PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles-Niners Preview: Will we see BIG GAME Jalen Hurts against bad 49ers defense?

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Attention turns to the other side of the ball as Fran Duffy, Deniz Selman, EJ Smith and Bo Wulf preview how Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert can finally look like their elite selves against a poorly ranked Niners defense. Is this the week Hurts opens up as a runner? Will Lane Johnson’s likely return be a boon for the running game? Bryce Huff is involved?!? Plus, what could be the season finale of Swooper. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A lot to come on the PHY Eagles podcast today. Eagles offense against the Niners defense. Can this finally be the defense bad enough for the Eagles to put up some points? Rand Duffy, E.J. Smith, the professor are all here to talk about it. Stay with us. Right. What? What?

Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Hello, everybody, live from the Xfinity Studio and presented by Bet365, and Ashley, this is the P. H.L.L.Y. Eagles show. A lot to get to. The playoffs are coming. We talked about the good side of the ball yesterday. Today, we talk about the bad side of the ball. Fran Duffy, E.J. Smith, the professor, Danis Selman. Fran, how are you? Doing great. I've had a lot of fun back and forth with fans over the last. last several hours because it's my first mock draft. First mock draft of 2026 dropped. So people upset about the position I gave to the Eagles.

Yeah, 23rd. Well, I'm just going off from where the mock, where the order has them. You're allowed to have some freedom. It's your mock draft. Yeah, I just, I'm amazing. Don't tell you. Don't make excuses. Be supportive.

Be supportive. Congratulations on your first mock draft. I thought there was a lot of good insight in there. Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to give anything away, though. They're going to have to go read the mock draft if they want to know. Become a diehard. And now we've got a playoff deal. Playoff deal.

Become a diehard, $36 for the whole year. Don't be a gibboni. Support Fran. He supports you. Find out which wide receiver he has the Eagles taking in the first round. E.J., how are you? I'm doing well.

I'm excited. I like playoff weeks. There's always a lot of attention around the team. I mean, no. Attention. No, attention around the team. You know, I like it when the team you come. takes... Listen, there's tension, too.

There's tension too. Oh, for sure there's tension. We're going to get into some of that, right? But I like it when the team you cover takes a step into a national stage like this. Obviously, I think it's play a lot of prime time games, but yeah, like I said, playoff games, a lot of good energy. I'm excited. Do you like the tension, professor? Oh, I love it. This is what it's all about. Speaking of national TV and prime time, have you guys heard the whining from the 49ers facility this week about how they had to play three games in 13 days and not only that, Shanahan said this,

and Robert Sala said it again this morning. Not only that, but they were all on national TV. And so there were a lot of emotions. And that made it hard. Robert Sala said this today, and it was almost the same wording that Shanahan used earlier this week. No wonder they've never won.

No wonder Shanahan's never won three playoff games in the same year. They're all on national TV and played at weird times. He's like, oh, did you know the Super Bowl is played at 630? Like, we've never played at 630. It makes a lot of sense now. That is strange. The whining that comes out of that building about every single thing, like, oh, we have to play Saturday. Like, oh, we had to play on national TV is just, like, some of the most losery stuff.

For a team that, you know, like, gets pretty far in the playoffs pretty often, it's just very losery stuff. That is weak. Have you seen the, like, the speculation about the electromagnetic facility next to the 49th practice facility? No. Oh, I like that a lot. That's why they're getting injured. Yeah, there's conspiracy theories that that's why they have so many soft tissue injuries. From who?

I mean, I wouldn't say it's like There was like a scientist Do you have like a thread on Twitter Like it's like some guy with a substack I mean it got it made a lot of It got a lot of traction yesterday But I'm not saying that there's There's like it's like right next to the facility

And the stadium This is from the summer As we're preparing for spread your wins and fly This is a stat from Connor or from last year None of the three teams with the most prime time games In 2024 made the playoffs And one of them Which was San Francisco

Led the lead the league in a adjusted games lost due to injury. So maybe they just knew like, oh, like last year we played all these prime time games and all these guys got hurt. So, you know, that's going to happen to us. National TV and emotions? Like, they're in the NFL. Like, what are they talking about?

It's just completely shocking thing to hear from an NFL coaching stuff. Yeah, saying it publicly is the, to me, is that I think people feel that, but I think saying it publicly is excuse me. As like somebody who has been pretty processed, focused on the show, I do think as we talk about the injury, the Gulf and health. between these two teams going into this week. Like, remember this moment when the Eagles are not practicing very rigorously in the summer. And they've been better the last few years, but they have, and it's funny because when I first

got on the beat, it was not like that with the Eagles. They, you know, they were at the bottom of all these injury luck charts, and they've done a much better job in each of the last three or four seasons, managing players and making sure that they get guys healthy into the postseason. Obviously, the 49ers really have not. Yeah, the two Super Bowl runs in the last three years. I mean, the only injured starter during any of the playoffs in 22 was Avanti Maddox. He came back for the Super Bowl.

And then last year, Nicobi Dean, like, got injured during the playoffs, right? That was the only one. And you could make a case this year. Drew McCuba is the only starter who's out and maybe one of the smallest deltas from starter to back up. Or lane, but yes. Well, we'll talk about that. Well, let's get to that right now in What's Brewing! Presented by our friends at Wawa, E.J., Eagles practice for the first time yesterday.

what did we learn about who may or may not be out there on Sunday? Yeah, so the two players that were not at practice were Grant Calcutera with an ankle injury and Brett Tooth with a concussion. Lane Johnson was the big one. He was limited. I still think that there's a little bit of like a figure out how it feels, the injury, how he feels coming off of practicing. But I would say like if I had to guess at this point, I would guess he plays with the necessary

caveat that it is like up in the air stuff. Not definite, yes. But I would guess that he plays. but he was he was limited yesterday though so I think today tomorrow you obviously you'd like to see him full at some point by the end of the week how many turkeys we're talking I would put like 60 turkeys on playing at this point still not like I was hoping to hear higher than that you're you're saying lower than 60 I'm going lower than 60 yeah I'd say but above 50s ticket 60 despite the baldy tweet delete yes process okay

before practice we don't know how he worked how he felt afterwards all right yeah I think that the 40 for me is the unknown of like A lot could have changed in 24 hours, but I think that there was some hope that he would practice, feel good, and be on track to play. One of the things I'll be interested to see, we know before Lane got hurt, the Eagles were leaning into those 6-0-line sets.

Yeah, we were going to get to this. If Lane is in there. Does that mean? Yeah, do we get Fred Johnson? Which they have completely abandoned. Yep, got rid of it. Matt Breyer lined up wrong that one time, and that was the end of the 6-0-1.

How much is this on your radar, Professor? What's on? How much is this on your radar? Oh, definitely is. I mean, during that 6-0 line, like part of the season they were really doing it a lot like 10% of the snaps like every play every game and then they suddenly went to zero so uh nicobi dean e j will be out there he says yeah no well you were in on that scrum so i don't want to i don't want to take your reporting you're

the angles insider you report i appreciate well i appreciated you standing standing in that scrum for me so i could do some other reporting you know maybe something coming later in the week but yeah no i i did see teasy tease i like that um yeah said that probably from the past. I wouldn't say I coined that one. No, I think he coined it. Yeah, Nicopi D. Probably, I'm definitely playing.

And he was a full participant. Or no, he was limited to yesterday, but I imagine he will be full by the end of the week. You know, again, Vic Fangio is usually a very reliable narrator. When he expects you to play, you're probably going to play. We should believe Nikobe this time because when he was injured at the beginning of the season and he said, oh, yeah, of course I'm going to come and play defense. We were like, is he really?

Is there room for him in the lineup? It's been clear that there... The oversight there was that he hadn't practiced. I don't know if you guys have heard that McFangio really values practice reps. There's about practice. Yeah. There is something to be said

that the two worst games by the Eagles defense this year came on short weeks. You know, the Giants game. Sure. Not to complain about national TV in short weeks. A lot of emotions for that giant game.

The Friday, Black Friday, emotional game. But I think, like, how much he cares about practice. I'm missing the deals. How hard that Bear's team is to prepare for and all those kinds of things. Like, I think the short week might have mattered. No, excuse against the Giants obviously but I think that bears one that stood out to me like that's

short week especially they played so many snaps in that stretch I think that that's like we've seen what it looks like when they have to play a lot speaking of Nikobi and that game that's the one game where Jihad Campbell didn't get in at all is that what we expect now that it's playoff time no time for like rotational you know get you know play the young kid is that the end of Jihad Campbell playing barring injury probably right I think so I kind of think so yes Yeah, there's no time for like rotational, developmental time. Yeah, no, like it's the fourth drive. We've got to get Jahan.

I think that's probably right. Yeah, I think that's right. You're biting your tongue. Yeah, I don't. That hurts me a little bit, but it is what it is. You were lukewarm on on Jahad Campbell after the regular season finale. In that game, I thought he did not have a great game. Yeah, so.

Yeah, I could see them. I thought so, too, but it's so hard to judge, like, yes. We talk about when he's in the game, everyone has to kind of like make sure he's in the large, he's lined up in the right place. When no one else is lined up in the right place, Sidney Brown's playing behind you. It's a much different assignment. To be like the guy in a defense of all backups versus being the guy who's like number 11

on the call sheet of the 11 and he's only expected to do some certain things. So yes. That's good thing. There you go. That'll do it for what's brewing presented by our friends at Wawa. How do you feel, Professor, about the chatter? I see that you're giving less Robin,

Williams today and more Mandy Patinkin. I just enjoy the comparisons. Spot on. Yeah, Mandy Patinkin's good. I like that. Homeland version. Homeland version, yeah. For sure.

Yeah, not Enigo Montoya. Right, right. Man, no offense, but you don't have that kind of sex appeal. No, no. Not anymore. Yeah, you should have seen me in my youth, Beau. All right. I did have a bit I was going to do at the beginning of today's show.

It wasn't berating your co-hosts. No, but I, you know, if you remember the last time the Eagles and Niners played, led to one of the great disasters of mismanagement in Eagles franchise history, of course, the release of Christian Ellis. Oh, that was the last time I played, right? Julia, I was going to bring back the priest get up, you know, give you a full. Oh, my goodness. Chance for atonement for Howie Roseman.

If only he sacrifices A.J. Dillon to the football. all gods, this is a chance to finally make good. A lot of righteous, furious anger. I felt a little tone deaf today, so definitely. I decided not to do that. But you know what?

Righteous, furious anger can be good if you put it to good use. So, amen. Just keep that in mind. Definitely. Amen, says the pushover millennial has never been outwardly angry a day in his life.

