PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles film review: Fran Duffy diagnoses the Eagles’ biggest issues, Jalen Hurts included

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Things are ugly for the 4-2 Eagles, as the passing game continue to flounder, A.J. Brown’s discontentment exacerbates, Jalen Hurts misses open receivers and the offensive line struggles even with most of them healthy. On defense, Jalen Carter and Quinyon Mitchell missing can’t turn the group into one of the worst in the league. Fran Duffy has digested the film and ranks the team’s biggest concerns, as EJ Smith and Bo Wulf join the discussion. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hawaiian Eagles podcast presented by Bet365 and Ashley, and we are hours removed from last night's embarrassing, heinous. Terrible performance by the Eagles, 34 to 17, losing to Jackson Dart, Cam Scataboo, and the lowly New York Giants, Bull Wolf, E.J. Smith in the middle, Fran Duffy over there, getting ready to show us the snappy snaps. Fran, how are you? It's been a hell of a morning going through the film from last night and reliving that. So it was, yeah, I'm ready to break it all down. Ready to talk it through. E.J., how are you? How was your drive home last night?

It was good. Yeah, uneventful, which is all you can really ask for. And, yeah, I'm excited to get through the film. I agree with Fran. It was a little bit of a tough watch. But overall, I am happy to hear that we're calling them snappy snaps today. I can get on board with that. I agree.

I mean, this is not a. full-term commitment. We're going to call them grab-to-grabs at some point in the show as well. Let's just... We don't have to do that. You don't. I do. Okay, Frank, the conceit of the show today, a little bit less specifically focused on exactly the film from yesterday and more about, okay, let's pick five things that are definitely an issue for the team right now.

And let's stork rank them from what is the least fixable, the most worrisome, and then work our way towards what is the most fixable and the least worrisome. And so where do we begin? What is the biggest issue for this team at four and two that, boy, I'm not so sure that they can get this fixed. Simply put, to quote, A.J. Brown, passing game. Passing. you know i i think that and whether you want to talk about uh the the execution at the quarterback position if you want to talk about the the the play calling and the game planning and the design

like to me it's all intertangled and i know that there are a lot of people that want to point to kevin petulow but to me again i don't think it's that simple it wasn't that simple last year when it was kelly you know kellen more was the officer coordinator we were having these discussions uh it wasn't this way two years ago when you people were having having the same conversations about Brian Johnson and four years ago when it was Shane Stuyken. You know, I think that there are, we've seen enough versions of this offense now where we could say like there's a certain way that the quarterback wants to play, that the head coach wants to play. And, you know, it's going to lead to some inconsistencies. And we're seeing that play out

right now over the last few weeks. Okay. So just to just to lay this out, we've got, we've got the pass rush. We've got just the wind they played on defense yesterday, like the lack of violence and intensity. We've got the offensive line. We've got all the brown stuff. We've got the passing game. And for you, the passing game is at the top. BJ, do you agree with that? Yeah, no, I agree. I feel like the thing that makes it daunting as we're going to go through some of this stuff and try and figure out, like, well, how can they fix it? Is what Fran said, that it's, it's multifaceted. It's not just the play calling. It's not just the

quarterback play. It's not just the philosophy, the overarching philosophy. There are a lot of different things that have to make strides in order for for them to really figure this out. So yeah, I know I'm excited to get into some of those things. And what is so confounding about it all is that, yes, they have Kevin Petullo as a new play caller. But I mean, the entire rest of the offense is carried over. These guys have played together for a while. And yet through six games now, Jalen Hertz's EPA per dropback, the worst who's ever had in the season as a starter going back to 2021.

The success rate is lowest as a starter going back to 2021. The sack rate, the highest it's been going back to 2021. Play action rate, also the lowest. It goes back to 2021. And it has been decreasing all the way along. All of these things, both in terms of actual efficiency and some of the things that you would like to see them do, they're all going in the wrong direction. And it does seem to coincide, Fran, with.

this offense becoming more Jalen Hertz's offense. Yeah, I mean, EJ, you said it a number of times this off season, you know, leading into this season,

I know that, you know, in previous iterations of this show with your predecessor, it was a lot of the same thing where it was this offense is going to look the way that Jalen wants it to look.

And I think that we have got, we have reached a point where, you know, because there are levels to it, right? Where, you know, Jalen Hertz, he's going to have an impact

on the passing game. and you know how things look and how things feel in 2022 and he's going to have a feel in 2023 after they losing a Super Bowl and certainly last year you know and then after you win super bowl MVP you would become even maybe a little bit more heavy handed with how that looks and how that feels and how things are called and how things are structured uh what goes into the game plan every single week how things are sequenced together you know what your pre-snap authority is before uh you know before every single play and so uh i do think they yeah this offense is built within the image of the quarterback.

Yeah, I mean, Jalen even mentioned yesterday, you know, while taking accountability for a lot of the inconsistency in the past game that he referenced the autonomy that he has. And, you know, he didn't really elaborate too much about, you know, what that autonomy really, you know, entails. But I do think that you see the evidence in the way that the Eagles, you know, operate in the passing game that Jalen does have a lot of say, not only, you know, pre-snap, not only in the heat of a game, but really just in the structure of the way that they approach things. All right. Well, let's get into it yesterday, Fran, because I mean, in the first

half, really until the final drive, which was, you know, another chicken with their heads cut off type situation in a two-minute drill. Yeah, yeah, you know, Jail and Herds looks pretty good. It felt like in the first few drives. And once again, they collapsed in the second half. So where do you want to start? Yeah, I think that, you know, the big thing for me, there were a couple of things in the first half while the numbers like look good and they were able to get some chunk gains. It never, there were a few plays where even they were able to to get a big play where Jalen just looked a little unsettled and I know, not always sure of what he was seeing. And that's why I actually want to start with a positive play.

Julia, if we can go to what to dagger first. This is actually going to be, I believe it was a 23 yard completion to Dallas Goddard in the middle, you know, deep intermediate part of the field and between the hash mark. So an area where a lot of people have pointed to and say, this is a lot of, is an area that Jalen Hertz typically does not access and does not consistently target, you know, on a down-to-down basis. And that's true. I mean, from a volume standpoint, that is an area that he does not always attack. Here on this play, he does. And so, yeah, if we go to dagger one, Julia, it's a completion to Dallas Goddard where, again, this is a

version of the dagger concept where you're going to get a deep vertical through route to kind of lift the coverage. That's that first one from the outside receiver from Jihad Dotson. And then you're going to have the deep in cut, the deep dig from Goddard working behind it. So that first route is meant to clear out some space and then Goddard works into the void. Now, the Eagles dressed this up with some backfield motion here from Devante Smith. So if you go to the next shot here, Julia, you'll see that Devante is coming in motion from left to right and he is going to release at the snap of the ball vertically up the field. Now, I don't know how this is coached in terms of, is this going to be an alert for Jalen Hertz? Is this just, I can be. But what we see as we

