Latest / Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast / Football at Four: Where do the Eagles Stand Against Other NFC Teams?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Ninety seven to three. ESPN presents the Sports Bash with
- 0:04Speaker 1: Mike Gil. It's time for Football at four powered by
- 0:08Speaker 1: the Inside the Birds Podcast.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Just hungry to bring back another Lombardi to Philly.
- 0:12Speaker 3: It's the fans deserve it, our team deserves it, culture
- 0:17Speaker 3: begs for it.
- 0:18Speaker 1: And now live, this is Football at four and Football
- 0:22Speaker 1: and four powered by the Inside the Birds Podcast. It
- 0:24Speaker 1: is brought to you by the Fanatic Sports Book at
- 0:26Speaker 1: Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. I'm Mike Gil. Jeff
- 0:29Speaker 1: Boscher's here now. Earlier today we tried to kind of
- 0:34Speaker 1: rank the NFC teams. Where are Philadelphia? Where is Philadelphia
- 0:38Speaker 1: in the hierarchy of the NFC? For Jeff Mosher, there's
- 0:42Speaker 1: three weeks left right now, Jeff. The betting odds have
- 0:45Speaker 1: the Eagles with the third shortest odds to win the NFC.
- 0:50Speaker 1: The Rams are the favorite, followed by Seattle. Where would
- 0:54Speaker 1: you put Philadelphia in the NFC hierarchy right now? If
- 0:59Speaker 1: you are doing just the NFC teams.
- 1:02Speaker 3: If I'm doing just the NFC teams, I think you
- 1:05Speaker 3: have to have the Rams the Seahawks above there. Now listen,
- 1:10Speaker 3: the Bears beat the Eagles one on one.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Fair and square. Their record is better.
- 1:15Speaker 3: They play in a very tough division as well, So
- 1:20Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure a lot of people feel like
- 1:22Speaker 3: the Eagles are better than the Bears and it was
- 1:24Speaker 3: just a bad game by the defense, but you have
- 1:26Speaker 3: to give the Bears credit. And ordinarily I think even
- 1:30Speaker 3: though the Eagles beat the Packers, I think those two
- 1:32Speaker 3: teams are very close. But obviously the loss of Micah Parsons,
- 1:36Speaker 3: if you're projecting and asking now, if they were to
- 1:38Speaker 3: play now, how would it go. I still think the
- 1:40Speaker 3: Packers are very good, but we'll see you could put
- 1:45Speaker 3: them on even so I would put those three teams,
- 1:48Speaker 3: the Seahawks, the Rams, and the Bears fairly ahead because
- 1:52Speaker 3: they beat the Eagles and they've played a tough schedule too,
- 1:55Speaker 3: and then the Eagles right under it right after that.
- 1:57Speaker 3: So if someone wanted to argue that Packers over the Eagles,
- 2:01Speaker 3: I wouldn't.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Right. Well, okay, so Philadelphia played green Bay, but you
- 2:06Speaker 1: would you say if they played again, you like green
- 2:10Speaker 1: Bay better? Or at this point, no Micah Parsons, where
- 2:13Speaker 1: Philly had now they played it, you know, not too
- 2:15Speaker 1: long ago in Week number ten, Philly was ten to seven,
- 2:19Speaker 1: not a clean game by either. But do you like
- 2:23Speaker 1: green Bay at this stage of the season then better
- 2:26Speaker 1: than Philly.
- 2:27Speaker 3: I like green Bay now more than I did when
- 2:29Speaker 3: they played Philly, because, well, Christian Watson, I know he
- 2:33Speaker 3: got hurt last game, but as long as he's you know,
- 2:35Speaker 3: able to play her healthy, he's He's brought a lot
- 2:38Speaker 3: to the offense.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Plus they got Jaden Reid back.
- 2:40Speaker 3: And if you look ever since that game against the Eagles,
- 2:42Speaker 3: they've played some pretty good teams. They've scored a decent
- 2:46Speaker 3: amount of points. Even in losing to the Broncos. Their
- 2:48Speaker 3: offense I think scored twenty seven points if I'm not mistaken,
- 2:52Speaker 3: So I think that they are. I think they're just
- 2:55Speaker 3: better equipped right now to go head to head with
- 2:57Speaker 3: the Eagles again.
- 2:58Speaker 2: And I I guess.
