Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: An Early Word on Eagles For Week 13
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- 0:00Speaker 1: And Football at four is powered by the Inside of
- 0:02Speaker 1: the Birds podcast. It is brought to you by the
- 0:05Speaker 1: Fanatic Sports Book at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City.
- 0:09Speaker 1: And of course it's a busy week. It's a short
- 0:11Speaker 1: week for the Eagles, and we'll dive into all things
- 0:15Speaker 1: going on with the Eagles. Making an early appearance this
- 0:18Speaker 1: week on the show for Football at four, Andrew to Checko,
- 0:23Speaker 1: who normally joined us on Thursday, but of course Thursday
- 0:27Speaker 1: being Thanksgiving, the Checko is in on an early Tuesday
- 0:32Speaker 1: edition of Football at four this week and really interested
- 0:35Speaker 1: to see what he has to say about what's going
- 0:37Speaker 1: on with this embattled Eagles team. Only in journalism word
- 0:41Speaker 1: embattled Eagles team. Andrew making a rare Tuesday appearance on
- 0:47Speaker 1: Football at four here on the Sports Bash because of
- 0:50Speaker 1: the Thanksgiving holiday. First, Andrew, Happy Thanksgiving early to you,
- 0:53Speaker 1: my friend.
- 0:53Speaker 2: How are you happy Thanksgiving? To you too and all
- 0:56Speaker 2: your listeners. Mike, I'm Dylan Gray, a little out of
- 0:58Speaker 2: my elements because it's a Twoday, but looking forward to
- 1:01Speaker 2: chatting about some Eagles football.
- 1:03Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it's a little fresh in the game, so
- 1:05Speaker 1: we get a chance to really kind of keep picking
- 1:07Speaker 1: at that game a little bit, and obviously it did
- 1:10Speaker 1: not go well. Twenty one to nothing, they're up, and
- 1:12Speaker 1: then the fallout What stood out to you the most
- 1:16Speaker 1: when you look back at that game and say, this
- 1:18Speaker 1: is something that is I don't want, you know, alarming
- 1:21Speaker 1: or something that you want to focus a little bit
- 1:23Speaker 1: more on on how that game kind of unfolded.
- 1:26Speaker 2: Well, for me, it's the self inflicted wounds, fourteen penalties,
- 1:30Speaker 2: ninety six yards, and they wiped away a lot of
- 1:33Speaker 2: big plays that Dallas got her playoff of play action
- 1:36Speaker 2: that was twenty yards. It was the second play in
- 1:39Speaker 2: the second half off the Grant Calcatire eight yard catch,
- 1:42Speaker 2: then that gets called back to illegal formation, and there
- 1:46Speaker 2: were a number of other the aj Brown false start
- 1:49Speaker 2: and the play before the Saquon Barkley fumble, it was
- 1:53Speaker 2: a sixteen yard completion of DeVante Smith. Fred Johnson gets
- 1:56Speaker 2: called for illegal hands to the face. So there's just
- 1:59Speaker 2: so many differ and things that have been a prevailing
- 2:01Speaker 2: theme this season for the Eagles, and I think you
- 2:04Speaker 2: have to look at it and say, if it hasn't
- 2:05Speaker 2: gotten better at this point, and you keep saying the
- 2:08Speaker 2: same things at one point, is that do you have
- 2:12Speaker 2: to enact a pretty drastic change or alter the way
- 2:16Speaker 2: that you go about the way the complexion of the offense.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Yeah, and we've heard so much, including yesterday Nick Sirianna
- 2:23Speaker 1: getting asked point blank is he considering making a change
- 2:27Speaker 1: in play caller? He says, no, I have not. But
- 2:29Speaker 1: is that something that is even plausible at this stage
- 2:32Speaker 1: of the season.
