PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Eagles Podcast | Kissing Cousins: Philadelphia Eagles defense prepares for immobile Melvin quarterback

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

We’re bringing the Atlanta Falcons in focus as Fran Duffy goes to the tape for his insights on an offense that was awfully difficult to watch in Week 1. How much of that was by design and how much was covering for Cousins coming off an Achilles injury? And what to make of the Falcons defense that has talented parts but faced an oddly structured Steelers offense in Week 1?Join Fran and Bo Wulf for their thoughts on the opponent before Zach Berman joins with an update from the NovaCare Complex. And then … the much-anticipated return of Swooper Soarcasting! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the P HLY Eagles podcast presented by Bet365, download the Bet365 app and use code PHLY 365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At Bet365, Bowulf, Fran Duffy here in studio in a little bit. We're going to hear from Zach Berman from the Novacare Complex. He is on his way to the locker room right now. He spoke to Nick Siriani earlier, so we'll get all of his thoughts there. and then at the end of the show, we're going to bring back an old friend.

We're going to have a little swooper surcasting Fran's first foray. Yes. And for the newcomers, you'll get to find out what that means. But Fran, the bulk of the show today, talking about this Falcons team, what you have seen from them on tape. How are you doing?

Doing great. I'm excited to preview another game. Last week was fun getting ready for the Packers, but it was still so much projection. Now we have something to chew on from week one. But as you and I were discussing before the show, really this is about trying to decipher what's real and what's not based off of week one. What is actionable moving forward?

Right. Week one is so interesting because you don't have any tendencies yet. So you don't have anything to break. You can sort of you can build up your team one way so that you can break it the next week, right? And keep teams on their toes. So we're going to talk about what was a very bizarre week one game for the Falcons and whether that is what the Eagles will expect. And obviously, Fran, that starts with the Melvin. Yes.

And that is Kirk Cousson. And I think a long-time listeners know how we feel about Kirk Cousins. Jamie, who did a great job, him and Rich yesterday on the show. I called him mid, and I think that that's fair. I would call him the barometer for the Eagles. Now, the Eagles have played Kurt Cousins as a starting quarterback 11 times. What do you think Kurt Cousins' record is against the Eagles? You said it was 11 times?

11 times as a starter. I'm going to go 3 and 8. Kirk Cousins is six and five against the Eagles over the course of his career. Now I think the Eagles are getting him at a good time. I didn't know this on his pro football page. One of his nicknames is Kirk Tober.

The idea that he's very good in October and he is 4 and 1 against the Eagles in October, 2 and 0 against the Eagles in December, but 0 and 4 against the Eagles in September this game obviously in September as he is hampered by this Achilles injury. But here's why I'm calling Kirk Cousins, the Eagles barometer. I'm going to take you through these games.

2014, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 37-34. 2015, two matchups. The Eagles lose both games to Kirk Cousins. 2016, the Eagles lose both games to Kirk Cousins. Rough times. 2017, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 30 to 17 and 34 to 24. 2018, the Eagles beat Kirk Couser, the Eagles lose to Kirk Cousins, 23 to 21. 2019, Kirk Cousins spanks the Eagles 38 to 20. 2022, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 24 to 7,

and then last year, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 34 to 28. Those 11 games, the six losses, all seasons in which the Eagles won no more than nine games. The two games in which they only eked out a one-score victory over Kirk Cousins, both six lost seasons that ended in disappointment. The three times in those were 11 meetings in which the Eagles have beat Kirk Cousins by double digits, all seasons in which they went on to the Super Bowl. I think Kirk Cousins is the Eagles barometer. If they can beat Kirk Cousins by double digits on Monday night, book your tickets to, to New Orleans because this team could be for real. I feel like, too, he is right in that area of quarterback tier where he is like the barometer of how are you against good quarterbacks versus how do you perform against bad quarterbacks.

So this is right in line with that. He's also the first quarterback in over 20 years, though, to play the same team, non-division opponent. Okay. Same team, same week, same location for three straight years. Oh. Last time was Dan Marino back in the 90s. And thank you to Mark for the super chat. He loves the show.

We love you just as much, Mark. All right. So let's talk about this Falcons offense in week one. Now, obviously, they lost that game, upset loss to the Steelers. And it's a bit of a big topic around the league, just how hampered they looked on offense. And so I'm going to ask you to start with a couple of the things that like really stood out. And whether those were, in your opinion, functions of like this is who they are now because of, Kerr Cousins' limitations, or are these things that could change this week?

So let's start with the disparity of where their snaps came from. Kirk Cousins known for being effective at under center play action. Yep. They took two snaps from under center this game. I believe both spikes. Both spikes, I believe, yes. They took 22 snaps from shotgun. All 22 of those were dropbacks.

Yes, no runs. They took 21 snaps from pistol. or sorry, 26 snaps from Pistol, 21 of those were runs and only five of those were dropbacks. Do you think that that is, it is as simple as that? This is who they are? I think it's probably who they have to be right now. Okay.

And then the question it then becomes, how long do they think they have to be that? Now, the one caveat to that is it's a new offensive coordinator in Zach Robinson who comes from the Rams, Sean McVeigh. So I think everyone had an anticipation of what this officer. offense was going to look like. And even in the preseason, it kind of fit what that image was, what that projection was.

They went completely against that here this week. And it was a lot of heavy personnel, which that's not what they did. In the preseason, they were like 97 percent 11 personnel. That's what they were with the Rams, heavy 11 personnel. Now, Zach, were they doing under center stuff in the preseason? I have to go back and look at the numbers on that. But from my recollection, because I did buzz through a little bit, yeah, they were doing some under center.

Okay. Cousins did not play. And Michael Panix Jr. only played in the first preseason game. So they didn't really play their starters, or their key players on offense, much at all in the preseason. I think, personally, you look at Cousins,

you watched the ball come out of his hand last Sunday, and it was not pretty. He was not a power thrower to begin with, and he very clearly just did not have the velocity that he normally would have in a given week. Now, remember, he's coming off the Torn Achilles, and the Tornikilles was in his right foot. If you're a right-handed quarterback,

and you're trying to drive off of your right foot and put some mustard on the football, it's going to be tough to do. Especially if you, A, you don't, if you don't have the physical ability to do it, then B, trying to get that faith back in your ability to do that. It looked like he was trying to push everything he had

into those throws where he had to drive it. And it just, it did not look good from the beginning through the middle, through the end of that game. It was tough sledding that way. Is there any reason why the, the bad ankle would lead to those, like the shotgun as a past pistol as a run thing? So, like it doesn't want to.

to turn around and hand the ball or he doesn't want to go side to side and hand the ball off yeah they they turn the turn the uh part of it could be because of the footwork and they involved with the shotgun run game um you know especially when you're dealing in a new system uh with a new running back who you didn't get a ton of work with in the summer and you might say hey you know what like we don't want to have any kind of altercation where those guys could get tripped up on each other that's why there was nothing under center uh because if the if drew dalman who's a smaller center if he gets pushed back as he is slowly trying to get out from underneath the center and he steps on that ankle like all right the season could be over same kind of deal if they if him and bjean or him and

tyler algear have any kind of uh you know a collision in the backfield that could lead to some complication there medically so i think that that's ultimately why you're not seeing a you're seeing it more siloed offensively from a play call standpoint and then part of the result of that was they didn't attempt a single pass in this game at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage on the team the league that did that. Does it feel like that is who they are right now? Yes, I think that is who they are right now. And they need to correct that because you and Zach and Sheel in the passive termed these kind of offenses, the bog offense. This is the boggiest bog that ever bogged. Was that what we saw this past week. I mean, everything was super condensed. And I talked to how last

week talking about the Kellynne Moore offense and the Eagles offense of years past where it was too widespread and you needed to condense, bring everybody in so you can utilize that space outside. they were bringing everybody in and they weren't utilizing the space outside. It was like, we are going to play in this third, this middle third of the field within 15 yards. And it was, I mean, and Pittsburgh saw it and they were teeing off on it very early in this football game. The first interception, the safety is just jumping the quick and breaking route and taking the football away. If that is the way that they're going to play offensively, it's going to be very, very difficult. They're going to need to lean on Bejan Robinson, the run game to try and create some of those explosives because in the past game,

they don't have the guys yards after catchwise to do that. Drake London is not a yak guy. Ray Ray MacLeod, McLeod, Moore, he has been in the past, but he's out for the year. He had an injury training camp. He's yelling at his phone right now, Kyle Pitts. What about Kyle Pitts? Yeah, like, in theory, he can be. So you want to be able to get him. Honestly, he was that guy for them in this game.

