PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - On to the LA Rams... The Eagles defense gets another big test with QB Matthew Stafford & Sean McVay

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Join the PHLY Eagles show as they check in with Zach Berman checking in from the Eagles practice facility after head coach Nick Sirianni’s press conference to recap that. Super Bowl champ, Vinny Curry joins the show to talk about coming off the “mini-bye” and facing a Rams offense. A defensive Rookie of the year main stage event this weekend between Eagles CB Quinyon Mitchell & Rams DE Jared Verse. An updated look at the NFL’s MVP race and can Saquon Barkley be the first RB in 12 years to win one, since Adrian Peterson? Zach & Bo admitted to what they were wrong about with the Eagles this season, so Jamie & Rich will keep that going today. The Eagles & Detroit Lions look like the crown jewels of the NFC & we’ll examine their remaining schedules to see how viable the #1 seed could be. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Happy Wednesday to all out there. Welcome into the P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast presented by our friends at Bet365. You can find out why. It's never ordinary at Bet365. And make sure you're keeping your eyes peeled for our custom pHLY odds boosts every weekend. Speaking of that, Rich, after the show today, I got to get into the Bet365 Lab and cook up a winning parlay this weekend on this Wednesday. Does anything feel like a certainty for you this weekend? A Jalen Hertz touchdown, Sequin getting in the end zone, AJ Brown Yards, anything you're feeling on this oneza?

You don't want my advice. I'm telling you, I've been doing those parlayers for the Sixers show. I hope nobody's falling because you're just losing money left and right. It's been some tough sledding out there for gamblers. You're good at it, though. I try to be. It's hard. The worst as a better is when you,

know the right play and don't play it. Like, you know, it's just, that's what eats you up all week is. Why would that be the case? You just, you just overthink it, you get cold feet. Yeah, like, sometimes you try to

line read. I forget what the game was last weekend. Oh, it was Steelers Ravens. And I was sitting on Friday doing the show with Anthony and I was like, the underdog in this matchup is 18, 2, and 1 in the last 20 games. Tomlin Harbaugh I've been playing for 15 years and the point differential is like 10 points in all the

games. It's always a one or two of a point game. And I was like, the Steelers are the play this weekend. Just go with the Dunderdog. Don't overthink this. And what do I do? I played the Ravens. So like stuff like that, eat you alive. But we have a lot to get into today. Zach Berman is going to join the show after the Nick Siriani press conference from the NovaCare Center. We may or may not hear from Vinnie Curry, who is currently in a doctor's appointment. So we'll see a Vinnie, able to wiggle out of there in time. Can he live streaming a doctor's appointment? I mean, he set the bar pretty high, but that would be some great stuff right there.

Yeah. But real quick, as we always do, just kind of recapping last Thursday, we haven't been on a microphone together since the finale of that game. Pretty damn cool. The Eagles really are, you know, six in a row. They're humming on all cylinders rich. There's a lot to like about this team. I think the only minor, you know, quip, as some people have, is the passing game.

isn't really, you know, knocking your socks off. But they're winning football games. And unlike last year where they were winning football games and you kind of felt bad about it, they're winning football games now and you feel good about it because of the defense. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. And I think we're going to get into this

because Zach and Bo yesterday, Jamie, they talked about what they got wrong from the preseason, from the off season, just things that have changed now that they have watched. What has it been? 10 games so far for a, or 11 games? What are they?

Nine and two or eight and two? Eight and two. Okay. Yeah. Whatever. One of those two. Two losses. They all blend together.

The Eagles are winning a bunch of games right now. But one of the things I would not have said before the year started is that the passing game is mediocre. Sure. And they look great, right? Because the other three facets, right, if you split the two main phases of the game, I know they're special teams as well. But if you split the two main phases, offense, defense, split those into two, run defense, run offense, pass offense. past defense. If you would have told me the past offense was the worst of the four.

I know. And the thing that I had the most questions about at this point of the year, I would have said that this team is a disaster probably. And they are far from a disaster. They have been terrific. And I think that's what gives me hope, right? Because I think a lot of times, like, you find yourself talking yourself into a team, right? Absolutely.

If only this, this and this go right, they can win five or six games down the stretch. I mean, I feel like that's what we were doing in December, right? Definitely. Last year, we were like, you know, if they just start playing good football and don't look like a disorganized mess, all of those things. No, this actually seems realistic, right? Yeah. If Jalen Hertz, I know Fran in his film breakdown at all PHLY showed a little bit of optimism for the passing game, thinks it might not be quite too far off from clicking. That seems like a very realistic thing just because the players are awesome and we have seen in the past that this passing game can click.

So I'm feeling pretty good about these guys right now. Yeah, and we are going to get into the things we got wrong because maybe we'll get into the whole science and technology debate that Zach and Bo had yesterday as well. We probably won't, but we will get into what we got wrong. But Rich, I want to start with the two things that are just absolutely flooring me about this season are Sequin Barclay and Coynean Mitchell. And you just talked about it.

The past defense, if you had told me, you know, three months ago that the past defense was going to be supreme, and you were going to have a defensive rookie of the year candidate and a guy that was just shutting down, not only receivers, but some of the best receivers in the NFL, I would have been thrilled. Sequin Barclay, I knew was going to be good. I knew that great player was in him. But Quinyon Mitchell, like any draft pick, is a little bit of a hope and a prayer. Those are the two things that I cannot get over. And it's, I bring it up to say, you know, hat tip to Howie Roseman, because I think I saw Zach tweeting earlier today, or maybe it was

John Marks actually. You know, the difference in Sequin's contract compared to a very comparable Gabe Davis contract and the impact they're having on their teams. There's a bunch of those out there. I think there's Darnel Mooney's a little bit better than Gabe Davis. I think he's having a decent year for Atlanta. Gabe Davis, that's a rough one. Yeah, that's rough. And they were like, it was like 24 and 26 million guaranteed. So very comparable. And you look at the impact. Like Sequin Barclay has changed this team. But I kind of assume that was going to happen with this offensive line. You know, I expected that.

Quinion Mitchell is the one that I can't believe how good he is. And this week is huge. There's a stat out there via PFF. The only NFL quarterback with 375 plus coverage snaps and zero passing touchdowns allowed is Quinyon Mitchell. You've seen the list of guys he's gone up against. These are no scrubs. And he's holding them all.

TLC. Yeah. Don't go chasing waterfalls, Rich. you it's not even like he's playing scrubs and keeping them in check he's or excuse me he's not even like he's playing great quarter wide receivers and you know they're getting 55 65 70 yards no touchdown type of thing he's putting these guys in prison and they're getting 35 yards and less and he's going up against hall of fame type of guys quinion mitchell just absolutely has me in all of this season who do you think he's going to cover

this week because these guys have two awesome receivers they're such a weird team because they're very average. But when I look at the quarterback and those two receivers, they scare you. Yeah, they're good players. I mean, Puka Nakua, who I have in fantasy, he gets hurt all the time. Sure. He basically played like, I don't know, like a quarter in the first game

of the year in Detroit. Then he was out for a couple months. Like, it was just a disaster. But, I mean, that dude, when he is like healthy and good, he's horrifying. You throw him a little crossing route. He's just going to run over people. It's kind of like one of the most unique receivers I have seen.

