Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / EAGLES POSTGAME: Eagles vs. Cardinals, Week 17

Transcript

EAGLES POSTGAME: Eagles vs. Cardinals, Week 17 · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:21
All right, everybody, you are listening to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
0:24
the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. Eagles postgame
0:29
analysis after this week seventeen loss, Yes, a week seventeen loss, folks
0:35
to the Arizona Cardinals. Cardinals win this game thirty five to thirty one.
0:40
The Eagles are now eleven to five on the season, imploding before our very
0:45
eyes. A defense that cannot do anything offensive. Coaching at the end of
0:49
the game absolutely clueless. We're gonna get into it, and we're certainly gonna
0:53
go over the themes of this game. Then we're gonna dish out our grades
0:56
by unit, as we always do. I'm Jeff Warren. I'm here at
0:59
my good buddy Shuster from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. I mean, we should
1:04
just talk Premier League stuff, shouldn't we, Buddy at this point, or
1:07
maybe New Year's resolutions? Yeah, Ken, Ken, we I text you.
1:11
I can recap my vacation to Hershey, if we want to talk about
1:15
that, and I can rate the places we went to. All of that
1:19
I feel is going to be far better than the outcome of this of what
1:25
we're going to talk about here. You know I I usually you're a man
1:27
of the cloth. I usually don't get into too much language when you're you're
1:32
on not not just that, but it just because you know, usually Eric
1:36
on our podcasts, he's the guy with a lot of colorful language at times.
1:38
We usually usually keep things a little bit clean here and there. But
1:42
you know what, fuck this team. Fuck this team, this offense,
1:47
offensive coaching. As I mentioned toward the end of the games. I mean,
1:52
I'm sitting there, I'm texting you during the course of the game,
1:55
Josh and saying, you know what, this offense looked pretty good. Offense
1:57
is doing what they need to do, their hands business, you know,
2:00
Hurts is looking pretty good. Then they get to the end of the game
2:04
where they need to score. Arizona absolutely gives them fantastic field position on an
2:08
on side kick that Philly recovers, and they just implode from an offensive standpoint.
2:15
The fucking defense. I mean, this is the most incredible falloff of
2:22
a defensive group that I think I may have ever seen in the NFL species,
2:27
and especially being a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I mean, the Eagles should
2:31
not have been in a twenty eight to twenty eight tie game with the Arizona
2:38
Cardinals in the fourth quarter with four minutes left in the game, the defensive
2:42
swiss cheese just tissue paper thin, absolutely laughable. And in fact, our
2:49
friend of the pod here, EDG. Kratz from fan Nation, tweeted out
2:52
during the game and it's absolutely true. He said, the Eagles defense certainly
2:54
don't look like a super Bowl worthy team against a three win car Dnoll's team
3:00
that's doing whatever they want against them. And it's interesting. It's interesting to
3:06
say all this about this awful defense that we are seeing now from this Eagles
3:09
team, Josh, because the statistics say last year was so much better,
3:15
and we know where this Eagles defense was ranked in terms of past defense rush
3:20
defense. We know where they were last year under the tutelage and leadership of
3:24
a gentleman named Jonathan Gannon, who they went up against today as the Arizona
3:28
Cardinals head coach. I So maybe we can get the conversation started. Was
3:32
Jonathan Gannon a really good defensive coordinator? Or is it just that this team
3:38
is imploding at a particular period in time where they're going up against him?
3:42
And it's an interesting narrative, and maybe storyline, and you know there're gonna
3:46
be some hot takes here and there, but really, Sean decide, Matt
3:51
Patricia haven't gotten the job done. Jonathan Gannon. Look, you know,
3:55
as many many folks wanted to run him out of town, we were certainly
3:59
critical of him on this podcast platform. He was able to show this team,
4:04
this Eagles team today, who was a better coach quite frankly. And
4:09
yes, it's one game. Cardinals were three and whatever coming into this game.
