PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - How responsible is Jalen Hurts for the Philadelphia Eagles’ five-game winning streak?

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

On the heels of another dominant defensive performance, the Eagles are preparing for a short-week showdown with the 7-3 Washington Commanders. While Zack Baun, Quinyon Mitchell, Jalen Carter, Cooper DeJean and Nakobe Dean hold it down on defense, the Eagles offense is doing its part with help from A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts has incredible highs, like his elusiveness on touchdown throws and deep-ball accuracy, and occasional lows.Fran Duffy is in studio to run through what the film said about Hurts’ performance against the Dallas Cowboys, joining Zach Berman and Bo Wulf for a film-review Monday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast on a Monday afternoon, 2 o'clock, a quick turnaround before a big Thursday night game against the Washington commanders. The Eagles are 7 and 2 in first place in the NFC East for now. And we are presented by the good folks at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHLY365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At Bet365, Bow Wolf, Fran Duffy, Z. Zach Berman here to talk about the Eagles demonstrative 34 to 6 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. But we start Zach Berman with a little bit of breaking news, Justin under the gun. Yes, the Eagles activated Jordan Milata's 21-day practice window. So this means that Jordan Milata would be eligible to return on Thursday night against Washington. So the nuance here is that the Eagles don't actually have a full practice between now and Thursday. They'll have walkthroughs in there. And Jordan Militin can participate in the walkthroughs.

And if the Eagles say, all right, this is a veteran player, someone who's been around. If there's no health concerns and they feel like he doesn't need that actual acclamation process, he could be on the field Thursday night. What do you think? You think they'll feel okay with doing it? I think so. Yeah. I think that that would be why you would activate it now.

Otherwise, because they won't actually practice until like next Wednesday will be. would be their first practice, or maybe next Monday, if they come back after the weekend, then you could wait and actually have more time. But he's the guy who they can sort of test out physically because he didn't play in a game yesterday, right? So it makes total sense. See how he feels? If he feels 100%, I think you do just shotgun him right into the lineup, right?

I agree. He's been around. He's a veteran. This is, I think this is good news for the Eagles. I'll defer to both of you. I think Fred Johnson's been okay, but I think that's a spot where they can use enough. How did Fred Johnson do yesterday?

How desperate would the Eagles be for a new love tackle? Yeah, I don't know that desperation is the word, but I do think that, you know, Fred's been, he's been fine. He's been solid, but I think you're missing. He's had some tough duty as well. No question. You know, what he did against Trey Hendrickson was certainly really impressive, but I think when you're looking at Jordan

and what he can do in the run game and the screen game, certainly can be more dependable in past protection. and you're probably giving Jordan a little bit less help with your tight ends and your backs. That allows those guys to be more eligible receivers more consistently in the offense. I think that getting him back in the lineup, again, I don't know if desperate would be the word, but I do think that would be a boost, certainly. What about just to peek ahead a little bit? What about commanders defensive line-wise?

What are they presenting? Yeah, I think they do this. It's a fast group, an athletic group. You look at Dorrance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, you know, two guys off the edge. Cleveland Farrell gets a lot of a lot of run for them as well. But those are the two guys that can give you. the most problems with in terms of their speed off the corner. So I think when you look at those two guys and they're solid players, but.

Yeah, that's not Michael Parsons and Trey Hendrickson and Josh Heinz Allen. Yeah, no question. So, you know, I don't think you need to rush it from that standpoint. But look, in the run game, I think when you look at what Jordan does for you at the point of attack, I think that that would give that a big boost. All right. Let's get into the film, Fran. You have tried to speed it up.

You've tried to crunch it. Nice little sprint that you have gone through. Let's talk about the quarterback. We'll get to the defense, I think, a little bit later. Defense was awesome. Cooper Rush stinks. Yes. We can talk big picture about how good this defense is,

but less to talk about, I think, in this specific game. On offense, Jalen Hearts, by the numbers, EPA for Dropback. It was his seventh best game of the season out of nine. Five sacks, two turnovers. How much, the first half, how disappointing was it on? film. I would say it was about what I expected it would be. Okay. You know, honestly, like seventh out of ninth in terms of EPA per dropback, that sounds about

right, you know, in terms of what my general feelings were walking away from the tape and how that mirrored to how it felt walking away from the game last night, how it felt at halftime when you and I spoke for on the halftime show yesterday. I think when you look at Jalen's performance in this game, certainly the second half was better than the first half, still wasn't asked to drop back like a whole ton. well it was like 20 you know in the low 20s in terms of total dropbacks in this game in terms of attempts um five sacks not good all of them came in the first half so it's like okay obviously there was an uptick in play there when you got to the second half they had some certainly they had a handful of things

that popped up as problems i didn't love the game plan in this game in terms of from a route concept standpoint you know i i a lot more iso ball than i like and what i'm what i mean by iso ball meaning that really you're going around and it's this guy's got a win on his own, this guy's got to win on his own, this guy, it's not like the routes complimenting each other. There were a handful of snaps in this game where it was just like, okay, there's this guy, your AJ's got to win one-on-one, Devante's got to win one-on-one, Dallas Goddard's got to win one-on-one. And look, that's, I think that was a good way to play, you know, years ago. And I think when you look at the Eagles talent, you could make a, you could make a case for,

yeah, the Eagles can play this way and survive. But the same way that people get frustrated with the Cincinnati Bengals, you know, offensively from a structure standpoint when you have Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, oh, those guys can go win. You're not doing enough to try and get those guys over and make things a little bit clear for the quarterback. These are things that we've talked about going back since I've been on the show. So

it's not a huge surprise, but I think it has been a little bit different than what we've seen from them in these last two weeks. Why don't we get into the sacks? Let's do it. Do we have the first one? Yeah, the first one. Now, one that I've been tracking. Okay. Is just negative play percentage

for the quarterback. Oh, do you have a name for this metric? In the PFF Pantheon? Yeah, the bowl football focus. We're going NP. How about NPO since we love the NPO? Negative play and then the O is actually a zero. Okay.

Signal for the percentage. Got it. All right. So percentage of dropbacks where the quarterback is either sacked, throws an interception, or fumbles the ball. Okay. Where do you think out of 35 quarterbacks? Jacklin ranks in the NFL this season.

Yeah, it's, it's got to be low. I would think. I mean, it's in terms of a negative end of the spectrum, he's got to be bottom five. Zach, going to guess this? Bottom six. Zach is right. He's 30th out of 35. Well, look at that.

Did you know that? No. Is that game theory? Get the banner. Isn't that game theory there? Well, I don't know if it's game theory. We weren't doing prices right rules. Yeah.

