PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Next test for Vic Fangio’s awesome Philadelphia Eagles defense is replacing Brandon Graham

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Saquon Barkley is running over every team in the Eagles’ way, A.J. Brown is killing it per usual, Jalen Hurts is making good decisions and the guys upfront like Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata are paving the lane for it all. Meanwhile, Jalen Carter is dominating, Milton Williams is taking advantage, Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell are balling in the secondary and the tandem of Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean are giving the Eagles the best LB play we’ve seen in years.Join Zach Berman and Bo Wulf for a sleep-deprived review of the game as the Eagles reeled off their seventh straight win. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody. Happy Monday and welcome to the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app. Use code P.L.Y.365 when you sign up, whatever the moment is. Oh, La, La, La, La, La, Bat 365. We're here for the P.HLY Eagles podcast. Zach, I know that you're on no sleep. I'm on not a lot of sleep. So this will be a fun show. Let's get skit on Hingde. How you doing?

I'm doing great. I'm doing great. excited to be here. Did you get any sleep on the flight? I got 55 minutes. Well, I think I got 63 minutes. My ring said 55 minutes. So who doesn't trust technology all of a sudden? Well, no, because they said it took me eight minutes to fall asleep.

I don't think it took me eight minutes to fall asleep. Wow. All of a sudden, you're coming around to the good side. Technology doesn't know anything. So, but I wanted to write two stories on the plane. Show off. And that's not show off. That's what I'm there to work, right?

I'm not there for vacation. And so I made sure that I wrote one. I closed my eyes for what I had planned for an hour. And then I got up and wrote the other one. And I had them both up by the time the plane landed. What time did you get in? 8.30 this morning. Oh, so you had time to go home.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I went home and showered. Oh, okay. I saw Emily. Yeah. She said, you look exhausted. You didn't think about fitting in a nap there? No, because I was just...

You got your stories done. Yeah, I didn't have enough time for like a nap. I was prepping for... I was going through some notes. I put some tweets up. Yeah. God forbid you'll put some tweets up. I was listening back through stuff.

But yeah, I'm excited for the show. Going through the vest collection to figure out which one you're going to go with. I'll sleep tonight. I didn't want to go black one. I don't believe you. That I'm going to sleep tonight? Yeah. I'm definitely going to sleep, but you're not going to sleep enough. We don't need to discuss my sleep. There's so much better things to discuss here.

We are absolutely going to continue discussing your sleep as the show goes on. But let's start Zach with, let's start with the bad news, sad news. Brandon Graham, according to him, lost for the season to Torrent Triiceps, as we talked about on the postgame show last night. This is going to be a serious test for the Eagles defense. They are very thin on the edge. but let's take a moment just to talk about Brandon Graham as you wrote about, you know, for you, been covering this team. Yeah.

For a very long time. Where does Brandon Graham sort of stand in your, in your mind? Good question. He's not like one of the, or he's not at the top of the list in terms of best players, right? Like I would talk about Lane Johnson in that category. He's throwing the guy into the bus, unbelievable. No, no, no. Playing the high level tears and struts up here.

He's not that good. No, please let me continue. But I would say, like, most important players, like franchise icon types. And I would kind of compare him in a certain vein to like Malcolm Jenkins, someone who really had like the pulse of the locker room as a heartbeat of the locker room value leader. And I think the career arc is incredible to when you think about. And you've been there from the beginning. I joined year three. I remember the day he was drafted.

It was my first draft. I remember my wife was teaching abroad in Japan for the year. She's watching like the draft live. They draft Brenna Graham. He's walking around and showing on Eagles live, shaking all the hands. Fantastic. So I would say, first off, the most... Still an intern.

Still an intern. He graduated. The most important play in Eagles history. No doubt. The strip sack. Someone who loves being... I would go that number one and the Hakeem Butler fade pass. So forth a number two.

Fair. Someone who loves being an eagle, who loves playing in Philadelphia, who endured. You know, Lynn Johnson was talking last night about his, he said, his story screams perseverance and resiliency. And I think that's a good way to frame it. As someone who, like, he's almost like your favorite player's favorite player in that he's just real popular in the locker room. He has that infectious laugh. He's friendly to everybody. I've gotten to, I've gotten to know him a bit as a father in recent years because our kids are around the same age and I see him at different events.

And I can say, like if I can be personal here, Brandon, goes out of his way every time to make my son feel important. And like, you know, and I've sent him messages about this. Like, and he says to me, like, you know what I do to him, right? But he'll make a big deal whenever he sees my son. And my son absolutely loves that. That's great. And so just someone who, you know, and you and I were both in an interview with him this summer,

like a scrum. And I remember asking him, like you're saying, to everything. I said you're at a busy summer. And he's like, yeah, I didn't say no to anything. Like, this is, you know, if someone wanted me to speak, if someone wanted me to show up somewhere, I did it. You made the joke. We should have had him on the show. But like he's, he's so enjoyed, like this moment of his life. And then the, not the monopolized this. But the last thing is, I was really like either touched or taken aback by his perspective in the locker room last night. and this is what I mean specifically.

We've both been around guys who have season-ending injuries and they know it. And it's devastating. Like it is, these guys put in so much work and it's devastating. Compound that to the fact that it's potentially the last game of his career. And we don't know that, but potentially that. Compound that with the way he's playing, with the way this season's going. And he had this like real positive attitude. And he was asked why.

and he said that whenever someone gets hurt, he's in their ear telling him, like, you know, be positive. We're here for you. We're going to win for you. And he's like, he can't say that to other people. And then when it happens to him, not live by it. And I thought that was like that really touched me because like there's a lot of people who say one thing, but then don't, but then they do the other, right?

What's the expression like, I don't know. Don't piss on me and tell me it's raining. No, I wasn't thinking that. But something for the, but not for me. No, no, no, something for thee, but not for me. Yeah. Yeah, whatever that is. And I just thought that.

