PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles-Commanders Postgame: Saquon Barkley, Eagles CLINCH NFC East Title despite ugly 1st half

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

Will Shipley, Jake Elliott and Jalen Hurts had a few missteps but the Eagles kept things together enough to overtake the lowly Commanders and secure the NFC East’s first back-to-back championship si...nce 2004 thanks to big days from Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, Jordan Davis and Brandon Johnson. Super Bowl champion Vinny Curry, Fran Duffy, EJ Smith, Jamie Lynch and Bo Wulf react to the game and spin things forward to next week’s game with the Buffalo Bills. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, everybody, and welcome to the PHOI Eagles post-game show, live from the Xfinity Lounge and presented by Bet365 and Ashley, after the Eagles have made it official. For the first time since 2004, we have back-to-back champions in the NFC East, a 29 to 18 win over the Washington Commanders. wasn't beautiful? Next question. Did they win? They did.
Starting point is 00:00:35 Vinnie Curry, Super Bowl champion, Jamie Lynch, I'm Bo Wolfe. We will be joined by Fran Duffy in a little bit to break down everything he saw in this game. At E.J. Smith will join us live from Landover, Maryland to give us the scene from the locker room. But let's start by going down the line.
Starting point is 00:00:52 First, big takeaways, Vinnie, we start with you. But no, we don't. We got to start by you. saying Vinnie, Vinny, Vinny, Vinny, Vinny, Vinny. We got, like, a nine-day old baby back at home. Congratulations. Appreciate it, appreciate it, appreciate it. Yeah, baby girl, yep, yes, name Chloe.
Starting point is 00:01:14 I mean, Zoe, look, I got a mixed dog, got two toys, so. Oh, my daughter, watch him. You keep, baby, keep doing that. I get used to it now. There you go. All right, so everybody in the chat, give it up for Vinny, give it up for the Eagle. making their back-to-back division champion official. And now let's go with the reaction to this game.
Starting point is 00:01:35 Vinny, what did you think? Oh, man. We got the dub. We got to see my boy, say, what? Go on it. And, man, my biggest takeaway from this game was way to finish. Way to finish. They finished.
Starting point is 00:01:51 Got the W. But this had to be Jordan Davis, all-time best game. Jordan Davis was awesome. And the season that he is having, my brother, I am so happy for you. So that was my takeaway of today. Okay, Jamie Lynch, over to you. My takeaway is the Cowboys are officially dead and ding-dong, the witch is dead. Enjoy Cancun.
Starting point is 00:02:15 Okay. I think that's the biggest takeaway from today's game. Okay. For me, I don't know if we want to start with how I'm killing out of this single game. Because I think we should be a little bit more positive. to start. Let's, let's, let's, you mentioned Sequin, Sequin 21 for 132 in this game, Vinnie, a 48-yarder, had a really, like, menacing touchdown run. It was nice to see him get a little bit of the, the vibes of last year in the open field, 132 yards, his second biggest game this
Starting point is 00:02:44 season. Man, listen, hey, December football, we here, baby? Is this all that bad is, I mean? And I'm thinking, no, I ain't thinking, I know it. We can't wait to see my boy get back on on. On the Try. We're getting ready to see a lot of, they hear a lot of sequo, say, whoa, say, whoa, you know what I mean? So, oh, man, I'm just, I'm happy for him, but I'm definitely excited the way he played today, especially on that 48-yard run, that extra effort.
Starting point is 00:03:10 That goes to show you that burst that we all been looking for this whole season, so it was just good. I'm happy for it. All right, let's, you know what, where I want to start is the, the little fight at the end of the game. So the egos go up 27 to 10, and Nick Siriani trying to, I don't know, beat the charges of him not being aggressive.
Starting point is 00:03:30 Decides to go for two there. And there's a little bit over four minutes left. I guess you could try to convince me there's a difference between 19 and 18 because then if they score two touchdowns and get two two-point conversions and a field goal, you don't lose, you tie. I don't know. In this game, I'm not so sure going up against Josh Josh. Are you going?
Starting point is 00:03:47 Tinfoil hat. He doesn't trust Jake Elliott to kick extra points. No, because Jake Elliott made both extra points he'd already taken in the second half. I think he was playing the bad. I guess. I mean, listen, you play this team, you play this team again in two weeks. I'm not so sure I would have done something at the end of the game like that that is going to make them angry and make them play hard and play maybe dirty in two weeks. So what happens is then a fight happens.
Starting point is 00:04:11 And you had a good theory on this, Vinny, because it starts with Darius Cooper and somebody else and then Fred Johnson gets involved. But Tyler Steen, who, you know, has had some like charges of being soft himself absolutely comes out and he's like ready to fight the whole, the whole command. team but javon kinlaw is the guy who you think is worth paying attention to absolutely you know Philadelphia you know we'll we we forget but we don't forget so you know dating back to the 2023 fight just the Niners just saying okay and they did show big Dom Fox was all over that they showed Big Dom walking the side howie with a little butt tap on Big Dom too yeah yeah we got a nice we got a nice thumbnail of Devante grabbing AJ's butt too A lot of ass grabbing in D.C.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Listen. You went to a total. You don't know what you're going to grab. This hasn't happened in 20 years. Yeah. You got to do what you got to do. What did you think of that little practice? I really enjoyed it.
Starting point is 00:05:11 I wish that was one of the better NFL fights you'll see. They better go on for a minute, too. They did. They did. They got kind of like piled on there a little bit, but he went after. Did you see my boy say Quine and Jeline go over there? Yeah, who's good. They came back over.
Starting point is 00:05:27 I like it. I like it. There was a lot to like on defense, obviously. Absolutely. You started with Jordan Davis. Cooper DeGine has the interception. Brennan gets a sack once again. That's three sacks in the last two games.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Reed Blankenship is flying all over the place. Nikobie Dean goes down with a hamstring injury and did not return. So that's not great, but Jehad Campbell looked okay in his stead and sort of makes you wonder why he wasn't playing a little bit more anyway. But that's a conversation for a different time. I, you know, the reason that this is muted is because in the first half, you know, if they were playing a serious team, they would have been in really bad shape. Will Shipley fumbles away the opening kickoff.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Jalen misses some wide open players. Jake Elliott misses three field goals and then we will have that conversation. Nick Siriani once again at the end of the first half, what leaves you wanting. And so in a game when they're, yes, it's a division game, but you're playing a team, who has one of the worst defenses in football and is playing its backup quarterback and then plays 40% of the game with the third string quarterback you know i think it's okay to not be feeling like oh we're ready to take on the world i didn't like the way the special teams play on all phases today that i thought that was the uh like you said if we was playing uh if this was next week
Starting point is 00:06:48 in buffalo there you go that's not going to cut it no at all at all and i and i just you know whether the miss phil goes like you said the fumble from simply that they're indecisive from him yeah yeah so on the on the later kickoff return yeah gave his bad field position i just didn't like it and uh you know uh coach clay i'm pretty sure he's going or go crazy um come here uh tuesday yeah it's kind of wild that the kick returner situation's just been a mess this year yeah I thought tank bigsby yeah making things happen on offense
Starting point is 00:07:26 I mean maybe no I don't think I don't think you want to back out I think we saw what happened out there anyway let us know in the chat in the super chats what you think about this
Starting point is 00:07:36 Eagles clinching how excited you are how you feel let's get to some of the super chats early on here including from our friend let's say I
Starting point is 00:07:48 Sam Jerry fan says after 20 long years back to Vaktivision champs this is my Super Bowl interesting take after the actual Super Bowl M Brett back to back like Jalen is Jordan in 96 and 97
Starting point is 00:08:05 and David Drury says I am in London Go Burns on the top of the morning to you All right Vinny let's get to the Ace Hardware home services temperature check who do you feel like the heat you know what we're going to
Starting point is 00:08:24 hear let's talk jake elliott here because the temperature check the heat is on it's cold jake elliott right now my cousin was without power the past 24 hours said the house was freezing that's jake elliott and people are especially at halftime we're all over jake elliott right now would you stick with jake elliott it's freezing it's cold it's bad It needs me. That's a biased question for me. For me, the answer is obviously yes. Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:57 Yes, that's what I say. So, but I do, like you were talking about the Ace hardware, I do think my boy, Jake Elliott do need a little tuner up. A little generator. You need a little generator with him, you know, so he'll hit your cousin's house up. You know, bring a little generator with him. And you know what, frankly, it would have been nice to see him get an actual field goal chance
Starting point is 00:09:13 in the second half because he, you would imagine all of those, were in the first half they were all of the same variety i'm sure he worked on that stuff at half time and he had two extra points in the second half obviously those are a little bit easier and lower pressure but they went right down the middle i would i kind of would have liked to have seen him get a chance in the second half to well they they attempted to on the uh i think it went down as the worst touchdown drive in NFL history on the cowardice third wasn't that the same drive where they did the cowardice flat throw to will shipley on third down and there was a penalty and they got a first yeah it was gonna be a jake elli at another 50 plus yard or so no no no they didn't they
Starting point is 00:09:54 were going to go for it on the fourth down they went for it on fourth and seven they avoided that's right the penalty game on fourth and seven that would have been more of like a 50 yarder variety so that was one of the worst play called you that nick didn't trust jake elli at that point yeah i would have liked to have seen him get get another chance once the game was out of hand but yeah it would have been because it's gonna be a big thing now i mean he's hooking him listen jake gonna go home they're gonna enjoy Christmas and he's going to be back. Yeah, I mean, first of all, they're committed to him contract-wise.
Starting point is 00:10:21 It's 20-30. Well, yeah, but that's not real terms. It's really through the end of next season, I think. And I think it's fine. Jake Elliott is fine. You have roller coasters, you know, it shouldn't, it should, Jake Elliott is not the problem with the Eagles offense.
Starting point is 00:10:37 No. It shouldn't come down to Jake Elliott. But it is for the last five games. He's missed field goals. He was once Jake to make like automatic. It is no longer that. I'm okay. him some time to work out of it.
Starting point is 00:10:47 Well, you don't have any other options. I mean, you could sign another kicker. Justin Tucker singing opera down in Baltimore trying to react. He brings up Justin Tucker's name to me. Come on. Pat Fienis. Josh Harris, peckness, migrate the Sixers, Teenagers, and awkward Joe Buck handshakes. I think we know who he's pecking.
Starting point is 00:11:06 We'd certainly love for him to migrate the Sixers. Boy, would that be great? And then I guess we can let him nest Joe Buck. Tokugawa. I'd rather have this type of ugly win versus a pretty loss the Rams had. Fair point. Yeah, I like it.