- 3:00Speaker 3: When you asked the question, Mike, I have to I
- 3:02Speaker 3: would have to know is Lane Johnson still out?
- 3:04Speaker 2: Is Jie and Carter's still out? You know?
- 3:06Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying like that, I don't know
- 3:08Speaker 3: when those guys are coming back, so it's tough. So
- 3:11Speaker 3: if they literally had to play this weekend, I might
- 3:13Speaker 3: favor Green Bay if they play in the playoffs. And
- 3:16Speaker 3: you tell me Lane's back and playing well. Jille and
- 3:18Speaker 3: Carter's back and playing well. Then that throws a different
- 3:22Speaker 3: you know equation.
- 3:24Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, no question. I mean green Bay is fine.
- 3:27Speaker 1: We were talking about this, are like, Philly has beaten
- 3:29Speaker 1: green Bay this year, playoffs, last year, Brazil last year.
- 3:33Speaker 1: Like you feel like at some point, green Bay is like,
- 3:37Speaker 1: all right, we're close. We've been right there, We've closed
- 3:40Speaker 1: that gap. Say, with the Rams, it feels like you've
- 3:42Speaker 1: beaten the Rams time after time after time, and now
- 3:46Speaker 1: I think you had said and most people say, I
- 3:48Speaker 1: think the Rams are better than you are, but you've
- 3:52Speaker 1: kind of beaten them over and over. The styles make
- 3:54Speaker 1: fights when you look at that style. Do you like
- 3:56Speaker 1: the matchup of Philly against the Rams even though you
- 4:00Speaker 1: think the Rams might be more of a balanced team
- 4:03Speaker 1: right now?
- 4:04Speaker 2: Oh? I mean, I listen.
- 4:07Speaker 3: I don't think there's any team the Eagles would play
- 4:09Speaker 3: where I would favor the other team.
- 4:11Speaker 2: Seventy five, twenty five. You know what I'm saying.
- 4:13Speaker 3: I think the Eagles could beat any one of these teams.
- 4:16Speaker 3: But I'm also not sitting here after their game against
- 4:20Speaker 3: the Raiders and just vaulting them right back up. I
- 4:22Speaker 3: mean they had three bad losses, and I know they
- 4:26Speaker 3: played good teams well, at least two of them in
- 4:28Speaker 3: the Bears and the Chargers, but the offense still isn't
- 4:31Speaker 3: running the ball really well. And you know, they're a
- 4:35Speaker 3: hard team to trust until they really start to feel
- 4:39Speaker 3: like last year's team offensively with their run game and
- 4:42Speaker 3: their offensive line.
- 4:43Speaker 2: Same thing as we're sitting here talking right now. We
- 4:46Speaker 2: don't know if Lane Johnson's playing. It looks like he's
- 4:49Speaker 2: not right.
- 4:50Speaker 3: Landon Dickerson, who did play and didn't play great, has
- 4:54Speaker 3: been out of practice with the calf, so I don't
- 4:56Speaker 3: know what's going on with him. Cam Jurgens just hasn't
- 4:58Speaker 3: been Cam Jurgens. So when you start to to put
- 5:00Speaker 3: this offensive line against playoff caliber teams and defenses, it
- 5:05Speaker 3: gets way closer to fifty to fifty to me. Just
- 5:08Speaker 3: like that Packers game was that was anybody's game, and
- 5:11Speaker 3: the Eagles won it played great defense. So I would
- 5:13Speaker 3: think can the Eagles beat the Rams, Seahawks, Packers, Bears,
- 5:16Speaker 3: Yes they can, but I also think they can lose.
- 5:18Speaker 1: To those And you know, I'm glad you went down
- 5:20Speaker 1: there because it seems like regardless of where you're set up.
- 5:24Speaker 1: It's a swergasboard at almost all seven teams. I mean,
- 5:28Speaker 1: I don't know what you think about Tampa Bay. If
- 5:30Speaker 1: they get in almost all seven teams, I think the
- 5:33Speaker 1: Tampa Carolina would be obviously the weakest of the crew.
- 5:37Speaker 1: But the other six teams, it's gonna be a really
- 5:41Speaker 1: tough road to get all the way through with As
- 5:43Speaker 1: you just said, you have so many teams that are
- 5:45Speaker 1: so comparable from one through six. Really seven with Tampa
- 5:50Speaker 1: Bay gonna be squeezed in or Carolina in that four spot.