One if I wrote two if I see. I don't know. But I heard that. And I said, Brandon, that, or I was thinking, I didn't say this. And Brandon, that's really well stated. I feel that speaks very well to you, your personality. In what sense? Well, just the emphasis on bringing positive energy.

Oh, yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. And that's the thing. And I wrote a story two years ago, and he said that he believes in good juju. That's what he said, good juju. And he said, some days you got to like manufacture it, but you always have to have it. And I try to, I believe the same thing.

Like I always say, like, I tell my son this, be an energy giver, not an energy drainer. And that's, that's Brandon. and he's an energy giver. Yeah, I think there is, this is one of those things where, like, because you can't, you can't measure it, it's hard to take it seriously or know how seriously to take it. But, I mean, there are 53 or, you know, 70 plus guys in a locker room, and this is a job for them.

They have to show up to work every day. They have work to do. It can be a slog, especially if the season is not going the way that it is going right now. And there is a real value. to having a guy like Brandon Graham who is showing up every day and bringing that energy. Like that is a real valuable thing to put aside the fact that on the field, he was playing unbelievable football. I think like some of the best football I have ever seen him play in terms of just being like an edge rusher,

like just getting after guys. And you saw it last night. And if it is the way that it ends, it is nice and poetic that it was such an impressive performance for him. I agree with you. I think like he might not be the best eagle of the paper. I shouldn't have led with that. But he might be the most eagle of the past decade.

That's a good way of explaining. Like who is more of an eagle than Brandon Graham over the past decade plus. I think he deserves all the flowers and love that he's surely getting right now. Yeah. And he said, you know, he said he doesn't know if this is it. He said, I hate to have to go like this. But at the end of the day, I don't have any regrets. he said he doesn't want to end the season with an abbreviated season.

He wants to play a full season, but he doesn't know what the Eagles plans are. And he, he, he, he, he, he, he'll take him back. He kind of framed like that. I imagine they, I imagine they will. But there was, you know, if, for those who watched his comments after the game, you saw a point where, where he was like gathering himself and it doesn't come off in print. So he says, man, boy, we, was, boy, we was having so much fun out there.

Like, I'm reading this, but he was, like, collecting himself. He said that he cried when he was, you know, speaking to his family, but then he said, no tears after that. He said he's sure that there will be tears, but then he's going to attack the rehab. He wants to get back with the team. He said he's still going to be talking trash. He's going to tell every opponent that they're lucky they don't have to play against him. Oh, that's good.

He was saying that. he was saying yeah there was so many different he said he said there are he's saying people are lucky i'm done but they better know someone's coming right behind me he said he's trying to process anything he said if i have to go out i'm happy with how i played today i couldn't ask for anything else with the team that we got now before we get to how they replace him on the field how do they replace him uh like juju wise well he'll be and that's what he said said he's going to be around. Right.

But on the field, you need somebody. True. Yeah, that's where I'm trying to think. I mean, maybe, well, C.J. Garner Johnson has that in his own right, but it's a different kind. Jordan Davis probably would be. I think it's Nolan Smith. Nolan Smith?

Okay. Yeah. I was talking to Nicobi Dean about this last week about like just the intro was like, you know, does Nolan Smith need a sack dance? Because every time he gets a sack. He looks like he's like a child celebrating the very first time he's ever won anything. And he's like, that's like, that's Nolan. He's like, oh.

always, he has always been the most talkative guy on the field until he got here with Brandon Graham. Okay. He's always talking during the play, before the play. And he wasn't doing it as much last year as a rookie. And this year he's like comfortable enough to be talking. So I feel like that is what you will hear is that Nolan Smith is the guy who's going to be yapping throughout the game.

I love that insight. That's great. There you go. And then one other kind of anecdote, and you can probably speak to this better than me, but there was a time when the players parked in the same parking lot. that we did the media and that you did when you worked for the team and brandon graham uh was always like like one of the first arrivals because he would always have the first spot you remember this he would his car okay yeah and he he's he's i know that he's like he's always like the first

guy yeah yes and he backs in he's he's he's not a pulling guy he he he backs his car in so there was a spot right next to the staircase that was always Brandon Graham's car because he was there at like 5, 530. And I remember talking to James Casey one time about like trying to beat Brian and Graham to work. In your apartment building, presumably. We're talking about it in the locker room. But yeah, James Casey and I did live in the same apartment building, yes. Oh, big flex. All right.

How about on the field? What are your expectations for what they do moving forward with Brandon Graham? And I think this is, you know, Vic Fangio has answered every test. Sure. So far. You have to sort of cross your fingers and hope that he can handle this one. But it's going to be, they are a little bit devoid of choice right now. Well, I'll turn this to you.

Do you think they add someone from the outside? Do you think this is a promotion of Taran Jackson? I mean, that would kind of be underwhelming to me. They don't really have this edge rusher pipeline that maybe they've had in the past. They have three healthy edge rushers right now. That's Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, and Jell X Hunt. Then Milton Williams could play on the outside. but not really in like a stand-up, edge-rushing role.

Zach Bond could be used there, but Zach Bond's been so productive in the role that he plays. There are players out there who have experience with Fangio, Justin Houston comes to mind. But it's not a, look, if this happened three weeks ago, I imagine they make a trade at the deadline, given where they are now and like the options out there, yeah, this is a big question. And I would also add not to be doom and gloom here, but if there's any, if there's any red flag I have for the Eagles, more than anything else, it's, I said this before. It's the pass rush. It's potential regression from the pass rush. And now you lost one of your most consistent players. My antenna is up about how they can compensate not just for a Graham's absence, but Bryce Huff's absence and just the lack of numbers they have there. Yeah, I mean, say what you will about the way that Bryce up was playing, but they could certainly use him as a healthy body right now. Yeah, I don't know that they're going to go the like Yannick and Gakway Street Free Agent around. I would be surprised by that.