Maybe one day. He'll get there. Yeah, I was going to say, just a matter of time. Professor, give us a sort of a big picture Eagles and honors playoff game. I know you've got some historical thoughts before we get into the nitty-gritty starting with the run game.

Yeah, a little surprising with all the NFC championships and Super Bowls between these two teams. Only met twice ever in the playoffs. 1996. I remember this one. This was Ray Rhodes. It was Ty Detmer starting against Steve Young at Candlestick. Eagles lost 14-0.

And then the other one, of course, is the NFC championship game three years ago. when Hassan Reddick knocked out, Brock Purdy, and then Judge Johnson got knocked out, and McCaffrey was, like, trying to throw the ball. Did you see Shanahan? We asked about that game this week? Yeah.

Obviously, you saw it. For the people out there. Chris said, like, yeah, that happened one time. I would never make changes. Yeah, he was explaining why he wasn't going to carry an extra quarterback. What losers? That is actually unbelievable. They haven't had.

I've been on this, like, since the beginning of the season, this is a good time to mention it on the show. they haven't had a third quarterback on the on the roster all year which means that they can't designate an emergency quarterback yeah now they bitched and moan am I allowed to say that they bitched and moan for weeks got the rule changed yep and made it so that you could have a third emergency quarterback dress unbelievably without taking away from your game day roster but he has to be on the 53 yeah they don't have a quarterback on the 53

shenahan was asked yesterday like hey are you going to uh you know have a third quarterback this game and he said no I don't think lightning strikes twice I don't think it only happens in Philadelphia like it's only happened once in the last 50 years to any team like so no we're not going to do it it's like then why did you whine so much and get the rule changed like like you know this is it's it's just one of those things that like is very typical of that organization so yeah really quick injury note because eagle's practice is starting now per Dave Zangero Lane Johnson is practicing for a second straight day that's good that's a good All right, we're going to take our first brick.

Come back on the other side. We're going to get into the running game of all of this to start with, which may or may not include a good amount of Jalen Hertz running. Not so sure. We'll talk about it after the break. What a teasing case. Cookin's Chevrolet run by three brothers, real brothers, local guys. And yeah, just like you, they are big time Eagles fans.

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Professor Fran E.J. Let's start with just a very quick screenshot of what the 49ers defense looks like, Professor. And what jumps out to you here because, who look at that. Yeah. I'm not sure exactly who you're looking. Our audio listener is like, what the hell are we seeing? Not sure. What are the size of that hole?

Yeah. No. No, you don't like that? I mean, no, I don't like that. If I had said that, come on. How many rings could you fit through that? I am uncomfortable. It's getting hot in here.

Big hole right up to the middle there. I was going to... All right, I was going to ask for him about this. Beginning of the week, I start, you know, studying the 49ers film. This is the very first play of their last game against Seattle. It's first and 10 on the first drive. And you'll notice that the 49ers have two pretty wide nine defensive ends and then two, three techniques, meaning that the center is completely uncovered.

And even you could argue the guards are both uncovered, right? And this is not typical, right? It's not the way most teams will line up their defensive lines in the NFL on first and 10. Like they'll have like one of the detackles will be a one tech or something. They do play, you know, this like one gaping style where they're going to line up between the linemen, but I was curious, and this is not just, it wasn't just the play. It was like throughout the game, like we see this.

I was curious with this look, in relation to the Eagles run game, I've been talking about how, like, Cam Jerkins has had trouble with the one technique all year, can't block the guy in front of him, playing against a team that's not going to put a guy in front of him, perhaps, on a lot of neutral downs. What does that mean for the way the Eagles should attack this?

And also just in general, like, what's the philosophy behind playing your D-line this way? Yeah, I mean, some of it could just be the trust you have in your linebackers to be, you know, now they're the A-Gap players, right? Where if you're going to say, because Jake Brendel, their starting center, smaller center, he's not as small as can, but he's a more athletic, or sorry, the Seahawks Center. I'm like, Invers.

No, no, I got you. But yeah, a little bit of a smaller center. You're not, someone that you're not looking at as like, oh, yeah, he's going to overpower a linebacker every single time. but at the end of that I think it's more because of the... It's honestly, it's the same thing we talked about for how many years it's the wide nine

here in Philly. Now the difference is your defensive tackles are also playing a little bit wide but when you have a... If you have linebackers like Eric Kendrix where he doesn't have the same range that he used to where he's going to be making play sideline to sideline

we want to try and keep him in a phone booth all right well then he's going to have to basically get dirty in the mud with the centers inside in the run game. That's interesting because when you said they put the onus their linebackers, I went, well, they shouldn't trust their linebackers, but it's almost like they're insulating

for the fact that they might not be the most athletic guys. And that's the thing. It's like, all right, well, if you're leaning on linebackers where, oh, they're 220 pound running chase, you don't want to line out that way because then those guys are getting stuck on those blocks. But if it's someone like Kendricks, you know, all right, well, maybe you like that matchup a little bit more. So are you feeling better or worse about Cam Juergens

chasing guys down at the second level or taking the first one? Well, we've talked about how they haven't been calling, like, the pinpole runs with him in there. Like, he hasn't looked as athletic. But, like, if it's just a matter of him getting a free climb to the second level. And the guys that he's climbing to are like Eric Kendricks. It looks like Garrett Wallow has been the other starter in practice, like Robert Salo this morning, said that he thought Kendrix and Wallow looked good. And he made it sound as if those were going to be the guys. I mean, Garrett Wallow was a guy who they got

on waivers from Denver. And it was like, yeah, you know, he was in Houston. So we know his system. But it's like at the end of the day, like this guy is like a, you know, a former fifth round pick who never really has been a starter in the NFL. So if you're putting onus on those guys, it seems like a positive for the Eagles. Now, we've said this all year. Like, this team is bad at stopping the run, and the Eagles still haven't been able to run

it. Like, what do you do you think this is just going to be another one of those? Or do you think this is a game where you actually expect the Eagles to have success running it? Because teams are also good running it wide at this team. Like, Bryce Hoff has never set an edge in his life. Like, you see tight ends, like, able to get to him and get to the edge as well.

There aren't many splits that you can look at with his defense and say, like, oh, yeah, this is, this is where, you definitely should go at them this way and not that like they're bad pretty much across the board right so like you could you could tell yourself a story uh on hey like it should be under center run game it should be run game between the tackles it should be over the tackle it should be play action it should be let's spread them out and go empty uh let's throw it all over the yard you could you could have that conversation because they're down bosa they're down michael williams their first round pick pass rusher they're down fred warner they're down all these linebackers uh yeah it's

and it wasn't a great a deep defense anyway It was an inexperienced defense. You had a first-time defensive coordinator, like a new defensive coordinator. So, yeah, it's not great. That is why they are 27th in defensive DVOA, 26, an EPA per drive, as opposed to the Eagles offense, which is a little bit more mid-17th in DVOA, 19th in EPA per drive. And let's talk about the running game where the Niners defense is just as bad.

25th in rushing defense DVOA, 29th in success rate against the run. but the Eagles have not run the ball very well so let's go to the running back run success rate graphic Julia and professor let's give you a chance to rub it in on Sequin Barclay. Well we know Sequin has not had a good season we talked yesterday about how Christian McCaffrey hasn't had a very good season either by his standards

and how maybe Shanahan and that staff has done a little bit better job of adjusting the way they normally play higher neutral down pass rate than they've had in past years I think the Eagles have been a little bit too run heavy despite the fact that the run game hasn't gone well and in terms of the kinds of runs I know EJ and I have gone back and forth about this during the season EJ old school football guy

you know he likes it when they're like you know like eight offensive linemen out there two fullbacks you know run from under center every time Julia do we have that under center shotgun graphic for the for the runs When you look at the Eagles on the year, they're 24th in running back rush success overall. But when it comes to runs from the shotgun, they've been average.

I mean, 39%, that's exactly in the middle of the league, 16th. They've been terrible at undercenter runs. Like 34%, 28th in the league. They don't run from under center as much as other teams, but when they have done it, it's not been good. And they've said, the famous quote, sometimes we run it just to run it from Petula, which I'm sure he wishes, he'd like to have that quote back. But, you know, that and the fact that they think that they have to do that to set up play action at times has been very frustrating for me.

Now, the 49ers, like Fran was saying, they aren't good at anything. Like, they're 29th at stopping under center runs. But they're also, like, 24th at stopping shotgun runs. Like, they're just not good on defense. So I would like to see the QB plus one run game get used a little more, more on that in a second. That, of course, you can only do out of the shotgun. done and just not seeing as much of the undercenter stuff. Like, I'd like to see the under center play action.

I don't think you need to run it from under center over and over again to set that up. Like, it's fine to, it's fine to do it once or twice, but you don't have to be like the 49ers where you line up like Kim, Latu as if he's Kyle Luchick, Yuchick, and do the Dallas area, that'll catch him off guard. How dare you? All right. What did Jaylen hurt to say yesterday about this possibility? Yeah, so Jalen was asked about the quarterback inclusive run game and whether the

lack thereof has been in an effort to get him to the postseason healthy and this is his response no the season has just gone the way it is the approach this year and the way the games have been called with this coordinator with coach kp it's just kind of gone that way i've taken it in stride and given my best with the position they put me in what did you make there yeah it looks a lot It looks a lot worse. Transcribe than it felt when he said. Really? It opened my eyes watching it on video.

I was, I opened my eyes when he put it on Petulow. But the clothes there of like I've done the best with what they've given me. That was, I don't think that was the intention. He didn't have a single designed run the first two games, and he was asked about this. And he immediately said, like,

that's a question for KP. And it's been on my radar since. So the fact that he's still saying that says something. This is probably a good time, Julia, to bring up the non-sneek runs. graphic we have, where Jalen's designed runs per game this season have been dramatically lower than any other year. The lowest it had ever been before was 3.4 per game, which was back in 23.

This year, it's less than half of that. He's only had 26 designed runs all season. And just for the other listeners, he's at 1.6 right now when the previous low was 3.4. Although he has, when he has run, it has been relatively effective. Yeah, and that, I mean, the EPA per rush would be, like, he fumbled once. It would be dramatically higher without that. He fumbled in Green Bay. Otherwise, it would be like the highest of his career without that one play.