Starting point is 00:11:21 Bottom line business. Devella, stick with Missy Elliott for this season but bring in legitimate camp competition. I think that's a fair take. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to have to give him some competition next year. He wasn't great last year either. You know, this happens.
Starting point is 00:11:40 He's very good the first half of the season, you know. Yeah. But it's time to give him some competition. competition. I think that's fine. Yeah, but yeah. All right. I mean, listen, the big picture of this game is these two teams, it shouldn't even have ever been close. It, it, no, they didn't really belong on the same field. I mean, the Eagles, uh, almost six yards per play versus four yards per play for the commanders, 385 yards of offense versus 220. Vinnie, do you feel like this defense as currently constructed? Because we haven't talked to you since that, that impressive performance that had against the Raiders is ready. to be a Super Bowl caliber defense. I think they're very, very close. And you know that why? Because 55 is heating up.
Starting point is 00:12:23 55 is heating up. 55 is heating up. We talked about this at the beginning of the season. I don't know you remember. I said, dang, they need a leader. They need a voice. They need some type of veteran in there, you know, to just grab them and just, you know, calm and smooth everything done.
Starting point is 00:12:41 Like, it's going to be hard to fight through some type of adversity. BG D sign BG He tried to get agamated back to the games He's trying to get in shape As he said his training camp is over now He's now in his regular season And his go talk Yeah
Starting point is 00:12:55 Even on the one he blew up in the backfield Did you see how My man Josh Connerly How come on Come on Listen They are hitting a stride
Starting point is 00:13:07 Late here in December And this is what we all love This is what we How you say that Are you at not in This is what we're here to see. We're here to see this part right here. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:17 And that's why we're harping on Jake. Because Jake, my man, I love you to death. But you got to get it going. You got to get it going right now. You know, we all need you. And he knows that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. He knows that.
Starting point is 00:13:28 You know what I mean? He's been before it. You know what I mean? Two times with a bowl champ. Ah, that was nice. That's right. Okay. I think it's time we take our first break,
Starting point is 00:13:38 collect ourselves. Come back on the other side. Fran Duffy, the great. Brand Duffy will join us. We'll continue to hear from you and much more discussion about this Eagles clinch here on the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast. Shop bestsellers at Ashley
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Starting point is 00:15:47 Ashley is where you need to go. So shop holiday deals and make lifelong memories with Ashley. Back in the PHY Eagles postgame show discussing the Eagles clenching win over the Washington commanders as the people are saying in the chat, make sure you hit that like button, make sure you comment,
Starting point is 00:16:06 make sure you subscribe, all that good stuff as we head it now. Over to the Pet House and the Duffy household to bring in Fran Duffy for Friends Film Room, sponsored by Ashley. Fran, welcome to the show. How are you? What's up, Fran? What's happening, guys?
Starting point is 00:16:25 Wonderful to see you. How are, how is, how is Francis celebrating the, uh, the clinch? Uh, he's running around downstairs. He's in the middle. It's the start of winter break today. So, I mean, he's just, uh, he's on cloud nine. Yeah, he's got no. bedtime. It's just two two weeks of no rules. All right. Um, Fran, give me a thumbs up or thumbs
Starting point is 00:16:47 down on that performance. Uh, I mean, look, it's like, uh, as thumb sideways as it got possibly be. Um, obviously the results matter, right? You got, you got a big win. It's a division win against a rival. It seals the division. There's a lot to if you are, if you were, if you Overcame some adversity in the game. Yeah, like, this is absolutely, you would say, like, oh, yeah, like, great. This is great. There's a reason to celebrate. But I think, I do think, though, this is like a process results thing.
Starting point is 00:17:25 This is a, should we be getting too far out over our skis type of situation. Yeah, this didn't feel good watching tonight. I mean, the defense is awesome. The defense, they went out and they did really well against a, unit that obviously just did not belong in the same field, especially by the time you get down to Josh Johnson, this is one of the worst offenses in football right now. So yes, reason to be excited, but, you know, to the person in the chat that said like, oh, I'd rather have an ugly win than the pretty loss that the Rams had the other night. Yeah, I think if the Rams were played
Starting point is 00:17:59 against the Eagles right now, like I'd feel pretty good about how that matchup would go. Like, it's just, you know, to me, you can't just go off the results because the results in December don't mean anything when you get to January, when you get to February. And right now, like, I'm looking, like, at the end in mind, the big picture in mind, this team has a lot to clean up still. And any of the positivity that I feel like I had the last two weeks after watching the film on offense, I don't know if I'm going to feel that same way after watching it over, you know, over the next two days before Monday afternoon show.
Starting point is 00:18:29 But we'll see. That's what the film's for. But, Fran, didn't they, like, aside from the ugliness, they did move the ball very well at times, right? I know it's a bad defense. Yeah, against a bad defense. The run game looks pretty good for the, you know, and obviously they, they belted off some explosives in the end, which was great.
Starting point is 00:18:50 But guys, like this, this team is going to have to, like, lean on the past game. You know, they're going to have, they're going to have to throw the ball to win consistently. And I just don't know that there's, like, a lot of sustainability with some of the things that they're doing. But, yeah, I don't know. I just, to me, like, especially,
Starting point is 00:19:05 and maybe I just have a bad taste in my mouth from some of the situational stuff. The end of the first half, again, like, mind-melting sequences there. I personally, like, did not lie. The two-point conversion play just didn't make any sense to me at the end of the game. Like, I think, like, context matters there. Dan Quinn just threw up the white flag on the previous possession. There was no reason to think that that team was going to score three touchdowns.
Starting point is 00:19:29 And so to me, like, you're putting players in harm's way there in that kind of situation. And we saw how that went. Yeah, I don't know. to me like i just i just have a bad taste in my mouth uh after that game we're gonna get to some of the positives on defense we're gonna break those plays down but let let's let's stick here on offense because we are here and also with the game management stuff because boy did that first half the end of the first half drive me absolutely insane uh i mean they're down three points after what has been an ugly first half but they've been moving the ball on offense they get the ball at their own
Starting point is 00:20:00 like 20 with like 320 left they've got two timeouts and the two minute warning and they're just Like the only point of that possession is to drain as much clock as possible so that they can attempt a field goal and not give the ball back to the commanders because they're so worried always about the other team getting the ball with 20 seconds left. How about you go get a little giddy up in your ass and try to go score a touchdown because you've got these amazing players? I'm so tired, as I said at halftime, of this tension between we have so much ego, but we are so always cowardly
Starting point is 00:20:39 when we have the ball enough. Bo, this is why I was so angry about the two-point conversion play because it's faux aggression. It's fake tough guy stuff. Like, it's like, oh, we're going to go up 19 because now, oh, yeah, we're going to assert our dominance. We're NFC's champs
Starting point is 00:20:54 and you're not going to catch us. Look how smart we are. You've had how many opportunities in the second half, like in the second quarter of games, two minute drill to say like, yeah, we are good situational teams. And again, time after time, after time in all these different situations one timeout two timeouts we've got the ball three minutes to go we've got the ball 30 seconds to go it doesn't matter they consistently show like yeah we're just gonna turtle here
Starting point is 00:21:17 in this kind of situation possessions don't matter this was an opportunity where i'm sitting here i'm like oh like they might actually go here they're actually this is a great opportunity for them to go peddle to the medal but instead like you wait to the end of the game and that's where all yeah like the the offense is out in the field and i'm sitting here like i remember how that game went in january i remember like the tensions be yeah that stuff does carry over you know Vinnie made the good point like about Javan Kinlaw like yeah like that stuff lingers from year to year you know momentum's not real but like bad blood is real like that stuff carries over from one season to the next and to just say like oh yeah we're gonna we're gonna go up 19 here like it makes no sense and to me it was it's it goes
Starting point is 00:21:57 against everything that you've done you've shown with all the first half stuff they are so in their head with the tush push stuff. Oh, my God. Draw people outside. Can I find that was advocate here? It's a bad deal. Going up 19 was the right technically decision.
Starting point is 00:22:16 It ended up in an 11 point game with two minutes to go. Going for two technically is the right logical play there. As France said, the context matters. Like the commanders had thrown up the flag. I mean, if you don't trust your defense,
Starting point is 00:22:33 in that context with you know and it was like what when the commander scored their touchdown like 1 30 left i don't know like it's fine i could i could i could sort of get there but not given everything else we saw in that game like and jimmy like that's not even like me like second guessing like after this happened like literally like i can pull i can pull meg from as they're going out oh i don't doubt that's how you feel why are why are they doing there there's to me like uh this is just like we're doing oh yeah we're not even going to think twice about this because this is this is who we are but then when you have that ability to show that aggressiveness and any other point uh you know when it's when you're
Starting point is 00:23:12 not up by 17 like I don't know but if they're just going off of a chart and he's like removing emotion from it and he's going and he's going all right well the chart says go you do want him to just go by what the chart yeah like I think I think he was just going by the chart I don't think it was that purposeful yeah friend just don't ask chat gbt boy be pissed do we go for two or not yeah i won't be doing that sticking with i'm sorry nick not trusting elliott on that fourth and seven to kick that field goal i also think flies against everything he says he believes in like trust your guys or don't trust your guys that that bothers me a little bit i understand that but it bothers me and let's talk about the tush push because boy is the tush push
Starting point is 00:23:56 dead it's a they have got they have got to just throw it away right now bring it back next season working on it in the off season if you want, but they are so in their head about it. They're trying all of these little things. I mean, they're trying to draw people off sides. They're obviously committing false starts. And it's not effective when they're doing it. So go call something else. And guess what?
Starting point is 00:24:16 When they get backed up and they get forced into throwing the ball, they're able to score touchdowns. Yeah. And like, even like the, the attempt to draw them off sides on the opening drive, if you're going to do that, do that from the push push. for you just had they were jumping over the pile the last time you played this team you know like opening drive they're going to be all lathered up like that's where you do line up in the four if you're to try and draw them off like yeah i i completely agree that they are completely in their heads with this um i don't know if it means like you throw it away or i don't know if this is just like back to basics with it but uh like everything else like it's just there's a there's a lack of rhythm there's a lack of confidence uh it just it doesn't feel good watching it right now okay Uh-huh. Everybody takes a breather.
Starting point is 00:25:04 All of that aside. Back-to-back champs. Back-to-back champs, and the defense is awesome. So let's talk about the defense, and let's start with the big man. Unk, as we said, B.G. By the way, another sack. The clip from last week that you guys played of the, the, I'm doing the rope. So good.
Starting point is 00:25:24 So funny. G looking like the football version of Uncle Drew. He's been awesome. He's been awesome. And like, we know that he can rush from the inside, but boy has it added an actual little dynamic that they were missing on obvious pass-rarch situations. What did you see on the sack that he had?