I think it's more likely that they try to poach somebody from a practice squad, a younger player, and throw him into the mix. But I think like you saw how Vic answered it last night. Sure. He went to Zach Bond. I think that is more likely. They have a lot of snaps to replace. like J-LX Hunter is going to have to play like 45% of the snaps, something like that right now,

and then you're going to need to steal like the non-Josh Sweat snaps from somebody else. And I think it's probably some combination of Milton Williams, maybe even Jalen Carter. You get a four defensive tackle package out there and Zach Bonn. And so what that means is, is there, do they trust Warren Berks or Jeremiah Trader Jr. to be on the field as another linebacker right now? It's going to be interesting. What did you think of Terrell Lewis this summer?

Yeah, I think I would be underwhelmed if that was the answer. But as I said to Fran on the postgame show last night, we did see his breakaway speed. Joanne O'Quara is with the Cardinals now. I thought he flashed a bit this summer, but he got claimed right away or signed right away when the Eagles cut him. Yeah, I'm going through practice squads now. I'll do this later. But, you know, I see Tack McKinley shows up because, you know, it's nothing super. Sure.

But I think that's more reasonable. even than Tehran Jackson. Maybe they wish they had Patrick Johnson back. Good point. Good point. There you go. All right. Why don't we take a little break and then come back, talk Sequin Barkley.

Any other thoughts on Zach's sleep habits and so much more? If you're sad, I mean, it's not the best reason to drink. But if you want to suck them back in honor of Brandon Graham, by all means. And, you know, don't go, don't get out of hand. Keep it with a low-calorie beer. We're talking about Mother Light, baby. Because a lot has changed over the years. One thing that hasn't is the great taste of Miller Light.

Another thing that hasn't changed is that it remains less filling. So what is the best thing about the original light beer? Miller Light sparked this debate. In 1975, the year that Brandon Graham was drafted, and we still haven't settled it. Miller Light is a great beer that tastes like, get this. beer. How novel. A beer that tastes like beer. Thank you very much, Miller Light. Miller Light keeps it simple. Undebatable quality. Great taste. Only 96 calories. It's the beer that strips away everything you don't need and holds on to what matters. Most, less filling and only 96 calories. The original light beer since 1975. You don't have to choose what's best. Miller Light has great taste and is less filling. Tastes like Miller Light. time to get Miller Light delivered right to your door, visit Millerlight.com slash p.ch-L-Y-Birds,

or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beers, celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories per 12 ounces, fewer calories and carbs than premium or regular beer. Bo. Zach. I might be a bit tired today, but I'm full of energy. And I think back a year ago this week, that was not the case. A year ago, this week, I felt as bad as I felt.

in a long time. And I got off the plane from Kansas City and I went right to the doctor's office and they took chest x-rays. I remember and they said this guy's got the dog in him. No, they said this guy has pneumonia. Okay. And I can tell you, you don't want to feel the way I felt coming back from Kansas City last year or in Kansas City last year for that matter. Somewhere on YouTube, you can find that show and I looked and sounded awful. Help protect yourself from pneumonia. Adults aged 50 and older are now eligible for the vaccine. I'm talking about right aid. You can go to right aid. It was previously ages 65 and older. The CDC lowered the age recommendation to 50 and older. Millions of people get pneumonia every year. I was one in a million.

According to the CDC. One of a million. Yeah, one of a million. Sorry. It's a respiratory illness and and fall and winter are tiny. A man cough. When germs that cause respiratory disease typically spread more in the community. So now is the time to get vaccinated and help yourself stay healthy. Some people who get pneumonia have mild symptoms, but others experience serious complications. The vaccine is one of the best ways to help keep yourself healthy. It's usually no cost with the insurance. Getting vaccinated is easy. Just walk into your local right aid or schedule online at rightaid.com. Unsure of what vaccines you may need, just ask your pharmacist for a personal recommendation. Stop by your local right aid. All right. Here is the rundown that

I have on here, just things that I wrote down. Saquan, BG, defense, turkeys, Yascenda, sleep, balls. So far we've hit BG. Okay. There's a little bit more meat left in the bone on sleep, but I think we've got sleep. Yeah, yeah, we're fine.

I think we should talk about Sequin. Okay. And then I had a poll question for you after that. That's turkeys. Okay, gotcha. I didn't realize that that was a Thanksgiving. It's not a poll question to one person. There's a poll question I posed.

I wanted your analysis at the rest of the rest of. results of the poll. Your analysis. That's an interesting diversion. Your analysis, okay? That's what they did. That's what they did with Dallas got it after the game. They did a day to day, day, day, day, day, day, day, urine analysis.

Your analysis. Okay, let's keep rolling here. What did you think of that? What do you think of that anal six-sixthers graphic last night? Did you see that? So I need to say something here, okay? So I'm a little conflicted because there was a YouTube, I'm sorry, not a YouTube, there's an iTunes comment.

that I read over the weekend. Uh-oh. That was saying that, like, my naivity, my naive nature is like, is like getting annoying to this person? Okay. You don't have to read every comment. No. And he's like, you got to know what's going on, like, outside of sports. And we'll save that discussion for a different day.

But the person sitting next me at the game showed me the graphic. And I didn't. I thought he was like asking about the font or like the picture. And then he's like, no, look what it says here. And then I said, you know what? It's just like I didn't put that together. So yeah, I didn't have to say. Obviously they didn't either.

I didn't have the same laugh as everyone. Yeah, I probably had the same view as the graphic designer or I was focused more on the font. Pretty funny. Okay. Do you think that this is the best individual performance you've ever witnessed from Seek-1 Barkley. By a running back. He's on pace to to break Eric Dickerson now. You mean that game or this? No, this season. The season. It's hard to say. Let me

let me think about this here. Yeah, I mean, at that position, so at that position, like I thought that, you know, Lane Johnson's had some years where he was like outstanding. But probably, yeah, I would have to say over the course of a season, this is historic, the pace that he's on, and the way that he's playing. He's already got his season high, his career high for rushing yards in his season. He's changing games. It's like, you know, he said seven 100-yard rushing games this season.