The success rate has been about what it's been during the year. They're clearly intentionally not running him. And so the question becomes, was that to protect him? Right. I don't really, I don't really go out the window. Like, it's within Kevin Petullo's purview to just be the guy who decides whether Jalen Hertz runs more or not. I would agree with that. Yeah.

fair that's fair that's fair and everything like you know we know about the organization tells us that which then brings us to the question over under jalen hertz designed runs now that we're in the playoffs like four point oh oh oh super implications i was hoping i was the only one should we save it should we save it for we should save the over under for maybe later let's save the overrunner all right i thought i was going to be the only one looking gipsy. Let's not, we don't need to do the,

or, I didn't do an over under, but I did an efficiency. Okay. That was more rudimentary. But you have a theory you said. Yeah, so I think,

I think the listeners will know I'm not polyanish about the Eagles most of the time. If you wanted to be polyanish about this team, I think the, this is the area

that you can point to and say this is going to change in the playoffs and it's going to unlock something for this Eagles offense. I think that Jalen Hertz, will be used more in the run game in the playoffs. I think it is time to cut it loose.

You know, I think it is time for them to utilize it more. And what that can unlock in the run game, maybe you can talk yourself into than being more efficient, being on schedule more often, something that they've harped on all season. So whether, or maybe it is explosives. Maybe it is a quarterback draw through that massive hole that we just talked about.

Yes. Maybe it is a 20 or a 30-yard run from Jalen Hertz on a QB draw. Yeah, I was just going to say that. So I think this is the way I think this is the way that you can talk yourself into the Eagles offense. I think Jalen Hertz, a quarterback inclusive run game out of the shotgun,

play action plays off of that. Here's an over under for you. You can talk yourself into it. Over under one and a half, third down, empty draws. Like, not quarterback draws. No, no, quarterback draw. One and a half is the classic.

There will probably be one. There will definitely be. one yeah yeah you'd think there'll be one yeah I'll take the over yeah I don't know I might take it too so we all think they are gonna I mean we all think they are going to lean into this yeah I feel like the boy who cried wolf because it is something that I've said on the show before but I do I think that it's the postseason the urgency is up I think they will utilize it he hasn't had more than four in a game this year he said four three times said three three times and then it's like a bunch of ones and a bunch of zeros but he doesn't necessarily have to

keep the ball. Like the fact that they line up in that situation and leave the edge unblocked or leave him sort of unblocked, make him make the like the backside linebacker have to think about scraping. Like that's made the running back runs out of shotgun more successful than the under center runs. Like that's the reason, I think, the main reason that the shotgun success rate is average for the season and the under center one is not. Like because you're taking a tool that you had in past years that made you one of the best rushing teams in league you're at Saquan talking all year last year about how much it helps to have a quarterback who's a threat how much it helped him have the season that he did and you're and

you're just kind of like neutering that of course your own game's going to suffer a little bit and then of course the other thing is if Lane plays and is 70% of himself and if the rest really helped Juergens and Dickerson and Milata can they dominate the line of scrimmage the way that say the Seahawks offensive line did a week ago I think they're capable doing it I think the big thing, too, is, you know, when we have the conversation about these linebackers and it's like, oh, like, you know, this, how can you leverage the fact that they're playing with reserve linebackers, guys that were not on the roster six weeks ago, eight weeks ago. One of the ways, especially with a guy like Wallow, like I think with Kendricks, you're not going to get him as much with like the eye candy stuff. I think that's more like communication, you know, with pre-stap motions, tempo, like things like that. That can throw off a veteran leader back there just because he's with guys that he's not used with talking with, talking with, communicating with on the.

fly but with a guy like wallow who hasn't played as much to me that's where i candy that's where play action fakes that's where the zone reed quarterback run action stuff so to me like if if and this might be a jalen hertz thing you're in the shotgun you have sequins here right and you say hey you know what like if i were to call a qb counterbaugh the cuby counterbash read here and i'm reading wallow and kendricks has to chase saquan on the outside run fake this is a great this is a great opportunity for us to leverage a big play but like I don't know like I go back to that quote yesterday from Petulow oh my god say when he was asked well you have a team like that that's had a bunch of injuries in the same position how do you balance trying to attack what

might have been a weakness versus not trying to get that out of yourself and basically you don't want to chase it and I'm like which is the which goes with what they did against the bears on black Friday this is this is like the perfect time to talk about that that bears game where they're playing with fifth and sixth linebackers there were seven play action plays total in that game. You'd think like that's one thing you would want to do to attack two under center play action. It was the second lowest play action percentage of any game since the buy. And then in the passing game, I know we're starting with the run game here, but like in terms of the way they attacked the bears in the passing game, 77% of the targets

were to wide receivers, almost all outside the numbers until the last two minutes. It was the second highest rate of the season for the Eagles in not throwing it to tight ends and running backs. They didn't run a single vertical concept to Sequin the entire game to try to isolate him on one of those linebackers. Sequin and Goddard had a total of five yards on five targets until Dallas Goddard caught a 22-yarder with like 10 seconds left or something in garbage time. Calcutera didn't have any targets at all. Chippley caught like one checkdown on third and 19 that was like a give-up play. There were some inbreakers to AJ at the very end on those digs you guys might remember like but that was like last two minutes desperation time and it was

like where were those all game against cover too? So a great example of there was a clear weakness on the on the opposing defense and we're just not we're just not gonna we're not gonna chase it or whatever he said right like and it's like you don't even have an identity like what are like he's like we want to be what we are we're not gonna chase weaknesses on the defense like you talk every week about we're gonna do whatever it takes to win the game and how like identity doesn't matter winning matters like you said that you said that I know like like like what like what is there any chance is there any chance at that That's just a thousand percent. Trying to throw him off. Very well could be. There is a team. I'll leave the leg. If we didn't see that, I put the door open for that.

If we didn't see the Bears game, if we didn't see the Bears game, I'd say like, okay, like, they're just saying that. But like, I need to see it. Like, when have we seen, like, oh, what a good plan for this defense? Like, when, after which game did we say that? Like, maybe we did, but I don't remember one. I would be curious to hear if there is a schematic explanation for it, but I think that the linebacker, like, the perceived linebacker deficiencies and the advantages the Eagles could take from that,

I don't think that that is a priority. And I would be curious as to why you would think. It's crazy. Maybe there's something that we're missing. And I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Yesterday we talked about how Purdy throws between the hashes a lot. And on that same graphic we showed yesterday,

we saw Jalen was like very down at the bottom. And like one of the reasons this offense doesn't attack the middle of the field is because you're more likely to have turnovers there, right? There are way more interceptions, league-wide, throwing in the middle of the field than there are to the side. This year, Jalen has thrown, what, 15 passes to wide receivers between the hashes all year, and two of them were intercepted by the Chargers. It's like, there's a reason they avoid it. The, like, risk aversion that's been kind of, like, internalized by this staff and this quarterback, like, prioritizes protecting the ball. Like, they say it every

week. Like, we don't have to, you know, put words in their mouth. They just say it. I'm curious if, like, that's part of the reason we didn't say. see that kind of stuff against Chicago, and if that's going to be the way it is, like it's like, the linebackers are in the middle of the field. Like, we never throw it there, you know? Yeah, but in the run game, it feels like that, that should still be a priority for them. But if it just means, like, running it a lot, because every run, every run, every run stresses linebackers.

That's what we'll concern me, though. Right. My concern is, oh, their linebackers aren't good. Let's run it a lot. Right. Yes. And that's exactly been what's gotten in them in Detroit. Yeah, guarantee a win.

Neal downs. Whoever kneels down more wins. Yeah, just kneel down the whole game. Time to take a break. Come back on the other side, talk about the passing game. AJ Brown, Devante Smith. Jailen Hertz. Is this the week?

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Cricket T. Thank you to Sports and Social Allentown, Garage Fistown, City, Tapp, and Logan Square, and Wicked Wolf on Chestnut. Go check them all out for game day or a night out and tell them that P.H.L.L.Y. Sports sent you. Back on the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast. Turning our attention now to the Eagles passing game against the Niners passing defense. It's big. It's heavy. It's juicy. Eagles. 12th, shockingly 12th in dropback DVOA against 9th defense at the 26th. Is that just because of the easiness of the schedule? Yeah, 15th and EPA per dropback and 20th in dropback success rate. The difficulty of the schedule, you mean? Yes. Yeah, it makes it a little bit higher, I guess. Honestly, I looked at that DVOA, like somebody made a graphic of the DVOA numbers.

Are we ready to discard DVOA? No, well. Last year we talked about whether there may be, like, putting a little too much emphasis on the schedule strength, right? Like in this year, it's kind of going the other direction. I'll say this about the DVOA rankings. Like when you look at their, the way that metric looks, a lot of teams end up really close together. So there are like two teams that are like way better than everybody else. And then third through 10th are like all very close, which makes me think like sometimes you look at that number and it doesn't match the EPA.

And you're like, okay, well, they could have easily been. yeah yeah yeah like third instead of time yeah so all right let's go to uh this big picture graphic julia this was uh the offensive and defensive EPA per drives per game for the Eagles offense and the Niners defense this was our number five here and this is just sort of a game by game look at how they've done professor yeah this is like to know this is like both so so from this graph you can see how both sides of the ball did in every game right so like upper right means both your offense and your defense were awesome so that Eagles game against the Raiders was like the best game that

you guys want to discount that one you know but then you have games against bad teams but then you have the Giants game that you lost right and so like you have to just remember like it's like you win for sure when it's like this but one thing to note about this is that like the 49ers offense has

had some good games but they've mostly been against bad defenses like the recency bias there is big like their best three games those three to the right are weeks 15 16 and 17 and, you know, that's why we're talking about this. But, like, when you look at the Eagles offense, they've had five good games,

and then they've had basically 12 terrible ones. Like, there's not really anything in the middle of this graph. And the thing is, like, they've managed to win these games because the defense has been good in them, but they clearly haven't had the consistency, and, like, this goes back to, like, all the things we've been talking about, like the three-in-outs, the, like, the low success rate. and Julia if we kind of just go through like down by down

like I think this is a good time to just kind of like philosophically talk about like the things that have gone wrong for the Eagles this year when you just look at first down right like every coach will tell you when you ask them about third down like oh it's all about first and second down so like okay let's let's look at what happens the Eagles haven't been bad on first down they're in the middle of this graph they've been an average offense and they haven't been average overall

they've been below average like so average offense on first down. A little bit too run heavy for my taste, 46% pass, a little bit too high, but they're like, you know, whatever. Like they're, they're in the middle of the pack in first down. Where they've run into trouble is when they get into second and long, they've been terrible. Like the worst offense in the NFL. It has led to them having the most third and longs. Right. So if we look at the second down graphs, Julia, they've been fine when they've gotten into even second and seven. Like second and seven or shorter. They've actually been. very good sixth in success rate in those situations they have the 13th highest pass rate so they've been like you know good at at passing it and then they have the number one pass success rate on second and one through seven in the NFL which is surprising like I don't think you would guess that right 63% pass success on second and one to seven so when they get it to second and manageable let's call it and they've passed it they've been awesome 63% in rush success they've been average When you look at second and long, they run it way too much.