Starting point is 00:25:42 Yeah, it's funny. There were actually some like interesting parallels with this sack here in this game compared to the two that happened last week. We remember that the, if you looked in the coverage end of things, there was a pass-off on both of those plays last week against the Raiders between Quinnian Mitchell and Zach Bond. And so when I went back and watched this play from the broadcast copy, what happens? A nice pass off here between Quinyon Mitchell and Zach Bond.
Starting point is 00:26:06 But Lindsay, let's go to the first shot here, BG1, where, again, the Eagles come out. It's third and nine, and you've got a five-man, what I call a diamond front, where you've got linebacker, Jahad Campbell, walked up onto the line of scrimmage, standing up over the center. So right now, you're just basically saying, okay, we are going to try and see if we can force you just to occupy that center, even for a tick, even for a half count. Campbell's not going to rush here. He's going to end up dropping in coverage, but we're just trying to see if we can just distract that center, even for a split second, just to give our interior rushers a little bit of a head start here on this play.
Starting point is 00:26:38 If we go to the next shot, you're going to see that BG comes off the ball and they are sliding his direction. The center snaps the ball. He makes sure that Jihad's not coming, and now he's sliding to his right. So this is essentially a double team on BG, but it's only a double team if BG lets it be a double team because what he is then going to do if we go to the next shot is he is going to be. basically tilt his rush inside towards the center. He's expecting the slide coming his direction. And he says, okay, I'm not going to let, I know that you are sliding my way. This isn't like a true double team. The center, or their right guard, rather, if I'm going inside and going away from the guard, well, now the double team is going to slide out towards the defensive end. And I am left
Starting point is 00:27:17 one-on-one with the center. And so he does a really good job of just kind of altering his path slightly here and going one-on-one against the center. If we go to the next shot, we can see that BG just basically uncorks this guy. He goes on that inside shoulder and he gets him completely turned to the sideline. If you're an offensive lineman, this is the last position you want to be in. If you're a tackle, if you're a guard, if you're a center, the worst place you can be is being parallel to the sideline because obviously you're not in position to block anybody, but you also lack any kind of base. So you're going to get pushed, you're going to get pushed off balance. You're going to get pushed back into the pocket.
Starting point is 00:27:50 So Mario has got to step up here. But now I want to take a look at the coverage end of it. If we go to the next shot, you can see that Quinnion Mitchell, who was lined up against the tight end, Ben Sennett here. He passes that shallow cross over to Zach Bond. Bonn steps up. It looks like that's where Mario is looking. He obviously can't see deep down the field, but it seemed like that was the direction.
Starting point is 00:28:10 He was looking. Bonn is all over this. So now Mario de Janeiro can't throw it. And then you get the, if we go to the last shot here, we get the sack celebration, not just from BG, but Jalen Phillips once again getting on the action.
Starting point is 00:28:21 Jaylux Hunt in there, more Ojamo in there. So, yeah, it was great being able to see 55 get his third sack. I think EJ said it was his third sack in nine snaps if you go back to last week. So a lot of efficiency here from B.J. Anything else stand out to you from the defensive performance frame before we get to some offensive breakdowns? I mean, you guys hit on it earlier, but Jordan Davis was phenomenal.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Beast. It's great to be able to see him kind of get his flowers on an island game and a national broadcast. Greg Olson pointing him out. But I mean, the touchdown on the goal line, like he nearly like stops out on his own after getting the run stuff. on the previous snap. So, yeah, he just consistently shows up.
Starting point is 00:29:01 It seemed like he was in the backfield a handful of times as well against Mariotta. So, yeah, to me, that was the other big standout from this game was just number 90 in the middle. Fran, even at that stop, I thought the whistle should have been able to long because he started driving his feet backwards. And I think he just kind of lets him go
Starting point is 00:29:19 and just joking to keep on running. You know, definitely was the way he dominated and just threw the damn center was crazy. He could have used a little extra help from Byron Young there. 94 was in the backfield and he had like hands on the running back in that moment where it's like, yeah, like grab him, pull him, try and keep him from advancing into the goal line on that second and third effort. If Young does that, you might get, Jordan Davis probably gets credit with the stop there and that plays blown dead. But yeah, they didn't get that.
Starting point is 00:29:52 And obviously the running back was able to plunge in for the score. I thought Reed Blankenship showed up in this game as well. and made a certainly made that nice tfl are you at all worried about adori jackson getting beat on that one play to terry mccloren no i think you know maclaren's a good player so that to me like that's that's a unsurprised it to me like that goes and i know we've we've come a long way since then but that's like when uh you know he loses on the double move to cd lamb in week one and everyone's up in and up and i'm like yeah like cd lamb's going to beat people on the on that route you know that route beats corners and cd lamb especially uh is going to defeat corners on those kind of plays so
Starting point is 00:30:24 Yeah, that's a good player beats a veteran corner, an older veteran corner in that kind of spot one-on-one. All right. Let's break down one of Jalen Hertz's touchdown passes here, Fran. And this is what we were talking about. This is they get, they get sort of forced into having to throw the ball. They line up for the tush push. They get the false start.
Starting point is 00:30:41 Fred Johnson then gets called for holding. So it's third and goal from the 15. And I thought just watching live, this is one of Jalen's, I mean, the, the, the spiral of the throw is not the most impressive thing you've ever seen. but the way that he steps up and throws as he's coming up is it's the kind of throw we don't usually see him make. And I thought it was a real like sign of something to be very excited about. Tell me what you saw. Yeah, this was a concept that I've always known as bash where you've got two basically in breaking routes from the outside and you have the corner route going over
Starting point is 00:31:11 top of it. It's a it's a three man concept, but it can be both a horizontal read for the quarterback and a vertical, a vertical read, a, you know, a high low read for the quarterback. And that's where we're going to start. We're going to start on the high-low end of it. If we go to the first shot here, Lindsay, it's Dallas 1, where you can see all three routes. And again, this can be a high-low read for the corner. If we go to the next shot, actually, we can take a look what I mean there. It could be a high-low where you're basically putting that corner or that corner on the outside in a high-low situation where, all right, he's going to, you have the corner route from Dallas Goddard going in his direction and you have the in-breakers underneath.
Starting point is 00:31:47 Greg Olson pointed out in the broadcast. The center still came down on Jahan Dotson running the slant route underneath and that opens things up on the back end. But let's say there, if Jalen Hertz gets any kind of coverage cue before the snap or right at the snap that the corner is going to sync with this, maybe he's playing cover three and he's going to get, you know, get a lot of depth here and basically take that corner away. Well, now this becomes a horizontal read and it's just double slant. You know, you're not even, you're not, basically not even paying attention to that corner route. And this ball's probably going to Dotson on the backside slant.
Starting point is 00:32:17 So, uh, when I say that it's kind of like both a high low, and a horizontal read. That's what I mean there on that play. But obviously here on this one, he's playing this a little bit shallow and Jalen sees it pretty quickly and that's why he stayed with Goddard here on this place. Step up to avoid the pressure.
Starting point is 00:32:35 If we go to the next shot here, Lindsay, one of the things you will see from this route concept at times as well is that this could be a little bit of an option for Dallas Goddard where he could break this down the seam, he could break this to the corner, sometime even go to break this out towards the post.
Starting point is 00:32:50 so he's basically just reading the leverage of the safety here. But as he's in the middle of the route, he sees that he's going to, he has the ability to win this towards the outside, towards the flag. So he's going to run this to the corner. And then, Bo, as you mentioned, this now becomes ball place. When we go to the next shot here,
Starting point is 00:33:05 one of the bigs, and it wasn't the prettiest ball from a, like, a catchability standpoint, right, the spiral wasn't perfect. But he stepped up. It was a little bit fast, you know, stepping up in the pocket. That's probably why I think the, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:15 the ball wasn't the prettiest coming out, just because he didn't have the best base under him. but this was where the ball should be. Could have been a little bit further outside, but you're always going to try and miss high when you're going up in the back of the end zone. And that's obviously where Goddard is going on this play. You don't want this to be low.
Starting point is 00:33:33 This is actually a great visual as to why you want this to be high because if you're going to miss, you don't want this to be low and inside where now that safety coming from the backside has the ability to make a better play on the football. So the fact that he's able to put this high where only Goddard could go and get it, the safety actually did a nice job in terms of cover.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Like that's, you know, as tight of coverage as you're going to have there on that one. But Jalen put it where I need to. And then Dallas did a great job of going up, attacking the football and coming down with it. Yeah, it was good execution on third and long in the red zone. All right. Last one to break down in the red zone is the, the Sequin touchdown, which I think elicited the first real. Sequin we've had in a while because, boy, was this a monster run. Yeah, to me, like this was a good example of a game where, you know, when I'm watching Seekwan run,
Starting point is 00:34:20 I'm like, yeah, like, he is still the same physical presence that he was a year ago. This is not an issue, a situation of like dead legs and like, oh, he's worn down after last year. To me, like, this has been all season long more of an issue of like the blocking and the circumstances and like the execution around Sequin as opposed to like a physical problem with him. And I think that this was a really good example of that because it wasn't just his ability to, you know, break the tackle at the second level. But you saw like that secondary burst on that long run at the end that set up the Bigsby touchdown. Like you saw him, you know, accelerate at the second, third level that, yeah, like, you get him in space. Like, he's got that ability to still to make those kinds of plays. He just hasn't been given that opportunity all that often this year.
Starting point is 00:34:59 And sometimes by fault of his own in terms of just pressing a little bit, but to me, more of the situation around him. But let's get into the first shot here. And this has the, I don't know if he, if Jalen Hertz is actually reading here on this play, but there's the, the idea that he is reading the backside defensive end. Goddard lets that defensive end inside. And I circle three defenders because all three of these guys are affected by the mesh point here with Jalen Hertz and Saquan Barkley. The defensive end, that's the first circle to the left, he is going right upfield at Jalen Hertz. Frankie Louvo, who is the bigger circle on the right, he cheats a little bit towards the outside and Goddard's able to get him blocked at the second level for that reason.
Starting point is 00:35:38 And then Bobby Wagner, he kind of slow plays it a little bit. He still is like playing as if Saquan Barclay is going to get this football, but he's still like kind of like, hesitates a little bit and then presses the line of scrimmage. To me, like this sets up Tyler Steen's block perfectly. If you go to the next shot here, you could see that Steen's able to get two hands here on Bobby Wagner. Again, that's that top circle, the smaller circle at the top. You could see that both Louvo and the defensive end, 93, are both taking out. The defensive tackle, oh, I didn't circle, is also taken out.