I'm looking at this now. He's gone over 98 yards in three of his last four games since returning. And, Jamie, the only game that he didn't go over 98 yards in is when he punched a guy and got kicked out of the game. Good point. Quinion Mitchell is really good at, you know, talking a little smack getting into the opponent's head. So maybe try and get him to punch you, Quinyan, and then he might have an easier day the rest of the way. I think that's a good strategy to implement right away. Yeah, I kind of knew Quinyan was that dude when he was going toe to toe with Mike.

like Evans in the Tampa Bay game and being like that was a good sign right and that was you know I think obviously everybody was feeling pretty down about the Eagles sure right Baker Mayfield's gutting you you know right and you know Vic Fangio does this guy actually know what he's doing wow has that flipped but that was a rough game right they were completing every single short pass but then the mic'd up comes out later that week and he is talking smack to Mike Evans and you look at it like Mike Evans did not have a huge game against that week either that was probably a good sign moving forward that like okay right now the overall past events is a disaster but there's something that they can work with here and it's not a coincidence you know things turn the corner when cooper de jean

entered the starting lineup so you know that is great and it'll lead us right into the conversation i was watching the end of the show yesterday and a great job by zach and bow with the things they got wrong and i immediately thought of myself because bow pulled the staff here before the season and said you know what's your midseason prediction and i got two one i think is worse than the other. It's not a definite yet, but I think it's trending in the direction of me being very wrong. First, I thought they were going to need defensive end

help. And if you had talked to me during the by week, I would have been like, yep, they're going to be buyers at the deadline. They're going to go get a D-N. For the first month, they definitely need a defensive end help. Yeah, and now Josh Sweat has stepped it up. Nolan Smith has stepped it up. I mean, Jalen Carter is probably making all of their lives

easier. It's looking like it's a competent group of pass rushers and I was probably wrong. And I think this defensive end group is fine. It's not great. It's not elite. But when you have that elite secondary play, you can get away with competency at the edge rusher position.

And I think that's what they are. They're a competent group that didn't need to upgrade. I agree with that. The defensive line has been much better over the past few weeks. But it's like we have been saying, this defense is unlike any Eagles defense of the past 15 years, where it's definitely being built back to front. And that is, you know,

obviously those two things work hand in hand. But really, the coverage is just exceptional. I do want to point out, Mike has a great comment in the chat. Do you think Jamie does pre-show meetings to go over notices and points to cover every week and goes, I just want to talk about Quinnion Mitchell? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I didn't know you were going to do that.

I thought we were going to talk about what we got, what we went wrong. Yeah. You know, I did want to read that stat about the 375 coverage staff. So I am following our show script to a degree. But I will be honest. I love Quignan Mitchell and I don't care. Who knows it? And I want to talk about this kid and throw flowers at him every opportunity I get.

Well, this is a big week for you. Well, this is the defensive rookie of the year showdown. Jared Verst. Jamie's going to be watching this game. Sorry. I'm just going to be watching Quinyon and Jared Verse and who's going to go win an award. I'm sorry for interrupting you, but I imagine you watching this game and just rooting on Lane Johnson or Jordan Milada, whoever is blocking Jared Verse and just not even caring about the rest of the play. I won't.

I can see, like, imagine the Eagles losing by two touchdowns this week, but Jared Verse having a quiet game. And you start the postgame show with it. Look, the big point here is that Jared Verse got shut down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you're like completely happy. Vinny, everybody else is sad. Yeah. I'm like, but Quignan was great.

I think, lost the battle, but won the war. Fran and Bo are starting to get a little creeped out that I might need like a restraining order around Quinyon. But, yeah, you know, I love them. And it is, look, it's a national game. It's Sunday night football. The two odds on favorites to win the defensive rookie of the year. And what do awards mean, right? Like, ultimately, not much.

It's more cool for Quinyan and Eagles fans. But Jared Verst is the favorite. Quinion Mitchell is the second favorite. The thing that's probably going to hold him back here, and Jared versus a tremendous player. He's not getting the turnovers. And if he can come up with one in this kind of head-to-head, you know, rookie of the year battle on Sunday night football,

you just saw what he did to scary Terry McLaren on Thursday night football in front of the nationwide audience he had the man switch to the right side of the field which is something he's never done so Jared versus Quignon Mitchell is a great kind of not that they're battling each other but it's a great

they kind of are battling each other in my mind they are so I'm excited to see that one this is a one-on-one football game and I would say something that goes hand in hand with your mea culpa that you just offered is that when I got wrong is that I thought this team to be a two-loss team at this point of the year, the framing was going to have to be elite offense competent defense. Sure.

And I think, Jamie, like we know, like when you look at DVOA and other stats, it's very obvious that defense is the much more volatile side of the ball from here and year. Like those things, those things can flip. And I think we knew that. But the Eagles defense at the end of last year was so bad. So bad. It was ingrained in our head that, man, it's going to be hard to completely flip the script on this. But look, if you nail the coordinator higher, which they did, and you take two top 40 picks and nail both of those, things can turn pretty quickly, right? And look, there are other things that are probably less realistic and less, they're kind of more of a long shot, specifically the Zach Bond signing is crazy.

I mean, that's what I... That's never going to happen again, probably. Never would have seen that coming to this level. But, like, look, they turn the defense around faster. And I guess to move off of that point, too, when we can talk about Siriani, I guess, a little bit later. I know ZB is going to be here pretty soon is that, to me, the CEO coach or whatever you want to call, Nick, the two coordinators basically running their sides of the ball and having pretty close to complete autonomy, except when Nick says after the game that I called that stupid trick play or whatever it is, that has worked so far. Yeah. Particularly with Vic Fangio, I am blown away by how good.

good this defense is playing. I mean, I did the watchalong for the Eagles, Washington game. My my Chinese food is still in the, I just threw it out in the fridge. I offered it to you. Yeah, no, I didn't want it after a week. But I was just blown away watching that game, watching the defense. Like, yeah, they just come to play every single week. And look, probably one of these weeks, they're going to get lit up. That's the way modern football works. I don't know. They're not going to get lit up like crazy, though, is my point. No, like this secondary, I don't think is, I mean, I guess they show up every week. They do.

If you are going to light them up, you're going to have to earn it, is, I guess, my point. Yeah. They're not going to make it easy on you. And that's awesome because it's just the complete opposite of what, I mean, they, they were like. James Bradbury can't hurt us anymore. No, and guys running into each other in the secondary. I forget who that was. I think it was Avanti Maddox and Eli Ricks on the first possession against the bucks in that playoff game last year.

They just ran into each other. It wasn't even a pick play. It was just in the middle of the field. They just struck each other. They look like two guys running into each other doing a jackass stunt, basically. Shouldn't curse, sorry for everybody who said that. Is Jackass a curse? Well, I mean, I am citing it's a movie.

It's, yeah, and a long-running television franchise as well. Yeah. Anyway, it's been amazing. I still do. They're not still doing it, are they? I mean, I still watched, like, 3D. They are? They're pretty old.

Wow. They're going to do a new movie, Julia? I hope it's a new movie, but I saw something like that. Wow. You think Zach Berman was ever a jackass man? That's really funny. picturing Zach like settling in like Emily, there's a new jackass movie or show out.

Do you want to watch it? Yeah, the things that'll never happen. But let's take a break here because Zach Berman's going to be joining us momentarily and tell you about some of our friends. Do you think Zach knows what jackass is? It's a great question. We'll ask them right away. But we'll tell you about some of our friends.

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Regain your confidence. Visit gladhair MCTR.com. or call 6109804,000 to get started. All right, I believe we are going to head down to the Novacare Center. And of course, this is the P.HLY Eagles podcast brought to you by our friends over at Bet365. Julia is our man, the number one jackass fan in the country with us. Number one window fan in the country. Yeah, big window guy, Zach Berman.