as we go to the next shot is Jalen is actually looking to his right here on this play. I think that this is live. This is an option here for Jalen on this one where if that, if no one ran with Devante, Devante is going to release up the field and he's going to be, you know, he's going to be open ideally on a vertical route. But the corner on that side, he squats on it. He sits on it. So he's going to take this away. So Devante saws the route off. If you go to the next shot, you can see Devante kind of stops his route. He said, all right, I'm holding the corner here. That that throws not available. Now, Jalen is still looking at you can see Devante has like fully stopped his route, which is that he's not going to run directly into the corner's coverage, but Jalen is still

kind of looking at it. And you see that Dallas, he is starting to break open. He's started he's made his cut on the deep end cut and he is working towards the middle of the field. Now, if we go to the next shot. You can see Dallas is about to cross the, the, uh, that the right hash mark. And you see he kind of like opens his arms as if like, throw me the ball. I'm over. Within timing, within structure, this is where the, the ball should be here now. Right. And what I wrote earlier this week, uh, after the Sundays lost to Denver, how the past game is all about timing and rhythm. And this is, on this timing, on the on this drop, the ball should be out to got it right now. Now, you can see that Jalen is he's cocking his arm back to throw he is in the process of throwing so it's not

that he's like egregiously late on this play but he's late enough where if the ball's on dallas now guys he probably scores right like he is he is so wide open that he probably takes this the rest of the way and he runs this in for a touchdown instead by the time if we go to the next shot here julia uh this is the last one the balls on him as he crosses the left hash mark and then he takes that from the from the from the db underneath so just that beat where jalen held on to devante a little bit too long and i don't know if they you know they if again is is that an alert where you're just supposed to take a peek there is that the first reading that progression he's supposed to go one to two to three i couldn't tell you but i i would just say like i've seen that play concept run a bunch of

different times even with that kind of like eye candy in the backfield the quarterback shouldn't be on that that long especially when you know devante like he sawed that off pretty quickly he's not you know He turned back. He doesn't think that he's active there, but Jalen is still looking at it. And I think that's just an example of while that was a positive play, I didn't feel like Jalen was settled and feeling comfortable. And we've said this throughout. Like even when, you know, early on in the season, I was like, yeah, like Jalen's playing

clean football. The last two weeks, I don't think it has been as clean and as settled and as structured with him whenever he drops back to pass. So as we're thinking about the different problems and you have this at the top. We'll get to more of the snappy snaps here. But why do you feel like this is less fixable to get Jill into speed up to process quicker on some of these things when, in fact, if he has more autonomy at the line and he is more in charge of what's going on, why don't you expect that this is something that could improve? Or is less likely to improve? Yeah.

So here's the way I look at it. the reason why I would have this at the top of our list is because if this were a like, hey, let's take the straight jacket off and it was like Jalen wants the offense to change, then I feel like, oh, okay, like, yeah, like, all right, they can have, they can have, you know, big meetings during this mini by week and say like, all right, let's move on. It's not to say that Jalen can't move off of it. I just think that if he and the coaching staff, like, you know, if he and Kevin Petulow, Nick Siriani, the other, the offensive staff are in lockstep with how the offense should look

and everyone says, yeah, like this is what we want it to look like. I think there's less likely to be a change if other players feel that way. But you know what I mean? Like in terms of like Jalen and the coaches feel a certain way, and this is what they want the offense to look like. I don't know how likely it is for that to change. All right. Let's talk about a miss.

And why don't we make this the big takeaway presented? Exfinity. The big takeaway. And this was a, I would say the play that most Eagles fans will remember from this game is the start of the second half, missing a wide open, Devante Smith. What did you see here, Fran? This is just a bad miss. You know, this one, this one is just one that Jalen absolutely 100% will want to have back. Julia, if you just go to Devante miss one.

This is just a simple vertical route from Devante Smith. He's on the left side line here. they're backed up on their own 10-yard line, 11-yard line. And Jalen Hertz is going to drop back. And again, he's going to have Devante down the left sideline here. And this is a, this is going to be a rhythm throw. Like he's going to hit the top of his drop. He's not pressured.

There's not a defender screaming at his face, like an unblocked look. Like, it's not like Devante got completely held up by a defender on the back end or he had to throw like a double move and the timing's off. If you go to the next shot, you can see like Jalen hits the top of his drop and he's in rhythm. There's no one around them. Like this is a clean pocket by NFL standards. Devante has cleared the defender. I don't know what that corner is looking at, you know, on that side.

Everybody else seems like they're playing man-to-man coverage. And it looks like that corner is playing cover two. So this is a busted coverage by the New York Giants. And Devante is wide open. I know if you go to the last shot, I mean, he's got seven yards of separation by the time the ball lands. Well, at its best, it was like 10 yards of separation. And Jalen just overthrew him. It was a really bad miss.

And we talked about it last night. But, you know, Jalen has, we've talked in the years past. This has been one of his strengths. This has been one of his superpowers has been that, not just like deep ball accuracy, but accuracy and ball placement in general. You know, and he was, he was inaccurate on the interception that was nearly taken back for a touchdown by Cardell Flott. That was a bad ball too far inside.

So the accuracy has not been there. And I think that that's one of the other things that we haven't really talked about too much. so far through six games is that this offense, you know, this past game, look, I think when you look at all players are flawed, right? No, no player is perfect. So if you're talking about, you know, what are Jalen Hertz's strengths as a quarterback? I would say, all right, like, well, his ability to create, you know, his athletic is when you can do with the run game, but his obviously intangibles, and then you get into his accuracy, his ball placement, especially down the field. But if you take that away and you're not accentuating another area of weakness to,

to make up for that. Well, now, like, that makes him a weaker player, right? So if you're, if you're never going to be, like, the strong, like, post-snap or pre-snap processor, then you want to make up for that with strong accuracy. And if he's not making up for that with strong accuracy and you're leaving these kinds of plays on the field, that's when you're going to get these kind of mixed results. This is, this is what I meant about, like, there's so many layers to this because it's like, you can, we can have a real, like, we will have a real dialogue about, like, Kevin

and the predictability of the ego's offense. And there's a lot there, but there's also just like, this is like the rating Super Bowl MVP throwing to a receiver that's got almost 10 yards of separation down the field. Like it's just as cut and dry is like he can't miss on that throw. This is the second week in a row where like they miss on an explosive play that really would have swung the game. You know, they were they were trailing by three at that point in the game. You know, I think that it's just as simple as like, you know, while all the other stuff is at play

here, it's just like these guys are like. the talent that we talk about on offense, like this is where it should deliver, even if it isn't a perfect scheme. And listen, you know, guys are allowed to have bad games or bad stretches. I do think that, you know, I'm long term, I'm not worried about Jalen's accuracy. Sure. Because we've seen, we've seen it be very good. It is more of the other stuff that is a concern.