Starting point is 00:36:10 So all these guys are cut off by the threat of Jalen Hertz, keeping the football, whether it's for an RPO or on a zone read. So again, just getting back into that and what that can do for the run game and helping those guys out. Like, yeah, it absolutely plays a factor and Saquan Barclay puts his foot in the ground and gets downhill. If we get to the next shot,
Starting point is 00:36:29 the fact that he scores here, I mean, again, it speaks to the balance, it speaks to the power, it speaks to the athleticism here from Saquan Barclay. He shakes through this, and then we get him in the end zone, me mugging the camera, and we get the Eagles on their way to victory
Starting point is 00:36:42 and sealing the NFC East. Beautiful stuff. stuff my friend friend what was your uh just raw reaction to the oh line today without diving into the tape um okay it was it was it was not their worst game i i wouldn't say like oh man they're they're back either it was it was it was okay it seemed it wasn't great hopefully you get hopefully you get lane johnson back soon yeah okay the penalties continue to be an issue um yeah like i just you know we don't need to rehash the stuff we talked about earlier, but I don't have a great feel in this offense right now. It's tough to feel like
Starting point is 00:37:22 super confident, but they obviously took care of business here against the Washington commanders. I want to ask about that because, you know, we all spent the week that maybe this is going to turn into the under center team and they flirted with it like that first possession. And then they sort of just went back to being the shotgun team, which I think is fine because that's, that is who they are. It's, it's almost better than trying to pretend to be something else. But it goes to your point of I still don't know Wildcard Week at the link, they're playing whoever. I don't know what kind of game plan they're going to have.
Starting point is 00:37:57 I don't know how they're going to try to attack because I don't think they know what they want to be yet. And that's to me like we're getting into this is like big, big picture stuff. But to me like coaches go about game planning and how we want to attack other, you know, opponents. One of two ways. Hey, this is our identity. We're going to do what we do.
Starting point is 00:38:15 And we are going to be better at you. this right like you aren't going to be able to stop us because we're going to out-execute you but this is our identity and we're going to and then there's hey we're going to we are going to be multiple and we're going to do all these different things and no matter what you throw at us we're going to game plan around it and we are going to beat you with that like i have always preferred the the former like i like this is our identity you know jim schwartz four three one gap like this is us right like this is our identity you know we're going to out-execute you and we're just better than you versus hey like this week we can do this and then this week oh you're not good against that all right
Starting point is 00:38:48 we're going to do that this week and going off like the cheesecake factory menu like to me like I prefer the former as opposed to the latter but I think that the latter is the way that this offense is built and the way that they kind of operate which is fine like again like that's that's fine but you still need you need to be able to execute and you still when you strip away certain things like there's a that one thing that was interesting like first half I don't know they were there had to be like 15 empty snaps like in the first half, was there one in the second half? Like it was just like,
Starting point is 00:39:19 again, like there's the, it just feels like a disjointed thing. And we've talked about that a lot this season where it's like, oh, like there was a lot of 13 personnel in the first half. And then it was just all 11 in the second half. Like, where the identity like shifts even throughout the course of the game. And just to,
Starting point is 00:39:35 just to be accurate about it according to true media. So last week was their highest under center percentage in a game this season was 45 and a half percent this game was down to 21 percent and that's like just below average for their season average so you know they they backed off it a little bit and maybe that's again as you say maybe that is a game plan thing maybe it's this game is turning one way we don't need to lean into it maybe it's you you played with it early and it wasn't working very well so you pull out of it
Starting point is 00:40:05 but it just goes to show we still don't know and they still don't know who they are yet I've got some next gen numbers. Would you like some next gen numbers? Oh, yeah. Please. All right, let's start. Let's go, Sequin Barker. I'm just going right off the rip here.
Starting point is 00:40:19 So this is literally from next gen right after the game. Sequin Barclay rushed for 132 yards and 21 attempts. One touchdown. He forced six mistackles, a season high, 63 yards after mistackles, which makes sense. That one big player. I would imagine most of that was on that final run because he made a defender miss in the backfield and then went for 40 yards.
Starting point is 00:40:39 So, yeah, they were literally. the next paragraph. A significant portion of that came on his 48-yard run in the fourth quarter. He forced three missed tackles and gained 53 yards after those missed-out. Yeah, so all of that came from that one run. Barclay was particularly effective running to the left side, accumulating a season high, 101 yards, and a touchdown on 13 carries running behind Jordan Milata and Landon Dickerson. So, again, a lot of that came from that 48, half that yardage came from that final run. Jalen Hertz, Jalen Hertz was pressured on just four of his 37 dropbacks in Week 16. pressure rate in a game in his entire career 10.8%. Wow. Hertz was perfect targeting the short area of the field,
Starting point is 00:41:17 zero to 10 air yards, completing all 15 of his passes for 129 yards in a touchdown. Hertz recorded a 54.1% dropback success rate. That's his third highest in the game this season and his second straight rate, or second straight game over 50%. So there's some jail. The pressure rate number was interesting, but that's part for the court. This Washington team has not been able to pressure anybody all season long. A.J. Brown.
Starting point is 00:41:41 E.J. Brown caught nine of his 12 targets for 95 yards in the Eagles week 16 victory over the commanders. Brown has earned double-digit targets in five of the last six games after only doing so once in his first eight games this season. Brown had nearly all of his production come on hitches and slants, catching all eight targets for 71 yards across 15 combined routes. On his other 17 routes, he caught just one of four targets for 24 yards. So A.J. Brown doing work underneath. And then the last nugget comes from Cooper Dijin, who was targeted eight times on 24 coverage snaps in week 16 against the commanders, allowed just four catches for 32 yards, forced four tight window throws and recorded four PBOs, including an interception. His four passes to defense were a career high and the second most by an Eagles defender in a game this season,
Starting point is 00:42:28 trailing only Quinion Mitchell, who had five past defenses in week four against the buck. So Cooper Dijin, obviously, the interception, a big play in the side. second half. Cool. One final thing I will add is on the offense. It was nice to see Jalen as a scrambler a little bit more involved in this game. Three scrambles for first downs. That's the most he's had since week four. He hadn't had more than one since week four. And so that is a true thing where even if the offense stays as kind of static as it has been, just adding that element alone could be enough to win a game.
Starting point is 00:43:07 And at least two, I'm trying to remember if the third one was, but at least two of them were on empty. And that can be, guys, one of the things that is a coaching point for a quarterback, especially an athletic quarterback in empty is, you know, and we've talked about like all the pros of, you know, being in empty and what that can do, you know, to basically like give you all the information pre-snap about what the defense is doing. Are they in man or in the end zone?
Starting point is 00:43:28 It prevents all those disguises. Well, again, like the ball against an empty, like should be out pretty quickly for the most part. it's almost always like balls out fast because you've got that information. So typically coaches tell quarterbacks like, hey, if the ball's not out quick, run, like all caps, like go. Like, you know, be decisive and go. So that could be one of those things where getting an empty maybe kind of gives Jaylen that extra nudge a little bit to be more decisive on those scrambles. All right. Great stuff, Fran on the France film room presented by Ashley.
Starting point is 00:43:58 We will see you Monday at Redding Terminal to break down this game a little bit further. enjoy the weekend thank you so much that's right i'll see you guys on i'll see you guys on monday and uh yeah we'll see we'll see you'll see uh with the film shows all right good stuff see if we will take a break here on the p hl y eagles post game show on the other side we get to veney's beef of the week i think we know where it's going but find out on the other side the holidays are here philadelphia and dick's sporting goods
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Starting point is 00:46:14 month and start selling today at Shopify.com slash all city. That's Shopify.com slash all city. Back on the PHY Eagles postgame show presented by Ben 365 and Ashley, the Eagles are going to the playoffs. We know that. They have clinched the division for the second straight year for the first time since 2004. As Dainez broke down for us
Starting point is 00:46:41 on Friday's show, the odds for the Eagles, obviously it's very likely they would be the three seed. But if they win the last two games, if they beat the bills and then the commanders again in week 18, it's about a 45% chance
Starting point is 00:46:54 of them getting the two seed. So it's close to a coin flip. There are some things that we won't know what you have to root against until the result of Bears Packers tonight but after that there are it is on the table for them to stick at the two
Starting point is 00:47:08 it's not impossible and obviously that would be a huge difference because that's what they were last year you could end up with a home game and the NFC championship game as a two seat sure that would be awesome Packers Bears in a real defensive battle here going into the half Packers up 3-0
Starting point is 00:47:23 at half time quick half no there's so 12 minutes in the second quarter I got it yeah But a little bit of a slug fest there. Okay, good to know. Now, let's get to the righteous felon.
Starting point is 00:47:38 Beef of the week. And you see a big hunker there. I think the beef of the week, Vinny, is going to the biggest guy on the team. Got to be. Big number 90 playing at a pro bowl level. Jordan Davis, you are my pick for. Very nice. Nice.
Starting point is 00:48:01 That was good. Beef for the week, Jordan Davis, congratulations. So a good story by E.J. Smith on all page O.I. I was just going to bring that up. Dot com that you should go read, become a diehard. Now it's a good chance to do it. And an introspective Jordan Davis on, we know how much went into him changing his body this off season, right?
Starting point is 00:48:19 Everybody's heard about the Peloton. Shout out Allie Love. Shout out to Allie Love, right? And he's playing more. He's being more of a force against the past. He's also being a dominant force in the middle against the run. He's playing all of these snaps. The absence of Jalen Carter has been felt less because Jordan Davis has taken this leap
Starting point is 00:48:38 and looks like a star now. But he has also become a little bit more reliable as a teammate on and off the field and is providing that leadership that is a little bit Vinny akin to BG from a sense of he is the kind of guy who shows up with a positive attitude every day and that sort of trickles down. I'm telling you. Adding BG to the locker room was so huge. Like little things, just the little things that go a long way. Add him to the locker room was phenomenal for this team.
Starting point is 00:49:11 And you can see. You can see the change in everybody since your urgency. You can see the change in and how they're playing. And like I said, man, Jordan Davis has been playing like this all season. And I just hope that the Eagles, you know. What has surprised you most about the way that he looks on the field? or impressed you must well listen like yo he's popping up every almost on every snap that he's in the game he's almost impacting the game you know rather it's throwing centers across the
Starting point is 00:49:40 field you know in the back field always always constantly controlling the line of scrimmage planning on the other side of the line of scrimmage it's just crossing havoc or you know getting his paul big polls on on footballs or or field goal blocks the man just been showing up on tape for all 15 weeks. Trying to look at some stats here on True Media just about how often he plays. Do you think he's got All-Pro shot this year? I think all pro is probably tough
Starting point is 00:50:09 just because of the sacks. Yeah. And the weather. Listen. Not that he doesn't deserve it, but just. You know, you got four and a half sacks. You know, you got two couple, couple games left to, you know, really make your case.
