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Football at Four: Updating Eagles Injury Situation Against 49ers and More · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, Football at four. Jeff Boscher's in the house.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Of course, you can read his stuff at Philly Voice
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: dot com. You can hear him on the Inside the
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Birds podcast, and of course Football at four here on
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the Sports Bass Live ninety seven three ESPN. So, Jeff Buscher,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: first day back at practice, and the Eagles got some
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: good news. I don't know if it means definitive good news,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: but Lane Johnson back at the practice field to Kobe Dean.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We did get a little insight yesterday from Vic Fangio,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: but it looks like Dean and Landon should be Lane
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  Speaker 2: Johnson both at least.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Back at practice.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Are we feeling that they are targeting both of those
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: guys to play on Sunday?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: They're definitely targeting to play.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: I always say sometimes with injuries like a soft tissue
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: injury like a hamstring or even a Liz Frank with
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: what Lane Johnson has dealt with that it's always good
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: to see them back at practice, but you always tomorrow
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Thursday is the big day, well really the morning.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: It's how do they feel the next morning?
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: How did especially with Lane who don't practice in over
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: seven weeks, how does just getting out and practicing today,
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: impact the heel, how does it respond?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Is it sore?
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: When Ni Kobe that's a hamstring, you know, they just
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: have to make sure it doesn't reflare up. But really,
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: with Lane, who's gonna be taking vertical sets in practice?
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: He's gonna be assuming he practiced in full.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: We have to see the report when it comes out,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: but obviously response to your first action and your first
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: impact on that right heel or right foot, I should say,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: for the first time in about two months, is a
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: really big indicator.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously Lane has been out since week eleven,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: so you're going all the way back into like November
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: here that he has not played, and you know, I
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: mean for him to jump right back in there. It
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: is Lane Johnson. He is a little older, but we
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: anticipate that that will be an upgrade. Even though Fred Johnson,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you know, it didn't play terrible in his you know
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: run out there, but it's just different having Lane Johnson
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: out there.
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  Speaker 1: Can they do different things? Do they not do certain
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: things because Lane is or is not out there?
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, there are certain things that you do or
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: can do with Lane as far as not having you know,
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: as long as he's the lane Johnson that plays at
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: an all pro level. When he's out there, they don't
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: have to help him with a tight end on his side,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: don't have to help him with a chipper like a
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: running back chip as much they don't. They can move
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: him around if they want to do a tackle trap play,
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: which they don't do a ton of, but they'll do
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: a little bit. Yeah, there are some I would say,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I don't know. Some people might call the minor differences.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Some people might call them major differences. The ability to
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: get a running back or a tight end with an
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  Speaker 4: immediate release instead of a chip. Some people might say
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: that's a huge difference. It just depends on who you're
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: playing and how well you're executing.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: So I was watching a lot of the game on
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Saturday night, and if you watch Seattle, one of the
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: things they did really well was kind of run the
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: ball to the outside.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I mean they.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Basically kept pitching and kitting the corners. They use their
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: receivers a lot to block. I mean that's something the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Eagles don't do a whole heck of a lot of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: They don't run a lot of stuff just you know,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: pitches and sweep type of stuff.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Is that something though, that they can incorporate.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: So teams tend to do with their strength and their
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: identity is Mike. They can always find things on tape
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: or tells and attack certain areas. And they can obviously
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: see that on tape and think that maybe in their
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: own way of running, right, they can hit the edges.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: So you might see outside the Egles run a lot
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: of outside zone. But to your point, it's not like
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  Speaker 4: a sweep, it's not an under center sweep. Could they
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  Speaker 4: incorporate that a few times?
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  Speaker 3: Sure? I think sometimes.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: People will watch games see that and say that's what
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  Speaker 4: you gotta do, but forget that that's not necessarily the
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: strength of the team doing it right. So the Eagles
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: aren't going to deviate from what they do best or
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: what they think they do best, just because another team
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  Speaker 4: had success a certain way.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And of the things that I was talked about this
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: earlier is, you know, Patola's obviously gotten a lot of heat.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that Siriana gave him a ringing endorsement
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  Speaker 2: today during his press or you know, hey, uh, you know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: he's had a nice he's done a nice job. Hey,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: your hair looks nice. Hey, honey, how's my new shirt.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It's nice.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So, but I will say for Petullo is I think
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  Speaker 2: two big things happen this year that really we're under
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the radar that that change the offense. Maybe when Van
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Sumerin goes down, that's a page out of the playbook
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  Speaker 2: that gets completely ripped out that I think they were
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  Speaker 2: anticipating using him as a full back bore.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And then you lose Johnny Wilson.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: You're blocking wide receiver, and that was a guy that
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  Speaker 2: you know, the two guys that you're just like, eh, whatever,
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  Speaker 2: But those two guys are like the glue guys that
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  Speaker 2: kind of makes certain plays work. And that's a couple
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: of plays in the playbook that are no longer something
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  Speaker 2: they can use. And if you're asking your wide receivers
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  Speaker 2: to block down the field, that's essentially saying, hey, Aj
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and Devonte, can you be a bigger part of the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: offense this week in that capacity?
