PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - PHLY Philadelphia Eagles: DeVonta Smith returns, Eagles seem on path to No. 2 seed in NFC

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown are set to reunite as part of the offense behind Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata while Dallas Goedert is sidelined. With Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers on tap, it’s up to Vic Fangio’s group to shut down the visitors with help from Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams, Zack Baun and Rookie of the Year contender Quinyon Mitchell.The PHLY Eagles show puts its finishing touches on the preview of Eagles-Panthers, while Deniz Selman sets up the full playoff scenarios for the Eagles after the Lions’ win over the Packers Thursday night. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to the P.HLY Eagles podcast on a Friday afternoon. You know that we are presented by the good folks at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app today and use code PHLY365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At Bet365, we are here in Studio B. We're going to hear from Zach Berman coming up in about 25 minutes from the NovaCare Complex. It'll give us the latest from the locker room and the practice field. all signs point to Devante Smith,

returning for the Eagles on this weekend with Dallas Goddard unlikely to play. Dana Sellman is in the house. How you doing, Professor? I'm doing okay. We're planning a big birthday party for everyone. Excited about that. I've been busy with that.

But I will tell you, I woke up this morning with precisely the same headache that I wake up with after every eagle's loss. And it felt weird. Because, first of all, the Eagles haven't lost in so long that I didn't remember what that's like. But part of you that appreciates that pain? For sure. Yeah, I think you enjoy the wins more when the losses put you through physical pain, for sure.

I mean, I think any real fan will tell you that. But it was weird because the Eagles didn't play, right? And it's one of these very rare cases where in terms of trying to get the NFC one seed, the Lions game last night was actually more important than the Eagles game. Like it would have been better for the Eagles for both teams to lose this weekend, this week, than for both teams to win. So we'll get into the details of that, but I still have a little bit of a headache. Okay, we'll get into that in a second.

But let me ask you this, though. The headache, the pain, the wins, do you enjoy the wins, or do you just enjoy the absence of pain? Do you feel the joy or is it more the feeling of, okay, few, I don't have to be in pain? Well, I mean, I think it depends on the expectation. for the team, right? Like when the team's like 2021, it was like kind of a surprise, you know, like like fighting for the playoffs and all that.

And then I think you're really feeling the joy of some of the surprise wins, of some of the surprise success. I think when the goal is to go in the Super Bowl, when you've got your Airbnb and your flight booked for New Orleans already like I do, there is a little bit of, you know, like let's avoid. Yeah, we've moved forward another week. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

I mean, but that's okay. I mean, I think that's fine. I'd always rather it be this way with the, with the expectations high. Yeah, I think that's reasonable. Like that other, those other years will happen. But like, I mean, if you can sustain this kind of, you know, like, like years and years in a row of starting this well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We understand that this is we're never going to get this again. 10 and 2, 3 years in a row. Yeah, this will never happen again. Come on. I mean, it won't. It won't. I know it's not as fun for you when the Eagles are good, but, uh, but, you know, it's, yeah.

Okay, let's get into it. The Detroit Lions taken down the Green Bay Packers last night means that it certainly looks like the Eagles are sort of destined to be the number two seed in the NFC. And it doesn't necessarily mean it's a fait accompli, but it feels that way. Yeah, I mean, it was one game, but it was kind of two games, right? Because that was the last game the Lions had against a common opponent with the Eagles. and they were four and one and the Eagles were four and one and they each had one game left against government opponents and that was theirs and the Eagles still played Dallas as the last one.

So it was the last chance the Eagles had to win that tiebreaker and that was going to be the tiebreaker that mattered if it was 15 and 2. What's going to happen now if both teams finish 15 and 2 is that's going to be tied and it's going to go to strength of victory and the line strength of victory is going to be one of the best ever because they're in like the best division in history and all this kind of stuff. And the Eagles is terrible. So it's not going to be close.

And the lions are easily going to win that tiebreaker. And so basically, the long story short, the Eagles can no longer win a 15 and two tiebreaker against the lions. And almost certainly won't win one against the Vikings either. And so would need the lions to lose twice now. If the lions had lost last night, that would have been enough. Like the Eagles would not have needed any more help from the lions losing. Instead, now they're going to have to lose twice. And, you know, they do play the bills next week.

Their schedule just to say it out loud. They play Buffalo and then Chicago at Chicago and then at San Francisco. Right. Potential. And then they close in week 18 against the Vikings at home. Yeah. And there's a chance San Francisco is still playing for a wildcard spot. I mean, there are two games behind now, but like there's there's, you never know.

And yeah, I mean, it's not like the lines have been killing teams the last couple of weeks. I mean, they were before. But these last two games have been very frustrating to watch, like especially, you know, they were standalone national TV games. like everyone's watching and it really seemed like there was a decent chance they were going to lose both of those and they didn't lose either one. But so yeah, so that's what the Eagles need at 15 and 2. The one thing that the Eagles can still win a tiebreaker against the Lions, but it would be at 14 and 3. And that would only happen if the Eagles losses to the Steelers and the Lions lose two NFC games because then like NFC record is actually an earlier tiebreaker than common opponents.

Right now neither team has any AFC losses. but if the Eagles lose to the Steelers and the Lions beat the bills next week. But they lose two other games. Right. Yeah, then they would have to lose two other games. Right, exactly. So, I mean, if those two games are at the same time, by the way, I did check that. They're both at 425 next week.

If the Lions beat the bills, the Eagles Steelers game is like one of the lowest leverage games because winning the game means you don't have the tiebreaker. Losing it means you would have the tiebreaker. So it almost doesn't matter if you win or lose in terms of the race with the Lions. But in terms of the race with the Vikings, it would matter still. And on the other side of it, very unlikely the Eagles would get caught for the two-seed. Yeah, right now, like, the two-seed requires, first of all, the Eagles clinched the NFC East with, like, any of the following things. Like, just beating Washington would be enough, even if every other game goes wrong.

Beating Washington would be enough. Any combination of three Eagles wins and Washington losses is going to be enough as well. So it could be over by as early as next week. Washington has a buy this week, but if they lose next week and the Eagles win two, the NFC East would be over nine days from now. Okay. And then in terms of the two seed, getting the two seed only requires two more wins and then like Seattle losing once. Right. And that's it.

And I mean, you know, so it really seems very likely. The playoff seating probability models that are out there have the Eagles as anywhere between 80 and 90% at being the two seed. and the rest of it is basically the one seed. There's almost no chance of being lower. Now, there is, if you want to be silver lining about it, there's a path here where, like, if you fight to the end for the one seed, they're alive week 18, but they don't get it, then all of a sudden, like, you're playing your guys,

and you've got to play the next week. Whereas if you are sort of sailing towards that two seed, there's a possibility that you might even get two weeks at the end of the season? You can rest guys. Two weeks is unlikely because, you still only need the lions to lose twice. Right. So for it to be two weeks, the Eagles would have to fall further behind.

Okay. As long as the Eagles keep winning, they're still going to have a chance going into the last two weeks because you only need the Lions to lose two times. So, and as long as they have two games left, they can lose two times. Now, I've been getting a lot of people asking me, like, like, when's the earliest they can be locked into the two seed? Everyone's very interested in the rest. I keep on wondering how to feel about that.

And I was trying to figure out yesterday why I didn't know how to feel. about the Eagles being the two seed. And so I looked it up. The Eagles have made the playoffs 26 times since seeding started in 1975. Do you know how many times they've been to the two seed? Once. And it was in 1980

when I was a two-year-old in Ankara who had never heard of the Eagles or American football or even America. So that's why I don't know how to feel about it because I've never experienced it as a fan. I don't know what this whole two-seat is. I don't know like who gets the two-seed. It's never been the Eagles.

So they've been the one seed five times, the three-seed five times, the four seed seven times. Well, of course, this iteration of the two seed is different because you don't get, you don't even get the buy. Now, it's, I will say this, the two seed is, it used to be impossible to have three home playoff games. Right.