He had a couple where he was able to create some explosives with the ball in his hands. They had the one shallow cross where they were able to get him in the open field and let him create down the sideline. Another one came back from a penalty. So, all right. So you're hoping that. that he can be that guy. But if that's what you're hoping for

is that your tight end, is that explosive dimension from a catch and run standpoint, that's not a lot of dimensions that you can count on to create those big plays in your past game. Now, Kirk Cousins in this game got rid of the ball very quickly,

still was pressured a good amount. Yes. And escaped the tackle box one time on the only touchdown to Kyle Pitts. He looked to me, Fran, like the, I think you should leave, I don't even, I don't want to be here anymore.

Yeah. Like that's what he looked like playing quarterback in this game. Yeah, I mean, he absolutely, he was an immobile quarterback to begin with. Yeah. But he never looked more statuesque than this past week. And so as a defensive line, if you know this is where the quarterback's going to be and you don't have a great offensive line in front of them, which I think coming in, I would have viewed the Atlanta offensive line as an above average group. Not a top five group, but a solid group. They didn't play that way on Sunday against Pittsburgh.

Every single lineman was charged with multiple pressures by NextGen, which NextGen does it from the GPS tracking, not like the other services. It's still walking. But still, bodies around the quarterback too often. And that's, even though the ball was coming up fairly quickly, if the ball wasn't out like this, there was somebody in Kirk Cousin's lap.

And Pittsburgh's front is a good front, but this is a good barometer for this Eagles defensive line that struggled on the playing surface down in Brazil. This is a good litmus test for them, where if they don't create pressure, then I think we're having some difficult conversations come Tuesday. All right. I do want to get to what this would change about Vick's game plan,

just watching this tape. But the last one I want to ask you about, it jumped out to me that most of their runs were going to the left for whatever reason. And then I looked it up 15 runs to the left, only five to the right. Is there any reason for that? Is it like maybe running away from T.J. Watt? Or they think that side of the offensive line is better run blockers?

Yeah, I mean, the left guard, Matthew Bergeron is a second-year guy. He's more known as a run block. I like to make. Matthew Bergeron coming out of Syracuse. But that might just be a one game. That might be a one game sample type of thing. If they were under center, when you brought that up,

that wasn't anything I noticed on film, I started thinking mechanically like, okay, does the quarterback have to push off with the right foot? But with it being from the shotgun, I think without looking at it, my guess is that's noisy and that's probably just a one game sample. All right. So if you're Vic Fangio,

you're game planning this week, and you can take it as truth that Kirk Cousins wants to get rid of the ball quickly. He can't drive the ball downfield or to the outside. And this offense knows that. How does that change what would be his normal preparation? What would what would what would that make him want to do game plan wise? My guess would be that so in this past week, probably saw a little bit more cover three than what we just come to expect from a Vic Fangio defense. He played in cover three on over 50% of their snap. So cover three, three players down

the field, three coverage defenders deep with four underneath. My guess, guess is that we would then see instead of more cover three, you'd probably see more cover two or even cover six where you've got just two defenders downfield and you've got a cloud corner underneath. You've got, in cover two, you've got five defenders underneath. So more bodies in the short area of the field, in the middle of the field. I also think... What's cover six? Real quick. So cover six is where you're playing quarters to one side and cover two to the other. So you have that cloud corner. You still have three defenders deep, but you're crowding one side of the field a little bit more.

You probably see that more to Drake London side, would be my guess, because then you're giving safety help over the top. So that would be my guess. You'd see a little bit more of that in this game and a little bit less cover three. But I think from a coverage menu, we'll probably still see a little bit of everything. To me, the bigger one is how often will they blitz? Because they were fairly aggressive against the Green Bay Packers. Now, part of that might be that, hey, the rush wasn't getting home.

Let's blitz a little bit more. We talked about how we thought that they might send the linebackers more than what we've seen from a Vic Fangio defense. But in this game, especially if the ball is going to come out fast, maybe you don't want to sell you know blitz guys from the second level you want to rely on that front four to be able to get home the only caveat i would say to that would be if you are going to blitz the linebackers maybe they are more of the sim pressures where you're dropping guys into the hole and doing what what we saw in the interception where zach bonn is dropping into the middle of the field to try and take away some of those throws yeah i mean just you you think about it if you know that he's going to be trying to get the ball out quickly anyway it's almost like you don't need to blitz right you hope your guys went up front and then instead you're just you're just you're just just having your corners play up more. And it's like sort of the opposite of the, you know, don't get beat deep because he can't beat you deep. He's not beating you deep.

And that's you are playing in a much tighter area than what you are accustomed in a typical game. And so I think it would probably, I would stand the reason that they were probably going to blitz less overall. I think the pressures we do see would probably more of the, of the, the sim pressure variety where, hey, Kobe Dean is coming,

Zach Bonn is coming. And then you're dropping Bryce Huff or you're dropping Josh Swet into the short area of the field. And so that would be my. assumption but the big thing for me like this is a defensive line game this is one where if the if we don't come out of this game monday night saying wow like the eagles defensive line jalen carter bryce huff nolan smith all these players uh impacted this game i think again that's that's going to lead to some difficult conversations there and more uh volatile conversations here on the post game show so the one guy who they do have who can open things up and make a big play is bjean robinson

what does he look like on unfil to you how dangerous is he and and, you know, what will be the Eagles playing against him? He's awesome. He's really, really gifted. A guy that is that big, and he's, you know, 2.15, 218, 218 pounds to move as well as he does. So he's got legitimate juice to create big plays, but then also the lateral jump cuts, the ability to make multiple athletic moves within one run without losing momentum. You know, always staying at top speed.

Pass game, run game. He can create big plays. They threw three receiver screens to him in this game. They threw passes to him out of the backfield. I think I was looking at that. an article on their team site after the game on Sunday. He accounted for something like 51% of their yardage. He accounted for nearly 50% of their touches in the game.

23 touches for 111 yards. 111 yards. That made up 49% of their 226 total yards in this football game. So I think when you look at Bejohn Robinson, he is like number one priority. Honestly, it goes back to what we would say about the Eagles when they would go up against the Giants and Saquan Barclay. Nick Sirianne said that today.

This is the guy. Oh, there we go. This is the guy you've got to. stop in this offense. Drake London, they're getting sort of, you know, banged on in the Atlanta media because he only got two catches for 15 yards, three targets in this game. Do you feel like this is one where it's like a classic overcorrection? They're going to try to spam him the ball.

I think you have to be alert for that in this game. The thing is, Drake London, you look at his size, 6,4, just about 215 pounds. You think, okay, he should be like that big body possession receiver where he made his killing last year in that Arthur Smith offense was a lot of vertical threat. a lot of the fades, the back shoulders, the deep dig routes, the deep comebacks, like a lot of those vertical routes, obviously that's not present right now in this offense. He didn't look great. He ran a couple digs last week and he didn't look all that great doing it. To me, like he's going to have to make a living on these shallow crosses and those slant routes. And that's something that

he did not do at a super high level a year ago. And so if you're the Eagles, if you're not worried about him working vertically and you can get up in his face and try and disrupt at the catch point, I think that will be something to watch, certainly in this game. If you know where he's going to be, if you could be predictable that way, then that will play in the Eagles favor. Personnel-wise, the Eagles will not have to play nickel theoretically as much as they did last week. Falcons were in 12 personnel 44% of the time last week. That was the second highest rate in the league.

So they should be able to stay in base a good percentage. When they are in nickel, let's say that Isaiah Rogers is fully healthy. Would you slide Quignan-Mitchell to nickel for this game? Would that be necessary? or would you rather keep him outside and let Avanti have one more chance maybe in better footing? I personally would be good with leaving Quignan outside. I think especially in this game is for when they go to 11 personnel, that third receiver is often going to be Ray Ray Ray Red McLeod,

who is a smaller receiver. He's not a guy that's going to get on top of you. He's more of like your gadget underneath slot weapon. So Avante Mac should be able to hold up against Ray Rib Cloud. So even if you do think that, hey, he's taking some steps back. he's not the player that he once was. I think you want to be able to count on that matchup in this game. At times, they'll bring in Cadaral Hodges, the third receiver,

and he's more of a big body. So maybe you want to try and play in the matchup game there. But that said, when they bring Hodge on the field, it's mostly to use them as a blocker. And so to me, I would rather leave Quignan outside. That's obviously the long-term plan for this team. If you think that Cooper DeGene is a week or two away from being ready to be a full-time nickel, I think leave Maddox in there until he's ready.

So generally speaking, fair to say. that, you know, a week ago, we were like, you know, this is going to be an offense game. Like the Eagles, the Packers' offense is going to move the ball on the Eagles defense. It would be disappointing if the Falcons offense was really moving the ball a lot on the Eagles defense in this game. You should feel good about the Eagles going up against this Falcons offense. If Kirk Cousins is in there for the whole game and the Sands rate, like, I don't think he found the magic sauce.