4:13
They won three games. Dude, man, I don't know what are
4:16
your thoughts about that whole narrative here, because I am absolutely dumbfounded as to
4:21
where this defense specifically has gone over these past few weeks. Yeah, I
4:29
was never a I hate Johnathan Gann in person. I'm more of and I'm
4:34
still there this year. I hate this defensive scheme they played the corners played
4:41
up on the line, and when they did that once or twice, the
4:44
one time it was the pick six. Yeah, because they were physical at
4:46
the line and then they decide we're just going to back off and we're going
4:50
to give them ten yards. It's the Arizona Cardinals receivers. All they spent
4:55
the beginning of the game talking about is the fact that the Arizona Cardinals receivers
4:59
have done absolutely nothing for this season. So why in the world are you
5:03
giving them cushion. I can understand it against Ceedee Lamb, who can burn
5:08
you. I can understand it against some of the other receivers this game,
5:11
it made absolutely no sense. It's this, it's the scheme. To your
5:15
point about was the defense better under Jonathan Gannon, I guess I have to
5:23
say yes. But I'm also in the position where the Eagles opted to keep
5:30
older players. We all know that Father Time is undefeated. He Father Time
5:35
is undefeated and always will be, and so there has been a steep drop
5:40
off even in terms of if you look at both Bradbury and Sleigh, they
5:45
are not what they were last year. That has nothing to do with skeep.
5:47
They're playing the exact same scheme. It's that Father Time has caught up
5:51
to them. And all of these incredible draft picks by Howie Roseman. You
5:58
can't just go off of one season. It's a collective group of years.
6:02
He has had some good picks. When you look at people like Jane Carter,
6:08
right, they brought him in, drafted him. Nobody could believe that
6:11
he fell what was one of the biggest knocks on him. His conditioning were.
6:15
At the end of the season, he's playing less than fifty percent of
6:17
the defensive snaps, meaning that players who are older than me are playing more
6:24
snaps than he is. In the NFL, that's not good, and so
6:29
they drafted a lot of people who have very high upsides. The problem is
6:32
they need to develop. So to your point of coaching, yes, Nick
6:36
Sirianni got out coached. There is no way to say it, Nick Sirianni.
6:41
When we get to grades, he is getting an F minus from me
6:44
because look at what Jonathan Jonathan Gannon has on his team. He has nothing.
6:48
They literally traded everyone away but Kyler Murray and in aging James Connor right
6:55
like he has nothing, and they beat the Eagles today. Absolutely out coached
7:00
Nix syrian absolutely did and kept punching this Eagles defensive front into in the mouth
7:09
where James Connor rushed the ball twenty six times for one hundred and twenty eight
7:13
yards four point nine yards per carry. At one point it was up to
7:15
five point four yards per carry in this game. Michael Carter he had seven
7:20
carries for sixty one yards eight point seven yards per carry. In total,
7:26
Arizona rushed the ball forty times for two hundred and twenty one yards averaged five
7:32
point five yards per rush. That is horrendous. And if you think this
7:40
Eagles team is going into the playoffs and they're gonna be able to put up
7:43
some sort of wall in the defensive front, you are sorely mistaken. Folks.
7:46
We need to prepare ourselves for a very very early exit of this Philadelphia
7:51
Eagles team if this continues to persist. And now on the other side of
7:56
the ball, we see throughout the course of the game, in all seriousness,
8:01
in all seriousness, from an offensive standpoint, from a Jalen Hurts performance
8:07
standpoint, I think a very good job of Hurts stepping up in the pocket
8:11
at times in this game, and we've been seeing it more and more over
8:16
the past couple weeks. For sure, we saw it on the throw he
8:18
made to Julio Jones on Julio Jones' second touchdown of the game right before the
8:22
half. We've just seen some better movement from Jalen Hurts in this regard in
8:26
recent weeks. Now you fast forward or get to the end of the game
8:33
where they have these designed quarterback runs way too many times for Jalen Hurts,
8:37
specifically in key moments of these football games that completely break down, destroy momentum.