Me and Zach had a lovely evening, a little date night this week. me and him spent a Monday night at a very, very swanky affair. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it was business cat. What do you, when you hear business casual, what do you expect? Or what do you think is like the bare minimum of like decency? Truthfully, as somebody who has never really had a real job, I don't even know.

Would it be, would it be no tie kind of the way to go about it? So I had to take the girls to gymnastics and hello, Zach. We'll get to here momentarily. And my wife showed up and she goes, you know, we were going to a nice, nice establishment in town. And she said, is that where you're wearing? You know, that, like, kind of condescending wife thing. And I was like, yeah, I thought this was fine.

I just had a button-down shirt, some nice shoes and pants. She goes, you should probably wear a jacket. And I was like, but I was leaving right from gymnastics. So she planted this seat in my head of like, oh, no, because being underdress is the worst feeling in the world. Sure. And I texted Zach, and I was like, Zach, are you wearing a jacket? And he said, yeah, absolutely, brought a change of clothes.

And I knew the answer before I sent it, but I just kind of wanted to. And it got in my head so much that I drove home. And then I got home, I consulted with some college buddies. And they were like, nah, you can go like, you know, quarter zip or sweater. And I was like, now I'm all off. And I, you know, I scrambled last second. I went with the quarter zip sweater. That's fine.

I mean, I- And Zach showed me up with the jacket. Here's the issue, Jamie. You say being underdressed is the worst? I think being overdressed is the worst. You're not wrong. I'd rather be overdressed than underdress. Zach Berman, would you rather be overdressed or underdressed?

Oh, definitely overdressed. I would try to be overdressed, right? There we go. There is. You got me? Okay. Yeah, I would, I would, I disagree with Rich. I would definitely rather be overdressed.

Same. Than underdressed. Underdressed, you feel like you don't belong there. Overdressed, you like you, you can rationalize it. You're like, I'm dressing for, you know, the job that I want, right? That kind of thing, right? Not the job I had. But underdress, if you show up, you know, now there's a flip side of this.

Yeah. There's, you know, it's like a bell-shaped curve. If you're on a certain end of the curve, you can show up in anything and like, like if Jam and Hurd shows up to an event, he can, he can wear anything he wants, right? Because it's like you set the agenda. But when you're on the other side of the curve, like the side of the curve I'm on, you can't be underdress because then it's like, who's that guy in there? Exactly.

So the other part of the story I always had decided being overdressed. Zach, I didn't, I think I may have told you, I rushed so much and I was so like frazzled of like, oh, should I wear a jacket or a shirt or a quarter? I throw on a quarter zip sweater, not realizing, I guess a moth had gotten to it this off season. And there was not only a hole in the arm.

Not too much business casual. Yeah, there was also a hole under my nipple. So I was kind of like trying to like hold my arm close to my chest all night. So people didn't be like, who's this slob with the holes in his? sweater. Were you like shaking hands like this? Yeah.

Then it's like why see you walk around that way. I didn't notice. So you pulled it off well. Jamie's good company, man. Jamie's good hang. If you bring Jamie to any event, he'll, he'll, uh, he'll, uh, I can blend in. Well.

Yeah. Uh, so, Zach, number one most pressing question today, were you ever a fan of jackass? No. I didn't think so. I didn't think so.

I had never, you know, I, I think I saw the movie. Was there a jackass movie? Everybody was seen the movie. I've never watched the show. I do recall, what's it, Johnny Knoxville? Yeah. Is that his name?

Yeah. I mean, I'm familiar with the concept of it. I never watched it. Did you ever get the edge? I don't know if that comes up to a surprise. No, it's not a surprise. We were talking about it. And it was a funny image of you, like, settling down on the couch to unwind with some jackass.

No, I don't get the itch in that regard. Like my white joke's like, you know how some people have FOMO, right? She says like, I'm the first person she's met who doesn't experience FOMO, right? Like I'm not, you know, I kind of have, this is what I like to watch, this is what I like to read, this is what I like to do. I'm not, I'm not easily swayed in that regard. So, no, I don't. Before we get to the football, then what is Zach Berman currently watching on TV in his downtime? Monday night football, Sunday night football, Thursday night football.

Yeah, I mean, I'm being completely honest with you. This time of year, like I can see a lot of football. When I'm working late at night, I'll have NBA League pass on in the background. As far as like shows other than that, honestly, the last show I watched was the one. And when I watched the one on Netflix, which is about the, the, the rabbi who Yeah, yeah, yeah, the rabbi and the podcaster Who, uh, what's this?

This shouldn't happen or nobody wants this, I think. Nobody wants this, I think is right. That was a good. Nobody wants us. Yeah, that was a good show. That was a good show. We, we watched that, but I haven't, oh, and then, you know what? I did watch.

So I take that back. The last show I watched was the Aaron Hernandez thing on FX, you know, the miniseries. I watched that. Bo left when I told him I was watching it. I was like, of course. I'm going to watch the Aaron-Haron-Haron-Edist thing on Netflix. And what's the review? There's some pretty wild...

I mean... Yeah. I wouldn't watch it for the football clips. But you know what? They do a decent job of character development in there. So you do kind of get a sense of the characters. Yeah, fair enough. So, Zach, I guess the big news and we'll get your Siriani takeaways here.

Bryce Hoff undergoing a procedure today on the wrist. What's the ZB. breakdown or understanding of that situation going forward. Yeah, that's, yeah, that is the big news today. He's undergoing procedure on his left wrist tomorrow. He'll be out for, we don't know exactly how long, but he is going to miss time. And really the impetus for this is it's clearly been affecting him. You can see that in his playing time.

You can see that in his production. And he spent the last two games with a hard cast on his left wrist. And so there was the determination that, all right, let's listen. try to fix this. Let's get him right for later in the season. So the hope is that he's back later in the year, much healthier. That's the understanding I have here. So what does this mean for the Eagles? Well, Bryceoff hasn't been taking a significant amount of snaps during the past four to five weeks, but he is playing. And so I think that instead of this being distributed more among Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham, and obviously Josh Swett at the top of the depth chart,

you're going to see more Joe ton. And I think that's kind of the headline. here when you spin it forward is here's their third round pick who from what I understand has been playing real well behind the scenes you saw in the Dallas game he played 25 snaps did not get on the field against Washington but I would expect to see more of Jalick's hunt going forward not to say that he's going to play the Bryce off a lot of into snaps but it wouldn't surprise me if he's playing 15 to 20 percent of the snaps Zach I was just about to ask about Jalick's hunt and I think when he got drafted we all thought okay maybe but a bit of a project, right? If he's going to make an impact that's probably not going to be right away.

Would you say, and you mentioned kind of the behind the scenes and what the Eagles are probably seeing from him in practice and meetings and things like that. Have they been surprised at how quickly he's picked this stuff up? Yeah, you know what? I don't know if I'm framing surprised, but, but, but maybe that is accurate. I do know they've been impressed. I do know that going into the year, there was a question of, all right, here's someone. who played safety at Cornell, who played defense, you know, who played like outside linebacker at defense end at, you know, small school in Texas, right? And then he comes, he, in training camp, he looked like he belonged. Athletically, it was always there. And by the way, it was Houston

Baptist, the small school in Texas, Houston Christian, Houston Baptist. And so he looked like he, But he belonged. He had legitimate pass rush moves. And I think that, that, I think he brings some juice out there. I was impressed with him in camp. I know when scout team reps,

you know, I've spoken to guys who say, man, J.O.Ton can really play. You know, I recall speaking to Jordan Milata going into the Cleveland game when I was talking about Miles Garrett.