Now you can actually have three home playoff games. The Chiefs did in 2021. They had, they were the two seed. The Bengals knocked out the Titans. They were the one seed that year. And so the Chiefs got to host the Wildcard round, the divisional round, and the championship game. They lost the championship game. But they got to host three playoff games in a row. You can game where the Green Bay goes to Detroit against their revenge and wins that game and it has to

come to Philadelphia. And in particular, with four of the last five regular season games at home, I mean, like just the insanity of five straight weeks of home games and seven out of eight would be crazy. But yeah, I mean, and yes, you could argue maybe the two seed will get a more favorable divisional opponents. Possibly. One seed well, because like those two kind of Bobo division. or Green Bay wins at six and beats the three seed, then they have to go to one anymore. Yeah, exactly.

And like if one of those Bobo division winners wins, then that team would come to the two seed, like not to the one seat. And so like Atlanta or whatever, you know, but yeah, I mean, I don't know. I still don't know how to feel. I still have a headache. And like, my only take here is after having watched that game last night,

yeah, I'm going to be really disappointed if we don't get Eagles lines. I want to see these two teams play. That's how I feel. Yeah, I mean, I think that would be an observer from the outside. I think if you're an Eagles fan, it makes sense to not want to have to go to Detroit. But I'm going to be disappointed if we don't get to see these two teams go head to head. I think that's, it has felt like the season has been pointing towards that all along.

For the spectacle, for sure. For the spectacle, for sure. As a fan, like, you know, like I want to be putting on my toe warmers and going to the game on a championship Sunday. day and that's what we're that's what we've been used to here like we've been hosting these games the last time the eagles traveled for a championship game was the the rams like back in 2001 right so um yeah i mean but for the spectacle for sure i think it's very clear that it's the best two teams in the nfc and maybe the NFL and um for the spectacle absolutely but yeah how did you feel about the uh dan campbell decision at the end yeah i thought it was a toss-up in terms of the numbers uh so it just

comes down to whether you trust your offense more, your defense more. I think a lot of the models are very wrong about like their odds of winning when they converted. A lot of the models had that at like 89 percent, something like that, which is clearly wrong. Like once you convert there, I think your odds of winning are like closer to 96, 97 percent. I thought the numbers made it pretty much even in terms of like people are asking like would Nick Seriani go for it, things like that. I mean, the answer I think is I don't think any other coach would have gone for it. But it's for the reasons that we've talked about before where they don't want to be the story, right? I don't think that it was a wrong decision.

I think it was just kind of borderline. I did think this morning it was interesting when Siriani was asked about fourth down process. He listed in order four things that they use. The first he said the analytics charts, so far, fine. What they've done in recent history, absolutely wrong, okay? Should not be considered. Their plays and their players, absolutely correct. Like, that should definitely be part of it.

And then number four, what other teams have been doing? Again, wrong. So two for four there. You know, I would have liked to hear the order be a little different there. But it seems like those are the exact four things that they use. So there you go. Let us know in the chat. Would you, would pecker you rather be the one seed or the two seed?

Well, let me think. Let me think because obviously you'd rather be the one seat. Let's make this the right woodpecker. Would pecker you rather get to rest? in week 18 and be the two seed or go into week 18 and have a 40% chance of being the one seat.

Yeah, I mean, the Lions play the Vikings week 18, so maybe the best way to pose the question is, would you rather it would be known? Would pecker you, would pecker you wait what? What happens when you list one thing and then would pecker

you be the two seed for sure? Would Becker you rather? Would Becker you rather be the two seed for sure, going into week 18 and getting to rest people. Now, people are going to talk about Seekwon on the record then. Yeah, so that's a whole other issue. And then, or need a lion's loss to get the one seed where they're playing at home against the Vikings. Yeah.

Okay. And you play your guys and take on that inherent risk. Right. Now, here's a scenario since, you know, the chat's talking about. And if you're not listening live, comment under the video. If you're watching after the fact, and let us know. The chat's talking about how much useless information I have. How about this one?

What if the lions lose once, the Eagles don't lose at all, and the Vikings don't lose it all going into week 18? Freeway tie at 15 and 2? The Eagles would then need a Lions Vikings tie and a win to get the one seed. Do you play your guys then? No. What if you don't and you'll lose to the Giants and then they tie? What do you do then?

You just say that's just how God intended it. Yeah, that's how the cannibal crumbles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Okay. All right. Anything else from watching the game last night that stood out to you? Like, matchup-wise, would you be worried about the?

I think the Eagles are better than they are. I really think, like, there are certain things they do in the play action game, the past game, where it just seems like they're just on. You know what I mean? And so that's what would make the match-up so fun because the Eagles defense has been so good at coverage and so good at, like, calling out what the other team's doing. and pointing things out and helping each other and all that kind of stuff.

Like it would just be good on good for sure. So, but yeah, I don't think the lion's defense. I don't think split. Some people say play for the one. Same people say rest. Yeah. I mean, my answer is always going to be play for the one. I mean, it's so important.

Like the one seed is so important. But, yeah. I mean, it's like an automatic playoff win. Plus, the championship game at home. Would Pecker, you rather? be the two-seed if you know that the path is commanders in the wild card round, Falcons or Bucks in the divisional round, and then you play the winner of Lions Packers.

So there's the possibility that it could be Packers at home or go to Detroit or be the one-seed, but then you know in the divisional round that the Packers are coming to you. No, you still want the one-seat. Okay. Yeah, I mean, because if you can't beat the Packers at home, then what are we talking about, right? So, yeah, I think the rest has a big impact. I mean, this team had its by week in week five. Yeah.

Like, I mean, you're talking about, like, just the consecutive weeks that you have to play games, which I understand why people are saying, like, that's why it would be good to rest. Remember, the only time in the Siriani era that the Eagles were in a game where they could just rest people was that last game in 2021. That was under COVID rules when, like, they just fabricated that the top, like, 24 snap getters had COVID. and none of the other players did. It was like the most statistically improbable thing in human history. That's why they were chanting COVID rules. There you go.

But like this isn't COVID rules. Like you can't actually rest everybody. You know, you can rest some people, but you can't. You can't like some like at least a couple of the offensive line starters would have to play and things like that. So I don't know. It's not as much of a, it's not real rest the way the by week is, you know. All right. Before we get to Zach and the break before that, let's take a little bit of time to talk about the Eagles, aside from projecting into the playoffs.

And one of the things that you wanted to talk about is, well, you know what, let's start with the slow starts. Because Nick was asked about it again today. Obviously, the Eagles have not been able to solve this. And I don't think that this is a case of like they're trying more to find something out about the defense than to score. I think they're trying to score and they are not able to right now. As you have pointed out, first two drives, they're number 32 in the league. Every good drive after that, they're number one in the league. It's a great bit.

We think it's very funny. It's unbelievable. I don't know that they have a sense of humor about it themselves. What do you think is going on here? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, there's no obvious pattern of the first two drives being weirdly played except for the occasional Will Shipley Snap or like the, you know, let's try. Let's make sure we get that one snap of 12 personnel in on this track.

They play a lot of 12th person. personnel anyway. There's a lot of mixing Julia with a fancy poll in the chat. Very cool. And we've got 77% so far responding that they would rather have the 40% chance at the one seat than the locked in two seat and rest. Well, I'm glad that our

that our viewers are educated. Yeah, exactly. You've got to, yeah, loser mentality to just be like, let's get the two seats. We've talked about this a million times, but this is what I love about the Dan Campbell Aggression because it's not like, oh, let me,

put up my glasses here and I'm going to do what the analytics say. It's like, this is a football guy who's going out and like he's not going to be a beta and take the points. Like, no, I'm going to go out and get more points. I'm a man. Comparing the two, would you say you love Dan Campbell more or hate Cooper de Gene more? Which one? Listen, because it's hard to tell. I will not sit here as the Sequin hater, the guy who's trying to throw the MVP.

of the league off this seventh floor window I don't know what accuses me of not liking Cooper Dene I'm the one who's doing his dance I don't know what I'm saying is I'll do the dance any time you want Yeah no it's it's not I was just curious and start to tell Yeah I mean in terms of the slow starts I was going to relate it to something Lane Johnson said This week he said that they

And he's mentioned this the last couple of weeks actually He said that they definitely hold certain runs for the second half Like, you know, like, you know, we should talk about the wham trap and the trap and all that. They ran a wham double trap this week, which was super exciting. It's the first time they've run that this year. So there's the wham trap where you have one trapper and one tight end with the wham block. There's the double trap, which they ran against Washington, where there are two different people trapping and they're both linemen.