8:46
They just aren't working anymore. But they're continuing to put them into the
8:52
playbook and in game situations. I cannot seem to understand it. You texted
8:58
me something, Josh, just about how well maybe they need to give Jalen
9:01
Hurts these specific quarterback designed runs. I thought that was interesting, you know,
9:05
they like, there's this feeling they have to continue to do this even
9:07
though it continues to fail. Yeah, I had said, I think what
9:13
Brian Johnson does ahead of game, ahead of time, is he decides how
9:16
many times Jalen Hurts is going to run the football. It doesn't matter what's
9:20
happening in the game, but he is determined Jalen Hurts will run the ball
9:24
X number of times. I could care less about what's going on. We're
9:28
just going to continue to call this. Yeah, I mean I don't.
9:31
I don't understand it at all. That final drive where they only get three
9:35
points. You know, DeAndre Swift is averaging almost five yards of carry and
9:41
rather than running it and running it and running it, which, by the
9:45
way, you can see your defense is not stopping a junior high football team
9:50
right now. Why are you passing it? Why are you risking an incompletion
9:54
when you have a running back who's averaging five yards of carry? It makes
10:00
absolutely no sense. Just run the ball, and you, Jeff, I
10:03
say this all the time. I am not a run the ball guy.
10:07
I'm just not, especially if you're going to face a terrible pass defense past
10:11
the ball. But Arizona gave up over two hundred yards last week on the
10:16
ground. They are a horrendous run defense. Why are we trying to pass
10:22
the ball? Jalen Hurts is the only one I'm going to get a pass
10:24
on, and maybe the receivers because their number just wasn't called. Yeah,
10:28
and that's that's fine, and they did the best. And I'm not that
10:31
last interception by Hurts it's a hail Mary. It's not even really an interception.
10:35
I'm not going to hold that against them where he hurts to find today.
10:41
Receivers for the most part did fine today, and just this play calling
10:46
is just absolutely baffling. Yeah, it absolutely is. I am with you
10:52
with regard to Jalen Hurts. I think he had a pretty good game right
10:56
at the half. Jalen Hurts that first half completed a eleven of thirteen passes
11:01
for one hundred and fourteen yards, two touchdowns, and had a passer rating
11:05
of one hundred and forty two point eight. That's the first half, and
11:09
he ends the game eighteen of twenty three, one hundred and sixty seven yards,
11:13
three touchdowns, one interception. Of course, like you mentioned at the
11:16
end of the game, with a he finished with a rating of one hundred
11:20
and eighteen point four. Yet it was bizarre how his number and a lot
11:24
of the wide receivers numbers weren't really called the way that they should have been
11:28
called in this game, and when the running backs had some momentum, their
11:33
number was then not called. It was like it was like the offense was
11:37
like, Okay, what we need right now and what we should be doing
11:41
right now in terms of offensive play calling, we're going to do the exact
11:45
opposite, and we're not gonna put our players in a pretty good position here.
11:48
You know, it's the old Andy Reid added adage. You know,
11:52
I didn't put my players in a good position to succeed. We hated here
11:54
in that over and over again. We've heard that with Sirianni every now and
11:58
again. This was that game where it's like the complete opposite of what really
12:01
needed to happen, especially in the second half, it was nonexistent what needed
12:07
to happen. I'd be the two like, I am so baffled. I
12:11
am so completely baffled by those design quarterback runs that didn't work and broke down
12:18
right at the end of the game. Third, where you have third and
12:22
twenty. You know on that we're talking second to the last drive, which
12:26
is basically quote the last drive that right before Jake Elliott came out and kicked
12:31
that field goal. It's unbelievable, that last offensive sequence, and it again
12:37
goes to show how bad the coaching for this Eagles team has been this season.
12:41
Just a total total mess. I just wanted to get in to some
12:46
notable tidbits in this game. DeAndre Swift now over one thousand yards rushing on
12:52
the season, first time he's been over one thousand yards in his career.
12:56
Jalen Hurts had his thirty six touchdown of the season, that first touchdown to
13:01
Julio Jones in the first quarter, which is now a new Eagles record.