They are 27th in pass rate on second and long. Which is always the worst time. Like, every analytics nerd in the world will tell you, like, don't run it on second and long. Like, not even as a change-up. Like, it's just not, like, it's so much lower returns that it's not even worth it to set something up. Like, just don't ever run it on second and long. The Eagles run it 32% of the time on second and eight plus. Again, that's the fifth most in the league.

They are dead last in success rate. when they pass it, which doesn't help. But that success rate on passes, 28%, is still higher than their success rate on runs, 24%. Overall, this leads to being the worst, not just the playoff teams, of all 32 teams in the NFL, the worst success rate on second and long. That means that they have, as Bo was saying the other day,

more third and longs than other teams and fewer third and shorts. And, Julie, if we look at the graph of third and short and third and long, that graph on the left is so damning because, first of all, the Eagles have far fewer third-in-manageables than other NFL teams. 31st in the league. Only Miami had fewer and way less than any other playoff team. The playoff teams are highlighted on these graphs for those of you watching.

And look at the success rate the Eagles have had on third and five or less. They are dead last among the playoff teams. This is the thing that Kevin Petulow keeps saying they want to get to. Like, this is the goal. We want to get the third-in-manageable. You suck at third-in-manageable. And what I don't understand about that. And there's no such thing as third and manageable.

Like, we've talked about this. The only good third down is no third down. Like, you should be trying to avoid third down. And if you're this bad at third and manageable and they're terrible at third and one this year, like the touch push isn't working, like all the stuff that they used to do, get it to third and short and run it, isn't working this year. And they still call the game like they don't understand that.

And what I don't understand about this philosophically is that you would think that third and manageable is the most similar thing to the red zone, which is where they have been awesome. They are second in the NFL in Red Zone success rate. They are 28th in the NFL in success rate everywhere else. But third and manageable, you would think, is the same thing. And it's by far the biggest disparity in the league

between success rate out of the Red Zone and in the Red Zone, more than double the next team. It's on every single down. I don't understand. And I know that this is like, I sound like a simpleton here. But they've been throwing it more in the Red Zone, Beau. But like, why can't you? it's harder to it's harder to be successful in the red zone there's less space why are they so good

there and so bad everywhere else i think the pass rate has a lot to do with it like we've complained so much about how they run it too much in the red zone that hasn't been the case this year like all the gadgety stuff to dallas goddard like the cute like plays that they have like i think that's why the red zone has been so good and they are number one in the red zone in the league so i think to me this looks we've talked a lot about what is this offense this year and i think going back to last year, this is an offense that obviously had the ability to just kind of grind teams down. And run game was a big part of that. But, you know, even thinking of like the RPO's and the QB runs, like everything, they were able to grind teams down. That was a high success rate

offense. They were a high EPA office, but there was a high success rate offense. This is not a high success rate offense. This is not a bog offense. Whatever nomenclature you want to use or whatever label you want to put on it. This is the best version of themselves is a high EPA offense. They should be going for those chunk plays. It's what we've been talking about throughout the second half of the year. And to your point, like, I think that's what you want to try and lean into. You lean into the volatility of that instead of trying to say, hey, you know what, third and four is good. Like, we'll convert that. And then you don't. And then you're punting. That's not this team. Absolutely. And I think we have a three and out graphic, Julian, and people

who watch, like, throughout the year have seen this three and out graphic before. The Eagles have not only the highest three and out rate in the NFL this year, but it's like the third highest of any team in the last 20 years or something like that. It's crazy that they're in the playoffs. And it's also crazy, by the way, that they're above average in touchdowns per drive, like despite having this many three and outs. So the difference is just that they have been that good in the red zone. Red zone and just not turning it over, right? Like other teams, like drives get derailed by turnovers.

The Eagles have been very good at not turning it over. And then I think we have a red zone graphic that shows like how good they are in the red zone. But to France point, if you're going to go three and out anyway, you may as well have the upside be that you throw the ball down the field and actually get the drive moving. They've been very good in no huddle. they use no huddle in non-two-minute situations the fourth most of any team in the league and have one of the biggest gaps in the NFL

though you're talking about like red zone non-red zone they also have one of the biggest gaps in the NFL and no huddle versus huddle like we know how slow they are at getting to the line when they huddle and all that you eliminate all that stuff with no huddle why don't they just go for it at the end of the first half when they have a chance to go no huddle

it's funny I was trying to like get some numbers on that and their numbers and two-minute drills actually look very good because like the success rate stuff doesn't capture the fact that they just don't run plays. Like, the problem in the last two minutes isn't that they're bad at moving it, it's that they don't run the plays. Like they let the clock run out, so, yeah.

Seconds per play, maybe, I don't know, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Like the number of times you let 30 seconds run off the clock for no reason with like 130 left on the clock. I think we have the, there's an empty. Let's save that. Let's say that for the break. Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, we're going to talk about whether this is a week for them to go empty. also where the Niners defense specifically is weak. Could this be a big Devante Smith game? Stay tuned. Will he explode? Raise your hand if you're ready and excited for the World Cup. Yeah, let's get it. But how are you going to get tickets?

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Fran, what did you make of Mike McDaniel? Good in the whack. To me, that's especially because it happened a few days. After that, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure that has to do with whoever they're going to be bringing in from a GM. standpoint having people want to know what's next for Mike McDaniel

oh fran's up for the job yeah friends gonna be GM friends definitely for the job I think I think he's going to fan geo relationship we don't know right but would you be interested oh absolutely and the Eagles were interested in them in the past

they tried there was man it feels like forever ago but they tried to get an interview with Mike McDaniel and San Francisco blocked them Maybe the Skango year? No, I think it might have been the year before that, maybe. But yeah. Where is Skango these days?

Last I was working with college players coming out of the draft. Last I remember. He was the quarterbacks coach for the Raiders. That was a couple years ago. A couple years ago. Yeah, that was a couple years ago. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's doing, yeah, he's working with quarterbacks coming out in the draft. Tough.

Last year. Yeah. He's working. remember right he's working with like what do they call the uh is like the collective it's like the shanahan like um that whole branch there's like an agency and like a whole like thing yeah okay i think the real question is would mcdaniel be interested in joining the eagle staff because of the style i mean he's going to have a head coach yeah i just think he potentially but yeah he's going to have he let's say let's say he doesn't get a head coaching yeah if he didn't

have head coaching interests i don't know i feel like there's an ecosystem that he could fall back into and lay low for a year and then get more head coaching opportunities. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I mean, if you're going to be a coach, isn't this the offense coming off this season to show how good you are? Maybe. Maybe you go the other way and you say there's reasons that it looks that way.

Speaking of Shanahan Tree OCs, you guys know the 49ers offensive coordinator is Clay Kubiak and brother of Clint. Both Clay and Clint are names that usually are spelled with a C, correct? Like, I mean, I know you guys talked about the KK thing Yeah, with Clint Kubiak.

Yeah. You really have to go out of your way to have two KK kids in the family. A hundred percent. Just saying. All right, that's all. Yeah, this is not a, this is not a coincidence. This is not, oh, we like this name and our last name happens to be a K. This is they purposefully leaned into we need it to be KK.

Right. Yeah. Oh, that's. I mean, this has been a loopy Tuesday topic of conversation. We've been on this before. No, I know. With Clint. but he's right, he's right.

This is not like, you know, we like my, the dad's name is Kyle and we want to be Kyle Jr. or whatever, like, yeah, he's, Clay and Clint, the sea is there if you want it. The amount of nepotism, by the way, in this, like, whole Shanahan tree is, is quite something.

The sea is there if you want it. It is. The sea is definitely there in Clint, for sure. I mean, he's what. Howard. that's all I got I'm out hurt oh hurts good yeah Richardson he was two T's right am I the only one old enough to remember Clint Richardson sixers guard backup guard I mean Quinton Richardson he was back he was like Moochiex's backup

back in the 80s let us know in the comments your favorite Clint don't forget the end All right. Now, Amina mentioned yesterday. What? No, no. I was, I was so relieved when you looked at us and looked away and didn't say what. Then I started laughing as a reaction to the relief. It's all this playoff, it's all this playoffs, gross, people. Meena mentioned yesterday that the Niners defense has been terrible.

In the, as you said, they're terrible in many ways. But they've been, I believe, the worst in the league in DVOA against number two receivers. They've got some gibrones on the outside opposite, Diomador Lenoir. Do you think this will be a Devante Smith kind of game? Oh, come on. Clintorius Howard. Yeah, I think so.

Danis and I were going back and forth about the way they utilize those corners. How do they utilize them? They play sides. Very strict. Like 100% of the snout. That's like Lenoir has been on the left. So if you want AJ on the bad guy, you can. Renardo Green has been on the right.

Yes. The other thing from a corner rotation standpoint that is notable, and we can have this with, I think it's important to talk about this with the empty conversation as well. They have two nickel. They play nickel more than anybody. They play five DBSs, two linebackers on the field.

They do have two nickel packages that they cycle in between. The first one is your regular nickel package where Upton Stout, rookie nickel corner, had a good season. undersized, scrappy, like, you know, very good, like your prototypical, like undersized nickel, and he's had a good year. He's a good player.

Then they go, when they face bigger personnel, and they go 12th personnel, 13 personnel, that's when you see the big nickel package, and that's where Jason Pinnock comes in. Pinnock started his career with the Giants, so Eagles fans may remember him. It was with the Jets with Solid the last couple years and then came over this off season.

So he's played some safety. He's played some outside corner. Now he's their big nickel. So that would be someone that you certainly, you're going to see in this game. What gets you excited about? And Fran, you had a thought about which side you'd rather line up, A.J. Brown. Yeah, I personally, because when I look at Diomador-Lanour, 5-10, smaller corner,

he got paid last year to the level that I was a little bit surprised. He's been kind of an inside-out guy. I think he's a little bit overpaid personally. He's a fine player, but to me, like, yeah, like, I was. Yeah, AJ on him. Love that. And Renardo Green, he's a little like taller, leaner, instinctive, really physical. Both guys are like competent starting corners in the league.

But to me, I would match up wise. I would love AJ over Lenore from a physicality standpoint. Love that. Yeah. And then Devante on him. Yeah. I think that Renardo Green is, he's not like big and stiff, but I just like the mismatch of AJ on Lenore more.