And he said, Joe, because I was playing like Miles Garrett in practice. Now, you know, that's, that's not like a one, one comparison. But the point is this is a guy that

I thought was going to have more of a redshirt type year in defense and you're seeing him play much more or you'll see him play a bigger role in defense than I anticipated. How excited is Zach Berman to watch the coaching battle of Sean McVeigh versus Vic Fangio. Now, a couple years ago,

I believe in 2019, Sean McVeigh, Matt LaFleur, and Kyle Shanahan were asked, who's the hardest defensive coordinator in the NFL to go up against? And their answer for three of the brightest young offensive minds in the game was Vic Fangio. You pumped? Yeah, definitely. And really, that's been the part of this defense. You know, I tend to be a players guy, right? Players win games, players, players lose games. But Vic Fangio has been such a difference to this defense. He's

changed this dramatically. I think, and I said this on the show with you guys two weeks ago, or maybe last week, that there was so much attention paid to his scheme. But I think from a week to week perspective, his game plans are especially on point. And they were prepared for Jayden Daniels last week, right? You know, they were prepared for Joe Burrow. They do a good job on a week-to-week basis. And I think they're going to be, now this is a tough matchup, right? These wide receivers are back healthy when I say these wide receivers, Cooper Cup and

Pooka Nakuwa. And that changes things quite a bit. And then you have those two. You have Kyron Williams in the backfield. Matthew Stafford, like, it doesn't take me far to walk in that locker room to hear praise for Matthew Stafford. So I am excited to see Vig Fangio against

John McVeigh, the Rams offense. I think it is going to be compelling. It is going to be intriguing, and I think this is part of why Vifangio's here. Zeeb, I saw that Siriani in his press conference today, he was pretty complimentary of Jordan Davis. And I feel like that's somebody we have not

talked about a ton this year, but in thinking back to last year, probably a month later, when the defense kind of fell apart, there were a lot of questions about Jordan Davis, right? I think there were some reports about, like, is this guy even in shape, those type of things or whatever. And Seriana, I think the gist of what he said today, and you can correct me if this is wrong,

is that, like, sometimes detackles don't get to make splash plays because they're eating up double teams and things like that. And he seemed like he was pretty happy with what Jordan Davis is giving the defense so far. I guess just from your standpoint is somebody who's around the team who watches them very closely and rewatches the games and things like that, what have you made of Jordan Davis's season so far? Yeah, good question. I think the way you explained it is right on.

And by the way, for 13 years, covering the team, 12 years, you know, I watched the games live. I watched the games back on Phil. I watched the TV cut. I watched the L-22. And I think I know what I'm talking about. And this year I'm joined by Fran Duffy,

and friend sends me his notes. And I'm like, oh, all right, I don't have to do all this work. I can just see what Fran says, right? Because Fran, Fran knows a friend's right on cue. And Fran is, he's spot on when he identified the way Jordan Davis is helping the run game. You know, you are seeing the effect there. He is occupying blockers out there. Now, he's not the presence in the passing game that I think was the hope when they drafted him.

But I think it is reasonable to praise George. Jordan Davis right now. But you also brought up a good point about the way last season and I think for Jordan Davis, for Jaylon Carter who played 100% of the snaps last week, for Josh Sweat who tailed off last season, this could be a big question. These guys have played well through 10 games. Let's see what they look like during the final seven games and then potentially two, three, four more there after. I saw you tweet out earlier the quote about Vic Fangio talking about Jalen Carter paying 100% of the snaps. seemed like kind of old school football guy

where he was just like, what's the difference between 90 and 100? He can do it. What do you make of that? Are we going to see, was that just a circumstance of the game? Or do you think there's a scenario where we see Jalen Carter

just not leave the field at all? Yeah, you know, I think that we, when I say we, the media fans, might pay more attention to percentages than the Eagles do. Absolutely. I think they're paying more attention. Yeah, no, I think they're paying attention to numbers

to like, a volume of snaps relative to the percentage of snaps, right? And so I think they go into the game saying, all right, he's going to play X snaps plus or minus five, let's say, right? And then it just so happens if there are fewer defensive plays in that game, then he would, you know, then you can hit it. I could say I'd never seen a defensive lineman play 100% of the snaps or the defensive tackle play 100% of the snaps in my time covering the team. I've seen Fletcher Cox had games where it's like 80 something and you're like, wow, how's he doing it? I was really impressed. And not just that.

Gailant Carter was playing high-level snaps, right? He was, you know, he was busting up the line. He was doing great out there. So, yeah, I don't expect to see him play 100% of the snaps every week, but I do expect him to see this type of volume. And this is something I'll give credit to Bo Wolf. Bo is awesome. You know, he was on top of this right away,

knowing Vic Fangio's history. You just look at the way Christian Wilkins played last year in Miami. Vic Fangio doesn't rotate the same rate that the Eagles have in past years, and you're seeing that right now with Janjaro's. Yeah, you are. I don't really have any other football questions, Zach. I do have a question about Los Angeles. How do you view that as a road city?

Like, where are your spots before covering a game there? I know it hasn't been, it hasn't been the entire time you've been on the beat, but sure they've been out there a few times playing multiple teams, multiple. I remember the game in 2017, away the Super Bowl year when they played in that little small soccer stadium in, I don't know, somewhere. Carson, California. Yeah, Carson, California. Good job.

Yeah. The Chargers. The Chargers. The Chargers. All-A thoughts. Give it to us. Yeah. So, by the way, quick anecdote about that game there.

Nick Siriani was coaching the wide receivers for the charges at the time. He was out at the dinner with his wife the night before the game. And the restaurant he was at was like overtaken by Eagles fans. And Nick had not seen anything like that to that point. So that was Nick's introduction to the way Eagles fans travel. I love L.A. I love going out there. It's a cool city.

there's so many different pockets that you can go to, you know, as, you know, whether I, you can go north to Pasadena. You can go to, there's,

there's in downtown LA. There's, there's the Hollywood area. Some people might like Beverly Hills. You got Santa Monica. You got, you know, I can give you the whole,

you know, you can go inland more. Manhattan Beach. Yeah, West Hollywood's a great spot. Manhattan Beach is a good spot. Oh, so I,

Yeah, so I really enjoy going to LA. I'm looking forward to this trip. I need to speak very clearly and concisely here. I want to see the Intuit Dome, okay, which is the new building that Los Angeles Clippers are playing in. I'm trying to get to see a game in the Intuit Dome when I go there. And if I can get in in time and I can get there, that's. I'm eager to do that. I have some friends from high school who live out there,

some friends from college who live out there, work out there. And then Sunday's game day, taking the red eye back. That's the other thing. I actually like taking red eyes back because if you take the day flight the next day and eats up your whole day. Actually, one of my big regrets from year one at PHLI was Eagle Seattle last year. I couldn't catch a fly. I couldn't catch a red eye home.

And the next day, Rich and Bo were doing the show from the Redding Terminal. That's right. I missed that show. Yeah. And so I, and you're flying six hours.

You don't land until 4.30 in the afternoon. So anyways, you, you take the flight overnight. It's better. I don't want to eat into Vinny's time here, but I really enjoy going to go. Well, he said the doctors.

We don't even know if he's going to show up. So you're all. All right. All right. Well, then I can roll. Oh, yeah. So, So it's a cool destination.

And Bo, he makes fun of me about this. Well, he makes fun of me about everything. But I really like SoFi Stadium. SoFi Stadium, it costs, what, $4.5 billion to build that? Like, you can see, it was money well spent. It might have been more than that. I mean, it is, it feels like an awesome place to watch a game. You know, the sight lines are great.