13:05
He was tied with Randall Cunningham coming into this game, now has surpassed and
13:09
he's actually at thirty thirty eight touchdowns on the season total. So at this
13:15
point, buddy, what do you want to do? I mean, should
13:16
we go to break and then get into some grades? Do you have any
13:18
other themes that you want to get into? Because god, what is just
13:22
a kick in the nuts? This freaking game was. Yeah. The only
13:26
thing I'll add comment is we may have a wide receiver situation soon. I
13:31
catched you to Smithy was headed back to the locker room and he was limping.
13:35
That's not good, aj Brown. He's not speaking to the media and
13:37
it's honestly probably for the best because he's about to lose his mind. Yeah.
13:43
On the third and twenty play call with the screen to smooth Old Kenny
13:48
g there he was shaking his head walking off. I mean, he's going
13:54
to lead a mutiny sometime soon. This locker room is going to come apart,
13:58
and it may start in a wide receiver room. And they can't pay
14:03
Swift, they don't use a running back enough, they cannot invest the resources
14:07
Swift is a good running back, very good. Just don't pay running back
14:11
if you're not going to use them, don't pay them exactly exactly. I
14:13
thought it was interesting during our text conversation during the game, Josh, where
14:18
you said that San Francisco game really just took everything out of this team,
14:22
and I think we can go back when we look at our contemporary history with
14:26
what has happened with this Eagles team going back to that game. And I
14:30
didn't respond. I think I responded to you by saying something along the light
14:33
like San Francisco took their soul. They actually took their soul. It's like
14:37
they reached into the middle of their chest and they just grabbed the Philadelphia Eagle
14:43
soul, just threw it right to the curb, stomped on it, and
14:46
just left it there to die. The San Francisco forty nine ers did that
14:52
to this team. And how this team has not been able to even take
14:56
that soul that is on the sidewalk all crinkled up, and how they have
15:01
not been able to just kind of get up from the ground, get up
15:05
and just kind of kind of just just get the dirt off of them.
15:09
It says a lot about this team, and inevitably it says a lot about
15:13
the coaching and I have a feeling that we're going to be talking about this
15:16
Eagles off season a lot sooner than we initially thought we were going to say,
15:22
maybe in you know, week you know, week seven or eight.
15:24
I think we're going to be We're talking about this Eagles off season a lot
15:28
more. But I think you're right, Josh, that forty nine Ers game
15:33
took this team's soul. Yeah, And I forget who it said it.
15:37
Maybe it was Bosa that the script is out, and you know, I
15:43
thought it was real cocky at the time. I didn't like the comment,
15:46
but he's right. I mean they showed you run the ball, you don't
15:50
turn the ball over, you will beat the Eagles. Yep. And it's
15:54
it's a real it's a real problem, and the problem really starts with coaching
16:00
staff. Yep. Nick Siriani, his rab ra is all great when things
16:04
are good and you're winning, but players tune that corny miss out real quick
16:11
when things aren't going well. And we may be at that point, you
16:15
know, I don't know. They have one more week to figure it out.
16:18
But we've been saying this now for seventeen weeks. We're going into week
16:22
eighteen. Well, they have one more week to figure it out. We'll
16:26
see what happens, well, to see what happens for sure, we're certainly
16:30
going to be talking about on the PST podcast show, folks. We've got
16:33
a great guest on this coming week's regular show. Andrew Decheco is going to
16:37
be coming on, jumping on from Inside the Birds. He's going to be
16:41
talking about this team offense, defense, and what we may be seeing in
16:45
the future. But in the meantime, we are going to be taking a
16:48
break here. We're gonna pay some bills. We will be back in just
16:52
a bit with our grades. We're gonna grade by unit and the coaching staff
16:56
stick with us. We'll be right back. All right, we are back
16:59
in. We're with our good friend Josh Schuster from Philadelphia Soccer Now dot com
17:03
at flyg Gye Josh ninety one on the Twitter dot com or x whatever you
17:08
want to call it, and let's get into the grades. Jalen Hurts,
17:11
I'm actually gonna give him. I'm gonna give him a B plus this week.
