PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Fran Duffy’s Film Review: How can 2-0 Eagles unlock BIG PLAYS for A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith?

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Through the strength of Drew Mukuba, Zack Baun, Cooper DeJean, Jalen Carter, Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts, the Eagles are 2-0 after an impressive win on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. It has been a great start to the season, but we’re greedy and want to see the passing game look up to its potential while A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have felt underutilized through two games. Fran Duffy has cranked through the film and has thoughts on what the Eagles can do next. Join him, EJ Smith and Bo Wulf for the Monday film review. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, live from the Xfinity Mobile Studio. You are watching the PHLY Eagles podcast on a Monday afternoon presented by our friends at Bet365 and Ashley. And the day after the Eagles once again conquered the Kansas City Chiefs. This time on the road at Arrowhead, we're here to talk about it all. Bo Wolf, E.J. Smith is back from Kansas City. Flew in this morning and boy, or his arms tired. And we've got Fran Duffy, who has been. pouring over the X's and O's we're going to get into all of it. We're going to dive deep into the

state of the passing game. I know people are worried about it. We can acknowledge that this was a very impressive win and also that there seemed to be some things to work on. But let's start with you, EJ. How are you feeling? How's the body after the travel? The body's good. You know, I didn't really think about it until you just asked me how it was going or how my body was feeling. I don't know if I've got tools in my body necessarily. I'm always thinking about your body if you don't need to you, That makes one of us. You know, I feel good though. I got almost 20,000 steps yesterday.

And, you know, I even stretched in my hotel room. So, yeah, we're feeling good. We're feeling really good. All right. And Fran, how are you? How tough on the body is your Monday routine of just diving into those X's and Ops? Yeah, I got to watch my head when I dive head first in. But, you know, outside of that, it's, no, it was good.

I mean, the eating habits are not as good. Like, it was like lunch on the run, like, reheated a slice of pizza while walking the dog I ate that out of there. But see, it's a vet move. It's get the hot piece of pizza for the walk. When I leave, put a bowl of soup in the microwave. Then when I get back from the walk, I grab the soup, bring that back upstairs. We're just trying to be as efficient as possible.

Interesting. Now, the soup, you're going to have to really nuke that bad boy if it's going to stay hot for later. The walk with the dog is a pretty quick, pretty quick venture. So that's, you know, I've only got a few minutes for the, that lunchtime walk. Do you, does anybody else feel like their microwave leaves them wanting? Like, I feel like for a bowl of soup or like a big plate of reheated food, my microwave takes like way too long to heat that bad boy up. I feel like microwave technology has gotten worse. See, it certainly hasn't improved.

Ours is an older microwave, but it things, it's pretty powerful. Yeah. When we go to the in-laws, and she's got an old, like, you know, version one microwave. That thing, you get 25 seconds, that thing has got you blistering. The one we've got, you know, these namby,

pamby, liberal microwaves we've got now. I knew this is where this was going. It takes me three minutes just to get my coffee. So you got to get the, I can't pull it right now because it's plugged in. I have the coffee warmer at my desk.

I don't even microwave coffee. It's just like, I throw that thing on there. Coffee warmer. Oh, tell me about this. The mug warmer. So it's, you know, you get the coffee. and it just sits on my desk and it keeps the mug warm. So I've got hot coffee all morning.

Oh. I've got a coffee story for later in the show. I wasn't familiar with this part of the game. I'll text you. Yeah, I'll send you up there. Go ahead, E.J. No, no, let's say this for later. It's a dramatic. No, we're here now.

We're here now. We're already here. It's important that we drive away the people who are only here for Eagle's content. And then we give the people who want to stick around the stuff that they really want. About 15 minutes ago, I've probably about 20 minutes ago. I tried to make myself a couple of of coffee. You know, you guys know, like, I'm a little bit of a coffee snob. I make myself the latte, and I'm getting, I get the whole thing set up, and it looks good. And I went to go and I'm really

like, I'm really like, boozy about this. So I got some cocoa powder. And I was going to like just put a little bit of cocoa powder on the top. And I open the drawer in the cabinet and like chocolate sauce that we have for our lattes falls out directly onto my cup of coffee, coffee everywhere, all over like the cabinets underneath and everything. It's on the baseboards, on the rug. It's on It was such a mess. Wait, rug in the kitchen? Yeah, we have a washable rug. Yeah.

So the washable rug is now outside. I made sure to mop up the floors. I have a little bit of more work, more cleaning to do. But I think I got the catastrophic stuff out of the way. This is a classic, you know, you can't do anything right after the, after the road trip, you're back. Like, all you need, just give me this coffee, please. and you know, it just, it's a Newton's law situation. Yeah, it made me kind of self-conscious going into the pot, if I'm going to be honest.

It's like, am I going to be this much of a screw-up for the rest of the day? So fingers crossed. All right. Well, let's get a little business out of the way. I see we have a brand new member of the Supporters Club in the chat. That's very exciting. You too can join the Supporters Club, which gives you access to exclusive content, custom emojis. You can do guys with Fran, all kinds of.

and good stuff. Good way to support the show. Make sure that everybody is subscribing and commenting and liking the video below. And I will also say that EJ, you shouldn't feel like a screw up because you had a very good piece out this morning on all p.hly.com. The second edition of the early bird, Fran, you contributed to that as well. I feel like appointment reading for any Eagles fan on Mondays now. Yeah, I mean, we definitely, I mean, France stuff in there is like really, really valuable draft stuff. And then I just try to get people some stuff from the locker room that they wouldn't otherwise get.

I led it with the passing game this time, you know, trying to hear from some of the main characters in the, in the Eagles offense. But yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that. It's a labor of love. Definitely something that keeps you up at night, but it's fun to do. A great Lane Johnson quote in there that people can enjoy. And I think we will talk about that. All right.

We are going to save friends, you know, real in-depth thoughts on the state of the passing game. We're going to do that after the first break, but we've got to start with the defense because we should start with the good. And let's start, friend, with what you saw from Vic game plan-wise, because I do think it is interesting. It was by percentage of dropbacks the second most he has blitzed as the coordinator of the Eagles. But more importantly than that, it is by far the most effective he has been as a blitzer as coordinator of the Eagles. We have talked about this in the past that, you know, when he blitzed, They're not often that good. And the previous best, I think EPA per dropback was 0.2 something.

And this game was 0.6 something. By far their highest success rate, 75% when they did. Why do you think coming into this matchup, he felt that that was going to be a positive development for the Eagles? I mean, it could be just the idea of, you know, we've got to throw something different at them. And once they were effective at it, said, all right, we're going to keep pushing that button. I mean, they were the fourth defense in the history of the next. gen stats era. They were talking like 2016. So, you know, it's a 10 year sample at this point. So fourth team in 10 plus years to not record a blitz one time in a game. This is in the Super

Bowl in February. So to go from one extreme to the other, it was very much like the opposite style of game plan what we saw from Vic Fangio yesterday compared to what they did just a few months ago. And so from that end of it, you have that. But then you also have the fact, all right, like maybe the pass rush wasn't quite what you were hoping it would be from our front four standpoint. last week against Dallas. All right, we got to ratchet the heat up a little bit if we're going to try and get after Mahomes. But again, once that, once it was proved to be effective,

I think you kind of keep pushing that button until Kansas City had an answer for it. I kind of like the idea that they did have some bespoke blitzes in place for the Super Bowl that they just didn't have to use and they still had those. They could just pick them right back up. But I also think some of it to me is like, you know, if you are a little bit worried about Makuba being in the right place

or Jahad Campbell picking up the right thing, like sending them forward out. Jahad Campbell was not too often used as a blitzer in this game. You can tell them if I'm wrong, but that's how it felt. But it's like it's a good use of those guys when you're not quite sure that you can rely on them knowing where they're supposed to be 100% of the time. Yeah, I agree.

And it was interesting too because you had some man coverage, which there was more man coverage in this game that there was back in February as well. So just continue to kind of like mix and match pieces, mix and match schemes. We saw different personnel packages with dime and there were various nickels. So to me, it was a really fun game plan. I didn't pull like a bunch of screen grabs for today's episode from a like positive standpoint.