And then there's the Wham double trap, which is, you know, it's a Shanahan staple where the 49ers sport on it in the NFC championship game here a couple years ago. um wam double trap sounds like that's what they ran against the ravens it only you would have in a where where like the out of touch white guys trying to to to like say slang to yeah mix in with the young folks and i and that's kind of exactly what this is because i don't even know if that's what it's called um really but like there were two trappers and oh double trap that was fly guys i mean it was it only went for i think four or five yards but i thought it was awesome um the run game variety in general in this last game was so fun like they were

ran pistol counter read. They ran pistol counter without a read. They were on the shotgun bash counter read where they, you know, where they kept it. Tony Romo, by the way, terrible job. Like saying that the pistol counter read was the same play as the shotgun bash counter read. I mean, the pullers are going in the opposite direction. They were like, oh, that was the same play as two, two plays ago, except this time he made the right read. Come on, man. Like, the whole beauty of that is that they're two separate plays. You don't know which way they're going to go. Anyway, Talk about like missing the main point. There was under center toss, which they've been at it,

which they've added a lot. I think that's more of a Kellan Moore thing. Didn't do a whole lot of that before. Obviously, all the different inside zone plays, the play that Fran didn't love very much, that pistol mid-zone insert with the wide receiver. Paris Campbell. Kind of like, yeah, with Paris Campbell as the insertor.

It worked out okay on one of them. And then, of course, like the tackle power, which they haven't done a whole lot this year. It was great to see that. They ran split zone. one time Dallas got hurt got injured on that play yeah um but jason kelsey made a really good point about how the the the sequencing on that drive the one that ended with the with the long sequin touchdown it was split zone followed by the the the bash counter read keeper followed by the tackle

power and he said what that does is it makes it he said they they they fit the split zone completely wrong and so they're already confused and then the bash counter read is the is the the edge rusher is just waiting for Seguan and Jalen sees that and he keeps it and he goes up the middle and then on the next one Fran pointed this out as well there's no read whatsoever it's just the tackle power play but they see that tackle pulling and they think it's a read play and you had both 23 Simpson and Kyle Hamilton as well both of them waiting for Jalen on the backside and that obviously makes it a lot easier to block when you're like two people have taken themselves out of play um thinking about the quarterback what did were you concerned about the thing lane said about roquan swift

calling out their place. Yeah, for sure. And I was going to talk about that when we talked about the dropback game more. I think like that was more of a dropback thing. On film, it looked like he was pointing out that they were going to run that rap concept. There were a couple of other times

where he's just pointing to routes more than to runs. I thought that was a little bit, a little bit worrying. I mean, you remember in the Chip Kelly years, like that was the thing. Like, defense is just new. And it does feel like when you watch the film, I mean, the running game is more diverse than the passing game.

Yes, right? Yes. For sure. I mean, well, maybe not an absolute sense in the absolute sense. Like the number of different run plays is never going to be more than the number of different past plays. But it's a relative to the rest of the league. Yeah. For sure. I mean, like, you know, you watch a team like the Atlanta Falcons and they run like outside zone to the weak side. Like 70% of the time they run the ball.

They also don't run any play action. You know, of course, compared to that, it's very diverse. But still, like, the passing game, the variety in the Eagles passing game, comes from the ability to mix in the RPO's and the play action stuff. And we did see it in this game in particular, and I know Fran pointed this out as well. I mean, the Eagles are so good when they do play action and so not when they don't. Like that discrepancy, I think we should talk about more. Like most teams are better when they run play action than when they don't.

21 of the 32 teams are better with play action than without in terms of success rate. I'm surprised it's even that few. That's true. It's really bad offenses that aren't. But the team that benefits the most from play action in the league, and it's not really close, is the Eagles. Like if you look at just dropback success rate, they're 58% with play action, 42% without. That delta, that 16% difference is the biggest of any in the league. Their fourth best in play action and 20th best without. And going back to the last four years, like, that's actually one of the biggest, that's the biggest difference of any team in the last like four years. years like not just this year and it feels like that that has grown especially more so over the past four or five weeks or so yes and and it's actually coincided with using play action more yeah so it's not like people were saying oh maybe they're just good because they don't do it a lot no i mean like they've been doing it more the last three or four weeks and and it's it's the success rate has maintained and also just looking at the i was going to ask you if you think this is a kellyn more thing if you look at the last four

years i tweeted a chart about this uh yesterday the the no play action success has been the same over all four years of Siriani Hertz. But the play action success is much higher this year than it's been in the other years. And so I was going to ask you if you think that's like a little bit of a Kellan Moore thing. It's mostly shotgun play action. They still don't run a whole lot of under center. But I mean, he seems like the biggest different variable. Sequin is the other is the other candidate.

Sequin is the other. That's true. And that's a good point because you would imagine if teams are really worried about. this guy who you hate, the MVP of the league, potentially, then that would affect the plan. I think everybody knows that this is a bit, right? Like, I mean, yeah. But I think it's fair to give Kellynmore credit for that.

Yeah. But I also think it's fair to say that, you know, it would be nice if Kellynne Moore was helping more with the other stuff too. Oh, absolutely. I mean, when you look at the pure dropback game and we, you know, I think Fran spent enough time talking about the RPO's and everything, we don't need to get into it again. Like, those are really good, like two RPAs in a row to get the touchdown and all that.

But you look at the pure drop back. dropback game. I mean, there was a play where three guys are running like, like, curl routes into the same area. Like, it looks like they're not even like running the right play. The first two past plays of the game were covered two. One of them wasn't even disguised. Fran broke down the one that was, but like the first one wasn't even disguised. There's a guy wide open in the turkey hole and like Jalen's just not throwing it. Like like on Thanksgiving weekend, no less. I know. Turkey hole is such a great, great term. And then what else? Oh, there was a third and seven. There was, it was max protect. Okay. And there were only three

routes and they're all five yards past sticks like like into the teeth of the zone coverage and it's like make it easier you know what i mean like like it makes something easier you're only running three around somebody somewhere else yeah i mean and they it's not like they were blitzing either so you're running three guys into a seven-man coverage like all deeper than they need to be um and then you know i don't know they ran mesh against zone once and so it didn't work for that reason like um like those multiple rap plays that fran broke down are examples as well where once the defense knows it's coming they can stop it. I don't know. I mean, I really do wish that we could get a better pure dropback game here. But honestly, the easier thing might just to be to like go ahead and run

more under center play action. Run more. Run more RPAs, right? I'm not saying run the ball more. They're running the ball enough. They're running the ball enough. Musa, the, the turkey hole. Oh, yeah. We're talking about in cover two. Yeah. There's that little hole where at where the The outside corner is letting the receiver release past them to where these deep safeties then have to come over toward the sideline. And there's always a little space on the sideline. Think of it as about like 20 yards down the field or so, 15, 20 yards on the field where there's usually opportunity for the quarterback to sort of rifle that ball in there

in what they call the turkey hole. I don't know why it's called the turkey hole. The contrast with like so cover three is a more common zone coverage, the most common in the NFL. And with cover three, the corner is kind of the deep. He's supposed to be like wider than the widest and deeper than the deepest. And then the underneath defender is there knowing that there are like a bunch of other underneath defenders there. And so that distance is going to be shorter. So the distance between the corner and the underneath defender, which is usually either a safety or a nickel, is going to be shorter.

Whereas in cover two, you're really crowding the middle of the field. Like there's like three guys in the middle of the field. And so that leaves fewer people for the. the boundaries. And so like Bo was saying, the corner usually squats, especially if you have a flat route underneath, and then the safety is just the distance between the corner and the safety is always going to be really high. So that's, so a lot of people call it a honey hole. I'm not going to tell you what Jerry Jones calls it. But when you look at route concepts, a lot of times you have a corner route, at least on one side. And that's basically to attack that turkey hole in case they're

playing cover two or or if they're playing cover six it's cover two on one side so you could attack it then as well all right our friend zach berman is in the waiting room we're going to talk to him in just a minute after a word from our sponsors it's the holiday season that means it's the end of the year it also means it's time to think about your goals what kind of goals are you set and for yourself heading into the new year we know zach's got a got a bunch you got to make this the best year ever well constant contact is another way to keep track of those important goals in your life no how experienced you are with digital marketing, constant contact has the tools to make your marketing run smoother. Sell more, raise more, and build more genuine relationships with your audience.

