Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / The DiCecco Daily: Layers To the Eagles' Recent Setbacks
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, what's happened? Everybody? Welcome into another edition of to
- 0:03Speaker 1: check Odaily.
- 0:04Speaker 2: It's Andrew de Checko, Eagles beat reporter for Inside the
- 0:06Speaker 2: Birds dot Com.
- 0:08Speaker 1: And I know that I gave you all a.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Podcast yesterday with my immediate thoughts and reaction to the game.
- 0:14Speaker 2: But after some time to process everything and zoom out
- 0:18Speaker 2: a little bit, I want to sort of talk through
- 0:21Speaker 2: some of the talking points that I've seen, whether it
- 0:25Speaker 2: be on social media or just some of the overarching
- 0:28Speaker 2: topics that surround this team right now, and maybe sort
- 0:32Speaker 2: of reassess some of the different things and some of
- 0:35Speaker 2: my takeaways after having some time to process it, and
- 0:38Speaker 2: we'll get into snap counts and things like that, more
- 0:41Speaker 2: information that we have now to go off of, and
- 0:44Speaker 2: I can kind of try to make sense off of
- 0:46Speaker 2: some of that, and we now have more context to
- 0:50Speaker 2: go off of. But I do want to give some
- 0:53Speaker 2: acknowledgment to some of the players who stood up there
- 0:57Speaker 2: yesterday in the postgame locker room and at the shortcomings
- 1:03Speaker 2: or whatever it was, some of the fallout.
- 1:06Speaker 1: From that game.
- 1:07Speaker 2: And Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Jalen Phillips, Saquon, Jalen Hurts,
- 1:12Speaker 2: of course, Nakobe, Dean, Cam Jurgens, and I'm sure I'm
- 1:17Speaker 2: forgetting some others, but I have a lot of respect
- 1:20Speaker 2: for them being able to stand up there and handle
- 1:24Speaker 2: some tough questions and have to talk about the game there.
- 1:28Speaker 2: And there are others, but those are the ones that
- 1:30Speaker 2: immediately come to mind. And what I can tell you
- 1:33Speaker 2: is that there was a lot of accountability and a
- 1:36Speaker 2: sense of togetherness. I don't get the sense that there
- 1:39Speaker 2: is an unraveling, and that's something that I wanted to
- 1:41Speaker 2: address because I see a lot of that on social media.
- 1:45Speaker 2: In fact, in terms of the offense, a lot of
- 1:47Speaker 2: the offensive players, all the offensive players who spoke defended
- 1:52Speaker 2: Kevin Bittulo and they cited it to execution. If you
- 1:56Speaker 2: go back to various points this season, whether it was
- 2:00Speaker 2: Jay when Hurt, Sakwon Barkley, AJ Brown, the pre eminent
- 2:04Speaker 2: players on this unit, they've all sort of pointed to
- 2:08Speaker 2: executional lapses as to why the offense isn't performing. Now,
- 2:12Speaker 2: there are a lot of layers and a lot of
- 2:14Speaker 2: levels to why the offense isn't performing, and Kevin Patullo
- 2:17Speaker 2: is one of them. And I know that I've been
- 2:20Speaker 2: a little bit more of a defender of Kevin Patulo,
- 2:24Speaker 2: and I understand.
- 2:26Speaker 1: Why there's a lot of frustration.
- 2:27Speaker 2: And when you have an offense that has this much
- 2:31Speaker 2: invested in it and they're not performing to standard, and
- 2:34Speaker 2: it's been a prevailing theme throughout the season, I understand
- 2:37Speaker 2: everyone's going to look at the new face, the new
- 2:40Speaker 2: ingredient of the offense, if you will, and that's Kevin Patullo.
- 2:44Speaker 2: And to be clear, it hasn't been acceptable. And I
- 2:49Speaker 2: know that when the Eagles put together this offense, the
- 2:51Speaker 2: expectations were sky high, and I understand why when you
- 2:55Speaker 2: have players of that caliber and you just saw what
- 2:59Speaker 2: they were able to do last season winning a super
- 3:00Speaker 2: Bowl ten months ago, there's going to be a lot
- 3:03Speaker 2: of frustration. And I understand why Kevin Petullo is going
- 3:06Speaker 2: to be the first person that everyone wants to look to.
