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Football at Four: More Intel Day After Eagles Win Over Commanders · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Football at Four is powered by the Inside the Birds podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Monday night football tonight, and you can listen to it
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  Speaker 1: on 97.3 ESPN. You can watch it right here at
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  Speaker 1: the Fanatic Sportsbook. Let's take a look back at the
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  Speaker 1: Eagles' win tonight. A win is a win. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: say it was the most aesthetically pleasing or the most
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  Speaker 1: impressive win. Let's see what Jeff Mosher had to say
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  Speaker 1: about it. He handed out his grades over at phillyvoice.com,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll take a look at some of the different
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  Speaker 1: units and what stood out. This new look offense, Jeff,
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  Speaker 1: we were waiting for it, and it wasn't all that exciting.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't look all that much different. They might have
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  Speaker 1: had a different scheme, but the results seemed very similar.
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  Speaker 1: They had a tough time running the football. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of shots down the field. It was kind of these
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  Speaker 1: one-off plays that seemed to work for them. It was
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  Speaker 1: not a very consistent offense for week one.
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  Speaker 2: No, you're right, Mike. It was for all the quote
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  Speaker 2: changes in the offense and formationally there were, like you mentioned,
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  Speaker 2: they were under center 30% of the time, played a
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  Speaker 2: lot more 11 personnel, three wide receivers than their usual
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  Speaker 2: 12 personnel for all the, you know, the wide zone
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  Speaker 2: runs and everything. It really did have a complexion of
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  Speaker 2: an Eagles offense from the past, which was sort of
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  Speaker 2: move the ball slowly, methodically, struggle in the run game,
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  Speaker 2: but then pop some really big plays. However, I do
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  Speaker 2: think that there were some things you can take from
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  Speaker 2: week one of this new offense, some improvements, some changes
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  Speaker 2: in the passing game, especially that you can at least
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  Speaker 2: feel encouraged by for week one and hope that that
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  Speaker 2: continues to carry over into week two, because there were
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  Speaker 2: some really good, you know, a big part of the
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  Speaker 2: offense we talked about is those timing and anticipation throws.
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  Speaker 2: And if you look at the big 64 yarder to
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  Speaker 2: Wicks and then the touchdown, to Wicks, and even the
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  Speaker 2: touchdown to Goddard, the four-verge play, those were plays where
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  Speaker 2: Jalen Hurts was releasing the ball before the receivers were
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  Speaker 2: open or making their cuts. So I think that there's
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  Speaker 2: a sample there of some things to be encouraged by,
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  Speaker 2: even if the larger picture makes it look like it
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  Speaker 2: was just more of the same.
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  Speaker 1: All right. One of the things everybody seems to be
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  Speaker 1: pointing out about the offense, Mosher, is the offensive line
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  Speaker 1: and the struggles they have, particularly Landon Dickerson. He was
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  Speaker 1: brought up today. to Nick Sirianni, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of video that was a rough day at the office.
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  Speaker 1: I can't imagine he's having a good film session today
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  Speaker 1: with the new coaching staff here. But the offensive line
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  Speaker 1: in general, did we look at a line that struggled yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: mainly because of the scheme or because maybe they're not
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  Speaker 1: as good as we remember them?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean, I think that there's different reasons.
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  Speaker 2: You know, the interior of the offensive line was not only,
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  Speaker 2: you know, struggle for Landon Dickerson and at times Cam Juergens.
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  Speaker 2: I thought his team was okay. He didn't really stand
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  Speaker 2: out to me as not doing well. I think he's
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  Speaker 2: a good athlete and good for the zone run scheme.
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  Speaker 2: But obviously what Washington did was funnel a lot of
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  Speaker 2: its pressure. And this is not just because of the Eagles.
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  Speaker 2: This is what Durante Jones, who is a pupil of
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  Speaker 2: Brian Flores. You know, he came over from Minnesota to
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  Speaker 2: be the defensive coordinator for Washington. What Brian Flores does
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  Speaker 2: is put a lot of guys in the line of
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  Speaker 2: scrimmage and really attack your a gaps and make you
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  Speaker 2: and your whole line communicate. And you have to know
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  Speaker 2: who to pick up and then he's going to drop guys.