Think about that, right? This is becoming the normal. And it's, I was thinking about this actually. Maybe next week when we, because this week we have one fewer show, so it's a little denser. Maybe not as much time, but maybe next week we should do a draft of Sequin stats. I like this. What's the most important impressive Sequin stat you can come up with? I like that.

I was thinking about this actually on the rental car bus, I remember. Sounds depressing. Well, that was a whole. I'll tell you that story at the end of the day. Let me add it to the rundown. Yeah, add that because I was very, very close to missing my flight. Like, very close. A lot of

No one can you I always say no one cares about your travel complaints But For the sake of conversation I'll bring up to you But I was thinking about this We love like The plucky underdog story

You know the Boston's You know when Boston Scott has like the three four touchdown game But I got to say There is something like special about seeing A superstar and elite player Somebody in top four up coming in and still exceeding expectations. Yeah, like AJ Brown in 2020.

I think about that. Like this is, you know, because you, you never root for like the brawn or you never, you know, unless he's on your team, I'm saying, right? People kind of poke at at the superstar. Sequin is like such a, it's such a joy to watch like someone who's that good because it's just like this is. But it's also like he's never been this good. Well, at Penn State he was, but not in the NFL, yeah. I mean, I think back, the best AQUA performance ever saw was the Rose Bowl game against USC. And those who are watching who saw that game know exactly what I'm talking about.

Like, you saw that game and you're like, I've never seen a running back like this before. I think he's better than he was then, even, because then it was just like he's the best athlete on the field, which is still the case, but it's a little bit of a different viewing experience. It's like he's doing things at such a high level as a pure running back that go even beyond just his ability to sprint to the open field and beat these guys on these like these hoom 70 plus card touchdown runs, which are becoming commonplace. It's insane. I'm just, I'm so impressed with like every single carry he has. He is getting the most that anybody could possibly get on those. And obviously the offensive line deserves a ton of credit for the holes that they are getting for him. I just, we've talked about it before.

I can't get over how, how it's even, it's like the 100th percentile outcome of the theory behind it that we've got these guys who could get five, six yards, but we need the explosive plays. And he's turning that in and like all the comparisons with the Giants offense to this offense. Yeah. What's it going to open up for him? It's been, it's been unbelievable. Now, like the volume, it is a little bit concerning that you have to, you have to find ways somehow to steal it off of him. but in terms of like the MVP race, the fact that he is still looking as good as he is

with all this volume, it's like that's support for it because he's not breaking down. You're right. You're right. And Nick Siriani said, you worry about that money to Saturday, not Sunday.

But I asked, I asked Sequin specifically last night, I said you were confident in March and you were confident in August. but like is this better than you even you expected and his quote was yeah but to be honest i'm not surprised i didn't know i would have this type of season but i'm thankful to be here i'm thankful for the fresh start he talked about his his family his fiance uh the people around him they thought uh quote this was a spot i could rewrite my story and show everyone the type of player i think i can be

and i was meant to be and it's working out right now um so this is you're right this is like proof of concept coming to bear and I think you can say this is a real running back in the offense right but yeah it's it's it's it's rare that you have like the most hype guy meet the hype and the other thing too and and lane Johnson I talked about this after the Washington game and Lane Johnson referred to it again last night like behind the scenes he's really well liked I mean you even see like the interview they had with Jalen Hertz post game and and and just Some of the, you know, you hear AJ Brown talking about him and you just hear different anecdotes in the locker room. It's, it's like he's doing everything that DeMarco Murray didn't do.

Right. Well, yeah, I mean, like, including, like, getting four yards. No, but I'm saying, but like, DeMarco Murray looked like he was like a cowboy mercenary who was here, you know. And he also stunk. Yeah, but like, Sequin has, no, but also like, you know, he, like wasn't practicing one day. Malcolm Jenkins comes to give him the chair. He like the electric chair. No, he doesn't like how the offense is running here.

Sequin's been such a good fit, you know, just anecdotally, and I know we can like overstate this sometimes. But when Kenny Gainwell scored that touchdown, like the way Sequin sprinted over and was like so excited about Gainwell, I don't think that was inauthentic. Like I think that was how he genuinely felt in that moment. And so, yeah, he's hit. It reminds me, I know you talk about it on the show, the T.O. year. Yeah.

But it's, to me, because my frame of reference is A.J. Brown, because we're there. Yeah. It's like A.J. Brown where it's like, wow, this is even better than you thought it was going to be. Yeah. And I think it even tops that A.J. Brown season, which is wild to say. It's always fun to see the guy who, like, professional athletes and teammates are gawking over. Like they are blown away by how good he is. And like that's that's the mark that he is exceeding. It's been it's been amazing to watch.

How concerned are you about the workload stuff? I wish there was a stat that I can see. And maybe there is. I couldn't find it in true media. But the amount of tackles you take, like the amount of times you're tackled. Because like for instance, he had runs last night. They were, that he didn't get touched. It was, it was just like running wind sprints, basically, right?

Yeah. So. Shout out to everybody who ran the Philadelphia Marathon this weekend. Shout out to Mike Kerrigan and other people who were listening to PHOI as they ran it. But I feel like Zeguan ran a marathon last night. Well, yeah. So, I mean, I tend to think about the hits you take more so than just like the carries you have. Not all carries are created equal.

And so I think that I would love to see that number. But I haven't, I mean, some guys are just different. Like, LeBron James is built different. Derek Henry is built different. You know, it's different Lee. Different Lee. Thank you. Okay, the adverb.

I'm sorry. Sorry. No, that's fine. I should be corrected if I get a wrong incorrect. You're going with the colloquial phrasing. That's totally fine. And so, you know, I saw the interview that Devin McCordy, I hope wasn't Jason. I think it was Devin McCordy had with A.J. Brown.

