10 hours ago, pgcd3 said:

People on this board are generally not young. You all know week 1 doesn’t mean much except in the WL columns. 

Heck the first four games were always a shakeout cruise even when they played four preseason games and starters got a game and a half of preseason PT.

You just can't simulate game speed in the preseason, and everything is so vanilla - which is why Siri focuses on evaluating marginal players and getting the starters into the season healthy.

Now you don't want to start 1-3, but a lot of 2-2 teams had great seasons - AR's teams had a lot of slow starts.

 

What was interesting was Johnson didn't call a lot of RO plays, Hurts was more of a pocket QB who ran on designed runs and scrambles and didn't take a lot of hits. I think that's a deliberate strategy, he can't make it to 30 as a glorified RB, they have to build a more conventional offense around him, but that will require an adjustment period. He's got the arm strength and accuracy to excel as a pocket QB, but it'll take time to tame his running instincts and focus on going through his progressions - but we've seen him do it. However, I think Belichick threw a lot of looks that confused Hurts, especially in the first half. Second half he looked better but wasn't seeing the whole field, ignored too many open receivers locking onto his primary reads - the downside of Brown and Smith - too much confidence that they'll win contested balls.

27 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and TJ Hockenson are on another level from what the Eagles saw yesterday. Somehow, Kenrick Bourne went for 64 and 2 wide open TD's. 

JJ has already gone for 150. Addison had a great TD and 60 yards. Tampa Bay has actual LB so Hockenson wasn't a big factor.

The Eagles need to figure out the middle of the field and FAST or it could be a long Thursday. The obvious answer is they need to make Cousins miserable. Don't let him get comfortable at all. They need a huge game from their DL and pass rushers because there's no way that Cunningham, Evans, Edmunds and Ellis are slowing down anything between the hashes. 

Think they need mix in some cover 3. Dont think we can go single high against their wrs.

overall though i would like to see less zone. Thats whats exposing the LBs. Plan man 2 under or single high. Going to have to take some risks

I'm not one to draw too many conclusions from a single game, especially not the first one. There's a whole season left to be played and the team we see now could be fairly different from the one we'll see in three or four months. That being said, sure seems like some of the concerns discussed in the off season were perfectly valid. 

Back to Gainwell, snap counts are in.

Kenny Gainwell: 41 snaps (62%)
D’Andre Swift: 19 snaps (29%)
Boston Scott: 8 snaps (12%)

I just don't get it.

Zack Cunningham was signed how many weeks ago? He let the front 7 with 70 snaps and we were told he's a 2 down LB. That's not ideal. The next highest was Sweat at 59. 

Justin Evans played 77 of 80. That's a huge workload for a guy who's missed 3 years? I'm still higher on him than most but either he is still working out some injury kinks, or he's just a step late. Edmunds played 10 snaps and you noticed him in a bad way on every one. 

Is it a coincidence that the 3 positions the Eagles show the least value in (RB, S, LB) are the ones that we are all discussing today?

We had the same problem at safety last year, by the end of the year Blankenship was starting, this year, Brown will be starting by November.

I don't think RB is a problem, the run blocking was meh, Gainwell runs fine. A bigger issue is probably learning how to use RBs effectively in the passing game. Something they haven't done under Siri but with Gainwell and Swift, that may change, but it's a timing issue with those swing passes, and hopefully some RB screens.

LB, hope Dean isn't seriously injured. Ellis is OK, Cunningham and Morrow are not.

I would be willing to deal with the learning curve in order to go ahead and get Sidney Brown on the field.

Just rip the band-aid off and get him out there.

15 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Heck the first four games were always a shakeout cruise even when they played four preseason games and starters got a game and a half of preseason PT.

You just can't simulate game speed in the preseason, and everything is so vanilla - which is why Siri focuses on evaluating marginal players and getting the starters into the season healthy.

Now you don't want to start 1-3, but a lot of 2-2 teams had great seasons - AR's teams had a lot of slow starts.

 

What was interesting was Johnson didn't call a lot of RO plays, Hurts was more of a pocket QB who ran on designed runs and scrambles and didn't take a lot of hits. I think that's a deliberate strategy, he can't make it to 30 as a glorified RB, they have to build a more conventional offense around him, but that will require an adjustment period. He's got the arm strength and accuracy to excel as a pocket QB, but it'll take time to tame his running instincts and focus on going through his progressions - but we've seen him do it. However, I think Belichick threw a lot of looks that confused Hurts, especially in the first half. Second half he looked better but wasn't seeing the whole field, ignored too many open receivers locking onto his primary reads - the downside of Brown and Smith - too much confidence that they'll win contested balls.

I'm not worried about Johnson yet.  It was game 1. Hurts hadn't played in the preseason. There was heavy rain early and we got a lead that the weather did make it reasonable to play conservative early. It was hard to get in rhythm later.  I'll certainly give him a few games to grow 

10 hours ago, Iggles25 said:

@Shepard Wong

Tough night to have Saquon and Dimes in fantasy

Worst part is that I couldn’t even enjoy the Giants sucking because it was against the Cowboys.  Just a crap game all around.