Yeah. Well, that's right. I don't think he, you know, found the magic sauce that that Achilles is all of a sudden going to look a lot better from one week to the next. I think that'll be a gradual gain for him. Yeah, I would be disappointed. If the past game does not, if the past game is able to excel the way that it didn't last week, I think that would be a big disappointment. Do you think the possibility of a switcheroo is keeping Vic up? Like we're putting together this game plan on this, this offense that is very specifically designed to only be able to do like one or two things. And then they bring in Pennix who can

throw the ball deep. And all of a sudden, like, you're like, oh man, we did not prepare for this. That would really, really surprise me. Now, look, that could be the opening drive of the game, and you don't want to wish this. They could hurt Jaylon Carter could sack her cousins and then cousins out for the game, and then they got to go to Pennix. And so you have to be ready for that possibility

because I would expect, look, Pennix played, I think, three drives in their first preseason game, and it was bombs away. It was vertical throw, vertical throw, vertical throw. And then we didn't see him the rest of the summer. So if he goes in, that changes the construct of the office. Completely. Yes.

You have to be ready for that from a game plan standpoint. Well, that's interesting. All right. Well, maybe that's the Falcons doing their, they're putting on their sunglasses or much cooler than you think we are. And if they're doing that, you can rest assured it's probably a pair of Shady Race because you can get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Race have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank.

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projects or it could be something small. Maybe you want to get a pair of new sunglasses or two or three. Maybe you want to get a brand new Eagles jersey. So you can set something up. Transferring something as little as $5 a week, that can get you to $260 to get that brand new Eagles jersey or to get anything small that you've got your eye on. TrueMark Financial is federally insured by the NCUA and is an equal opportunity lender. For more information, visit trumark.com slash p.hly. Friend, I wonder if you can guess my two favorite plays from watching the Falcons film. was it one funny one cool one funny one cool all right the funny was it the fumble in the backfield

where the the motion man so they're trying to bring somebody in motion from left to right kirk cousins is trying to stop the guy said like no don't come they stay where you're at the guy didn't listen or didn't hear him runs and the snap goes and hits the guy in the backfield 100% i think that's one of the funniest place of football i mean to have to have a motion coming across the snap and then the motion guy gets hit with the ball that's hilarious well it's great stuff that's the motion for motion sake. Yeah, exactly. Can't be risking that.

No, we don't want that to happen. Yeah, that was great. The cool play. Cool play. Falcon's defense. Falcon's defense. Is it Grady Jarrett? No.

Okay. What do you got? Nate Landman. Okay. Comes flying over and stops the fourth down sink. Like he does the full Palomal who jumps over the guy and tackles fields right in the backfield. That was very cool. Yeah.

Not a very good player, I don't think, but very cool. No, he's a, he's a guy that I think. you can target if he's on the field from a past game standpoint. All right. What can you tell us about this, this Falcons defense? So brand new defensive scheme. Rahim Morris was the defensive coordinator with the Rams. He comes over now as the head coach. They bring Jimmy Lake with him.

Jimmy Lake was an assistant there with the Rams. I believe he was actually working on the offensive side, but he's a defensive coach by trade. It was long time with first Boise State, then with the University of Washington under Chris Peterson. He was the defensive coordinator and then eventually the head coach. So a lot of college ideas has a DB background. now in his first defense with the NFL, the big thing that he wants to pride on disguise,

we want to make things simple for our guys and confusing for the opponent. That's kind of one of the things that they try and try and preach there. That feels like everybody wants to do that. How does he actually accomplish that? I will say, one thing that stood out, they do mix things up from a front standpoint.

So they have a, it's a base 3-4, much like the Eagle. So you'll see, you know, you've got your nose tackle with two more defensive tackles, flanking him, two dressers on the outside with your two middle lineback. there. So that's what they are in base. And then they go into their nickel and you have the four down and two linebackers. But they will also morph into a more of a five one look from a nickel standpoint. So they've got those versatile players up front that can, you know, you could take

Nate Landman or Troy Anderson, you can move him down close to the line of scrimmage and then allow Cade and Ellis to be that rangy player as the lone linebacker. And what that can do is kind of change the math from a run game standpoint and who's who's blocking who, especially if you shift to it late. This is something that New England has been very good at under Bill Belichick for a long time. So you get into some of that positionless football up front, that's where they, they do a pretty good job or at least did a pretty good job in week one of that against Pittsburgh. No surprise, Fran, that I thought Caden Ellis was pretty good in that game. Cade Nellis, of course, the brother, the other brother of Christian and Jonah.

And he's been a good player for a long time. Yeah, I've liked Caden Ellis going back to his days of the Saints. Honestly, like him and Christian are very similar. I think Caden has just done it at a higher level. But long, he's rangy, he's explosive, really good blitzer. He'll play in coverage. He can make plays in a lot of different ways. They gave him a lot of money a couple years ago, and he has come through with them. He's been a nice player.

Now, this is one where if you're Kellen Moore putting together this offensive game plan, it's hard to know how much you can really take away from that week one film, right? Because that Steelers offense, it's so different than what the Eagles are going to be trying to do. So you don't really know what kind of answers the Falcons might have. for the kinds of things that you're going to be trying to do. Yes. So with Atlanta, they were heavy, heavy, heavy zone coverage. It was almost entirely zone coverage from that standpoint.

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not attack the middle of field at all when you look at the like the past game chart with Justin Fields. Now Arthur Smith said a little bit before we went to air actually that that was by design. He wanted to stay now Arthur Smith familiar with that defensive personnel. He said, I didn't want to go anywhere near Jesse Bates. I wasn't going to let him take the ball away from us. So everything was by design. We're going to move the. pocket, get fields outside and work the perimeter. I think the Eagles will work the middle of the

field a little bit more than what the Steelers did. I don't expect it at all be all over the middle, obviously, as we've discussed, but I do think the plan of attacks going to be a little bit different. A lot more 11 personnel. The Steelers are going to be heavy personnel, multiple tight-end sets, run game focus. That is going to be the opposite of the way the Eagles are likely to play on Sunday. There were a few snaps where it looked like the Falcons defense was not matching 11 personnel from the Steelers. I would imagine that probably won't be the case in this game because they're going to respect the you know you can't you can't let troy anderson be covering devante smith yes i would imagine that you're going to see a lot more from that standpoint where they're

going to be reactive to how the eagles are going to line up and so uh i think that when you look at and that's one of the things honestly like opening drive kellen more's going to test that he's going to we're going to build all these things into the opening script just to see how how atlanta reacts and if they react this way all right two drives from now we're going to come back we've got a plan for that that's what good offensive coordinators do uh is try and push those buttons early, see how the defense reacts, and then here's our counterpunch to that. So personnel-wise, I mean, this is a, they've got a bunch of guys who were like pro bowlers three years ago.

Yes. Or maybe on the downside-ish of their career, but still effective. Who is the, you know, there's nobody who's necessarily the Bejan Robinson. This is our guy, but who are they, who are the Eagles circling on the game plan? So up front, the two names would be Grady Jarrett and Matthew Judon. Now, Judon just got there. It was a late trade in the summer from New England. He was holding out, so it didn't do much all summer.

and then shows up. He immediately becomes a starter off the edge. He has been, he's like a crafty, like high side rusher. He's a little bit undersized, but he's going to win, trying to win the edge and turn the corner. Now, Holgett, most of his reps, my guess, would be against Jordan Milata. That is the kind of body type bow that Jordan has struggled with at times in straight pass protection down. So that would be a matchup certainly to watch. It would be Judon against Milata. The other guy is Grady Jared. Now, Jarrett missed most of last season with an injury. I kind of thought already he's a little bit older. He's coming off the injury. injury, he might be a guy in the downside. He looked awesome in week one. He still has juice. The short area burst is there. Disruptive against the run, disruptive against the past. So I think Grady Jarrett on the inside, he's going to be a tough matchup from Mackay Beckton. He's built low to the ground and he's also a really crafty player in terms of how he uses his hands. And so for Cam Juergens, a young player, relatively inexperienced player, a good test and good litmus test for Cam Jurgens. And so those would be the two players up front that you have to have circled on the D-line. And then in the secondary, you already mentioned Jesse Bates. They've got

AJ Terrell on the outside and also Justin Simmons, who's the biggest concern there. Bates? Bates, I think for sure. This is a guy that had six picks a year ago. He's one of the rangy or ballhawks in the safety position in the NFL. But he's not just a coverage piece because he'll come down and fly down against the run. I really like the way that Jesse Bates plays. He's changed a lot.