We covered a lot of that in the post game show yesterday. So if you do want some breakdowns from some of those plays, we did cover that with, with you and with Jamie and with Les and Vinny last night. So, you know, saved a couple of like the interesting like breakdown from a like, all right, what happened on this play kind of situation here for the show. but this was a fun game to break down. Okay, we will get to that shortly, but let's go sort of, you know,

player by player and talk about the good before we get there. And by the way, if you do want to watch that video, great breakdown of Makuba's Day. You can catch that also as a Vod on the YouTube channel if you don't want to work your way through the whole postgame show. But you texted E.J. and I, one thing that I thought was very interesting. And coming off of last week, when you came here and your number one takeaway was this was the best game of Jordan Davis's career,

you are continuing to be impressed by Jordan Davis, much more so than Tom Brady seemed to be yesterday. Yeah, at least in terms of his game. Look, at the end of the day, it was another one of those games from Jordan Davis where, all right, like, we're getting into the third quarter, fourth quarter, and I keep writing his name down. And it's just he wasn't, it wasn't like he was a world beater.

He didn't look like Dexter Lawrence yesterday. He didn't look like Aaron Donald yesterday. But in terms of going back just a couple of months to when the Eagles, you know, that picked up his option. I was like, oh, like,

I don't know. Like, you're kind of betting on him to be a better player than what he's been. If he's going to be worth that money, he's been a better player so far through two games

than what we have seen. And a more consistently good player at the point of attack where in years previous, I think he's been kind of a flash player, a couple of a couple snaps here and there where you have to squint. You're like,

all right, like, yeah, here's a three or four play package of Jordan Davis looking good against the, you know, insert team name here. Two games in,

I've been pretty impressed with what we've seen from Jordan Davis. I think he's just much more consistently impactful. You know, we saw plays against the run yesterday against Kansas City against, by the way, like a good interior offensive line. Once again, he's making plays against Creed Humphrey. He's making plays against Tray Smith, like against good players on the interior. And then he's not getting home for for sacks of Patrick Mahomes, but he's disrupting past lanes. We saw him get his hands on a couple of balls yesterday.

So overall, I again, impressed with what I saw in Jordan Davis. Yeah, I heard from him after after the game in the locker room. And really quick, the comment about this being a contract year, he's up in not this offseason, but the next one because the Eagles picked up his fifth year option. So, but I did. I heard from him after the locker room. Did you guys see what he had on first and foremost? He had on in Athens, Rock Lobster's hockey jersey post game, which got some of my former colleagues very excited because, you know, the ice hockey connection there. But to the game, he said he has never had two people use.

Former colleagues? Olivia Reiner. Okay, just because he, just because she used to cover hockey? Yeah, I mean, and there's not that much. It's not that deep. Yeah. You know what's funny is I think that that team, Sheel and I played golf one time this summer.

And the one time we played golf, we had a random third join us, who let it be known to us that he was a minor league hockey player. And I think he played for that team. Hmm, you got to ask Jordan Davis about it. He was one of the team. I think he got traded. He was a goalie. Yeah, I didn't get the sense that he's like,

I didn't get the sense Jordan Davis is a huge Athens rock lobsters fan, but I mean, it's interesting. It feels like the kind of thing where like there are only so many things that fit you and a hockey jersey is one of them. Yeah. Yeah, the sweater. Sweeter's got to be very comfortable after a game. All right.

Now I feel bad that I derailed our conversation about Jordan Davis's play. So, yeah, he said that the conditioning aspect, playing in the heat. Obviously, he had the hamstring cramp, but he did say that this was a game where he could really feel the difference in his conditioning, you know, really showing up. He said he's never had two PbUs in a game. He said that he really would like to intercept a pass in those situations. And I sort of joked with him like, it's you and Jalen Carter. Jalen Carter's trying to pick off the spike and you're trying to get an interception at the line there. Josh Swett had one of those. So I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility. And then the other thing I found interesting, Fran, is I asked him pretty much exactly what you. you just mentioned. I said, like, can you think of a two-game stretch where you've played this well in your career? And he kind of, he was hesitant to go that far. He said, you know, I don't know what it's going to, you know, when I get in the film room, I don't know what the corrections are going to be like. But I do. I think that this is, like, a really impressive stretch for him.

And yeah, I think it is. It's encouraging because of what it says about, like, it should get easier for him as, you know, they're not playing in these hot hot climates or, you know, just as the season wears on. How about the return of Jalen Carter to that? front friend what kind of impacted chelan carter make yeah i thought that he he had some really impressive moments some good flash moments he's going up against uh you know creed humphrey and against tray smith as well uh we saw him win with quickness off the edge we saw him get inside on a couple of run plays as well i thought he held up pretty well at the point of attack i do think that and this goes for for davis as well although carter if memory serves i don't have the snap counts in front of me uh you know did play

you know more snaps than than jordan davis did uh i do think the 90 degree heat uh kind of got to those guys a little bit. So there were certainly some plays going back where I'm like, all right, like, you could tell that he's kind of feeling it a little bit, you know, where maybe the, you know, the urgency like off a block or something like that isn't quite as profound. But I think overall it was a solid debut for Jane O'Carre. Who else deserves a pat on the back for their performance in this game? Nice debut from Zadaria Smith, I thought. It's funny because, you know, there was a lot of the people in my mentions, like when we broke down the signing and people in the,

the chat and they're like, oh, like, what is he against the run? He's not good against the run. He's not good against the run. I don't know. He looked pretty good against the run yesterday. Like he had like, he was in on three or four tackles at her behind the line of scrimmage. I thought that he was really violent going up against the rookie left tackle, Josh Simmons. I thought he had some good flashes there. So, you know, we'll see if that holds up over the final 14 games in the regular season. But I think overall, I was pretty impressed with Zadaria Smith yesterday up front. Now, you preached caution on the Adori Jackson front with us last week. off the TV copy like he looked a little bit better in this game.

Do you chalk that up to him getting better, Vic understanding him better, or just the chief's not having a very good group of wide receivers? Yes. I think when you look at it's probably a confluence of factors there. I think that Jackson played better. I think that they are definitely are tinkering with lots of different coverages to kind of like shade safeties that way and kind of provide him a little bit of help in high leverage spots. I do think that the fact that he's going up against Taekwon Thornton and

Hollywood Brown as opposed to CD Lamb and George Pickens. I think that certainly helps as well. So I think you mix all of it together and Adory Jackson was fine. So that's kind of what I expect from Adory Jackson. I don't expect him to be a plus starter. I expect him to be replacement level throughout most of the year. Hey, what did you make of the way that he used Quinyan yesterday? Because early on, he was playing on the left side. And I thought that maybe, and he was going back and forth. I thought maybe he was following Hollywood Brown for some reason, but then as the game went on, it felt like he was just settled in on the right side. Did you notice anything there? You know, I didn't chart it. I didn't notice that he was kind of moving back and forth. So that's

something that I'll probably go back and when I make a like a second run through on the tape tonight because I usually will try and do one more pass through ones on Monday night, like after, if not Tuesday morning. So that might be something I keep an eye out for, but nothing that stood out to me on first blush. Okay. How about those linebackers? Yeah, I thought Bonn was extremely active. You know, they used, it was interesting. You know, Vic was asked about like the, you know, the rush first coverage aspect. Oh, you used Bond, you know, or you use Campbell as a rusher because Bond can do a little bit more of the backer stuff.

In this game, like, Bond was really, really active as a rusher. You know, it happened to opening series. Like a lot of A-gap rushes for Zach Bond, a lot of times where he's up on the line of scrimmage and, you know, was kind of used as kind of like as a mugger and an interior offensive. of linemen. So I thought that that showed up a number of times. Campbell looked good in zone coverage. Like there wasn't like one standout like, oh, look at him, Rob, this, take this throw away, but just very comfortable. His eyes, I thought were in a good spot. So I think overall, it was it was kind of like a ho-hum day for Jahad Campbell, but in a positive way. I thought that he looked pretty good patrolling the middle of the field. All right. So overall,

a very good defensive performance for the Eagles. There were a couple things to clean up. Let's let's get to some of those, Fran. And we can start with the Mahomes scramble touchdown. which you had told us after the game, looked to you, like maybe Georgian Bennett, who was in for the injured Adori Jackson, and then Jackson later came back. Maybe he needed to get off his block at that point. Once you saw the tape, what did it look like?