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  Speaker 2: So he gets out your protection schemes and he just
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  Speaker 2: also throws guys at you. And it's all always a
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  Speaker 2: sunny styles, right? I mean, really come at the interior
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  Speaker 2: of the Eagles offensive line. And then when you, package
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  Speaker 2: Dickerson struggles and Juergen struggles with Saquon Barkley struggles in
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  Speaker 2: past protection. Um, those really jumped out on tape and
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  Speaker 2: that's something that the Eagles are going to have to
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  Speaker 2: figure out because you know, Dickerson, I don't, and that's a,
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  Speaker 2: that could be a health issue. Barkley has never really
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  Speaker 2: been great in past protection. He's had moments, but, um,
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  Speaker 2: he loses his technique a lot. And if you have
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  Speaker 2: the right set of personnel and the right kind of
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  Speaker 2: play caller, you can really do some damage there against
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  Speaker 2: the Eagles. They don't pick it up.
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  Speaker 1: Right. The passing game, I mean, we saw Goddard be involved.
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  Speaker 1: We saw, as Sirianni was asked, hey, are you guys
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  Speaker 1: going to spread the ball around? Four different receivers had
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  Speaker 1: four targets or more. Devontae Smith didn't have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of action until really the second half. Wicks had the
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  Speaker 1: one long one. But I liked what I saw from Goddard.
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  Speaker 1: I actually think there's more there. Lemon had a rough
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  Speaker 1: day at the office. But overall, was the passing game
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  Speaker 1: different from what we've seen?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like I said, there were, I think,
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  Speaker 2: some differences in seeing more timing and anticipatory throws from Hurts.
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  Speaker 2: You know, maybe not, like, all game long, but, like,
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  Speaker 2: this is, first of all, he didn't have that many dropbacks, right?
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  Speaker 2: They're still a run-heavy team, at least they're trying to be.
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  Speaker 2: And second of all, it's not going to be like,
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  Speaker 2: you're not going to, like, This isn't going to turn
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  Speaker 2: into like a Saints under Drew Brees operation overnight, okay?
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  Speaker 2: So I thought that Hurts was... You know, we just
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  Speaker 2: did Inside the Tape with Greg Cosell. That'll be out
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow and Wednesday, offense and defense. And, you know, even
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  Speaker 2: he felt that there was good control by Hurts with
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  Speaker 2: the offense. There was never a time that even if
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  Speaker 2: he was being rushed or pressured that he just... lost
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  Speaker 2: control of it. So that, that was good. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that part is good. Washington really did try to make
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  Speaker 2: things ugly and uncomfortable. And clearly the Eagles have some
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  Speaker 2: issues right now in protection. That's going to help that.
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  Speaker 2: But he was under control and yeah, I don't think
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  Speaker 2: that we'll, we'll look at his office and say, it's
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  Speaker 2: truly what we expect it to be until we see
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  Speaker 2: some semblance of a really good running game. And Barkley
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  Speaker 2: may have had a 80 yards and a 42 yard run,
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  Speaker 2: but on every other run, it was not good.
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  Speaker 1: Football for Jeff Mosher's here. Obviously, they didn't have a
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  Speaker 1: consistent pass game. It's like you watch some of these
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  Speaker 1: teams play, and it's just like the timing and the
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  Speaker 1: rhythm of the offenses that they have. That doesn't mean
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  Speaker 1: they're great. It's just one, two, three, bang, there's a
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  Speaker 1: guy open. They throw it to him, and they let
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  Speaker 1: him kind of make it. It just never seems to
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  Speaker 1: be in this offense, no matter whether it was this
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  Speaker 1: offense or last year's version. There just never seems to
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  Speaker 1: be fluidity in the pass game.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and, you know, that hasn't really looked like poetry
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  Speaker 2: in motion week after week since 2022. And that's why
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  Speaker 2: they've gone through different orphan coordinators, and that's why they've
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  Speaker 2: made this radical change now. And I've been saying this
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  Speaker 2: to you for quite a while. There's going to have
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  Speaker 2: to be an element of patience. that everybody's going to
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  Speaker 2: have to accept, that it's not going to be a
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  Speaker 2: finger snap and things are going to be great. But
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  Speaker 2: even beyond the learning curve, I think the pass offense
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  Speaker 2: can't look great and more consistent even, like you're talking about,
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  Speaker 2: until the rushing offense marries well with it. And I
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  Speaker 2: just don't think they ran the ball well enough for
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  Speaker 2: a variety of reasons that we just discussed to even
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  Speaker 2: give the passing game a better chance to work off
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  Speaker 2: of play action and, you know, defense on its toes.