- 3:10Speaker 2: And I'm not here to dissuade you from that opinion
- 3:14Speaker 2: at all. I'm just here to provide context and maybe
- 3:18Speaker 2: a little bit of a perspective on why the offense
- 3:21Speaker 2: isn't performing now. The play calling and the sequencing has
- 3:25Speaker 2: been something that you can often look at as an
- 3:30Speaker 2: area of improvement, and it hasn't improved throughout the season.
- 3:34Speaker 2: There's been a lot of times this season where it's
- 3:37Speaker 2: lacked fluidity, It's lacked, you know, setting up plays to
- 3:42Speaker 2: earlier in the game to counter it with something else
- 3:45Speaker 2: and keep defenses on their heels. That is a field thing.
- 3:48Speaker 2: I've said this many times. Play calling is an art,
- 3:50Speaker 2: it's not a science. But to solely blame Kevin Petullo
- 3:55Speaker 2: for the Eagles coming up short offensively, I think is
- 3:59Speaker 2: a little short sighted. Now, he does have a hand
- 4:03Speaker 2: in this, of course he does. He's the play caller.
- 4:05Speaker 2: He oversees everything. It's also important to remember that they
- 4:10Speaker 2: are executing the offense through the vision of Nick Sirianni
- 4:13Speaker 2: and how he wants to do it. These are his principles,
- 4:16Speaker 2: his ideologies, it's his philosophy. Now, there are certain things
- 4:20Speaker 2: from a play calling standpoint that Kevin Petulo could be
- 4:23Speaker 2: doing differently. But let's just look at some of the
- 4:27Speaker 2: some of the other areas in this game. Kevin Petulo
- 4:30Speaker 2: included Jalen Hurts did not play a good a good
- 4:33Speaker 2: game in this and he didn't play a good game
- 4:36Speaker 2: in Dallas either. There are times where the ball needs
- 4:39Speaker 2: to come out faster than it is. There's missed, he's
- 4:43Speaker 2: missing open receivers, and he's you know, look at the
- 4:48Speaker 2: sack that he had in Dallas against Osa Digizua, who
- 4:51Speaker 2: dropped him for thirteen yards on that third and two
- 4:53Speaker 2: late in the game.
- 4:54Speaker 1: You can't do that.
- 4:55Speaker 2: But there are also a lot of moments this season
- 4:58Speaker 2: where I look at you when Hurt's compared to last season,
- 5:01Speaker 2: I think he's made notable strides in his game just
- 5:04Speaker 2: commanding the position. And you look at where he was
- 5:07Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five, and he
- 5:10Speaker 2: has shown immense growth. That's not to say that he
- 5:13Speaker 2: is without imperfections, right, because you look at those games
- 5:17Speaker 2: and there are plays to be made on the field,
- 5:20Speaker 2: missing on DeVante Smith on a third and eight, and
- 5:22Speaker 2: I understand that I'm cherry picking, but you have to
- 5:24Speaker 2: connect on that and that changes the whole complexion of
- 5:27Speaker 2: that drive.
- 5:28Speaker 1: There are miss throws.
- 5:30Speaker 2: Now, it's also important to add context to this because
- 5:33Speaker 2: Caleb Williams did not have a good game either.
- 5:36Speaker 1: The wind was a factor.
- 5:37Speaker 2: I was sitting there in the press box and you
- 5:40Speaker 2: could look at the flags that were in the corner
- 5:41Speaker 2: of the end zone and they were waving furiously and
- 5:44Speaker 2: you could see based on the trajectory of the football
- 5:47Speaker 2: that it almost looks like it hits a wall at times.
- 5:49Speaker 1: And that's for both quarterbacks.
- 5:51Speaker 2: Against the Detroit Lions, Jared Goff had one of his
- 5:54Speaker 2: worst games that I can remember. That's no coincidence. The
- 5:58Speaker 2: wind was a factor in that game in an effect
- 6:00Speaker 2: both quarterbacks. But in ideal conditions like the Dallas Cowboys,
- 6:05Speaker 2: like at AT and T Stadium, I didn't think Jayalen
- 6:07Speaker 2: Hurts had his best performance. That's all baked into why
- 6:12Speaker 2: the offense isn't performing as as it's been you know, intended.
- 6:18Speaker 2: And yes that's Kevin Petulo, Yes that's Jyalen Hurts. The
- 6:21Speaker 2: Eagles aren't able to establish a running game and we
- 6:24Speaker 2: all know that foundationally, that's what they pride themselves on.
