PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Re-live the Eagles loss on MNF to the LA Chargers on Hard Knocks

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

The Philadelphia Eagles had a heart wrenching loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on ESPN's Monday Night Football. Jalen Hurts wasn't able to close the game out at the end & now we get to experience the game up & close & personal from the Eagles sideline & locker room. What did we learn about the game that we didn't get to see on the broadcast? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everybody, welcome in to the PHLY Eagles After Dark, Hard Knocks edition, live from the Xfinity Mobile Studios, brought to you by our friends at at Bet365 and Ashley. You may notice a very envious backdrop of our one friend here, Mr. Violations, Greg. That is, in fact, no green screen. This MFer joining us from Hawaii live, like a true sicko on a balcony watching hard knocks. Like he's got nothing better going on in his life. I talk a little bit about a balcony. I got a sunrise, sunset happening.

And Tyler Zooli, of course, and with us tonight, given E.J. Smith a night off after a late red eye and Bo Wolf didn't sleep much last night with the Brandon Graham recording this morning. So we figured we'd take the duties tonight and talk about episode two of HBO's hard knocks. Just surface level before we dive into the nitty gritty of the episode. Tyler, what did you think about the episode? Did you find it entertaining since you weren't with us last week? Yeah, I mean, a pretty dreadful week for the NFC East as a whole, right? I mean, you think about it, it was just like, well, they lost, and they lost, and they lost their tight end, and their quarterback was hurt, and they lost.

And this team lost in dramatic fashion. And it was just the slew. I don't know if the people that put this show together are like, yes, four losses. This is going to be terrible. But, you know, that's my only positive takeaway is that everybody in the division lost this week in what was a really crappy Eagles game yesterday. at least you have that to fall back on it's not much but it's something Greg did the episode hit different sitting in paradise yeah I mean it's a brutal brutal night last night

the world in the day I'm amazed at the turnaround speed that they have at this show was not as fun this week as last week's episode nearly Brandon Graham stand out as usual he just needs to be miced up the entire time he's hysterical and I think Clint hurt He was the star of this one for me. That dude's legit. Like, and they came out and played for him. Yeah, he's cool.

So let's work backwards and then get into some of the ancillary stuff. The end of the episode, obviously, is the Chargers game. And I will tell you, I kind of laughed off last night, not in that it wasn't like an atrocious loss. It was more just like, I don't know. I had a case of the giggles at how comically bad the game was going. seeing that final play again by Jalen kind of made me angry. It's like a reverse.

I'm going through like a reverse thing because I don't think I realize live in the moment how off his back foot and going to the side he was. It was an atrocious decision to watch it again. It's amazing some of the decisions he made because he's such a risk adverse quarterback. Yeah, it was really dumb.

You got the tie at least. He's like, let's just don't try to throw. That's like a hero ball throw. I think it was one of those games where I have been a big Jalen Hertz defender for most of his career. And I think rightfully so because we know what he can do and we've seen what he can do, especially in big stages. I thought this was probably his worst game as a professional. If it wasn't this, it was that game a few years ago against the Giants where they had, I think they ended up scoring six points in that game as well. but this was one of the probably weakest game of Jalen Hertz's career.

And that last drive was kind of emblematic of how this game went because they finally started to get some momentum. They got momentum with the big Devante Smith play. They got a little bit of help from the offside call that gives them the free first down. They get the big chunk play from Dallas Goddard a few plays later. And as you said, VG, they're knocking on the doorstep of, hey, you know, you can at least get three out of this. and does a tie help you in the grand scheme of things? No, because you've split with Dallas, and it doesn't necessarily mean a ton,

but it's better than a loss. And I think if you set yourself up, even if that's the scenario, you could stomach the tie and say, hey, we played exceptionally poorly, offensively. Our defense kept us in the game, and our quarterback did not play particularly well. Walking away with a tie in that scenario

wouldn't have been the end of the world. The way that that game ended was kind of, as I said, emblematic of the way that this whole game played out. I've been a huge Jalen Hertz defender and I think for good reason this was probably his worst game as a professional quarterback.

Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, he was really, really bad. I will say the one thing, and I saw the post-game locker room stuff after the game a little bit last night, but I kind of went ostrich mode and kind of put my head in the sand a little bit.

