DeCamara, Ritchie impressed by running game, but concerned with Hurts

[time2rock]

DeCamara, Ritchie impressed by running game, but concerned with Hurts

The Eagles escaped with another win on Thursday night, beating the Vikings 34-28, but it was far from perfect and the 2-0 Birds have Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie a bit conflicted on how to feel.

"This is so rare for me to say as a talk show host, I honestly, I actually don't know where to start," DeCamara said at the beginning of Friday's 94WIP Morning Show. "On one hand I could say alright they're 2-0 and here are the good things. Like they freakin' ran the ball down the other team's throat. That was amazing and I really appreciate the adjustment. You know, Brian Johnson has taken a lot of heat. I actually think a lot of it is unwarranted...I appreciate the adjustment Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson made saying, 'We're just going to run the ball down the other team's throat.' Guys, the reason they made that adjustment is one of the biggest negatives of last night—Jalen was really bad in the first half...He was a disaster in the first half, a disaster!"

"I think it's very basic where to start," Ritchie said. "48 carries amazing! 259 net yards rushing is incredible, but 48 carries is not amazing when you're doing it because your offense can't function in any way for most of the game doing anything else. Jalen, 2.9 yards per carry, that's not good enough. Defenses are focusing on stopping that pull read and that's an issue. He took too many hits, yes, that's uncomfortable."

Hurts was 18-23 with just 193 yards passing, one touchdown and one interception. Through two games, although both wins, Hurts is averaging just 181.5 yards passing, 36 yards rushing while committing two total turnovers and taking seven total sacks.

"Jalen Hurts, when it is a regular drop back and there is some pressure—I am not going to say an enormous amount of pressure, he bails!" DeCamara said.

https://www.audacy.com/94wip/sports/eagles/philadelphia-eagles-rushing-game-running-jalen-hurts-concern

[UK_EaglesFan89]

He’s not comfortable in the new system but he’ll get it sorted. He’s not played well no question there but he’ll get it together. He works too hard and is too good not to. It’s 2 games.

[Procus]

He's not getting the right coaching.  I think he misses BJ as his QB coach, and Steichen as the OC.  Alex Tanney doesn't seem like he's doing a good job.

[time2rock]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:51 PM, Procus said:

He's not getting the right coaching.  I think he misses BJ as his QB coach, and Steichen as the OC.  Alex Tanney doesn't seem like he's doing a good job.

The offense seems to have lost their creative edge ... it reminds me of when Reich left and the play design / game planning seemed to take a huge hit the next season.  People downplayed the loss of Reich but I always said the tandem of he and Doug together (and Flip too ... I think he was an integral part of those aspects as well and left at the same time Reich did to take an OC job) was what made the whole thing work so well.  Both Reich and Steichen had quite a bit of experience with calling offenses and game planning prior to their hires here (neither Groh nor Johnson did).  It is difficult to lose 1 (or in the case of 2018 ... 2) of those key cogs and expect the offense to keep firing at the same level.  One reason why I was hoping to hire a more experienced OC this time around (felt the same in 2018 - in both situations our window was as wide open as it was going to get so best to maximize our odds of getting back to the big game with the right hire).  

[brkmsn]

I think people get a little too nervous in September. We know this team sacrifices preparation for health status heading into the season. 

All this talk we hear about "finding our identity" is crap. This team found it's identity last year. Johnson was an in-house promotion. He knows last year. He knows this offense. The players just haven't played their best football yet. The O-line was pretty terrible in game 1. Hurts has been playing "uncomfortably." I'm pretty confident we'll see a much better offense in the month of October.

In the game later today, I expect us to attempt to get certain players more involved. I don't like forcing things --- so I hope they stick with what works again if the offense struggles in an area. 

[time2rock]

1 hour ago, brkmsn said:

I think people get a little too nervous in September. We know this team sacrifices preparation for health status heading into the season. 

All this talk we hear about "finding our identity" is crap. This team found it's identity last year. Johnson was an in-house promotion. He knows last year. He knows this offense. The players just haven't played their best football yet. The O-line was pretty terrible in game 1. Hurts has been playing "uncomfortably." I'm pretty confident we'll see a much better offense in the month of October.

In the game later today, I expect us to attempt to get certain players more involved. I don't like forcing things --- so I hope they stick with what works again if the offense struggles in an area. 

It was also just a bizarre beginning of the season.  Playing NE in week 1 and having one of the all time great defensive minded HCs having ample time to game plan and come up with a scheme to try to slow down our potent offense and then really no time to make adjustments and properly game plan for our next opponent since that game was only 4 days later.  I'll be shocked if we don't see a much better game plan and performance tonight since we had 10 days between games to prepare.  I'll be concerned if we still look like poop tonight.  

[PoconoDon]

Hurts isn't seeing the whole field. He's regressed in that he locks in on a guy and if it's not there, he gets panicky and looks to run. A number of times guys were wide open down field and he didn't see them like he's required to. Needs progression work IMO.

[birdman#12]

4 hours ago, PoconoDon said:

Hurts isn't seeing the whole field. He's regressed in that he locks in on a guy and if it's not there, he gets panicky and looks to run. A number of times guys were wide open down field and he didn't see them like he's required to. Needs progression work IMO.

I agree completely.......he simply is too slow on his reads......also, one of his problems since being drafted has been his slow development of anticipating how the play develops. In other words, he has trouble "throwing a receiver open".......he waits until the receiver gets separation....he should be able to to determine if the route will allow a particular receiver to get separation.

[PoconoDon]

36 minutes ago, birdman#12 said:

I agree completely.......he simply is too slow on his reads......also, one of his problems since being drafted has been his slow development of anticipating how the play develops. In other words, he has trouble "throwing a receiver open".......he waits until the receiver gets separation....he should be able to to determine if the route will allow a particular receiver to get separation.

That seems true of late as well. The good news is that all of it is fixable. It just takes time, film work and consistent training reps. Hurts is a workaholic, so as long as the OC keeps pushing him, he'll get back to form and beyond. He's still developing and the one concern I have is that his inexperienced OC is as well and may not truly be in a position to develop Jalen as quickly as the team needs. then again, my concern may be unfounded. Time will tell. 

I just want to see him go through his progressions tonight. Then I'll know he's on the right track.