- 6:28Speaker 2: That's how they want to move forward and that's their
- 6:32Speaker 2: identity as an offense. And when they're not able to
- 6:34Speaker 2: do that, it puts a spotlight on everything else. There's
- 6:36Speaker 2: too many mas missed assignments, there's executional lapses, there's plays
- 6:43Speaker 2: to be made on the field that are left. There's
- 6:44Speaker 2: also a lot of times during the game where it
- 6:47Speaker 2: lacks flow and cohesiveness, and that can be directly attributed
- 6:50Speaker 2: to Kevin Bittulo. But I look at the play caller
- 6:55Speaker 2: and I know that there's many who would like to
- 6:57Speaker 2: see a change, and I don't know that that's going
- 6:59Speaker 2: to make a world of a difference because the structure
- 7:02Speaker 2: of the offense is going to remain the same. It's
- 7:04Speaker 2: going to be through the vision of how Nick, Sirianni
- 7:07Speaker 2: and jaywhen Hurts intend the offense to run. So there
- 7:10Speaker 2: are certain principles that are going to remain the same. Now,
- 7:12Speaker 2: if you add another play caller, if you change up
- 7:15Speaker 2: those duties, it may create a spark. But you don't
- 7:20Speaker 2: have to look too far back in twenty twenty three
- 7:23Speaker 2: when they change to Matt Patricia from Shawn de Sai. Now,
- 7:26Speaker 2: Matt Patricia is a better defensive mind than Shawn Decai,
- 7:29Speaker 2: But when you're trying to add in some of your
- 7:31Speaker 2: own wrinkles based on a defense and a scheme that's
- 7:36Speaker 2: already been established, right, They've been working on that through
- 7:40Speaker 2: the off season, in the summer and for most of
- 7:42Speaker 2: the season. It's not always It's not going to be
- 7:45Speaker 2: without turbulence, So there are always so many different changes
- 7:50Speaker 2: that you can make at this stage of the game.
- 7:53Speaker 2: Play caller is the most obvious one. You're not going
- 7:55Speaker 2: to swap out personnel or anything like that. But I
- 7:59Speaker 2: main the fact that while it hasn't been the offense
- 8:04Speaker 2: has disappointed and Kevin Patulo Warrant's criticism. There are a
- 8:09Speaker 2: lot of layers to this, and it's a nuanced conversation
- 8:13Speaker 2: and I'm sure we'll revisit it in the offseason. But
- 8:15Speaker 2: Nick Sirianni after the game said that he's not going
- 8:19Speaker 2: to be making a change at play caller, so you
- 8:21Speaker 2: can expect that if there is, if it does happen
- 8:24Speaker 2: to be a change down the line, it won't be
- 8:27Speaker 2: because Nick Sirianni initiated it. So I thought that that
- 8:31Speaker 2: was an important takeaway from that. He did initially say
- 8:34Speaker 2: in his postgame availability that he's going to look at
- 8:36Speaker 2: evaluate everything, and then later on there was a follow
- 8:39Speaker 2: up and he said he won't be making a change
- 8:42Speaker 2: at the play caller position. Now, the Eagles have a
- 8:45Speaker 2: lot of time here to look at all the different
- 8:48Speaker 2: things and how they can maybe go back to the
- 8:51Speaker 2: drawing board and implement some things. But I understand we
- 8:54Speaker 2: just had week thirteen. This is late in the game,
- 8:57Speaker 2: so I understand where the frustrations are. What I can
- 9:00Speaker 2: tell you is from a team standpoint, everyone is they
- 9:06Speaker 2: have a unified message. There's no fracturing, there's no one
- 9:10Speaker 2: pointing fingers, and there's a lot of accountability and that
- 9:14Speaker 2: stems from Nick Sirianni's culture that he's established, and I
- 9:17Speaker 2: believe that there is a trust that they're going to
- 9:19Speaker 2: head things in the right direction. So it was not pretty.
- 9:23Speaker 2: It was an ugly game, probably the worst game this
- 9:27Speaker 2: season from start to finish that the Eagles had.
- 9:30Speaker 1: But that's just some of my thoughts here.
- 9:33Speaker 2: And then you look at from the defensive standpoint, the
- 9:36Speaker 2: Eagles were not able to stop the run for the
- 9:40Speaker 2: and look, Javonte Williams had eighty seven yards against the
- 9:44Speaker 2: previous week in the Cowboys game, but two hundred and
- 9:48Speaker 2: eighty one rushing yards for this defense is something that
- 9:52Speaker 2: is befuddling because they have a lot of talent there.