But yeah, it was a good. Okay. That was a good one. that's interesting yeah um and i think that speaks to the boom bust nature of the way that jalen has been playing yeah this season i mean some of the the plays he made yesterday were fantastic some of the throws downfield to a jrown awesome awesome um but there are there are times this year where he is actively taking stuff off the table for the eagles and so if we're ready to flash to the the sacks you tell me yeah how it faulty is on some of those julia this is the uh this is offensive

of seven in terms of the this was play seven in the game I'm going to go through what we see here now this is the Sprick a little sugar on the A gap this is what we got out. Classic Zimmy it just so happened I mentioned last week in the Dallas Cowboys preview that they weren't doing it

they were doing it and you could see it on film but it was not like their primary pressure look they were mixing in so many other blitz package looks here with Dallas in this game that was this was their primary look where they brought two linebackers up into the A Gaps over the center and they force the Eagles to try and protect.

Do you think this is an auto call with Kenny Gainwell on the field? No, because they did it with Sequin as well. And it happened a lot on third downs, but they mixed it up, certainly. Now, when you've got two linebackers standing up in the A-gaps and it's two off-ball linebackers, it's not a defensive end or anything like that. When you have those two guys, the way that it's blocked 99% of the time, and Julie, if you want to go to the next shot, is going to be with your center and you're running back because now what that does is that allows the rest of your

offensive line, Julie, if you want to go to the next one, the rest of your offensive line can now handle the rest of the defensive line, right? So it's the defensive tackles are handled by the guards and the tackles handle the defensive end. So that means that for those linebackers standing up over the center, you need your running back, you need your center. They're going to handle those two players. And so, Julie, if you go to the next one,

basically this sack happened because Kenny Gainwell missed the block. This was very simple to see Gainwell steps up. He misses overshone and overshone's able to get home. Now, the reason why I brought this up was just because this double A gap pressure, that showed up a number of times over the course of the game. This one was unfortunate because the dagger route was opening for Devante Smith. It was a deep dig route against cover two. It was going to be there.

And if Jalen had time, I think he would have been able to step up and hit Devante Smith for a really good chunk play. But the protection failed him on that play. That was not the case for really the majority of the afternoon. This would be the one where I would say this sack was on the protection and not so much Jalen. But he calls the right protection. To me, like, yeah, the protection is right. That is the way that is handled 90-9% of the time. You know, Game was going to get beat sometimes.

You tip your cap. So of the five, this is the one where he's least a blame. Yes, this would be the one where I would point to and say, you know, I would not put that one on Jalen. Now, he was sacked on, this was a second and 20 after. That was a second and 20. There was a sack on first and 10 where this was a nice old ball play. I didn't pull the clip of that one, but this one he's looking at Devante Smith and Devante's not there. He didn't like the throw.

He probably should have thrown it, but he didn't like it. So he turns that down. And by the time he gets over to the other side, those routes aren't there. And then he ends up running into the sack. And so, you know, the first sack kind of put him into a hole. It's second and really long. And then they're able to tee off. And then that's the end of the drive.

Do you, where would you guess this game ranks in his season in terms of the percentage of negative plays on his dropbacks? I mean, it's got to be pretty, it's got to be pretty low, I would think. Because if you're, if we only had 20 plus dropbacks and it was five sacks. dropbacks. Yeah, one fumble. Yeah, this was the worst. Yeah, this was the worst. 25% of the dropbacks in this game.

And just to close to loop, last year he was 20th, 2012, he was 19th, 2021, he was 12th. The NPO. The NPO. Okay. We could probably workshop this.

Yeah. It's not, you know, it's not the worst thing in the world. I mean, there's some good quarterbacks who are low. If you're bringing big play potential, that's okay.

But I don't think you want to be 30th. No, you definitely don't. And it's, you know, I think it's a good example of what we're talking about in terms of the high variance of play, what we see from Jalen Hertz. How you doing over there, Zach? Enjoying the conversation. Okay. Hopefully everyone out there is. I was looking forward to this.

How many hours of sleep did you get? Three hours and 43 minutes. None on the plane, right? No. You usually never sleep on a plane? Actually, the guy in front of me complimented my writing. I was pretty pumped about that. That made me feel, you know, I was, he reclined.

his chair and you know and i had the uh iPad up because i was trying to i was trying to watch nfl i was watching the game film and um that's that can't be good on the airplane wifi no it's not it was spotty it seems like a waste of time no offense yeah but i was coming straight to the show so i it was my only chance to watch the game it was very spotty um but then and then i was on the aisle the guy in the middle gets up to go to the bathroom i stand up this is such a nice guy. He says, he says, I really liked your stories the past two days. And I was, I could have thrown the plane. I was on cloud nine, the rest of the way. Like, this was, yeah, that's great. It was awesome. I appreciate it. I appreciate him being a diehard. It's awesome. That's very

well. He has to be. Yeah. Unless he's, unless he likes my tweets, right? Or something like that. Or you're sharing an account with somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of the dieharts, for all these plays that we're breaking down on the show today from the screen grab standpoint, we're all from the diehard discord. So another reason to become a diehardt, uh, You're able to impact the show that way. So all these sacks, this was a request from historian on the Discord channel. And we talked on the postgame pod yesterday about the shower schedule. What are we working with shower-wise?

I can also get football insight too. I showered my, I got up at 430. I showered a 435. So one shower. I think there's a chance that this could be like daily show-wise. The furthest distance from shower to show, that we may get from you. Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure.

I would say, like, there is no shower that feels better and it's more important than the post-plane shower. I didn't get to do that. Absolutely. I know. I'm aware. I had to change it. I'm sorry.

I had to change of clothes. I brought it in. I had the job kit, but. The hair has held in the world, though. Yeah. I didn't wear a hat because I, on the plane. I usually wear a hat. Yeah, you're Roblo hat.

It's not Roblo hat. It's actually very, she said, it's a logo. hat it's not a Robloe. He wears the NFL on his hat, right? I just wear a logoless hat. It's a very popular hat. Um, with who? Everyone says it's popular. It's a very popular hat. It's, it's, what do you mean? I mean, it's a very popular hat. I see people in Wawa all the time wear the same hat. We do a little head. Yeah. It's like a Jeep driver. Like all they all good. With who? NPCs? What's NPCs? What's NPC?

Non-playing characters. No, no, it's just, it's a popular hat. It is. It's very funny. It is. Yeah. Anyways, I was, I will contribute to this jail and Hertz conversation as we go because I, we talked about on the postgame show yesterday. And I watched them back just because I was like, did I have the wrong read on this?

I was really impressed by the touchdown passes. Like I thought the touchdown passes, and I know we're focusing on the sacks right now. But we can talk about the negative plays. I thought both touchdown passes were like textbook. This is what you like about Jalen Hertz. And I thought some of his runs, too. And he extended, you know, the first drive of the game, that was a big run. Yeah.