- 2:34Speaker 2: Well, I'm not going to sit here and say that
- 2:36Speaker 2: Kevin Bittulo called an exceptional game, because he didn't. But
- 2:39Speaker 2: it was always a small piece of not even it
- 2:42Speaker 2: was a piece of what went wrong with the Eagles
- 2:45Speaker 2: in that game. And I look more to the executional
- 2:48Speaker 2: errors than mental miscues, because you know, in the first
- 2:52Speaker 2: half they look pretty damn good offensively and they just
- 2:54Speaker 2: weren't able to sustain that Mike. But at this stage
- 2:57Speaker 2: of the season, this is an eight and three football team.
- 3:00Speaker 2: I know that a lot of fans want a they
- 3:02Speaker 2: want answers, they want something to be drastic, a drastic
- 3:07Speaker 2: measure to maybe alter the course of the season or
- 3:11Speaker 2: the way the offense looks. But you have to look
- 3:13Speaker 2: at it and say, this is Nick Sirianni's offense. So
- 3:16Speaker 2: regardless of who's calling plays. They're going to be calling
- 3:19Speaker 2: the plays in through the lens of how Nick Sirianni
- 3:22Speaker 2: wants it to look. And whether that's Scott Leffler, the
- 3:25Speaker 2: quarterbacks coach, Jason Michael, the tight ends coach who was
- 3:28Speaker 2: an offensive coordinator at one point in his career at
- 3:30Speaker 2: the Tennessee Titans, or Parks Fraser, who's the past game coordinator. Yeah,
- 3:35Speaker 2: you might see something different in terms of rhythm and sequencing,
- 3:38Speaker 2: but overall, these are going to be the plays and
- 3:40Speaker 2: the way that Nick Sirianni wants the offense to look.
- 3:42Speaker 2: So I'm not so sure that you're going to see
- 3:45Speaker 2: the change that many are expecting. And it's not really
- 3:48Speaker 2: surprising to me, Mike to hear Nick Gianni say that
- 3:50Speaker 2: he hasn't considered a change.
- 3:51Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you went down that road, because we
- 3:53Speaker 1: were talking about this with you know, throughout the show yesterday.
- 3:56Speaker 1: Adam included for Football four and everybody loves pointing this
- 3:59Speaker 1: out at the coordinator, Right, that's the easy thing to
- 4:01Speaker 1: do with the coordinator is at fault. But as Adam
- 4:04Speaker 1: kind of pointed out, there were a lot of plays
- 4:06Speaker 1: that had success that were negated by penalties. Right that
- 4:10Speaker 1: the play was called and performed. It was an execution
- 4:14Speaker 1: problem that called the plays back. So that you know,
- 4:17Speaker 1: people act like every single down and distance you're going
- 4:20Speaker 1: to succeed in. That's not plausible. But there were a
- 4:24Speaker 1: lot of plays in that game that had success that
- 4:26Speaker 1: were negated by the self inflicted wounds.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Yeah, you're one hundred percent spot on, And I think
- 4:33Speaker 2: not not only in Philadelphia, but in every city. There's
- 4:36Speaker 2: always the urge to assign blame. Everybody wants to find
- 4:41Speaker 2: the answer, but it's not always a specific person or
- 4:45Speaker 2: a specific reason. The Eagles still can't run the ball, Mike.
- 4:48Speaker 2: There's a lot of penalties, there's self inflicted wounds, there's
- 4:51Speaker 2: executional errors. There's just so many different things that play.
- 4:55Speaker 2: And yes, I am including the play calling and the
- 4:58Speaker 2: designs that needs to be better. But you know, I
- 5:02Speaker 2: think there's too much finger pointing in the direction of
- 5:05Speaker 2: Kevin Bittulo. And yeah, I mean, you can make of
- 5:09Speaker 2: it what you will. He's a first year coordinator and
- 5:11Speaker 2: there were and are growing pains that come with that.