Starting point is 00:50:23 Right. Right. You get to six and a half seven. Yep. I said six of a Yeah, we gave Vinnie the wonky mic We got to do some hardware work I'm trying to look up just how often
Starting point is 00:50:36 He has been on the field A lot Third down and medium or more Because that's when he was not on the field Last year so let me just Pull this up distance to first Let's call it five or more So like a true pass situation
Starting point is 00:50:52 And it's still not a ton of snaps He still mostly comes off You know, it'll be BG who comes on or Jalen Carter goes on, but he has made more of an impact on like early downs as a pass rusher when it looks like he may be having to play both ways I just he's and he's he's he's so fun to watch too. Oh man. He's amazing and you can see that big smile on his face. Yeah, what do they do the it's a party? You know, a celebration and the got going on. He's the ball of energy ball energy. I think that's right. Yeah, and there's no like there's a no one way you have to lead. Not everybody needs to be like a drill sergeant to your point. Oh, absolutely. Like Fletch might have been a different
Starting point is 00:51:32 leader than BG. I think that's fair to say. Yeah. I thought you're going to say then Jordan Davis. Well, yeah, but Jordan Davis is modeling himself after BG. So if there's already that serious presence in the locker room, then the positivity leader is a very important person. Because, you know, you just, you want to enjoy being at work. And you need those people to kind of elevate
Starting point is 00:51:54 the mood sometimes. And it's, I love DJ's piece because I love Jordan Davis being like, yeah, BG, I saw that. That's who I am. I'm not going to be disingenuous to myself and trying to lead some other way. I'm going to lean into it because I have an example here in front of me that showed me this is possible. I thought it was a really cool story by E.J. Everybody should become a diehard, but very cool by Jordan Davis to kind of see that, acknowledge it, and go, yeah, I can do this, my way. I like that.
Starting point is 00:52:23 Frank Sinatra. Yeah, exactly. So that'll do it for the righteous felon beef of the week. I'm really happy for Jordan Davis. What a likable kid too. Absolutely. And happy for righteous felon. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:34 There are some defensive snap counts. So the starters, according to true media, played about 48 snaps in this game. All of them for Zach Bonn, Reed Blankenship, and Quignan-Mitchell. Of course, there were a couple at the end when the backups were in. 47 for Marcus Epps, 47 for Cooper deGene. 42 for Moro-Ojimo.
Starting point is 00:52:51 38 for Adori Jackson. 38 for Nolan Smith. 37 for Jalen Phillips 36 for Jihad Campbell 32 for Jordan Davis 27 for Jalick's Hunt 24 for Byron Young 12 for Nikobie Dean
Starting point is 00:53:03 9 for BG only 9 impactful 9 snaps once again for Brandon Graham and then you get to the backup 6 for Michael Carter 4 for Sidney Brown and Ty Robinson 3 for Jacorian Bennett and Keeley Ringo and Jeremiah Trotter and Brandon Johnson your boy man who had a nice tackle on special teams and two for
Starting point is 00:53:22 Smile Mountain not wasn't great to see you know keely who has been buried and sort of lost out on that job to Adory Jackson give up that pass interference in the end zone
Starting point is 00:53:34 when he does get called on didn't like to see that that's he just feel bad for the guy yeah I mean come on I feel bad you're a real an empath
Starting point is 00:53:47 yeah I mean this was his job to take he didn't get it he gets a chance you only gets three snaps and one of them's a passing efforts in the end so it can't be fun for him no no he's a really nice guy i like kely wringo yeah but it does not seem like it's going well for him this season too bad well who would you rather be kelly wringo or jake elli wringow or jake elli
Starting point is 00:54:09 in the locker room jake elli yeah probably probably one's gonna be here one point out yeah one's got a guaranteed contract it uh i was thinking the when fran was on it is funny about like the week to week nature of the NFL both bad defenses the last two weeks the Raiders you put up 31 last week
Starting point is 00:54:32 versus the Raiders and it's like this is great you today put up 29 versus a division opponent and it feels so much worse because of some of the optics and the cowardice by the coaching
Starting point is 00:54:45 it's just like but I think that that's real I think that goes to process over results I think that we all watch the game sure but there was also a lot of positives today on offense me I thought I thought AJ looked dominant
Starting point is 00:55:01 yeah for sure but it's the special teams that stick out you gotta like yeah which is stupid and correctable yeah correct Sequin I thought looked the best he had maybe I don't want to say all season but maybe was his top three games for him that's probably right I thought Jalen for the most part was fine I thought he in the run game took the opportunity
Starting point is 00:55:23 tuned as he needed to take. Like I don't feel that if you had told me I feel the way I feel now at halftime, I would have been shocked. Jamie, I feel like if it was a different person that kick me turn, you would be okay.
Starting point is 00:55:40 You know, the kick return comes to suck the air out of all of us. It's part, right. It's possible. Now, listen, they do then go three and out on their first actual drive anyway, so we might have been mad about something different. But you know what is? It was kind of, not that this team needs to create, you know, adversity for itself to overcome,
Starting point is 00:56:00 but to see them, you know, bounce back from that. The defense answers the bell only gives up the field goal. I mean, the defense only gives up one, like truly one real touchdown drive in this game. And to see the offense settle in, I think that's fine. Yeah, you gifted them three points. I think if you were, if you were someone who thought that last week was a springboard for the offense, this was this was not what you wanted to see but the touchdown how many drives do they have offensively eight or nine I'll tell you so they score on half of them one touchdowns
Starting point is 00:56:34 four five six seven eight yeah so they score four touchdowns and two of them and in miss field goals fifth yeah I was just going to say two missed field goals so you have four 50% of your drives are touchdowns two of the other four drives are missed field goals so I think offensively like they and I know, look, the Raiders defense sucks, the commander's defense sucks. We get that. Also, even though next week is a better opponent. The bill's defense stinks too, yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:01 I feel really good about their chances next week, rest of the starters, final week. And the NFC's like kind of a mess. Outside of the, remove the Rams and the Seahawks, again, Sam Donald has to prove it to me before I am going to, you know, cower in my boots over here. But like, who in the NFC really scares you outside of the Rams? Well, and the other thing that that goes to that,
Starting point is 00:57:23 which is what we talked about a little bit this week, is that it feels like this team in particular. They like to front run. I think they need to believe in themselves. Yeah. You know what I mean? Totally. So even if the process isn't great,
Starting point is 00:57:38 but it leads to a good result, but that then leads to better process. And I don't know, the coaches believing in the offense at the end of the first half or something like that, or the guys believing, then it's possible that it sort of gets on a, a downhill run. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:57:52 Absolutely. And if you have to go toe to toe to with the bills next week and Josh Allen's pulling stuff out of his rear end again and you have to get in a shootout and let's say you even lose, but you're in the mid-30s, this team's going to believe that they can go toe to toe to with anyone. Vinny, tell us about the importance of belief in a locker room. I think this team believing right now.
Starting point is 00:58:16 Like you said, like the thing about the last two weeks, the defense has been on fire. you know AJ is playing like AJ You know what I mean My man 711 always open Mm-hmm Um
Starting point is 00:58:30 Sequine is playing like Sequa You know what I mean I just think no matter who it is You put in two games like this Backed it back together It's gave you enough belief Towards the end of December
Starting point is 00:58:42 And I think As we get ready to prepare for You know Buffalo That's going to tell us everything we need No, because outside of that Buffalo game is going to give you the most competitive. Yeah. This is a playoff test. Yeah, this is a good litmus test.
Starting point is 00:59:00 Yeah. No doubt about it. Because it could be a rematch in a Super Bowl. Right. And it's like, okay, well, we are trying to sift through what's real from these last two games against bad teams. Let's check in. Let's see a good team. Let's see one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and see what we can do.
Starting point is 00:59:16 Right. And if you do think about the senior starters, I will probably just maybe play it. treated like a preseason game play series or two and then cool out and viny tell tell us tell the people about what it's like in the locker room and let's say you have that momentum and belief happening and then oh yeah you're adding elaine johnson and jalen carter back to the team it's a super booster because now you feel like you're hitting your stride and you're getting back into the groove and you're getting back to what actually made us this up that top tier team with this top tier line so you got to be happy for a guy like St. Quine who went over 100, what, 30 yards today.
Starting point is 00:59:55 And so you're going to mean to tell me, you're going to get a couple of his bodyguards back, and he's rolling like this. Sign me up. I'm there. Yeah, there you go. Lindsay, do we have the photo to show? The hat and t-shirt game. Yeah, hat and t-shirt game. E.J. was talking about on the pregame show.
Starting point is 01:00:13 Look at. There you go. Mike Garifold tweeted that out. Thank you, Mike. to the NFC East championship hats and we've got is this the senior leadership council left to right Nick Siriani, Brandon Graham,
Starting point is 01:00:25 Howie Roseman, Jalen Hertz, Jeffrey Lurie. Now Jeffrey not wearing the hat, Jalen going sideways. And what's that? Is that a little fresh prince? Also, Jalen, hold on, go back to it, go back to it.
Starting point is 01:00:38 Jalen? No arms around anybody. Sort of standing like he was forced to do it. He doesn't want the NFC championship hat Facing forward because he doesn't want to look like he's celebrating that. His goals are greater than this. You know that's going to go viral. It's funny.
Starting point is 01:00:57 You're going to put the Kobe mean up. Jobs not finish. That's right. Mamba mentality. Yeah. But I'm happy for you know. BG is looking good though, yeah. BG.
Starting point is 01:01:06 Not a great angle for Howie. But that's okay. We put it together. Jeffrey also kind of looks like he was forced to be in there no well you know let me say this man my man my man
Starting point is 01:01:22 no he definitely was happy right here oh I think he's happy I just I mean Jalen's posture is very funny the fact that his hands down on the sides Jaylon looks like he's like a Madam Tissot's waxing that they're all around
Starting point is 01:01:39 and how he has his hand on his back so like once that gets reciprocated in the group you kind of have to but you do notice when BG gets the sack Jalen comes over to him on the side just like he did
Starting point is 01:01:51 in the mic'd up and again it comes over further those two I missed that part yeah Jalen came right over Jalen comes over for it oh those two are tight
Starting point is 01:01:59 I like that man those are my guys yeah absolutely we all know that though sure Super chat super chat oh we got
Starting point is 01:02:08 let's go we got we got rolling keep it rolling through the super chats Musa says let's get a
Starting point is 01:02:14 any interview of 55 on Unblock there you go. Speaking of BG make it happen. I think we can arrange that Right, right. Missing Barsoom says nothing I'd rather do on my birthday and go on the Eagles roller coaster. Happy holidays to the sickos and pHLY. Happy birthday!