And AJ said that he told Nick Siriani earlier this year that Derek Henry is like the best running back he's ever played with. And then he's all Seguan Parkley jump backwards. And he's like, okay, Seekwan's the best running back ever played with. And he's like, I love, he's like, I love Derek Henry. I don't want to get ahead of the game. We're playing this this weekend. This was before the past game. but he's like, I,

well, they're different type of players. I've never seen someone like Sequin. I feel like Derek Henry might be the running back you would want if you have a bad offensive line. But if you have a good offensive line, you want Sequan. Interesting. I don't know. That brings me to my next point, which is balls.

And I wanted to ask you, Sequin leaves this game getting hit in the little Sequans at one point. I'm curious what you think, if you approached Seekwan Barkley before again, game and say, yeah, all right, you're going to get hit in the balls. How many yards from scrimmage do you think is a fair tradeoff for that? What number do you think that would be for him?

I have no idea. I want to ask him this question. Okay, yeah. But I don't know what do you think? Like, what's, I have no way to answer this question. Like, say if you get 150 yards from scrimmage, would you take one shot to the nuts? My guess is yes, like that. But I don't know.

I don't know why I'm answering this question. He's running style. If he's worried this could be the one. You ask him that and report back to me. This is one of those where you know how you say, I don't have to read every comment. I do read every comment. But the one thing when I did like show notes a few weeks ago for myself, like show review, I'm like you don't have to answer every question either.

And so I don't have to answer that question. You're a reporter. You want people to answer your questions. True. But sometimes you're like, you know what? I can't speak with education about that. And I think the key is because what he's going to say is, well, I would do it for a win. But you don't know.

You can't. So what level would close to guarantee a win? I don't know. Maybe 200? Report back to me on that one. I'm curious. I'm curious what you find out. Poor Jane is.

I mean, the monkey's paw situation for that guy. He's asking for another great offensive season, the 9-and-2 start to the season. But at what cost a running back in the MVP conversation? the guy must be just tossing and turn it and having a terrible time. Yeah, I was talking to the person next to me in the press box yesterday. I'm like, you know, I've written four Sequin features already. And I'm always like, you know, am I, is there too much Sequin? And the guy was like, no, this town's like crazy about Sequin right now.

And everyone, like the feature that I wrote about, you know, is he changing like the way the running back markets viewed? him and Derek Henry are playing this this weekend. Josh Jacobs, another big game. Yeah, I wrote something on the touch, you know, the push, touch, or the quarterback sneak touchdowns, and he's like, you know, if you don't want that, score yourself. And so he runs for a 71 yard or a 70 yarder yesterday, right? And so, yeah, some of these are like the gifts that keep on giving.

And I have a few other Sequin ideas. And fortunately, Sequin has been a joy to cover so far. Okay. What about from the rest of the passing game yesterday, Zach? Jalen Hertz 15 of 22 for 179 yards and a touchdown, A.J. Brown 6 for 109. But then after that, you know, Sequin aside. Yeah. It's Goddard 4 for 19 and Dotson 1 for 4.

That's it. You know, they didn't have to pass a ton of this game. And I thought Jailant Hertz, on the TV tape, made a lot of good decisions in turning things down. We'll see what Fran says tomorrow. but like do you think there's going to come a time when they're going to have to lean on the passing game? Obviously they had no Devante in this game. Yeah, yeah. I frankly do because I think there's there's going to come a time when they're not playing from ahead.

And I said this throughout September, by the way. Like I said game script matters so much. And I think you're seeing that. You can dictate some of the time. That goes to Hollywood one times, all of a sudden he's talking about scripts. I've been Hollywood more than one time, and I talked about games games before I went to L.A., right? But yeah, game flow, let's call it that. Game flow matters in that if you're down two touchdowns, the way you play the game, the way you call the game, the way teams defend you, that's different.

And so there are going to be times when Jowen is going to have to carry them. Now, I thought A.J. had a really good game last night. Like the yards after the catch jumped out to me. But yeah, I think they missed Devante. I don't think Dallas Goddard's been like consistent enough. Now maybe that's target distribution. He had that great game against New Orleans, but otherwise. Yeah, disappointing yesterday that he was not more involved.

And I thought that I still think the passing game has another year. And you keep hearing that. But there's like for instance, if Baltimore jumps out to a lead, next next week and that's a team that's been vulnerable in the back end um jellin uh is it's going to have to win through the air uh perhaps against baltimore certainly i shouldn't say certainly but if they play detroit in the postseason if they have some of these other games there you're going to have to see jellan be be the guy and jellan alluded to that last night as well well you mentioned uh detroit him your turkeys.

Okay. So this is a poll that I put on social media today because as you could not afford to nap you had to put this poll out. There are no Eagles flights remaining. It took two hours for you to tweet. There are no Eagles flights remaining this year. Okay. When is the next Eagles flight?

I'll give you four options. Detroit for the NFC championship game. New Orleans for the Super Bowl. A non-Detroy NFC team. or no more fights at all. So for those who don't, who can't put this together, if it's New Orleans. For you morons. No, no, no, no.

For all of you dumb, dumbs out there who can't read. So if it's Detroit in the anniversary championship game, it means Detroit has a higher seed than them. If it's, if it's New Orleans for the Super Bowl, it means either the Eagles have gone to the Super Bowl. No, it means the Eagles either had the number one seat or Detroit lost before. the Eagles played them. If it's a non-Detroyd energy team, it means the Eagles stumbled down the stretch and they don't get the two-seed and a team like, I don't know who would be, who would be ahead of them, but the Eagles would have to collapse at this point, not to get the two-seat. And then no more flights means that they lose before the NFC championship game.

And of course, for those of you who are even dumber than that, a flight is when you go on a plane to get from one place to another. And the Super Bowl is when the two teams who are playing for the NFL championship play one game to decide. No, okay, okay, okay, okay, please stop that. I thought that was a worthwhile explanation. And then the other part of this explanation, too, because people actually did ask me this.

The Eagles take either trains or buses to Baltimore and Washington. Those were the two remaining road trips. And actually from speaking to some of the players over the years, they actually think those driving trips or train trips are not that much different than like a home game in terms of the wear and tear on the body. Except for Wayne Johnson, you said. Well, yeah, okay.