- 9:55Speaker 2: There's been a lot of times this season where they've
- 9:57Speaker 2: answered the bell and have plugged the run effecttively. But
- 10:01Speaker 2: I don't have concerns about the defense because I have
- 10:04Speaker 2: confidence that Vic Fangio is going to figure it out
- 10:07Speaker 2: that I am as sure. I am sure of and
- 10:09Speaker 2: they have the players and the coaches in the building
- 10:11Speaker 2: to head this in the right direction. So we'll see
- 10:15Speaker 2: how this all looks because they're going to have optimal
- 10:18Speaker 2: conditions there at Sofi Stadium, playing indoors and all of
- 10:22Speaker 2: those things, and so that's going to be another test.
- 10:26Speaker 2: Was it weather related from an offensive perspective, We're going
- 10:30Speaker 2: to learn more about that. Was the Are they able
- 10:33Speaker 2: to rectify some of their shortcomings in terms of teams
- 10:36Speaker 2: being able to run the ball at will like the
- 10:39Speaker 2: Bears just did and like the Cowboys did at times
- 10:43Speaker 2: later in that game.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Well, we're going to learn a lot about.
- 10:45Speaker 2: This team when they reconvene Monday night, December ninth against
- 10:50Speaker 2: the Los Angeles Chargers at SOFI Stadium. But I do
- 10:54Speaker 2: have a lot of confidence in the defense. So if
- 10:55Speaker 2: there is a silver lining from this game, you have
- 10:59Speaker 2: to think that Vangiol will implement drastic measures to ensure
- 11:02Speaker 2: that the running game isn't problematic once again.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Now, if that means him.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Selling out to stop the run, that alleviates, well, I
- 11:11Speaker 2: should say that magnifies the back end, not Jared goff.
- 11:15Speaker 2: But you look at what Justin Herbert can do from
- 11:20Speaker 2: a passing game standpoint, and if he has time, he
- 11:24Speaker 2: can thread the needle. And he has guys like Lad
- 11:27Speaker 2: McConkey that can really cause problems for the back end.
- 11:31Speaker 1: But I do believe that they're going to be able
- 11:32Speaker 1: to fix that. Defensively.
- 11:34Speaker 2: Offensively is another situation altogether, because it seems like they
- 11:39Speaker 2: as a collective are searching for answers, but there's so
- 11:42Speaker 2: much talent there that you have to It's hard to
- 11:45Speaker 2: say you have to assume, but you look at two
- 11:48Speaker 2: games against the Commanders that have the Raiders game coming up,
- 11:51Speaker 2: and I think a lot of that. If you're able
- 11:54Speaker 2: to get some kind of momentum going there, you should
- 11:57Speaker 2: be able to figure it out. But I go back
- 11:59Speaker 2: to what I said when I started the podcast, and
- 12:02Speaker 2: the offense is not performing, it's they deserve a lot
- 12:06Speaker 2: of criticism, and I'm not going to sit here and
- 12:08Speaker 2: try to absolve anyone from blame. And I don't even
- 12:12Speaker 2: like using the word blame. I prefer criticism. But there,
- 12:15Speaker 2: as you can see, there are a lot of layers
- 12:17Speaker 2: as to why it's never just one person. And you know,
- 12:21Speaker 2: I feel like I'm echoing Nick Sirianni and a lot
- 12:23Speaker 2: of the messaging that you've heard this season.
- 12:26Speaker 1: But that's the reality of the situation now.
- 12:30Speaker 2: From the defensive outlook, I did not think that Jayen
- 12:35Speaker 2: Carter had a particularly good game. I look at his
- 12:39Speaker 2: ability against the run, and I thought that there were
- 12:42Speaker 2: too many times where he sort of got washed out.
- 12:44Speaker 2: He wasn't the only one, but I noticed that Byron
- 12:46Speaker 2: Young played a lot of snaps, more than he usually
- 12:49Speaker 2: does by a wide margin. He also wasn't that effective.