Starting point is 01:02:30 Happy birthday, missing barsoom. Tokugawa Every team has a lot to clean up this year. I agree with that. You want to tell me like the state of the NFL there's no good teams? That's fair. It's a weird season. Get in the dance. He's get a ticket and see what happens and there's no guarantee that the rams are hosting the nfc championship game not at all they could lose right now they're they're unlikely to be the one seat after the loss
Starting point is 01:02:55 oh yeah that's right they're like very unlikely so so seattle or even san francisco oh wow bring them on there you go tim i think says nick is a cowardly coach who will lash out i e the conversion when he feels the need to prove himself, been like this for years. I wish I had given that more of a dramatic reading. I apologize. You want to take two? I'll take you.
Starting point is 01:03:22 Okay. Tim, with the Super Chan, says, Nick is a cowardly coach who will lash out, like the conversion today, when he feels the need to prove himself. Been like that for years. I also feel like that.
Starting point is 01:03:42 It was not my best. I went a little too overboard. Sayer Ryder says, I hate how sinister the Philly Media treats this team. We won. They're making changes. Division champs back to back. Don't be the WIP of YouTube.
Starting point is 01:03:59 Fran Duffy, relax. Relax. You relax. Sam Ryder. Got them. It's allowed to criticize the team. even though they won, it's okay. And here comes the counterpoint on a super chat from Tim.
Starting point is 01:04:16 Counterpoint, critical Fran Duffy is good. And there you go. Friend Duffy's always done. Yeah, I mean, if you don't think you can trust Fran to call it like he sees it, and you probably got to go somewhere else. Tokugawa, I get the frustration of this team, but what team this year would any of the hosts be satisfied with?
Starting point is 01:04:35 All the teams are flawed, especially with the complaints you have. Y'all sound very jaded. I don't think we care about any other team, but ours. Yeah, I mean, listen, that is, it is true that you're always going to be critical of your own team. I don't think we're talking about the team
Starting point is 01:04:52 the same we were talking about the team last year. No, I mean, they won, what, 10 in a row at this point last year? Yeah, and I think they had proven some different things and answered some different questions. If you want me to answer, like, I mean, if we were a Seahawks podcast, we would be very, you know,
Starting point is 01:05:09 they're overachieving, so you would be very happy with that. I don't know what that means you think they're a better chance of going to the Super Bowl or not. I think you would probably feel better about the Rams. Would we be STTL out there? Yeah, good question. STL? Yeah, probably. Yeah, because you've got to drop the vowels.
Starting point is 01:05:27 Yeah. Tough one. That's a tough one. I mean, this is like a relative to convert to expectations thing. Obviously, Chicago feels better about the season they've had. Is the defense better now than it was at this point? last year. It's a great question. Now, actually, come on, man. I'm curious.
Starting point is 01:05:43 I think the answer is yes. I think it's not. Last year, it was we're the players we lost. I know. Sweat. And Millen. In Milton. Slay. You wrote CJ Gardner. But I will say this.
Starting point is 01:05:58 But Quinyon's better. Cooper's probably better. That's what I'm saying. I was going to say this. I would say that they are hitting the stride right now at a perfect time. And the criticism that we're like we're talking about the team is not super negative like some of the other platforms that I just see some stuff out there
Starting point is 01:06:13 oh there's some garbage out there wow like they're doing this for clickbeat when I just think we're just being real and being honest like you guys all watch this game special teams wasn't up to standard of a Philadelphia championship team that's just what it is and we're talking about that you know did you hear what Nick said at halftime to
Starting point is 01:06:31 Pam Oliver he said offense is good defense is good special teams to pick it up you feel me so I guess Dick is And I think, you know, you know, that's a show. The offense was not that good, but that's fine. But it wasn't the worst. It was fine.
Starting point is 01:06:46 They were moving the ball. Yeah. I think the difference between last year's defense and this year's defense is there were no holes on last year's defense. There were no weaknesses. And Adroy Jackson has been playing very well lately. Yeah. But I think there was no one last year where you went into the game plan as an opposing
Starting point is 01:07:07 offense and you circled the guy. like we are we are going to make sure that we put this guy in a bind um Isaiah Rogers as a backup right he was baller yeah and Marcus Epps has been a great steadying presence yeah but he's no CJ Gardner Johnson right shout out Marcus Epps though for real we don't have to watch Sidney Brown thank you wow you didn't you didn't say what was it took like two he had two snaps or something like that oh yeah he did Sydney did have a really nice play on special team so he did it was nice although like almost it's a low hit like yeah that was right on the kneecap but you know but you know it's i would also say i mean we're splitting hairs the defense is awesome i think it is a
Starting point is 01:07:50 super bowl caliber defense sure i would take last year's defense i think you also had gilin carter playing at a higher level sure nilman smith was playing at a higher level now that that defense didn't have gilin phillips but they had josh wet they had the fact that they're close i guess i would take last year's defense a pretty good credit to them. Yes. The fact that this is even a conversation right now because of how much they lost. I agree.
Starting point is 01:08:12 Is wildly impressive. I totally agree with that. Yeah. Okay. Super chat from Mikey Faze. Feels great to win the division. But part of me is honestly a little bit sad.
Starting point is 01:08:25 Hmm. Why? Because we won't get to watch the Cowboys choke in the first one. Do you remember when I tweeted out the meme earlier from our account? You should follow us,
Starting point is 01:08:35 PHLY Eagles when Jerry saw Stan Cranky at the LA Rams preseason game there was a very funny I guess whoever caught it whatever journalist for the Rams Jerry shook his hand and said we'll see you in the NFC championship game. Nice. That's very
Starting point is 01:08:51 funny. Always great when the Cowboys lose and get a living ticket. He's not going to buy a ticket. DNB Mix. It's a great win and happy to clinch a playoff spot. However, however this game reminds us. We can't build towards an identity
Starting point is 01:09:07 and Nick lacks game management nuance. Maybe something we can overcome. Aaron four touchdowns and eight real drives, two miss field goal drives, 385 yards of offense versus division opponent, a step in the right direction
Starting point is 01:09:23 for the offense, in my opinion. I'm kind of, I'm with a, I'm on team Aaron there. I think that's fine. That's measured. Yeah. Go birds. I used to joke about Missy Elliott, but now I'm really worried about him in the postseason and long term playoff games can be make or break on three points yeah you're not you're not joking it's a real conversation they need to have and and frankly it's a nice
Starting point is 01:09:47 uh project for the next two weeks right like let's now you probably want a backup plan i guess i would think so maybe there's a guy who can sign to the practice squad is that is that a logical move here you know the inner workings of the eagles or does jake get Well, this is interesting because at no point in Jake's career have they ever brought in a competition kicker? No. Right? There was the one time in 24 when he gets injured and Kim Dicker comes in and fills in. Dicker the kicker. Dicker the kicker.
Starting point is 01:10:25 And then he turns into a Pro Bowl caliber kicker. But at no point did they have they ever brought in competition for him? so I don't know if that is a way that they feel about him a way that they feel about him in competition or more likely just not wanting to waste a roster spot when they think he's going to win the job anyway. So I don't know how they would feel about giving him the specter of this is what could happen if you mess up as a guy on the practice squad.
Starting point is 01:10:56 But I think they probably do need to be prepared for a possibility of a backup. However, I think it's, I think it's more important that they sort of give him a chance, give him a chance the next couple weeks to get out of this. Just don't give him on damn rabbit. We didn't get to talk to you about the rabbit for me.
Starting point is 01:11:18 Just don't give him the rabbit, man. Big Dom made that into a rabbit ragu. What is your, well, aside from Jake, who we know you have a good relationship with and you're a Super Bowl champion with, over the course of your career, how did you feel just as a as a player and the relationship with the kicker oh man we had a great
Starting point is 01:11:37 relationship especially you know Jake has been so clutch yeah when we were on the team sure you know um but Jake aside as like as a defensive lineman you're like okay this this little guy over here it has such a big factor in how we play how did you relate to those guys oh come on, man. Donnie deep ball, dorm balls, or not? That was a big fraction of the team. Donny donkey, like, it was awesome. Oh, bro. They, they were
Starting point is 01:12:10 actually leaders in the locker room, you know? Yeah. They especially, man, Donnie has eaten innocent at all, you know, in this league, and then played with some greats. It was always good to pick his brain, so I was just blessed to play with some good kickers. Okay. Yeah, I'm just, you know, some people are like
Starting point is 01:12:27 kickers aren't real NFL players. you didn't feel that way that's good oh no all right well you know they didn't have a chance to play with you know the two-man band there you go you know i like that donnie deep ball and dorm balls was like men and black you know she's just you got you was there you know you see the way they they carried themselves it was it was crazy cdp with an important question wants to know if uh nick seriani had an opportunity to yell at zach urtsin that was so weird i forget i keep forgetting about that moment That was weird.
Starting point is 01:13:00 Yeah, I mean, a deeply embarrassing moment for the franchise. My POV life, Vinnie played in the NFL, his opinion matters. Yeah, that's facts, yeah. I mean, my God. Obviously, yeah. That's why he's here. All right, let's take a break. On the other side, we will bring in the Eagles insider himself, E.J. Smith on the Xfinity
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Starting point is 01:15:06 service. Elkin Chevrolet right there on Route 73, South in Marlton, New Jersey. Or, as always, you can get online at Elkinchevrolet.com. You won't regret it. Enter the year 2026 in that perfect new ride at a perfect new price. Together, let's drive. We're back at the PHAY Eagles podcast presented by Pet 365 and Ashley. And it's time now from the Xfinity Lounge to dial up the Xfinity Mobile call in line and send it down to Landover, Maryland, the hellhole. And we bring it the angel, E.J. Smith, down and on the field. How you doing, E.J?
Starting point is 01:15:52 Doing well. What's going on? Okay, first off, congratulations, Vennie. Very, very big news. Yeah, that's the top of it. that's the that's the most important news of the night so congrats to you uh i did think about like doing it like this way for you guys to make it seem like like a miserable experience being here but i mean it's it's not bad it's a little windy a little windy a little cold but
Starting point is 01:16:12 uh no i got some i just came from a victorious locker room with hats and t-shirts it's always a good thing tell us about it in ej's notebook so yeah first off just want to set some scenes from the locker room uh you know we walk walk in there and some Stevie Wonders playing. We heard, you know, a couple of other, honestly, it's an older, you know, genre of music, I would say. It sounds like Nick Siriani is picking the playlist.