But, yeah, I mean, it's not good in this game. I would have surprised because I really liked. I like your framing, Fran, that, like, those are uncharacteristic for him, but they haven't been super uncharacteristic for him this season. I was a little bit surprised. I looked at the true media numbers of just his, like, on 20-plus yard air yards. It's actually, like, the EPA for dropback and the success rate are actually higher than they've been this year. So I think that's buoyed by what we saw the first, like, three, four weeks. But the last two weeks, it has been ugly.

Yeah. And certainly there were some of those misses against the bucks. with AJ, specifically targeting AJ Brown. So the last couple of weeks, it's definitely been a little lower than you would like. All right. That's your big takeaway presented by Xfinity. Time to go to break. We have a little bit more on the passing game, and then we'll get to some of the other issues with this team.

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the PHLY Sports sent you. All right, back in the PHLY Eagles podcast. Hey, Jay, when did you start covering the team? 2019 was my first year on the beat. 2019, okay. So I'm just, aside from the actual tangible analysis of the film, vibes-wise, how does this feel to you compared to all the other seasons you've covered?

It's a good question. I do think there were a few moments last season. where it kind of felt like a good go this way. But at this point, I think it's unavoidable to acknowledge the fact that there is some 2023 vibes around the team. Now, they made it out of that last year. And I think, you know, that there's every, well, there's reason to believe they could do it again. But I mean, especially like some of we'll get to like AJ later in the show, but especially

some of the AJ stuff. Like it's been, it's like it's unlike anything I've really covered with with the Eagles before, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I mean, like, right, I expect it to get a lot worse, but I also expected it to get a lot worse week six last year. Right. Yeah, Nick Seriani said it. He said that they were four and two this time last year as well. Obviously, they got there a little bit differently.

I do find it a little bit convenient, like that Nick didn't want to talk about last season at all, all off season going into the year. And now that they are facing some adversity, it's like, well, look what we did last year. So I do think that that is like maybe a little bit. of mixed messaging. But again, I do think, like, we've seen them make it out of this before. But it doesn't, I don't know, there's, there are warning signs for sure. All right. You got one more snap to snap for us in the passing game, Fran.

Let's, let's break it down. I do. Let's take a look at a play that it was the first sack that Jalen Hertz took in this football game, a third down play. Julia, if you just go to sack one. This was a play on third down. and it's it's got a lot of different layers to this. So on this play here, the Giants come out in a little bit of a unique front

where you've got Abdul Carter and Brian Burns lined up to the offensive left. So that's that big circle there. You've got Burns far out wide, Abdul Carter standing up over Brett Tooth. And then you've got a linebacker, Bobby O'Caricay. He's lined up right over Cam Jergens, right over the center, and you've got the dime defensive back stacked right behind him. So a little bit of a threat of a pressure look there. very similar to like a double mug front where you're sprinkling some sugar on the agaps.

That's the same kind of idea there. And then you've got Dexter Lawrence and Kvon Tibido lined up to the right. So as you typically see when you have this kind of A gap pressure look, you're going to block that up with your center and your running back. So, Julie, if you go to the next shot here, that's how the Eagles decide they're going to block this up. Cam Jorgans is going to slide to his right. And then you're going to have Sequan Barkley. He's going to be responsible if a defender, whether that is Ocarriquet or if it's the dime DB,

go into the left A gap, that's going to be Sequin Barkley's responsibility. So Cam Jorgans is sliding to the right in this situation. And then you're going to have man-to-man protection. I talk about breaking down protection schemes. If the center is sliding one way, that is the direction of the zone, that's zone-blocking in that direction. So since Cam is sliding to his right, it is zone-blocking that way. And that means it is straight man-to-man on the left side. So if it's man-toe, that means Toe and Jordan Milo. have have the two pass rushers there and Burns and Carter in man-to-man protection. So, Julie, if you go to the next shot here, one of the things that is a concern, number one, if you've got man-to-man protection on that side, if you've got two pass-rushers, especially two guys that are like bendy, explosive lined up to one side, the threat of stunts and games and twists absolutely exists. Now, me personally, I get why you're sliding Cam Juergens to the right because you've got Dexter Lawrence over there. You want to give Tyler Steen a little bit of extra help. That said,

this is a thing that good defenses do when they try and manipulate protections and say, all right, well, are you going to slide over to the defensive tackle? The guy that might require a double team. If you are, then we are going to play games on the opposite side. The Rams used to do this with Aaron Donald all the time. We're going to put Aaron Donald by himself over to one side, and they're going to run all kinds of funky twists and stunts and games over on the other side. And now you kind of have to pick your poison. Well, now, now, it's two on two over on the left and it's basically pick and roll it's a it's it's two on two basketball over on the left hand side and bret toth and jordan milada struggled picking up stunts

last week against the Denver broncos the giants come and they run and they run a stunt over on this side so if you go to the next shot julia you're going to see that carter explodes up the field bret toth doesn't do enough to protect his outside shoulder here and if you are an offensive lineman the worst possible position that you could be put in not for just for yourself but for the the of the pocket and for the the uh the construction of the pocket there is to be parallel to the side line perpendicular to the line of scrimmage so brettoth is facing the sideline here he's because now he has no base if carter's going to try and push him you know try and uh bull rush him and then also he and my lot are off level there's no there's no way that he and my lot are

able to pass this stunt off in this situation so as soon as burns Brian burns is going to loop inside here there's no jrmylata's got no shot he's got no chance to be able to mirror this on this play. And so if you go to the next shot, Julie, you can see that Burns gets inside here. He gets inside Milata and now he takes Jalen Hertz down for the sack. And I don't love the fact that, you know, now we get into like, what did Jalen Hertz see on this play? Well, before the snap, it looks like single high. And basically, yeah, you've got the single high safety. And it looks like it's going to be man to man cover. Just third down. That's been their identity. All right, we anticipate it's going to be single high

man to man. Julie, if you go to that next shot with the routes, you're going to see that what the Eagles are running here on third and long, I believe it's third and eight. You've got four routes because you kept Sequin Barclay to protect. So you've got four routes here, bottom of the screen, because that's where Jaylon's going to start. You've got Dallas Goddard just basically running a clear-out route. That route's dead. He's not getting that ball. I think he knows he's not getting that ball.

And then you've got Devante Smith, who is running like a hitch route two or three yards short of the sticks. So that's like, so even that's where Jalen's looking. but like even if he does throw this ball in timing and rhythm, you know, that, that, that you're, it's an unsuccessful play. You're probably punting on the next job. Now, it's not man to man. It is zone. So Jalen had a bad pre-snap read here.

So he starts to his left. That's the man-to-man side. It's zone. So he probably should be working the other side where you've got A.J. Brown and Johan Dotson working a little bit of like a rap concept here, where you've got the in cut and you've got the stop route underneath. But because Jail, you know, Jailant started on the opposite side. it doesn't have time because the protection breaks down.

So this play had like, it was like an encapsulation of everything. We're like the scheme, you probably probably a little bit, left a little bit to be desired there. The quarterback didn't execute great. The protection didn't execute great. Just all encompassing here.