I mean, he came out as a third year redshirt sophomore out of Wake Forest. Yeah, go Deeks. He came out of Wake Forest and more of a one-dimensional post-safety player. He only played one year as a starter, if I remember right. Extremely smart, extremely handsome. Of course, and the colors were able to help him there. But I think when you look at the way that he has developed, he's turned into one of the best safeties in football.

And so to me, Jalen Hertz, he can't make the decisions he made a week ago against the Green Bay Packers because you've got Jesse Bates. AJ Terrell could take the ball away. Justin Simmons, even though he's older, has been a proven guy that can take the ball away as well. You can't be as careless with the football against this secondary as you were a week ago because they will make you pay. I was thinking about Jalen watching this game. in particular with Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields for all of the decision-making stuff that we

ragged on Jalen for last week, which was not good. One thing I will say is like Jalen is very rarely inaccurate. Yes. You know, like he's throwing the ball where it's supposed to go based on where he thinks it's supposed to go. Whereas both Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields in this game were just like scattershot sometimes, like just totally missing guys. Like we don't see that from Jalen.

No, we don't. To his credit. And we also typically from Jalen don't see the bad decisions with the football that way too. Like he doesn't typically put the ball in harm's way that way. I don't know. That way. I think he does sometimes. I think for the most part, I think Jalen kind of stays away from making those kind of bad decisions. Now, he turns down throws. Yeah. Like he does that at the high that's the decision making that will that can come back to bite him sometimes. But he rarely like makes our surrogens. I don't know what you were thinking throwing that football. The big thing with going,

and this goes goes back to cousins. It's almost like one of the golf video games where it's like, all right, you like are pulling all the way back. You want to put everything into his throw. and the meter's like going like bang, bang, bang, back. So if you're Kirk Cousins, you're trying to put everything into a throw, that's when he becomes more scattershot that we're used to seeing with him. If you have to put everything, he's like, oh, that extra little bit of energy. That's a good description. You saw, you see the scatter shot kind of show up with, with cousins in that way.

The first throw of the game he made was so bad. Yeah. And like the interception. The interception was bad. Both, both. And even the touchdown comes after he gets, he fumbles on a sack. Like, they didn't even, like, that could have gone the other way. I think one could have scored no touchdowns.

No question. Yeah, it was ugly. You know, there was one guy who I kind of like to. And then, you know, you send your notes for the guys and you don't seem to be too high. And I don't think he can cover Devante Smith. But I thought D. Alfred's kind of a fun little player. Yeah, he didn't do. He didn't do it for him.

No, he didn't do it. I do like a Mike Hughes, the other corner. Mike Hughes is the other starting corner, former first round pick out of UCF. Now your cues, not our cues, but my cues. When you're looking at, at Mike Hughes, smaller body, but really, He's like one of those like every fan base is going to be annoyed with Mike Hughes after every game. Like, oh, I can't stand this guy. That's the way that he plays.

AJ Terrell on the other side is a really good corner. I think it is interesting though, the way that they played AJ Terrell last week. So George Pickens is kind of like he's the only past game threat that you're worried about with Pittsburgh. The way that Atlanta played against Pickens was, all right, we're going to move AJ Terrell to his side of the field every single time. Even though, as we talked about, they didn't play any man coverage. Terrell always played two pickens side. but they also always rolled a safety over the top of pick and side. So you were constantly playing A.J. Terrell with safety help playing cover two technique.

If he's supposed to be like one of the top corners in football, you shouldn't need to do that. So I thought that was a little curious from that standpoint, why they would feel the need to do that. I'll be interested to see how they handle A.J. Brown, Devante Smith. Now, Brown is the guy that's mostly been playing on the outside. Will they shadow him only to A.J. Brown side? Will they feel fine with Mike Hughes matching up against Devante Smith? That's going to be fun. And do you think that Jimmy Lake will be willing to send more than zero, zero blitzes against Jalen Hertz in this game?

Probably, yeah, that would be my guess. Now, they didn't blitz a ton last week. So, you know, but I do think that they, if you're, if you're Atlanta, like, you have to be able to say, like, we're going to push this button. Now, again, Rahim Morris comes from the Rams. They played against the Eagles last year. Jalen was awesome in that game against the Rams from memory serving. So I actually probably should have gone back and rewatch that. game for this game's purpose we all do that in the next couple days but slacker uh yeah right um but i do

think when you when you look at uh jimmy lake and rheim marst their game plan like you you have to include a big blitz at some point is it jimmy lake or lake jimmy i think it's jimmy ocean yeah i feel like like uh jimmy kreck jimmy kempski should draw himself a bath and then call that lake jimmy he's going for a dip in lake jimmy yeah yeah maybe zach will sell that one there was a very funny moment on yesterday's show with uh with rich and jami where they were talking about about Deshawn Watson and the terrible contract. Yep. And Rich said something like,

Kevin Safancy, I think, is a good coach. And what I heard was Kevin Spacey, I think, is a good comp. And I thought, that's a really good point, Rich. That is a good comp for Deshaun Watson. Yeah, I mean, there's so much there. I don't even want to even get close to. Hey, more ways than one. Happy anniversary to,

Yes. P.HLI. This is the one-year anniversary of our very first episode. So we've come a long way. We've got you next to us now, Fran. All right, let's talk about our friends at Bet365.

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www.acehardwarehomeservices.com to get you started on your next project. All right. We're going to be joined in just a moment by our main man, Zamborferverses. Berman and then around three o'clock and that's when we're going to bust open the swooper. So we look forward to that. Your first one, are you nervous? You're not nervous. We already did it.

I was not. I was excited. It was been one of my favorite things as all the sickos I think would agree with me. That is one of my favorite games on this show's history. So very excited to take part. Anything else leftover wise from the from the Falcons tape that you want to get to? Let's take a look here. I mean, to me, I'm excited to see.

Contavia Street made a play. I saw that. Yes, Catavia Street. Former Eagles great. He's a nice rotational piece. I actually really like their defensive interior, but I thought their starters played really well, and I thought their backups came in and gave them good snaps.

But to me, just going to the other side of the line, Jalen Carter against Chris Lindstrom, the right guard for the Falcons. Lindstrom is one of the highest paid guards in football, and he is a guy that they are leaning on to be one of those lynch pins up front. He gave up six pressures this past week. according to next gen stats, the worst game of his career in past protection from a pressure percentage standpoint. And so they need more from him in this game.

You go up against Jalen Carter. He had three pressures last week. Obviously, he was not able to get home for a sack. We talked about the playing surface stuff. Let's throw that all out the window. You go into next week against the Falcons at the link. You need Jalen Carter to come out. This could be a statement type of game on a national audience, an island game for the Eagles.

That's a matchup on me. And Kelsey, you know, popping them up on countdown. Yeah, absolutely. to me like that that is a matchup that I am most excited to see in this game. Anybody else that is particularly of interest to you? Where do you fall on this, this Bryce Huff discussion right now? Yeah, I mean, I was,

I love a Vic Fangio press conference because he just gives you so much to be able to chew on. You know whether he's being honest. And he said, yeah, like he's going to have to play, essentially, like he's going to have to play better. He's going to have to earn those snaps. And so, yeah, I mean, he's going to get the opportunity in this game going up against the Falcons. They're going to want to run the football. They need to run the football.

Caleb McGarry, not that good? He's better in the run game than he is the past game. And that's the thing is if the Eagles can stop the run, you get them behind the sticks, it's third and seven, Bryce Huff's get off should be able to beat Caleb McGarry. McGarry was credited with one sack against against DJ Watt. Two other ones got taken off the board due to penalties.

So that could have been like a disastrous game for Caleb and Gary in this game against Pittsburgh. You go ahead and look at Brandon Graham, Bryce Huff, Nolan Smith. If it's third and long, like all systems go here going up against Caleb McGarry at Ray Tackle. And it is Caleb McGarry, not Gary McAulip. Yes, correct.

And don't, don't you dare change the, change the song on the iTunes for Caleb McGarry. I don't know if you remember that from when he was coming out. No. There was a whole story. Yeah, well, I'll let you go out.