Starting point is 01:16:40 Like, ain't no mountain high enough. You can feel it all over. You know, just a couple of like very classic songs, but definitely a joyous locker room. I did notice a celebratory cigar in Jalen Hertz's locker. So I thought that that really added to the significance of what is something that Jalen Hurts said afterward is a rare. thing, you know, a rare thing. Obviously, a team hasn't won back-to-back
Starting point is 01:17:03 NFCE's titles in over 20 years, 20 seasons. So, yeah, it was definitely, like I said, an excited locker room. But the message from Nick Siriani afterward that I heard from a couple of players was that the focus is now on the other hat, you know, the pursuit of more. And, you know, I thought it was interesting that Nick Siriani talked in his postgame press conference about the fact that the expectations have risen for this team and that they've, you know, really raised the floor and the standard for what is a successful Eagle season. And obviously that kind of informs how we view this game. Because, you know, we think there is a fair conversation about how they will look going into the postseason.
Starting point is 01:17:39 And the last thing, Seekron Barkley had a really good note. Jamal Singleton told him coming into this game, run like you're 230. You know, run like your 235 pounds, basically. You know, told him to be more physical, have lower pad level, and try to run through guys. You know, a few guys in the locker room said that Seekwon had angry runs today. And Sequin didn't, didn't dismiss that that possibility. He said that he was really focused on, you know, being a physical runner more so than the lateral, you know, side to side type of guy that's today. And I think, you really. Josh Harris has done it again. I was just going to say he's that damn Josh Harris. He's back. Okay. You got me, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:18:20 Okay. Yeah. Uh, E. E.J. Let's let's start with the scenes in the hat and t-shirt game. as it were. How much pride, how much did this, did this seem to matter to the guys in the locker room? Yeah, I think it was a mixed bag. I think it was an intense game. So there was definitely, you know, a certain amount of pride in doing it here on the road against a division opponent. But honestly, I do think that there was a focus on the next hat. Again, as Nick Siriani put it in the postgame locker room, the goals that they have, you know, a lot of guys talked about the fact they feel like the offensive moving in the right direction. They felt like they moved
Starting point is 01:18:57 the ball well. Devante Smith said that he felt like they just didn't finish drives. But yeah, no, I think that there's definitely a more forward-looking it was a forward-looking group. You know, it is interesting sometimes to see which guys don't wear the hat and the T-shirt, which guys don't really want to
Starting point is 01:19:13 celebrate too much. But I do think it was, again, a group that was looking more forward than anything else. We should play a game. Why don't you name a player and we'll guess if they wore it or not? okay um i'm trying to make sure i know so jordan milada definitely wore yes wore it yeah he wore it okay uh what about let's see uh brandon graham yeah he wore it definitely for sure yeah he wore it okay what about what about a j brown didn't wear no definitely wore no chance he threw it away he hated the super
Starting point is 01:19:48 bowl he didn't wear the hat what about devante didn't wear the hat devante is a no Ooh, Devante's tough. I'm going to still say, I'm going to say no on Devante. I'm going to say yes. Devante, no, no, because it probably would mess up his style. You know, he's a stylish guy. True. You know, he wants to make sure he's got the whole look completed.
Starting point is 01:20:06 You know, he's not like, well, he's not like me. You know, I could throw on any hat right now. I wish I had a hat, actually, a cool hat, you know? But yeah, Devante, I think his look is too, as my dad would put, it's too sharp. Okay. He can't be messing it up with the random hat. That's a good one. All right, want to give us one more.
Starting point is 01:20:22 Okay. How about Jake Elliott? It'll be a good segue. No. Nope, he wasn't wearing it. Yeah, I'm going to say no, too. He might have been wearing the hat, but I don't think so. Brayden Man tossed his hat, like, into his locker from, like, across the locker room and, like, nailed it.
Starting point is 01:20:40 It was, like, the perfect toss. And it's like, yeah, that guy, he's a specialist. You can tell. So, yeah, how do you feel about the Jake Elliott situation right now? And how do they talk about it in the locker room? Yeah, it's definitely, to me, it's a concern, you know, The fact that he's got the one-way miss going, definitely is a concern going to the postseason. Jake said after the game that the first one, he could tell from the minute that he hit it,
Starting point is 01:21:04 that it was a bad ball. The second one, he actually said he felt okay about it. He said the win took it, the second miss that he had there. So I think it was important, it's important to know that Nick said that the two-point conversion was not a reflection of anything with Jake. Nick said he has, you know, the utmost confidence in Jake Elliott said that. that that was more about game script and kind of making sure that they held on to the lead.
Starting point is 01:21:28 I saw that Dan Quinn took exception to the two-point conversion. I don't know if you guys talked about that earlier in the show. I don't blame him. Yeah, cry me a river. Okay. Yeah, I don't know where I come down on that one. What does he mean held on to the lead? Well, he said they came back and they scored right on the next drive
Starting point is 01:21:47 and he said that he has a lot of respect for them as a team. So like I said, I don't have a strong opinion on it. I thought, because in the moment, I thought it was a reflection of Jake Elliott. I think that they just didn't want to put him out there again. But he'd already make a couple of PATs. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:22:05 I think. I think he was just following his chart, E.J. And it says to go up 19 there. He never follows the chart. You know, he never follows the chart. So I think that is the damning part about this. I don't know. I could go either way with it.
Starting point is 01:22:19 I don't think the commanders are going to get a chance to get their revenge like Dan Quinn once. So did you see Dan Quim was like, oh, we'll play them again in two weeks? No, I didn't see that. Drop that tough guy, act. The starters aren't even going to be playing. Probably not. So, yeah. But the Jake Elliott thing, I think, is a real concern.
Starting point is 01:22:38 You know, honestly, you know, last year this time, we had similar concerns about him. And he was fine in the postseason. So I think he's earned some benefit of the doubt, but it's also, like I said, I mean, you kind of added to the list of things, like what might get them in the postseason? You know, the end of the half stuff. Obviously, today was another one. But overall, I mean, especially as the game progressed, you probably feel better about the run game.
Starting point is 01:23:00 And I think that there is an argument to be made. You can feel pretty good about at least some of the progress they made on offense. I think it's kind of a mixed bag. But again, those guys seemed encouraged by what happened today. Maybe Dan Quinch to worry about Javon Kinlaw grabbing his junk and flip it off the crowd before leaving the field. Dirty-ass Javon Kinlaw. Get your house in order before you start crying about two-point conversions.
Starting point is 01:23:20 yeah he was grabbing his junk and he flipped off the eagles fan yeah i did see that got a good vantage point of that because the fact that the press box is like so low dan quinn get lost all right what else from the locker in which which uh i know from experience and so does vending is uh cramped oh i've been in there it's uh oh my god you know i'm trying i again i owe like the the stadium some compliment sandwiches after all of the negativity I just spewed about some of the other things but that that locker room is tight I mean like I caught
Starting point is 01:23:55 I got tripod camera tripod hit me in the leg I got cameramen elbow and me and it's to nobody's fault it's a very cramped space for sure okay so but other other things I got a we say Juan Barkley I don't know exactly what he was talking about but he said it gets better every time he was saying that right as we walked in
Starting point is 01:24:15 I mean how many division titles as you want, two? Two. It's two, right? Yeah, maybe it is. Maybe that's it. And by the way, I mentioned to Sequin that I saw his trainer in the parking lot. And Sequin, I said that his trainer seemed like he was rooting for the commanders today.
Starting point is 01:24:32 And Sequin said that his dad, when he plays the Jets in his career, his dad will usually wear a Joe Namath jersey because his dad is a lifetime Jets fan. So, you know, he's used to, you know, people he's close to his life. That is wild. Yeah, that's crazy.
Starting point is 01:24:47 can you imagine that do you have any do you have any family members who root against you yeah 100% bro 100% what the hell you got to respect it right you got respect it dude yes I do my brother is a cowboy thing oh oh no he'll root against you do he had a cowboy's shower It's crazy. It's the same. Yeah. I got a lot of first cousins, the Cowboys fans. I mean, cousins. You want to hear another story? So we're playing, we're playing the Jets. This is what I, you know, my wife, she's my wife now, but she has a, the Jets jersey. No.
Starting point is 01:25:37 So what are you doing? You know, this at the time I was dating, though, but I forgot to tell her that I played football, you know, instead of saying, yeah, you want to go to a game. I think she thought It was like, Dave, what are you doing? Wait, so this is when you When was this? This was when we first started dating
Starting point is 01:25:57 So I'm like, you know, we'll come to a game When in your career? Well, it's probably my Maybe second or third year Wait, so she thinks she's going to the game with you She doesn't know that you're a player? Bro, and at the time You were dating her and you didn't know
Starting point is 01:26:09 And she didn't know you were a player on the team? I didn't tell her. And at the time the damn the damn the jersey was my neighbor jersey and I
Starting point is 01:26:20 so you know it pissed me off like yo that's crazy that's crazy let's play a game can you guess the neighbor
Starting point is 01:26:28 E? It was random Jets? It was he played here on the Eagles at the time how he played for the
Starting point is 01:26:37 Jets oh he played for the Eagles at the time and you were on the Jets no I was here so he was on the Eagles at the time but it was a Jets
Starting point is 01:26:44 jersey. It was a just jersey where it was like my second third year in the league. Can you guess the player? I was going to get this. I'm not going to. Who been in the headlines? Oh, Tim Tebow. Oh, Tim Tebow. It's Tim Tebow. That's very funny. My wife probably going to kill me for telling us.
Starting point is 01:27:04 Maybe that was her subtle way of saying you want me to wear your jersey, but you better put a ring on it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was, this was early or so. Right there in New York, they make the jerseys right there in the stadium. By the time to come back out for the game, she had a vindicurement. Okay. Respect to Vinnie here, because most guys, if they played in the league, I feel like that would be the first thing they mentioned to the women.
Starting point is 01:27:25 I got game. What can I say? You know what I can't believe? I'm trying to be that guy. I'm charming. That's so funny. Good for you. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:27:37 E.J., watch out! Wouldn't that be? like the most like FedEx experience ever like getting getting uh bowled over by yes people of the chagel worried about you being close to the railings no I tried to be like I tried to be in here so I wouldn't be exposed to the wind as much but uh you know there's still some occupational hazards uh all right so EJ a bit of a bit of a back and forth between some of us and the chat about how to feel about this game especially on offense what what is your take on what the Eagles did today
Starting point is 01:28:15 and whether you feel good about it or feel better about it than you did a week ago. Yeah, no, I could see there being a back and forth like some conflict on this one because, I mean, they were losing this game 10-7 when Marcus Mariotto left the interview. So, you know, the way that things looked in the first half, it was a strange one because, you know,
Starting point is 01:28:34 to Devante's point, like they were moving the ball pretty well. You know, Jalen Hertz, I thought, was playing reasonably well. You know, there were some missed opportunities. That one to AJ Brown. Bad throw. he's really glaring. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.