It's just a cool stadium. And so looking forward to, it will be my second time. Five and a half to six billion. Looking forward to that. Five and a half to six billion. A billion here, a billion there, it starts that up. Yeah, yeah, what's a billion? But yeah.

Fun fact about so far, Zach, that I learned during the Olympics this summer, they're turning it into the world's largest pool. That is going to be the home. Is that right? That is going to be the home of swimming at the Olympics coming up in L.A. And they're going to build a subfloor above the field and turn it into a giant swimming arena. That's awesome. You see?

and how versatile it is, the translucent roof. You feel like you're outside when you're inside. And then right nearby is the Intuit Dome. And I saw the 60 Minutes special on this and the technology that's in that arena. It's going to be, so hopefully there's no travel delays. Hopefully I can get a ticket. Shout out to our friends at game time. I'm going to, I'll be checking that app for the last minute deals.

I don't even know if they're on the ad today, but I'll go get a last minute deal there. because I'll get a last minute deal there. I am really hoping. Yeah, so yeah, there you go. So I'm hoping. But it's not my first time buying it, so I'm not. So that, yeah. But if you were first time, use PHLY.

So yeah, so and then good food out there. So really looking forward that way. So, Zach, it looks like there's a nice sunshine coming in the window today. How are we looking? Can we get a little glimpse at her? Oh, look at that beauty. Yeah. And you know what?

I got to say the shades were closed when I came in and pulled them up. I wanted to make sure that this is a window open or open shade podcast. Love it. All right. Last one for you, Zach. The new Hall of Fame class was announced. And I'm curious about the guy they're facing this Sunday. In Zach Berman's world is Matthew Stafford a Hall of Famer.

Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think statistically he is, the fact that he won a Super Bowl, yes, and then just anecdotally speaking to other players. The way, look, I'm not a Hall-Fing voter. I don't think I would want to be a Hall-Thane voter. It's so subjective. I don't play as much attention to Hall-Fames as some other reporters do, but when I think of the Hall-Fame, to me, it's like, are you one of the best players from your era? Like, can the story of your era be written without you? And I don't know if the story, of this error can be written without Matthew Stafford. All right, there he is. Make sure you're following them on Twitter. And are you on blue sky yet, Zach?

I am on blue sky. My goal is, and that's why I came to PHLI, I want to meet the audience where they are. So wherever you go, Instagram, Twitter, blue sky, YouTube, fast channels, wherever it is, I will be there. Shout out to your grandparents, watch it on Xfinity. But yes, make sure you follow with Zach

and reading all of his excellent writing on all PhD. We appreciate it as always, Zach. Thanks, guys. All right, see ya. All right. He's the best, isn't he? We got a lot to get into, but let's...

He didn't even talk about all the toilets at the big arena. Oh, yeah, I watched Steve Balmer. He was given a tour on CBS Sunday morning. He was so fired up by the amount of toilets they have in the Intuit Dome. Very exciting stuff. I appreciate that. By the way, he's right on. I love L.A.

I love L.A. too. Well, and I probably wouldn't love it if I live there, honestly, because it seems like... Absolutely. The traffic is the worst part. It's very spread out. Manhattan Beach, if you're going there for a weekend, covering an Eagles game, great place to go. My cousin lives in Manhattan Beach, and he has a golf cart.

He's a surfer. His kids are servers. They have a surfboard rack, and they just take the golf cart down to the beach. It's great. It's awesome. Let's take a brief pause to, oh, and our friend Vinny's here on the other side. So you've got to take care of some quick business first. And I'll tell you about our friends over at Bet365.

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No doubt about it. I think that's a tremendous way. to teach the youth about financial literacy. All right, let's welcome him in. We weren't sure if he was going to be able to join us today because those damn doctor's appointments. But let's welcome him in. Super Bowl champion Vinnie Curry joins us now.

What up, Vinnie? What's up, Vinny? I hear you. I don't say, there he is. What's up, Vinny? Where are we? You all hear me? Yeah, I can hear you.

Where are you, Vinny? I just got the guy's got home. Is that your weight room? Yeah, yeah. Let's get a little, let's get a little tour here. Yeah, what do we got? Hungry dogs run faster. Love it.

Yeah, he's got a, oh, damn, wow. Here we go. Love it. Yeah, it's a hell of a little bit. You got Noah down there doing some circuit training? No, no, he's the last school. Love it. Vinny, Word Association, Matthew Stafford, go.

monster beast Matthew Stafford started to know look past I feel like it man we used to play that Joker man I mean one game specifically

I know all us Eagle players and fans want to delete this game out of our brain but Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving yeah he was on fire man and yeah Hall of Famer bro that's it's funny

I just asked Zach I said because the new Hall of Fame class was announced on the heels of it. I was like, I think Stafford is. You think absolutely? Oh, man, for real. And then you know with him? Like, like, they should say, yo, the game is never over with him. You got to make sure you want about three touchdowns with that joke. Because I wouldn't get like the record or something for the most comeback wins in the fourth quarter something crazy. I believe you're right. Yeah. Dude, yeah, man. The dude is a phenomenal

the player, but I just think, you know, just the way, where he was at and how the season was kind of going, he's kind of underrated. Yeah, I would agree with Tiffany. I would also say to Matthew Stapford over the years, especially when he was in Detroit, and it felt like he had to score 40 points to win every game a lot of the time, and he was throwing the ball down the field. One of the things that stood out to me besides just his armed talent, which is spectacular, he's a pretty tough guy, right? He's a guy who stands in the pocket and is like willing to take hits. Does that get a certain level of respect from the opposing defensive line as somebody who like

you keep hitting him and he just keeps getting back up. Yeah, you keep getting back up and he'd get everybody else around him fired up. Yeah. Yeah, so Matthew Stafford is actually tied for fifth all time on fourth quarter comebacks Vinnie. This guy, Tom Brady's

number one. He had 46 of them. Peyton Manning, number two with 43. And then Matt Ryan with 38 and Stafford actually tied for, well, excuse me, Rathels a head of Matt Ryan and then Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford, Johnny Unitas are the next three with Dan Marino and Russell Wilson. So it's a pretty good company. Yeah, man, I'm telling you, but the game is never over with him.

Yeah. So when you think of his head coach, Sean McVeigh, I used to, your boy, Dougie Pee used to bend Sean over and give him a little spanking every time they met each other. But he's considered, you know, one of these darling wonder boys of the NFL because he can recite plays. what do you think of when you hear Sean McVeigh? Oh man, I think players coach really understanding the game, somebody who been around a game from a really early age on and really understanding, you know, the X and O's of it. Someone who put his players in great position to make plays.

You know, he obviously thought he had to go back to the Matthew Stafford thing. Sean obviously thought he had a Super Bowl contender team we ain't got Matthew Stafford and we all see what happened. When you think about strong invades, you think about a competitive as coach. Vinny, Vic Fangio this week was on record saying he got asked about Jalen Carter's workload and he's basically said, what's a difference between playing 90% of the snaps and 100% of the snaps?