I talked about that on the show. And then actually, this is another thing. I remember talking to a player who played out in the NFC West, and he was from the West Coast. And the thing that he didn't realize was like how, and you hear this from baseball players. Yeah. Yeah, you hear from baseball players a lot.

It's like how much easier travel is when you're on the East Coast, right? Like if you play in Seattle, your closest game is still like three hours away flying, right? If you play in Philadelphia, then the jets, the giants, the commanders, the Ravens are all bus slash trains. Yeah, and even New England you could, but they fly. Yeah, that is nice. Okay, and what's a bus? Jerome Bettis. All right, I would do my turkeys.

I would go to a non-Lions team in the NFC. That's like one turkey. I don't see that happening. I'm going to say, I do think that the most, like, odds are the most realistic answer is no more flights. Interact, okay, because do you think there's more possibilities for that? That they would lose? Yeah. So that would go, I'm going to go 39 turkeys on that.

That's 40. So I got 60 left. I'm going to go, I'm going to go 35 Detroit, 25, New Orleans. Okay. So far, the poll results are 52% Detroit, 35.6% New Orleans, 3.9% a non-Detroy NFC team, and 8.2% no more flights. What about you? I would go 40 on Detroit,

20 on, or let's go 25 on no more flights, let's go 20 on Super Bowl, and then the remaining five on a non-Detrily. Yeah, because if you're the two-city, you still got to win two games just to get to Detroit, right? Exactly. That's tough. All right, let's take a little break.

and allow everybody to quickly Google what a train is. I got a good friend who just flew out to Los Angeles a couple days ago, and my guy, he just loves technology. And the idea of getting to see an event in a place that is new, and most of all got to experience all of these bathrooms, he just all he wanted to do was check out every single bathroom lick him clean every single one just to say wow look at these bathrooms

this is crazy um but he also like he doesn't he doesn't want he's not a kind of guy he's going to throw money away so he wasn't going to buy tickets unless he knew he could get there so he had to get the flight had to get there had to get his rental car had to head to the intimate dome and then figure out if he could get tickets and he did thanks to game time. Game time is the best ticketing app in the business and the best place to get last minute tickets

when those prices are dropping. How much did those prices drop? Do you get a good deal? Yeah, I get a decent deal. My man. Yeah. Guess what? My friend was Zach.

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Awesome. Dynamite contribution. Thank you. All right. Let's move to defense, which I have here. I'm curious, was there, when you were talking to guys in the locker room, I don't know if this came up or not, but like, what level do you feel like the the players on defense are giving credit to vic fangio for how well they're playing uh yeah in the i mean i wouldn't say specifically specifically last night but over in general

in general there's a lot of um praise for vick fangio but also you know like even speaking the jel and carter the other day talking about um the old school approach of vick of vangio jell and carter talked about like the way he could play every snap and saying well he was playing every snap again last night until the last couple drives says like it was up to vick they'd be hitting in practice he's he's like vic gets you ready for this um and there's a lot of talk about like the the trust that vic has in this group and pride i think that because look the players know like the stuff that was said out of miami last year and i think like this this group kind of takes pride in their ability to be coachable um and speaking to guys like nicoby and zach bonn you you know you

you hear what he's doing with the linebacker spots. And yeah, I mean, in the back end. So it's been pretty consistent. And I think Vic Fangio is, I always lean on the players. I always say the players make plays. Like, you know, Gerard Mayo had a line yesterday that once you get between the white lines, he can't do anything anymore. The players making the plays, right?

But I think Vic Fangio has been a... Feels like probably not the best message for a coach to say. No, probably not. But I appreciate the honesty. But I think Vic Fangio has been a differential. this year. I don't think there's any doubt about it. And I also, to be fair, I think, I think there are a lot of levels to it. I think, as you have talked about, it's not just the scheme, it's also the game planning, it's also the in-game adjustments, which you saw yesterday. It's also

the staff, right? Like the rest of the coaches, like if you do the thought exercise of would Quinnianne Mitchell and Cooper DeGene have been as good if they were drafted to last year's team as rookies as they are this year. And there's absolutely no way to know, but my intuition is probably not as good, right? Whether that is the position coaches that they have or the way that they're being utilized. But like, you go back to 2022 when we talked about that team, how like every player was exceeding expectations. I mean, almost every player on this defense is exceeding expectations.

They are all, like, they're playing well together. They play with great energy. And, like, schematically, it's very sound. And, like, they're just, they're playing awesome. And next week, we'll get another test against the best offensive football with the Ravens. But, I mean, as we, as, as Fran and I talked about on the watch along, there's, like, there's a difference between elite defenses and good defenses that are often more a reflection of who they're playing. And I think right now that this is an elite defense. You're absolutely right because, you know, I hear Professor Selman say this on Friday show when I listen back to it.

I hate Cyclone Barkley. No, the 2022 team, they did feast on bad quarterbacks, right? This team this year has played Matthew Stafford. They played Joe Burrow. I mean, Trevor Lawrence. Sounds like somebody wants to relitigate. Trevor Lawrence had a bad season. He's having a bad season.

He's still a talented quarterback. Jaden Daniels was playing well before, you know, hitting the Eagles, really. I mean, even going back, week one, Jordan Love, You know, I thought the Eagles were, they were still finding themselves there, but they did some things to Jordan Love there. Really, the only quarterback who's had their way against them is, had his way against them is Baker Mayfield. Yeah. There you go. What happened on the rental car bus?

So, my plane was leaving at 1255. Last night. This morning, technically. And 355 East Coast time. What's that? 355 East Coast Time. Yep. And I,

boarding was starting at. Now did you pack up all your stuff to bring to the car? Oh, yeah, yeah. In the stadium. So you could leave straight from the stadium. Yeah, yeah. 1220 was the, um, was like when boarding was starting, okay, on the plane. I get to, I leave the stadium at 11.