17:15
As we mentioned earlier, Josh, this game wasn't on him I think
17:19
he performed well. I think he did what he needed to do from the
17:22
pocket very well. I mean, aside from the end of the game when
17:26
those quarterback design runs were just not working and they weren't gonna run given what
17:32
was in front of them. Poor coaching. I'm giving Jalen Hurts a B
17:34
plus this week. What do you give him? Yeah? You get for
17:38
me, Okay. I mean when I evaluate a player, I'll look at
17:41
the position or put in and then how they performed. How he performed is
17:48
a level. The position he was put in, particularly at the end of
17:51
the game is probably an F and so I'm going to give her today.
17:55
Okay, all right, let's move to the running back position. We had
17:59
Kenny Gay Well, he had two carries in this game for five yards.
18:03
Did he did catch the ball five times for fifteen yards? Folks. But
18:07
DeAndre Swift, who we talked about earlier, just eclipsing a thousand yards on
18:14
the season, continuing to just get yardage when he needs to get yardage for
18:18
this team. He averaged four point seven yards per carry thirteen carries sixty one
18:23
yards. They're just not utilizing him as effectively as they should be. And
18:29
Jalen Hurts. You know, he had eight carries for twenty five yards in
18:32
this game. His legs obviously not as effective as they once were. And
18:36
I know we're grading the running back position, but I'm going to give the
18:37
running backs and a minus. Actually, you what do you give? It's
18:41
basically DeAndre Swift? So I mean, what are you going to give the
18:44
running backs? I'm going to give him an a minus. Swift gets an
18:49
a plus. And the NFC that is continuing to use Kenny Gainwell especially,
18:56
I text you he's apparently the red zone him back. I know happen.
19:02
I know that gets an ass, but I'm not going to hold that against
19:06
DeAndre Swift. He's great again, I said, he's great. How you
19:10
don't use him? He had ninety two yards last week, seventy four yards
19:15
the week before that. I don't understand it, don't I don't, I
19:18
don't get it. Yep, I'm with you as well. A minus for
19:22
the running backs. Receivers now tight ends and receivers. AJ Brown, with
19:27
fifty three yards receiving on the day, targeted five times, came down with
19:32
four balls. Dallas Goddard had five receptions for forty seven yards, Julio Jones
19:37
two receptions for thirty four yards. Both of those receptions were touchdowns, and
19:41
Davonte Smith caught three balls for thirty yards. He was targeted five times,
19:45
so again, like the receivers really not asked to do too too much in
19:49
this game, one hundred and eighty four total yards in terms of receiving.
19:53
I'm going to give the receivers. I'm going to give him a B.
19:57
And part of that is Davonte Smith missing that and dropping that one catch.
20:03
My gosh, he should have had that catch and that that could have played
20:07
a pivotal role in the game as well. So I'm I'm gonna give him
20:11
a bee. What do you give the receivers this week? I'm actually gonna
20:14
give him a C. Okay, I'm going to give their game performance at
20:17
anus. But these antics that are starting are an f and the only way
20:22
to balance it out is to give it a C. All right. I
20:23
think the off the field stuff is now starting to creep on the field and
20:26
that's a problem, and it's really stemming from one place to wide receiver room
20:30
and so field performance, I'll give him an a minus because that drop otherwise
20:36
would have been an A plus off the field f so it's a C all
20:38
right, very fair. And the offensive line, I actually thought they did
20:42
a pretty good job this week. Given Jalen Hurts a pocket, he wasn't
20:47
scrambling too too much, and when he did need to step up in the
20:49
pocket, he did. As we mentioned earlier in the game, that's definitely
20:55
a side of his game that we haven't seen too too much of that has
20:57
been improving week by here. But the offensive line, I mean, they
21:02
were opening the holes for DeAndre Swift and I'm actually gonna give him an A
21:07
minus this week. What do you give the offensive line? I give him
21:11
a name. I think they did a great job. They opened up holes
21:14
like you said, they kept the pocket clean like you said. They get
21:17
an A. It's gonna be interesting once we get to the offensive coaching.