- 5:54Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think we talked about this yesterday. It's
- 5:57Speaker 3: you're in the three seed right now for the Eagles,
- 5:59Speaker 3: and it's not the worst place to be.
- 6:02Speaker 1: I will say this, and somebody texts.
- 6:03Speaker 3: Too, because the three seed right now matches up with
- 6:07Speaker 3: the sixth seed, and that right now the San Francisco
- 6:10Speaker 3: for the nine Ers team that is ten and four.
- 6:12Speaker 3: But I think we can fairly say is somewhat of
- 6:15Speaker 3: a paper tiger.
- 6:16Speaker 2: Now. They have beat the Seahawks, and they have beat the.
- 6:19Speaker 3: Rams this year. I'm not taking any credit away from
- 6:22Speaker 3: the forty nine ers. They have went up against some
- 6:25Speaker 3: of the best teams and beat them. That was a
- 6:27Speaker 3: little earlier in the year, right, but they did it.
- 6:31Speaker 3: But if you just look at them as a whole,
- 6:33Speaker 3: you say, man, they've got tons of injuries.
- 6:35Speaker 2: It doesn't feel like it's their year.
- 6:37Speaker 3: And if I can face them instead of moving to
- 6:40Speaker 3: the two seed and then having to face the seventh seed,
- 6:42Speaker 3: which could be Green Bay, could be Chicago, could be
- 6:46Speaker 3: the Rams.
- 6:47Speaker 2: Right if the.
- 6:49Speaker 3: Seattle Seahawks winding wind up winning the division and the
- 6:52Speaker 3: Rams lose another game. So I mean, right now, you're
- 6:55Speaker 3: feeling pretty good about only having a face.
- 6:57Speaker 1: Well, the one thing would be last year you were
- 7:01Speaker 1: the two, you got the home games, then the Lions
- 7:04Speaker 1: lost and that got you another home game. Being the three,
- 7:07Speaker 1: you would need a couple of upsets to get yourself
- 7:10Speaker 1: a couple of home games. And someone texted in earlier
- 7:12Speaker 1: the Eagles have never won an NFC Championship road game.
- 7:15Speaker 1: I mean, to have to go on the road multiple times,
- 7:18Speaker 1: possibly that could be a big difference.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not.
- 7:22Speaker 3: Worried about that as much, but I mean, I think
- 7:24Speaker 3: if you're the Eagles again, you're looking at it and
- 7:26Speaker 3: you're like, hey, let Chicago finish with the two seed,
- 7:31Speaker 3: have to play maybe the Packers or another or the Seahawks,
- 7:35Speaker 3: depending on what happens as the seven watch that watch Chicago,
- 7:39Speaker 3: I mean the pressures on Chicago.
- 7:40Speaker 2: They've not been in this position, much.
- 7:42Speaker 3: Like a couple of years ago after the Super Bowl
- 7:44Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen, when the Eagles went there for a
- 7:47Speaker 3: playoff game and beat them behind the Trubisky.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Like, I'm not saying Chicago was bad.
- 7:51Speaker 3: What I'm saying is no one expected this so quickly
- 7:54Speaker 3: out of them, and if they lost their first round
- 7:56Speaker 3: matchup at home, the two to seven game, nobody would
- 7:59Speaker 3: be surprised. But then that team would go to let's
- 8:03Speaker 3: say the seventh seed one. Then they instead would go
- 8:05Speaker 3: play the one seed, right, because the the in the
- 8:08Speaker 3: nflu reseed, right, And then the Eagles would play.
- 8:11Speaker 2: A five or six at home as the three seed.
- 8:15Speaker 1: Yeah right, because you're counting on the five seed probably
- 8:18Speaker 1: to win the four game.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Probably, yes, I mean again, who knows how that shakes out,
- 8:24Speaker 3: but it's more than I'm counting on the two seed
- 8:27Speaker 3: to lose. So then yes, the three seed would probably
- 8:29Speaker 3: get the four to five winner.
- 8:31Speaker 2: It doesn't matter, you're still getting it in Philadelphia.
- 8:34Speaker 1: Yeah, you would get either Tampa or I guess right
- 8:37Speaker 1: now it's Seattle, and Seattle would have to come across
- 8:40Speaker 1: the country for the second week in a row. I think,
- 8:42Speaker 1: you know, there's an interesting to bring up Seattle. Their
- 8:47Speaker 1: offense is Sam Darnold. Do they feel very much like
- 8:50Speaker 1: Minnesota to you from last year where Minnesota won fourteen games?