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We're going to talk to Zach about that. We expect at least. But no more licky pipes in the offense, hopefully. At Ace Hardware Home Services, whenever we get ready for the next job, we remember what to bring. What they bring is experience. We're talking local plumbers and techs who handle everything. from repairs and seasonal maintenance to installation and upgrades, they bring understanding.

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You got me? Interesting. I love you too, Zach. Oh, that's so nice of you to see. I'm here. Do you have me? No, I will not take my pants off. Later.

What's going on here? After the TV people have left, only for the YouTube people. going to get to see it. Oh, there you are, Zach. How are you doing? It's doing well about 20 seconds ago. And then my fear is what can be interpreted from those comments that you just said. But no, I'm doing well. I'm sorry. This is a fancy new angle. There's interesting clarity. This is like portrait mode sort of going on. Since he's discovered the window,

everything's changed. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually the window. It's the lighting the lighting from the windows coming in this eye natural light. You look great. Yeah, but that's nice you to say. Thank you, Bo. And I know a compliment from you is earned. So I appreciate that. No, I'm sorry I'm not in studio with you guys today,

but it's great to be here. And just, I literally just got back from the locker room. Or Devante Smith says, count me in. You're going to see Devante Smith. Love that. Good speaking with Devante. Good catching up with General. harder, a few other players, but I think Devante, big story today. And look, he said that

if it was up to him, he would have been playing these past two weeks. They had to hold him back. But I asked him what the difference between his health last week and now. He's like, he's a week better. He says that he got two weeks, he got a nice two week break. And he's, he's ready to go for this run here. I asked him, about the next year for the passing game. He said, when they need them, they'll be ready. He said, when they need the passing game, they'll be ready. You know, interestingly, I asked him about Bryce Young.

This is a cool nugget. Him and Bryce Young were actually roommates in college on the road. It makes sense because both of them didn't eat any food. Well, because they're thin is what you're referring to. Perhaps they just have really good metabolism. right that it could be that wait was but the but nick was Bryce young okay with just sitting in the dark all the time it's a great reference to both story we're on the Super Bowl run which uh well you you can check out in the archives of a different place but um exactly absolutely just thirsty

over the way that you look there you know drop the skin care routine they're saying they're saying they'd love to take you to a nice gas station sushi dinner in sao Paulo you're looking i mean people are They're drooling over you right now. What is the gas station sushi referring to? I think it's the mall. It actually just says sushi. Yeah, gas station. I inserted gas station is way too hip-stop.

I think it's more, it's the food for sushi. Yeah, I never once a sushi at a gas station. I have had fried chicken at a gas station. I've had chitos at a gas station. You live in Charlottesville. Charlottesville has an incredible gourmet gas station. station scene. Just an incredible variety of, like, hipster gas station spots. On my way to Scott Stadium, I passed a very popular one that I would, I would roll by.

I mean, I would give them free pub, but they got advertised with us. But I can tell you all about the Charlottesville. Any Charlottesville food under the price of $15 I enjoyed during the year 2008. Yeah, absolutely. What did you, what did you? But let's get back to the Eagles. Oh, no, go ahead. Well, yeah, so anyways, the Devante Nugget there.

The Bryce Young, I'm sorry. I cut you off. Yeah. Nick Saban liked the pair, like a promising top of career with a leader, with a leader of the team. And so that's how Bryce Young and Devante Smith got connected. And so they kept in touch. Devonte is excited to see him this weekend. Devonte, he's kind of spoke.

about it i i asked about the uh record that sequin's nearing because devonte has set a few eagles records reception leader among wide receivers um rookie receptions and he's like oh you you definitely know when you're on the field he's he's like you know when you're close you know the number you're at like you i always appreciate devonte's honesty with with some of these these questions so some of the players are like yeah i don't keep track of that devonte said the players definitely know He said they were all excited for they wanted to break it and for them to have a role in it. So that's kind of the gist of the Devante info. Jalen Carter, he said that he spoke about the conditioning has been a big part of the improvement

that he or the fact that he's able to play every snaps what they did during the offseason. He spoke about Vic Fangio's box drill as being particularly beneficial. the holding penalties that he's been drawing. He's like, you've got to go to the next play. Sometimes he says something to the official about it. Like, you know, did you see that? He's like, but even that play when he got pulled to the ground, that the next play was a big play.

So you've got to you just got to move on to the next play. He obviously has background with Bryce Young played against him when he was at Alabama. When Bryce Young was at Alabama, John Carter was at Georgia. And then I caught up with Jeff. John Carter for a little while afterwards. I'll give a little tease here.

If you're diehard, there'll be a story in the next few weeks on Jellon Carter that it's going to have some good nuggets in there. I'm excited to write that and share that with. Yeah. Yeah, Jalen's guy. I think there's more the Jalen than meets the eye sometimes. I think that's right. I was thinking about Jalen. Tell me what you think about this, Dan is.

I think that I think if Fletcher Cox is the bar, Right. That's a very high bar. We're talking about a borderline Hall of Fame player, one of the best players in franchise history. He's got a long way to go to reach that. But I think it's fair to say that Jalen Carter right now is better than Fletcher Cox was in the second year of his career. Yeah, I heard, like, Ron Jaworski was asked on WIP this week about comparing Jalen Carter to Jerome Brown's second year and Fletcher Cox's a second year. Okay. And I don't remember Jerome Brown's second year. But, he was like, I don't have any memory of like what their exact second years were like, but his sense was that Jalen Carter was ahead of them. That's kind of the same with me. Like, I'd have to think, I'd have to go back and, like,

look and think harder about exactly where Fletcher Cox was at this point. So Fletch had five and a half sacks as a rookie, but then three in his second year, but was a full-time player and you could already see that it was more like the, you could see the strength from Fletcher Cox. that was uncanny, but I don't think he was as polished as Jalen Carter. I'm wondering if part of the Jalen Carter thing is that like now that the defense is so well coached and so good behind him, you're really seeing, it's almost, it's similar to the Sequin,

like, you know, multiplying effect where Sequin is much more useful to this team than he would be to a bad team. Jalen Carter's sort of the same way, right? Because he's attracting that attention. Like, like, you know, if Milton Williams wasn't winning next to him, it might not be as useful or if the coverage wasn't good. it might not be as useful. So part of it might be that.

If you just look at it as upside, like I think he has, he definitely has the like potential to end up with a better career than Fletcher Cox, don't you think? I think it's possible. I mean, that's, I'm fully aware that that's a very high bar.

Like, yeah, I think it's possible for sure. There was a timeline out there in which that would be the case. Go ahead, Zach. Yeah. And Fran points out in the chat that no, I guess into the two gap Bill Davis scheme in year two. which didn't automatically seem like it was going to be a good fit for him.

And I remember I remember going to a game and it was actually, it was actually Rich Hoffman, the senior on the pregame show. I just remember him saying like real quiet player for where he was picked, talking about Fudger Cox. And I think it was in that two-gap like, you know, system where like there was a period of his career earlier where he was kind of considered quiet. So, yeah, go ahead, Zach. I don't know why I remember that exact moment so well.

Yeah. I can tell you from having covered that year inside the locker room, there was this thought that, wow, this guy's going to be a star about Fletcher Cox. I remember that vividly. I remember the sentiment from at that time Trent Cole and, you know, Connor Barwin was in his first year with the team. I didn't know Connor as well then, but I remember that from. Trent Cole. Actually, the player who I remember hearing it the most from is D'Amico Ryan's. I recall specifically a conversation with D'Amico that year about how good Fletcher can become. And I actually think that Fletcher referred to D'Mek. Fletcher referenced D'Mico in his retirement speech, didn't he?

Something that, yeah, something that D'Miko said to him. But I recall speaking to D'Amico about Fletcher Cox that. that year. And to Professor Selman's point about the questions of like the scheme adjustment, you know, there's that famous line where Jim Washburn said God, you know, created Fletcher Cox to play in this defense, you know, the Y-9. And then Jerry Asnero said, God created that guy to play in any defense. And you can probably say the same thing about Jalen Carter in that, like, Jaylon Carter is one of those players who, to reference Jason Kelsey, and Jason Kelsey said Jason Peters and Fletcher Cox for the two players who were like scheme independent.