21:21
These a lot of these players getting a's and b's, But man, these
21:25
players are making plays on the field despite the coaching, So it's going to
21:30
be interesting for sure. Let's move out of the defensive side of the ball
21:33
the defensive line here, and I wanted to get into one guy in particular
21:37
as we're going through the grades here, and that is one Josh Sweat.
21:41
Josh Sweat has been playing terrible, terrible defensive football, folks. He has
21:48
been Yes, I know, he had six total tackles in this game,
21:51
four solo tackles, one quarterback hit. I got those stats right there.
21:56
But a number of times, if you decide to go go back and rewatch
22:00
this game, you are going to see, and specifically on the first drive
22:03
as well, where he had no idea where the ball was at times,
22:07
just giving a poor effort, getting pushed around to the ground, consistently missing
22:14
tackles as well after that contract extension, I am extremely disappointed with where Josh
22:19
Sweat is in terms of his development. This is a guy who has developed
22:22
so well over the past couple of seasons, and to see where we are
22:26
at right here, week seventeen of twenty twenty three, where he is just
22:32
within missing and just not seemingly giving that effort that you want that next pass
22:38
rusher for this Eagles defense to be. I am so disappointed in him.
22:42
You were talking about Jalen Carter earlier. This defensive line was swiss cheese today
22:48
and it allowed James Connor again to have one hundred and twenty eight yards on
22:53
the ground. This defensive line gets a straight up F minus from me.
22:57
What do you give him? Buddy? They get an F minus? And
23:03
I'll bring up to one person. You didn't bring up Nolan Williams there,
23:07
What are you doing? Yeah, what are you doing? Pay attention to
23:10
the ball. Stop celebrating. Pay attention to the ball. Celebrate after the
23:15
officials have it in their hands. It's absolutely ridiculous. Unless the Cardinals the
23:21
Mons Jonathan Gaddon spent his week inventing a time machine to go back four years
23:26
to get a prime Kyler Murray and James Connor. It's absolutely unacceptable, unacceptable,
23:33
completely unacceptable, absolutely completely unacceptable. And now as we get into the
23:38
linebacker position, I'm actually going to give the line back well, I'm going
23:41
to give the linebackers a C this week, and I do think that is
23:45
generous because they did play poorly. But I think they played poorly because you
23:49
have guys like Josh Sweat who are not able to to play contain at all
23:56
and who are completely screwing things up right out of the gate and putting so
24:03
much pressure on a linebacker corps that isn't the most talented linebacker corps. Nick
24:07
Morrow has nine solo tackles in this game, just like he was asked to
24:14
do way, way too much, and he's being asked to cover Rondel Moore,
24:19
which should not be happening. Trey McBride as well, the best,
24:25
one of the best pass catchers on this Cardinals team. And I'm gonna give
24:30
the linebackers a seed. But it's because of the ineffective defensive line that puts
24:34
so much pressure on the linebackers and specifically Nick Marrow. But I'm gonna give
24:38
linebackers a See what do you give them? Okay? He had linebackers were
24:45
literally falling down for no reason. They were, But like if you were
24:48
watching the game and they showed behind the camera angle of teams kind of running
24:52
football, you see linebackers literally just falling down. How are we at the
24:57
place where we have Shack, who has been cut is the redemptive force at
25:03
linebacker, and you have other linebackers who are literally falling to the ground around
25:07
him for no reason at all. It's just all right, I think it's
25:12
fair. Maybe I'll bring it down to a D at this. You're convinced.
25:18
I love Josh. I love Josh, folks. He's always convincing me.
25:21
You know, I try, I try to be optimistic, and it's
25:22
almost impossible to be optimistic with this dumb team at this point. But Josh
25:27
sets me straight every now and so let's move to the secondary. Fuck them.