He extended that. I thought the pass to AJ was good. I agree. Like the first half was bad. But they did play, you know, he played three-quarter. and they see he was he was money in the third quarter I thought I agree yeah okay all right let's keep going with the sacks okay uh so we'll go to the second one so julia this would be offense 23 uh so this is um this is a sack from overshone uh second and long here on this play

and this is another one where um basically this would be one where i think jalen kind of got fooled by the coverage and so we're going to look at this from the sideline angle and you can see at the top of the screen. I think, Zach, you said this in the show yesterday. Lane brought up in the postgame locker room, how Dallas had done a really good job of mixing up their pressure looks where they're bringing a linebacker but dropping a defensive end, those SIM pressure looks at the Eagles have been so good at.

Well, here I think one of those pressures got Jalen to the point where he kind of fooled them a little bit. The defensive end drops out and impacts the tight end releasing out into the flat. The linebacker is coming from depth. And the Eagles actually, the line picks this up. So this wasn't one where like the free runner got home. impacted Jalen Hurts in that way. But Julie, if you go to the next screen,

Jalen is looking to the right, and he's working at that field to the right. Dallas Goddard's working open on the deep corner route. And this is a three-man concept. It's called a snag concept where we basically have like a little button hook over the underneath. You have a route going to the flat and you have the deep corner. It's a triangle read for the quarterback. And that's the throw against this coverage.

And you see Dallas is kind of breaking open over the top. Now, he doesn't throw it, which is fine. This is the bottom of the screen is the ISO ball that I'm referring to earlier. That's basically this. That's Devante and AJ running at the bottom of the screen. And they're running like too deep, if memory serves, two deep curl routes. Neither of them really gets great separation. So Jalen kind of looks to his right.

He doesn't throw it to Dallas. There's nothing in the middle of the field as we see here. This is kind of, this goes back to some of the things we talked about early on in the season where there's not like, oh, he's turning down a throw in the middle of the field. The only throw here, the only open receiver was Dallas and he didn't throw it. And so then he just kind of ran into a sack. So this was one where, you know, it's, it's second in, yeah, it's second and nine here on this one. He takes a loss for minus eight where he just basically had nowhere to go on that play.

Okay. Let's keep going. Let's go to the next one. Very next play. So, Julie, if you want to go to offense play 24. Very next play. Very next play. Now, this one, it comes from the sprinkle of sugar on the A gaps.

They're from the double A gap look. And so we'll start there where, you know, you can see from the end zone angle, you've got those two linebackers walked up. right over the center. And Julie, if you want to go to the next shot, as we look right into the shadows here. Jerry's very proud of the Jerry world. Yes. You know where the moon is on a given day?

Did you hear Jerry's quote? No. I said, the sun. He said, why don't you ask me about the moon, too? Oh, okay. I didn't see that he pulled his pants down.

No. He said they know a year in advance how the sun's going to be. So why is everyone talking about this? Why don't you ask me about the moon also? Because his players hate it. It's all the players. Yeah, it's, it's, I'm assuming he didn't hear C.D. Lamb, his quotes by that point, but, yeah, it was. I just have one comment on this. And again, I don't understand. I don't, I'm speaking without education here.

I don't know that the topography of Arlington, Texas. Yeah. But why didn't they just orient it, you know, north south instead of east west? Yeah. So therefore, the end zones aren't like the sun's not setting right in the end. Good question. I will say that, like, that's a cool shot from a photography step. Yeah. Yeah. The photos look so good.

The photos look so good. Like it's not practical whatsoever, but I digress. So from this double-A gap look, Eagles protected the same way. You got the center. You got the running back. They're going to handle those two linebackers walked up. And Julie, if you want to go to the next shot, Mackay Beckton does a great job. You can see that the linebacker that was walked up over Bechton, I didn't circle him

there, but he's right on the left hash mark there and he's dropping out. So Bechtin's guy drops out. So he said, all right, I got to look for work. Let me work down on this linebacker that is, that is, that is, you know, going into the A gap. So he does a nice job of helping the center and the running back. That was the running back's assignment there on that play. So he blocks down, creates a nice pocket.

Julie, if you want to go to the next shot, creates a nice pocket for Jalen Hertz. Now, the problem here on this play, when Jalen hits the top of his drop, you know, and this might be the fact that he got sacked. This was his fourth sack already. But, you know, he hits the top of his drop and he squares up to the line of scrimmage. And this is a cardinal sin. Which is weird. They're a quarterback.

He's prepared to run. This is like fight or flight. Like he's prepared to scramble when he hits the top of his drop. And he's not in position to make this throw from a pocket that's pretty clean. Like he should be able to step up and make this throw. And Julie, if you want to just go to the last shot, the Eagles were running three vertical routes here against Tampa 2 coverage. So you've got two deep safeties. They can't defend all three vertical routes, right?

So you've got Devonte Smith, Jahan Dotson. They're basically running vertically one down the seam and one down the sideline against the safety at the top. and then AJ is running Scott Free. He's going to be working against the safety at the bottom of the screen. So all three of these, it's a poor job by the arrow placement by me on this one. But you can see that Jalen has squared up to the line of scrimmage. It's the same point in the play from earlier. And you've got all these routes working vertically down the field.

Now, there's not any really answers underneath on this play. It is third and 17. They're hoping for some kind of a vertical play. But he's not in position to step up and make this throw and ends up running into a sack from Michael Parsons. So is that on Kellyn? No, to me, that's on Jalen. Like, Jalen has to do a better job there of managing that pocket. You know, to me, like he hit the top of his drop.

And instead of, you know, being a position to throw the ball, he hit the top and immediately squared up and looked like he was getting ready to run. He's got to trust that the protection's going to be there because the protection was there for the most of this game. And so that, to me, like that one was probably like the low point for Jalen in this game would be that clip. I did think in the third quarter they seemed to scheme on more of the quick game. should there have been more of a quick game option on that play? Well, I mean, it's 3rd and 17. So, like, if he throws the ball off to, to Kenny Gainwell for three yards,

like, we're not really happy with that. I think that on that one, that's the answer. Yeah, I think on that one, he's got to know. Like, I've got to step up. And if there is a free runner, like, that's going to be on me. And there are times in this game, I don't have all those shots pulled just because of time. But I think that when you look at it, like, he did a good job on a number of those plays

where he did manage the pocket. The one that stands out, there was an 18-yard slant round to AJ, I think it was like a third and five, where it was against that same look. The offensive line held up. He sidestepped to his left, did a great job managing that pocket, found space to work. AJ did a great job separating. Third down completion at first down. That led to a touchdown later, right?