And they don't get off the field on third down. They are forced off the field on third down. It's a great one. You've got a skill issue at left guard. You've got a bad, protection call, a bad read of what they're seeing on defense, and then just that execution. So not a great concept. And not a great.

Right. Exactly. And bad scheming. So on the protection call, are you putting that all on Jalen? Protection calls are. That's that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's, that's started last year. And I haven't, I mean, E.J., you tell me, like, I haven't heard anything that can it

contradicts the otherwise. Or like, that's, that's, that's all under Jalen's umbrella at this point. Yeah. No, that's the sense I, that's, that's my understanding of it as well. That's not great. No. Yeah. And it's one of those like, you know, we talked about it last year when he took it over where it's like, all right, well, if the, the quarterback knows the protection call.

Like, even when he's wrong, he's right. That kind of thing. That that's right to an extent, you know, until it's not. Right. Like, it's one of those like, or yeah, like, you probably would have liked the, the slide to go the opposite way. You know, but then maybe if, if Dexter Lawrence is over. overwhelms Tyler Steen. It's like, oh, man, you should have been sliding the other way. You can, it's six to one, half dozen of the other. But I think that everything kind of, it's,

it all snowballed here on this one. Big picture, this is a, this is a very difficult thing for the Eagles to figure out, Fran, because Jalen is the Super Bowl MVP. He has a lot of sway, obviously, you know, and so he wants, he's taking over more of the offense. And if you accept that he's, not doing a great job at this right now. The question is, is giving the season of the season, moving down the line, or do you take things away to sort of reset and how sensitive of a thing would that be? That's a, it's a very difficult thing for them to figure out.

And honestly, we've had those kind of debates over the last few years. You know, it's like the, all right, well, you know, you go back to like 2021, where Jalen was definitely like, all right, the process, the post snap processing, reading the defense and DB rotations. Like, that was a weakness of his game at that point, you know, dealing with the Blitz. Like, that was a weakness of his game at that point. Those are no longer, like, weaknesses. They've gotten better. I would say he's been pretty good against the Blitz.

And the post-snap, the processing stuff is, has gotten adequate. I mean, certainly, like, good enough. He just won the Super Bowl and was a Super Bowl MVP last year. It's not that he's a bad player, but you want to, you always, I think as a coach, you're always trying to find that balance of putting your players in best position to succeed, letting them find ways to develop and to grow, but not at the, you know, at the, you know, you don't want to have that cost everybody else, the other 10 people on the field as well. So it's a, it's a tough, tight rope to walk. And E.J, I think the other question here is, what is, what is? the urgency from an Eagles roster standpoint. I mean, listen, they've got like the youngest defense in football.

So the defense is theoretically built to be competitive for a long time, although you're going to have to start paying these guys, and that's going to change the balance of the roster. But on offense, you know, we'll get to how tenable the AJ Jalen thing is. But if you accept that they're going to be here for a while, even, you know, Lane is nearing retirement, the offensive line as a whole is aging. They don't have guys coming up underneath. their self-assessment of the lasting nature of how often how long this roster is going to be Super Bowl caliber probably does force Howie to maybe push some chips in if he feels that way.

Yeah, especially, I mean, on offense, it is just rare to have a collection of players that are that talented playing together. You know, it's a fragile thing. I mean, I saw one of our super chats is actually on like if the Eagles should resign Dallas Goddard, right? And it's like, well, Dallas Goddard is actually having a pretty good year so far. So, you know, it's not a matter of like, well, the Eagles take him back. It's like, are the Eagles going to be able to afford to keep a player like Dallas got it in the building if he has suitors elsewhere? And I think that you, again, you think about the collection of talent that they have and how hard it is to, to have that much talent across the board. Yeah, there's, there's urgency there.

You know, the investment part of it aside, like, you know, getting your money's worth from your two star receivers, just having, you know, know, that group of players, it really is, like, confounding that they just, like, make it look so difficult. You know, it just, it's, it's one of the more surprising things of the season. All right. Time to take our second break. We will hear from some sponsors. On the other side, we'll find out between the physicality and run defense, the pass rush, the running game, and the AJ Brown situation, which of those four is next on Fran's live? list in terms of the biggest concern for the Seagulls team heading forward. It's the perfect time to get your home ready for the season and save big because the holiday

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That Ashley. All right, back on the P.HL. My Eagles podcast, I gave you the choices, Fran. Where's your concern, meter? What's next? We're staying with the past game. We're going to go to the A.J. Brown of it all. I think that's next.

You know, I think that it hasn't been great. The vibes around it have not been great. That continued last night. I know AJ Brown put out a tweet this morning. Yes, we have a bit of an update here, E.J. And tell us about it. Yeah, I'm trying to pull up the tweet now. So, AJ Brown, I think most of our listeners will know, said that he did not recall a meeting between him, Jalen Hertz, and Sequin Barclay.

That's great. That's a great quote graphic. So this morning or this afternoon, AJ posted on social media, just to clear this up, that wasn't a meeting or a sit-down. I said, I don't recall because it got painted like there was tension and say, Sequin, had to step in. That's not true. I was walking to my car, saw them, and stopped to talk, nothing more. So I think my read on it last night was that AJ just really didn't want to address it. But I'll be honest with you.

Like, you know, Fran, you said this a couple weeks ago. And I mean, I just, this is like the, the end all or like, this is like my, this is like what I feel about this moving forward. It's like it's not going away. You know, it's like a lengthy conversation and, you know, outside the NovaCare complex isn't going to fix this overnight because this is becoming a weekly thing where it's like what we hear from AJ after the game, it will linger into the following week. And it just seems like, I don't know, this seemed like an attempt to address it, the meeting that is now not being called a meeting.

But yeah, I just, I said it earlier. Like I feel like the way that this is going this season is unlike anything I've covered before in that like, I don't know what to really make of how AJ like where he's at. You know, the slow up against the Broncos was illustrative of like what we've seen a good amount from him this season where just feels like something is off there. And it's not it's not just off the field. It's, you know, showing it has like tangible effects on the field in a way that. that is just objectively concerning. You know, you, like, I watching the film, it's like, he has that sideline catch. And it's like, man, like this guy can just do something, like things on a football field that, like,

you should be able to build an offense around. And it's just not clicking right now. And it's hard to ignore the fact that there's obviously tension behind the scenes and frustration that's been boiling pretty much since the beginning of the season. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about it when this first. started popping up again.

We didn't think it was going to go away. And I don't think it's going to until like the on-field stuff, like until they show like, okay, we are able to move on and it's not going to affect the on-field product. Until then, like, I don't know.