25:33
F They were fucking horrendous. I mean, Jesus gosh, oh my
25:37
goodness. F for me, I just don't know what do you say at
25:40
this point with this secondary, They're awful, They're terrible. There's no cohesion
25:45
and in fact, I think I said to you over text as well,
25:48
it seemed like the defensive line, linebackers, and the secondary, these three
25:53
levels of your defense. It's like there was three different play calls coming in
26:00
from the defensive side, whether it was Matt Patricia you know, or Sewan
26:03
decide like it seemed like they weren't. Of course, they weren't on the
26:06
same page. Did the eye test It looked like that, but it looked
26:08
even more extreme, like they were getting three different play calls and it just
26:12
wasn't sinking up at all from time to time. It was incredible. F
26:17
For the secondary, they were just horrendous. What are you thinking here,
26:19
buddy? So I'm going to give them a sat wow, I would be
26:25
in I would be in your camp. However, they did have a ninety
26:29
nine yard picks Oh, how could I forget? Yes, So I'm going
26:33
to give them a step And it's because of that. Okay, I got
26:37
you know what again, folks, Josh bringing me back up. I'll give
26:41
him a D because of that. I'm going to give them a D because
26:44
of Sydney Brown's ninety nine yard touchdown pick six. It was it was beautiful.
26:48
That was That was the only that was one of the most beautiful aspects
26:52
of this game. So all right, coaching special teams, my gosh,
26:57
there wasn't even a punt return in this game for the Eagles because Arizona didn't
27:02
punt, Folks, Arizona did not punt at all. There would no punt
27:06
returns for Britton Covey, Breton Man. Honestly, we got our punter here.
27:11
He's been doing well since they've been bringing them on, fifty eight point
27:14
five yards per punt. Jake Elliott nailing his field goals, nailed that forty
27:19
three yarder at the end of the game, all four extra points. I'm
27:22
gonna give the special teams a B plus this week. What do you give
27:25
them, Jeff, I don't even know. I guess. I guess there's
27:33
just really nothing to evaluate. I mean, I know, yes we have
27:37
a punter, but if you watched the kickoff returns by Arizona, like there
27:42
were a couple of times where they almost took at their house because they just
27:45
can't tackle. True. I mean, I I don't know. I guess
27:51
I'll be minus okay, B minus all right, I think that is fair
27:55
for sure, Matt, Patricia Sean decide whatever's going on the defensive side of
27:59
things, F minus for sure? What do you give them, Jeff,
28:04
I don't even know if there's a great lower than F minus. I mean,
28:10
this is the card, this is the card. Yes, how bad
28:15
does that switch from? Decide? Patricia? Look now, I mean it's
28:19
very clear. It really looks like in the last three weeks the defense has
28:23
quit on the coaching staff. Yes, and I mean I hate to say
28:26
that, but I'm looking at it going. There were rumblings in the locker
28:30
room that they weren't happy about this with all the money that they have invested
28:37
in defense. I just I don't I don't understand how Jeff drew Locke two
28:44
weeks ago game winning touchdown drive Kyrod Taylor last week almost literally almost the game
28:52
winning touchdown drive, and today Kyler Murray, who still really probably isn't even
28:57
healthy, with a completely co leted a horrible receiving core, game winning touchdown
29:04
drive. I don't understand how this is happening. I'm gonna lose my mind
29:08
anyway, I've lost my hair. I'm gonna lose my mind. Whatever,
29:12
they get an F minus, F minus. And the offensive coaching Brian Johnson,
29:18
Nick Sirianni, they are gonna get a straight up F. And the
29:22
reason why it's not an F minus it's because I do think in the first
29:25
half they were playing effective offensive football and called an offensive an effective offensive football
29:33
game. I do believe that in the first half and the second half they
29:36
completely were just clueless and stubborn, stubborn about needing to stick to their little
29:44
script that consistently hasn't been working in the second half week after week after week
29:48
after week. So I am gonna give them an F. And it's simply
29:52
because we saw some decent stuff offensively during the first half of this game.
