in the game. Lane Johnson hasn’t given up a sack in two years.

The front seven has been outstanding. The Eagles lead the NFL in sacks and forced fumbles. They’ve held the last three opponents under 90 yards on the ground. Pressure has led to 4 INTs in the last three weeks, with QBs choosing to throw the ball up for grabs to avoid sacks.

There is no magic to all of this. This is Football 101. Win the line of scrimmage. This would make sense to Knute Rockne, Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi and even Rich Kotite.

Give the coaches plenty of credit. The Eagles are creative on offense and present real problems for defenders.

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Nick Sirianni has an expert knowledge of the NFL passing game. Shane Steichen and Kevin Patullo as well. Jeff Stoutland is the run game guru. He coached in college and then learned a lot from Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson. He’s able to come up with all kinds of problematic run schemes for defenses. And QB coach Brian Johnson was in the college ranks just a couple of years ago. I’m sure he brought some interesting ideas with him. College football is where a lot of great ideas come from. The NFL then steals the good ones.

Jonathan Gannon has answered a lot of questions in the past month. He beat some good QBs and shut down the key weapons for the past three teams. Gannon is mixing up his fronts and coverages. He’s using his personnel wisely. And he’s used blitzing very effectively.

There is a lot to like with the Eagles players and coaches this year.

It takes more than talent and scheme for a team to reach great heights. They need the right mentality, the right attitude. These Eagles have done well in this regard so far. They handled the crowd noise in Detroit. They handled a Monday night game vs the Vikings. They handled the reunion with Carson Wentz. Last week they handled bad weather, injuries and an emotional reunion with Doug Pederson.

What about all the hype and attention? Will that get them? When things are going well, it is easy for players to get distracted and lose a bit of focus. And that’s when bad things can happen.

I don’t think we have to worry about that with Jalen Hurts as the QB and team leader.

At his press conference on Wednesday, Hurts got questions about his appearance on the ManningCast on Monday, among other things. He did not get any questions about the Cardinals. At the end of the PC, Hurts made sure to talk about them.

Hurts is locked in. He is football 24/7/365. If Bill Belichick was a player, he would be Jalen Hurts. That made for a boring appearance on the ManningCast, but it gives you a dedicated QB who will do everything in his power to keep his team focused and playing at a high level.

He’s been this way since college, maybe even going back to high school. This is who Hurts is. He doesn’t have Lamar Jackson’s speed or Josh Allen’s arm or Patrick Mahomes uncanny ability to make any throw imaginable. Hurts does have a locked in focus that helps him maximize every bit of natural talent that he does have.

His drive helped the Eagles reach the postseason a year ago. It will be fun to see just how far it can take this team.

*****

It does really help to have talented, unique players.

*****

Sirianni really focuses on explosive plays and turnovers.

It has to make him happy to know the Eagles lead the league in turnover differential and big plays.

This is what he wants in a team.

http://igglesblitz.com/2022/10/locked-in/

I'm not going to get carried away yet. We look like a really good team with the pieces to contend. We look like the best team in the NFC right now and we have a great chance to go and snag that #1 seed. But things change quickly in the NFL. Lose this week and next and we are 4-2 and suddenly things look very different. 

I'm not going to get carried away yet. We look like a really good team with the pieces to contend. We look like the best team in the NFC right now and we have a great chance to go and snag that #1 seed. But things change quickly in the NFL. Lose this week and next and we are 4-2 and suddenly things look very different.