And so, like, there were times in this game where I thought Jalen managed the pocket really well. Certainly first half, that was not his strong suit. Yeah, listen, I mean, we're nitpicking. He's allowed to have bad stretches of play. You know, he had just been sacked. You can understand why there might be a little bit of. hesitance in the pocket that play in particular third and 17 I mean where they're on the field throw the ball down field yeah even if even if even if even if even if

that one gets picked it's not the worst thing in the world so yeah there there was there's gonna be a time this season when Jail and Hertz is gonna have to win them a game right but he has that in him like we know that that's gonna come at some point well I'm looking forward to seeing how your response no doubt all right and I'm looking forward to seeing how everybody responds on the other side of this break. Managing finances can feel complicated and time-consuming. Am I right?

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Okay. Do you want me to ask mine first or do you want to ask yours? because mine's about football, so did you want to? Yeah, mine's not. Okay, did you want to ask the non-football one? Yeah, peck nest migrate. Okay. Asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green beans.

I will... Is it just plain, or are we, like, seasoning up the Brussels sprouts? Like, you know... Yeah, you can judge it up however you want. Okay, so I am... I'm nesting the green beans. I'm pecking the Brussels sprouts, migrating the asparagus.

Okay. Or as Xavier Leggett says, was, did you hear him try to pronounce, no, asparagus? No. Look it up. Yeah, I don't want to. Yeah, probably best you don't do Xavier Leggett impression, yeah. Look it up. It was, it was, it was, it was very funny. Like, not in a bad way. I just, you know, he would, it's a joke like, you know, he doesn't eat vegetables he was saying. So he didn't really know what he said he just started eating asparagus. Well, that one can sneak up on you if it's the first time you, had it. Because you smell. Yeah. That's that's actually not for everybody though. You know that. There's only certain. Really? Yeah. Yes, but it's actually, I believe it's not the the smell. It's, it's, it's not the pee producing. It's the smelling of this. Yeah. So there's certain people who don't have whatever.

Who don't carry that gene. Exactly. That olfactory gland of them picked up on the, I believe so. What made you want to ask that? The hello fresh. Yeah. Okay. All right. What about you, Fran? I would actually, and that's involved over time. I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, nest brussels sprouts okay i would pack asparagus and i would uh i would migrate the green bean that's i would say that that is completely flipped over time where i probably would have nested the green beans yeah i'd i would say those are the three greens that i have the most often yeah i love it i love a brussels sprout you know what i love about a brussel sprout i would say brussels my favorite uh thing that if you over if like if you burn it like it's better oh yeah like the char the charred leaves of the brussels sprouts like popcorn fantastic a little little little A little salt, a little olive oil?

That's outstanding. Come on. Give me those burnt Brussels sprouts. All right. Go ahead. That's your question. Yeah. So my question to you, or to both of you, is, as you said, at some point this year,

Joan Hertz is going to have to win them a game, and you're looking forward to seeing that. Was I sleeping through the Cincinnati game? Like, did him going to Cincinnati as a two and a half point underdog against the team with an MVP caliber quarterback, and he went, what, 16 of 20 in that game? game he had four total touchdowns he didn't turn the ball over he had like multiple high leverage plays um it was i think the 12 best game this year in terms of bpa per dropback like to me if if that's not winning a game for you then i think the bar is little too high he was awesome in that game was the best game the team has played all season yeah i'm talking about game on the line

yeah okay game when you drive yeah i mean that was his bet yeah 37 yeah and and and by the way in that game, zero negative plays for Jalen Hertz in the game. He was fantastic. I'm not debating that at all. But yeah, I'm talking about in the guts of the game. Okay, fair enough. That's fair. NPO index off the charts in that one.

Yeah, the NPO plus would bring, yeah, if you want to factor in the score, win probability at the time. But yeah, yeah, Jill Hertz has been good. He's been up and down. Yeah. I think that's very fair to say. Okay. Do you want to go over the last sack or you want to just let's get to the intersection?

No, I think that was the other one. Look, the other one was the sack fumble. I know, you know, Jalen talked about that after the game. It's basically he took full blame. He said he needs to have two hands on the ball. Right. He said that. Yeah, I mean, if you're trying to protect the ball and you still can't protect the ball, that's not a good job.

He said that's on him for not having two hands on the ball there. We'll come back to that because there was something where that popped up later. It was bad ball security there. But that was another example where it was basically ISO ball where they're just basically asking all those guys to win across the board. And so rather than dive into that, that's what happened on that play. My last negative one to talk about take us through the interception. Let's do the interception. Because this was one and we were going to break it down on the show yesterday. And I said, ah, like I do want to kind of see what was going on in the secondary that we couldn't quite

see in the broadcast copy. And so Julia, let's go to offensive 18 shot. So this is the five clips here. So basically what you're going to see here from the Eagles is they start in a three by one set and they bring the tight end, Grant Calcutera and motion from right to. left. And what they're hoping here, once they get into a two-by-two look, is that you're going to put stress on the corner to the bottom of the screen. That's Trayvon Diggs. So, Julie, if you want to go to the next shot, they're running four verticals. So with four verticals against a single high safety, basically for Jalen, this is, you're basically reading the safety. And whichever one he cheats towards, you're going to throw the other way. And you could see the safety is already cheating towards the

top of the screen. That's where Devante and A.J. Brown are. He's on that right hash as far as Jalen's looking. So the left hash is going to be open for Dallas Goddard. So real quick, Julie, up the next one. So when you bring that tight end in motion, Grant Calcutera, he's leaking out and he's going to first, he's going to bring his route out towards the sideline and then work up the field. The Eels are hoping that by him widening that route, because in cover three in a single high coverage, Trayvon Diggs has to stay outside of that outside receiver, Calcutera. So you're asking Jayland to basically read out that middle safety. Calcutara's route should remove Trayvon Diggs from the picture.

And Julie, if you go to the next shot, you could see that as Jalen takes his hand off the ball, that's the, it's opening up. That should be Dallas Goddard there. It looks like Trayvon Diggs is cheating out towards Grant Calcutera. But if we go to the next shot, you could see that he doesn't, I didn't even circle it here, but you could see that Diggs gets underneath this throw. So I felt better about Jalen's decision in the, in the moment after going back and seeing the all 22, Trayvon Diggs made an outstanding play.

I would think if you gave the Eagles some truth serum here on this one, rather than, it being like a Y, Y set with two tight ends at the bottom, if you had had A.J. Brown running in motion towards Trayvon Diggs. And Diggs is not going to come off that. I think Diggs probably plays a little bit more respect to, to, to, to, to A.J. Brown running running outside the numbers at him as opposed to Grant Cauta Tarras. Interesting. But I think, look, that's a viable way.