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  Speaker 2: There were too many times, especially late second quarter, third quarter,
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  Speaker 2: the Eagles were just battling too many behind-the-sticks situations.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Jeff Mosher, let's take a look at Jalen Hurts.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you wrote over at phillyvoice.com, Hurts did Hurts things.
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  Speaker 1: He ran, he had the 18-yard run. That was really
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  Speaker 1: the big play in the game, and it's something that
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  Speaker 1: has been lacking from him. He took off at times early.
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  Speaker 1: He had three touchdowns. He made some nice throws. But overall,
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  Speaker 1: would you say that Hurts played a great game? How
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  Speaker 1: would you describe him?
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  Speaker 2: I think it was really good, Mike, because the issues
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  Speaker 2: sometimes that we have with Jalen Hurts is that when
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  Speaker 2: he runs like that, it's because he's bailing a clean pocket.
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  Speaker 2: And I don't think I saw too many instances where
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  Speaker 2: I felt Jalen bailed out of a clean pocket, maybe
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  Speaker 2: once or twice, which is fine. Any quarterback's going to
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  Speaker 2: do that sometimes. And then like one time I noticed
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  Speaker 2: it was because Washington had like six or seven guys
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  Speaker 2: at the line of scrimmage and it looked like they
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  Speaker 2: were bringing the house and they wound up dropping a
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  Speaker 2: lot of guys, but Hertz thought that more were coming
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  Speaker 2: and he sees an opportunity to run in Iran. So
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  Speaker 2: I thought the, the times that he ran were necessary
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  Speaker 2: and helped the team get out of some bad situations,
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  Speaker 2: not just running for the sake of running while wide
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  Speaker 2: receivers are open that, that, that wasn't the case.
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  Speaker 1: No, I agree. I think, um, You know, he made plays.
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  Speaker 1: He was Jalen Hurts. I like what you wrote. Hurts
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  Speaker 1: did Hurts things. He was Hurts. Sometimes he frustrates you.
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  Speaker 1: Other times he's there when you need him the most.
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  Speaker 2: I probably didn't give it enough love. The touchdown to
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  Speaker 2: Dontavion Wicks in the corner. I mean, first of all,
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  Speaker 2: he's got two guys in his face because Dickerson doesn't
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  Speaker 2: block anybody. Somebody else was trying to help him block,
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  Speaker 2: and he gets rolled over. And Hurts throws that ball
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  Speaker 2: off his back foot before Wicks has come out of
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  Speaker 2: his break. All right, that is a really nice play
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  Speaker 2: when you're throwing with that kind of anticipation and timing.
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  Speaker 2: He had a nice throw also. The first throw to Wicks,
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  Speaker 2: that was 64 yards. which was actually a clear out
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  Speaker 2: runner and Goddard was the guy open on, on, on now,
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  Speaker 2: but noticed that Sandra stills back was facing him and
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  Speaker 2: that the safety Nick cross had his leverage the opposite way.
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  Speaker 2: So we knew that if he threw the ball to
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  Speaker 2: Wicks there, there was no way either commander's defensive back
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  Speaker 2: was in a position to make a play. So even
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  Speaker 2: though Wicks wasn't open, you could see when he releases
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  Speaker 2: the ball, Wicks was not open, right? But he just
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  Speaker 2: knew by the way, the leverages that the commanders were playing,
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  Speaker 2: that Wicks would have a shot to catch it. And
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  Speaker 2: sure enough, you know, he, which Sandra still sort of
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  Speaker 2: got lost on it and which catches it. And 64
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  Speaker 2: yards later, they have a big play. That's not, that
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  Speaker 2: wasn't a random happenstance kind of thing where Earth just
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  Speaker 2: throws it up and which catches it. That was really
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  Speaker 2: good recognition from Jalen. So I'm giving him a lot
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  Speaker 2: of credit for the game that he played. Even if, again,
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  Speaker 2: when you watch it, it felt choppy and ugly. There were,
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  Speaker 2: there were reasons for that, but I don't think Jalen was,
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  Speaker 2: was on that list. Defense.