I will say that Sequin and AJ I think came off. great. There's no sense to me that this is a locker room that's like in any way, shape, or form quitting or giving up. Just as like, you know, that small peak we get into the locker room, like,

I think they're fine. I don't know. I don't mean fine in that they're going to win a Super Bowl. I just think they still have the right attitudes and mindset in there. I feel like with the hard knocks, when you see the sideline stuff, the first interception, Devante's

like, man, we can't go all the way down, drive all the way down there and do that and AJ just sitting there like yeah that's what we're doing that's what we're doing like irritated and then I felt like on that last drive you saw Sequan Devante and AJ all huddled together be like all right let's go this drive we got to do something and Jalen hurts just feels like there's a disconnect totally going on to me I feel like when you see the sidelines it feels like a disconnect yeah I do you want seeing that or feeling that uh I mean everybody interprets it differently I I wasn't really to be honest. But Tyler, why don't you break the tie here?

Well, I mean, if we're comparing cohesion to the way the defense looks cohesive, then sure, there's a disconnect there because the defense fired on all cylinders. And I think, you know, with that, you go back and you even look more favorably on the defense the way that they played in those highlight packages with the Kobe Dean and Jordan Davis. So if you're comparing it defensively to offensively, sure, that probably feels that that way. I do think that they have done and they did a really nice job of. accepting a responsibility and taking accountability. AJ Brown, as you guys brought up, you know, said,

hey, I played okay, but down the stretch, I need to make big plays. I thought Jalen Hertz did a nice job, kind of taking, you know, shouldering the brunt of the load and saying this was a me game. As you said, Selein Barclay, I thought, kind of did a decent job as well. I don't know if it's a disconnect. I think there's clearly frustrations. They're too good to be this inept. And so I think those frustrations are certainly valid in there.

I don't know if it's necessarily a disconnect, But if you're going to say, like, I'm watching Vic Fangio's unit be this, like, well-oiled machine. And the only reason that the Eagles are staying in games at the current moment is because of that defensive front, then sure, comparably, that there's probably parts to be made. I think what you see on the side, not only just a sidelines, but also to lock in the, the game meetings leading up, the defense is just way more confident on every level. Even their meetings, when their coaches are talking, it seems real. And the other side, the offense just looks like no confidence. I'm kind of over. We're talking about jumping out of planes.

I mean, that's where they're right mentally. Right. I'm over like the Mount Union footage. I'm over like the joy. Don't let it take the joy out. I'm over all that. I hear you on the message, but I thought showing the Mount Union footage was pretty funny to AJ and Devante

because they got to critique him a little bit. No toe drag. The right thing line. Yeah. Like I thought that was pretty funny. money. I don't know. I'm now unioned out, man. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. I don't know. It drives me.

You are in waditudes. You're in wager's serene of a place right now to be this miserable. You have to hate it from paradise. I had to sit at a pool, a bar next to the pool with Raiders fans making fun of me. And they're not even worried about playing us next week. They're just like, look at this, look at this. A couple other observations for the game on the Sequon. Barclay long touchdown.

One thing that jumped out to me was Darius Cooper was talking that ass because he had a key block in the run. And as Sequin broke it, Darius flipped. This is for Bo Wolf. He flipped right around to the guy he was blocking and started kind of like head bobbing and talking his ass. I'm trying not to curse. But that was that was pretty cool to see.

Dude, I'm a big Darius fan. Do you notice, too, on those two runs that they highlighted, the ones to Saquan Barclay, do you notice what they were? Stretch plays to the outside. Hey, how about that? It did make me more upset that they didn't run it from the 17-yard line. So this is totally unrelated to what you were just referring to, but can we please, just for my mental sanity, can we please be done with the run packages that include trying to get behind a pulling grant,

Grant Calcutera. Yeah. Why is he on the field on any run of plays? It's so ridiculous and so frustrating. Well, and I'm not saying it's a perfect, it's a perfect like, you know, plug and play. No one's afraid of him catching a ball. So I mean,

they run every time's on the field. I watch Cam Latte who throw blocks and I'm like that. I know that he's not playing better blocker in the fullback role, much better blocker. Yeah, the other world is blocking. Yeah. Sequin had the juice really kind of makes that the hindsight. being 2020. I mean, I said it last night in the post game show.