Yeah, it was, I think that I stand by that assertion from post game. Julia, if we want to go to Mahomes TD1, the Chiefs come out in the red zone, and it's an empty set. So if you look at the bottom of the screen, Jihad Campbell's actually matched up with the player down outside the number. So Bennett, who is in for Dory Jackson at this moment, he is in the slot to the bottom of the screen. So it lined up against Hollywood Brown on the right slot. If we go to the next

shot, we'll see that Mahomes is now pressured by Jalen Carter. Jailen Carter gets the edge here and it's going to pressure Mahomes. So Mahomes is going to roll to his right. Bennett is basically in the same spot that he was at the beginning of this play because Hollywood Brown basically went a few steps and then fell down. So Corrine Bennett has got, he's got hands essentially on Hollywood Brown. Mahomes is getting ready to roll to his right. And Bennett should be there as a force player to make sure that he's going, hey, you know, you've got help to your inside. Make sure that you don't lose the corner to Hollywood Brown here on this play. Hollywood Brown turns and he sees Mahomes start to break the pocket. And he says, all right, I'm going to do what I can to create some space for

my back, for my quarterback. Julie, if you go to the next shot here, you can see Mahomes has broke in the pocket and down at the bottom of the screen, that's low post basketball, Hollywood Brown just basically boxing out, Jacori and Bennett there and giving the seal for Mahomes to be able to get home for the touchdown. So, yeah, he didn't play a ton yesterday, Jacorian Bennett on defense. I think that's a play he would definitely like to have back. I'm assuming he's going to hear from that or hear from coaches about that here this week. Back to back weeks when one of those corners not really wanting to smoke, it seems like,

but we'll give them a chance. That's okay. How about a lot of discussion, and I think this is going to be kind of a polarizing one, a touchdown at the end of the game, which we talked about, and you were trying to sort of piece it together based on a TV copy,

look to you, like maybe that was McCuba's responsibility. Do you have any more clarity after watching it and you're shaking your head? No, I have no clarity whatsoever. This play is confounding to me, and I want to go, into the reasons why. And this is like, oh, this is one where I could sit here and watch it for 30 minutes and just roll it back, roll it back, and roll it back. And I'm texting me, well, what do you think about

this play? What do you think the coverage is? Everybody's all over the board on it in terms of what the possibilities could be. So I'm very interested to hear from players and coaches as the week progresses. But let's really quickly, we'll go through it. And then I do want to ask you like if anyone talked about it after the game last night. So Julie, if you want to go TD0.0. So TV clip one. I've got 11 shots from this from this play so basically what happens here okay is just before the snap the chiefs bring a receiver in motion from right to left and that is going to make it a four by one formation we got the back to the left and you've got three receivers and a trips like bunch look and you see that you're allowed to do that yeah well we can get into that later uh but cooper djean he's alerting he's like kind of like setting a call up for the defense like hey like everybody get ready for this but again it's right before the snap so it's a lot of communication you that's got to happen here. And we'll see exactly how this plays out. Julia, if you go to the next shot,

you can see that what we see from the Eagles at the bottom of screen looks like some form of cover four. It looks like some form of quarters. And the Eagles played a lot of quarters, the variations of quarters yesterday. Where it gets confusing, though, is, or I should say one of the areas where it gets confusing is on the next shot, when you look at the top of the screen,

I'm not sure what kind of, like, what the spacing is here in terms of like this rotation. That's Macuba, the left circle, Adori Jackson is in the right circle. Is it cover three? Is it cover two? It doesn't look like it's straight quarters.

That's kind of what I was wondering yesterday. It doesn't look. If it's cover two, then you would say, oh, this is cover six, a popular third down call from Fangio last year. But because Maccuba is getting so close

to the line of scrimmage, like I don't know if I necessarily feel comfortable saying that that's what technique he is playing here on this play. So, Julie, if you go to the next shot here, again, like the way that this play starts, it looks like just, all right, you're basic like two high shell, you know, it looks like it's basically going to be quarters here. The question then become, and this is what was really interesting.

And this is, you know, we know how much Dane is likes to talk about the safety alignment and the way that read Blanketship. Oh, he always plays to the boundary. And then the other safety always plays to the field. What you can see here on this play, the ball's on the right hash, which means the boundary is to the right side, the short side of the field. McCuba is to the right side of the field. Blanketship is to the.

the wide side of the field. Again, this is a great point from Dane is. The only time they really did this where they flipped it, okay, where now Reed is playing to the wide side and McCuba is playing to the short side. The only time they did this last year was when they had what was called a cover three buzz rotation, a version of cover three. So you might be saying like, Fran, what the hell is cover three buzz? So basically cover three buzz is a form of cover three. We've got three high defenders and there's all these different varieties. So, Julie, if you actually go to the next shot here, there's three different varieties of cover three okay i know we're getting like uh like this is it baby this is yeah this is the sick stuff so basically the different for the three different versions of

cover three cloud sky and buzz it all is dictated by who is the force player underneath on the side of the rotation and so uh that area that is circled there if a corner is sitting in that spot which in this place like if if adore jackson is just going to kind of play there in the flat and and drew macuba is playing over the top. All right, well, now this is cover three cloud. C is the force player beginning with the C. That's cloud, cornerback. Okay.

So if Macuba were to drop down and play in that spot, he is the safety playing as that force player, that is cover three sky. If it is someone coming from the middle of the field buzzing out towards the sideline, usually a linebacker in the NFL football of yesteryear when you played with three linebackers all the time, that would be a buzz player,

but often a nickel defender going out towards a sideline. that's buzz. That's the most common version of cover three. Dude, guys, I have no idea. I don't, to me, this doesn't look like it's cover three buzz, which that's what Dana said. Like, hey, the only time they flipped the safeties this way is when they played buzz. This isn't cover three buzz.

And maybe you would say it's cover three sky, but then I'm looking, sorry, cover three cloud. But then you go to the next shot, Julia. Adori Jackson looks like he's blitzing on this way. He initially is like working a field. if he's rushing against Travis Kelsey. And then again, you have Makuba being so close to the line of scrimmage. I'm like, all right, well, if he's blitzing, then Makuba is responsible for Kelsey.

If McCubba is responsible for Kelsey, he shouldn't have eyes going back the other way. But then as the play progresses, Julie, if you go to the next shot, now at Dory Jackson, he's actually playing in coverage. He's running with Kelsey down the scene. So all this to say, I have no idea what's happening at the top of the screen. Like, I am not sure. Like I'd say it's some kind of a funky call, some kind of a funky rotation. Julie, if you go to the next shot, that brings us down to the bottom.

And this is like the crux of the matter, right? It's like, all right. Like if McCuba and Adori Jackson are handling the top of the screen and those guys are trying to figure out what's going on, then that means that Reed Blanketship, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper Dijin, they're going to be responsible here for these receivers at the bottom. And at the end of the day, like the Kansas State Chiefs made a really good call against this coverage down at the bottom where you're going to have these three receivers off the late rotation, off the late motion rather. Julie, if you go to the next shot, this is a really good concept to be able to attack quarters coverage, where you're going to have that in cut from the number three receiver. You're going to have the deep post from Taekwon Thornton, and you had essentially the wheel route. That was the route that came in motion at the last second. So Quinyon Mitchell hangs with that wheel route probably longer than he should have.

And this was one where like I couldn't quite see what he, what was holding him on the backside. And I just assumed like, oh, we didn't really see Quignon make these kind of errors like yesterday. And that's why when we were going off the TV angle, I'm like, oh, like, it just had to be Makubo. Quinion doesn't have busted coverages like this. But I think because of the late motion, and it kind of kind of like threw things out of whack with the weird rotation, I think the Eagles just kind of caught. They're kind of got caught here on this play. Julie, if you go to one of the last shots here, you can see that Blanketship is going to, he's going to go down on the Hollywood Brown, that in-breaking route. Quinnian Mitchell, he's got eyes on the post route.

and he sees, oh, man, like, Blankish ships leave in the middle of the field. I've got to play catch-up here because Reed is hanging with that, or Cooper, rather, is hanging with this wheel route. There's a ton of space given up. And Quinyon, if you go to the last shot, Quinnion doesn't help standing. He covers a ton of round. It's unbelievable how much ground he covers, right?