- 5:15Speaker 2: But you look at if you're looking, you know, exclusively
- 5:19Speaker 2: at Sunday, there were a lot of plays to be
- 5:21Speaker 2: made in that game, and the Eagles had chances to
- 5:23Speaker 2: put the Cowboys away and we wouldn't even be having
- 5:27Speaker 2: that conversation, but you know, they weren't able to do
- 5:29Speaker 2: it for a lot of issues that have been prevalent
- 5:33Speaker 2: throughout the season. But they've been winning, so they almost
- 5:35Speaker 2: get swept under the rug and this These are the
- 5:38Speaker 2: type of things that aj Brown was trying to put
- 5:40Speaker 2: a spotlight on a few weeks ago and throughout the
- 5:43Speaker 2: season so that they can kind of head that off
- 5:45Speaker 2: and not let this be something that burns them down
- 5:48Speaker 2: the line.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Andrew to check out football at four looking at the
- 5:51Speaker 1: Eagles and the Cowboys to fall out from that game.
- 5:54Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned everybody always points at the play card,
- 5:57Speaker 1: but you said the offensive line. You know, throughout this
- 6:00Speaker 1: day we heard from Chris Long saying the offensive line
- 6:03Speaker 1: is a problem. We've heard from a lot of people,
- 6:05Speaker 1: and you wonder, is that at the top of the
- 6:08Speaker 1: list of the problems when you know, it's the play caller,
- 6:10Speaker 1: it's the quarterback, it's this, it's the play design, it's
- 6:13Speaker 1: the running bag. But ultimately it all stems from what
- 6:16Speaker 1: the offensive line's performance is and that doesn't seem fixable,
- 6:20Speaker 1: does it? No?
- 6:23Speaker 2: And you know, I don't rank like the issues that
- 6:26Speaker 2: they have, but I'll tell you this, if it all
- 6:28Speaker 2: starts up front, we all know that. And foundationally, the
- 6:31Speaker 2: Eagles want to run the football. They want to impose
- 6:34Speaker 2: their will at the line of scrimmage and take advantage
- 6:37Speaker 2: of say Tom Barkley and their ability to grind out
- 6:39Speaker 2: clock and force defenses to play them a certain way.
- 6:43Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, that opens up the playbook.
- 6:45Speaker 2: You saw that last season. Defenses had to respect the
- 6:49Speaker 2: fact that the Eagles were gonna run the football, and
- 6:52Speaker 2: it opened things up in the passing game. It masks
- 6:55Speaker 2: a lot of the issues that are now surfacing because
- 6:57Speaker 2: they don't have that running game. And you look at
- 7:00Speaker 2: the health of the offensive line. Cam Jurgens has not
- 7:02Speaker 2: played to the level that we've seen him play a
- 7:06Speaker 2: Pro bowl level this season. He had offseason back surgery.
- 7:09Speaker 2: You have to wonder if that lingers, and you know
- 7:13Speaker 2: it certainly lingers, but you have you know, when you're
- 7:16Speaker 2: playing in the manner in which this Eagles offensive line plays,
- 7:20Speaker 2: and how physical and how much of a toll it takes. Yeah,
- 7:24Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of hard. To wonder. It's hard
- 7:27Speaker 2: to get healthy when you're playing that style throughout the season.
- 7:31Speaker 2: Landon Dickerson battles through a multitude of injuries, and he's
- 7:37Speaker 2: had some glimpses this season where he looks like the
- 7:39Speaker 2: dominant form, that Pro Bowl form that we've seen, but
- 7:42Speaker 2: not as often Jordan Milatta has struggled. You have Fred
- 7:45Speaker 2: Johnson at right tackle, despite what you may have heard
- 7:49Speaker 2: going into that game, Mike, I know that there were
- 7:51Speaker 2: some that were like, oh, the Eagles will be okay,
- 7:53Speaker 2: it's they have Fred Johnson. He's done it before. Fred
- 7:56Speaker 2: Johnson is a solid NFL player, and I believe that
- 8:00Speaker 2: if you rank thirty two offensive tackles, he's probably in
- 8:03Speaker 2: that list. But he's not Lane Johnson a future Hall
- 8:06Speaker 2: of Famer. And there were some plays in that game
- 8:08Speaker 2: that served as a reminder, and you know the Eagles
- 8:11Speaker 2: are gonna have to continue to navigate through that. But
- 8:14Speaker 2: I just outlined some of the issues there on the
- 8:16Speaker 2: offensive line or something, some of the things to be
- 8:19Speaker 2: mindful of. And if they're not able to establish that
- 8:21Speaker 2: dominant at the point of attack, a really limits what
- 8:23Speaker 2: you're able to do from an execution standpoint, and from
- 8:26Speaker 2: a play calling standpoint.