- 12:53Speaker 2: The misdirection was certainly problematic, and you saw what they
- 12:56Speaker 2: were able to do and getting the defensive line to
- 12:59Speaker 2: play laterally and then getting them off balance and taking
- 13:02Speaker 2: advantage of that. I thought Darnell Wright, their tackle, had
- 13:05Speaker 2: a tremendous game from the Chicago Bears, and it was
- 13:09Speaker 2: very uncharacteristic because the Eagles want to be the Bullys,
- 13:12Speaker 2: and they largely are almost every game. That's their identity.
- 13:16Speaker 2: They are the enforcers. They plug the run, and they
- 13:20Speaker 2: set the tone from a physical standpoint. But they got
- 13:23Speaker 2: away from that and I think a lot. I mean,
- 13:26Speaker 2: they play eighty seven snaps in this game, and I'm
- 13:28Speaker 2: not trying to absolve them of any criticism because you
- 13:33Speaker 2: can't allow a team to run for two hundred and
- 13:35Speaker 2: eighty one yards. But when you have as many three
- 13:38Speaker 2: and outs as the Eagles have offensively, it's a quick turnaround.
- 13:43Speaker 2: But I do want to read some of the quotes
- 13:45Speaker 2: from some of the defensive players on the Eagles, and
- 13:51Speaker 2: I think we'll start with Jayalen Carter, who said, I
- 13:54Speaker 2: blame myself on that.
- 13:55Speaker 1: Speaking about the running game, it was.
- 13:57Speaker 2: Some runs out there, I got drove back or I
- 13:59Speaker 2: wasn't making no effect on the play.
- 14:00Speaker 1: They started.
- 14:01Speaker 2: They kind of started making an adjustment and started seeing
- 14:03Speaker 2: who was playing on first and second down and then
- 14:06Speaker 2: third down, and we just went from there. And then
- 14:08Speaker 2: when he was asked, you know, from your vantage point,
- 14:12Speaker 2: what went wrong, and he said, and he was just
- 14:14Speaker 2: speaking about himself here, that's important. He said, getting drove
- 14:17Speaker 2: off the ball, that's it. And I thought this comment
- 14:23Speaker 2: that he made was interesting because let's not forget that
- 14:25Speaker 2: their center Drew Dolman was with the Atlanta Falcons, and
- 14:30Speaker 2: the Eagles played the.
- 14:31Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons last season.
- 14:32Speaker 2: I think it was Week two and Jay, when Carter said,
- 14:35Speaker 2: it kind of felt like the Atlanta game. We played
- 14:37Speaker 2: the centers from Atlanta. Well, he played in Atlanta at
- 14:40Speaker 2: the time, and he probably put in a word or
- 14:42Speaker 2: two which it felt like that when I was playing
- 14:46Speaker 2: some of the runs talking about the running game from
- 14:49Speaker 2: Chicago a lot of outside zones, it felt like that
- 14:52Speaker 2: was the game plan.
- 14:53Speaker 1: They executed it, and that's all it was in terms
- 14:57Speaker 1: of what it could.
- 14:59Speaker 2: How do you get back on the horse and flip
- 15:01Speaker 2: this and turn the page and get right for the
- 15:04Speaker 2: Monday night game ahead. He says, when we come back
- 15:07Speaker 2: in and we start that lift, that's the first thing
- 15:09Speaker 2: we're going to have as a lift, and just go
- 15:11Speaker 2: in there and make sure everybody's there on time, everybody's working,
- 15:14Speaker 2: and we go and go out there and restart the week.
- 15:16Speaker 2: These are quotes that I transcribe from jaywen Carter and
- 15:19Speaker 2: his post game availability. He also said that or no,
- 15:23Speaker 2: this will be jaywhen Phillips now, he said, I think
- 15:25Speaker 2: that's schematically improvements we need to work on when it
- 15:28Speaker 2: comes to technique and playing certain schemes with a lot
- 15:30Speaker 2: of stretch and cutbacks and different things like that. And
- 15:33Speaker 2: so we just need to be fundamentally sound in our
- 15:35Speaker 2: gaps when asked about how those schemes, those run designs
- 15:41Speaker 2: that the Bears implemented to perfection, how that impacts defenders.
- 15:46Speaker 1: He said, you just got to read with your eyes.
- 15:47Speaker 2: That's kind of the point with misdirection is to confuse you,
- 15:50Speaker 2: and if your eyes aren't good, they're going to catch
- 15:52Speaker 2: you a step off, and good backs like that are
- 15:54Speaker 2: going to capitalize on that.