29:57
It's still an F. I mean, at the end of the day,
30:00
it's still an EF. It's not as terrible as the defense. But oh
30:03
my gosh, that last sequence with with Jalen Hurts again, those two design
30:08
quarterback plays. Can he gainwell screen for hardly any yardage at all on third
30:14
and twenty? It's an F for me. What do you give the offensive
30:17
coaching? Jeff? I hear your points about the first half, it's still
30:21
an as minus. Okay. I mean to ask, with the Cardinals having
30:26
the ball for all the time except for nine minutes, did that do this
30:32
coaching staff favors where they couldn't blow it? Remember? Yeah, they went
30:36
like three and out first time. Yeah. Right, So like, I
30:40
hear what you're saying, but I disagree because I think that the Cardinals and
30:45
the Eagles defense helped them more than anything. And I'm going to give two
30:48
separate grades here. Okay, one for Brian Johnson as the offensive coordinator.
30:56
The Cardinals are a bottom third team. They only were able to put up
31:03
twenty four points. Twenty four points. Yes, they scored thirty one,
31:07
but one is a pick six. You were able to score twenty four points
31:11
on a terrible, terrible defense. So F minus that way, Nick Siriani,
31:18
you get an F. Minus two. Everybody on the coaching staff gets
31:21
an F minus. We're Oprah here. Everybody's getting an F minus because he
31:26
is losing this locker room. You have players no longer speaking to the media,
31:30
You have people that are anonymously texting and responding to reporters. That is
31:37
not a good sign. That is not a sign of a locker room that
31:40
is together. That is not the sign of a team who respects their coach.
31:45
To me, that is we've gone to the coach. He's not listening.
31:49
So now we're going to start talking to said reporter because I have a
31:53
relationship with that person. It's not good. It's a problem. You mentioned
31:59
the R word right there, and I think it's one we're probably going to
32:01
be hearing a lot more about over the course of these next few weeks.
32:05
The word respect, the lack of respect that is going on with teammates,
32:08
with coaches, and frankly, the lack of respect that US fans have for
32:14
this team right now. And this is a team that right now is eleven
32:20
and five. It's not too shabby of a record, but they are playing
32:24
like a four and twelve team, like the Arizona Cardinals who just beat them.
32:30
It is really astounding where this team is at. So, Buddy,
32:35
I'm glad you had a great, great time in Hershey with your family.
32:37
You had a great vacation. We got New Year's coming, baby, It's
32:42
the start of something new, right. Oh. Yeah. The last thing
32:47
I'll say is I think you had mentioned it. I've seen on Twitter about
32:52
potentially Neck losing his job. I wonder, and I don't know that that's
32:58
going to happen. Yeah, because I'm looking at the Russell Wilson situation where
33:01
reports are coming out now the Denver is going to have to overpay for free
33:06
agents to come in because of this situation how they're handling it. I don't
33:09
see any way that the Eagles look good in firing Nick Sirianni, even if
33:15
there is a complete epic collapse. And I also think it's not the worst
33:19
thing that the Eagles aren't going to be the number two seed now because this
33:22
is not a number two seed, and I think it's I think it's better
33:27
for the NFL playoffs, but I also think it's better for us as Eagles
33:30
fans, to be able to say this was never a two seed team.
33:34
We're better as a five seed or a six seed and see what happens,
33:37
because if we lose that way, at least be deserted. So absolutely,
33:40
I think that's a great way to end at folks Again, Josh Schuster from
33:44
Philadelphia soccernow dot com at Flag Guy Josh ninety one on the Twitter dot com
33:50
on x And if you want to find any of our shows, certainly you
33:54
can go to Philadelphia Sports table dot com. We've got all of our shows
33:58
over there. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever podcast platform you're
34:04
listening to us on. We greatly appreciate that any rate and reviews as well,
34:07
Josh. But buddy, thank you so much for filling in for the
34:10
guys very much. Appreciate it. Always good talking to you, my friend
34:15
any time, Jeff. It's always a pleasure. All right, folks,
34:16
you all take care. That's gonna do it for week seventeen of this bird's
34:21
loss and let it sink in how much this sucks, and we'll see you.
34:27
We'll see you next time. Take care, everybody,