24 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

How many worse starting RBs are there in the NFL? Is he so good that he should out-touch Swift 18-2? That’s the reason for angst. 

At least that problem is easily fixable by playing Swift & Penny. LB is a problem with no answers

What? The Cowboys looked like world beaters early in a season?

I don't believe it!!

1 minute ago, Parrot Head said:

What? The Cowboys looked like world beaters early in a season?

I don't believe it!!

September is the best month of the season for Cowboys fans

2 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

September is the best month of the season for Cowboys fans

What's so unbelievable is just how many people fall for it EVERY single year!

15 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

The new NFL streaming app provider abroad absolutely sucks so far week 1. I am about to get pissed off if this continues into the Birds’ game. 

12 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

No, the new international feed is run by DAZN.  I couldn't get things going at first early in the day but the Eagles game was delivered without problem.

It looks like the Eurozone had a lot of issues with DAZN yesterday, but the UK came out of fairly well.  i fell asleep on the Sofa at 9pm so ended watching today with no issues.  But Spain and Germany seemed to have a lot of issues - German's complaining on X is a sight to behold.

As for the game. You don't win a Super Bowl with your result in week 1 (Hi Whiners and Cowboys).  That said, Hurts looks he needs some pre-season snaps just get him into the groove before week 1 - he looked rusty and lost for parts of the game while he got up to speed with things.  Now the Pats are a team with a big point to prove after a bad season last year but Hurts needs to stop exiting the pocket and fumbling - no excuses if it continues. 

The LBs without Dean were an experience. I think Randall Cunningham at 60 is probably more agile than Zach Cunningham. I wouldn't worry about the boot for Dean as it seems to be a thing in more sports science to be risk averse than not.  But certainly highlights the FOs attitude to LB and S

A win is a win.  I expect Thursday to be different, but a learning point for the coaching staff should looking at who you are playing in week 1 and considering pre-season snaps from that.  The Pats D is good, so sticking out a QB with no real snaps in 7 months may not be the smartest move

If fletch is going to be out at all they should have him mentor Carter and Davis. If he sees something during the game let them know so they can improve 

My only thought is that theyre going to rotate the RBs since we have a short week. 

I am a big Gainwell guy, I don't have any issues with him.  The blocking was not very good outside of the first couple of drives.  But Swift is a stud, he needs touches.  And Penny cant rot on the inactive list all season.

Panic is uncalled for.

Concern?  This is a message board where we dissect football.  It’s fair to get into concerns.  It was an ugly performance and there’s plenty of that to discuss.  But the concerns only get legs after week 2.  Some will say even week 2 is premature, but I prefer not to wait until October to have an opinion.

Looking at snap counts:

Watkins 52

Stoll 13

Looks like Johnson responded to the Patriots loading the box with going 3 wide with speed. Not a lot of 2 TE sets.

Cox played 50 snaps, that's way too many, look for that to decline as Carter and Davis become the rotation.

Graham had 21, which makes more sense, Williams played some at DE, use Williams/Barnett on run downs, save the old man for passing downs.

Street and Tuo got 6 snaps each, makes you think Street is potential trade bait (for a LB?).

Just now, eagle45 said:

Panic is uncalled for.

Concern?  This is a message board where we dissect football.  It’s fair to get into concerns.  It was an ugly performance and there’s plenty of that to discuss.  But the concerns only get legs after week 2.  Some will say even week 2 is premature, but I prefer not to wait until October to have an opinion.

I'm from the 4 week school, got taught early when Kotite was 7-2 and whipped the eventual SB champions in SF, then lost 7 in a row. Or something like that.

Then got used to slow starts under AR with the board panicking each season before they'd reel off streaks like 9-1 or so to finish the season.

Now if Lane is struggling in week 5, etc. then I can add some more grey hairs to my collection.

Week 1 is always just so weird.

I'm always just happy to get out with a W.

6 minutes ago, Parrot Head said:

Week 1 is always just so weird.

I'm always just happy to get out with a W.

Looked like pre season game to me and will panic in a few weeks 

An observation I wonder if anyone else has noticed:

Since we lost Javon to the 9ers, nobody in the media can say his name right. And everyone says it differently. It’s really bizarre. I’ve heard Hargraves, Hargreaves, Hargrove…

and now Shannon Sharpe:

Jerome Hargroves. Such a weird and easy thing to continually err when it doesn’t seem to be happening to any other player.

35 minutes ago, Parrot Head said:

What? The Cowboys looked like world beaters early in a season?

I don't believe it!!

They do tend to be a bit premature. Shoot loads early, start smelling themselves, then early playoff exit is the trend.

 

We went on the road and won a game against a HOF coach with three months to prepare.  I'll take the W.

At the beginning of last season there were issues with false starts and OPI.  They went away.

Also, I distinctly remember discussions on this board about how Smith would ask to be traded after no catches week 1.

LB is a concern.  The RB situation will sort itself out.  I trust Hurts.

The decision to keep Evans over Wallace is not looking great right now.

Also, TJ Edwards continues to be a tackling machine. Really dumb to let him walk.