It's a far walk. It takes me 15 minutes to walk to the car. Then it takes me. 1115. Yeah. It takes me 10, I already filled the car up with gas, right? It takes me 10 minutes to get to the rental car place. Okay.

Perfect time. Okay. No shuttle. No shuttle. I go inside. Oh, the shuttle comes every 10 minutes. You're fine. 14 minutes goes by.

No shuttle. I go back inside and I'm saying, I'm starting to get a little worried. And they're like, yeah, there's a lot of traffic in the area. I'm like, okay? That's one a year. I mean, there is a lot of traffic around L.A.X, okay? And then there's a shuttle that come. It's the 17 minute market.

The shuttle comes and doesn't stop and like goes right through. And I'm. And I go in and I say to like the managing. This is unacceptable. No, no, no. I'm like, what's going on? And they're like, yeah, actually that driver's shift is over. So.

Oh, no. And I was like, I was like, well, what am I supposed? And they're like, we're really sorry. This doesn't typically happen. There's a lot of, you know, we phone someone in. They're going to be here soon. And I'm like prepared to take like a lift or an Uber. at that point.

And then finally one comes, but this traffic is a real thing. And this driver was very nice, and I'm speaking to her. And she stops. And she's like, you won't believe this. There's a high-speed chase going on.

And I'm like, this is like OJ Simpson, right? So then finally, you know, this is like bumper to bumper. I think LAX at this hour is known to be like really busy. And so, we're at 12 o'clock okay and you've got status though you're pre-check oh just wait just wait 12 o'clock and and I'm like you know

and because because her and I were talking she kind of saw the concern on my face and she's like you know terminal five is like one terminal over at this point it might make sense for you just to like run there then wait in this traffic she got the scatter on you from the valet yeah And so she's like, just use the crosswalk, okay? So fine. I get there. I've run over. I'm texting Olivia, Reiner, and, and.

Now you're going to be sweaty for a red eye flight. So I get to, I get to security at 1210. TSA free is closed. Whoa. And not just to CSA free. Not just a CFRICT. Not just like, like, relax. Like, not just a CSA free closed.

And so then there's a flight to, either Mexico or Honduras and I don't know what you want because the people in line had They're not the same. I know they're not the same. The passports, I was looking at the passports of the people in mine and there was a Honduras passport

and there was a Mexico passport. So maybe it wasn't going to either of them, but there was someone who holds a passport There was a group of people who held passports from Honduras, a group of people who held passports from Mexico. Okay. All of them were in the main security line, okay? And this was, this was.

And you're thinking I'm an American, I should go to the front. I was not thinking that at all. But like, I'm like getting, you know, I don't get to the security. The plane's already boarding at this point. And they give you this like card that shows your T-Safe pre- but it's not a T-Safi line. So I thought... So you don't have to take off your shoes and your belt.

Yeah, but apparently you still have to take out your electronics, which I didn't put together. Come on. So it goes through and then they take my bag. Oh, no. And they have to scan the bag. And I'm like, well, I'm TSA pre. I'm pre. I'm pre. I'm pre. I wasn't like that.

I was just like, excuse me, sir, my plane is boarding right now. And then, but I finally, I made it in the nick of time, like, when, like, the last group was boarding. you must have been so stressed out um i i mean like you know i i i made it i didn't get a chance to uh uh like i i usually get a water a snack like my kids like a gift that's fine i don't need to do that that's fine i don't even go to the men's room i don't even like get water like i just i just get right onto this plane and you know you have to put your bag like in the back when you know i was i was sitting in row 11 and i had to put my bag you know i had to find overhead behind which is fine like I'm on the plane so that's good.

Which is fine. It's fun. I'd be doing. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, but I'm like huffing, puffing and sweating, you know. Blowing that house down. And take out the laptop and then I start transcribing the, um, uh, at that point, that was

brandy graham. But yeah, so I made the plan just in the nick of time. But I thought I would have time to spare. Honestly, I thought I'd start working in the gate. Lost some, lost some years on your life with that stress. Was the, was that too long? Was that too long of a story? I would like 10 more minutes.

Okay. All right. What else you have? I have 69 here. 69? What? That's your hotel temperature? We actually pegged that, right?

Somewhere between like 68 and 70, okay? Depending on the day. Now you mentioned on the post game show. You also had a meet up with the great Tony Asenda. Yes. And I met Taylor. Okay. Now, how quickly did the...

the faux pa with his sister come up. Right away. Okay. Yeah. And first of all, Tony's awesome. Like, I'm such a fan of his work. A friend of the show. It's a little problematic that he was engaged to his sister.

He wasn't engaged. Come on, Tony. It wasn't that. But Tell her, she was so nice. And she said that, you know, she can finally put, you know, like a face with a voice. Mm-hmm. Right. And then I made the joke, I'm taller than.

I sound right. I don't know if I don't know if she totally understood you know you can't because I think I got like a fake laugh so it either wasn't a funny joke or it probably where I didn't deliver it well. But yeah, that joke fell flat and then I'm thinking else. You know, it's like I'm around someone who does comedy for a living, you know, like she's in these shows and my my joke fell flat. But it was great catching up with Tony and yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was meeting actually a friend of Julia and mine from high school for dinner with with his significant other, his girlfriend. So it was, it was, it was, it was very nice. Okay. Well, what was their take on the, on the, the fiance thing? Oh, they thought it was funny. Yeah,

they thought it was funny. Yeah. I mean, I was very apologetic that night. So, okay. Yeah. And then we, we talked about the, uh, we were talking about, um, we were talking about, we were talking about about the story from last week. Oh, you're, when you were getting into sushi, when Vinny was getting into sushi? When Vinny was getting in sushi, yeah. And that actually may tell her laugh. Okay. But they could understand exactly where I was coming from.