- 8:54Speaker 1: For whatever reason, I feel like people are buying more
- 8:57Speaker 1: into this Seattle team than they bought into Sam Arnold's
- 9:00Speaker 1: Viking team last year.
- 9:02Speaker 3: You know, a lot of really good a lot of
- 9:06Speaker 3: good similarities in that Sam having this great year. It's
- 9:10Speaker 3: still a defensive team. You know, the Vikings defense with
- 9:13Speaker 3: Flores was really good last year. This defense with Mike
- 9:16Speaker 3: McDonald really good. I guess the only thing is it's
- 9:18Speaker 3: now a year later, so Sam has now done this
- 9:20Speaker 3: two years in a row, and it's.
- 9:22Speaker 2: What it was.
- 9:23Speaker 3: Gonna just choke it every single playoff? Get probably not.
- 9:26Speaker 3: I mean, it looks pretty comfortable this year as a
- 9:29Speaker 3: as a quarterback.
- 9:30Speaker 1: They saw that, like, they don't have a great running
- 9:32Speaker 1: game other than Smith and Jigba, they don't have a
- 9:34Speaker 1: great array of guys.
- 9:38Speaker 3: It's fair, It's fair. I mean, I would again, if
- 9:41Speaker 3: you're asking me. The dream scenario for the Eagles, I
- 9:43Speaker 3: think it is to have the three seed versus San
- 9:46Speaker 3: Francisco in the first round and then hope that maybe
- 9:50Speaker 3: Seattle upset Chicago in the second or the other where.
- 9:52Speaker 3: If it's not, Seattle could be a different team, and
- 9:54Speaker 3: then the only nightmare seed would be situation would be
- 9:57Speaker 3: if the Rams just had a little slip up here,
- 9:59Speaker 3: then they finished in that spot and then beat They
- 10:03Speaker 3: beat the Bears and then came to you. Although you've
- 10:05Speaker 3: beaten them at the link, but I mean, the Rams
- 10:07Speaker 3: are kind of a scary team. I wouldn't let one
- 10:09Speaker 3: lost down the stretch here make me think differently of them.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Oddly. The one place I feel like you wouldn't mind
- 10:15Speaker 1: going to is La because you've won in La against
- 10:18Speaker 1: the Rams and it's not a great home field advantage
- 10:21Speaker 1: generally out there. You know, if you went to play
- 10:24Speaker 1: the Bears is the number two seed in Chicago.
- 10:26Speaker 3: I go to Chicago, Man, who knows what kind of
- 10:28Speaker 3: weather you're getting?
- 10:29Speaker 2: The wins?
- 10:29Speaker 1: Well, I mean, but that's it. But my point is,
- 10:31Speaker 1: though the weather thing I don't think plays into as
- 10:33Speaker 1: big a factor when you're playing against Philadelphia in your Chicago.
- 10:38Speaker 3: No, but I'm just saying like, if you're going to Chicago,
- 10:40Speaker 3: I mean, a bad weather game doesn't favor either, but
- 10:44Speaker 3: you would kind of like your your your team, with
- 10:47Speaker 3: all that offensive money in your offense and what your
- 10:49Speaker 3: defense is doing, you would just kind of like to
- 10:51Speaker 3: play in a in a good environment.
- 10:53Speaker 2: Well, because I bring this up, I say, bad weather.
- 10:56Speaker 2: Look what bad weather.
- 10:57Speaker 3: Did to the Rams Eagles game. I think the are
- 11:00Speaker 3: better than the Rams last year by more than as
- 11:03Speaker 3: more than what the final score of that game suggested,
- 11:05Speaker 3: but the snow just messed things up for both teams.