We've seen the Eagles hit Y, Y, vertical. I can remember our play against the Chargers in the 20 end of the Super Bowl season, where Brent Selleck and Zach Gertz are running down. They had an explosive play down the sideline, the same exact play. So, you know, I think that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, process behind that was sound but it was a great play by travon dix can i actually tell you what i think that this is a little bit encouraging um beyond travon digg just making a great play this play and the two touchdown passes that jalen hertz throws in this game we have seen for a long time

the eagles being sort of afraid of throwing the ball in the short red zone or the i guess the long red zone like from the 10 to 15 yeah the high red yep they want to run they want to run and get to the touch push and so to see them open up that part of the office and so to see them open up that part of the I think is encouraging big picture. And I know we'll go through the touchdown pass to Goddard, but I think that was his first touchdown pass of the season between 10 and 15 yards. Okay. I would like to see that.

I would like to see that part of the offense grow because otherwise you're a little bit too one dimensional. Yeah. I think that's fair. Also, to me, like that, I think that we've said, look, Jalen has done a good job of not turning the ball over over the last few weeks. Obviously, in this game, he turns it over twice. I want a quarterback that's going to test those windows.

Like, I want a quarterback that's willing to try and put that. ball into that tight space. And so for me, like not all interceptions are created equal. I'm okay with that interception going back and watching it on film. I'm okay with the decision. I'm okay with the ball placement. It was just a great play by the corner. To me, like the turn downs with Jalen Hertz have always been like the bigger turnoff for me. Like that that's always the issue that I point to and say like, oh, like I didn't think he had a great game here. And we would talk about it after these games early in the season where the turnovers were there. And I was like, oh, I thought Jalen actually played okay, better than the numbers would suggest. And then as we've gone on,

I think that he's been a little bit more cognizant of not turning it over, and I feel like that's resulted in more high variance play from him in terms of managing the pocket and turning some of those throws down. So, yeah, going back and watching it, I was perfectly fine with that. Here, so on that play, too, this is what Jalenhurst said. Okay. Because he actually gave more on this interception than he typically does. And to Bo's point from his press conference following last week's game,

that he was kind of giving more X's and O's. Yeah. He did that a little more here. He said, quote, I knew exactly what they were going to do. I had a good eye for it. And number seven just made a hell of a play. Much respect to him. He said, I tried to fit it in there.

I could have gone outside the grant. I actually told Grant that it would happen, and I didn't pull the trigger on it. So I own it. I own the funball as well. It will be an opportunity for us to grow from it. Interesting. I like that we're hearing more from Jalen over the past two or three weeks about like specific decision making on plays like that. That golf outing, I think, really is.

flip the script for him, I think. Well, there you go. So, yes, by the way, that is, that was Jalen Hertz's only touchdown pass of the season between 7 and 18 yards. Wow. If we're getting better, I mean, he's only had 12 touchdown passes on the year, but he's got an 18 and a 20, those two passes to Sequin. And then after that, it's, you know, there's a 7-yard to Devante,

a 5-yarder to Johnny Wilson, which we'll get to, and the one-yarder to Paris Campbell. So generally speaking, they do not let him let it rip from that range of, of the field. That's a really good point. And I hadn't even put that together. So I think that's, that is a good sign.

A couple super chats to get to. Santiago is back for more. He wants to let us know that he doesn't shower and he doesn't understand why, why Zach does. And then Jack says, it seems like Jalen has overcorrected from fling the pocket too early. Some of these sacks would have been zero yard scrambles earlier in the season. There were a couple I thought that,

I thought Dallas's approach to this game, very interesting. And I don't know if they thought that all Jalen's hobbled with the ankle or that we're not going to like respect the, the, the, the QB run, the scramble as much. So often, I mean, they were in either man to man coverage or in zone coverage with like no spy, no eyes on jail in the backfield. And that's why we saw him take off for some of those big gains. They were really relying on that front to keep him contained. And there were a couple of plays where either Jalen was able to break that contain or like the offensive line gave him an assist. There was a play where Mackay Beckton, I think it was the longest run of the day for Jalen where. the defensive tackle they were trying to basically do like a stunt inside and they were trying to keep him contained in the pocket and beckton just wiped out the defensive tackle jalen goes out the front door and beckton like points of the tackle it was actually really funny points to him and said yeah i got you and we're out the front door so um it was it was interesting to um it was interesting going in because uh i didn't think that they were i don't want to say respectful of the of jalen's legs maybe they thought the ankle would be more than it was but uh i think that that was interesting for me this morning all right you want to take us through the touchdown past the gutter? Yes, let's take a look. This is the last offensive play. So, Julia, this is offensive 34. This one was not a double a gap

look, but it was going back to the point that Lane Johnson made in the locker room yesterday, an example of where they dropped somebody off the line of scrimmage and brought somebody from depth. Now, the Eagles aren't an empty set here, so no one is in the backfield with Jalen. That means you only have five in protection. And so

a lot of defensive coordinators can be really good at attacking empty protection. And so hear what you're seeing, we'll start on the far right and you see the linebacker eric kendricks he's dropping out on this play now he started on the line of scrimmage so lannon dickerson is opening up to number 50 to eric but with kendricks dropping out you have the center uh cam jurgins he's looking at the defensive tackle you see on the on the left side you have the tackle versus the defensive end that's lane versus parson's you've got mackay beckton on the defensive tackle over him so number 13 overshone

that is jalen hurts his man he's coming from from depth no offensive lineman can account for him So that's the guy that Jalen has to beat. Julia, we can go to the next shot. And we can see here that he is coming scot-free at Jalen. This is part of the protection. Jalen is well aware of this. But look at Jalen's hands. Zach, go back to what Jalen said.

Look at how he protects the ball here with two hands, steps up, keeps it away from the, from the rusher. And now he steps up. Dallas Goddard did a great job of uncovering. Jalen stayed patient and was able to deliver the ball of Goddard for a touchdown. I thought this was a great play from Jalen. Great job from Dallas of uncovering. but this was one where free rusher gets home,

but that was kind of by design in terms of, you know, that they were expecting that if this guy gets free, that's Jalen's man to beat, and he beat it and was able to capitalize on the touchdown. You took the words right out of Jalen's mouth. Okay. This is what Jalen said about that play. We didn't throw the protection to him,

so he ended up coming free through the gap. It was either I get the ball out or I make the play. I chose to make the play. There go. Yeah, listen, we can take that for granted. It's a, it's a, unbelievable weapon that he has and to the blitz point jalen hurts on the season fifth in the league in epa per blitz uh as a quarterback so this thing that was such a bugaboo last season when he ranked

20th in the league the eagles have uh done a very good job putting a plan together and jalen has done a very good job getting getting ready for those things i would i would imagine that the EPA is probably better than the success rate i think that's right but even still i think the success rate is still going to be like way better than last year. That would be my guess. Because I just think that they've done a much better job this year of having a plan against the Blitz. And sometimes that, hey, you know what? Like it's it's third and nine and it's a completion for seven yards. But you avoided the sack and potential sack fumble interception like huge negative play. I just think the overall plan has been really, really good. But, you know, I think that's certainly a good sign that the EPA is as high as it is.