You should have been running the ball there. Like first down inside the 20. You can tie the game worst case. Like Sequin had the juice all night. They should have gone to them there. A couple of other observations, BG, big focal point on the bench, very cool to see. They're very obsessed with the outside noise. And I get it because the WIP montage was made us look like a bunch of absolute animals. Yeah, but dude, don't you think like, Nick's like, I'm not dumb. Don't even acknowledge it.

Don't even bring it up in the room. Like, why is he? I'm kind of with you on that. Yeah. Let's just focus. You don't even have to mention that stuff. I don't know. I feel like at times he wants to be a play.

He thinks he's still a player and just wants to be their buddy and a co-like appear with them instead of just a leader sometimes. I don't know. I turned the corner on him. I used to heed them. Then I love them. And now I'm back where he's driving me crazy. Anytime there's adversity, he's horrible, horrible.

He's got to go to Baldiani again. Dude, can I say like, what is in? I love the Jerry Cam. That might be my favorite part of this whole series. Jerry was good. What is in the papers that he's smacking? He's like a horse race. I thought this is like, come on, Dad.

Come on, Dad. But you're not out of the track, Jared. What is he doing? He just has to have those papers in his hands at all time. Another highlight. I think non-Eagle highlight, the Lions fan, who is like, you're disappointing your parents. Don't disappoint your parents. Like that might cut tougher than a boo.

Oh, my God. Don't disappoint your parents. That was pretty good. It's the old adage. It's our buddy Pat Egan who said he stopped giving people the middle finger while he's driving and he gives him a thumbs down instead. And you're like, that feels worse. Yes.

I'm all about that. I'm going to move with that. A couple other notes from the episode kind of was a little bit painful to watch Zacherts go out like that. Oh, man. To see him miced up crying. Addie, my wife was kind of like,

I guess she didn't realize he was playing on Washington. She was like, is that Zach Hertz? What's he doing there? And then next thing you know, the guy's crying and getting taken off on a stretcher. That was tough. That very much felt like a player who has in the back of his head that his career might be over.

Yeah. Yeah, HBO does such a guy of it. Yeah, you feel terrible for him because obviously long-time Eagle, but, you know, 13 years in the league, that's a guy who's been around for a while. He's one of the, they said it on the show, you know, one of the better past catching tight ends of this generation. And, you know, you feel bad for a guy who's pretty, pretty solid. I'm not going to say, like, historic or storied or anything, but a really solid NFL career might come to an end because of an injury. You know, you'd like to see a guy like that be able to.

go out on his own terms. 100%. And HBO does such a great job of the drama because, like, Jay and Danes gets hurt and then leave Shriver with the voice, some things just go from bad to worse. Then they do that montage,

and you're so sad and depressed about it. And then they cut the Gina Daniels on the bench. He's just like, man, tough day at the office. It was pretty funny to see the grand, them playing in the film room for the commanders, running down the field. Dude, that was awesome.

That was pretty good. I enjoyed that. That was good. My wife also had a very hearty belly laugh at Brian Schottenhamer's meatheadedness with his big F yeah in the middle of the meeting. He's just like getting fired up. And he's like, what do you think percentage of words were curse words in his time on the screen?

Because my man was dropped an F-bomb. He sounded like when he talked about the story. December. He's like, oh, December, some teams get scared. He said, I believe that. He sounded like the dude, like Dennis Hopper and black, blue velvet. Yeah. Good character. He said, that was like a complete maniac.

Yeah. I think the other, the other clip that will go viral from this episode is definitely the Devante Smith playing conversation. Oh, yeah. I started thinking, does flying classify as a fear of heights? and I've never really thought about it because they're so different?

Do you guys think it's like Fear of Heights? I have always been a big proponent when you talk about the fear of flights of like the ledge, right? Airplanes and roller coasters kind of are exempt from that conversation because you don't have any control.