- 11:08Speaker 1: Jeff Boscher Football A four. Now, I bring this up
- 11:11Speaker 1: because I'm looking at your power rankings over at Phillyvoice
- 11:14Speaker 1: dot com, and you've got one, two, three, four, five
- 11:22Speaker 1: teams in the NFC ranked ahead of Philadelphia. You have
- 11:25Speaker 1: Philadelphia as your twelfth best team in the NFL overall,
- 11:30Speaker 1: but you have five NFC teams ahead of them, one
- 11:34Speaker 1: of which, by the way, San Francisco is you know
- 11:38Speaker 1: you just said kind of paper tigersh But San fran
- 11:42Speaker 1: you have at number ten, Chicago at number six, Green
- 11:46Speaker 1: Bay at number five, Seattle at number three, and the
- 11:50Speaker 1: Rams at number one. So the way that you're looking
- 11:52Speaker 1: at it in your power rankings almost sounds like a
- 11:56Speaker 1: short playoff run here.
- 11:59Speaker 3: Well, it could not be. I mean, the power rankings change,
- 12:02Speaker 3: I decided. I actually weirdly had San Francisco rank pretty
- 12:06Speaker 3: low up until like mid to like Thanksgiving, but then
- 12:11Speaker 3: you know, they went on a three game win streak,
- 12:13Speaker 3: They've won four in a row, and I thought, you know,
- 12:16Speaker 3: and that at the time it was coinciding with an
- 12:19Speaker 3: Eagles three game losing streak.
- 12:20Speaker 2: So I wasn't just gonna switch them.
- 12:22Speaker 3: Because the Eagles beat the Raiders, right, I figured I
- 12:26Speaker 3: will make them earn it over this weekend where the
- 12:29Speaker 3: Eagles obviously have a chance to make a big move
- 12:33Speaker 3: in beating wild well'll just continue, you know, to win
- 12:36Speaker 3: games in beating Washington, and then I forget. I think
- 12:39Speaker 3: San frances has to play the Colts, So even though
- 12:41Speaker 3: the Cults are are fading fast, if they lose that
- 12:44Speaker 3: game and the Eagles win, obviously that's going to change
- 12:47Speaker 3: the balance of power. And of course the rams Seahawks
- 12:49Speaker 3: have to play tomorrow night, and you know, I don't
- 12:53Speaker 3: usually knock the loser of that game too much because
- 12:56Speaker 3: those are two elite teams going. But if it's forty
- 12:58Speaker 3: one nothing or somebody gets you know, completely creamed, then you.
- 13:01Speaker 2: Have to adjust sainting with the Bears Packers.
- 13:04Speaker 3: Right, if the Bears lose again to the Packers like
- 13:07Speaker 3: they did two weeks ago and they're on a little
- 13:10Speaker 3: bit of a slide, they're probably going to drop.
- 13:12Speaker 1: On the flip side. Just for Jess Power rankings over
- 13:15Speaker 1: at Philly Voice dot comy as the Rams won Denver two,
- 13:19Speaker 1: Seattle three, New England for green Bay five, Philadelphia has
- 13:22Speaker 1: beaten two of those teams. They did lose that game
- 13:26Speaker 1: to Denver back in like early October. So it just
- 13:31Speaker 1: goes to show how crowded it is. And you can
- 13:34Speaker 1: make a case that the twelfth team could be two,
- 13:37Speaker 1: the ninth team could be twelve. It just seems like
- 13:40Speaker 1: it's such a wide open proposition, to which my question
- 13:43Speaker 1: would be, what did we like from the Raider game?
- 13:47Speaker 1: Moving forward? That could you could say, now they did
- 13:50Speaker 1: this against the Raiders, if they can continue to and
- 13:53Speaker 1: I think there's signs that there can they can, that
- 13:56Speaker 1: should help them, you know, improve their standing.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Well, obviously you like defense, and they played good defense.
- 14:04Speaker 3: I like the fact that they didn't have they I
- 14:05Speaker 3: think they threw one single blitz at the at the Raiders,
- 14:09Speaker 3: so their front four got home. I do like that
- 14:13Speaker 3: they continue to work, not as many because they didn't
- 14:15Speaker 3: have as many dropbacks, but they worked a few of
- 14:18Speaker 3: those past concepts that they put in against the Chargers
- 14:21Speaker 3: into that game against the Raiders. But other than that,
- 14:24Speaker 3: it's really hard to take anything away from it, other
- 14:27Speaker 3: than anytime you hold the team the seventy five yards
- 14:29Speaker 3: and I don't care if that team is owing whatever
- 14:33Speaker 3: and has the worst roster ever assembled, that's still very impressive.