- 15:55Speaker 1: So I thought they did a good job and we
- 15:57Speaker 1: didn't do enough.
- 16:01Speaker 2: Talked about how the the I guess time of possession
- 16:06Speaker 2: was there was a big discrepancy there and how that
- 16:10Speaker 2: may be impact the defense. It wasn't just jaylen Phillips,
- 16:13Speaker 2: the Kobe Dean Again. Accountability. Jaylen Phillips said, that's on us.
- 16:17Speaker 2: At the end of the day. When they're running the
- 16:19Speaker 2: ball like that, the clock's going to be winding and
- 16:20Speaker 2: they're gonna have possession of the ball for a long time.
- 16:23Speaker 2: So ultimately we got to do better getting them off
- 16:25Speaker 2: the field, getting turnovers and things of that nature.
- 16:29Speaker 1: Again, accountability across the board.
- 16:32Speaker 2: This team has never once not been accountable, win, lose
- 16:37Speaker 2: or draw, and I think that that speaks to the
- 16:41Speaker 2: togetherness and the unified messaging in that locker room so
- 16:45Speaker 2: again another silver lining from that game.
- 16:47Speaker 1: There wasn't many. There wasn't many.
- 16:49Speaker 2: But again in the aftermath of this game, I feel
- 16:52Speaker 2: it's important to add context to that game that everybody
- 16:55Speaker 2: just saw, and I'm sure you all have a lot
- 16:57Speaker 2: of questions about. Okay, so let's get to the snap outs.
- 17:02Speaker 2: The Eagles played fifty four offensive snaps. Fred Johnson, Jordan
- 17:06Speaker 2: my lot of Landon Dickerson, Tyler Steen, Jalen Hurts, and
- 17:09Speaker 2: Cam Jurgens played all all fifty four snaps. And there
- 17:16Speaker 2: I got some questions when I posted the snap counts
- 17:18Speaker 2: because Tank Bigsby had one snap in the game, no carries.
- 17:23Speaker 2: Will Shipley had four snaps in the game, had the
- 17:26Speaker 2: one reception I think it was for eleven yards. But
- 17:29Speaker 2: aside from that, you didn't see the Tank Bigsby in
- 17:33Speaker 2: the backfield. You didn't see any carries there, and the
- 17:36Speaker 2: sample size has been small, but he has created a
- 17:38Speaker 2: spark when he's gotten some carries, So that is curious
- 17:41Speaker 2: that he wasn't implemented into the game plan, especially when
- 17:45Speaker 2: he's been productive, when he's gotten his opportunities. So even
- 17:49Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley to that point, and this is sort of
- 17:51Speaker 2: me trying to rationalize he always had thirteen carries for
- 17:54Speaker 2: fifty six yards and by the way, Sakwon Barker in
- 17:57Speaker 2: that fifteen yard run that looked like this Akwon Barkley
- 18:00Speaker 2: of old. Now last season he probably takes that to
- 18:02Speaker 2: the house. But I also maintained that to me, Saquon
- 18:06Speaker 2: Barkley looks like the same guy. The difference is they're
- 18:09Speaker 2: not getting as much push up front. And yes, there
- 18:12Speaker 2: are times where Saquon Barkley appears to be pressing and
- 18:15Speaker 2: not necessarily hitting the hole with authority or maybe doing
- 18:18Speaker 2: a trying to hit the home run and create yards
- 18:21Speaker 2: that were so easy to come by last season. And
- 18:25Speaker 2: I understand there's probably a little frustration there, but that
- 18:29Speaker 2: I mean, Saquon Barkley to me, doesn't look like a
- 18:31Speaker 2: player who lost this step. They're just like we talk
- 18:34Speaker 2: about the offense and how you can't point the finger
- 18:36Speaker 2: at one person. I think that it's easy to look
- 18:39Speaker 2: at Saquon and wonder if the four hundred and eighty
- 18:41Speaker 2: two touches had an impact on him.
- 18:43Speaker 1: I don't believe that it did.
- 18:44Speaker 2: I think it had more of an impact on the
- 18:46Speaker 2: offensive line because of the attrition that comes with that
- 18:49Speaker 2: style of play. I don't think we talked enough about
- 18:52Speaker 2: that in the offseason. A lot was made about Saquon Barkley,
- 18:55Speaker 2: but the offensive line hasn't been able to generate a
- 18:59Speaker 2: lot of push up front. That's another area that you
- 19:02Speaker 2: look at when the offense isn't producing fundamentally, I should say, foundationally,
- 19:07Speaker 2: that's what they want to do, and they're not able
- 19:09Speaker 2: to do that, which puts a spotlight on everything else.