No, tell us the story. It was a whole big thing. Apparently he like started a, this was all reports, you know, off media reports, obviously, but there was like an argument in the, the wait room where he like changed the music. He's the one.

who changed the music. He's the one who changed the music. Or he had it and someone changed the music on him and it turned into a big thing. But yeah, that was a that was a big story. And he like he was he the one doing the punching or he was getting punched. Uh, if memory serves, he was on the, he was the aggressor. But don't quote me. Don't quote that as a foul to go back. I figured if you were aware of the story. This seems like right up your alley. Yeah, but I'm probably just, I'm too old to remember things. Yeah, come on. They, they, you know what shield will tell you. You got to up your almond intake. Yeah. Yeah. go. Yeah. That's true. I had a nice interaction the other day walking to pick up Jane from music class. There was a guy in the neighborhood running by and he stopped. I think he believe his name was Kyle. And he said, oh, well, like, you know, I'm a big fan of the show. That's great. I love somebody to say that. And he told me, he told me a thing that, like, what a better compliment I could, I could never receive. He said, you will probably not remember this. Okay. And he was right. but this is like an inside joke with him and his friends in their group chat. There's an episode from 2018 when I did the entire episode in a British accent,

which I do remember because the Eagles were going to play in London, and that was a lot of fun. That was painful. And he said there's a specific line that they just text back and forth, Bruce Hector and Trayvon Hesta. For whatever reason. For British accent. And I thought that's great.

I don't remember that at all. But if that's my legacy, just like one little thing for like six guys to text about, what more could you ask for? That's as good as it gets. I do feel like your British accent was much better in 2018. You just sounded like Shrek just now. Like, I wasn't even close. Yeah, I mean, I needed to get into the, I didn't read and practice that ahead of time.

I ran into a viewer listener this weekend as well. Oh, yeah? Matt, we'll give a shout out to Matt. We ran into a, I don't give free advertising, a place to hit some golf balls. Okay. Oh, nice. You were playing with him? We were in a big party together.

Nice. So we were in different areas. But I was good to run it. Everyday listener for what I understand. So I'll see you at 2 o'clock on Monday when I said goodbye. There we go. That's great. Except you were not on Monday.

I know. I mean, are you really, are you an active listener, Matt? Come on. Everyone's getting used to the new routine, though. Oh, I have a note here from Mike Garifolo. Emmanuel Forbes will undergo surgery. tomorrow to repair a torn UCL in his thumb.

Tough. It's always big for a corner. Yeah, that thumb. All right. Zach is, you know what? You did tell him 240. He's letting us down, is the truth. I mean, he's going to hurt him.

Still in the locker room. But, you know, you got a time. You're supposed to be there on time. When time, time is important when time matters. What's the saying? What's the conflin time thing? Not only that, but you said, he initially said 235. Yeah.

And then you said, you know what? we're going to do the ads come at 240. We finished the ads. I checked the clock at 240 on the dot. I mean, are we trying to have a professional show or what? Impeccable. Now, he's, you know, he said the walkthrough went late. But, I mean, you know, he better be coming with some big breaking news from this,

from this locker. We got swooper to get to. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be disappointed because he's not going to have as much time to talk as he wanted. We had all this football talk in the beginning. All this football. I mean, all of this football talk. that was hard-hitting stuff.

All right, so let me ask you this question. Okay. Because this was something we were talking about. I said, we'll save it for the show. I want to pull up Dana's tweet. I thought it would be a good idea to reflect back on the spread your rigs and fly. That's the draft, right? What was the one from last week?

The team over under? The team over-underers. So a week one overreaction, if you had one team that you could say, all right, I want to double down and say, yeah, I feel extra confident about this team, about this prediction. And another one that you could just erase from the record completely. which teams would they be all right let me pull it up here you're going to go to deniz you're going to go to the media yeah I think we got it

nope that's the 2003 23rd 23rd 23 version you would have thought that I would have okay got it I'll go quickly if you mind green bay over nine and a half don't feel great about that because of the injury Seattle over seven and a half feel good about that okay San Francisco

under 11 and a half don't feel great about that they look very good in that McAfrey still still high yep I feel very good about Baltimore Yeah, that was good call. You feel like you were on the right side of that. That might be. And Houston over nine and a half. Those might be the two where I feel the strongest right now.

Saints under seven and a half. I don't, yeah, I don't feel great about that. I mean, obviously they had a great game. But as you were saying out in the green room, the Panthers look awful. Julia, you're Julius Panthers, not looking very good. Are they over five and a half for Julius. Yeah, that's tough. New Orleans, Tampa over seven and a half.

I feel still good about that. New England over four and a half. I mean, I already got to feel good about that. So there's a low number. Dallas over 10 and a half. I feel pretty good about that. L.A. the Chargers over eight and a half. I feel good about that too.

And then my flags were on the Falcons under nine and a half. Feel great about that after that week one game. And then the Jets under nine and a half. I'm feeling pretty good. So nothing you'd pull away. I would pull away the Packers over nine and a half because of the love injury. Yeah, sure. How about one that you would double down on?

I think if I could only double down on one. I mean, maybe Atlanta under nine and a half. Yeah. You might be right on that one. For me. Although Pennix comes in, we, you know. That's the thing. They could change like that.

Yeah. Well, if I was doubling down, I would, I would double down on an under because an over could still like, you know, I feel good about C.J. Stroud and the Texans getting 10 wins. But if he goes down, whereas it's harder for a bad team to get better. Agree. So that's why I think I would go with the Falcons. All right.

So really quickly for me, Minnesota over six and a half. No change for me there. I feel pretty good about that one still. Detroit over. 10 and a half, I feel good there. Buffalo over 10 and a half. I still feel good there. You guys made fun of me on my lack of unders, but I actually feel really good about my loan under Vegas under six and a half. Yeah, that's probably my double down if we're being honest there. Falcons over nine and a half. That might be the one I strike from the record.

The Colts over eight and a half, Rams over eight and a half, Denver over five and a half. Miami over nine and a half. Chicago over eight and a half. Pittsburgh over eight and a half. I did take a lot of overs, didn't I? I would say I would double down on the Raiders on the under. And if I had to remove one under, I mean, the Rams with those injuries over eight and a half. It's a little scary. It might be the Falcons.

I think it would be Atlanta on the over nine and a half. I do think my guess is, is that Cousins injury, they said, he's got to play. He's got we can't start him on the bench. And they're hoping that within a month, he's up to full speed, that they're like, hey, you know,

he's not 100% yet, but if he's 80% now. They're hoping for a Tyler Steen situation. They're hoping for he has some other minor injury that they can put him on IR for so they can try out Pennix. And if it doesn't go well, then Cousins is a little bit more recovered and he can come back later. Yes, I would say that that's probably fair. All right. All right.

We have the man. Zach Berman, you know, not on Coughlin time, but here nonetheless. Zach, how you doing? Catching my breath. They're still speaking in the locker room, but I departed. early to make sure that I got on the show. As I'm learning quickly this season, you can't be two places at once, right? But I'm trying to kind of satisfy both demands in terms of being in the locker room and being here.

But to answer your question succinctly, I'm catching my breath because I sprinted out of that locker room. I almost knocked Keeley Ringo over. But I did not. I was bolting out all. I was knock you over. I think you got to give me a little more credit there. I had the acceleration going there. He was standing still.

So, you know, I... You think you would have knocked him over? I don't know. Was it blindside? Did he see you coming? Oh, no, no, no, no. Yeah, no, he didn't, yeah. And then there was a few team officials around a doorway.

I might knock them over. Did not, but I'm here now. So I was like playing slalom in the hallway. This is like one of those sitcom episodes where you've got two dates at once at the restaurant and you're like going back and forth. You're trying to do too much. That's precisely what it is because, you know,

Bo can tell the audience that I very seldom get in a bad mood. I got in a bad mood when the schedule comes out. And I see the locker room is literally during the 2 o'clock hour. You know, there's 23 hours in the day when I would love to be in that locker room. And one hour of the day when I wanted to do. We set this schedule based on what the locker room time was last year. Yeah, yeah, but I digress. I'm here now. And yeah, you know, not a big news week per se. The Kobe Dean had a bunch of, you know, the Kobe Dean was the big story there. Zach Vaughn, always the big story there. I was catching up with some long-time Eagles veterans about their favorite Nick Foles memories. You know, the Eagles have seven guys on the team who played with Nick Foles. And so I got. I got some good anecdotes.

I have a few more guys. I need to get tomorrow, but that's going to be a story that comes out of the weekend. In addition to I have a full notebook coming out tomorrow with a bunch of notes that kind of compiled over the past two weeks. So anyways, but yeah, in the locker room today, Nikobie Dean was the big story, Zach Bonn. And then obviously Sequin Barkley, who was presented with slime because I believe he was the Nickelodeon player of the week, if that sounds correct. I feel like it's kind of you can't be just presented with slime you got to be slimes well maybe there was a box with the slime

and they didn't put the slime on him but they uh there was there was a box that was presented to him I imagine with the slime in there so maybe he's getting slimed outside and I in the in the locker room I mean I I know how you know that the the the the sodium staff they work really hard in there you don't want to add to the mess with slime you can do it outside just to you know i'm speculating here but that's probably a better place to do it but uh a few of the players saw the slime and we're like already we got a slime guy right so uh sequin's one

performer's what you're giggling about something i'm envision a scenario where zach bone gets slime to the locker room Zach is trying to sprint out of the locker room to get here to the show It slides on the slime and then Kili Ringo top of the year after sliding on the on Zach's line or it's like right when I'm leaving and I roll into jail and hurts and J-1 hurts gets not though yeah. How about Nick Siriani earlier today? Nick, what were your, I mean, Zach, what were your takeaways? Different.