And in terms of Devante in the slot I mean, Sala was talking about... No, I'm mad at you because if I had said the exact thing this show would have stopped in its tracks The chat will back me up on this If I had said that exact phrase You, wait a minute, what did you say? No, I think I would have just raised my eyebrows

No, you wouldn't know Well, let's try it. Why don't you say the sentence Renardo Green is big and stiff? I'm not going to say that look right into the camera sorry Danes it's okay it's okay I don't even remember what I was saying

I was gonna say they don't play that much man like they're not a high percentage man coverage team but you know as we know like cover three cover four like the coverages they do play a lot of times it ends up playing out like man on the outside so like which side you line up AJ Brown on is a thing yep we talked about how I'd like to see AJ Brown in the slot more

like like and that's not something they've really leaned into like they've had success with that they can get him on safeties against this team if they do do that um and then you have devante smith has been very good in the slot as well i was curious like robert soler was talking today about how stout upton stout the rookie nickel he were just talking about their regular nickel had maybe his best game against seattle what you think that would be like in terms of like a matchup if he does see a lot of devonte yeah i think that if he sees a lot of devante that's a I don't want to say good on good. Like, Devante Smith's a better player.

But skill set-wise, you think back to like Avante Maddox when he first came in the league. Like, that's the prototype of player. You know, he is a small, undersized, really scrappy, instinctive, tough, good ball skills, good blitzer, you know, tough, competitive run defender. Like, that's the skill set with Upton's down. So do you want to go heavy and take him off the field and, you know. And get Pinnock in there? Yeah.

Yeah, I think that I would rather see Pinnock. but this is the thing now so we talk you guys maybe we have the empty conversation yes let's get into that we got the empty graphic yeah so everyone reflects back on that game where we hung the banner

when they had the third best success rate against Washington 96 percentile game by paper drive where they had that drive in the first half where they just kept Washington's base defense on the field Eagles you that's not going to happen in this game because from a they're not going to play base to 11 person right right right right

So, if you want to try and get into that matchup, the matchup would be you go out with heavy personnel, they match with nickel, and then you're trying to run the ball on them. I think that's the, that's like the, we're trying to get them to do something. Now they've got lighter bodies on the field. That's, to me, I don't know that this is one where it's like, we're going to go in empty and we're going to take advantage of matchups in that way. Now, they might be a little bit more predictable out of empty, and that's, you know, some of the work that the coaches can do in terms of, hey, well, if, in this. this part of the field, if we're in 12 personnel, and they come out in their big nickel, and then we go empty, they love to play cover three, 80% of the time, and then you call your cover three beaters. Like, that's the, that's, you might do that, but I don't think it's going to be, oh, we're

going to play this whole drive out of empty, and we're going to go that way. Right. I mean, for the Eagles, it's been, like, no huddle and empty have been very correlated. Like, it seems like they'll go empty in no huddle more than they will, like, just like, as a random play in the middle of a sequence. For audio listeners who didn't see the graphic, like, first of all, the Eagles use empty a lot. Fourth, highest, usage in the NFL, 11% of the snaps, but it's not like 11% of every game. It's like there are some games where it's like a third of the plays and then we saw entire stretches of the season where they didn't use it at all. Third highest success rate out of empty and the 49ers

have the third lowest success rate defensively. So it's like a thing the Eagles do well that, again, I mean, running theme of the show, the 49ers defense doesn't defend well. And so it's just like it just if the alternative is Grant Calcutera as the rapper on a counter run

like it's like I want to see the Eagles and empty as much as possible but I mean you know we talked to earlier

about the QB draw option that you have out of empty like I mean the 49ers I was hoping to get some like numbers on how they've done

against QB runs but they've only faced nine the whole season and you know like it's actually like it was a good reminder because I went and looked at the Eagles as well the Eagles have only faced 11 all season

Hmm oh interesting 10 of the 20 runs that the Eagles and 49ers have faced Jackson Dart are from Jackson Dart exactly yeah isn't that funny like and it's just a reminder how rare a thing it is now in the NFL like the 49ers haven't seen a QB run since week 11

Let's talk about it more in Julia time yeah they haven't allowed more than nine yards on any of those like it's not like a like an obvious weakness or anything but it's something that like teams aren't used to seeing used to having to prepare for and especially the eagles do have that tool of like when you go empty you can you can also you can also run it so we talked about like this run defense is not good and you have you know Bryce Huff's a starting pass rusher and you can run you run it him all day super bowl champion Bryce Huffe as Jordan Militical what was that about I wasn't in that scrum but I was surprised that was such a weird

on Monday on his radio show I did see this I did see it yeah Monday on his radio show he was asked about Bryce off and he said I forgot all about him and he admitted he hadn't looked

at 49er stuff at all Bryceoff often lines up on that side on passing downs he lines up on the left on run downs early downs but on passing downs he's usually he's gonna be on Milita side a lot

so it was interesting like yesterday when he said like Super Bowl champion Bryce Huff and like kind of mocking I don't think that that was the intention do you think so I don't know what the intention was a little weird I don't think he is aware of like Bryce Huff's personal struggle with the Super Bowl like not considering himself a Super Bowl champion I don't think that was at play but I mean it didn't seem intentionally mean but it also seemed unnecessary maybe it was like a friendly job play locker he just said to each other last year yeah I mean, their lockers were like right across.

It would be pretty out of character for him to be just like. Yeah, I don't think it was, I don't think he intended it as bulletin board material. But. For the, for the good guy award, I don't think I would find that to be on becoming. Well, he was disqualified because he was the good guy last year. Well, not disqualified. You can't get it two days in a row. So Bryce off missed two games this year.

Still ended up having, you know, leading the team in pressures and quick pressures twice, doubled more than any other defender. And quarterback hits, Beau. 15 quarterback hits. Okay. Leads the team. We talk about how bad this run defense is, but the past defense,

the fact that they are just, what is, they're 26th in EPA per dropback, despite the fact that they have the few, the fewest sacks in the NFL, they've got 20 sacks, second fewest interceptions. The only team worse than them is the Jets.

They had zero intercept, first team in NFL history to have no picks in a year. This team hasn't created big plays. It's kind of crazy. Now, to me, like the fulcrum point for them for this defense was losing Fred Warner. Like they lost Bosa,

they lost Mikel Williams, and they were still getting by. they like had an identity shift and a huge efficiency drop when they lost Fred Warner you look at all the splits and it's like oh yards per 10 for first play action it's literally like the moment Fred Warner

left the lineup all that stuff went in the tank they were you know top three top two in quarters can you cover four cover literally they were like we have to throw this out of the playbook we can't play quarters because we don't have Fred Warner patrolling the middle of the field so that obviously they're not going to have them in this game dislocated his ankle a couple months ago

apparently they're saying that if they make it far into the playoffs that he would be able to come back but yeah like they're going to have opportunities to be able to make plays in this game running or throwing the ball against his defense it's funny because we have talked about stout having this atypical year for him uh kukurik kirk is is like the stout of defensive line coaches he's like the guy and i mean they've had injuries too but they've also had a it's funny that what usually is like the best position coach at one spot against the best position coach at the other is both of these guys coming off weird years. It's a, I mean, just look at this death chart.

And it's, you have Bryce Huff, Jordan Elliott, Kalia Davis, and Sam Okuyan. I actually don't know how to pronounce his last name. And I know very little about him. He actually does pop a little bit on tape. There's something to him there. After that, it's like, all right, you have Gator Gross Matos, Kian White, who they kind of move around. Keon White is an interesting piece for them.

But he's banged up, right? He's an injury report this week, Dana. Yeah, he got hurt in the last game. Right. Yeah. I think he was limited in practice, I want to say, yesterday. That's a potential impact player. You have a couple of rookies and Alfred Collins and C.J. West.

It's not a good group. Now, the one thing that they do at a very high rate that you have to prepare for, and by the way, like the Eagles, and I didn't look up numbers in terms of like, oh, what's their success rate on this? But the Eagles have had anecdotally struggled against stunts over the course of this season. They've had troubles protecting those stunts, picking that stuff up. And not just, oh, like Tyler Steen, no, like Landon Dickerson and Jordan, I've had issues at times passing off stunts and picking that stuff up so that would be something

certainly to watch their fifth in stunt rate coming into this into this game but again like they just have not been able to create pressure at a high clip stunts are kind of like the only non-vanilla metric that they're ranked high in right they're 24th in blitz rate their 30th in exchange pressure rate and that's kind of sell has never been very high on those we've talked all year of their 25th and dropping eight into coverage we've talked all year about how the eagles have struggled against the blitz they've struggled and they have struggled against the blitz especially since the buy. Like, early in the year,

the narrative was like, Eagles are handling the blitz pretty well, even though they're getting blitzed a lot. Hasn't really been the case since the buy. They've struggled against the exchange pressures all year, and they just don't do that. Cody Alexander runs a site called Match Quarters, which is a great site if you're interested in, like,

defensive metrics, by the way. You can go on there and you can get like every team's coverage rates and all that. It's free to the public. On that, he has like this entropy ranking of defenses, like how chaotic defenses are, like how often they do unpredictable coverages or blitzes or exchanges. So basically it's a scale that goes from Spags is number one to Houston's defense.

Like Houston has an awesome defense, but they don't do anything. Like they just rush four and it seems like every time I turn on one of their games, they're like they're sacking the quarterback like rushing four playing zone. So the scale goes from from one to 32 like Spags to Houston and the 49ers are 30th on that list. So they're one of the most vanilla defenses. When they do blitz, it's like it's the inside linebackers blitzing. sometimes the nickel will blitz, but very rarely, they really don't drop the defensive lineman into coverage very much.

They never play with more than four, and so, like, it's less likely anyway. But, like, Bryceoff dropped into coverage on that fourth downstop against Seattle last week, like, on the first drive where they got the fourth downstop, and it was like, oh, that was kind of cool. I checked. He's only done that, like, 10 times all year. Like, like, you know, so that's not, that's not something typical.

This shouldn't be a game where after the game we're saying, Jalen got confused. Right. By a disguised cover, too. Like sometimes they'll, you know, the nickel will become the safety or something. But it's nothing like super exotic like we've seen from like, you know, Todd Bowles or anything, anything close to that. They do do a NASCAR package with four defensive ends, which makes me think like the Eagles are going to run it on like third and nine once this game. And it's going to drive me crazy.