Unbelievable range from Quinnion Mitchell on this play, and he nearly gets it on the ground. All this say, like, again, I have no idea what this coverage was, is a really funky play. I'm interested to hear. I'm assuming Vic Fangio will be asked about it here this week in some way, shape, or form. EJ, did any of the players talk about this in the locker room yesterday? So most of what the players said with recorders in their faces was that they just can't let it happen.

I, an educated guess, I think you were on the right track with the corner blitz. I think it was quarters to the field on the other side. So, again, you would probably know this better than me, but I think. feel like that probably puts this at the at the feet of quinyon um be needing to stick with thornton more got it yeah and that's kind of where uh so adore is door is coming forward because he is blitzing yes he was sent on a blitz yeah hmm all right so if he was blitzing then macuba then okay so then macuba was correct with what he was doing which means that now it just becomes like all right should quinion have to have run with the post and it feels like yes that was that was the case

interesting uncharacteristic They had these kind of issues in coverage early on last year. These guys say it's two new starters in the secondary. There's going to be a feeling out period there. Okay. We've got to take a break. We'll come back. We may get to one of the plan defense.

We haven't even started getting into the thing we really want to get into. So lots to come here on the P.HLY Eagles podcast. Do not get caught getting fan fished. You don't want to be going over to the friend who says they're a big fan. and then they got lagging and buffering and switching apps between the games? What are we doing? No, no, no, no. If you call yourself a football fan, you just have got to have Xfinity.

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And since it's a victory Monday, we should let you know there's a brand new piece of merch for sale on the PHOI site. And there's a sale going on. So you get an even bigger, a better deal. Look at that. That is a what's maybe my favorite ego shirt we've ever had? And not if you can't, if you're listening on audio, it's like the 8 bit version of Jalen smoking the cigar, sitting with the Lombardi trophy after the Super Bowl. And what is also good for the sickos is that not only is this a Jalen Hertz shirt, this is a Bow Wolf shirt. because I'm the one who took that video, okay?

I got those million views on the YouTube page. Okay? So you know for the real ones that when you're wearing this shirt, you're giving props to me. A little known. You're welcome. It was your moment too. It was my moment too. Fran, you want to just go through what happened on the other bust there when Patrick Mahomes overthrew Taekwine Thornton and then we can get to the offense?

Yeah, that was surely before that touchdown, two, Tyquan Thornton. Julia, it will be near touchdown, near TD1. So this is only three screen grabs. So I didn't go as deep on this one. I did you guys a solid here. Basically, this is called a, it's commonly known as like a Yankee concept here from the, from the Chiefs. It's a

three level stretch concept. Good way to be able to attack zone coverage. You've got like a very deep corner route and then you've got like a sail route from the number two receiver. You're basically trying to put stress on those zone defenders underneath. Now, what happens here on this play, Julia,

if you go to the next shot, is that the re-blanketship is trying to close down on that sail route from the tight end, from Travis Kelsey. Adori Jackson is to that side of the field as well. And Adori Jackson looks like he was actually trying to speed as like kind of like turn into a speed cut and turn out into that route as well. And those guys both ended up colliding. You can question whether, because Adoria hadn't quite turned. So it looked like it would have been a busted coverage anyway. Either way, both guys kind of run into each other and leads to the receiver. being wide open if you go to the next shot being wide open down the field so both guys collide I think at the end of the day it would even if they didn't run into each other I think adory was

still going to come down on Travis Kelsey's route even though Zach Bond's getting great depth you actually can see is that Zach Bond did an outstanding job of getting depth and trying to take this throw away as well these are the kinds of things again with two new starters on the back end those guys are really just trying to getting used to each other in terms of you know their spatial awareness and you know it's making those calls mid-play Okay. Let's get to what everybody's here for. The state of the offense. Now, they did what they needed to do.

They won the game. We're not throwing anybody overboard here, and you see some of the stats there. Nice job, Julia. But given the offensive personnel they have, given that this was a much higher possession game than the first game against the Cowboys, it was not the most impressive performance. You've got to give a lot of credit to Spags.

they are playing a certain way. But let's let's settle in on the passing game right now, Fran. As you were going through it this morning, what were your main takeaways? Yeah, I would say it's very constricted right now in terms of like it's not a ton down the field. Now, we did, they did take some, they did call some plays that attacked down the field. It started on the very first. We'll get to that later. but it started on the very first play.

They're going to attack down the field. They did run some double moves with Devante Smith later down the field. But it is still, it's a lot of underneath stuff, right? And so you mentioned rightfully so yesterday on the postgame show, like the screen game is better. So, you know, they're leaning into that. So they're getting, they have, there are hitting on some nice screens. But I made the Devante one, I thought that could have been gone all the way.

Like, Landon Dickerson, like, AJ doesn't hold his. block and then Landon could pick off that guy or he could go to the next guy, but he doesn't get anybody. They had the numbers there for that one to be an even bigger play. My lotta was awesome on that play. Yeah. So that was one that I think that that could have gone for even more. I think my, from a like conceptual standpoint, I mean, there are a few things. Right now, you're not seeing a lot of like plays that are attacking the intermediate area. And that's where so, you know, like when you think of Ben Johnson, Detroit Lions last year, And you think of, you know, some of the, honestly, like Sean McVeigh and like, you know, Shanahan, like, that's not like bombs away offense.

That's just that balls completed at like 15 yards, at 18 yards, at 12 yards that go for 25 yards, right? There's just nothing attacking that area. Right now it's, you had a couple shot plays that I talked about. One that was like a real shot play early on, the very first play of the game. A couple that were isolated, like double moves that I mentioned from Devante. And then you had some slot fades. And that was it. There's not anything else that's like attacking the other, you know, the tight end sail, right?

Like, all right, it's Dallas Goddard, you know, running a sail route, you know, attacking it, you know, 15, 17 yards, 18 yards down the field. There's no deep digs, right? There's nothing where it's like, all right, like, there's a chunk play. You know, and so it's kind of feast or famine in terms of the way that the offense is structured right now through two games. We've got to remember two games is a very small sample size. And they, you know, they put these game plans in place. there's every expectation that they're going to change some of this stuff. You can now break these tendencies.

They're going to be watching the same film that we're watching. We should preach some patience. That's fine. But, I mean, you know, even things like week one, we're talking about, oh, it's really encouraging to see Jalen throw the ball over the middle of the field. He didn't even attempt to pass over the middle of the field in this game. And it didn't feel to me like they were attack. It's not like he was turning things down.

There just there weren't guys there. And to your point, Fran, Yeah, it feels a little bit like layups and threes. And even the threes we're not attempting very often. You know, I was looking, and this will be something I'm going to put in, I'm going to write off the past game for the article that's going to go up today or tonight. And one thing I was interested in is just like the usage of AJ Brown. And all right, like how often, and again, small sample, two game sample,

he was injured in the summer, like all that. Take that context and we'll put that in here. but I was just looking at some next-gen numbers with AJ Brown and how often he ran deep routes down the field. In 2022, it was just under 16 percent, 23, 17 and a half percent, 2024, 14 and a half percent. It's down to almost 10 percent, which is like a pretty sizable chunk, a noticeable difference in terms of how often he's being used down the field. And then you look at what was the other one that I had here? is average route depth the lowest that it's been over the course of his career here in Philadelphia. So just, you know, I think that kind of paints the picture of, all right, like,

we're not like attacking like that next level of the defense on a more consistent base. Now, again, it could very, very easily change. You do some self-scouting. Say, hey, we want to lean into this more, lean to that more. And now all of a sudden it looks a little bit different. But that's the way I'm viewing this past game as we sit here after week two. just by my eyes i don't feel like he looks 100% do you guys i got a note from that from the locker room i listened back to a j this morning um he said that he was in the training room when nick

addressed the team in the postgame locker room um but there was an immediate follow-up like are you okay and he said i'm all right so um i don't know i i i've i can see why you're why you feel that And when you watch the tape, it just doesn't look totally right. Now, again, he's not the first play of the game. Yeah, right. But that's what I mean. It's like also like when you hear him talk, it doesn't seem like he, it's just, it just seems like there's a lot going on there right now.

So it could be just the nature of like the frustration and floating through a game. But I don't know. I do, I want to leave space for this possibility that he isn't 100%. Because you're right. It just doesn't look. it doesn't look like the AJ Brown we're used to see. All right. Time for us to take our second break.