And I think this was something going into the year. We knew Vic Fangio's old school. He wants his star defensive lineman in particular to play a ton of snaps. I guess as somebody who, you know, you played on teams that had a slightly different philosophy, right? I always remember Jim Schwartz talking about throwing fastballs and all those things. When a player has to play that many snaps but also is playing well, I guess can you talk about like the difficulty of just like staying fresh throughout a game with that sort of workload? Absolutely. So, you know, go back to early on, we talked about, dang, who was watching like the way he,

what you call it, demands, the way he demands on the defensive line, and it's up to other people to make plays. So you got him on the field 90% or 100% of the percent of the time, you still have to double team. We haven't seen somebody yet one-on-one single-handedly do anything with him. So, Vinnie, back in 29-19. If I'm picked up to him, I'm not taking him out either. Yeah, no, I mean, he's a force.

And I come from the rotation, you know. That's new right there is a beast, bro. Yes. So, Vinnie, back in 2019, Sean McVeigh was asked, what defensive coordinator in the NFL is the hardest to go up against? And him, Matt LaFleur, and Kyle Shanahan, all said Vic Fangio. As a lay person, what is it about going up against Vic's defense that just kind of keeps an offensive coordinator or a head coach up at night?

You know, I keep on reflecting to this season because early on, we got to I'm saying. What's going on? What's this? You can't get bored with it. You know, you can't get bored with it, you know, because he obviously knows what he's doing. It might not be too flashy, but he gets the job done.

Look at the way the defense has been playing. He gets the job done. It's like watching Carmelo and Anthony play. You know, his game is really, really different than Duane Wade and LeBron James or anybody else. At the end of the night, look up. Carmelo Anthony got 35 points. He's like, damn.

Yeah, 35, you know, just very quietly, you know, and he's setting guys up. to be successful. Vinnie, I remember in 2017, it was the game where Carson got hurt, but it was like a huge matchup and it was you guys against the Rams and Sean McVeigh was kind of the talk of the league because they were not very good before he got there. They obviously had a high-powered offense. Todd Gurley was playing really well.

Gop was playing well. Do you have any memories of that game? Obviously, it ended with a win and Foles taking over at the end. But do you have any memories specifically of that game? It felt like there were a ton of Eagles fans there. and that was kind of a huge win for you guys to get the number one seed that year. Oh, bro, man.

It's funny you say that. You know, I was just going through like, you know, from last week this week just going through some of the videos. I got a lot of videos from that. After the game, after the game that, you know, when they gave out the shirts and everything and just how the atmosphere was,

it was like nothing but Eagle fans in the building. And I don't know if you all got, you remember it was like a walk-off touchdown. from defensively and everybody went crazy, jumped in the stands. It was nasty, man. It was definitely fun, man. So, yeah, that was just electric out there.

So, Vin, one of the big news or pieces of news today is your buddy, Bryce Hoff has to undergo a procedure on his hand. He's basically been playing with that claw out there. For me, that has no idea what it's like to line up as a defensive lineman in the NFL. How hard is that to have your wrist basically taken away from you? and to play with like a club on your hand. How difficult is that? Oh, super difficult.

There's only one person that I've ever seen be, like physically seeing be successful with a claw on the hand. JPP? Yeah, yeah, yeah. One person. Only one person, man. And, you know, you know, and him being 6'6 and, you know, lean is like that so that that definitely helped him out with that one.

So what is it? Is it getting off of your stance? the engaging with the lineman? Like what? I would say engaging and, you know, getting guys off of you. You know, you're trying to not to get pinned, blocked.

You're going to need, you know, both hands. Like I said, there's only one person I've seen be successful with a club on the hand. So, Vinny, Jellix Hunt now gets a huge opportunity. What are your thoughts on him here going forward with some assumed increased playing time? I'm excited for him.

You know, I've got a chance to be around them, little bit, watching work. I'm excited for him. I think his development has been coming along very well, the way they got them guys got him developing. He around some good dudes. Great mentor within, you know, Brandon Graham, being in the vet of the room. I think, I think he's going to definitely make, you know, put a couple smiles on us Eagle fans. And like I said, I'm very excited for him for the opportunity. All right, Vinny. Now I have to ask you the final question here, and Les Rich you have anything else? No, I mean, I'm just curious on Vinny's thoughts on the game, right?

You know, the Rams, they've won four out of five. I think, you know, they're only 500 right now, but they have those two receivers healthy. Stafford is obviously very scary. I guess just like what are your thoughts? The Eagles are slight favorites in this game. They are coming off the mini-bye after the Thursday night game. What are you expecting this weekend, Vinnie?

Oh, man, I would say I'm interested to see Stafford versus the second day. Yeah. This is where, you know, your guy, he could run away with this rookie of the year thing right here. Here we go, you know. You're like, I'm excited, you know, for the secretary and for the opportunity to go on roster occasion. And it's a night game. Yeah. How tough is that in the hotel waiting around all day?

You know, you get an extra nap and forget about it? Yeah, you get an extra nap. But when you hit that one. And raw, you've had drilling, if you run it and it's get, all that go out of the window, you know, just rely on your preparation. All right. So the thing I got to ask you, Vinny, I know you're a huge fan of the NBA. Joel Embed gets called out in a closed door meeting by the young man, Tyrese Maxi. One, I'm sure it's way more common than, you know, most fans realize.

But when something gets leaked that quickly to the press, what does that do to a locker? room. Man, who says something? You want to know who, who says something? Who, who, what they call it, a mole? Like, who's leaking that? But I will, I will say one thing, you know, most of the times I got to be around B, but I always seen with, you know, Tari. So they, they have that relationship with each other to, you know, kind of get on one another a little bit. I don't, I don't think it was nothing too serious. Okay. So you expect him B. He's maybe back in action or not. You think he's going to answer the bell and come out like a man possessed. Oh, man.

I did it today. Yeah, just because, let's be honest. Like, when he's healthy and he's going, man, he's unstoppable. Yeah, I spot no lies. He's unstoppable, man. That dude, he got potential to if he wanted to, he could be the MVP of the league every year if he wanted to. And you're our MVP every game day, Vinny.

Looking forward to this weekend, Sunday night football, you back in studio with us. You want to give us a prediction on the way out here? Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, last week I was almost right, though. Yeah, you were. You were real close. Yeah, yeah.

So I'm going to go. I'm going to go high school and games. It's going to be a high school game. So I'm definitely going to go third. You're in the 30s. I like it. Yeah, yeah. I think, okay, let's go 23,

23, 28, or 27. All right. It's going to be our school game. I think, I think it is. I think it's going to be Sunday night football worthy. All right. Love it. Vinny, thank you for your time as always,

and we will see you on Sunday, my friend. Man, thank you guys for having me. Can't wait to see y'all on Sunday. Anytime. See you, Vinny. There he is, the great Vinny. Curry, live from the wait room with the hungry dogs run faster. in the background there. That's pretty awesome.

After Vinny correctly predicted that a turnover was coming on the next play on our watch-along live stream, I got a nice high-five from Vinny. I was the first person next to him. It was solid. Yeah. I watched that back. You guys tweeted that out there. Yeah. I was like, yeah. No, it really didn't hurt my hand too bad. He wasn't trying to. I mean, he could hurt my hand if he wanted to. But he didn't, and it was just a nice moment. And I looked back and I was like, yeah, it was a solid high-five between me and Vinny. It's fun watching him start to, you know, view it from the other side.

Like it was a, I think the first couple weeks, it was like, it was a weird thing for him. And now he's kind of settling in and watching it almost like the way we are. And it's a really cool thing to see. And he's the absolute best. So it's great to have him on every week. All right. Rich. We got a couple other things to get through real quick before we get out of here.

Love having Vinny on, obviously. But you did say, you know, the Rams. Matthew Stafford. Their offense is kind of, you know, when you see your charts there, you know, the Detroit Lions are pretty much the best EPA per play offense since 2009. And then the Eagles are down there in like a Super Bowl contending category. And then the Rams are like smack dab right in the middle of the accesses. And let me just wish goodbye to everybody that's been viewing on Xfinity and Roku and Samsung and Zomo, all that stuff and more.