Like and they'll be like, oh yeah, it's because they had like, you know, because like Keon White, Gross Matos. Well, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, I think it was an 84-yard run from what I remember. Okuanu. Thank you. Okhanyu Haft, White and Grossmatos are the are going to be the four guys out there on third down. Like all like all four of them are defensive ends. Yes. Speaking of Jalen Hertz, let's give you a chance here to puff your chest out, professor, on just the playoff quarterbacks who are out there this year. Yeah. Well, it's it's we still, I mean I still think of Jalen Hertz as being pretty young. It's interesting to see like where he ranks in this like playoff. The guys who are in the playoffs this year. You know, only Aaron Rogers and

Matthew Staff. Josh Allen have more wins in the playoffs. Yeah, then Jalen Hertz, which is kind of surprising. And these two quarterbacks in this game have the best two playoff records of any of the teams, any of the quarterbacks in the playoffs. Hertz is six and three, Purdy's four and two. And then you've got Josh Allen, seven and six,

Aaron Rogers, 11, and 10. And you have a bunch of quarterbacks who haven't been on the stage before. Do you guys think that there is something to, I think it's a little bit overblown because he's had a lot of bad playoff games, but do you think there is something to the Jalen Hertz convincing himself that he's Michael Jordan and turning it on when the lights are brightest? Unlike the 49ers who

get nervous in national TV games. This goes back to the QB run game thing for me. I think that it's perfect myth-making for Jalen Hertz. Yeah. You know, like to do whatever it takes to win these next couple of weeks. If Jalen Carter doesn't make the play against the Rams last year, like that's a, you know, so it's one of those things. Bad in the Bucks games. I mean, look,

and you can say that about... Those games all had injuries as part of them, though. You can say that about literally every single Tom Brady Super Bowl, maybe except for the Tampa one. Like, if the kicker misses the field goal, or like,

if, you know, if the tuck rule or whatever, like, that's just kind of like what's, that's what's fun about, that's what's fun about all this. No question. Right.

Zooming out and looking at the playoffs, like as a fan, it's awesome that we get home game here. First time all season, you've gotten back-to-back home games. And this is the only, this is the only, only city in which there's a there's likely unless like weird things happen down the line

where there were home games last year and their home games this year I mean all the division winners are different from last year and none of the other cities who are hosting games or likely to host games did last year so just another one of the like things we shouldn't take for granted during during this run okay let's get the swooper let's do it let's do it where do we stand where do we Now, last week, the regular season finale, the last one-point round of the swooper season. E.J. Smith had six items. The record for longest field goal in the NFL is broken.

Almost. Almost happened. Is it a one-yard chart? I believe so. It would have been good for one-yard chart of tying. Of tying. His own record. It needs to be broken, right?

He needs to be broken. I mean, he's broken. We'll talk about that if it comes up. An Eagles offensive line is targeted on the past. Now, this is actually interesting because if it's in the playoffs, it doesn't count for the record. Oh, interesting. So I think you're done with this item.

I don't think you can get that in the playoffs. I think this item is done for you. I think that's right. The Eagles avoid going three and out. But that's not. But that's like that'll be, in NFL history, doesn't count. The Eagles avoid going three and out in a game for the first time in this season.

You get it next, you might be able to get it next season, but I think you're done for the playoffs. No, I think it's. Darius Cooper leads the, The Eagles in at least one of the following. I think so. Receiving yards, longest catch, receiving touchdowns, yards after catch. Didn't happen.

Jehadd Campbell plays at least five snaps as an edge defender. Didn't happen. In an Eagles, defensive back has an interception. Didn't happen. E.J. finishes the season with five points and five six. Scoreboard. And has six turkeys left over. Fran.

Josh Johnson throws for fewer than 150 yards. Did happen. The Eagles play 36 or fewer players in the game. they played 37. Didn't happen. AJ Dillon. It would have been somebody else. The Eagles rush for a really.

So fitting that he's what who got you. It's actually Devante Smith is what did it for it. The Eagles rush for at least 200 yards. Didn't happen. Tanner McKee throws for over 185 yards. Did happen. Tanner McKee finishes the regular season as a top five quarterback. Didn't happen.

Two hits for you. I had an Eagles running back exceeds a total number of rushing yards that exceeds the total percentage of possession. Ashton Villa records against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. E.J. really puffing his chest out because he felt like he got one over on us because they were playing low possession, Nottingham Forest, 73%. Guess what? Tank Busby doesn't care about your machinations. I got the point anyway.

I could have sworn you were going to say Nambi, Pambi. I don't know why. It just felt like it was coming. I cannot believe this item did not hit. Sidney Brown commits a penalty. It didn't happen. Shocking. An eagle scores his first touchdown of the season.

Thank you, Grand Cockatera. Hit on that one. Then the Eagles win and the Eagles get the two seed. Neither happened. So Fran and I tied with two. Half points awarded and that means that we enter the playoffs

where this round is worth two points. Every subsequent round will be worth an extra point. I am a half game up on E.J. at six and the third. Fran is at four and five, six. But that means Fran is within range. If I win, if I win, if I can. It's anybody's game.

If Fran wins this week and the Eagles lose, Frann will whoever wins this week Not that Fran would have rude for that No If there is a clean winner this week And the Eagles lose That person will be the Super Champion for the year I'm a half point up on EJ

One and a half on Fran Huge tie for me Huge tie for you All you needed was a tie Yeah To stay in the mix And you were in the mix This week EJ will start with six

And if it's a two way tie Two way tie between EJ and Fran Would also be enough for EJ For EJ to win That's right and they have more turkeys than I do. E.J. will start with 30 turkeys to bid with this week. Fran will have 31. I will have 20.

What are we doing, by the way? The first time you're joining us, we've got different items that we are proposing that may or may not happen in the game on Sunday. We are bidding imaginary turkeys on whether or not these things happen. The order this week is E.J., then me, then Fran, then the professor.

Julia, let's get to Swooper. Oh, God. Be nice to Julia. We missed Julia. Wow, shots fired. No, it wasn't, it's not shots fired. You could miss somebody while also being happy with Lindsay's amazing. It's not about Lindsay.

I just like Julia. Should we even do it? Oh, come on. All right, well, all right. Item number one is EJ's to propose. All right, there are no props this week, gentlemen. I hand to God. My first entry, Zach Bonn and Nacobi Dean,

combined for more pass breakups plus interceptions times two. Should I get your abacus, EJ? You honestly should, yeah. Okay. Thank you. Who knows what graphic you guys are going to put up while I'm gone. Do we have the item, Julia? Do we have the item graphic?

They have more PBIUs plus interceptions times, two, then Jake Elliott has made field goals. Wait, wait, right. Oh, here, I'll tell you what the turkeys are. I have 20. If you're able to change it. E.J. has 30. If we didn't have this, I was going to use a calculator on my computer, like old times.

Honestly, I was better with the calculator. Since we've won. That's Fran. Fran has 31. Sorry, E.J. has 30. I think I won that week. You did. Oh, look at that. Magic.

Graphic is so beautiful. I'm going to use the calculator too. All right. Let's flash up item number one here. You got to trust the abacus, E.J. Because I do. It's superstition. You want to read it again?

Zach Bonn and Nikobe Dean have more past breakups plus interceptions times two, then Jake Elliott has made field goals. You of all people, why would you enter math into this? Because it's simple math. It's PbUs and then if they get an interception, it's worth two points. Oh, just the interception times two.

You mess up the order of operations here. Okay. Why equals MX plus B? One issue with this is the way the NFL accounts for interceptions. Interceptions are also PBOs. Yeah. But if they get an interception, you should...

It should basically hit. So it'll basically be counting as three, that one play. That's fine with me. That's okay with you? Okay. Yeah. All right. Okay.

So interceptions in this formula count as two points, and you're doing that plus... PBUs. The two of those is greater than Jake Elliott's made field goals? Okay. So interception two points, PbU one point. We talked about how often... To exceed Jake Elliott's made field goals.

Okay. How often the 49ers throw the ball over the middle? Okay, and where are you starting the bidding? I would like to start the bidding at four. 54% of their passes are to the middle third of the field. That's third highest in the NFL. But maybe. Five.

Zach Bonn hasn't had many multiple PbU games, so. He has not. It's up in the year. Six. Seven. Eagles forced the most turnovers in NFL playoff history last year. staring me down like this. He really is staring at you.

Fran's bringing out the seven you got. Seven. I think he's trying to tie off once, going twice. Sold to Fran. It's like the QB run game. You save the stardown method for the playoffs. All right. Vaughn, Dean, nonsense.

I shouldn't let you have it for seven. Yes. All right, item number two. an Eagles wide receiver in this game has more receiving yards than Jalen Carter's playing time percentage percent of defensive snaps percent of defensive snaps for Jalen Carter

which we expect to be probably in the 90s that's a good one an Eagles wide receiver has more receiving yards than Jalen Carter's playing time percentage I will start the bidding at three four five

seven whoa staring you back down he's taught you had a little internal talk with himself to not get alpha be your own man that stops now

I will not be intimidated I will not be a push over it let's be real seven going once seven going twice sold to E.J Well, you intimidated them with the seven there.

I mean, Jalen Carter's played 70% of the snaps each of the last two weeks. It's a lower number. I listen to you guys. It's playoff time. Yeah, come on. All right. Friend, item number three. Item number three.

Devante Smith has at least 55 yards receiving, which, by the way... Is that a season average? He has not done... He has not eclipsed 55 yards in the last. I believe it's six games. It's been a while since he's had over 55. yards. But what did he have last week?

Because he needed 47. Did he like just barely get it? He got 44, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I can get the exact number. But who needs it? I'm going to start the bidding at three. Four.

Five. Seven. He had 52 last week. There we go. He had 89 at Dallas. You just said seven? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I'll do eight.

Nine. Nine going once. Nine going twice. Sold. Sold. E.J. Double down. Fourteen.

DeVante had two catches for 36 yards in the NFC championship game three years ago. No, of course, one controversial one. he did the everyone and I do this every time we play catch every time he drops it he gets up and does this

that's very funny it's so good that's great including like obvious drops my turn yes okay item number four this is gonna be one of these

where there's an X and a Y and the winner's gonna get to fill in the blank winner gets to do it okay so this is X has at least 30 more yards from scrimmage then Y.

Okay. This is going to be a normal auction and then after the auction the winner is going to get to choose X and Y from the following list. Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, I didn't do Pearsall

because he might not play. Sequin Barclay, A.J. Brown and Devante Smith. So X has at least 30 more yards from scrimmage than Y. It's a good one. We're going to hold the auction first. Normal auction.

You guys, start bidding. Two. Three. three going once four four going once four going once four going twice

sold okay for four you guys are not confident in your ability to either mine that's why it's only 30 more yards I don't know I was going to take it for for more

now I'm curious who you're going to pick yeah are you going to pick I think I'm going to go McCaffrey has all the rushing and receiving of course one that I felt great about I think I'm going to go Sequin and George Kittle

You're going to have Seekwon X and Kittle Y Yeah okay Wow all right I'm surprised Is this like a you could have hedged My receiver bets I could have Yeah I would have gone

what mine was I would you have got McCaffrey AJ X McCaffrey Y McCaffrey Y I thought I thought you guys would go McAfrey X just because like he gets he's like their whole offense even when they lose I know

but oh it's scrimmage yards that's right scrimmage yeah rushing plus Ciddle is the one that you pick I think as the as the low man as the low and he did he did choose Skiddle I was just I was surprised by same it was definitely my ex

for sure AJ over you think it'll be a run heavy approach is that why yeah yeah wow and I think I think that he can pop one or two. What do you guys think of all the people love talking about? There should be more Tank Biggsby in this game.