- 8:27Speaker 1: Well, and the Fred Johnson thinks a great one, Andrew,
- 8:30Speaker 1: because you know, he might not give up a sack,
- 8:33Speaker 1: but if he's getting pushed back to where her t
- 8:35Speaker 1: hass to move off of a spot or he can't,
- 8:37Speaker 1: you know, he feels pressure coming. It doesn't mean that
- 8:40Speaker 1: just because he didn't give up sacks in the game
- 8:42Speaker 1: that there wasn't more pressure coming from that spot than
- 8:45Speaker 1: he's used to and how that throws off all the time.
- 8:48Speaker 1: But the offensive line in the run game too, I
- 8:50Speaker 1: mean Saquan is obviously, I mean, I think Adam mentioned
- 8:55Speaker 1: this yesterday. Man, he's got he's on pace to have
- 8:58Speaker 1: like a thousand less yard from last one thousand from
- 9:02Speaker 1: last year. I mean he went over two thousand. He's
- 9:04Speaker 1: barely on pace to get eleven hundred yards this year.
- 9:08Speaker 1: And I would imagine that it's more of the offensive
- 9:12Speaker 1: line than it is Saquon Barkley. Do you think that
- 9:14Speaker 1: is or do you think that Bigsby maybe should get
- 9:17Speaker 1: a couple more touches and be a bigger part of
- 9:19Speaker 1: this offense.
- 9:21Speaker 2: Well, I think it's more on the offensive line than
- 9:23Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley. To me, Mike and This is just my perspective.
- 9:26Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley looks like the same guy. I don't believe
- 9:29Speaker 2: that the four hundred and eighty two touches that he had,
- 9:31Speaker 2: including the postseason, has hindered him in any way, because
- 9:36Speaker 2: when he gets his opportunities, and they have been few
- 9:38Speaker 2: and far between this season, I understand he's looked pretty spry.
- 9:42Speaker 2: He runs really hard and really tough, and I think
- 9:46Speaker 2: a lot of this a lot of his I guess,
- 9:49Speaker 2: you know, slow traction in the running game this season
- 9:54Speaker 2: can be directly attributed to the offensive line. But then
- 9:57Speaker 2: there are also times where it looks like Saquon Barkley
- 9:59Speaker 2: is pressing a little bit and not taking what's in
- 10:02Speaker 2: front of him, which is where I think Tank Bigsby
- 10:05Speaker 2: has done a nice job in the limited sample size,
- 10:08Speaker 2: and I am not of the belief that giving Tank
- 10:11Speaker 2: Bigsby a sizable portion of the workload is the answer here.
- 10:15Speaker 2: I think you can certainly find a way to get
- 10:18Speaker 2: him seven to eight carries a game and have a
- 10:20Speaker 2: little bit more of a balance because he does add
- 10:23Speaker 2: a spark, he does run really hard. I talked to
- 10:25Speaker 2: him last week and about his unique decisiveness as a runner,
- 10:29Speaker 2: he almost creates his own blocks at times. I think
- 10:31Speaker 2: they need to find a way to incorporate all three
- 10:33Speaker 2: running backs. I'm including will Shipley in that because they
- 10:37Speaker 2: all present something different and I think if you do
- 10:39Speaker 2: that with that, optionality will come. You know, you know,
- 10:43Speaker 2: you're able to confound defenses a little bit and they
- 10:45Speaker 2: have to, you know, account for that. So that's something
- 10:47Speaker 2: that when you look at the offense, it is what
- 10:49Speaker 2: it is, but there are certain things they can do
- 10:51Speaker 2: from a personnel grouping standpoint to try and freshen things
- 10:56Speaker 2: up a bit.