- 19:11Speaker 2: And when you have a historic season like Saquon Barkley
- 19:14Speaker 2: had last year, it masks a lot of the other
- 19:17Speaker 2: things that maybe got swept under the rug or overlooked,
- 19:20Speaker 2: and now you're seeing them sort of surface and come
- 19:22Speaker 2: to light. From a defensive perspective, they played eighty seven snaps.
- 19:28Speaker 2: Cooper Dejen Reid, Blanket Ship, Zach Bond, Quinyon Mitchell played
- 19:32Speaker 2: all eighty seven snaps one hundred percent. Sydney Brown played
- 19:36Speaker 2: eighty five snaps ninety eight percent. Nikobe Dean played eighty
- 19:40Speaker 2: two snaps ninety four percent. I mentioned Byron Young and
- 19:45Speaker 2: he played thirty eight snaps forty four percent of the
- 19:49Speaker 2: defensive total, and from an edge rusher standpoint, Jalen Phillips
- 19:53Speaker 2: played sixty seven, jayalox Hunt played sixty one, and Nolan
- 19:57Speaker 2: Smith played thirty four. That's thirty nine percent. Brandon Graham
- 20:01Speaker 2: played six snaps seven percent. No defensive snaps for linebacker
- 20:06Speaker 2: Jahid Campbell, who played just six on special teams. Now,
- 20:10Speaker 2: Jahad Campbell against the Cowboys played as season low eleven snaps.
- 20:15Speaker 2: This is the first time all season that he hasn't
- 20:17Speaker 2: played any defensive snaps. And you look at what Nikobe
- 20:20Speaker 2: Dean played eighty two, it's kind of hard to First
- 20:25Speaker 2: of all, it's hard to take a player off the
- 20:28Speaker 2: field who's been playing solid football and when the Bears
- 20:31Speaker 2: are playing a implementing a run heavy approach that's the
- 20:36Speaker 2: Kobe Dean's wheelhouse. And adding someone onto the field like
- 20:39Speaker 2: Jahid Campbell as well as he's played this season, that's
- 20:42Speaker 2: not going to alleviate anything that maybe adds something that
- 20:48Speaker 2: the Bears can capitalize on. He's a young player. He's
- 20:51Speaker 2: made notable strides every week, as I've been really adamant about.
- 20:55Speaker 2: But Vic Vangio himself said, it's hard to take the
- 20:57Speaker 2: Kobe Dan off the field when he's playing well. But
- 21:00Speaker 2: I have to think that there's a way that you
- 21:03Speaker 2: can balance it a little bit and get you hot
- 21:05Speaker 2: Campbell on the field, because he is a player that
- 21:09Speaker 2: has tremendous athleticism. He's very good at roaming sideline to sideline,
- 21:15Speaker 2: He's a longer player, he's good in coverage. The Bears
- 21:18Speaker 2: didn't have a productive day throwing the football, but I'm
- 21:22Speaker 2: curious to see if this changes a little bit when
- 21:24Speaker 2: the Eagles reconvene next Monday night in La because Jahat
- 21:30Speaker 2: Campbell is a fantastic football player. He's having a good season.
- 21:34Speaker 2: But as I mentioned before, Vic Fanjou doesn't traditionally rotate linebackers,
- 21:39Speaker 2: and so it's kind of hard to see how he
- 21:41Speaker 2: figures into the equation. I thought it was notable when
- 21:44Speaker 2: he was on the opening kickoff, and obviously as the
- 21:48Speaker 2: game played out, I started wondering. I was like, I
- 21:50Speaker 2: don't believe that I saw Jahat Campbell in any snaps.
- 21:54Speaker 2: And then the snapshare comes out, the snap total comes
- 21:57Speaker 2: out Friday morning or Saturday morning, and it adds a
- 22:01Speaker 2: little clarity to the situation. But I really am interested
- 22:05Speaker 2: to hear what Vic Vangel has to say about that.