Come on. Plus or minus three and a half Gary's pre-garbage time. Under. Yeah, I agree. All right. Item number five, E.J., what are you got for us? All right. Jalen Hertz has more than 30 rushing yards.

I can tell you how many times it's happened this season. This includes kneel downs? Yeah, we're going to go off straight. I would love for the kneel downs to make it be like the way it hits. That would be fun, actually. It's about a 50% chance based off of this season. You guys will be like, come on, let go back a little further. I'm going to start the bidding at five.

All the talk about QB run game. Six. Eight. Eight going on. He's nothing. Eight going twice. wait it's under or over 30 over 30 okay yeah gotcha 10 going once then going twice wow sold all right you're down a four down a four turkeys so I've got

16. Friends got 24. Item number 6. We'll call back to the NFC championship game. Mack Jones plays an offensive snap. Nice. Mac Jones plays an offensive snap. Could happen in garbage time. Yeah.

I'll start the bidding at two. Two going once. Three. They see some violence in Brock Purdy's future. Three going once. Three going twice. Yeah, Fran, rooting for injury, baby.

So. He was banged up in the end of that game. Yeah, he sure was. That last hit was brutal. Yep. All right. Out of number seven, Fran. Jalen Hertz has at least two runs of 10 plus yards.

Hmm. We'll start the bidding at five. These can be scrambles. Yes. Correct. Which he's also done... Correct. Not that much this year.

Just boxed me out. What was it three? Five. Five. No, five. Five going once? If I really just wanted the box out, I would have been four.

Four when you had enough to box. Insult to injury with five. Five going twice. Fonting your turkeys. I'm letting you have it. Sold for five. my turn yeah turn

all right item number eight now this is going to be a sequential one-time bid friends down to 16 turkeys second price auction we've never had this format auction before let me let me

let me let me say the item the item is over the course of the game Kyle Shanahan loses at least 2.0 more win probability points than Nick Siriani

by not going forward on fourth down according to the Ben Baldwin fourth down bot okay so this is just fourth down decisions just fourth down decisions he loses two more points win probability

than Siriani over the course of the game now this year he's been pretty good at going for it when it's like an obvious go he did have one where he failed to go for it against Chicago that was like a 2.8

like you know win probability loss but that's the like only one time that he could not go on one that was over three so and and nick is very good at going for it when it's when it's over three so uh that is the item now it's it's not the it's they succeed in the attempt it's just no just going what happens doesn't matter right yeah in fact he has to not go for it

for this to be the right so yeah so there is no result yeah um the format is we're going to bid in order you don't get to bid again. Okay. Whoever won item seven bits first, which is Fran. And then whoever won most recently before that goes second. That's you, right, Bo?

Which was it? E.J.'s 30 rushing yards? Was that, that was item number? Who won item six? Five. Fran. Fran won seven and six. I think it's E.J.

So yeah, I won five. Yeah. Okay, so it's going to be Fran, then E.J., then Bo, you're going to get to go last. Yeah. And it is the second highest bid, which is going to be the price. So the highest bid? Okay.

Is the winner. The second highest bid is the price. And this is not a sealed bid. We're just... No, it's in order, public, and then you don't get to rebid after. You just get one bid. Yeah.

So if you both say zero, like, Bo will get it for free. You know what I mean? Like, so, so like that's kind of the, that's the... That's the format.

Wait, but he pays... No, he pays the second highest bid. Second highest bid. So if you literally both say zero, then you're just giving it to the third person for free. okay nothing that bad can happen to you you don't pay if you don't win if he bids if i say zero he still pays he still gets it for free no the second highest bet it's not it's not the it's not

the last if fran says two and you say zero then right bow could say i can decide whether i want for two or he could say one and make fran pay one right you can't bid the same amount of somebody else right okay unless it's zero unless it's zero unless it's zero yeah Just making sure. Yeah, okay. No, that's a good, that's a good, good point. All right, Fran. Four.

Zero. So, Bo, basically you're deciding between saying three and saying five. Shanahan has famously turtled big time in the playoffs. Yeah, but sort of. Nick is at an eternally mood. There you go. I'm going to say three and let Fran have it. Okay.

So Fran pays three and wins the item. That was a good number, Fran. Thank you. By the way, Shanahan is undefeated in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The 49ers as a team have been to the NFC championship game in their last seven playoff appearances,

which is kind of crazy. That dates all the way back to 2002 the last time they lost in an early round. They've missed the playoffs entirely 15 times in that 22 years. stretch but like when they make it they've they've gotten to the championship game which is weird all right eJ item number nine all right my final submission the eagles allow fewer points than any other nfc team in the wild card round so for clarification if the eagle's offense if

there's a pick six or a turnover that results in a touchdown that counts toward the scoreline yeah just it's not the defense it's not the game points allowed okay all right you got this Rams, Panthers. It has nothing to do with who wins. Nothing to do with who wins. It's points allowed. Well, yeah, but they'd have to win the game in order for this to hit.

Eagles would have to win. Right, right. No, they wouldn't. Well, I don't know if you know how points work in relation to a football game. Points allowed. If they allowed 10 points, but lose the game.

If they lose the game, if they lose the game, they've allowed more points. The 49ers are also in this round. I get what you're saying. I'm sorry, it's been a long way. Why would that be an HR violation? I feel offended. I'm sitting next to you with this.

That's a good point. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. Yeah. Okay, and you get to start the bidding. I'm starting to bidding at four. We can show you on that, because if you want to... I don't think that would actually help. Yeah.

What's the other game? Oh, yeah. Bears, Packers. Steelers, Texans. No, it's NFC. No, it's NFC. It's NFC? NFC?

It's NFC? Mm. I shouldn't have told him that. Yeah. It's really thinking about the Panthers. Yeah, the Panthers really seems like that. Talk about backing into the playoffs. Yeah.

Count them down, but the thing is. Four going once. Oh, yeah, sorry. Four going twice. soul to E.J. He was out of Turkey. He didn't even realize

that winning the game was an important part of the submission. I really was just thinking about the other games in my first team in history to allow more points and still win the game. E.J.'s down.

He's tapped out. 16.30. All right, out of number 10. A prime number number of the following things happen. Darius Cooper has a catch. Number one. Number two.

Wait, what, all of these have to be prime? No, no, no. Oh, a prime number of them has to happen. A prime number of them happen. Gotcha, gotcha, okay. Okay, so Darius Cooper has a catch number one. Number two, a kick hits the upright crossbar or pylon. or pylon.

Number three, the Eagles score a touchdown in the final 30 seconds of the first half. Item number four, Kyle Shanahan goes for it on fourth down and three yards or more at any point before the final six minutes of the game. Number five, Malik Mustafa is involved in a turnover. Go Deeks. Number six, any player scores a touchdown from as many yards out as their jersey number. A classic. And item number seven, a Sequin Barclay run is the game's longest play from scrimmage.

I think it's worth noting that zero is not a prime number and very importantly, neither is one. But two, three, five, and seven are. Yes, that is correct. One is the one that people don't know sometimes, like is a prime and it is not. I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Well, I thought our audience should be educated. I will start the bidding at two. They had to win the game, you said?

Yes. Two going once. Three. Three going once. It's so fun to root for. Two, three, five, and seven. It's so hard to follow. Three going twice.

I'm going to say four. It's yours. All right. I'm not taking it for five. Sold for four. The Prime Poo-Poo. I did for four. So I'm down to 12.

Okay. All right. My last one. Jalek's Hunt has a sack, a forced fumble a fumble recovery or an interception and we'll start the bidding at three

how are we feeling about Trent Williams playing it's a good question it's so weird because when Kyle Shannon said they would have had a chance to play you have expected them yeah I watched it later that was not reported as accurately as

okay because he was like would they have had a bigger chance to play if the game were Sunday and he was like he was kind of like well yeah or something. Like, it wasn't that... He didn't, like, bring it up on his own. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll go five. Ian Rappaport said Trent Williams is in doubt. Yeah, and it was a... He was a did not practice yesterday, so... Half-sack count? No. Austin Pleasance, the left tackle, who's been playing for him,

as Fran mentioned yesterday, has been really bad. Like... And they don't like keeping guys into help as either, so. What number are we out? Six. Six going once. Six going twice.

I'm going to let you have it for six. So as we enter the final item for the week. All right. I'm going to do what we've done in playoffs past to make the borrowing from next week a viable situation. And that is, the item is the eagle. win the game. The reason that that makes borrowing

viable is that the only scenario in which it hits is one where the turkeys for next week matter. So it's not like just free borrowing from nothing. So... Friends down to seven, by the way, Julia. This is going to be a sealed bid second price auction.

You all bid in private. And the highest bidder wins and pays the second highest bid. Now, you can borrow from next week If you win, you will also predict the eagle's opponent And if you get it right, you will get all of your turkeys back I like that

All of your turkeys back if you can correctly predict The Eagles Divisional Round opponent Now I'm going to share with you guys on the audience The current implied probabilities by the money lines The Bears are slight underdogs at home to the Packers Depending on where you look But let's just go with this one The bears are underdogs?

Slight underdogs at home. Are they crazy? 48% chance it'll be the Bears. That's their probability of winning. 9% chance that it'll be the Panthers. So that would be the who you guys. Now that's going to be after the option. It's not most likely, E.J., that they play the Bears. I listen back to that and I stand by what I said. Further out. So you're all privately bidding. Again, it's second price. Second price and you get all your turkey. All your turkeys back if you can correctly predict the Eagles divisional round

opponent. Obviously if the Eagles don't win there is no next week and so those turkeys will just not matter. If all you care about is the Eagles winning, do you want to go to Chicago or host the Rams? Next round.

Oh, if all I care about is the Eagles winning that second round game. Like as a fan, I want to be home. I want to be at the stadium, you know, et cetera. But like, if it was just about the Eagles' chance of winning, you think going to Chicago is higher a chance of winning? Yep. Probably. All right.

E.J. have you sent yours to Julia? I have. Julia, what's his number? You didn't do zero, did you? No. I'm worried I went too aggressive. Remember, at my studio? Yeah. Remember, it's second price, so you're not going to pay your own bid if you win, so more reason to be aggressive.