And that's probably how Jalen Carter is. But one thing that I'm really delving into in this story that I'm working on, I don't want to get too much away, but this is part of the joy of having this platform is we can kind of flesh things out as we go. One thing I hear behind the scenes is there's so much attention paid to Jalen Carter's talent. But like he actually quietly is really understands the game. and has this this real, like, fiery passion for the game that sometimes doesn't come, that, like, didn't come through on the draft profiles, if you will, and that,

I know there's people in the building who are like, wow, he's, he, like, asks really good questions. He's, he's really in tune with, with offensive schemes, things of that nature. Like, he wants to understand what's going on. So when I say there's, there's more than meets the eye, I think it's, uh, it's something that is probably not as well known about him. I was thinking about that the play he made on the Zay Flowers. Yeah, I was just going to mention that. And I love that play because, you know, there were so many times where Brandon Graham,

it was like, what are you doing thinking that Brandon Graham is going to fall for this on the back side? You're going to leave me unblocked? You're going to leave me unblocked. Like, he's not going to fall for that. And you're thinking to yourself, well, that's bad scouting by the offense. Because you need to know that Brandon Graham, he's put it on tape for years, that he's not going to fall for that. Whereas this one was like, it's not bad scouting. Like, Jalen Carter shouldn't be able to make that play.

Yeah. And he still makes it. It's a full, it's an under center play with a full outside zone action to the left. So like the entire offensive line is going left. I mean, everything they're doing is telling you like you have to, you know, like, you know, like, you know, from, from Jalen Carter's perspective, like, you got to like get on your ass and go right to make sure you don't lose your gap in outside zone. And meanwhile, they're running a jet sweep the other way. everything about that play is telling him, like, you know, I have to go right. And instead, he reads it perfectly and gets that TFL. The athleticism is as unbelievable. But to, but to, like,

see that coming. I mean, that can't be just athleticism. Like, I mean, you have to, you have to absolutely know that. And it is really funny. Like when, even this year, they were still leaving Brandon Graham on Block and plays like that. And every time he's just like, yeah, so it's really cool to see that. Well, and you think about like the best, the best players in the world at any sport. right? It's not just their athleticism. It's that they are seeing the action at a different tempo, right? Like everything sort of slows down for them. And so if Jalen Carter is as good as we think he is,

it makes sense that he is able to dissect these things quicker than maybe the average defensive tackle. Yeah, and I mean, I know he missed a meeting or whatever earlier this year, but like BG talked about how he's learned from those kinds of mistakes and that he doesn't, you know, that he doesn't tend to repeat the same mistake. And it's very obvious that he's putting in the work. I mean, like, for him to have the stamina to play, like, just an outrageous percentage of snaps.

And still be hustling, like, to the second level. It's crazy. Just crazy. So he's obviously putting in the film work and the mental work and all that, but also just the physical work. It's unbelievable. I would love to say after the arteries. I'll say as long as you want me,

but there are a few other just kind of like nuts and bolts. I do you want to go to after the average. Some swooper accounting that I do need to get to get to. too. So go ahead and then I will do that because I know that I know Fran is like maybe has to leave at some point. Okay. I'll get to it at some point. Okay. Yeah. I just want to so read blanket ship was not on the practice field today. Still in the concussion protocol. I'm not yet practicing with team. So you're not going to see him Sunday. So you'll see Tristan McColle is is my guess. We'll try to get more in terms of Sydney Brown. I'm curious about their safety depth. You'll probably see Avanti Maddoch there

a little bit more. I, uh, my understanding is that I think, Dary Slay is still in the concussion protocol, but he's been out there at practice. I'm expecting Slay to play, but that's just kind of something to monitor. I'm curious on the final injury report, what it says with Johnny Wilson. My expectation, as we discussed on yesterday's show, I think a Hardy Blossom game has been kind of been in the tight end room. Now, Eagles don't really have a fullback room, you know, so it's not like you'd be in the fullback room per se, but I'm curious to see what they do at the tight end.

were in closet. Yeah, exactly. I asked, you know, on the topic of like Ben Van Zimmerman, I found it funny when so when people were like linebacker slash part-time fullback. And I wanted to say like fullback slash part-time linebacker because he actually doesn't even play linebacker, right? Fullback special team. Exactly.

I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm going to put you on the spot. Carrey Blasling game is the first fullback on the Eagles roster since. He's already had this back and forth. He was corrected by Brandon League. Oh, really? Yeah, since Andrew Bonnet in 2016, so on the practice squad, if you're talking about the active roster, I think we should do active roster because of the practice squad rules were different then. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so active roster then would be 2012 would be the combination of Stanley Havili, Emilie, Emil Eguanagu from UMass to fullback slash tight end.

I like Stanley Havili. Nice guy. Healy had a little bit of juice. Yeah, I was going to say Havili was the answer because he was the last. last one on the roster. Yeah. But I do actually think, and far be it for me to correct an outstanding professor from the University of Pennsylvania, who is depth and breadth of knowledge is incredible.

But I believe Hevelli ended the 2012 season on IR. So I actually think the fullback at the end of that 2012 season was Emil and Guanagut. Yeah. I could be wrong here. I mean, this is like pedantic 2012. Eidels. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah.

But no, I did ask Nick, this is like inside baseball stuff. I did ask Nick about the third tight end thing. Just because I got curious about this, like if Calcutera goes down, they're really thin at that position. And they don't have options here. Now, they could, in essence, they could, they could sign E.J. Jenkins to the 53, but got her on IR or something like that. But no, my guess is they elevate Blosson game for this game.

can use Jack Driscoll, you can use Johnny Wilson if Johnny Wilson's active. So we'll see there. But I don't think this is totally insignificant just because they just don't have tight end depth on the roster. And then if you want to know, if for some reason they needed to elevate safety depth, my guess is that Andre Sam would be the next one up. He's the only safety on the practice squad. And so that would be.

Well, no, they have J.T. No, they have a guy J.T. Wood. No, no. He was cut. No, no, a different J.T. O'Sullivan. Is he good? No, no, you're, oh, A.J. Woods. Oh, but he's a corner.

He's a corner, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Andre Sam has been the only safety for a while other than. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was in the AJ Woods. Zach, both Havili and and Egwagonu were on the 53 at the end of the season, but Havili was inactive in the last game. Oh, okay. If that, yeah, yeah.

Got you got that. settled. Okay. Yeah, I've got that. I'm happy to stick around. This is fun. All right. Let me get to the ads in a second, Zach, and then we'll come back and I'll clean up the swooper fiasco from yesterday. Great. You know about Bet365? They're the presenting sponsors. We love them. You need to love them too. And right now you can get a little bit extra hooch for signing up at Bet365. New customers can get $150 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. Use the code P-H-L-Y-365 to sign up deposit $10 and place a bet for $5 to get $150 in bonus bets. Bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals, player props, futures, and more.

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Rothman Orthopedics specialized in orthopedics and you visit Rothmanortho.com to learn more and make an appointment today. All right, Zach. Oh, no, here we go. The Duff Man. There's the man. He's got to come in here. Fran, I had a question for you.