- 22:07Speaker 2: I imagine it's going to be something similar to what
- 22:09Speaker 2: he said the week before, but in a game against
- 22:14Speaker 2: the Chargers, who will throw the football, that to me
- 22:17Speaker 2: seems like there's going to be opportunities for Jahad Campbell
- 22:19Speaker 2: to get on the field. So those are just some
- 22:22Speaker 2: of my thoughts the day after the game, trying to
- 22:26Speaker 2: add context to the situation. And I understand that there's
- 22:30Speaker 2: a lot of frustration out there, but I hope that
- 22:33Speaker 2: maybe this brings a little perspective. I understand why everyone's
- 22:38Speaker 2: frustrated right now, but just me covering the team and
- 22:42Speaker 2: every day as I do, I felt that I need
- 22:45Speaker 2: to do another podcast the day after when we have
- 22:48Speaker 2: more information to go off of. Maybe some of the
- 22:50Speaker 2: quotes that I just read for you gives you a
- 22:53Speaker 2: different advantage point and how to look at things. And
- 22:56Speaker 2: the Eagles have now an extended, you know, a mini
- 23:00Speaker 2: to go back to the drawing board and maybe try
- 23:02Speaker 2: to get some things rectified against a Chargers team that
- 23:06Speaker 2: they can move the football offensively. But I do believe
- 23:09Speaker 2: that the Eagles are going to get things right, or
- 23:11Speaker 2: at least have a field and offense that is more
- 23:15Speaker 2: reminiscent to maybe what you saw against the Vikings.
- 23:19Speaker 1: Let's say where I thought that they did some good things.
- 23:21Speaker 2: They weren't great, but they did some good things, and
- 23:24Speaker 2: Jalen hurts, I think it is going to be positioned
- 23:27Speaker 2: to have a good game again in optimal conditions. You
- 23:30Speaker 2: saw what they were able to do against the Dallas
- 23:31Speaker 2: Cowboys in AT and T Stadium to start the game.
- 23:34Speaker 1: But now it becomes can they put that together for
- 23:36Speaker 1: four quarters?
- 23:38Speaker 2: And I know that the topic of conversation over the
- 23:41Speaker 2: next week or so is going to continue to be
- 23:43Speaker 2: the offensive coordinator. But as I continue to say, yes,
- 23:47Speaker 2: he has a piece of the pie, but I outlined
- 23:50Speaker 2: other areas that should also be discussed a little bit more.
- 23:53Speaker 2: But I understand that he's going to be the topic
- 23:55Speaker 2: of conversation. The offense needs to be able to pick
- 23:58Speaker 2: up the tab and they these are things that have
- 24:01Speaker 2: been discussed throughout the season. Eventually, the defense who has
- 24:05Speaker 2: won them games and has had some really gutsy performances
- 24:09Speaker 2: on a day when they're not playing their best, on
- 24:11Speaker 2: the day when they're on the ropes a little bit,
- 24:13Speaker 2: that the onus falls on the offense to get them
- 24:15Speaker 2: out of that. And they did it, and they weren't
- 24:18Speaker 2: good enough on Friday. But for me, I don't view
- 24:25Speaker 2: this as a team that's teetering on the brinker of anything.
- 24:28Speaker 2: I think that they're going to get this right now.
- 24:31Speaker 2: I think the offense is going to kind of look
- 24:33Speaker 2: more or less what it's looked like all season long.
- 24:35Speaker 2: But I do believe they'll be able to move the
- 24:36Speaker 2: football and sustain drives. It may be a little sporadic,
- 24:40Speaker 2: as it's been all season, but I don't think that
- 24:42Speaker 2: you're going to see it look like it did Friday
- 24:45Speaker 2: against the Bears. I just don't think that that's going
- 24:48Speaker 2: to be possible. And I felt it necessary to emphasize
- 24:53Speaker 2: that the weather played a part in this. There were
- 24:56Speaker 2: there were throws in there that Jay when hurts usually
- 24:58Speaker 2: makes that wasn't the case. There are throws that Caleb
- 25:01Speaker 2: Williams usually he makes. So look at the throat to
- 25:03Speaker 2: Roma doonesday where he had a step on Sydney Brown
- 25:06Speaker 2: and that almost looked like it hit a wall and
- 25:08Speaker 2: just fell short. You know, those things happen, but hopefully
- 25:13Speaker 2: this podcast will tide you over that's going to do it.
- 25:15Speaker 2: For this edition of a Czech O Daily, I'm Andrew
- 25:17Speaker 2: Decheco and I'll catch you on the next one.