And then on the other side, we're going to get into the grabbies. Fran's going to grab all what you need to know about the passing game. I'm not sure about that one, Beth. Yeah, I'm going to look at the workshop names for that. That's right. The grabies coming up right after this. Ashley's Labor Day sale is still going on. And you can shop now and pay later with zero percent interest until 2030 only at Ashley.

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Swing by one of their 24 branches or visit trumark.com backslash p.h L.Y to open an account. And once again, I will tell you that Ashley's Labor Day sale is still going on and now you can shop and pay less and pay later with zero percent interest until 2030 only at Ashley. That's right. Style, comfort, and savings without the weight. But hurry, the software won't last, celebrate Labor Day season, the Ashley Way, shop today, and enjoy no interest until 2030. I see some interesting NFL news, guys. J.J. McCarthy, sprained ankle. Not going to play this week. Carson Wentz, next man up.

And yet, JJ McCarthy is still going to be named NFC offensive player in the week next week. I could see Carson, like, actually looking good in that offense. I don't know. I thought the same thing. It was that week 18 last year in Kansas City. I was like, oh, man, this could be it. And it was a bad. It was bad performance. But this one, he's going to have the training wheels on in a way. Like, I don't know. I just, I think this is more of me speaking about my opinion of Kevin O'Connell more than Carson Wentz. You think Kevin O'Connell is a better offensive mind than Andy Reed. I think he's a more like quarterback, like in terms, like, I think Andy Reid has an old school. Like, he puts a lot on the quarterback's plate. And I think Kevin O'Connell takes a lot off of a quarterback's plate in a way where a Carson Wentz type could like be a little bit less have less agency, kind of save him from himself.

I think that's probably a good way to put it. Yeah. I have a bigger picture. I like how you tried to back me into a corner here, though. No, I think that's actually, I think that's a nice, that's a nice nuanced difference. I think that makes sense to me. I have a bigger picture of head coaching take off. I'll save for later.

Okay. I like that. I like the tease. Okay. All right, Mr. man let's get into the grabies where do you want to start we go we have to we have to not refer to them that way the first off grab those stop this before it gets rolling oh no friends grabs we can't take a look at the next play uh julia if you want to go to play one

oh the grabie grabs julia says that's much better is it though All right. So first play of the game. Eagles come out in a pistol formation, 12 personnel, two tight ends in the field. They bring AJ Brown in motion from left to right. This looks like run. As Dana is also pointed out, our friend Dan is the professor. So this is the second week in row where they come out and 12 personnel and pistol and they run play action and they try to attack with the passing game. And then they come out in 12 personnel and pistol the rest of the game and it's run, run, run, run, run. I do think that there is a little bit of a method. to that madness. We can talk about it a later date. But what they do here on this play, again, they're bringing AJ Brown in motion from right to left. This is a called shot play. Julie, if you go to the next shot, they're basically running two routes directly at that safety. Devante Smith is going to cross the safety's face. A.J. Brown is going to go screaming up the scene inside the corner outside the safety. And he is going to be open. Julie, if you go to the next shot, you see A.J. Brown raising his hand. He's like, oh, man, I didn't get targeted until

the fourth quarter last week. I'm going to hit this for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the day, but the ball never goes his way. Why doesn't it go this way? So, Julie, if you go to the next shot, the chiefs are sending a corner, corner cat blitz here off the boundary side. So you're going to get a corner coming from Jalen Hertz's left. The Eagles answer here is that you've got Grant Calcutera over on that side. Julie, if you go to the next shot, you've got Grant Calcutara on that side. You're also off the play fake bringing Kylin Granson from the right side over to the left side. So one of these guys, surely will be able to impact the blitzing corner surely that side surely if you go to the next shot here

at the snap of the ball you can see the jalen is mid play fake here grand calcutara a little bit late to recognize that the corner that the uh the defender's coming he starts going he starts going at the defensive end first yes he's like kind of selling run um but that's one of those where it's almost like the running back and a play action fake where if the running back has a pass pro responsibility. Forget the fake, right? Like if they don't like don't worry about the run fake, you have to make sure that you keep the quarterback clean. So I don't know if that's going to be the coaching point for Calcutara today in the meeting room or not. But either way, he doesn't make the block. Kylin Granson does not make the block. And then we go to the next shot. We got the

DB draped over Jalen hurts his back. So now Jalen can't step in and try and make this throw. This would be the rhythm where he's, he should be hitting the top of his drop, and stepping in and delivering this throw at this exact moment. But instead, he's ducking through a sack and then to make matters worse if we go to the next shot jalen steps up and he's got poor ball security only one hand on the football his high not his thigh knocks the ball out of his grasp he fumbles it thankfully calcutera is able to jump on it uh and prevent the turnover there but uh the eagles go aggressive there first play the game and are unable to come away with even a pass attempt down the field listen i know that you are going to be a little bit harsh on grand calcatera in this game

the guy is an elite fumble recoverer That's a good point. Yes, I will give him that. That's probably his best trait. Really, really save the game for him if you want to make that argument. Twice now. That's huge. I do want to.

Yeah, I mean, listen, I like this play. Yeah, it was a great call. Yep, great call. But is it a great call if you're relying on these guys to block? Like, I know Grant Caceterra is not the world's best blocker. Grant Cacetare is not going to turn into a good blocking tie-ed next week. So why are we still asking him to do these things? I think this one is like a, this is like a table stakes block.

This is like a like you should be able to make that. I don't think they were asking much of those guys to be able to one of them, to be able to impact that blitzer enough to keep him off Jalen Hertz at the top of his drop. Like that one, I am actually willing to forgive the ask there on that one. That is a pure execution move in my mind. And I think it's important to like point this concept out because there were times. in the game where it felt like the the route concepts were wanting of some creativity or just some opportunity for jalen hurts to get the ball out of his hands and into you know good situations

and this was a case where the the route concepts like the they drew it up well and it was really just the execution that that was at fault because i think most of the game it felt like it was the opposite way man could could you imagine if this game started with a 70 yard touchdown pass to a j brown Oh, it really happened, nearly happened. Really close. Like that. Yeah. Brutal.

Okay. More to get into here on the grab-of-grabbz, Fran. Quick game issues. Now, obviously, Spaggs blitz at a very high rate in this game. Higher than the Eagles have ever seen before, higher than Spaggs has done. I think it was over 50% of the dropbacks. And yet, despite the fact that the Eagles were not super, you know,

explosive on. on these plays. Jalen was getting the ball out quickly, but these were not like high EPA or high success rate plays. What did you see in the in the quick game? Yeah, I mean, we're going to get into a conversation that we've had. We had a lot last year. And one thing that we know about the Eagles offense under Nick Siriani with Jalen Hertz as the starter is that they are one of the leaders in the NFL and probably the leader. I'd have to look at what the numbers are after week two. But the leaders in the NFL certainly over the last five years, four years, in two by two formations. You know, two receivers to one side, two receivers to the other, throwing out of those looks, which that alone is not like

the issue. The problem is that when you, when you drop back and throw out of two by two consistently, there's only so many things that you can do out of two by two. You've only got two receivers in that side. You're not coming up, you're not like reinventing the wheel in terms of like a concept standpoint, right? So you're going to get the same two man concepts pretty consistently. And so that can lead to a level of predictability, especially if you are a defense where I, We're going to run the same kind of coverages on third down or on first down. So if they're going to play out a two by two, there's only a couple concepts that can attack cover two. Or there's only a couple of from a two by two set.

And so again, that just leads to added predictability. And one example, I counted. I started to, I'm sorry to cut you off. No, it's okay. I was going through this because like it was just, it was driving me nuts and I started counting it. I counted, I believe, 10 times where like in just in 11 personnel where it's just, They line up into three by one, and some guy just has a very lazy motion just to get back into two by two. It's not doing anything to the defense.