I just, Beau said it earlier. They like, I don't think that it's going to, it's not going to get better. Like, it's good. I'm expecting it to be worse. And that's kind of how I view it sitting here on October 10th. Just from a football standpoint,

from an on-field production standpoint, I mean, the numbers are pretty glaring, even though he's been getting the ball a lot the past couple weeks, yards per route run, you know, this is where he's been elite, the last, I mean, his entire career, essentially. Last year, he was third in the NFL,

the year before he was ninth, the year before that, and he was fifth. So he's never been worse than ninth in terms of yards per route run with the Eagles. This year he's 72nd, 1.35. Yards per target, he's at 6.1 right now,

which is 43rd of 49. qualifying wide receivers. He was first in that last year. And you just think about the usage. You know, we've talked about how Devante, the skeleton key for the offense sometimes is putting Devante in the slot. AJ's been in the slot a good bit as well in the past. Not this year.

11% of the time, the lowest by far he's ever had with Eagles. They are, you know, using him less creatively. Julia, I don't know if you have those heat maps from True Media, which we have. But if you look at just this year and then you look at last year, I mean, you just see it's a conversation about they're not using the middle of the field, but like the 10 to 25 yards down field in the middle of the field where he has gotten balls in the past, nothing at all this year. It is all concentrated just the sidelines down the field and like some slants, six yards down the field. And so I think the AJ frustrations go a little bit beyond just what's going on in the field. But what's going on in the field, you can understand his frustrations. And that's kind of what I was hinting at.

I was like, all right, if I think that he'd be okay if like the past game was healthy, if the offense was healthy and everything looked good and felt good. And it was like, all right, we're moving on. But I think the fact that the offense is very much hit or miss for, the majority of games, like for, you know, long stretches of games, like they can't get anything rolling, that on-field frustration is just compounded by the off-field frustration. And so, and since there's not, they don't have that, the tools to be able to fix it and they don't have, like, there's not that like, like, clear line of communication to be able to get problem

solved. It's that, it's, that's, that's not getting better. Um, you know, I, I thought as I was watching this morning, you know, they, they ran, Julia, if you actually, can you pull up the, yeah, Here's the heat map that both are that. That's last year. Last year and then you just see, yeah, the middle of the field there. You just see it disappear. Yep.

And those are targets, Mo, or catches? Those are targets. Or then like the routes that he's running. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just staggering. That's, you know, it's a full season's worth versus six. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. It gives you an idea.

I was thinking this morning, Julia, if you could pull up the Goddert TD. So this is good. So last night, They went back to like that little, you know, the swinging gate, like little shovel pass like out of the out of 13 personnel. They ran it a couple weeks ago. You know, it's like a compliment off the push.

And it was cool. Like, and I like what they did yesterday because they came out. It's an empty set that everybody's spread out. All right. And now we're going to go to the, if you go to the next shot, then it's, sorry. Now we're going to put everybody in motion. It's going to be a late shift. And we're going to shift into that look.

And then just before the snap, just one more, Julia, you're going to get Jalen Hertz. under center and then we're going to throw it out there as i'm sitting here and i'm looking at this just before the snap you could like swap dallas goddard and a j brown and just like maybe throw the guy a bone right like say like all right like to me like yeah okay maybe dallas is a little bit sturdier you know he's you know he's got like 20 pounds on a j but i don't know like i think a j brown could catch a ball at the four and like power in right power in for a touchdown um it's like little things like that where like maybe you find just different ways to kind of get him involved little bit and just try and see if you could tell that. So that is a way that the the coaching staff

can kind of interject into this dynamic a little bit as well. Did you notice that Fran mentioned the tush push on that on that play? Because a couple weeks ago, you know, somebody had a sweeper entry. I said from a personnel grouping. That wasn't from the formation. Yeah, that's fair. The swooper was all with the swooper was very specifically. Just like the heated exchange, my heart wasn't really in this. I just, I just keep. be you guys honest, you know? This is, this is like the, the half-hearted Eagles emotion. It's just, just to keep you honest, you know. There's one other play you want to break down here, friend. Yeah, this is, this is, Julia, this is A.J. Miss. On this play, I mean, they're going to,

they're going to try and run an inbreaker to A.J. Brown, like a quick slant, it's a slant-flat concept off of play action. They've run this a bunch over the years where it's just going to be a quick play action fake, and Jaylon's going to get the ball out of his hands quickly. put it on AJ Brown in the middle of the field. And it's going to be there. AJ's going to be open. If you go to the next shot, their plan is going to be off play action.

It's split zone play action where, you know, the split zone is an inside zone run where you're going to have the tight end come across the formation to block the backside defensive end. The problem on this play is that that defensive end that you're blocking is Abdul Carter, who is a freak of nature,

extremely explosive athlete, and he is going to be blocked by a tight end. end on the opposite side. And if he's not buying the fact that it's going to be a run and if he's going to just fly into the backfield, that tight end is extremely unlikely to be able to make that block. And newsflash, he doesn't make that block. He gets a clean hit on Jalen Hertz and Seekwan Barkley at the mesh point. If you go to the next shot here, Julia, you see the Abdul Carter gets right in Jalen Hertz's lap. Jalen shrugs the contact off, does a great job here, stays alive. And he ends up trying to scramble. If you go to the next shot, you can see, all right, Jalen Hertz,

scrambles. I think he picks up two yards on this play, but AJ Brown's wide open, right? It's like one of the, and I get like, I'm not expecting Jalen to deliver this to AJ, but this would have been a catch for A.J. Brown. He would have gone for a first down as long as the ball's caught. He's going to be past the sticks. And it could be an explosive play. But I get and I see there's people in chat like saying like, oh, Jaylon's got to keep his eyes up. He just took a huge hit from a defensive end and now he's going to try and create. Like I get it. It's honestly like, yeah, the timing's off on this play. I got to go make a play. I'm fine with it. To me, this was.

was like maybe not maybe don't have that be the the design of the play action to say like all right we're going to bring a tight end across the formation if it's a 275 pound defensive end who runs a 4-8 yeah all right well we'll sell this or if we've been hey we've been really run heavy today we're going to run run and we're maybe sell that play action a little bit more on that one card it didn't bite it for a second he's flying to the backfield and he's taking jaylain hurts out at the mesh point uh e jay where are you in just how this all plays out Oh, I thought you were going to ask me if I was relieved that Fran didn't lay that at the feet of Cam Latu for missing the block. I mean, it's hard to say.

You know, it's like, it's not great. But there were moments last season where it wasn't great. I just, again, keep going back to like, I just don't. It's like hard to see a path for AJ to like get back into being like fully engaged into the structure of this passing game. Um, I mean, I don't know. It's, it's, uh, it's like, it's like it's like, it's just like, uh, because of how strange it's been, it's hard for me to like come on here and say like, man, like I really feel like AJ is just one big game away from this like clicking.

It feels feels like something that's going to persist more than that. Okay. Let's take a break. When we come back, we've got three big problems left. We've got the running game, the pass rush, and sort of the secondary slash physicality going on with defense. I mean, the terrible defensive performance is right. We haven't even talked about it yet. Let's find out how high it ranks for the Duffman.