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  Speaker 1: Let's look over there. I, I leave yesterday a little
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  Speaker 1: frustrated with the defense. I thought, you know, this offense, Washington,
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  Speaker 1: new coordinator, same issues with the Eagles, not a ton
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  Speaker 1: of talent, offensive line upside down. I really thought you
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  Speaker 1: should have been talking about an offense that had a
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  Speaker 1: defense that had a dominating performance. It felt very much
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  Speaker 1: like the playoff game, right? I have a lead late
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  Speaker 1: in the game, and Washington goes down and scores on me.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, wait, what? Very similar to last year.
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  Speaker 2: I felt. Absolutely, Mike, and I'm glad you said it
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  Speaker 2: because– In my report card, I gave the offense a
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  Speaker 2: higher grade than the defense, and people, as people will
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  Speaker 2: do on social media, rip me for it. But I
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  Speaker 2: look at the defense and say, that's where you got
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  Speaker 2: way more talent. I don't know, way more, but you
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  Speaker 2: got a lot more talent, and it's the only side
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  Speaker 2: of the ball among both teams that had the same coordinator,
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  Speaker 2: same system. They should have been better, I thought. And
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  Speaker 2: there were too many times that Jaden Daniels dropped back
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  Speaker 2: and had time to throw, especially to the rookie Williams.
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  Speaker 2: I thought Cooper DeGene did a poor job in man
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  Speaker 2: coverage against Antonio Williams, and I thought that none of
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  Speaker 2: the front four guys really stood out from a pass-rushing standpoint.
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  Speaker 2: Jalen Carter got stoned by Sam Cosme a couple of
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  Speaker 2: times in the fourth quarter that were important. Oh, Joel
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  Speaker 2: made a great play. That was just a fantastic play
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  Speaker 2: to save the game, but the reason why the game
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  Speaker 2: needed to be saved was because some other guys on
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  Speaker 2: defense just... didn't play great, and they did not generate
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  Speaker 2: consistent pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you, I agree with you on that.
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  Speaker 1: I thought the defense, I would love to have seen
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  Speaker 1: more pressure, more havoc wrecked with that front line than
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  Speaker 1: we saw. And Dejean had a tough game. I thought
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  Speaker 1: they targeted him a lot. He had two ticky-tack penalties,
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  Speaker 1: but still, you know, I thought they went after him,
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  Speaker 1: so that was something to keep an eye on. moving forward.
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  Speaker 1: But as you wrote, and I agree, Vaughn, I think
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  Speaker 1: if you were looking at a guy on defense to
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  Speaker 1: give the flowers to, Zach Vaughn was all over the place.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there was a series there where he made
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  Speaker 2: like three stops on one drive in the second quarter.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he makes the ankle tackle on Ja'Cory Kroski-Merritt,
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  Speaker 2: which was a nine-yard gain that looked like it could
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  Speaker 2: have been a 29-yard gain. And then he broke up
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  Speaker 2: a pass over the middle to Stephon Tiggs. And then
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  Speaker 2: he blows up a screen by running right past first
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  Speaker 2: fall of the left guard to some other to Corey
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  Speaker 2: Frosty merit. And then of course he had the near
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  Speaker 2: interception and great coverage on a conco down the, down
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  Speaker 2: the sidelines. He had that play on third and six
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  Speaker 2: where Rashad white sort of catches a ball in the flat,
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  Speaker 2: escapes a tackle and he gets five yards and it
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  Speaker 2: would have gotten sick if not being chased from behind
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  Speaker 2: by Zach Vaughn. He was just tremendous.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Eagles win 24-22, and, of course, they will
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  Speaker 1: play the Titans this week. We'll have more on that
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  Speaker 1: game later on this week. During football at 4, there
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: is a Mosher Monday breakdown of the Birds 24-22 win,
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  Speaker 1: and you can check out more over at phillyvoice.com and
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  Speaker 1: listen to the Inside the Birds podcast as they recap
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  Speaker 1: all of the action from Sunday's game. All right, Mosher,
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it, man.
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  Speaker 2: You got it, Mike.
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  Speaker 1: Take care.