I was annotating Swooper yesterday, and I hadn't posted it yet because I just wanted to be clear on what the turkey punishment was for blatant cheating since there were two instances in which Boe tried to cheat. And I was just wondering if, like, we should count it as two different. Okay, so here, let's review the tape. I think we should. violations or if if we here's the thing first of all let's start uh the the turkey thing it's you know it's it's pretty brazen of you to come in here and and pretend like nobody ever makes a mistake when you miscounted fran's turkeys last week so fran was correct i'm not a player in the game that's just that on a turkey so fran you you skate on that front okay so you did to be to be clear

in fact have the extra i did not hear what you guys said during the watch along so i was just going on what you said and I was and you said that you got you lost a turkey you did not say Fran got a I did say it I I rewatched it on and I said all right I said Frank gets snacked for turkey okay now there was there there was a misunderstanding by me yesterday and I made a mistake so let's let's go over it the the proposal you had of the Bryce Young 10 plus completions I in my mind was thinking it was one where like the turkeys you bid is all is equal to the number so when I bid on three I thought it was three turkeys well aware that that's what you did because you did exactly the same thing before two weeks ago and it was also in your favor so if you make the same mistake

twice what are the odds if it was just random for it to be in your favor both times okay and so I had I miscounted my turkeys so obviously I'm taking away two turkeys for myself. Now, that also trickled down to the next item where this was my points divisible by a jersey number of an Eagles player who scored a touchdown. Now, I think there's a scenario where, now I bid 10, but I didn't have 10. I think Zach would have kept bidding, but I am not going to make that argument. And so what I think the only fair thing to do here is, I don't want any appearance of impropriety. I think that the only fair thing to do here is say

Swooper is canceled for the season. Whoever is winning at this moment is the champion for the year. Because otherwise we have to go back in a time machine. There's no way to decide what would happen. And so who is the leader right now? Okay, so congratulations to Bo Wolf for winning Swoopers stargasting in 2024.

No. I don't, I don't even. I'm, we're going to do the fair thing here. Fran, you paid 11 for it. I was not able to bid 10. I think Zach might have bid 10, but I'm going to give you, you get it at 9, okay? Which is one more than I would have been there. So you get an extra, you get an extra two turkeys to carry over.

So you are now carrying over nine turkeys instead of seven. I'm carrying over negative 4 instead of negative 2. Minus your cheating penalty. And there's no penalty for cheating. Absolutely not. No, hold on. Hold on one second. All right, let's go back to before the segment started, okay?

Before we started doing Swooper, I have verbatim what you said. Okay, so you started it by saying you forfeit 10 turkeys. If your accounting is wrong, which I obviously said that's ridiculous. You then tapered that down. How about two? There should be a penalty for trying to cheat. And I said, no, I don't try to cheat. This is a mistake.

This is not an attempt to cheat. And then, and then you filed that up. by pounding the table, no less, and saying, if you were wrong, there should be repercussions. No, talk about you. Yeah, there are repercussions. There should be repercussions. So again, you pound on the table.

So you then said if you have to give the turkey back that you didn't have and you pay a penalty, you absolutely have to pay a turkey penalty. If you were wrong, you pay a turkey penalty. It has been decided and then we went into the segment. So if that is good, if that is the rule, that is the standard. Zach is like, what did I stick around for? How I'm taking this then is that for the two turkeys that you forgot about,

which by the way, after you said, oh, yeah, I only spent three there, you went through and reiterated everyone's scores. And it's curious that you got my score. You have my turkey count right. You had Zach's turkey count right. But yours mysteriously was the only one that was wrong. So he was trying to short you as well. You know, I'm going to say this.

I'm going to say this. Fran's value to the show and to the company is obvious, right? Like, I mean, we talk about it all the time. My absolute favorite thing about Fran being on the show is how much he cares about swooper. It's unbelievable. Like he watched the old Swooper film from past years to, like, develop his strategy. He's always like, you know, like, like trying different strategies during games. Like, he, the dedication he has to Swooper and how much he cares about, just makes it so good. And you can kind of tell from the, uh, from the scoreboard,

which do people care about super. Well, so here's what I think just based off of the standard that Bo set, who is the, you know, obviously we know and Zach can agree the best host in the city does a great job of a whole segment every single week. Uh, he set the standard. He set the rules. So he said, it should be a one turkey penalty for if I was wrong about my one turkey. So with Bo being wrong about a total of four turkeys, okay? So two turkeys that you were wrong on on the submission, and then the two that you cost me.

No way. I think that you should lose four. Yeah, you lose four. Absolutely not. Your turkeys do not. No, no, no. I'm not wrong about your turkeys. I'm bidding with what I thought I had at the time.

If you want to make the case I should forfeit two turkeys, I'm open to that. Four is insane. Well, I think that I should get two. I get two back, no question, which I've gotten your two back. You said that as much. That's right.

So I get my two back. Meanwhile, Zach is just sitting on his hands on his hands. Like no chance that Jalen Hertz is going to score a touchdown. How about a extra bid, my man? We wouldn't even be in this scenario. You absolutely lose your two. No, but I did find it. I don't want to say unfair, but that Fran just gets,

gets two more turkeys at it than he gets the item for two Turkey's less when I was interested in bidding on that. And I had a number and that number was 10. So I would have gone up to 10 on that on that item. Yeah, my number was 10. Fran. But I can't go, but you can't go. I would have gone to 10, but you can't go back in time.

Also yeah. Maybe if Zach had gone to 10, Fran wouldn't have bid 11 because the stakes are different for Zach to win the item than for both to win the item. You can't just go back and say. that things would have been a certain way. Yeah. Yeah. So this is hard to litigate.

I'm staying out of this one. I mean, when I talk about things that I care about and things that I don't, this is, uh, yeah, this is not one that I care as much about. If we can't come to an agreement here, then we just call it and I'm the winner. Zach's, Zach staying out of something that has to do with swooper is par for the course. We should come to expect that way. Yes, yes.

But guilty as charge, right? I, I, yeah. I mean, this after the Lendez Smithgate a few weeks ago. Thanks for everybody watching on TV, by the way. If you want to see how this argument is, check out at all phtho.com. And by the way, the results are in on the chat. Make sure you hit the like button, subscribe all that good stuff. What, we got?

72% there, Julia? 72% say that they would, oh, no, who is right? Oh, you got to, oh, this, I thought this was still the number one seat. Yes, 72%. Well, there's still, who is right, who was wrong? I mean, 72% say that Fran is wrong. is right and the other 28% are minions. Actually, it's going down to 27% now.

So, all right. Yeah, I, you know, I think at the very least, all right, so I get two turkeys back, no question. You get your turkeys back. You said for every turkey that was wrong, there should be a one turkey pound to it. You said it's been decided. We moved on and we went. So that is rule. That is now long by the order of Beau.

I believe the gavel was sounded numerous times afterwards. Julie, is it okay if I change the topic? Okay, Fran, while you're on, I had one other thing to say about the offense, and while you're here, can I pose it as a question for you? You can, yeah. Don't worry, I'll make sure Beau gets penalized in my annotation. But here's the thing. Then I wouldn't have bid the same money.

There's all this sliding doors. You can't just re-adjudicate all of it. What do you mean you wouldn't have bid? You didn't have the turkeys to bid. I'm talking about the last item. I'm the last I made the record state that I'm trying to trying to end this no because you bet you took you bar from that you bar from next week anyway that's what I'm saying this is slippery slope yeah let's keep wrong here

let's keep wrong here Jalen Hurts is Jalen Hertz's dropbacks are ending with him not throwing the ball sacks plus scrambles at the highest rate of his career 18% of the time he's dropping back he's not throwing the ball. He also has the highest time to throw of his career when he does throw the ball. That 18% is up from 14 last year. I was going to ask, when you watch the film, what about this year's offense and this year's Jalen Hertz's performance

is leading to that discrepancy? Because it's a big jump in terms of how much he is either getting sacked. And we know the offensive line is good, so that's not it, or scrambling. Well, I think over the last few weeks, we've seen him scramble successfully at a higher rate and do a nice job with those scrambles. And he's looked more decisive with those scrambles, too. They haven't even been like, oh, it's really late in the down. He's been really decided, hey, like first read, maybe second read. All right, now I'm going.

So we're seeing the green light with hearts that we haven't really seen for a couple of years. So I think that's part of it. Also, when it comes to like average time to throw, some of the play action stuff will negatively affect that number, right? because you're holding on it a little bit, the ball a little bit more. Typically you see that with more of the move the pocket type of play actions where it's like a play action boot or a play action naked. A lot of the play actions they've done haven't necessarily been of that,

of that ilk. They're more of like the straight drop back like bang play actions. But that would lead to it as well. I mean, the other part of it is just like the pressure numbers and that we've talked about this a lot is that, you know, Jalen has invited pressure at a much, much, much higher rate this season. And it's funny because when you look at the pressure rates of the offensive line, like in terms of how those guys are graded, I mean, Lane Johnson's under 2%.