- 14:37Speaker 1: Yeah, their offense is the one thing that showed signs
- 14:40Speaker 1: of life. Now, let's talk a little bit last night
- 14:43Speaker 1: during the Hard Knocks. I don't know if you saw
- 14:45Speaker 1: the Hard Knocks. I'm going to assume you did, did not, Okay,
- 14:49Speaker 1: Hard Knocks guy? All right, Well, I'm not either. But
- 14:52Speaker 1: I figured the Eagles were in it that I should
- 14:54Speaker 1: kind of pay attention, and I so far I thought
- 14:56Speaker 1: that all three episodes have been weak, haven't found out much.
- 15:01Speaker 1: But last night I think was the first time you
- 15:03Speaker 1: got a little something. And it was Saguon Barkley talking
- 15:06Speaker 1: with Nick Sirianni and them talking about some of the
- 15:09Speaker 1: changes that they have made in the run game and
- 15:13Speaker 1: that Barkley's starting to see them and he thinks it's
- 15:16Speaker 1: helping them a little bit. Are you seeing changes in
- 15:20Speaker 1: their run game? I am.
- 15:22Speaker 3: I thought we talked about it yesterday made out I
- 15:24Speaker 3: don't remember. I'm sorry if I forgot to bring it up.
- 15:26Speaker 3: But one of the things that Eagles did against the
- 15:29Speaker 3: Raiders a little more of a lot more of was
- 15:33Speaker 3: thirteenth personnel and that was getting Cam Lattu on the field.
- 15:36Speaker 2: He's been sort of a fullback, sort of a tight end.
- 15:39Speaker 3: They had four, i think four or five plays on
- 15:41Speaker 3: their first drive alone with three tight ends, which is
- 15:45Speaker 3: basically a statement, we're gonna put tight ends on the
- 15:47Speaker 3: field and we're going to run the ball against you,
- 15:49Speaker 3: which is an interesting statement for a team that's really
- 15:51Speaker 3: struggled to run the ball.
- 15:52Speaker 2: But you credit them for a getting Latsu on the field.
- 15:55Speaker 2: He's a good blocker and b not just giving up,
- 15:58Speaker 2: so that's good.
- 16:00Speaker 3: Another thing they did is more gap scheme runs as
- 16:02Speaker 3: opposed to zone. They are predominantly a zone running team.
- 16:06Speaker 3: Gap scheme is normally when you see alignment pulling to
- 16:10Speaker 3: one side and it's more hat on hat kind of
- 16:13Speaker 3: blocking than zone blocking, and there were including the seventeen
- 16:17Speaker 3: yard run that Sequan had, they were doing a little
- 16:20Speaker 3: more gap blocking, which is it's power football, Mike, that's
- 16:25Speaker 3: it's kind of old school eighties nineties. We're gonna take
- 16:28Speaker 3: some linemen, pull him, get him into the second level,
- 16:31Speaker 3: and be more brutal. I guess where you're force as
- 16:34Speaker 3: opposed to zone blocking, where you're kind of moving guys
- 16:37Speaker 3: in an area at times.
- 16:38Speaker 2: So that was a nice little wrinkle as well.
- 16:40Speaker 1: The other part of the night was there's a touchdown
- 16:43Speaker 1: pass from Jalen Hurts to a J. Brown to which
- 16:46Speaker 1: he comes over to the sideline and there's a big
- 16:48Speaker 1: celebration between him and Sirianni, a big embrace. They're both
- 16:51Speaker 1: but you who, and Sirianni says to Hurts, I like,
- 16:57Speaker 1: basically somewhere in the in the realm of hey, tell
- 17:00Speaker 1: like you like that play design? Right? You like that
- 17:03Speaker 1: play design? And it's almost like it's Jalen saying, hey,
- 17:06Speaker 1: let's try this, let's try this, and we we did
- 17:09Speaker 1: what you asked and it worked out for us. Maybe
- 17:11Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 17:12Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 17:13Speaker 3: I saw the clip of it in the entire one,
- 17:15Speaker 3: and I almost felt it was like a big d
- 17:18Speaker 3: contest between one guy saying I designed that and the
- 17:20Speaker 3: other guy saying, yeah, but I threw.