It's just we're opening here. And now we're getting back into two by two back where we're comfortable. And it was just like, oh, my gosh, again and again. Well, again, it just can lead to a level of predictability. And so you just need everybody. Everybody's got to be on their piece and cues. Like, if you're going to be predictable, like that's okay. And there's a there's a positive.

there is a there there is a positive to being predictable at times because then it's like all right you're setting up the change up for later right like if you're going to run a slant and a slant and a slant and then you come back and you hit a sluggo in the fourth quarter for a 70 yard touchdown like the predictability was a benefit um but you need to also throw that change execute when you are predict like everybody should be able to do exactly what they need to do in those plays no question uh and so let's go let's go into um let's go into smash uh julia so number one and then again The Chiefs, one of the things, they're one of the more popular coverages in this game, they buzzed into a lot of different versions of cover two. And I get why they did it. You know, this is, we talked about this. I remember going into,

I believe the Packers playoff game. It might have even been the Rams playoff game. It might have been both playoff games last year. But that was an issue that the Eagles of passing game really struggled with last year was late rotation into cover two. And Jalen just kind of figuring out where to go with the ball in those situations. And so that was what the Chief's weapon was here in this game. Like, all right, we're going to buzz in the different versions of cover two.

Sometimes we're going to. Sometimes we're not going to. But you see it here where you've got two high safeties, five guys underneath. A lot of variety from down to down. But this is the first third down of the game. Now, what the Eagles did often out of these sets, and if we go to Julia, to the next shot is when you, if you're playing cover two out of a two by two set, a nice, nice job cutting on my side here on this one is you essentially got three over two. So now again, everybody's got to be on point in terms of making sure that they are running crisp routes and the timing is right, the rhythm is right. If we go to the next shot, you can see that basically the concept that the Eagles ran a lot of here was what I call a smash where you've got the inbreaker

from A.J. Brown like a quick slant and then a corner route basically at the sticks behind it. And that's going to be run by Grant Tocatara here on this play. On the first version, on the first edition of that, A.J. Brown catches this. He's tackled short of the sticks and the Eagles have to punt or actually the Eagles don't convert. It brings up fourth down and, you know, that's the end of that series. Julie, if we go to the next one, you'll see that the Eagles again are on a two by two set. Now, they're running the smash at the bottom of the screen here. They ran another zone beater.

It's kind of like a high, low read at the top of the screen. We're going to come back to that by I just wanted to kind of set that up here early on, is that you've got the high low at the top. They're running that smash down at the bottom. Julie, if you go to shot five, then go to the next one. Here's the smash concept. the chiefs they've already seen it once they've seen them run it a number of times already you know like on film and you know they know that this is in their bag they handle this perfectly trend macduffy's going to pass off the slant route the a jrown route to the linebacker drew tranquil uh you see tranquil circled he's going to pick up a jay and then if you go to the next shot train mcduffy's going to drop back into the passing lane and he matches the route perfectly so basically mcduffy passes off a jay he drops off and he takes away the sail route and that's taken away so now jaylin hits the top of his drop we go to the next shot and he's shot and the smash route at the bottom completely handled three over two they they handle that fine

the high low route at the top of the screen is completely taken away uh and so now jalen's got nowhere to go with the ball he ends up dumping this off to his right hand side sayquan barclay he runs over shamari connor and nearly runs for first down and so it's like all right like why wasn't anything open why well they were in a two by two set they ran this concept it got taken away that was a second 11 you go to later in the game i i wrote down this place specifically like this was to me the perfect snapshot of the passing game like all game long. It was the same thing. They motioned a two by two.

They run these predictable routes. Two of them are basically run for them. So if he throws like any of two routes, it's going to get picked. And yet he does the right thing. The only option he has gets it to Sequin. And it's six yards on second 11, which is not the worst outcome. He made the most of a situation. There was there was no answers there for him.

Yeah, exactly right. And that's the thing is that like, if it, if it, if, If that happened like once or twice, it's all right, but we go to a third one. Let's go to the real quick. The third play here. And this one was a second and 12, I believe. It's the same exact thing. Like same exact concept, left side and right side, same part of the field, similar

down in distance. McDuffie passes off A.J. Brown to the linebacker. He sinks back and he takes away the corner out. They're running the same high, low concept at the top of the screen. Julie, if you go to the next shot, again, Jalen has nowhere to go with the ball. The guys at the bottom are occupied. there's defenders in the middle of the field. Like in theory, oh, he can hit that inbreaker.

But again, it's like it's taken away. All right. So it's all gone. The checkdown on this one was A.J. Dylan. AJ Dylan was helping out in pass pro. So he's not quite available. And now you've got, you've got Jalen Hertz ends up getting, gets hammered here for a sack. So now again, this is the one where Omar Norman Lott just kind of level something.

If you go to shot 10, Julia, yeah, so he ends up getting leveled here on this play. So, you know, it wasn't the whole game wasn't just these quick game. I don't want to make it seem like, oh, this is the number one problem, right? This is the number one issue. But this was an issue at times in this game where like, all right, there was quick to quick game rhythm. You're expecting the ball to come out fast. And that's not there. And the chiefs did a good job of battling that concept up.

Let me ask you. I want to take shot 10, E.J. I'm sorry before you get going. Feel free to do that at home because otherwise you're going to have to join us in overtime. Go ahead, Mr. Smith. Yeah, let me ask you this, friend. Do you think that the, I mean, the oversimplicity of the Eagles offense at times is a function more of like the talent that they have being able to sort of, you know, overshadow the fact that it's not elaborate content and that they kind of lean on the simplicity of it and the repeatability of it because of that? Or do you think this is more of a function of like this is a scheme preference that goes beyond just the talent?

on advantage. It's honestly, it's like, um, the same energy, uh, the Dean Blandino, like, I'm dumb with the push push guys. Like I'm almost like done like this conversation. It's just I don't know. It's just tough. We talk ourselves in circles about it. Like is it a Jalen Hertz preferences?

Is it a Niceriani preference? Do they feel like it's mandatory? Do they have to play this way? Do they think they have to play this way? That I don't think they have to play this way. Do they think they do? I don't know. Like it's, it's, it's, it's one of those things.

that I don't know that we'll ever get like the full answer on, but it's the way they play. It's not prohibitive to them winning a championship. But like it's, you know, it's going to lead to some inconsistency. It's so crazy to some volatility. Yeah, it's just like you think about offenses across the NFL. You think about some of the wide receiver cores that are on successful teams. And you, you wonder what it would look like in this offense if you had average talent out there. If you put that Kansas City Chiefs, wide receiver core on the Eagles, and you just run these very, like, again, these elaborate, predictable route concepts, it's scary to think about what it would look like.

You know, and the fact that they have the talent can overshadow it at times, but it is, it just, it does. It leaves you wanting for some of the stuff you see from every other team. You know, you were talking about, you know, the concept that ironically led to the Andrew McCuba interception where it's like, you know, the shallow cross. and then you called a return route, right, from Travis Kelsey. Like even just like stuff like that. It's like, you know, just like good concepts, you know, stuff that you see every other time from almost every other offense in the NFL. It just, it is, it confounds me that we just don't see it with the Eagles offense. I think the way that you say that, friend, is very important.

And it's, you know, they can play this way and maybe still win the Super Bowl. Yeah. And we'll be hemming and hauling all the way there. And that's fine. It doesn't, it doesn't necessarily have to be this way. It doesn't need to be this hard, right, exactly. But they're so talented that it could still be fine. And maybe there is something to, you know, Nick Siriani thinks that they are so much more talented than the other team that you are trying to get rid of variance and you really are just trying to avoid turnover worthy plays.

And if we can just keep this game on our terms, we're going to win at the end. Like, I can sort of get there. obviously I feel like you can also open things up a little bit because you have these guys. Like I don't think that Jeffrey Lurie is happy that, you know, the return on his investment he's getting from A.J. Brown and Devante Smith through two weeks. But, you know, they're two and oh. This was an awesome win. They continue to prove to be like the bullies in every game. They're tougher than everybody.

I think Jalen has played better this season. But yeah, like, you know, it's week two. They got a long way to go. it's okay to also be frustrated, I think. I have, so I listened to you on Anthony's show this morning, Beau, and I've been thinking about this all day. And I do think that like this avoid variance, especially early in the season, even in the latter part of the regular season, is this kind of like an NBA team where it's like you've got your regular season approach. You want to keep guys healthy. You want to kind of avoid, you know, the catastrophic games.