Success rate. He is 57.8. 57.57.7 percent this season. He was 14. 48.5%. It's a huge jump. So there you go. Huge jump. All right. Speaking of huge jumps, we're going to talk about a sponsor.

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See their full selection of luxury vinyl plank flooring and learn more about the products and warranties on their website, seejam Construction.com slash flooring. You never heard about beer and a chili before? No, I was perfect. I think beer and chili is perfectly fine.

Were you drinking your own drink and then poured it into the chili? a fresh beer that you then poured into the chili. No, yeah. I mean, I had one can of another light I was drinking and then I had one can that I put into the chili. See, here's the thing on the show yesterday. You made it seem as if you were drinking if you and you're like, oh, I drink it and then I pour some into the into the chili. That's what I took offense to.

Even that would not be crazy. That's a little too much. That's crossing the line. Why? I don't want your, it's the same reason I wouldn't want to drink or drink. What if I pour it in first and then you just finish it off? I mean, I'm going to put the whole beer in, but. Yeah, but if you're so like, oh, yeah.

You just don't you're just you're averse to the idea of backwash. Correct. It's going to cook off anyway. I still don't like that. I wouldn't do that. Right. That's not my plan. I don't need your.

Yeah, I don't want that either. Right. Okay. That's the only beef. Jeez. How to come out though. It was good.

Yeah. Got some leftovers last night. Chile. I mean, one of the one of the great foods in which arguably leftover even better. Oh, yeah. Agree. The original time. I agree.

You disagree? Don't have a strong opinion of it. Like chile? I like chunkier chili, though. I feel like if you with the beer in, it'll be a little... You're like a chunk. Yeah, I like when it's hearty. You have the vegetables, you have the meat.

Yeah, that's... So I don't like it when it's more liquidy. You're like a more viscous. More viscous chili? Yeah, yeah. It doesn't necessarily prevent that. I've never made chilely before, Sean. I couldn't tell you.

I've only eaten showy that's that others have made. Okay. The King Zach over here. It's only bring me my food. No, it's not that. It's just like, it's just like the CJ. It's like the CJA construction. Advertisement.

You have to know what you know and no, you don't. I don't know how to make chili. I know how to make, I can grill steak. I can grill chicken. I can grill. I can grill. You can grill the exterior on it. I don't know how to, yeah.

I will, I, I make pasta or, you know, I don't know how to. Can make pasta? Well, no, I'm from scratch. No, I boil it. Oh, okay. So, yeah, chilly, I. Very versatile. Very what?

Versal. Versal. I mean, I can clear the table and I can do the dishes, but I don't make the joke. I know, know what you don't. Exactly. I will say. doing like the Hello Fresh has really honed

like I'm being very earnest with this has really honed the cooking skills I used to be the same way I used to only grill I'm much more comfortable in the kitchen since doing Hello Fresh as frequently as we do The guy is the best pitch man in the company There's no doubt about it You don't need to throw me a dollar on that one

That one I'm a big fan of Hello Fresh All right Anything else on the offense that you wanted to to discuss It should double EVABA Miss Dallas got it a couple times in this game This is like one of those funny like Dallas Goddard's back and I feel like this the staff Probably like dialed up a few plays to get him in

And Jalen just like turned down a couple of those throws Some of them like oh he just went to somewhere else Some he ended up scrambling and he made a good play Some resulted in sacks that we talked about Pretty diabolical that they didn't include Grand Calcutterra on the game plan a little bit more I'm sorry I still can't believe I'm sorry I got to move Lost the mortgage

The motion rate was about the same as what we've seen the last couple of weeks. So 63% motion. A lot of it was the, they ran that they like inside zone with a jet sweep with an Smyth Smith like seven times in the fourth quarter. So I think that juice the numbers a little bit. 14 snaps from the pistol. That might be a season high. Yeah, a lot of pistol, a lot of 12 personnel. There were some really fun clips in the first half from Cam Juergens. I thought that he had a pretty strong game overall. So yeah, those would be, those be my big ones. All right. Let's talk about the defense, the one play that you wanted to take a look at.

is a Quignan Mitchell play. Yes. I like the comparison that we both separately made on the podcast. I know. I was interacting with the chat when I, when you said that one line of the, about the analysis. Some of us are active listeners?

Some of us are not. That's okay. The Devante Smith comparison. Yes. Where this is a guy who is sort of preternaturally aware of exactly where he is on the field, low pulse, you know, cold-blooded and you see it on on this play along the sidelines can i tell you i when i when i first met quinyon in the office like in the draft process i actually thought he reminded me of

devante a little bit like from personality standpoint you can't cover up for not listening by saying i thought of it first i'm not i'm not saying i thought of it first but i think it's it's interesting that they carried like the personality also kind of carries over to the way that he operates on the field yeah i thought it when i saw him at the senior ball too actually what about when you watched one film in the summer. When I... It's funny. When I was born,

the first words out of my mouth where there's going to be a guy named Quignan Mitchell who's going to remind me of a guy named Devante Smith. Very long sentence. For a baby. So quick Quignon Mitchell story from last night. I don't know if this is funny, but... So I'm very cognizant in the locker room

of not standing in someone's locker after, you know, or by someone's because they're, trying to change, right? So they need their space. Like when people were talking to Elaine Johnson. So is this the one that you alluded to on the postgame? No, no, no, that's a different one. That's a topic I will not get into that other one.

No, this is. Freaky. No, no, no. We are not talking about Albertoo anymore. So, yeah, so I would say that, so I want to talk to Cooper the Gene, but like I would have had to block Quignan Mitchell. Right. from his locker and so and Quinyan was kind of standing there in the middle and

then I said I said Quinyon do you mind if I interview Cooper and he's looking at me like why you asking me this and I was like well you know because he was like he was like he was in a towel like waiting to get to it's like and I said I don't want to block you he's like no you're fine but he like looked at me like quizzically as if as of why am I asking him that so very low meetings told you your rat was trash and walked away the route well I couldn't go around the other side because there was someone else changing there so my route was actually pretty efficient there well that's not what he thought he was very nice about it but he was confused why I was asking if I could

interview Cooper the Jean so gotcha all right take us through this play so this one comes from Dan Damico in the discord I want to give us quick shout to Philly Dan and Jacksonville who requested the the digs interception and Yishmeister requested the the other Dallas got a touchdown so just one of the quick just for the other diehard from the discord who requested these plays so Dan Damico this is the only defensive play So, Julia, it would be, I figure what did I call this one? Just, yeah, defense 12, one and two.