- 17:22Speaker 2: It in the scene.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Well that's what I'm saying, right, Like I couldn't figure out,
- 17:27Speaker 1: like if that's Hurts has been saying for weeks, let
- 17:30Speaker 1: me try this, and then not doing it, or or
- 17:32Speaker 1: them adding this to the playbook and it all working
- 17:35Speaker 1: out and them two celebrating together because you know, there
- 17:38Speaker 1: has been questions in the past, I don't know about
- 17:40Speaker 1: as much recently about their relationship. It's the first time
- 17:43Speaker 1: you've really seen those two kind of having a good
- 17:46Speaker 1: old time together. Yeah.
- 17:48Speaker 3: That that, to me was the big takeaway, is that
- 17:49Speaker 3: they were having a good old time together and really
- 17:52Speaker 3: seemed to be enjoying it. And I hope, you know,
- 17:56Speaker 3: just based on some things I know and talking to people,
- 17:58Speaker 3: I'm gonna make an educated us guess here that the
- 18:03Speaker 3: design and adding these concepts are more from the coaches
- 18:06Speaker 3: than the quarterback.
- 18:08Speaker 2: But the quarterback is the one who's got.
- 18:10Speaker 3: To pull the trigger, so you give him, in my case,
- 18:12Speaker 3: you give him more credit because that was Mike a
- 18:15Speaker 3: throw to Aj Brown a nice a timing throw.
- 18:19Speaker 2: You want to bottle that up.
- 18:20Speaker 3: Where Aj Brown caught it was between the numbers, which
- 18:23Speaker 3: has been always a knock on Jalen, and it was
- 18:26Speaker 3: beautifully timed, well executed.
- 18:29Speaker 2: Yes, it was a good design, but you.
- 18:31Speaker 3: Know, you got to throw it into a window there,
- 18:32Speaker 3: and he absolutely did it. And that's two weeks in
- 18:35Speaker 3: a row where Jalen's thrown a pass where you just
- 18:37Speaker 3: want to bottle that thing up, like the DeVante passed
- 18:40Speaker 3: DeVante Smith in overtime against the Chargers.
- 18:43Speaker 2: You know, end result not great, but that pass beautiful.
- 18:46Speaker 1: I also like the play design in that Aj ends
- 18:50Speaker 1: up being open, but Goddard's also open. He runs a
- 18:53Speaker 1: nice seam and he's open. Underneath that play, they had
- 18:57Speaker 1: the Raiders defense very confused on who to defend where,
- 19:01Speaker 1: so he had options and they were both options that
- 19:04Speaker 1: he could see too. It wasn't like, hey, I got
- 19:06Speaker 1: to check off from left, they go all the way
- 19:08Speaker 1: to the other side of the field. There were two options,
- 19:10Speaker 1: not in the same area, but within where I could
- 19:13Speaker 1: go from one down to the other. So that was
- 19:15Speaker 1: a good play design.
- 19:16Speaker 2: So those concepts started last weekend as the chargers.
- 19:19Speaker 3: We're talking about three level concepts or flood concepts for
- 19:24Speaker 3: his zone, where one not when maybe when the ball snapped,
- 19:28Speaker 3: but ultimately all the routes converge on one side of
- 19:31Speaker 3: the field against his zone, making it hard to cover everybody. Now,
- 19:34Speaker 3: last week I thought Jalen did well with it, but
- 19:36Speaker 3: there were a couple of times where the high low concepts.
- 19:40Speaker 3: He took the low, which is fine, it's first down.
- 19:42Speaker 3: Take the low, it's right there. It's a checkdown somewhat
- 19:45Speaker 3: and you move the chains. This time he went to
- 19:48Speaker 3: the middle level concept like that Goddard I think, no No.
- 19:51Speaker 3: Aj Brown had a twenty two yarder I believe, and
- 19:54Speaker 3: Goddard had also a longer gain. Where that was Jillen
- 19:58Speaker 3: Hurts targeting the intermediary level.
- 20:02Speaker 2: Of a multi leveled route concept, which is good to see.
- 20:07Speaker 1: And the flood. And the choice is the safety has
- 20:11Speaker 1: to choose does he want to go with the guy
- 20:13Speaker 1: who's flying past him or come up on the guy
- 20:15Speaker 1: who's underneath because.
- 20:17Speaker 2: There's players conflict.
- 20:18Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, So that is where the play design comes
- 20:21Speaker 1: back into play. Here where they make a good play.
- 20:23Speaker 1: Jalen makes a good throw and listen I mean, all
- 20:25Speaker 1: the stuff about Jalen, this is kind of who he is.