Okay. There isn't a reaction this time. It made me feel a little better. I would imagine that's going to be the highest, but we'll see. I did seven. I did Rams. I did 12. 12.

So you have to pay 12. But you get them all back. Yeah. If you can make the right prediction about who the opponent will be, will it be the bears, the Rams, or the Panthers. I predicted the Rams. Meaning that you're predicting that the Packers and the Rams both win. Right.

Okay. All right. Okay. Knowing that that is not the most likely thinged up. It is what I expect to happen. Okay. E.J. has...

And if that's right, then we're home again next week. And I've got a commanding lead. Go all in on this week. Try it and hope that nobody can catch me. If you've gone all in on this week, including several items that include this not being the end of Swipper. Right. Exactly.

Like you needed to not be the last game to win. Yeah. And next week's... Yeah, but what I'm saying, what I'm banking on is it's going to continue. but that nobody will catch me because somebody would have to win outright to catch me. That's true.

Yeah, that's true. And yours are... The math is mathing for once. An Eagles wide receiver has more receiving yards than Julian Carter's playing time percentage. Devante Smith has more than 55 yards receiving. Jalen Hertz rushes for more than 30 yards.

The Eagles surrender the fewest points this weekend of all NFC teams and the Eagles win. You have negative 12 turkeys right now, but if the Eagles play the Rams next week, you get those 12 turkeys. I only have two items. Sequin Barclay has 30 more yards from scrimmage than George Kittle and the prime poo-poo platter.

I have 12 turkeys left over. Fran. The weird one from E.J. where Nacobi Dean and Zach Bonn have more passes defended and interceptions, but interceptions count as two than Jake Elliott has missed field goals. Mack Jones plays an offensive snap. Jalen Hertz has at least two runs of 10 plus yards. Kyle Shanahan surrenders at least two points of win probability

more than Nick Siriani on his fourth down decisions and Jalick's Hunt finishes with a sack, force, fumble, fumble recovery, or interception, but it has to be a full sack. And you've got seven turkeys left over. So there we go. Super chats. Super chats. That'll do it for swooper.

Thank you very much. Looting PC load letter What does that mean? Claire says Please weigh in on a sicko's debate Do you tip housekeeping at a hotel If so, how much?

Of course Who says no? Now listen, have there been times in my life Where I have been caught without cash to leave? Yes. Yes, and I have felt very badly about it. Yep. I can come clean on that.

But you try to make it up down the line, leave a little extra for the next one, and hope that kind of comes back. But I agree. Of course, that's not how it works, but in my mind, I can justify that, yeah. Now, the hotels that have the QR code where you can pay virtually or digitally,

amazing. But yeah, I mean, what are we doing if we're not tipping the housekeepers? I think, I would say, general rule of thumb, I would say, I would say between $5 and $10 a night. Oh, a night, wow.

I think. That's a lot. I think that's generally how I would feel. So my thing is, again, you can be caught. It depends on just what cash you have. Sure. This is front of mind for me because I'm getting ready to go through. I got Triumph Bowl, Senior Bowl coming up a couple weeks.

So I'll be gone for a 10 days. stretch I don't I go do not disturb the entire stretch I'm in a hotel yeah I'm by myself I don't like towels I'm good if I need extra towels I'm okay with that but you're still gonna leave a little something I still leave something at the end because you're cleaning up after of course but I don't I actually like so to me it's not a every night thing it's like I'll do something at the very end it's important yeah but yeah so when it's like when we go whole full family like Meg wants like well exactly if I'm if I'm by myself yes in a room for three nights that's different than if we've got

you know, the kids in a hotel room for two nights. That would be, yeah, that would be a... I'm thinking of Marissa's take on the hotel towel thing. Like, she was always... She always talked about how gross, like, how gross it was. Yeah, I've considered packing my own towel before, but... I don't, I don't ever stay in hotels, like, ever.

Like, I don't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel. Oh, no, and I don't... I'm not saying I'm not tipping every day. You're just doing that math. At the end. Yeah, you tip more than me. I won't lie. I usually would do either $5 or $10.

Yeah, I think that's fine. Maybe I need to be more generous, but I'm with Fran. I do not disturb the whole time I'm there I ask for towels or like you know I can be like a restless sleeper if I like knock a sheet on the ground you know get a replacement for that

that's happened before or like if all my pillows fall on the ground on the floor I won't put them back on the bed oh yeah I could see that yeah I'm gonna untuck you got on top every time yeah you know who's keeping it up my wife

Meg is like really everything pulled exact so we Our sides of the bed are just complete opposite. Are you guys, do you use the top sheet? Is crazy. I will only use the top sheet. Like, I don't get under the cover. Interesting.

Even during the winter, like, I just go like, you're just comforter? That's all you are. Oh, no, sorry. No, he's the opposite. I kick the comfort down. I only use the top sheet. I'm duvet.

What do you have the temperature? Do they only at a hotel? No, anywhere. I don't like the top sheet. Okay. I don't need that top sheet. Huh. There are countries where like

they don't understand the top sheet. sheet concept. Like, like, I've traveled to, like, places where we've been like, can we get, like, an extra sheet? And they've been like, what do you want a sheet for? Like, it's like, I just want, like, something over me. Yeah, like, they don't even do comforter. Well, like, for example, like,

like, like, I was in Nepal and, like, it was like not very like, not very cold. And there was like a thick blanket and nothing else. Yeah. And we were like, can we get like an extra sheet? And they were like, there's already a sheet on the bed. And we were like, well, no. And they were like, what do you mean? Like, why would you

want that like and it's just like okay like it's just like a cultural cultural difference i just got a text from lindsay shout out to lindsay watching the show she says i'm with you i hate the top sheet interesting see really right side of this i got to have something over you guys are wrong i mean crazy that lindsay would say no i like having something i like just the comfort or the duvet no but what if it's not what's up with that lindsay if it's not how i put it in the chat yeah right you just do nothing no i'll do the comforter or the duvet in the summer oh you just like you just keep it really cool we keep our house for

Okay, that's my... Very cold. And don't come after, Lindsay. Don't come after. That's why she texts me because I don't come after her, ever. You throw every... I always went down a dark, right?

Just my wife. Scobie Brian with the Super Chat says, hate myself for thinking about this during the playoffs, but power-rank the top OC candidates for the next season. In terms of likeliest, or who would you most want?

How do you feel about a munkin for him? That's who I'm. was going to say um sure yeah i would like that but i'm not like uh i feel better about it a year ago than i do now it was a little bit yeah yeah it wasn't it wasn't the best uh output this past year yeah eagles win the super bowl with four like 13 to seven type games yeah have the parade you still you still have to change the offense coordinator right i don't think so really no but i think do in that in that scenario i think they bring in like a senior offensive analyst stefansky or somebody and he's really running the show yes and it's

same offensive coordinator but you have a you have somebody else who is there so kind of like do what they did to nick but like one level lower yes like like take power away but don't change the title i see that's probably right i think that's probably what they would do that's probably right yeah yeah okay that could i mean that could happen yeah like that's how good That's how good this defensive fit. Who's out there? I mean, to me, like, Mike McDaniels probably going to be the highest paid. If he's not getting, if he's not a head coach, he'll be the highest paid office coordinator in 2026.

You presume Stifancy gets a job. I'm going to say Stifansky's the obvious one. I assume he probably gets, I think he's going to get a head coaching job. I think Harbaugh is going to get a head coaching job. I could see, I could see the table. How does Stafansky not get like a little more? blame for how horrendous the offenses have been there.

I think the quarterback situation there's just been so bad. But no, but that's part of the job. I understand. I'm with you. I know they made the playoffs that one time. The worst in football each of the last two years. Their defense has been like top five every year and they can't win more than like four games.

I wonder where Jim Schwartz ends up. That's a fun one. That's the one I've been surprised that he hasn't had another chance because like that defense has been so good year and year out. He's not that old. It's been a long time since he's been a head coach. Like, yeah. He's also, like, I think he would be willing to listen to analytics on, like, fourth down decision stuff.

Brian, what do you think of Kingsbury? Yeah, we forgot about Kingsbury. That's a good one to bring up. Look, you know, they talked to him a couple years ago. Right. We know the reports about the hang-up being offensive line coach there. Does he have the same amount of leverage now that he had then to make that kind of a move?

Probably not. Do you think it's a good fit, though, for, like, the direction the Eagles offense seems to be going in? If they want to... Well, it's like no huddle all the time. It seems like so outdated to me. That's what they do well. Well, sure, but the whole game, like, literally every... Pull the whole ship out of it.

Yeah. Okay. I'm not as enthused by that as I would be McDaniel, but... Give me somebody... I know this is on brand for me. Give me somebody who, like, majors an under-center run game. Under center play action The only team in the league

That runs less under center play action Than the Eagles was Washington Like Kingsbury is like It's like the exact opposite of what the like That's why I'm I guess that's why I'm underwhelmed No me too I just don't You want Skango

You bring Kingsbury and Skango together And then he marries the thing together All right Good stuff That'll do it for This episode of the PHMY Eagles podcast There you go Wayoffs

Yesterday Today, the full X's and O's in-depth preview you need for the game on Sunday. Stay tuned tomorrow, 2 o'clock, Jamie and Rich. We'll take you into the weekend. Looking forward to that. More locker room right after this on our way. Everybody feeling good? What a week.

I think we'll be back next week, previewing the divisional round. Who do you think they're going to play? I have a feeling it'll be the Rams as well, actually. Yeah. Yeah, I just don't like the way Chicago kind of. kind of limped in to the playoffs there at the end. I've kind of not trusted them the whole time. Green Bay's kind of limping in, too, but I kind of get it.

I mean, those have been two coin flip games between those two teams. Yeah. Yeah, I kind of, I kind of see it. But it's a coin flip. I think coin flips right. Eagles are being given about a 65% chance to win this game by the money line. Would you guys agree with that? With those odds?

That sounds right. Yeah. All right, good stuff. Thanks everybody for watching. I mean, come on. You're 110 minutes in, hit the like button. Please. Make a comment.

Helps us out. That's all. That's all we are. Have you guys seen this hype thing that you can do on videos too? No. It's like a new thing. By the way, check out the sweet. Got to hype the video.

Hype video that Ben made on the PHL by Eagles. You get like a certain amount of currency. Account. Very cool. I think it's algorithm, algorithm catnip. What do you mean, hype the video? And there you go, once again. down there, isn't it? A look at the deal for the diehard. It's all right. We're, we got to go.

We got to get to NovaCare. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Julia, for stepping in. Lindsay, wherever you are, include us on the text message next time, please. No, just don't, don't listen to Lindsay. Shout out to Lindsay. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. As always, we love you. Thank you.