Or it's lit there, right? You know, it's funny because just as a quick aside, I brought up Nick to a play, you know, to a player in the locker. And they thought I was talking about Siriani, right? And not Foles, which was my mistake. Of course they said, Nick Folls. Yeah, exactly. So I'm like, you're one of, you know, ex-guys who played with Nick.

And they're like, played with Nick. I played with Nick. I played for Nick. And I'm like, yeah, no, it's, you know what I mean. Honestly, with Siriani today, the big message that he presented to the team was about details, was about fundamentals. It was a stat that Nick had handy, which was Eagles were the only team that won last week with a negative turnover differential. And as as Bo remembers during training camp, Nick knew the exact,

the Eagles exact record when they won the turnover battle, right? And so this was a point that he reinforced to the team today that, that, you know, it's not a sustainable way to play to turn the ball over like they did and obviously not had the takeaways that they did and then go on and win. So that was a big mess. message from him. He, regarding the linebacker, I don't even want to say linebacker change, but because this happened during training camp in front of our eyes, as far as Nikopi D.

Becoming the starter, he beat Devin White out. Nick's point was that Devin White, the Eagles might beat him this year. So that's the kind of conversation that they had with Devin White. You know, Nick kind of, he talked about how he's allocating his time now and time when He would have spent maybe looking at like 12 personnel in the game. He can allocate elsewhere during the prep week. And, you know, there were some players specific things. Here's one anecdote before I get to the player specific things.

In the meeting today, he showed the schedule for the season. And he blurred out the game before, the Packers game, and then the next 15 games. And this was to reinforce the point that the only game that matters is the next game. right is the Falcons game. So this is an old coaching, a coaching cliche, but that adds a little color to what he did in the locker. Kind of like, you know, when he gave the example of the roots being planted. And then, you know, Bijan Robinson, who is obviously a big-time opponent for the Eagles this weekend,

someone who was a source of intrigue among Eagles fans a year ago. He said that he brought up Bijan in the meeting today, showed Bijan's first touchdown last year against Carolina, which was on like the seventh play of the game. thereabouts and said he found himself talking about Bijan the same way he used to talk about Sequin with the Giants. And actually Seacuan, I was asking Seacuan today about Bejohn and he interrupted my question being like, I love that guy. Just talking about like the career that Bejan has. He was watching Bejohn's YouTube clips this summer and texted Bejohn just how impressed

that he was with him. So Bejohn has a lot of respect among the running backs in the league for sure and certainly from the Eagles defense going into this week. Hey, Zach, when you talk to Sequin, does he say anything about your story? Did you get to read it? I don't know if Sequin read it. I know for factable around Sequin Reddit, but no, I don't know. He hasn't commented me on it.

A cool anecdote, though, I mentioned that I mentioned on the show Monday that Seekwon was at the youth football game in the Lehigh Valley, Soapin Valley on the day after that episode. They flew 10 hours. They landed. He drove out there.

He told me when I met with him over the summer that it takes him 45 minutes to get there. I think I said this on the show the other day. I don't know how it takes him 45 minutes. He must go really fast. I mean, I don't go that fast, but it took me 57 minutes. So he made up a lot of time in there. In any event,

he looked at the Eagle schedule and this was the only time, this was the only day he was able to go watch that game, which is where it's his nephew. And how many touchdowns do you think his nephew scored? Four. No, he did not have the poker. He had the hat trick. His nephew had three touchdowns as well.

Nice. So a little family symmetry there. But yeah, that's why he went out there. All right, Zach. Anything else from locker room or news-wise, that you feel like we need to get in before the 3 o'clock hour strikes? No, you know, I'll be on the practice field soon. So we'll see if there's any update regarding injuries.

Certainly, Isaiah Rogers, Devin White are the, you know, two guys monitor players who might have come off the field. I'm curious to see what Sapon Barclay's practice habits are if they have them on, you know, like a Wednesday rest day. We're about today's Thursday, rest day. but no hard news. We'll have more in, I'm going to have this weekly Friday notebook where I put a bunch of notes from the week. You'll see that on all phly.com tomorrow and make sure I will have a video update as well on all our social accounts and our YouTube. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad, Zach. I'm just reporting for the audience.

Jeff McLean did say that Isaiah Rogers in the locker room said that he broke his hand, his right hand in the last practice of training camp and needed surgery. but he is hoping to be able to play on Monday night. Gotcha. Okay. I mean, Isaiah's probably talking right now as I'm talking to you guys. As I said,

we can't be two places at once, as we learned with Jack Griscoll last week. Although that was my fault. That's because I came home before we flew out. Not your fault. You made the right decision. Ten-hour flight to count. But yeah,

this one, I don't feel that bad because I wanted to get on the show with you guys. But, yeah, credit to put, Wolf, Bo-Wolf was all over the Isaiah. Roger was injured before anyone else. It's very true.

God damn right. Astute observer, practice in games. Your goddamn right, nobody has. For sure. No one watches the sideline like Bo-Wolf. He actually did a great story a few years ago on Carson Wenz. Every move he made during a game was against Washington, a real good piece. Speaking about foreign pieces.

COVID season, not much else to write about. Yes. If, you know, I know we have to get to a much anticipated thing more than this, this anecdote. But you'll appreciate this, both of you. Lane Johnson, his, his, his most vivid memory of Nick Foles. What do you think it is? Or like what he associates Nick Foles with. Excuse me?

You open the door to that one. Sorry. Hawking Boatproof coffee. I'm not hopping. I was talking about former stories. I wrote. Sorry. I guess I set myself up for that.

And I was, he said Nick Falls was all about, for two years was all about the bowlproof coffee. Got, um, you got Lane Johnson into it. But yeah, when he thinks of Nick, he thinks of the bullproof coffee, among other things that I'll get to in, uh, in this story. Um, also got some cool. Yeah, uh, Jordan. Also, I'll say something on, on here. Jordan, myelada, um, when he thinks of Nick Foles, Jordan was like the scout team quarter, you know, was, well, so Nick was the scout team quarterback that year and Jordan was the was the scout team left tackle right and or maybe right tackle but he was the tackle and Jordan said he gave up so many sacks in the beginning of that year and he just has foals in his in his ear like telling him like you're

going to get better and you're going to get better and he's like his his association with Nick foals is that you how like right Nick was about his his progression so I I thought I thought that was a cool piece. Yeah, there's a, there's a few other things. So that will, you know, I need to catch up with Jake Elliott and Rick Levato and a few other guys in the locker room, but you'll find that on all pHLI.com this weekend. Thank you very much, Zach. And if you want to read those stories, you can become a diehard. And also make sure that you're hitting that subscribe button. Okay. Let's get to the main event for the sickos. You have waited long enough before Zach went to the locker room just about two hours ago. We finally jumped back in to Lake Swooper. So let's take you to that now. And that's going to close out the show. So thank you, Zach, for making the effort.

Thank you, Fran. Thank you, Julia. And for the rest of you, sickos, enjoy the return of Swopper Sourcasting. In the, it's not quite a full homage to James Earl Jones. If you build it, he will come. But if you ask for it enough as a sicko, we will bring it back.

And so we are here now for the first P.A. H-L-Y edition of Swooper Soork. Bo-Wolf, Fran Duffy, Zach Berman, over at the Noviour complex. We're recording this ahead of the show today because it is that important. The Eagles different schedule today because of the Monday Night Game. We're making it happen anyway. So let's get to the rules for those of you who are unfamiliar with the greatest game ever invented.

Swoop or Sorkass. And this is a bidding game, a prediction game. Okay. So over the course of this game, there are going to be 12 items up for bid. I have picked three. Zach has picked three. Fran has picked three. And Daniz has submitted three ahead of time to Julia.

Now, these are all items that could or could not happen in the game, the next Eagles game, which of course is Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons. Each contestant has 24 turkeys with which to bid every week. and if you don't use your turkeys, they carry over. Of course, people familiar with Zach's strategy will know that very well. Whoever owns the most items that end up coming correct in the game, you get a point for every item that becomes true, and whoever has the most items that comes true wins the week,

and you get a full point. If there's a tie, you get, you know, we'll disseminate two half points. If it's a three-way tie, everybody gets a third of the point. And on and on we go. whoever finishes with the most points at the end of the season wins the game, and we should say ahead of time, in the playoffs, the points rise. Every week of the playoffs adds another point to how many points are at stake. Is that familiar to you, Fran?