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He's talking to his pro scouts in particular. And he gets on the horn with a guy. And he's talking to this guy in the staff named Ray. And Ray goes, hey, I got a great idea. You got to trade for Tank Bigsby. Give up all the picks that you can. He's going to be the best kickoff returner in the NFL. That's not the Ray that we're talking about here.

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to bring you an exclusive offer. Head to ShadyRays.com. and use code pHLY for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars over 300,000 people. Speaking of the kickoff return and Shady Ray, I mean, we're not going to talk about special teams get into it a ton here, but it is true. I mean, it is, it is as bad as your eyes think it is. On kickoff returns, the Eagles have the worst starting field position in the NFL.

It's at the 25-yard line. And it's even worse when they, you know, it's not a touchback. They somehow are further away from number 31 than they are when you include touchbacks. It is a, it is a disaster. How high in the draft would you be willing to take a guy that is, his sole thing is kick return? Oh, kick return. I thought you're going to say like kickoff, kickoff special. I don't think it should be that hard.

Yeah, but there are. are some guys like it's like oh like this guy is he is a returner so if you guys you thought like this guy is dynamic and he's a fourth receiver fifth receiver but he'll be he's got the ability to be like a dynamite returner how high would you draft that guy you think given what we've seen through six games uh i mean if you're if like if there's a if there's potential upside for being involved in the offense you know it's like we're talking like a kvante turpin type but you could use a little bit i feel like it's it's a more fun thought experiment if it's like this guy is only a returner like let's say like the most ideal version of like

brit and covey like you don't want you really don't want to put the ball on his hands on offense he's maybe is limited in that scope but a special team's demon but the thing is if you're if you're if if your offense is as talented as it is it's supposed to be you don't need the best kickoff returner in the NFL you just need competency just get me to average yep right and so I don't like I don't think I would be willing to take them that high um in theory but yeah like I just don't want to be worse you have somebody in mind no not yet what do you think fifth um you honestly probably I mean the thing is they've already spent a fifth at a sixth on on again that's that makes it tougher to to gauge but I digress okay all right friend the run defense the running game on

offense and sort of the rest of the picture on defense, especially after a game in which they were completely out-physicaled yesterday, where are you going next as the most worrisome? To me, it would be the, I think the pass rush is an issue right now. And it's going to continue to be an issue. You know, Jalen Carter, you know, look, he missed this game with a heel injury. That doesn't take into account, like, whatever this upper body, like shoulder peck deal that he's been, you know, dealing with since the summer, you know, where he is from a percentage standpoint with that injury. But for me, I think that the inability to consistently impact the quarterback without the use of Zach Bonn and or Jihad Campbell, that that's a concern right now for this defense.

I misunderstood my own question. For me, this is absolutely the next thing. Do you see any fix here coming, E.J.? I mean, trade deadlines in a little less than a month. Definitely feels like they're lacking some firepower on the edge, not just pass rush juice, but really early down. It feels like they could use someone to solidify that, especially, I mean, I know Nolan Smith is out, but even with, even when Nolan Smith is back, I think, you know, they could use some an injection of talent there. Well, this gets to the thing we were talking about before about the longevity of this roster. You know, they have to have some real serious self-assessments because, you know,

Would you be willing to give up a second for Trey Hendrickson or whatever it is if you think that this team might just keep going in the wrong direction? Right. Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know. But like, I don't know. I think if you're, if you look at, again, like the collection of talent they have on this team, it feels like you kind of owe it to the window.

Right. To make a move like that. Honestly, Bo, I think the chat should be on you. You should be talking to Brandon Graham, like, especially early down, like, you know, just like stout at the point of attack, like a little bit of past rush juice, a little versatility to move inside, some leadership, you know, some crack some skulls. Let's get more physical. I mean, they could use them.

Yeah. I mean, I think how it would be not doing his due diligence if he wasn't making that phone call. I would agree. But I don't know that that's, I don't know that that's solving it. Right. I agree with that. Okay. Well, and to me, like the biggest thing, and Julia, let's go to the, the, we can probably make this the last one.

We'll go to third down, the next one, third down number one. The issue that you're, and look, this is a defense that could not get off the field on third down yesterday. The Giants had entirely too much success on third down in this football game. It was a big reason why they were able to put up as many points as they did in this football game. But on this play here on third down, my opinion, my thought is, is that this is going to be a blitz for one of those exchange pressures, one of those pressures from Zach Bond, where he's going to come from depth and is actually going to be just a straight blitz because the four defensive linemen are all blitzing as well.

You can see that the Eagles tilt the front where you've got three defensive linemen lined up to our left-hand side. Bond is going to come from the right-hand side, and you've got, I believe that is Zadaria Smith lined up to the far right. Now, what happens before the snap, if, Julia, if you go to the next shot here, is that the Giants send Tyrone Tracy in motion from left to right. And you could see that Bonn and Jihad Campbell, they kind of switch this off and they change they change responsibilities here. So now Campbell becomes the blitzer. Bonn has Tracy one on one. And so you're going to see on the

shot, now Jihad Campbell's going to come as the blitzer and he's going to run through that B gap outside the guard between the tackle. The problem here on this play is that I think that Campbell thinks that number 74, the right guard, that he's going to, that he's going to try and block him. And so he stutters his feet here on this play. If you go to the next shot, you can see that he kind of chatters his feet and hesitates a little bit. Seventy four, he actually just, he's not even looking at Campbell. He had eyes on Zach Bond before the snap. And as soon as he saw Bond run with the running back, now he's got his eyes inside to the defensive tackle. If Campbell just hits this gap at full speed, he probably gets a hit on Jackson Dart and he's able to

to impact this throw and the ball's not delivered, but because he hesitated just a little bit instead of hitting this full bore, well, now DART's got a little bit extra time. And if we go to the next shot here, Theo Johnson, the tight end, second year tight end out of Penn State, he just carves up McCuba. It was just poor leverage from McCuba here.

It was a solid route from the tight end, and he's able to create separation. He breaks to the outside on a corner route, and he ends up going for a 22-yard completion here on third and long, and the Giants are able to move the sticks. And to me, like the, again, that inability to consistently rush the passer. Now you're bringing those linebackers from depth.

You're counting on some of these guys that are, it's not as good of a secondary as it was a year ago, right? You've got, we could talk about the cornerback spot, you know, the opposite of Quignan Mitchell. You didn't have Quignan for the majority of last night's game. They stayed completely away from Cooper to Jean. You know, in the past game, I think that he got targeted one time down the field and base defense in this game.

So they stayed completely away from Cooper to Jean. it was all peppering targets towards Adori Jackson and Kili Ringo and Makuba. It's going to be an issue. Those young defensive backs or those less skilled defensive backs, if you're not able to complement that with a strong pass rush. I don't, to me, I don't think the answer is yes. But given the state of the pass rush, do you second guess committing to Zach Bonn instead of one of the pass rushers who left?