If you want to continue watching the show, head to all. all p hly.com where you can find us on youtube as well um but the rams offense they've been missing the two stud wide receivers which is the you know for on and off and staggered portions of the season they're back does this offense give you worry at all or is your eagle's defensive confidence through the roof again we keep saying that that they're going to be tests i mean these next two weeks i know the rams statistically don't add up quite as much because they have haven't had those guys the entire year. That's a tough offense. And I, you know, I think Vinnie was kind of hitting on these points. Like Matthew Stafford scares me. The guy who can make the no look throw,

some of the throws he makes. I looked at where he ranks in QBR. It's kind of in the teens right now. I think he's a much scarier quarterback. Absolutely. Some of those throws he makes in the red zone. He puts the ball literally in the smallest spot imaginable and he does it while getting hit and from crazy arm angles. I have a lot of respect for him. I have a ton of respect for Sean McVeigh as well. I know you kind of... I don't. You were talking a little smack with him with... No, he's a good coach.

I just love... The Eagles have done well against his teeth. Dougie P used to spank him. And they would never talk about Doug E.P. He's like, you know, he got his flowers, I guess. But it was always like, oh, Sean McVeigh over Doug P. And then Doug P would punch him in the mouth. And, you know, and I just felt like Doug got like kind of discredited in those head-to-heads.

And he handled Sean McVeigh. And I love that he kind of thinks Vic Fangio is the boogeyman a little bit. Well, he was. I mean, they have history. I mean, in Sean McVe's case, in that 2018 season, Jamie, there was a Sunday night football game late in the year. And I believe the Rams were 11 and 1 is the second year of Sean McVeigh, I think. 11 and 1 heading into the game. And Vic Fangio held them to six points at Soldier Field. And it was actually a pretty important game too because, you know, the Rams, Todd Gurley, some of those outside zone runs that they were using was just killing the league. Vic used, used, I think it was a six. one front. And that was important because the Rams made the Super Bowl that year.

They probably shouldn't have made the Super Bowl. There was a pretty controversial call in New Orleans a couple weeks later. But they made the Super Bowl and Vic Fangio

and sorry, Bill Belichick shut the Rams down in that game and he basically used the Vic Fangio blueprint in that game. So I think it's understandable that Sean McVeigh

is like, man, that guy's pretty good. He's made me adapt over the years. By the way, Sean McVeigh did adapt over the years. They won a Super Bowl

a couple years ago. Yeah. He is pretty good. You're right though. The Eagles have had a lot of success. You know, this is completely random, but it's on the top of my head right now, and I have to say it. There was a play in the 2018 game where Nelson Aguilar, I have never seen somebody more wide open in my life in that game.

He was standing, I think 30 yards past people. Like, there was a screenshot I took, Foles threw him the ball. He was catching it. It looked like he was about to field a punt, basically. It was that big of a coverage bust. Hopefully we get one of those for A.J. Brown or Devante Smith. Yeah, that would be nice. this week. Anyway, I think they're a pretty scary team. This is kind of going in circles right now.

I think these guys are a scary team, but they're also a team that the Eagles should be able to move the ball against, be able to run the ball against. I know they have the two good rookies. I think there is a reason that the Eagles are favored in this game. Yeah, yeah, really excited for this one. It should be a great time. We have a super chat. I want to get to real quick. Hopefully it's not about phalic sizes from Santiago there. from Chase, Chase Daniel Plainview. The CDPSC. You got that? My old man, Izer. No problem. There we go.

Sean Desai is on the Ramstaff Revengey. Oh. I did not know that, actually. I did not know that either. I knew that, but then I forgot. Yeah, of course. And, you know, Brian Johnson's down in D.C. And we just whipped up on his ass.

So next in line, Sean Desai. Poor Sean Desai. Oh, that's funny. It's like the revenge story. It's like the meme with the great grids. Reaper going through the doors. Yeah. Somebody should make that.

I felt bad for Sean to say, in all honesty. Yeah, it wasn't his, I mean, he wasn't great, but it wasn't entirely his fault. No, not at all. I mean, he was kind of dealt. That secondary, when you think about it, I was telling Zach this on Monday night, Quignan Mitchell and Cooper DeGine changed so much. And granted, Eli Rogers wasn't available last year. But like James Bradbury, like, screwed everything up.

Yeah. Because he was just cooked. And then you have a guy like Reed, Blankenship who has to probably cover for more of him, taking him out of his passing lanes and ability to make plays. It's almost like that spot in the baseball order where like, in my opinion, the Phillies are missing like that four-hole hitter that lets everybody else naturally fall into their spots. And James Bradbury last year didn't let people fall into their slots because you had to worry about, you know, kind of covering for them. So, you know, it's amazing what Quignan,

we started with Quignan. We're back to Quignan. We're back to Quignan. But amazing. what those two did to let everybody just kind of be more natural. You know what I mean? Linebackers included. So that's great. Bradbury going from great to cook last year was a big issue. One other thing, too, Desai obviously had some bad performances, some bad performances, not unlike Matt Patricia, who had all bad performances.

One of his better performances was against the ramps last year. They played really well in the second half of that game, the Eagles defense. Matt Patricia, my God. What a disastrous decision that was. I just wanted, before we get out of here, take a look real quick, because the Eagles and Lions, Rich, I think they've separated themselves as they clear two best teams in the NFC. I think the Eagles are in the 1B tier right there below.

I think the Lions are the best. When you look at their offense, it's just, I think She'll put out a stat the other day. Based on EPA per drive, the Lions' offensive performance last weekend was the best of any team in the last 10 regular seasons. touchdown drives of 60 plus yards on their first seven possessions, then a field goal, then the end of the game, 38 first downs tied for the most in 10 years, 645 yards, the second most in the last 10 years. They are ahead of the Eagles, but I don't discredit the Eagles in this matchup. So real quick, I just wanted to buzz through their schedules to see how likely could a one seed be here?

All right, the Eagles remaining, and you're going to be my WL goal. So I'm going to throw the game to you. You chalk it up to a WRL and we'll see if the Eagles can catch the Lions for the one seed. Because I do think Jared Goff coming to the link versus being at Ford Field. That's a huge difference. It's a huge difference. So the Eagles at Rams. W.

At Ravens. L. Those two games are going to be LW in one way. I agree with you. Panthers. W. This is a really, maybe one we didn't think in the beginning of the year was going to be a hard-fought, awesome game. but the Steelers.

W. At the link. Russ not going to score enough points in the game. All right. At the commanders. I'm going to say W. Cowboys. You poor bastards.

You guys suck. Rich is going to say W. W. New York Giants and Tommy Cutlets. How about Tommy Cutlets versus Cooper Rush on Thanksgiving, by the way? That's so bad. Also, it's a good excuse to spend more time with family, Rich.

It looks like they're benching. Daniel Jones and they're over they're passing over Drew Locke because they have some sort of playing time incentives. That is not going over well in the locker room. Have you seen some of these quotes? It's not classy. I mean, no, it's bad. What happened to my classy New York Giants? You're Mr. Mara. Enough. So you have the Eagles going six and one in the final. All right, so real quick, on the Giants, let's laugh at them real quick. Jordan Schultz yesterday put this out. Sources, there is disappointment among the Giants players regarding how the Daniel Jones situation was handled over the past week, especially with players aware it was primarily due to

financial decisions by the organization. Dexter Lawrence publicly stated on Tuesday, he's the QB1. To me, he's the best quarterback on the team. It's very funny in itself. So I was making fun of Mr. Mara in the organization there. I got to say, Dexter Lawrence, you are an amazing player. Standing up for Daniel Jones saying, doing the T.O., that's my quarterback. You can't do that. Daniel Jones stinks. He's had such ass. He's had more opportunity for a bad quarterback with one team than I think I've ever seen. Jimmy, he's played 70 games with the Giants.