Do you understand the rules for your first time playing? I do. As I told you guys before, I watched every episode of the show. I listened to every episode of the show, I should say. So I was familiar with the game. I do, I misremember one part. I thought if there was a tie that the next week becomes a two-point week, was that change? Did that change over the years?

We changed that. I think we did that one year. We turned it turned out, I think that's what we did for the last year. The last iteration. But we're going back to basics this year. We're not, we're not making it a skins game. I will say, I went back and, you know, as I did some scouting. I did you do some film stories.

Wow. I watched probably seven or eight super sports before that. Yes. probably the only thing uglier than that was watching Bryce Young this week than watching some of those episodes. It was rough. And by the way, into the weeds a little bit, you have

to have at least one turkey. You have to nominate a thing. So when Zach is going to go first, he's going to say this is the item, he's going to nominate it for at least one turkey. So if you don't have any turkeys left in the last round when you're nominating, you can borrow one from next week's allotment, but only one.

You cannot bid any further than one. That makes sense? Yes. Zach. I did not realize that was a rule, but... That was a rule that we put into place towards the end, yeah, to keep things moving a little bit. A lot's happened in this past year. Yes.

Are you, are you, do you feel confident that you remember how to play this game? I feel confident knowing that if I keep turkeys in my pocket, they're still good next week, and they're still good in a month, and they're still good in three months. So I feel confident knowing that the longest view in the rule. room is a beneficial view to take. Well, that's an important reminders, Zach. Before we get going, you know, a lot has changed since we last played swooper. I think we need to take at least one moment of silence in honor of Charlie Munger.

All right. I didn't know we were doing a full graphic. I was not expecting that for our audio listeners. I should not have laughed at that. He's a brilliant man. The graphic made me laugh. All right, Zach, you get to kick us off. The first item of the 2024 swooper season is five.

The Falcons score equal or fewer points than the 2018 season opener, which was also, well, which was also against the Falcons, the Falcons against Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. That was 12 points the Falcons scored. So equal or fewer. Okay. So the Falcons and this stationary offense scores 12 or fewer points against the Eagles in this game. You were opening the bidding at one?

I'm opening the bidding at one. I'll say two. I'll go three. Now, Julia, we actually didn't talk about this. It's on you to be the auctioneer here. So a going once or going twice sold as the proceedings continue. And if there's a tie in terms of who does the bid, do you have to be an arbiter in that situation in terms of who came in first?

Oh, no. I'm going to say four. I will go four here. And for context, of course, as Fran has, I imagine, outlined in this point in his review of the Falcons, they scored 10 points last week. Four? Four going once? Going twice.

All right. I'll take a four. Falcons, 12 or fewer points. And I'm down to 20 turkeys. All right. My first item up for submission. At least one of the following things happens on the Falcons opening possession.

So we're betting here on a little bit of a pullback from last week for the Falcons. Kirk Cousins takes at least one snap of under center play action. Drake London is targeted three or more times or Kirk Cousins completes a pass of 30 yards or more. Any of those things happens on the opening Falcons possession. I opened the bidding at one. Three. I'll go four.

Going once, going twice. Oh, Zach on the five. You can have a five. I'm out. You got that, Zach. I love a swooper that has multiple outcomes that could go, you know, that there's, there's multiple options there. I feel like, it's a good bet to make. Spending a little much early.

Don't love that. Surprising. Surprising move. Big spender over here. Well, I'm expecting Drake London to be, I'm expecting that to be the overcorrection. Rahim Morris came out publicly and said they need to get them the ball. So that's one of those things where, boom, it's like the Devante Smith game, week two of the 2020. Sure, but if they go three and out.

Yeah, three targets in the opening drive. That seemed a lot for me. Sure. All right, over to you, Fran. All right, so my first one, let's go to the Eagles. Your first soup or ever. Wow. Big boys all grown up.

This is why you sign up here. Yes, exactly. This is why I'm here. Sequin Barkley runs for at least 100 yards. He hits three triple digits for the second straight week. We'll set the bidding at one turkey. Two turkeys. number three

I'm surprised Zach's not not in on this bad five yeah he's been he's done for the week he can't be he can't possibly afford it anymore three turkeys I'll go four up I'll go five five

the run defense was very good for Atlanta last week they're one of the top uh yeah defenses by number coming out of week one but but an offense that was obviously run heavy heading in so they knew that less more to worry about this week. They were able to stay in base a lot last week. You're at five?

I'm at five. Five turkeys going once. Going twice. Ah! You got it. I'll take it for five. That's a good one. Sequin 100.

This is where Zach gets in trouble. Yeah, here we go. Maybe I've studied the tape as well, Fran. You did audit that class. When going back and rewatching the old episode, Zach, the day news submissions and it was rough sledding for you. For context for the new listeners, we used to do it like fresh off the, I would rush home on our Friday.

There'd be a thousand things we were working on. And it would be the hour 30 mark of a Friday show. This is like my only night free of the week. And then Professor Shelman comes in with a grad level game theory problem. I wasn't adequately prepared for it. He was Dennis by the way. Excuses are the bricks that built the house of failure. One of my favorite quotes is don't ask for a lighter burden,

and ask for broader shoulders. So I will ask for broader shoulders here. Okay. All right, Julia. What do we have from the Madman? Okay. Is item number four? And he said in parentheses,

this is a normal auction. Okay, normal auction. Normal auction? Normal auction. I don't know what it means, but the Eagles complete a pass using under center play action. They were 0 for one last week. And they look bad.

Yeah. Those under center snaps. I'll go one I'll go two you got two I'll go three too cheap to not to not go one more

I'll go four four going once going twice yeah I'll take it for four I'll take it for four Eagles under center play action

completion completion down to 15 all right all right Zach, you're up. All right. This is one, these are some that I like to use, which are combo platters, if you will. Sequan Barkley and Drake London have more total yards, total yards than Bijon Robinson and A.J. Brown. And I'll start the bidding at one. Two. I don't want to let you have this at three or for two. I'm expecting a big Bijon game here, as we'll get to on Friday and Monday show. But yeah, that is a

cheap price here. The classic Zach move of doing a submission that he has no interest in inventing four. Yeah. My fantasy football auction strategy is nominating players that I don't, I don't intend to have on my team to get other people to spend their money. Yeah, but uh, I'll go.

We got two at about. Oh, three for Zach. Oh, three to Zach. Three to Zach. So Sequin in London against Brown and Bejohn. three to Zach I'll go four oh oh

four to bow can Zach go five with two and two different submissions fordabo going once going twice all right Forta bow

Forta bow Saquine and London over AJ and Bja and Bjaon over AJ and Bajon okay and I'm down to 16 yes all right my next one Zach's connection is spotty

during the post game show when he calls in after the game for one. And Julia is the arbiter here? Yeah. What determines us spotty? Julia. If we have to try more than

more than one time to connect. Ooh, I think that's too high of a bar. Okay, all right. Well, all right, then it's, if it's buffering to the point where it's that... Were we losing for a second? Yeah.

Okay. So this is the link, the games of the link. Now. Over there. Nice. Wait, where did you point? There? Wrong.

Way wrong. You guys have a problem. The two of you. I'm new, all right? I told you. It's because the shades are closed. I already am. It's because the shades are closed.

That's why. Yes. Yep. I think we should get that as a clip. The Fran you feel like a Berman? And every time that every time Fran does exact thing. Put it on the soundboard. Yeah.

Well, there are good things that I do too, with Fran. Like, it's, it's not all not known. All right. Anybody, anybody going more than one on the spotty connection? I certainly hope not. All right. Going once, going twice. Yeah.

Sold. Okay. Down to 15. That's like betting on a player getting injured. Right. I mean, after last week and you've, you know what my mood was following that Brazil game. If this connection is spotty, then I don't know what's going to.

Why are a connection from your laptop for the postgame show on Monday? Watch out cookies of the Philadelphia area. All right. So it's my second one here. Let's go to the Eagles offense. The Eagles hit an explosive pass, so defined by Nick Siriani, as 16 plus yards, so at least 16 yards, out of an empty set. So no one in the backfield except for the quarterback.

Did they do this last week? They did not do this last week, but I think they could this week. The Atlanta Falcons face three reps of empty. No explosives allowed out of empty, but I think that there's some meat on the bone there for the Eagles offense. We'll start the bidding at one. Two. Who got that? I'll go through those got two I'll go three three different going once going twice

well I'll take it for three that's a cheap buy yeah I'll take it for three conservative dating here huh no one knows the day the day new submissions here though we got I'm sure we have I've thrown his turkeys around here you give both 24 turkeys he's like you know he he doesn't want to bring any he doesn't want to bring any of those timeouts the next week right All right. What do we have from Danes? Okay. Item number eight, this is again a normal auction. Ooh, another normal action.

Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. does not play a single snap on either punt or punt return, just like he surprisingly did not last week. He only played on kickoffs and field goal block. Wow. I'll start this at one. I'm trying to think if there's anything that would have changed the outcome for me. the outcome for well even if if he i'll go two yeah i'll go three oh got three to fran four four four what about oh oh oh julia who had it

i think you said it first though but thank you yeah oh oh oh that's the connection very clearly uh five oh five to zach he doesn't want to bet on guys getting injured but he wants to bet on guys riding the pine i'm betting on there's there's no new injuries so unless they're making a change on the one return group. He could also just be inactive. Yep. Five to Zach. Five to Zach going once.

Going twice. No, go six. Oh, six to Bo. Joy, I feel like I feel like that was a very prolonged. All right, six to Bo going once. Going twice. I feel like there's a little home cooking going on there. You sound awfully familiar to another national conversation this week.

All right. Six to bow? Six to bow going twice? Yep. Six. All right. No trotter. Punt or punt return snaps.

Two basic auctions from day news. That's the upside of the week. Yeah. All right, Zach. Give us your last one. I am up here. Kyle Pitts. Just so you know, I have nine turkeys left.

Fran is 12. You have 19. Oh, wow. Kyle Pitts is making his homecoming here. First time he's returning to Philadelphia as an NFL player in a game. Kyle Pitts has more receiving yards than the combined mileage of Abington High School and Archbishop Wood to the link. So that is 53. So he needs to have at least 54 receiving yards here.

And I will start the bidding at two. Ooh, spicy. He starts at two. Just for giggles. I'll do three. Three to Fran. Four. Four to Zach.

No, I mean, I feel like you can get all his turkeys on this. Yeah, I'll do five here. 54 is not a ton. He led the team in receiving last week. He was the highest fantasy-producing tight end in the entire NFL a week ago, even though it was like the worst fantasy week for tight ends in history last week. All right. Five to Fran.

I think someone said I told you so. Okay. Oh, you're pounding your chest over that. performance. The guy that took over Jamar Chase. You got to put your turkeys where your mouth is. Six to Zach. I have a Kyle Pitts prediction.

Six to Zach. After this, after this one goes, I'll tell you my prediction. Six is that going once. I'll let him take it for six. Going twice. Six sold to Zach. All right. It's 34.

Wow. Pitts, come on down. Here's my, here's my Kyle Pitts prediction. Mark it down right now. The Eagles trade for Kyle. of hits in the offseason. Oh, that'd be, yeah, I was actually thinking that. He's going to have another, he's going to have another disappointing year.

The Eagles are going to need to replace Dallas Goddard, and they're going to say, oh, there's a shiny former first round pick. This guy, imagine this guy in this offense. They didn't know what to do with him. Bring him here. He's going to be a monster. And they're going to trade like a second round pick for him or something dumb. Yeah, you're really like anti-for, like, see, you, you had this argument about

Sequin Barclay. And I had it less about Sequin Barclay. I had it more about Kenny Pickett and Mackay back, to be fair. And there's things between Kenny Pickett and Devin White and then Kyle Pitts. I mean, there's really not that much of a difference between Devin White and Kyle Pitts. We don't need to do this now. What's trading a two versus signing a guy for the one-year deal? There's a little bit of a difference there.

Thank you, Frank. I would take Dallas got it over Kyle Pitts any day, though. right now personally based on 31 or a 30 year old dallas scotter over a 24 year old outfits i have not seen much from pits in the last 13 months to get to get to get to get me all that excited personally but maybe that changes someday if he has 55 yards yeah that that that barometer of greatness 55 years is your wood abington combination right all right my last one the classic for the sickos a one that i've never used before but I think they'll enjoy.

The score at the end of any quarter in this game features a larger number perfectly divisible by the lower number, and ties do not count. So if we have a 14-7 or even a 20-to-two, those will all count, but ties do not count. I will start the bidding at two. I'll go for three. Sure.

Three to Fran. Four. Four to Zach. Wow. I got four, I got four quarters here. They were, right? Yeah, I was hoping I was going to get this one for cheap. I don't know if I'm willing to go for five on it.

Four to Zach. I'll go five. Five to Fran. I've got a couple left. Five to Fran going once. Not just four quarters, but lots of numbers. Six years. Six.

Six. Six to Zach. Wow. A lot of having for six. Six to Zach going once. Going twice. Sold to Zach for six. All right.

Divisible quarters. Zach, you have seven left. I don't know what the data is here, but I like the fact that I have, you know, four different quarters to do this. Okay. You have seven left. I have nine left.

Fran has 12 left. Two items left. All right. So my final one, obviously Monday night. Nick Foles, big retirements aren't. Nice. Any play is run from the nine yard line. Either nine yard line. Either nine yard line from either team.

Any play is run from the nine yard line. We'll start the bidding at two. Three. I shouldn't have messed around that the visible one. I like this one better. Three to bow. Four for me. Four to Fran.

I'll go five. Five to Bo. I'll go six. I like six to Fran. I like this one. This is a fun one. six to Fran do I want

turkey's left for Danes is six to Fran going once going twice I'm taking it there's go Zach's out sold our friend for six

all right so we got one you got six left I got nine left Zach's got seven left for the final one last one Dan is this better not be a normal one this is not a normal one this is I don't know what this means.

Okay. All pay sealed bid auction. Okay. All players submit sealed bids. The highest bidder wins the item, but all bidders pay their own bid. Players can borrow turkeys from next week to bid. If there is a tie for the highest bid, nobody wins the item, but everyone still pays. If you can translate that for me, that would be.

Did you get that, Zach? Do you have to bid? Like, can it, is zero a... Yeah, he can put zero. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yes. I did just listen to the one episode yesterday where you all had to bid and the low bid.

It was something about like as long as the low bid was okay and he went super low and he had to pay so many turkeys. And you were exactly so upset. You were more upset than the, uh, the Dacterskill news last week. It was a tough listen. All you waste money. All right. It's not it's not real money. I hope you understand that.

Okay. You ready? Yep. The Eagles win the game. Wow. Joy, I am messaging you of mine. Yeah, I'll slack you mine too.

Okay. Got Zax bid in. I don't know. I don't know what to think of Fran. It's an agent of chaos here. I know what Zach's going to do. Fran's bid is in. I'm in.

No matter what, they're spent. Yes. All right. Did you send it? Oh, I'm just going to reveal it. Oh, okay. All right, everybody ready? I'm ready.

All right. Zach, what did you say? I did zero. I'm not messing around. I don't want to lose any turkeys. Fran? So I had six left. Yeah.

Are you borrowing? I borrowed from next week. I borrowed an additional six. I went with 12. Wow. I just feel like the Eagles to win this game. So I felt really good about it. I already had four bids submitted.

I wanted to cement the victory. It was my, my, all right. Well, me pay seven unnecessary turkeys. I didn't know if you were going to be willing to borrow. So you have sapped me of turkeys. I have two turkeys to carry over.

You were going to be down six turkeys next week. But you have Eagles win the game. Could be a nice gambit to take down the initial week of swooper. Just to recap, Zach, you have those three things that could happen on the Falcons opening drive, the Drake London targets, the Kirk Cousins play action under center, or a third. 30-yard pass. You have Kyle Pitts cements his future status in Canton with

54 yards receiving, and one of the scores at the end of a quarter is divisible by the other. I have the... And the turkeys left over. Don't forget that. And seven turkeys to carry over. Yeah. That's part of the equation for this week. Okay.

The Falcons score 12 or fewer points. Sequin and Drake London have more yards from scrimmage than AJ Brown and Bijon Robinson. Zach has a spotty connection at some point during the post game and Jeremiah Trotter does not play a snap on punt or punt return and I have two turkeys to carry over. Don't forget that. Fran has Sequin tops 100 yards rushing. The Eagles complete a pass on under center play action. They have an explosive play. 16 yards or more out of empty. A play is run from the nine yard line and the Eagles win the game and he

we'll be starting next week with only 18 turkeys. What a ride. We're back. We're back. You're back. I'm in for the first time. All right. Zach, good luck reviewing the tape on this bad boy.

I hope you sleep well. And that'll do it for this episode of the P.H.L. Y Eagles podcast. We are back tomorrow at 2 o'clock with Danes himself. Maybe we'll have some thoughts on how things went today. Then after that, back on Monday at 2 o'clock before the pregame show, the halftime show, and the post game show Monday night. Thanks, everybody.

for watching. Welcome back to Swooper. Thanks to Julia for making it happen. And as always, we love you.