So this is like teach tape stuff, like exactly how you want the corner to play this down at the bottom of the screen. You see Quinyon, he's lined up to the outside the numbers. So he's got the sideline. One thing that you'll hear defensive backs and DB coaches say, you know, you use the sideline. The sideline is your friend in this situation. And when you are in phase, you're hip to hip with the receiver or you're on top of the receiver in this way.

You want to do what's called look and lean. So you're looking back at the quarterback, you're leaning on the receiver, you're entitled to this space. You're able to make contact with him as long as you're looking back to find the football. And so that's what what Q is doing on this play. And we'll go to the end zone angle for the follow-up here. He did an outstanding job of maintaining vision on the football, but pressing him to the line of scrimmage. And that's where that like that look and lean really comes into play. And you could see that the receiver is only able to get the one foot down because by the time that the ball arrives,

Quignan has pushed him all the way towards the sideline. We hear all the time about the, you can think back was that that Monday night game, Zach with Aaron Rogers and Mike Williams, like holding the red line. It was that receiver is trying to hold that red line in between the numbers and the sideline and the corner. It's your job in that situation to press him as far to the sideline as you can. Q did an outstanding job on that play of maintaining phase, making sure that he could still keep his eyes on the football,

while also leaning into the receiver and getting him to the sideline, using the sideline as that 12th man on the field. That was picture perfect. It's exactly how you wanted to play. Like look and lean is like a, could be a dance move or something like that. Maybe I'm just thinking of shoulder lean. To the look and lean. There you go.

I don't know. No idea what you're talking about right now. The college, no? Wasn't like a, there was like that time frame. He's not going to know that. But looking lean, looking lean was the, but it was shoulder lean. No? Oh, man.

I'm sorry. I mean, that's on you. He's not going to know that. Well, you were the one who made the reference. Are you going to like dance parties in college? It's not a dance. Come on. Know what you know, no what you do.

I literally said I have no idea what you're talking about. You learn the shoulder lean when you learn to make chilling. It's all together. Yeah, that would help actually. All right, big picture thoughts on the defense. I mean, the performance was insane. Yes. I mean, I still can't get over the first 11 drives of this game.

I think a first 12 drives, 11 of them were either a three-and-out or a fumble or a turnover force. Like, absolutely insane. And I believe defensive EPA per drive, the best performance for any defense in a game this season. Yeah, I think the big thing, I'm trying to like crystallize what makes the, this defense, what has made them so good over the last month or so, the coverage on the back end is so tight and so sound and really well executed across the board. And the big thing that we're also seeing is that because that coverage is so tight, you're forcing a lot of checkdowns. They're not missing tackles on these checkdowns. And so often we're seeing a ball thrown to

the flat or a ball thrown to, you know, like a shallow cross or like a little hook route underneath or whatever it is. And the guys are tackling the catch so well. Think of all the times we've seen Cooper dejean and Nacobobey dean and uh you know is Isaiah rogers had one cj gardner johnson first play of the game where there's a play in the flat there's a play in the sideline along the sideline and those guys are making that tackle one on one those mistackles we saw the first week or three uh those are those are gone now we're not seeing them nearly at the same rate as what we saw in the past um yeah that's just it they are so sound on the back end and once again like just a handful of examples of this in this game with

and tony robo actually pointed out all the broadcast like my favorite one where you just see everybody it's like the um i know like the analogy has been made in the past i don't think it was a vicfangio defense but it's like the the kaleidoscope zach may never have picked up a clidoscope but you remember like a clidoscope yeah come on well you know i was in a science class before well you get the clidoscope and it's like you twist it a little bit and it's a different image you see everything kind of morphing together to me like you look at the secondary and the way that they're able to match things and constantly rotate and uh you know pick up all these routes on the fly is really really impressive um it's it's a fun it's a fun group to

watch. They're going to get tested a lot the next few weeks, but so far, you have to be thrilled with what you've seen from this unit. My question for you, Zach, yes. Is part of the conversation we had on the postgame show about how this is a defense built differently or at least succeeding

differently than the ones usually built by Howie Roseman, do you think that this will change his general operating philosophy about defense moving forward? No, I don't. I think Howie was raised. if you will, under Andy Reed and Joe Banner, and it's about the pass rush.

I think Howie would still, if he had his druthers, has an outstanding pass rush. I think the difference years, they hit on, they hit on some moves, right? I don't think this was designed to be a back seven oriented defense or a back six oriented defense. I just think that, like, you know, I mean, they signed Devin White to more money than Zach Bond. Zach Bonds just turned into one of the best inside linebackers in the NFL. They've drafted corners early in the draft or in the first three rounds that haven't panned out. They took two this year who look really good. So I don't think this is necessarily by design.

I just think it's working out this way. And they have an outstanding defensive coordinator. And I think one thing, I've made this point on an interview elsewhere, and I wish I did it on the show, and I want to reinforce this on the show. I remember talking to someone in the organization over the summer. who said that there's like so much as being made about Vic Fangio from a scheme perspective and not enough is being made from Vic Fangio from a game planning perspective. They said like you'll really see the benefit of him when he's putting these game plans together.

And I think that's that's that's that's what we're seeing. There's there's so much talk about the Fangio scheme, the Fangio scheme. I think what we're really seeing on a week in, week out basis is how he has just buttoned up game plans. I think like I was talking with Anthony this morning on their show and he was asking about like comparing this defense to defenses of old right and you compared to like the Super Bowl defense and you know we talked about it a little bit on the post game show yesterday right but where it's like that 2020 defense they set the the franchise record for sacks this NFL record for sacks in a game like yesterday that defensive line tees off on the Cowboys and it's nine sacks 10 sacks right I think in this with this iteration of the defense it does come down more so to the way that they are they're able to win and their way that they're able to kind of confound opposing quarterbacks force those checkdowns. And the big thing is like what they did against Joe Burrow, like, Nicoby Dean one-on-one with Jamar Chase. Like that's not the way you would draw it up, but that's the way you kind of need to play against opposing the top shelf quarterbacks.