Like, there's just nobody who has been that bad for that long. For that long and just has continued to stay as the quarterback. It just doesn't happen as much anymore. You're going to like 10 years from now, you're going to look back one day and be like, Daniel Jones started for six seasons. Yeah. And he made $108 million. What the hell is John Mara thinking?

Anyway, one offensive player told me over the phone, we're not idiots. They did it because of money. So be it. But Daniel has been all class. Never complained and now being completely disregarded. The team record is bad. You can point fingers everywhere. But to try and blame him is trash.

And making him third string as weak as F. The sense I've gotten from multiple sources, players, coaches, and executives is that the issues within the organization go far beyond just one person. Well, I mean, hitting them where it hurts, bringing up the class too is a very good touch. Yeah, look, they stink. That's going to be a W. Yeah.

So you have six and one. The Eagles finishing six and one, the only L coming either versus the Rams or the Ravens in these next two weeks, which I think is, look, three of those games are layups. The Eagles could win with their eyes clothed. All right, now let's go. Well, and I think to the point about the Giants,

maybe the Eagles hand them a win in the last week because maybe Detroit is just, just run away with it. Maybe. All right. So the Detroit, now this is a tough schedule. The Eagles go six and one in Rich Hoffman's world. Now the lions are at the Colts this weekend.

W. Bears at home. Packers at home. See, that's the thing. Their hard games are at home now. They won the two NFC North games on the road that are difficult at Vikings, at Packers. That's a win, I think.

I mean, it's funny on Thanksgiving last year. That was Jordan Love. kind of coming out party where they were pretty big dogs and he just threw over that lion's defense. I don't think that's going to happen this year. All right. Then they get the bills again at home. Crooked schedule makers. That's the one you would want, right? That's the one you think that the bills could get them. No, they're not going to beat them. No. Oh, wow. I see, I think the lions are going to be the one C, Jamie. I do too. Watching this season play out, man, I miss the six team playoff field because to me the Eagles are playing football that is worthy of a first round by.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to be tough to catch these guys. Look, look, I've been for the 17th field and passers two years ago when the Eagles, you know, I don't think they clinched until that last week against the Giants, some of those Minchoo games at the end. But they had their sights set on the number one seed the entire year. I was all for it then. All right. Only team with the first round by. Now I want to get that 16 field back.

All right. So the final three at Bears? W. I think so. But. Divisional games. They can be weird. In fairness, that could be a tough one just because Goff has to play outside

and he has not played outside that much at all this year. Yeah. And that's going to be like legitimately cold and all those things. Next one at 49ers. Again, could lose, but that team is a mess. So I'll say loss. Let's say the loss. Okay.

And then the final game of the year at home versus the Vikings and Brian Flores' defense. See, that's a win. And I just, again, I think they have a lot of their difficult games. I know. It really is. Packers, bills back to back. Normally you go that, okay, a good team's going to go one in one in that situation.

And they're both at home. So, it's a shame. Danez has already, he's already gotten in the weeds on the tiebreaker scenarios. And I cannot go too deep on that because it hurt my head looking at it. There are just so many. That's why Dana is the best. There are so many permutations. He lives in the weeds.

But, look, basically the Eagles cannot lose to the Rams this week for tiebreaker purposes because the lines have already beat them. So look, And the Lions, I know it seems like they have a tough schedule. They have an easier schedule than the Eagles record-wise, the rest of the year. So I looked at the playoff probabilities, Jamie, you know, ESPN. There's a few other sites that I saw. The Eagles, the Lions right now are somewhere between, it says, 65 and 70-ish percent to get the number one seat.

So that's not, look, three out of ten times, right? That could happen. I think that seems about right. And the Eagles are obviously the most common team that could usurp them in that spot. They're around 15 to 20 percent. and I think that's about right. Yeah, we really need like, I don't know, some of their divisional opponents

to kind of catch them off guard a little bit, maybe in a look-ahead situation. The bears are really bad, really, really bad, so I don't think it's going to be them. And they just find ways to lose games too, even when they play a pretty competent brand of football. Look, I guess the hope would just be golf in the cold, right? He's had pretty nice conditions all year.

Is Green Bay the only outside game he's played so far? And that was kind of more of an early season one. just hope he kind of reverts into Jared Goughall and he uh what did he throw five picks against Houston yeah and they still found away it's that's remarkable because man Jared Gough in that offense you already mentioned it with that Jaguars game and Bo always gets on me is it Jaguars or Jaguars uh that Jacksonville what's your what's your go-to jaguars jaguars yeah I'm with you yeah the Jacksonville game I mean seven touchdowns they Dougie P probably saw that 2017 Eagles team in that line team because they are just hammering bad teams when they go to Ford Field.

It's pretty impressive. Yeah, our man Doug E. P. is probably, I think he's asking for the axe at this point. Poor guy. Jacksonville's just not a winning situation. You never want to be there. I can't believe he's still there. I know. It's kind of like what are they waiting for?

Just put the man out of his misery. I felt so bad after all the, you know, are they trying to get back at all the reports this weekend that if they had a bad performance in Detroit that he was. was probably going to get fired. Well, they had a bad performance in Detroit. Yeah. And he is still there at the, at the press conference on Monday.

Unbelievable. Poor Doug. Poor Doug. Forever loved in this town, though. Beer's on us, Doug. All right, that's going to do it for us here today.

Wait, I have enough Jake. I have an update. So I thought I was wrong about the jackass thing. And I found it. It was from 2022. So there is a recent, there is a recent jackass forever movie.

Because I was going to have to go back and be like, wait, I think I was wrong. But I feel like I need to see this out. Yeah. They're all. Now, Bam is out of the series, right? Yeah, Bam is not, yeah, because he's in and out of rehab and stuff.

He's not doing well and wish him the best, brought me a lot of laughs in life. Sure. But like, not Zee-B's type of humor. Definitely not. Can we do a viewing sometime with Zach, like, in studio and, like, force him, like, eyes wide shut to watch Jackass sometime and just, like, see it. Like, this is the type of humor. I think it's impossible not to laugh at. Oh, I think Zee-B is looking for the more, the high-brow stuff.

I remember there's one scene, I think it's in the second movie, where they pretend that they're throwing cards at a guy and the seat is shocking them. And I believe it's a wee man says, there's a, there's a card throwing machine. And he doesn't just realize it. He's getting shot. And everybody else is in on the joke and laughing at him. These guys have given me a lot of laughs. Oh, so many laughs. I had to share that.

Yeah. Well, thank you for the update. That's tremendous stuff. To everybody in here that hung out with us today, we love. you. We appreciate you. Hit that thumbs up button on your way out of here. It's a blast doing this show every Wednesday with Rich. And thanks to everybody that joins us for the ride. And thanks to Vinnie Curry, Zach Berman, and of course, Julia, behind the scenes producing today's show. For Rich Hoffman, I'm Jamie Lynch. We will see you next Wednesday, hopefully discussing and breaking

down. Another win. Yeah, seven in a row. Let's get her done. All right. We'll see you next week. You know,