Starting point is 01:28:45 Because that's the one where it's like, it requires him to layer the throw. Like, he needs to have like the touch to put that in there over, you know, over the defender. The fact that he missed on that one is really tough. But otherwise, I didn't think the offense played poorly. I thought it was just kind of coaching mistakes and a few errors here and there. Generally, I don't think the score line. I don't think it was as convincing a win as the scoreline would suggest. But I do kind of take these guys at their word that they have things that they can build on.
Starting point is 01:29:11 You know, I thought, you know, Nick Sieriani talked about. the usage of empty formations after the game and said that it was in response to Washington using their base defense as much as they did. They decided, okay, if you're going to play base, we're going to spread you out and we're just going to take advantage of the space. Okay.
Starting point is 01:29:26 Which I thought was actually good coaching, right? They're reading the game. I texted Fran actually about this. And I said this feels almost like an early Jalen, like early career Jalen game in terms of like simplifying things, making, you know, getting guys into space and basically like making it a math. problem you know and we've seen that version of the egos offense work so i it's a bad commander's team
Starting point is 01:29:48 obviously uh and it was still you know kind of disjointed a lot in that first half but i think there was some some encouraging notes of encouragement let's call it that but i still think you know the fact that they were losing when mariotta went out of the game i think it's it's it's it was it was a tough one it's it's hard to really feel great about it's probably what i would say but i do think if you want to be an optimist, you can still be optimistic optimist. Yeah, I'm choosing the optimism route here, EJ. I think there was, I think there was a lot of optical things. There were some cowardice by the coaching before the end of the half. There were some bad special team stuff, but when you boil it down, end of the day, eight possessions, four touchdowns, two missed
Starting point is 01:30:31 field goals, they move the ball, Sequin looked good, Dallas looked good, AJ look good. I was happy with how Jalen ran it when he had to to pick up necessary first downs. I think there was a lot a lot of good buried behind the bad optics. Yeah, and the empty formations, I mean, listen, I mean, I was pound the table for under center going into this game, but I think the empty formations sort of force Jayland's hand sometimes to run it because, you know, that's sometimes it's the only option you have and he looked good doing that. So listen, if you want to, if you want to point to Sequin Barclays game and you want
Starting point is 01:31:00 to point to some of the schematic things that they got to, then yeah, you could, you could talk me into that, but I still feel like the concerns I had about this team are still lingering after this one for sure. But I don't think they're ever going to go. away, right? Like, I don't think there's a magic button where this team's going to have everybody offensively feeling great. I think it's just, no, yeah. I think the formula is still the formula. Yeah. Defense has to dominate and the offense has to be, you know, they need those explosive runs from Sequin or, you know, some deep shots to A.J. Brown or Devante Smith down the sideline to
Starting point is 01:31:29 sort of compensate for the fact that they are not an on schedule offense. Yeah. They really haven't been all season. I think with the defense being the caliber that they are, you just have to get above 24 points and you're probably going to have a puncher's chance in most games. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing is they really need the run game to, you know, at least like bleed these games out every once in a while. You know, that was something that they had today.
Starting point is 01:31:51 But I don't know, this game lost all of its life once Mario was out of the game. The air just went out of the stadium. Well, the Washington fans, at least the air went out of the stadium. The 70% Eagles fans, exactly. Yeah, the 70% Eagles fans, they were still pretty happy with this one. Vinnie, it was overwhelming. today how did you feel about uh christmas week games we played on christmas yeah we beat the raiders i remember that it was a pretty cool game um there was a night game was pretty cool game and
Starting point is 01:32:22 it was a it was game was freezing oh it was cold but you know what it was fun okay the way especially you know it was cool fashion yeah it was definitely cool fashion that's true you know probably different if you have if you're a player with kids or not like playing the week of Christmas. Yeah. Well, we'll move the schedule around a little bit. They definitely move the schedule around a little bit,
Starting point is 01:32:49 especially that you like, do the team means earlier? His guys come in later. Yeah, just come in a little later. That's what the Eagles have coming up this week. E.J., what are you going to be writing about
Starting point is 01:32:58 on all p.oI.com for the die hearts? I'm going to do some quick takeaways. You know, I'm probably going to, I'm going to get on the road. I'm going to have a nice late night. I might have like a 1 a.m. coffee.
Starting point is 01:33:08 and yeah bang out some takeaways and yeah you're gonna drive home and then right yeah I feel like I'd rather drive home alert and then write like you know it's like if I if I fall asleep writing it's not as not as serious if I fall asleep driving so yeah I'll get on the road first get a hotel room
Starting point is 01:33:28 no no I've got a rule if I'm within two hours in my bed I just go home I'm with you sleep in my house yeah but not if it means you're I mean now go home yeah go right to go right this we used to drive home from Pittsburgh
Starting point is 01:33:44 overnight just to get it over with yeah I'll be fine you don't have to write I gotta get home I gotta get home because Pharaoh apparently got into the
Starting point is 01:33:52 Christmas cookies that my wife collected from she had a work party a like a holiday cookie exchange she better not have put raisins in those cookies or else you better let me know what time it is EJ well I think there's chocolate in the cookies
Starting point is 01:34:04 so you know I got to make sure it's not big pee it's the other one it's Pharaoh So we got to make sure he's all good. Last thing I want to talk about. We talked about it earlier on the show. The recipient of this week's Beef of the Week presented by Righteous Felon, Jordan Davis. The beef guy.
Starting point is 01:34:18 And you had a very good story about Jordan Davis. Give us a little bit of a little tease on that for the diehards and why you think he has become so reliable as a teammate to the guys with him in the locker room. Yeah, you know, he really has, you know, BG talked to me about this last week about how BG's really passed the torch to Jordan Davis in the locker room and then the defense. defensive tackle room, really letting him emerge as a leader. And I talked to Jordan Davis about him coming out of his show the last few years. And he said that it's not a coincidence that it's coincided with him playing the best he has in his career. You know, it said that that's really set everything up for him.
Starting point is 01:34:52 So, you know, he said that VG unretiring was the highlight of his year, which is significant. If you think about how well Jordan Davis has played this year, the fact that BG's presence means so much to him. You know, I thought it was really like interesting to hear Jordan Davis talk about the relief that he felt also. when he got drafted, seeing BG's personality and seeing like you can be yourself in this locker room. So I don't know. I think those guys, they've got a cool relationship. They've got a cool connection. And yeah, they're both, you know, tearing things up at defensive tackle right now.
Starting point is 01:35:21 I mean, BG, it's unbelievable watching that guy and play defensive tackle and be as disruptive as he has been. So question for you before I head out here, guys, how much do you think BG's play? Well, Bo, you probably know the answer to this. BG revealed his playing weight right now. Are you familiar with this, Bell? I think I do know it, but I'll let Vinny guess. Yeah, Vinny would be a good one to guess. 270. 275.
Starting point is 01:35:46 You nailed it. Be husk. Listen, I'm not thinking his nickname is Husky. He looks good. He looks great. No, he does. He looks great. He looks strong.
Starting point is 01:35:59 Yo, A.A., did you see when he was down on the goal line or in the red zone, the way he bench pressed my man? It looks strong. He looked energetic. Look happy. Yeah. No, I mean, honestly, he doesn't look like, he looks like you can play a couple more years,
Starting point is 01:36:15 especially if he's playing three tech. Like, I don't know. I don't think he would want that, but I think he could do it. Who wouldn't take Braddock for two snaps a game? I know. Sign me up. I know.
Starting point is 01:36:24 I'm here to roll full. Yeah. All right, E.J. Lifetime contract. Thank you so much. Drive safe. We will talk to you on the show on Monday from Redding Terminal. Oh, I'm excited.
Starting point is 01:36:36 Can't wait. See you guys. All right. Thanks, E.J. That's E.J. Smith, our Eagles Insider on the Xfinity Mobile call in line. And that gives us a chance now to wrap things up. Final thoughts. Vinnie, what will you, when you put your head on the pillow tonight?
Starting point is 01:36:51 You got a little, little Zoe hanging out. What are you going to be thinking about this Eagles team? Zoe Curry. My boy, say, quo! They killed it tonight. We're about to start rolling. We're about to start rolling. And I will put it down.
Starting point is 01:37:05 Oof. Love that. Get yourself a couple hours at a time. Jamie. I'm choosing the optimistic route. I'll call it right now. I think they beat the Buffalo Bills next week. Skoll.
Starting point is 01:37:17 They rest the starters the final week and they head into the playoffs feeling good. We'll see what the matchups. I think if they beat the bills, then there's reason to play the guys. So there is reason to play. The one wouldn't. There is an outset.
Starting point is 01:37:31 There's a big difference between the two and the three. Yeah. You've got to decide whether you think that's worth it. it would absolutely be worth it means it means a guaranteed home game in the second round if you win then it's absolutely worth it so maybe the starters don't rest I'll drop that from my
Starting point is 01:37:45 closing saving but maybe you think Tanner McKee is good enough to just win in week 18 anyway you can have it both ways well with Dan Quinn's diapers being full maybe I don't take that chance with Frankie Louvre and Kinlaw and some of these guys out there maybe I just don't put Jalen
Starting point is 01:38:01 Hertz out there and beat him with Tanner McKee that's fine Will Shipley and Tanner McKee game come on down there you go all right last super chat under the gun Kyle O'Connor who is better Malik Willis or Tanner McKee now I guess Malik Willis I guess Jordan Love got knocked out of the yes Kim Chindello texting me and said right before half Love got popped look like a concussion yikes well if you look at the numbers since the start of last season the two best
Starting point is 01:38:28 quarterbacks in the NFL Tanner McKee by EPA for dropback or tennar McKee and Malie Willis we know who you're taking out. There you go. All right, that'll do it for the PHAY Eagles postgame show. Thank you to Lindsay for making it all happen behind the scenes. The Eagles have done it. They have put to rest to everybody's favorite NFL fun fact. We have back-to-back champions of the NFC East for the first time since 2004. For all of us here at PHLY, we thank you for listening and watching. We will talk to you on Monday at 2 o'clock from Reading Terminal.
Starting point is 01:39:01 Come on by and say hi if you want to. and otherwise enjoy the Sunday we'll talk to you then and as always we love you

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