- 10:57Speaker 1: You know, when you look at the strife in this offense, right,
- 11:02Speaker 1: it's well it's kp oh no, it's the passing game. Well,
- 11:05Speaker 1: Hurts kind of does what he wants. Well, you can't
- 11:08Speaker 1: call all the plays because Hurts, you know, doesn't want
- 11:10Speaker 1: to run certain plays here. When you look at the
- 11:13Speaker 1: quarterbacks role in what's going on with this offense, what
- 11:17Speaker 1: do you kind of see in terms of where he
- 11:21Speaker 1: stands and why this offense is struggling? Because I was
- 11:24Speaker 1: talking about this the other day. He's a great player,
- 11:28Speaker 1: he's won a Super Bowl, Super Bowl MVP, but we
- 11:31Speaker 1: all know there's not universal like you say, hey, Tom Brady.
- 11:34Speaker 1: Everyone says great Peyton Manning, great Drew Brees. You go
- 11:39Speaker 1: to a bar in any of those towns and bring
- 11:40Speaker 1: up their names, nobody argues with you. That's not the
- 11:44Speaker 1: case with this guy. So what do you see from
- 11:48Speaker 1: him in his role and why this offense is struggling
- 11:53Speaker 1: to be consistent.
- 11:55Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I think Jaywen is performing better
- 11:59Speaker 2: than he did last season, and I do believe that,
- 12:02Speaker 2: But there it's hard to look at this offense and
- 12:06Speaker 2: not think back to the comment that he made. The
- 12:08Speaker 2: offense is going to look how Jayalen Hurts wanted to look.
- 12:11Speaker 2: So I mean this is to me, it always felt
- 12:16Speaker 2: like a Sirianni and Hurts melding, where they have a
- 12:21Speaker 2: vision of what they want the offense to look like,
- 12:23Speaker 2: and they've given Jayalen Hurts a lot of autonomy, and
- 12:25Speaker 2: they should. He's a franchise quarterback, super Bowl MVP. I
- 12:28Speaker 2: think he's been He's one of the best deep ball
- 12:31Speaker 2: throwers in the NFL. But there are times this season
- 12:34Speaker 2: where he seems to, you know, he's a little slow
- 12:37Speaker 2: to you know, to pull the trigger on some things,
- 12:40Speaker 2: and there are plays left on the field and I
- 12:43Speaker 2: look at certain instances where maybe you know, a ball
- 12:47Speaker 2: placement is a big one, right when you talk about
- 12:49Speaker 2: running after the catch. I think all those things are
- 12:52Speaker 2: fair in criticism, but he's far from the Eagles concerns offensively.
- 12:57Speaker 2: I think that he's made the best of a pretty
- 13:01Speaker 2: ominous circumstance offensively, and I think he is playing at
- 13:05Speaker 2: a high level. Now, you can't take that sack on
- 13:08Speaker 2: that third and two and for that thirteen yard loss,
- 13:11Speaker 2: you have to get rid of the football. You have
- 13:13Speaker 2: to have more awareness in that situation. And I'm sure
- 13:15Speaker 2: you can cherry pick other moments this season, but he
- 13:18Speaker 2: protects the football. He leads the offense, and he leads
- 13:21Speaker 2: with conviction, and I do believe that they're gonna you know,
- 13:24Speaker 2: it's hard to say that they're going to get things rolling,
- 13:26Speaker 2: but I think that from Jalen Hurts, from his perspective,
- 13:31Speaker 2: he's done a solid job.
- 13:32Speaker 1: All Right, we'll get you out on this. The defense,
- 13:34Speaker 1: everybody kind of hung their hat on. Defense is great.