Jordan Milata is right around 3%, which is like both guys exorbitantly low, like way out in front of everybody from an offensive tackle standpoint. And it's not like the guards and center aren't doing it, aren't doing a good job there. Like they're modest, you know, 9%, 8%, 7%. So those guys are doing a fine job. A lot of the pressure that gets counted against the Eagles is due to Jailen's doing it. Now, a lot of that was in the first half of the season. It has gotten slightly better, but still not to where it needs to be. And so I think that that's part of the inconsistencies we're certainly seeing with the drop-back pass game.

Yeah, I mean, just to support that with some numbers, like he's under pressure. Like the under pressure number has gotten better. Like you said, he's kind of in the middle of the pack now. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Coming back for Zach. This is what happened yesterday. No more penalties.

What on earth? I'm not talking about. my life. The heater. Oh, something. Gotcha. Okay.

The creative feeder. Hold on. I'm waiting for my heart rate to go back. Make a dream. I was going to say. Make a dream. Instead of, in terms of how much Jalen benefits from not inviting pressure,

I mean, he's fifth in the league in EPA per dropback when not under pressure and all the way down to 22nd when he is. I mean, like everyone's worse under pressure, obviously, but this is just rankings within those categories. And so it would be nice if that didn't happen. It seems like holding onto the ball is what is is is what's doing that. But yeah, I was wondering if you thought there was any sort of scheme related reason there.

But yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't necessarily think it's it's it's more it's more part for the course like what we've come to expect in some of the issues that we've seen from Jalen from the from the past game and, you know, the entire structure. All right, Zach, I don't want to make you just sit there and be part of the conversation. So is there anything else you'd like to you'd like to add? Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to let you guys keep rolling with this because I got some transcribing I need to do. And a busy night ahead of me tonight. Just three quick things.

I just want to mention. First, I want to get my prediction on the record because I'm not on the – this is my last show until the pregame. My pregame hit. I think the Eagles handle this game. I don't think they look over Carolina. I haven't seen evidence of that in the building this week. AJ Brown referenced the Arizona. game last week as, I'm sorry, the Arizona game last season as an example of like how they can,

or how they need to be locked in, they can't look over an opponent. And so I don't anticipate that occurring. I think Carolina puts up more points than maybe others would expect. I'm predicting Eagles 31, Panthers 20. So Eagles win, but don't cover. Now it's a big line. It's a 12 and a half point line. Second thing I want to say is I so appreciate what all of these Spotify wraps that we've been getting in the last 24 hours on Monday I will go down a roll call for everyone who sends us I've gotten some over email some over DM on Blue Sky and on Twitter keep doing that keep sending your wraps I will mention everyone by name in Monday show and then the last thing if you don't mind if I can just give a shameless plug

and I recognize that it's shameless. Tonight I will be at Steffey's 2912 Bar and Grill at our town Bowling Alley in East Noron, signing books. That's from 6 to 8 p.m. Tomorrow, I'll be at our friend Wheelhouse Cards at their new location in Ardmore from 11 to 1. And then I will be in Phoenixville from 2 to 4 at Reads and Company. So looking forward to all of those I've already heard from these few listeners

who are going to be out there. and I want to see as many people as possible. So I appreciate that. I'll be listening to the rest of the show, I imagine by the time I get home, you'll still be adjudicating the turkey basketball, but hope everyone is a great weekend. I was going to say,

one of the greatest moments in the history of the show is when Zach was reading like random people's Twitter handles one time. When you send those Spotify raps, the funnier your name, the better will be the show. Yeah. I will read your name or your handle.

Thanks, guys. Keep looking sharp. See, Zach. All right, Fran. I know you have an out as well. Yes. If you need to get going, that's all right. We'll talk to you at the kickoff show on Sunday.

You act as if I'm going to leave without this being settled. It's got to go to the Supreme Bowl court. I mean, I'm not giving up the penalty. I mean, I know the chat has weighed in. I know there's a different chat. There's a difference between misadding something in the middle of also running the show and doing it live versus the penalty that would have been levied if you had had all week to think about it and said that you did the accounting yourself and then were found to be lying. Which I was right with my case. Right.

So you didn't get penalized. And nor did it the person who just made an honest, simple mistake be penalized either. even the actual Supreme Court gets it right more than the Supreme Bo Court. A great host once said, if you were wrong, there should be repercussions. Oh my goodness. I think we got to just say I win.

Danes, you want to talk about the fun things to watch on the defense? We got to keep this bad boy rolling. Oh, yeah. I was going to, well, I mean, I was going to flex and tell you I watched the Aziro Eberro breast conference yesterday. But yeah, he's, as youro, The defense coordinator for Carolina said that he still watches all the Eagles games so he can learn things from Vic Fangio, which made me a little sad.

Exactly. It's kind of like this whole like very similar to Sean Desai where it's like you used to work with him and you learn things from him. His defense is terrible. You know, and you know, he started the press conference yesterday by like listing all of the assistant defensive coaches for no reason and saying that they were all doing a good job. You like said them all by name and everything. And I was just like, wow. But yeah, all right. Yeah, as for the real thing, the real Vic Fangio, the real dead poet society, right? So fun to watch.

And, you know, Fran broke down. For the audio listeners, Fran, it's holding up a piece of paper that says, I am trying to cheat. Fran, do you think it's fair for Bo to just lose two turkeys and you to get two turkeys? he loses two for cheating and then you get your two back because you bid two more than you would have had to. He obviously also loses the two that he like, I never gave him those anyway, but like in my in my annotating like what do you think? I think the chat would agree with that. I had it. I had it in four and two.

But for the sake of the chat and the fact that I do need to pick up Francis, I will say two and two is two and two is fine. In addition to the two he already lost for like, you know, never having the two. Yeah. Actually never happening. Yeah. Right. Yes. Okay.

That's suitable. All right. What a fair arbiter by goodness. Go get Francis. All right. So, Bo. I'll see you at the kickoff show. See you, Fran.

All right. We love you. See you guys. Oh, man. Hard to follow that up. No, just, I mean, basic stuff that we've been talking about. They're just every single week. I don't need to get into like the nitty-gritty details of the plays,

but every single week there are so many examples of plays where they're running like a bunch concept and it's man coverage. And like Cooper de Gene is like making sure that C.J. DJ knows that he has to get the guy who runs the over because he's going to get the guy who runs the out and Quinnion's going to get the guy who runs the ball around and they're all crossing each other and trying to confuse them. And the Eagles don't play man coverage that much. And so you would think like playing man to bunch is dangerous. Like a lot of times guys get wide open doing things that way.

and they're pointing things out, they're passing things off perfectly. They ran a mesh play where Isaiah Rogers just completely lost his guy in traffic. And Nicobi Dean just picked him up. Like, it was like, Isaiah Rogers just like turned into Nacobi Dean in the chaos. And Nicobi Dean just kept running with the guy and they didn't lose anything on it. You know, like it was it was just so beautiful and so different than what we've been seeing from this defense the last year, especially. So, and then I'll stay to my brand and talk about safety usage since, Blankenship went down.

Reed Blankenship is continued to play to the boundary, which means he's usually the one who rotates down, and C.J.G.J.J. goes to the post, except when they play Cover 3 buzz, in which case the field safety buzzes down. Now, week three or so, I pointed this out, and I said they probably have to change this because it's a tell otherwise. They have not changed it.

So you can still tell, like, who's going to come down and who's not going to, based on which side they're lined up. Tristan McCollum was just inserted into the read Blankenship role, so nothing changed. Like, like, CJJ is still the one. one going to the post, McCollum, including on the play where he had the near interception at the end, is the one who rotates down. I assume that it'll just continue that it'll just continue that way. And I assume that if there's an injury, it'll be Alante Maddox playing safety,

which Alante Maddox has been a liability, like, to say the least. I mean, he was out there for two snaps last game and he messed up both of them. There was like a massive coverage bust on one. And then on the other one. And it's also like, he got beat by Nelson Agarore. It seems clear that. it's already an alert to opposing offenses like, oh, they're absolutely going after him.

And like he and Isaiah Rogers just completely messed up on a communication on one of them. And there was a guy like it was like the first drive of the game. The guy was wide open and Lamar just didn't see him. That would have been a disastrous way to start the game. It would have been like a massive completion on a complete bust for a touchdown on the first, I think it was the second dropback of the whole game. They were in dime on that. Avanti Maddox has played 159 coverage snaps.