They're going to see Lamar Jackson coming down in a couple weeks. We'll see what that looks like. But I think when you look at the way that 2022 team played was we're going to go, we're just going to out-execute you. You know, that's what has made. like the Arizona like Jonathan Gannon and the Cardinals so interesting is like they do all kinds of like wacky stuff on the back end that when they were here in Philly when he and Nick Rouse were here in Philly they didn't really do things like that it was it was more like we're going to play quarters we're going to play cover three we're going to play cover two and like we're just we're just better right we're and our defensive line is going to go and they're going to win the game for us

that is not the way that this defense is operating it's it's a fun group to watch and to the point about game planning that also I mean it does speak to the players because they are playing different ways every week and for them to be able to still maintain that ability to pass things off in zones and like have things buttoned up for such a relatively young group when they are not the same every week it's it is very impressive yeah and that's what uh you know Anthony made the point was like oh well you're doing this so much better than that 2020 team that 2020 team was really good at it too I mean like Kaiser white and tj Edwards and uh uh Marcus Epps like those guys on the back and they did an outstanding job with that.

I remember thinking like, oh, like, they trade for CJ Gardner Johnson just before the season started. And they brought him in and so quickly he was able to match so many of these routes. That group was so good. But again, that defensive line just kind of took games over. Imagine if like Bryce Huff had hit, right? Like if Bryce Huff had been the player that they thought he would be like to go to Zach's point, like I don't know that we're having the discussion of if he, how he changes his

philosophy. Yeah. The resources are still very highly tilted towards the D line, right? You know, you've got three first-round picks, two third-round picks, a guy they paid a lot of money to in Price-Uff, a guy that paid a lot of money to in Josh Sweat as well. So we thank everybody who was watching on TV. Go to all p.l-l-Y.com to keep watching as we close the loop on this show.

Three games coming up against good quarterbacks for this defense. Jaden Daniels, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson. Tough to get better than that. I'm curious, historically, Vic Fangio's defenses against mobile quarterbacks. I mean, it's not like there are a lot of guys like Lamar. He's kind of sui generous. But, and I know that Jaden Daniels is usually more creating time to throw. But how much of a different thing will this be for Fangio?

I mean, it'll be different. Yeah, I think we'll probably get into a little Wednesday. But I think that, I mean, honestly, some of the things that Pittsburgh was able to do in that game yesterday to keep Jaden Daniels confined. I mean, he had like three runs for five yards or something like that in the game. I mean, they really kind of put the clamps on him. from a scrambling standpoint and that's been such a weapon for them. So I think you'll kind of see some of that mirrored. But I'd have to go back into the archives to go find and see what Fangio had done against

Lamar Jackson and some of the other mobile quarterbacks you faced. I just look at, you know, and we'll obviously discuss Thursday on Wednesday. This is such a fun matchup. Yeah. Right. And then also when you look at this kind of big picture, I said during the buy that there might be overreaction to the Eagles too. to start and that they have a real soft schedule ahead.

Well, that soft schedule is, I mean, for the next month, that's past them. If you look, five of their next six games, Washington twice, the L.A. Rams, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers. Right. So we'll see you know, there's like the don't get too high, don't get too low

mantra. I think that the criticism of the team was maybe a little too extreme at the buy, but like don't book your New Orleans tickets yet either. Like, let's see how they look during these next six weeks. Yeah, I think that's fair. And certainly, I think we were, at least I was overreacting at some point.

I think I said there was a better chance we're going to lose two in a row than win two and a row. And they've won now, four in a row since the Browns game. What about schedule-wise for the Eagles this week, Zach? What are we looking at? Yeah, so we will be speaking to Nick Siriani in about 13 minutes, although he might be running late, so I don't want to say 13 minutes. But we'll speak to Nick Siriani today.

the players are in the building today. Tomorrow, the Eagles have a walkthrough. And the coordinators will speak then. J. Ellen Hertz will speak in the afternoon players as well. And then Wednesday is, so it's really they don't have a full practice this week. We'll speak to Nick Siriani on Wednesday, but there's no full practice. The Eagles will have walkthroughs. This isn't atypical for them going into the Thursday game, but it is an atypical week.

in that you really don't get to throw the kitchen sink at this game. Eagles now up to fourth in the league in point differential. Yeah. The Lions won, Bill's two, and then the Eagles are plus 72, one point behind the commanders who are plus 73 with an extra game in hand. So the Eagles are very much looking like a good team. What are your early thoughts? On this game?

Yeah. I don't know. I'm excited. It's a great game. point like I'm really just excited to watch this game because because now that the eagles are playing well I want to see them play a good team and no disrespect to the Bengals but this is a team that's good in a different way yep I'm I and you know the link should be rocking I'm excited for this game I want to see how it plays out yeah it's gonna be a fun one what about you I can't wait I mean

there's you know you you don't really have matchups the Eagles haven't had an intra-division matchup with this type of juice I would say I mean I guess maybe the cowboys last year Yeah, but they haven't had a lot of these, these, these types of games. I was thinking the Giants back in, in 2022, but the Eagles were so much better than the Giants. Yeah. And even last year, the Eagles were in such a tailspin, though, that took a lot of juice away from it. Yeah, so to have, you know, they've had big games. I was thinking in the tribe over, they hit the 49ers game last year.

There was a lot to that game. But an intra-division game like this, this is, this is going to be fun. On Thursday night, our first time seeing Jaden's, storylines like a lower, Ryan Johnson's down in Washington, right? He was kind of the scapegoat there. It's the, it's the, that Jahan Dodson return game. John Dodson, by the way, two straight weeks with two good catches. So we'll see how that happens out.

Nick Gates. I don't know if Nick Gates is going on the team. I don't know if Nick Gates will be on the team. He'll make it. Yeah, that's good point. Zach Ertz is his first time back in Philly. Yeah. Yeah.

He had an emotional farewell on a Thursday night. His last time he played was on a Thursday night. Yeah, Darrell Tap. Yes, yeah, who was a great Super Bowl interview. Sherey Floyd making his homecoming, an assistant D-line coach for Washington. Oh, yeah. George Washington High School, right?

Yeah, in the Northeast. Casey Tohill watching the game from somewhere. Can I just give a quick plug real quick? Yeah, please. And tomorrow night I will be at Puddler's Pub in Bridgeport as part of the great sports debate. Fundraiser night. I'll be with Glenn MacNach. now angelo catalty al morgani jason stark it's a night of nostalgia for a great cause for children's

hospital of philadelphia but i will be signing books there so uh anyone who wants to uh come by for great cause see these legends in philly and then me um i great lineup yeah um i'm excited i'm excited to be there that's great go check it out everybody do that thank you if you're in the area all right that'll do it for this episode of the p hely eagles podcast jamie and rich back with you tomorrow at 2 o'clock. And then on Wednesday, we're going to have a little quad in Studio A, the three of us and the professor, Dane is joining us for a full commander's preview slash swooper. Should be a nice long one.

That'll be fun. And then on Thursday, we've got another 2 o'clock show as well before all the game day events, kickoff show, halftime show, post-game show on Vinnie Curry Night at Lincoln Financial Field. Thanks for watching and listening today. We will talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.