You want to avoid, you know, putting yourself in bad positions with turnovers and everything like that. but you know that you've got that gear that you can you can go to that extra gear in the playoffs and we saw this team do that last year now is that good process is that necessarily like is that the way you have to do it i don't think so but again it is from what we saw last year that kind of was the template where the passing game did not look good until it was at the biggest stages in the biggest moments when it needed to show up so i'm leaving space for that and the other thing you said that i i've seen around you know this like the scars of 2023 you You've seen people talk about that, you know, sort of that, the experience of 2023 informing the concern after two weeks of this season. And for me, the fundamental, like, the reason I can't get there, the reason I can't really use 2023 as a template of concern for this year's team is it's just like, I feel like we're so far removed from a scenario where Jalen Hertz is vetoing a play call in the huddle, you know, against the Seattle Seahawks to throw a deep shot to AJ Brown that gets intercepted. Like everything about like that version of Jalen Hertz and this modern version of Jalen Hertz are so far apart. Like he swung the other way at this point. Like you would actually feel, I would predict more, more aggressively that like he would actually like be willing to veto an aggressive play call to take a, you know, take a more measured approach. So I think the mentality of the quarterback is so different.

Obviously, Sequan's presence is a big difference when you compare those two teams. And then I mean, you really can't overstate like. the defense is a lot different than it was a couple of seasons ago. You know, there's so much more fundamentally sound. So I understand the concern from 2023. It was a weird season. There were a lot of, you know, victorious, you know, what should have been celebratory locker rooms that had a lot of frustration.

But I just, I can't get there. I can't get there with the 2023 comparisons. To me, the defense one is the one that, like, I think that is a huge difference. Like, I don't expect barring injury this defense to collapse in that way. but I think there is something to the scars of 23 in in like this doesn't feel like a sustainable way that we can win but boy do we have that magic juju that allows us to get these red zone defensive turnovers every week like at some point that stuff comes back now the flip side to that is great maybe the offense is going to be better and we're not going to need to skate by on things like that they're allowed to get better as the season goes on but yeah I mean I feel like everybody everybody it's it is funny that they won the Super Bowl last year year, but, but 2023 is still like underneath the surface, this, this trauma. But don't you agree that like, this is just a different version of, like, Jalen Hertz had,

what was it, 15 interceptions that year. He had 16 turnover worthy plays. He's got one this season. And I don't, I don't know exactly which one it was. I'd imagine it was the fumble against the chiefs. Like, to me, it's just like, it's a different version of, like, the turnovers were really what killed them that year. I mean, I know there were other things, but the turnovers and the fact that Jalen Hertz, like,

was playing hero. ball was trying to take shots down the field, trying to force it. I just, I don't know. I don't see him doing that this year. I mean, maybe if we're talking about this in week 10, like Kevin Petulow experience is still not really unlocked, you know, the downfield passing game. Maybe we're having a different conversation then. But after two games, I'm just like I said, I'm not there yet with the concern with like,

you know, this thing going off the rails offensively. I think that I also think the personality dynamics are worth following here. I mean, I don't know how happy, how long, A.J. Brown and DeBonte Smith are going to be, you know, if they're 16 and O and they have a combined 400 receiving yards. Like, you know, obviously if they're 16 and O, they'll be fine. But if they're 14 and 2, they might not be. All this to say, too, that this is not just a, oh, man, like the scheme really let them down. Like, as I mentioned, you know, you had the shot play on the first play. But, you know, there were some double move opportunities for Jalen Hurts. that that final drive of the second quarter, they ran like kind of like a stutter go with Devante Smith out of the slot. I don't know. We don't even necessarily need to show the screen grabs on it.

But like he's opened the first time and the Blitz kind of got the kind of threw Jalen off where they showed like it was going to be just a basic four-man rush. And then they sent pressure, you know, they basically disguised the pressure well. The Blitz sped Jalen up. And then he ended up not throwing. He ended up running for a near first down. Like, all right, positive. But it could have been an explosive.

to play down the field. And it wasn't even like an egregious turn down, but it's like, all right, like in rhythm, ideally you'd love Jalen to be able to cut that loose. And that's a shot at a big play. Devante one-on-one with a safety, Brian Cook. They come back to a few players. Do you want to give us that grab-and-grab?

Yeah, we can go. We can go through it. So real quick, Julia, that's double move, double move one. So I don't have an arrow for a stutter go. So you're going to have to deal with the straight line here. But basically what you've got is Devante Smith in the slots to the left, and he's going to run the starter go.

Again, again, against the stutter go. again, against the safety. So this should be like, all right, this should be the opportunity here for the Eagles to kind of make this play. And again, it's a, if you look at the defensive line, there's no sign of a blitz here, right? It's four down structure. It looks pretty cut. There's the potential for the nickel blitz at the top where because you've got the safety kind of stacked over him a little bit. But you're not showing blitz before the snap.

We go right after the snap with the next shot, Julian. And you could see, all right, you've got two of those second level. defenders are now coming. A couple of the interior defensive lineman are now dropping out. So it's a disguised pressure look that speeds up Jalen Hertz. And if we go to the next shot, you can see the safety is in complete panic mode. And Devante Smith is bolting down the down the seam there. Jalen by this point is already jetted from the pocket. I do think he left a little bit early on this one.

But he's decisive. He takes off. He scrambles. I'm sure this was a positive EPA play. He runs for a first down. There was a nice job by Jalen on this play from that end of it. but you'd probably still like the shot to be able to go down. Now, that leads you into the two minute warning.

I'm sure they go to the sideline and you have that break. And they're like, hey, like, we had that double move on the left side. Let's come back to that. So literally five plays later, let's come back. Let's go to the next shot here, Julie. Five plays later, they come back. Devante Smith at the top of the screen here. And you can see that Kansas City, this time, it's a pressure look.

You've got muggers up in the line of scrimmage. And it looks like, oh, it looks like they could be sending pressure. Let's go. Let's keep it back in. Let's adjust protection. same idea go to the next shot it's going to be a double move this time though kansas city doesn't send pressure it's just a four-man rush with a spy uh two it's actually a three-man rush with a spy and it's covered two men so it's aggressive man-to-man coverage underneath with two high safeties

but either way even though it's aggressive two men you could see devante smith is beaten the corner and this this double move is going to beat the safety so if jalen steps up into this this is going to be there and i think this is probably one like if my guess would be if you were to ask Jane like which which drop back do you wish like you could have back I think this is the one we're like oh man like this this this would have been this would have this would have gone for a big play he unfortunately does not pull the trigger here on this play and he ends up throwing it across the field to a j. Brown short of the sticks where he gets tackled like kind of going to reverse it may have they may have ruled it to like not even stop the clock so that that was that

play there again I got that would be one where I think like jalen probably would have would have wanted that one back there was one where oh he he he would he would wanted the slot fade to the right. And he thought it was going to be one high, but they disguised it and they took it away. And they slid the safety over that way. So Jalen got fooled, then to go to the checkdown over to the other side. I like that he's not putting the ball in harm's way to EJ's point. He's making good decisions with the ball for the most part.

Again, I think that the bigger thing is there were some throws left on the field, some by execution, some by scheme, some by Jalen, you know, saying like, oh, the other the blitz got to me and I don't want to throw it. They've got to be a little bit more detailed across the board. Okay. Now we should also talk about the running game because part of the difference here is, you know, we're focused on the passing game because they're not getting explosives there, whereas last year those explosives were coming from the running game and they're not coming

there right now. And the one thing that I want to ask you about, Fran, is, you know, we talked about it. And the first play of the game aside, you know, with no Dallas Goddard, leaning continually into these heavy packages. I just don't love it, and I do have some numbers here from True Media. So running plays this season. You take away the scrambles. You take away all of the touch pushes, okay?

Out of 11 personnel, the Eagles have run the ball 14 times for a 57% success rate. Out of 12 and 13, they have run the ball 32 times for a 40% success rate. So they're like 32 of their 46 running plays this season have come out of heavy personnel, and they have not been successful. And maybe this is another one where, okay, we're showing this early and we're going to change this tendency. And maybe against spags, you think we have more people tight so that we can protect against the blitzes. I would actually kind of think of it the other way, whereas you would want to spread them out and make them come from further. But, you know, that's okay.

They can change this stuff. But this is one where, like, eventually, like, the numbers are so overwhelming. Let's just run the ball out of 11, please. Let me just say really quick, Fran, that even, like, me, the concussion uncle who loves the fullback and wants the heavy personnel packages, even I, from the press box, I'm like, why are they coming out in 12 in condensed sets? Like, this is like the one game where it feels like you wouldn't want to do that. But you love that Latu snap.