That's like 300 fewer than Gwinnon Mitchell. And he has two pass interferences. two defensive holdings, plus he's gotten burned a bunch of times. Quinnion Mitchell has zero pass interference penalties. He has one penalty the whole year, and it was a questionable illegal hands to the face for five yards. That was it. And it was impossible not to notice when Terriott got flagged for PI last night,

and then he gets flagged for PI like every single time I turn on a line's game. He leads the entire NFL in pass interference penalties. He's been flagged seven times. Yeah. He has a total of 11 penalties for 167 yards. You see teams picking on him all the time. The Eagles absolutely got that pick right. Like, I mean, Quinyon Mitchell is going to be all pro, and I think Terry and Arnold is going to be fine.

I think Terry and Arnold will still be fine. And I'm full disclosure. I was leaning Terry Arnold's over here. And you understand, like, big school and all that. But, like, yeah, and the Eagles in general have been very good at avoiding penalties on defense. I mean, as a team, like, they're one of the lowest ones. Which speaks to the same general, like, awareness that you're talking about, that football IQ. Absolutely. Yeah.

Okay. Anything else? The edge rusher rotation, you guys are talking about Chuck Harris. There's no swoopers about him and everything. The combination of Fangio saying that three is enough. Yeah. And also when he was asked about Charles Harris two weeks ago, he said he didn't know anything about him. It's just very funny.

I just don't expect there to be a lot of actual fourth edge rusher except for garbage time. The one thing we were wondering about going into last week, we were wondering if, he would try to steal defensive end snaps by having only one defensive end on the field. That did not happen last week. So they didn't have played a single snap like that. Interesting also because they were in some heavier person. Yeah, and they just played

regular base. Yeah, they played with three defensive tackles and two defensive ends. I think that penny package was a special package that Fangio used when he wanted four guys with their hand on the ground because the fourth guy was always Brandon Graham. And he's okay with

having Brandon Graham have his hand on the ground. having an overhang outside of him. I think the three guys that are playing now, he doesn't want any of them in that role. Like Josh Swet, Nolan Smith, Jalick Hunt, like you don't want one of those guys with their hand on the ground on what you think is going to be a rundown. And so that package might have been a Brandon Graham special

that we're not going to see anymore. And so interestingly, that actually means you need more defensive ends on the field. I mean, I wonder if that's a very bit role that Chuck Harris could play. Is he that kind of player who? He's not that. But he's more that kind of player than those other three guys. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

That's true. I mean, and maybe that's something that is worth discussing is that like not only are the Eagles thin at defense of end now, but they're very unvaried. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Okay. All right. Some super chats to roll through before we get going.

CDP, our man says, did anyone mention Miles Sanders has his Eagles career become vapor? If Miles Sanders can be forgotten, does that mean I will be. forgotten as well. How transient we all are. Deep thought from Chase from CDP. Yeah.

I think, you know, Miles Sanders is interesting in the thought experiment of A.J. Brandon Devante Smith, like being okay, sort of playing second fiddle in this offense and not getting the ball as much as they might like because

the team is so run heavy and they're winning. I don't think that that would be the case if it wasn't a guy like Sequin Barclay getting the ball who is to those guys such an unbelievable athlete and is also making more explosive plays out of it. Even if the Eagles were still a very, very good run offense, but we're running as much as they are now with Miles Sanders, I think they would be a little bit more agitated to not get the ball. Oh, 100%. I mean, every time they're asked about it, they call Sequan Superman. and they say when Superman's back there, like he puts his cape on, like, we're not going to say anything to that. You know, like, I think if it were Miles Sanders

or D'Andre Swift getting similar success without the flash, they would maybe think a different way. And then the getting paid thing, like, probably helps a lot as well. Jack says, question for the professor, what's the best path to the one seed after the Packers' loss? I think we talked about this at the top, but give us the 10 second. Like, you need the last. lines to lose twice. And so I think next

week's game against Buffalo is going to be the one that really tells us, like, is it likely or not going into the last three weeks? Because when you talk about Bears, 49ers, Vikings, of course they could lose two of those three, but it seems unlikely. Whereas losing one of three,

I mean, for any team, any time you talk about three games, the chance of losing one of them is always going to be like significant. So next week's game when they play the bills, it's at the same time as Eagle Steelers. That's going to be big. And then you do need the Vikings to lose eventually. I just keep saying that that'll happen.

It's annoying that they don't. But, you know, and since you need the Vikings to lose and you also want them to beat the Lions, it'd be nice if they lost before that last game. And then it would also be really nice if that last game is for something, right? Like the Lions Vikings, if that's for the division, then it's, you know, more likely that it could be a loss for the Lions. All right. Jeline All sick O'Dio Mede says in the Pacific Northwest. West in Hawaii, they have, oh, and Pee, anyway, they have big gas station sushi pokey scene in Hawaii.

Okay, awesome. He also says, plus two for Fran and minus four for Bo. Obviously, we're not going to do that. Plus two for Fran. I lose my two turkeys. There's a chat, Julia, that says how many turkeys should Bo give up? Seems like the overwhelming result is that people think I should get extra 10 turkeys. So thank you to the sickos.

Wow. Yeah, I think you guys are right. If the Eagles win, it will match the longest winning streak in franchise history at 9. They've done it four times. 1949, I believe that was a greasy meal. Again. 1960, 2003, after the 0-2 start. And then 2017, there was a nine-game win streak after the lost Kansas City in week two.

And so, yeah, chance to have the longest ever. And we were talking about this before the show. It's very weird to have this many weeks left in the season, to have the Eagles be rolling, playing like maybe the best team in the league or one of them. And to have these games now, especially with the Lions win yesterday, like seem to be so low leverage. You know what I mean? Like, like I don't know how to feel. And especially if they beat the bills next week and it's really looking really hard to get the one seed,

hard to drop out of the two seed. I'm wondering how that's going to impact Like I'm sure the coaches will be very good about making sure the players aren't impacted But like it'll be hard not to be impacted a little bit by this feeling that like you're just waiting And you're just waiting for the play I mean like there are eight weeks until the NFC championship game Like we're talking about like You know Eagles Lions collision course or whatever Like this win streak started as long ago as the NFC championship is from now

You know what I mean like like the amount of time like Britney Spears The actual what's up? When Nick cut his hair like Britney Spears. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, maybe he'll have to cut it again to bring some juice back. Because I'm just concerned that there's this like long period of time when like the only thing that can happen is guys can get injured. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So hopefully. And I know that this is not the case, but it also sort of feels like it's like it's almost locked in already that it's going to be the Eagles hosting the seven seed commanders because they're two games ahead of the other wild card teams. and it's unlikely they're going to catch either the Packers or the Vikings. Now I know that it's probably... They're only one ahead. They're only one ahead. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Two in the wind column, but only one in the lost column. So they have a bye week this week. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, like, I mean, if Tampa Bay beats the Raiders, they're going to be... They're only going to be one behind. Yeah, I think Tampa Bay is going to win that division. Tampa Bay beat Washington week one.

And so they also have the tiebreaker. So, I mean, Tampa Bay could absolutely catch Washington. Oh, but you're saying both them and Atlanta would have to be. Stay ahead of them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Atlanta, Washington is a big game Week 17.

So that could be like a game that determines like who gets the seven seed or something. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Washington, the models say Washington has around a 40% chance of being the seven seed. So you shouldn't think of it as like an automatic. Okay. Yeah.

All right. That'll do it for this episode of the PHOY Eagles podcast. A full slate of shows coming your way for the game on Sunday, kickoff show with Fran and Jamie at 1230. We got to watch along at 1 o'clock. Now, not a franning cast, just a straight watch along as those guys are watching the game out there

by the televisions. And then we got a halftime show and the post... Actually, we don't have a halftime show, no halftime show. And the post game show afterwards, as the Eagles look to keep this winning street going to match the longest in franchise history, as Dana says. Thank you to...

Dave Canales flies in tomorrow? So be careful. Yeah, everybody, keep your phones out. and just let's see what happens in downtown center city for all of us here at PHLY for Julia De Niz, Fran and Zach, we thank you for watching and listening. We will talk to you on Sunday,

and as always, we love you.