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  Speaker 1: Probably not something they're all that enthused about.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think there's something to be said
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  Speaker 3: for that.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, I know that their plans
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: for Ben van sumer In interesting that they're playing the
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: forty nine ers here this weekend. Their plans for Ben
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: were to use him as a fullback plus right, a
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  Speaker 4: fullback who can give you who might have also been able.
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  Speaker 3: To return kicks, that's how athletic he was, but who could.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Have given you maybe a few catches here and there,
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  Speaker 4: a few runs, obviously good blocking. And they've used cam
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  Speaker 4: Lotu in that role in my at least as a fullback,
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: not nearly the same way, because it's not the athlete
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: that Ben van Sumerin is. But you're right in that
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  Speaker 4: last year, despite being a team that played a decent
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: amount of twelve, more twelve personnel than most, when they
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: did go to eleven personnel, they would probably they would
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: put Wilson out.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: There six seven times a game and have him block.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: And it's really I called it's it's eleven personnel disguised
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: as twelve personnel, meaning like you got three receivers out there,
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: but you really got like an extra tight end with Wilson,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: and they didn't have that this year. So they probably
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: put kal Katara out on the field more than anybody
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: who's wants to see it, which they may not be
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  Speaker 4: able to do.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I don't want to call it a.
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  Speaker 3: Blessing in disguise. I think that's that's sort of disrespectful.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: But if Calcatara can't play against the Niners because of
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: his injury, because I don't think he was at practice today,
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  Speaker 4: and it forces him to put cam Latsu out there
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: more and as a blocker, they might actually be a
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  Speaker 4: better thing for the run game, because we know that.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Grant Calcatara is not a great blocker himself.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Right, But yeah, there are some missing elements sure that
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  Speaker 4: Kevin Bittulo didn't have this year that other coordinators had
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  Speaker 4: in the past.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Well, and you know, there's two sides of the coin here.
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  Speaker 2: One we're talking about how well Seattle ran the ball
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: and how they did it. You're also facing the team
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  Speaker 2: that has the lowest amount of sacks in the league
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  Speaker 2: and also the lowest pressure rate in the league. They
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: have twenty sacks all season long. You should have time
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to throw the ball, you would think. And it also
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: could set up well to see Jalen Hurts on some
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: quarterback sweeps, some quarterback design runs like it feels like
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  Speaker 2: with you know, the linebacking corps decimated as they are,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: this could be a big Jalen Hurts type of day.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I would not be shocked at all, if you
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: saw a lot of those spread empty formations on third
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: and fourth and short that our design quarterback runs up
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  Speaker 4: the middle, because the Niners have almost no depth at
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: this point at linebacker. And even if they decide to
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: play more like big Nickel to compensate, you know, they
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: might put Upton Stout on the field a lot more.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: He's a really nice rookie nickel corner. But still their
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: size will be an issue and it will give the
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Eagles of image there. But you know, I guess we'll
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: find out, Mike in the in this week and coming weeks,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: if they keep winning, if they were withholding the Jaalen
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Hurts run just for the playoffs or not, or if
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: it's just not as big a part of the game
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  Speaker 4: plan as it used to be.
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  Speaker 2: You know, and you say that, it's like you almost
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: have to think that that is something they want to
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: do more of, right, I mean, it's like crazy to
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  Speaker 2: think that they don't want to implement that more and
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: you understand why they don't. But now, okay, it's for real.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Let's let's make sure that we implement three to five
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  Speaker 2: of these a game.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not of the belief that coaches withhold a
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: whole lot of stuff in the regular season just to
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: save for the playoffs. So it's it to me, I
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: want I undersand it's been a calculated approach to reduce
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: his running, right, But the playoffs, attitudes typically change and
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: there could be times where you see chill and Hurts
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: just run because he sees the opportunity gets.
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  Speaker 3: Down, you hope right where it may not have been
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  Speaker 3: a part of the play call.
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  Speaker 2: Are you of the belief that they wanted to showcase
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Tanner McKee the other day?
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  Speaker 1: Now that I agree.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: With you, I got into this argument this morning with
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: people who are just like, ah, you know, they want
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: to and I'm thinking once the like, it doesn't even
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: make any sense, Like if you thought you could beat
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Washington with your backups once the game is in play
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: at seventeen seventeen, at that point, I think the showcase,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: you know, if you even thought that was part of
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: it is over. You're trying to win that game in
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the best way possible, not hey, let me showcase my
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: guy the game seventeen to seventeen to.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: The fourth quarter. I'm bewildered that people actually think that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: I'm not even sure I understand the concept of it.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: He's a backup and they played backups. That's that's me
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: where Well.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Again, the notion of if he played well, they could
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: get a draft pick for.