Everybody can understand where you're coming from. It doesn't make it any less funny. I mean, it's no, I'm taller than I sound, but it's still very funny. Yeah, that one, that joke did not go over well. All right, Zach. What's to come for the Eagles this week, given the Thanksgiving schedule, and we are not going to hear from Nick Siriani today. Is he ducking you?

I wish we're such. I don't think Nick's ducking us, I think, but I would say, respectfully, Nick, we're all on a lack of sleep here. Like, right? But no, we'll catch up with Nick tomorrow. We'll catch up with coordinators and players on Wednesday. We won't be in there on Thursday. So we'll have one fewer day than usual.

But a big game, really looking forward to this game on Sunday against Baltimore. I think it's the toughest game of the year. And so one fewer day to prepare for it. Scouting in tonight. Yes, you're right. You could still make the game. I kind of was thinking when you said that. I said, shoot, I should have stayed.

I mean, I got another day at the stadium, another day in Manhattan Beach. Like, I would have loved that. How were those Balmer bathrooms? So I got to tell you, you know, it is true there are a lot of urinals there uh like more so as far as the eye can see like more than you could have you know you definitely don't have to wait to use a bathroom there right i thought was an amazing like uh like pot-hry all around like a just out in the open all kinds of urinals no there's just everywhere you turn there's a bathroom you know it's um i don't outstanding

view us and an outstanding viewing experience okay i sat upstairs the terrace level um but you still felt like you were in the action. The scoreboard, the Halo scoreboard, enhances the experience. Like, it is really cool there. I went to the wall, which is, you know, if you saw 60 minutes, you know, and I thought the wall was kind of overrated.

It's basically just like, now it's atypical for the NBA, but it's like a college student section, but you're right on top of the action. Like it goes up vertically. You're right on top of the action. Good use of indoor outdoor space. at the arena. I like that. Are you like, do you have notes here that you're reading from?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I would prefer if they integrated more of a standing room viewing of the game, you know, like you go to a baseball game and you can eat, sit there with your food and watch it. But I think Steve Ballmer wanted to be more like a theater, you know, where, because he wants you in your seats. Okay. It's nice to have chargers at the seats. That's a good touch.

The buttons for in-seat participation, I didn't find. mind to be that. In seat participation? Yeah, like there's like, so you have like joystick basically with buttons. And so if they do something on the on the screen, it's like choose this button or that button and it's the way they kind of pull it and then you can, you can do like different lights with it. The touchless technology has so much potential still needs to, oh, you need, okay. We appreciate those of you watching on TV, head over to LPHLY.com for more. Yeah, the touchless technology still needs to work itself out from a customer perspective. It's a very serious review that you have undertaken.

Because, so what you do is, is you have an app that, and then you take a photo of your face, you know, and then everything, everything is facial recognition technology. So when you buy your, when you get your food, they scan, you know, you just pick it up and they charge the card that stored. It's dystopian. Into your thing. You know, when you walk into the stadium, you don't, like, scan anything. You just walk right in and, like, they scan your face. And so I had to, you know, but I bought the tickets last minute.

And I didn't have the app. And so I had to download the app and, like, that took some time. But there's still consumers who are still figuring out this technology. And so the lines were longer than they should be because people were, like, you know, trying to get their face in or they didn't. didn't properly upload it or some people opted out of that so they had to do their phone and so the lines were longer than it needed to be um it makes more sense for regular visitors it creates an obstacle for solo visitors um my issue is um but way too much price gouging going on there uh

yeah of course you know and that's that's my big hang up i mean i actually really respect what Arthur Blank did down in Atlanta where like you know if you get food in the in the stadium it's the same as like food outside the stadium parking's not like supposed to be astronaut you know LA is really taking advantage of the fact that there's there's really not anywhere else to park now they want you to ride chair or or that kind of thing you know that I think there's certain shuttles from different areas but I was coming straight from the airport so I had no choice but from a viewing yeah but if they weren't charging so much for those concessions how else would they pay for those buttons on the seats?

But from a viewing, a technological and a convenience perspective, it's awesome. Like, it's totally different than going to a basketball game at the Wells Fargo Center. It's, you see, you see why, you know, this is the arena of the future. Doesn't sound that great to me. Okay. All right. Well, some things you have to experience.

But I will say, you have a new inductee into the good technology upgrade since our, Burroughs Hall of Fame. Congratulations to the Easy Pass. The Easy Pass. One that felt revolutionary at the time and actually delivered. So shout out to the Easy Pass. We're now up to three, I think. I had a friend in high school who I think

is someone who's close to them worked as a at the toll booth. And so it made that job kind of obsolete. I felt bad for that. Okay. The technology is good.

I agree. I agree. Okay. Yeah. Fran says when Zach scanned his face at the intimate dome, little did he know that opened the door for technology to track him and do everything it could 36 hours later to keep him in Los Angeles. I got to say, first off, it's the Intuit Dome. Okay? Think of it like it. Yeah, we know you're pretty into it.

No, it's intuitive. Think about that. It's intuitive. Now, that's not why it's called the Intuitive Dome, but it is intuitive. Facial technology doesn't like concern me the way it. does some other people. Like, you know, yeah, if you're, I don't have anything to, you know, like, I don't know. I think that you're always being tracked in a certain respect.

Yeah, because of your technology overlords. The benefit of the facial technology, look, you don't have to wait in line for it to get into the game. What an inconvenience to wait four more minutes on the line? That's totally fun. All right. You got to get going. Yeah. We got to get going.

That'll do it for this episode of the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast. Diving deep into the film tomorrow with Fran Duffy. Then on Wednesday, live from Reading Terminal, going to be Jamie and Fran at 2.30. A little schedule tweak to keep in mind with Zach checking in. No show on Thursday, Thanksgiving, and then back on Friday with Danes, Fran, Zach, and myself. A nice forehander. So we are looking forward to that. A big game week.

Thanks to everybody for watching. watching and listening live. Thank you to Julia for making it happen. Shout out to Big Farts Jones. Head up, my friend. We've got your back. And for all of us here, we shout out to everybody in the chat. And as always, we love you.