I don't think so. No, I, I, I, Bond's a great player. And I think that, you know, when you look at Milton, I mean, you weren't going to be able to bring Milton back on the contract that you got. And sweat, I mean, I don't know, like you guys tell me, like, I feel like that ship just kind of sailed. Like, I don't know. I feel like there was kind of, you kind of knew like that, that, that relationship wasn't going to work past 2024. So I don't know that there is even revisionist history to revisit there.

I think you're a more interesting, like, framing of that would be if you're going to have such a top heavy roster. like the top of your roster has to perform that way. You know, like Zach Bond needs to be able to make the defense right. It's funny. You know, Zach Bond and my wife went on this like really long tangent about the Eagles this morning. She was really worked up and like, you know, she doesn't get to like, you know, she didn't get to talk to me after the game. So she listens to the post game show. She listens to everything and she just has like takes and she needs to unload this morning.

You need to get her on. You're on the show. Yeah, right. Honestly, she would love that. So one of the things she said is like that the Eagles offense just doesn't have enough easy buttons. And I'm sorry because I just caught myself about to say easy button like with Zach Bon and I just completely got sidetracked. But I was wondering whether we're going to come into Zach Bond. If you have such a top heavy roster like Zach Bond can't get beat by Jackson Dart on that scramble drill.

You know, I think that's that is maybe the conversation that you can have about like is the off ball lineback. position able to impact everything around it enough to justify the investment but I still think like I actually I've got no issue with the process like Zach Bonn being a difference making player I think it made sense to to prioritize him all right we're going to continue this conversation in bovita I do wonder if they're like you know if if they knew they were going to draft jihad campbell which you could never have known which you have still but that's a that's a that's an unfortunate thing I do want to get the Julia segment going

We got to get that baby sold Sponsored And that we can bring her on Speaking of sold and sponsored segments How about Shady Raise The Future is bright In an episode Where we're talking about the bad stuff

The least bad thing You think there might be a bright future Fran for The Running Game is that next for you yeah the run game i think that there there were and to me you know i don't we don't have any uh any shots from this one but and we talked about this in the post game show a little bit afterwards i think when i think when you're looking at this game in particular i mean they came out and they were able to run the ball against a bad run defense yeah and

look here's my two here here are the two bones that i would pick with the run game yesterday um they came out first play the game lined up in the pistol and they ran the version of Inside Zone where you have Cam Juergens, you know, kind of folding around the left guard and leading up to the second level and it goes for 19 yards, longest run of the year.

They came back very next drive, same formation, same exact play, and it goes for minus two. Like literally, like, I quite literally copied and pasted multiple rows of my Excel sheet for my notes. I was like, yep, exactly the same, exactly the same. The outcome was much different.

It went for minus two. then the other thing you know last year the last couple of years we've seen them do this where they do they have a change up that they do is called like like same side runs right so if you have the quarterback in the shotgun and they're running back to his left side typically if the quarterbacks to the if the running backs to the left the run is going to be to the right right because the general flow across the quarterback's body it's going to go over to the opposite side right so to counteract like oh we don't want to be predictable by a line, man. So we want to make sure that they keep, you know, the one of the things they'll do is like,

all right, it's a longer play. It almost, it's a longer developing play, but it's a same side inside zone. So, all right, the quarterback is in the shotgun. The running back is to his left. Well, now the quarterback's going to reach all the way across his body to get, it's going to be a run going the opposite way. The longer developing play, the Eagles do this like all the time now. And they're not, since they're not as, as run heavy as they have been, as they, as they were last year, I just feel like it's like unnecessarily, unnecessary to be so heavy-handed with trying to not be predictable. Like, I don't just line up and play. You know, like, to me, like, I think when you look at this group, they were moving the ball well. They ran three in same side,

inside zone runs last night. Like, how many, how many runs did Seekwan have in the night? Like, you know, it accounted for like a third of his carries. There are, there are certain things. I think from the run game standpoint that, you know, it's a little bit different. than what we've seen in the past from a schematic standpoint. And then obviously, look, the execution, we can talk about, you know, you don't have Landon Dickerson, Juergens not fully healthy, and you're working in a new right guard. It's the things we've talked about over the last few weeks. Fran, what do you make of like the lack of creativity in the run game?

Like, I'm old enough to remember when you were doing film breakdowns about like the Eagles running GT counter and all of these different wrinkles and the quarterback inclusive run game and everything else. But like, sorry, what was that? It may make me sound like I'm 80 years old. Thank you. I'm old enough to remember. It's probably not the right way to phrase that. You're right.

I didn't mean, I didn't mean to unc you there. But I mean, like, it just feels like, Kellyn Moore, like when they hired him, it wasn't like he was some like, oh, man, this guy is really committed to the run game. You know, it was actually quite the contrary, but we saw the Eagles really be creative in the run game last year in a way that I just feel like we haven't seen this season.

And it wasn't just last year. I mean, it's been in years prior. I don't know the answer to that. I couldn't tell you. I was just based off what the film is shown, like there, you know, we talked, it was before,

it was the first two games of the year. Like we didn't see like any gap scheme runs. We've barely seen any of the quarterback run game with like QB counter read and things like that. We, we haven't seen a ton of variety from this run game so far this year. I don't know what to make of it. I do think that this is, I don't understand why this wouldn't be able to get fixed.

This one in particular. Sequin looks fine. Yeah. I agree. Like, I don't know. It doesn't, it's not a skill issue. It just feels like an identity issue, right? As you have described, Fran, everything feels so disjointed.

Like, okay, this is going to be our running game drive. Okay, this is going to be our passing game drive. Like, there is, there's no DNA to it. To that point, really quick, it's a bad job by me that it took us. this long to get to Lane Johnson's comments from last night because I think that they do hold significant weight. When he was asked about what's wrong with the run game, he said a lot. I don't know if we're predictable, but it seems a lot harder than it needs to be. Maybe moving forward, we start looking for more variety, hitting the perimeter some, doing a little bit more

of that. You can game plan all you want, but when you go into a game and it's about making those adjustments from the sideline, you can game plan, but we have to make adjustments and we have to play better. We're not efficient in that phase. And then he went on to say, like, in this league if you become one dimensional and you're not making guys think or guessing or putting guys in situations things can happen like that the last two weeks you know what it is you know when the when a pass is coming you know when a run is coming it all starts with us collectively as an offense moving forward we have to do a better job of that i'm just looking at like my notes okay and it's the second course so you got the first first few drives the first three drives all right

and they came out first four plays the game run run run run and then you get to the second there were two drives after that you get to the second quarter the first drive of the second quarter they ran two plays with saquan barkley they were both same side inside zone run plays the first one went for three yards the second one went for no yards and then you get to the next drive and that was like the two minute two minute drill so they didn't run any plays there and then they come out uh from the locker room third quarter and it's like okay they are they haven't run the ball the last few drives like they're going to run the ball here and they run the ball and they get and they get stuff to i think that to the predictability aspect of it is like you can kind of feel going in like