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: Him, Well, I mean I think that that's a great
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: consequence or byproduct of him going out there playing well.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: But I don't think Nick Sirianni was under any illusion
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: that they were going he was going to get starter
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: level caliber play of an entire offensive backups. I mean,
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: no coach should think that way. I mean, they're not
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: gonna say that, but they have to know. You got
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Drew Kendall's making his first start. You get Cameron Williams,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: who's basically been out for fourteen weeks of the season,
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: gets on ir you know, gets off I r gets
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: a few practices, and he's out there at right tackle.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Like what, I don't understand what that?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: I mean to me, he wasn't being showcased.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: He was starting because he's a backup and they were
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: starting backups.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: So it's just I agree, is this the kind of
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: game that you would be disappointed that if their offense
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: struggled again? I mean sure, but I'm saying, do you
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: anticipate that San Francisco's scheme and because they're missing a
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: lot of guys on defense.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but they have been all year long, h so
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: and and to be fairer. And I'm not trying to
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: sound like a jerk, but how many times have the
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Eagles played a team that didn't have a great defense
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: and you're like, hey, this is the uh and and
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: and they haven't exploded on those teams. So I expect
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: this to be a defensive struggle. I mean, I think
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: the Eagles will win. I think they'll When I say
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: defensive struggle, you know what I'm saying is I think
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: the Eagles are perfectly capable of blowing out the Niners
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: if things go their way. But what I really think
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: is gonna be is like a twenty three thirteen Tech game.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, well, I'll tell you what.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: If this is one of these playoff runs where they're
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: winning games, but it's like twenty to sixteen and eighteen
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: to fourteen and it's just like you're slothing through, it's
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: gonna be an interesting conversation at the end of the year.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Even if you're winning games with lousy offense. At some
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: point there's gotta be questions asked here, right, Because you're
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: starting to get interesting. You're starting to get some interesting
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: candidates out there.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, I wrote about this on Philly Voice.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: If they I think we look at it differently, I
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: know we look at it differently than they look at it. Right,
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Just just listen, And you brought this to my attention
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: because I'm not really much of a hard knock watcher.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: But then I talk to you and you ask me
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: if I see something that I gotta go back and watch.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: But you listen to Nick Sirianni talking to his coaches
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: and talking to his players. They fundamentally believe with the
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: team that they have had for the last five years
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: go and plus going forward, right that if they run
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: the ball well and get even if they're you know,
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: keep trying, that's their identity, right, run the ball well,
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: play good defense, win the turnover battle, try to get
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: more explosives from the offense, then they will win games.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: And guess what, they won eleven of sixteen games they
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: tried to win this year. So that's sixty nine percent
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: of your games, right, So they are not going to
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: go into the offseason. Even if I wrote this funny
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: on Philly they can win the Super Bowl six to three, right,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: And they're not going to go into the offseason and mean, like,
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: now we need a real play caller.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Now I'm I'm not saying they're not gonna make changes.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: What I'm saying is I don't think fundamentally their mindset
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: is going to change, like we really need to now
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: open this offense up. They're just going to most likely
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: fix the offensive line, like draft more alignment, get better depth,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: get maybe some more blocking tight ends, and go back
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: to trying to be more like what they were last year,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: which is still a moderate passing offense with a very strong,
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: overpowering run game. But you're not getting Kingsbury here, you
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, Like.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And he would be interesting because you know, a guy
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: who has worked with a guy like Kyler Murray, guy's
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: worked with Jayden Daniels and Jade Daniels is not like
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: a guy who's like running all over the place. He
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: kind of, I mean, he does move, but he could
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: throw the ball. And you think that Kingsbury, I would
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: not want him to be my head coach, right, But I.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Shouldn't have used his name, by the way, because he
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: did interview, you know, with with Kellen Moore, a couple
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: of years ago he was a candidate. But what but,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: as every offensive coordinator who has come to the Eagles
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: has found out, is that they are going to run
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: Nick siriy on his offense.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: I'd say I talked about this this morning. Looked at
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Kellen Moore's offense this year, thank you, as opposed to
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: last year.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: He's got no talent.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: He's using Spencer Rattler than a second round pick, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: they have more yards per game than.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: The right And this is why I sort of take
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: the criticism of Kevin Batulo, which is fair, but also
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: with the greatest salt, is because this is the only
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: offensive coordinated Eagles have had in the last since Nick
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Syeri only became head coach who didn't have an overpowering
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: run game.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: This is the only one.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, everybody's judging him harshly, But every single guy,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: including more last year, by week four or five, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: this happened with Stichan in year two, basically said all right,
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna stop trying to do X, Y and Z
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: and just get back to the basics. And unfortunately for Kevin,
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: he hasn't had the basic fundamental that they all.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Had a dominant offensive line, that they can run the
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: ball basically whenever they need to. Jeff Boscher check out
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: more of his stuff at Philly Voice, and don't forget
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: the Inside the Birds podcast Football at four tomorrow, Andrew
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: de Checko's here, Adam Kaplan on Friday, and the Eagles
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: on Sunday right here on ninety seven three ESPN.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Thanks Bosch, you got it man, all right.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: He is back on Monday with a Mosher Monday recap
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the Eagles and the Niners.