- 20:28Speaker 1: He's not a guy who's going to be thirty of
- 20:29Speaker 1: thirty five or three hundred and forty yards every single week.
- 20:32Speaker 1: He might do that every once in a blue moon.
- 20:34Speaker 1: And it seems that he does it right when you're
- 20:37Speaker 1: starting to question him. Now this week he was twelve
- 20:39Speaker 1: of fifteen, not thirty of thirty five. But it's right
- 20:43Speaker 1: when you start to question him, he rules out that game,
- 20:46Speaker 1: so you know it's in there, Like every time you
- 20:49Speaker 1: want to question him and the offense, it's right when
- 20:51Speaker 1: you're at the precipice of bailing on them. They do
- 20:55Speaker 1: this right, and that's where you're at, and.
- 20:59Speaker 3: I'm sorry, intro all for all this offense needs, I
- 21:02Speaker 3: think is to get a few little a few of
- 21:05Speaker 3: those a game, because I don't think that we're gonna
- 21:07Speaker 3: get to a point where you still you're not gonna
- 21:10Speaker 3: get to a point where you want Jalen Hurts dropping
- 21:11Speaker 3: back thirty to forty times and you expect him to
- 21:14Speaker 3: throw it in between the numbers and the seams, you know,
- 21:17Speaker 3: on most.
- 21:18Speaker 2: Of his completion.
- 21:19Speaker 3: I don't think that they're ever going to be that
- 21:21Speaker 3: kind of offense, and he will be that kind of quarterback.
- 21:23Speaker 3: But if he can give you three to four to
- 21:25Speaker 3: five more of those per game that he was giving
- 21:27Speaker 3: you zero. I mean, we talk about how they won
- 21:30Speaker 3: the NFC Championship Game, scoring all those points without him
- 21:34Speaker 3: throwing a single pass between the numbers, which is almost
- 21:38Speaker 3: hard to believe, right, And even in the Super Bowl
- 21:40Speaker 3: he may have only thrown one or two.
- 21:42Speaker 2: But you knew that that's not sustainable, especially if you
- 21:45Speaker 2: don't have a great run game to compliment it.
- 21:48Speaker 3: So but all he needs is a few more We
- 21:49Speaker 3: don't need to, you know, transform him completely. If that
- 21:53Speaker 3: ever happened, that'd be great, But I don't think you're
- 21:54Speaker 3: that's ever going to be the case.
- 21:56Speaker 1: All right, Washingt did on Saturday, they win, they win
- 21:59Speaker 1: the division, so a win seals of Division Dallas would
- 22:02Speaker 1: be eliminated. Then you're playing for seeding down the stretch
- 22:06Speaker 1: should be wild. You got Rams Seahawks tomorrow night, big
- 22:10Speaker 1: game in the AFC West, A lot of big games
- 22:13Speaker 1: over the final three weeks of the season here and
- 22:14Speaker 1: of course we'll have it for you here on Football
- 22:16Speaker 1: at four on the Sports Past Live on ninety seven
- 22:19Speaker 1: to three ESPN. Well most I probably won't see you
- 22:21Speaker 1: again until January.
- 22:24Speaker 2: Holidays.
- 22:25Speaker 1: You do the same. I'll catch up with you soon.
- 22:28Speaker 2: All right.
- 22:28Speaker 1: Take care, Ho ho ho, Jeff Boscher, everybody from the
- 22:31Speaker 1: Inside the Birds podcast, Phillyvoice dot Com. I think that's
- 22:35Speaker 1: the last time I'll be talking to Mosher. Tomorrow is
- 22:38Speaker 1: my last day on the air for the rest of
- 22:40Speaker 1: the year. I will be back on January the fifth,
- 22:44Speaker 1: after tomorrow show, but we got to till five o'clock tonight.
- 22:48Speaker 1: And of course on the other side when we come back.
- 22:50Speaker 1: Kean Myers, who covers the Raiders, I want to hear
- 22:53Speaker 1: what he had to say about that Raider game. Was
- 22:56Speaker 1: he impressed with Philadelphia? Does he say, oh, it's just
- 22:58Speaker 1: the Raiders look at Philadelphia and say no, no, no,
- 23:01Speaker 1: that was an ass weapon. We'll talk to q Myers
- 23:05Speaker 1: from ESPN Radio's Game Night next here on The Sports
- 23:10Speaker 1: Past Live on ninety seven three ESPN