all right this is this is going to be a run game drive you know and we're you know again like just the sequencing of plays and these are the growth i will say like these are the growing pains a that can get fixed and do get fixed especially when you have a first time coordinator you have a first time play caller i think there i know there again there are a lot of people out there that are complaining about Kevin Petullo. I think the two areas where you can like say like, all right, these are the areas of growth here would be this topic

and then the play clock stuff. Like the, that and that might not be a Petulow thing. That could be that is an operation thing though. Like that is something that has to get cleaned up here moving forward through the rest of the year. All right. Which brings us to the last thing here, Fran, which to me was

the most embarrassing part of the game last night. just if we're just placing blame on how the game turned out, the worst thing to me was the way that the defense played, just getting completely out physicaled. But you have faith that this is the easiest thing for them to fix. Yeah, because honestly, like when I was going through, I didn't feel like the, look, there were, there were certain plays where it was like, oh, man, like they just got, they kind of got eaten up here, or like, they got out-schemed on this one, or, hey, this was well,

blocked. This is also inclusive of just the personnel that they have. Yeah, I mean, no question. You're missing Jalen Carter, you know, that kind of thing. You're missing Nolan Smith,

who was absolutely a tone setter in the run game. But this game, thinking about like the run defense-wise, after going back through the film this morning, it felt like that 20-22 loss in prime time. I forget if it was Thursday. I think it was a Thursday night game, the first loss of the year against Washington

and Brian Robinson, rookie running back at the time, ironically enough, It felt like that one where it was like, man, they just, they can't stop the run. They can't stop the run. They ran out. And it's like, yeah, but it was like three yards here, four yards there. They didn't really pop any like big ones until very late in the game.

And it was very clear like, all right, like the, the dam is falling apart here on this one. I felt a little bit better about the run defense after going back through the film this morning than I did go into bed last night. Okay. But what about not being able to cover little Jordan Humphrey? I mean, that was, yeah, to me, like, that goes back to the, the pass rush deal where without the pass rush, I think, because the corners are, the corners are. Like, I said in the post game show last night, I think they've got three, they've got three fourth corners. You know, they've got Quinnian Mitchell, they've got Cooper DeGine, and then they've got three fourth corners in the NFL, fourth or fifth corners in the NFL, and Adore Jackson, Jacori and Bennett and Keely Ringo. You know, guys that are going to be volatile for different reasons.

I don't know, I actually agree with your, you made the point last. night, Bell, you thought that it was, or that you were, you know, somewhat impressed with Adora. Like, I actually thought there was not a bad game from Adora Jackson. Overall, I mean, that that turned down. Yeah. It's tough, man. Yes. I mean, but that's the thing is that it's, that's like.

That's the deal you're making with him. Yeah. It's like being upset about Grant Calcuttaire missing a block at the point of attack against the defensive end. Like, I don't know, like a zebra's not going to change the stripes kind of deal. Like, you know, I, I, I, that's just, that is. who he is. There were some Giants reporters in the press box after the game last night that are like, oh, we could have told you that Adori Jackson was terrible. And I was like, I actually think he's

probably the better of the two outside quarters that finished the game for the Eagles, but they also had some jokes about Keely Ringo. So those guys were catching strays in the press box in the wee hours. Were they rooting? Were the Giants reporters rooting? I don't think they were rooting. They were just like maybe taking some enjoyment in the state of the Eagle secondary by the end of the game. Those guys have seen a lot of bad football, so I believe they're moving their eyes there. Some super chats we've got to get to here, or just one from Devin. He says, is it time to question the fruits of the Siriani coaching tree? He can't provide scheme.

He can't foster inside talent. Can't believe we're here again. What do you think, E.J.? Yeah. I mean, it's really confusing, like, trend with the Eagles that predates Siriani. Like, these internal offensive coordinator hires just never seem to go very well for some reason. And then it always kind of feels like there's that one Shane Steichen, Frank Reich person who figure who it's like, man, if they could have just kept that guy in the building. So maybe it's a reflection of, like, the fact that the Eagles, they're like star coordinators get picked off a lot of the time.

but I mean, that's like, that's what happens with good teams. So it's a fair observation. I don't have a great answer for why it's been that way. But yeah, the internal hires have just never really seemed to just hit the ground running. And listen, we talked about it. But this is the test of Siriani. Can you keep the team together? Can you keep the culture pulling in the same direction when it feels like things are, you know, shaking enough to maybe get you off the tracks?

Yeah, I know that some people have said, like, he is like the vibes coach. He's like the, you know, the he's a, that's his job is to maintain locker room dynamics. I still maintain it like, that's a tough job. Like it is a tough job this year balancing some of the things that he's had to balance. So I, I understand the criticism. Like it is his role to make sure that, you know, AJ Brown, Jalen Hertz and Sequin Barkley, you know, are in lockstep and don't need to have like hour hours long powwows that don't necessarily get anywhere. What's that? I don't recall that.

It's good. But yeah, I think that it is a difficult job that he has to navigate here. Fran, a supertrial from June who says on Keeleine Adorei, at what point do you play Mack McWilliams or Perry Nickerson and move Cooper to the outside? Yeah, I think that my guess is if they had faith that MacMick Williams would give them superior quality right now, that they probably would have been mixing them in more often in games. Obviously, he flashed in camp, but I think that they're still waiting on his development before they feel comfortable making a move like that. I guess we'll see.

Brandon Johnson is ready now. Ready for what? All of the smoke. Have you talked to him in the locker room yet, Bill? Briefly. He's very nice. Oh, a very nice guy. Yeah.

He's always playing that, what's that game called? the shadow box yeah yeah he's always playing that that really made a comeback like all the young guys in the Eagles locker

and they love that game oh laundry laundry's done I think this is my first time being on the show when the laundry's done really I think so yeah I was a little bit nervous

man that's great there's a nuclear bomb that's about to go out I've been watching the show There's going to be another one coming in about. For 14 months. This is my first time being on when the laundry stock. There's going to be a second one.

There's two. It's going to be coming in about 10 seconds. I thought it was Howard Roseman calling to tell you. We have until the second buzz to finish the show. And we'll make that the end of the show. So any final thoughts? You got to get them off now. I like a Mac McWilliams.

I'd like to see it. Okay. What are you doing this weekend? Me or Fran. I don't know. Is there any other any other, Any other thoughts just from watching the film today, Frank? Nothing crazy.

I mean, it was a tough film to watch. I mean, offensively, we talked to, we talked to it. It was a bad loss. It was a bad loss. E.J., there was a good question. What was the, in the press box, what was the Kirkering moment like? Oh, just like complete unrest on the Philadelphia side of the press box. I mean, everybody had the game on something.

Oh, no. All right. That'll do it for the P.H.O.Y.O.E.G. Thanks to everybody for watching. Thank you, Fran, for the snappy snaps. Thank you, Julia, for making it happen. We will be back on Monday at 2 o'clock, 2 o'clock all next week, before the Eagles return to the action in Minneapolis next Sunday.

Good stuff. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. That'll do it for us today. We'll talk to you Monday, and as always, we love you. You know,