Oh, it was so good. I mean, it was a great snap. It was a great snap. I was very excited about it. Yeah. It was very late in the game. Latu, down the red zone, low red zone, comes in and it blocks Omenahoo and just runs his feet and take it. It wasn't like, you know, the best block you've ever seen, but it was, it was the best block.

It was like a tight end this season. Yeah. I was about to say it stood in such stark contrast of what we've seen from the Eagles tight ends. And I'm like, you know what? Give me more of that guy. Like I just, I want to see it. I want to see it. Yeah.

Let's settle down. One point. Do you have any thoughts on a run game? friend you know there was there was one play where they had calcutara it was out of 11 personnel calcutara's the lone tight end it was a sequin barclay 11 yard run in the third quarter where he like bluffed like he was going to block the defensive end of the defensive end's ready to block and then he releases out like jason witton they used to do that with jason whitten and the cowboys late in his career where he you know he started to fall off physically and wasn't the same blocker

and i'm like yeah like do more of that uh because him trying to block like the rest of block Charles Omenahue. Like Charles O'Meighamnehu is a 285 pound defensive end. Grant Cacquitare is not making that block. There was a play where they came out in 12 and actually spread out and they did that little flip play to Sequan Barclay. And even though like they came out in 12 and then they expanded the formation, you still need Grant Gacquitara to block Leo Chanel in space and he didn't make the block in space.

You know what he mean? Like he's just, yeah, there's nothing you could do to say like, oh yeah, like he can block George Carl Laftus in the back side. Carl Lafda has beat him across his face like three or four times in the game. A menah who beat him once or twice. You know, and it wasn't just Calcutara like Grantson, too. They, you know, they're going to have to figure something out from that standpoint. If they're going to get that run game going, running from those, from those bigger

personnel groupings. It felt like the best way that they could utilize the tight ends in the run game was to motion them and then run away from them. Like, just like try and completely take them out of the picture in the run game, like a lot a weak side runs were their most productive ones. All right. Any leftovers that you want to get off your chest, Frank? I thought the jailing getting at.

Go ahead. I was going to say, I've already said enough about Grant Calcutera, so I don't want to like to see. I want to see a screen grab. Well, no, this is actually this is a different one. I'm going to write about this play. So we don't need to jump into the screen grabs on it. But there was the first third down.

If you're a die hard on all p. that's right so uh it was the first there was the final play of the first series uh i believe it was third and nine and jalen hits devante smith for a six yard completion like well short of the sticks on that play they're showing pressure late in the pre-snap phase and calcuttaire's lined up in the slot and he's supposed to run this intermediate route like a little sail route and he's like looking back and forth between like jalen and the blitzer jalen and the blitzer jalen and the blitzer and because like i don't know if he was like calling out like hey watch this guy's coming or what but because he got caught like looking back and forth, he was like a good second late off the ball. And since

he was a second late off the ball, the spacing between the Devante Smith was non-existent. And so the safety that was lined up on that side, like they had three routes going at two defenders. They should have been able to be able to hit this either Devante with a catch and run or Calcutera past the sticks. But since he and Calcutera were like at the same level, well, now Jalen was able, or Jalen couldn't make a throw to an open receiver and Devante gets tacked for a six-yard gain instead of a catch and run. And it's like those are the details where it's just like, yeah, like you've got to be nails, you know, in the past game.

EJ, how about you? I think Fran hit most of it. Yeah, no, the last thing I had, oh, I do have something important, the last thing. Speaking of one play. Oh, my gosh, you got to get, you got to stop doing this early in the week for E. What do you mean? What do you mean? I got to stop doing this.

There's a whole day dedicated to sweep. Yeah, but I'm excited. I've won my second consecutive swooper and I just, you know, got to take a whiff. What do you mean? Maybe. I'm just saying we don't haven't even look at the tape yet. That's the Thursday deal. See, this is how I know. You guys are just trying to take me down. You're trying to try to put poor cold water on the newbie. Winning swooper two weeks in a row. Feels good. I want a multiple weeks in a row last year, E.J. and lost. So let's not get too big for your bridge is number one. Now I got to, I just got to watch the tape and make sure that I don't make those mistakes. I was going to save this, but you know what? We're in Bovertime.

I'm calling bullshit on you from last week, okay? Because early in the show, you're like, oh, like, I think they could, you know, we could see that. Maybe, oh, people behind the scenes, you know, and then you make that a swooper. And you go like eight turkeys on it. Yeah. There was a line. It's funny because I didn't feel good about it. There was a line that you crossed.

You know that this was a line. He's using reporting, he's using, I mean, this is like a gambling scandal as far as I've been sure. Paul Tori is going to have an episode out about the week. This is the literal definition of sour grapes. Like, this is ridiculous, guys. I think, come on. Like, you're just. And for the record.

You have locker room access to your super advantage. Even if you hook that one out, I still would win. Okay. I think I'm about, I think it might have been. Tell what you think that's going to play with Roger Goodell, if you're Isaiah, Roger. Oh, I could care less. But no, I didn't feel as good about it because I mentioned it to Fred Johnson. And he played very coy.

He was like, I don't know what you're talking about. And he was so convincing. Oh, my God, he admitted it. Yeah. This was after Swooper. This was after Swooper. He's like, I know what you're talking about. So I kind of said something to him last night.

I was like, some of us watch practice, Fred. Some of us know. So. All right. We have a super chat from Joe Rockhead who says, how does Dufus Dable get his wide receivers open all day? But our guys are completely covered. I'll go check the film on that one.

Meanwhile, Shea says that his former high school classmate came down from the press box to meet Defops Jason, his brother, and myself. E.J., however, couldn't be bothered to make the trip downstairs to say hi to the comments. Wow. Oh, Shea. Wow. You know, he'll mix it up with the guys in the locker room. But when it comes to the working man, the chat's behind me.

The chat's behind me. What happened, what had happened was Zach did mention that he was meeting some sickos. And I was like, well, Zach, they want to meet you. Like, I don't know if they want to meet me. Like, they didn't ask me. Zach Bond? Yeah, sorry. The other ZB.

Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. So I just, I didn't, I didn't want to impose. But next time, Shay, I will be sure to meet you. I'll come down, say hello. I just didn't want to feel like a like a third wheel. You know, I didn't want to feel like I was kind of like crashing Zach.

Zach's thing. That's all. Zach Bonn? What did you call him? Back Zerman? I think that's a good way, a good workaround. I don't know. Are you talking about our new GM? By the way,

Shea did, instead of doing a super chat, he donated to our friends at Big Brothers Big Sisters. This is Giving Month for Big Brothers Big Sisters. You'll see the donate link there next of the video. A moment together can spark endless laughter as we sell celebrate big brothers, big sisters, months.

All right. I guess we can close. I mean, I do listen. The best way to close this episode is to just pretend that the last 80 minutes were us being Chris Jones. Like, oh, but you didn't do this. Yeah. Like, oh, I got, yeah. Guess what?

Jailen Hertz. We won the F in game. That's what matters. And that is true. They, you know, they deserve to hold their head high on that. And I mean, that thing from Jalen, that's. really was awesome. It's so cool and it's such a good insight into him. It really is. Yeah. It seems very cool. It's like it's one thing to say it on the podium. It's another thing to say it like in the

heat of like trash talking against Chris Jones like when you don't actually think anybody's going to hear it. So yeah, I thought it was like it reinforces like the stuff that he says up there. One more super chat in Under the Wire from Fresh Prince who says his frustration is looking at Tucker Kraft get over 100 yards and Adrian Devante barely have that combined. It's going to be a point of frustration. And I get it. I get the frustration. But they are talented enough.

And, you know, Jillyn Hertz has the right wiring to make sure that it doesn't always have to matter. Okay. That'll do it for this episode of the P.HLY Eagles podcast. Check out all phto.com for Franz. Right up of his thoughts on the offensive passing game. We will be back you and I tomorrow, E.J, at 2 o'clock. And we keep on rolling with this thing. two o'clock much more to come including swooper on thursday when you will be on trial for your

crimes against the game to no baby we're gonna go to the tape on that for fran and e j and julia we'll thank you for watching and listening we'll talk to you tomorrow and as always we love you