- 13:37Speaker 1: The defense, you know, you talk about twenty three in
- 13:40Speaker 1: the fall of that season was well, that defense was terrible.
- 13:43Speaker 1: This defense is so much better. I don't argue with that,
- 13:47Speaker 1: but the defense on Sunday, Was there any concerning things
- 13:51Speaker 1: that you saw? And then of course you add into
- 13:52Speaker 1: some of the injuries that have now been added to
- 13:55Speaker 1: the situation.
- 13:57Speaker 2: This is where numbers can kind of conflate things a
- 13:59Speaker 2: little bit, because because you look at the stats and
- 14:01Speaker 2: the rs that they allowed to the Cowboys, and you
- 14:04Speaker 2: might say, well, the defense got handled in this one.
- 14:07Speaker 2: But I came away from that game encouraged with their performance,
- 14:11Speaker 2: considering their red zone stops right the interception from Red
- 14:15Speaker 2: Black and Ship and Xavier Gibson fumbles. The football has
- 14:19Speaker 2: a very they have a very short field. They hold
- 14:21Speaker 2: them out of the end zone in four downs, and
- 14:24Speaker 2: yes one of those plays with the CD Lamb drop.
- 14:26Speaker 2: He had a few of those in that game. But
- 14:28Speaker 2: when they had to, when they had to rise to
- 14:32Speaker 2: the occasion, I'm going to spare using the the the
- 14:35Speaker 2: Kobe Dean reference. Instead of knuckle up, we'll say knuckle up.
- 14:40Speaker 2: But you guys can infer that they find ways to
- 14:44Speaker 2: make sure that they're delivering when the moment is, you know,
- 14:48Speaker 2: the moment calls for it. Now, they gave up quite
- 14:50Speaker 2: a bit of passing yards. I think it was three
- 14:51Speaker 2: fifty six to Dak Prescott. George Pickens is arguably the
- 14:56Speaker 2: best receiver among the best receivers in the NFL, and
- 15:00Speaker 2: Ceedee Lamb had his moments as well, and they need
- 15:03Speaker 2: to do a better job there. I think Javonte Williams
- 15:05Speaker 2: had eighty seven yards and early in the game, I
- 15:08Speaker 2: thought they did a nice job plugging the run and
- 15:11Speaker 2: then they just stayed with it. Twenty two carries, maybe
- 15:13Speaker 2: twenty carries for eighty seven yards. He's not explosive runner.
- 15:16Speaker 2: He's more decisive and more that grind it out type
- 15:20Speaker 2: running backs. But yeah, I thought that they did some
- 15:22Speaker 2: good things. Zach Bond had a dropped interception that Kobe
- 15:25Speaker 2: Deane had an interception that didn't stand because of too
- 15:28Speaker 2: many men on the field. So if someone who take
- 15:31Speaker 2: you know, some of those things happen and all of
- 15:33Speaker 2: a sudden it looks a little bit different.
- 15:34Speaker 1: Well, the point as we get you out of here,
- 15:36Speaker 1: Andrew Checho is fourteen penalties horrible. That can't happen, and
- 15:42Speaker 1: generally that's as sloppy as we've ever seen them. They're turnovers.
- 15:46Speaker 1: This is a team that prides itself on winning the
- 15:48Speaker 1: turnover battle, and they win games because they don't turn
- 15:52Speaker 1: the ball over. That didn't happen on Sunday. Hopefully that
- 15:55Speaker 1: was a one and done trend moving forward, and they're
- 15:58Speaker 1: right back at it on Friday, Black Friday right here
- 16:01Speaker 1: on ninety seven three, ESPN's the Eagles and the Bears,
- 16:04Speaker 1: Andrew to Checko Football at four. I want to wish
- 16:06Speaker 1: you a happy Thanksgiving Man, and always enjoy talking to
- 16:09Speaker 1: you every week here and look forward to the stretch
- 16:12Speaker 1: run of the season.
- 16:14Speaker 2: Much appreciated, Mike. Happy Thanksgiving.