You know what I mean? Not to be like morbid or anything, but like you don't have any control over gravity and you don't have any control over how these machines operate. So like they're almost, exempt from fear height when i think about fear of heights i'm thinking about like being on the top floor of the you know the the empire state building where you do the walk out and you're like oh wow i'm really high up this is really terrifying or being up i need a new pair of pants yeah right but like

when when you're on a thrill ride or you're in an airplane i think they're almost exempt from that conversation i have i have a fear of heights and i do not like looking out a plane window and seeing how high up i have that weird to me out do you guys do you guys do you guys think Devante could survive a plane crash by jumping out and timing it perfect because he seemed fairly confident. Yeah, I think he could do anything he wants. I don't know how he survives getting. He's awesome. He does like 140 pounds.

Yeah, I think he could totally get out of a plane at the last minute. And my wife, who is a devouted yoga Pilates gal, was like, oh yeah, like she was very excited about the Pilates scene. And she was like, look how tough it is. Look how tough it was. Had a love.

Had to love him shaking. Yeah. Yeah, she loved seeing him. I got to be honest. man. Like, I have never thrown shade at Pilates. I've just never seen it before. Oh, it's hard. That looked very difficult. Now, I am not flexible at all. I have like, like, if you snap the rubber band in the cold, that's my, my ligaments and stuff. But, like, I watched him do that. And I'm like, that does not look easy at all. And then you've got the trainer with the thickest Philly accent of all time. Yeah, what was her name again? Diane. She was great. Diane. Shout out Diane. She was great out there. But I love that, Smitty, 545 in the morning, man, getting that work in. That guy's perfect.

He's got a great attitude. He's unbelievable. He's tough. He's like, he's, he's perfect. He's perfect. Thinking about big picture fear of how he eats and all. Yeah. There's nothing he can't do.

When you talk about him as, when you talk about him as a route runner and why he's so crisp and kind of pristine with his routes, it makes sense. He's there at 545 doing ankle flexion to be able to do those type of things. I mean, that was, that to me was like, okay, I get why he is the guy that he is. Yeah. And then the other, you see those Achilles going down all over the place. Oh, yeah. Watch out those ankles, man. It feels like Achilles are on the rise, too.

Yeah. The other scene that already kind of went viral was A.J. Brown and the Acme, giving out the holiday meals. That lady was great. Awesome. You're fine. Yeah, she leads in real close. In case you didn't hear me. You fine.

He gave her a chance to be like, oh, I'm just kidding. She doubled down on it. I thought AJ came off great. He's like, what? That was great. I hope that was our old Acme down in South Philly, VG. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't figure out where I was, but I hope so, yeah.

A couple other notes, just as we wrap up here, Dak Prescott's a dork. I will die on this. I have that written down. Corny, corny, corny, he exudes, like five vibes, like McNabb vibes. Yeah, totally. I had Jaden Daniels and Cliff Kingsbury.

I thought that was pretty cool seeing them go through the game plan like that. That's the type of footage I love. That play that they had, he read it off a play. I just wrote so it was called Filthy Stinking Pop Philly Shift or Switch. What is a filthy stinking, filthy stinky pop Philly switch? I have no idea. I'll have to ask Vinny or BG next time we see him. Yeah.

And then the Giants Road Trip opened up the episode with Mike Kafka. It's kind of weird seeing a guy, you know, that's like probably not going to get the job. Like, he's trying. Yeah. He's not coming back. We all know. He's talking like he's going to make decisions on next year's roster. And he's going to be everything I got for four games.

Evil villain eyebrows. His eyebrows always look like angry evil villain. They're always like like he kind of looks like grew. He looks like grew or something for minions. I will say the way that he's viewed, I think, in the league, he's definitively going to have a job next year. It's just almost assuredly going to be somebody's offensive coordinator. Yeah, I would think so.

To everybody in the chat hanging out with us, hit that thumbs up button in here. But thanks for hanging out with us tonight. Latest comment says, I just looked up the stats. And it's not good with Jalen Hertz's generational bad game. He's now tied for third for the least amount of interceptions in the NFL with 10 games started. Yeah, I mean, I think, obviously, even with a terrible, awful, no good, very bad game, he's done a great job this entire season.

Are you quoting the children's book, a no good, terrible, very bad day? You're damn right, I am, Jamie. You're going to move to Australia, Tyler? I might. I don't go eat worms. It's a children's book, VGA. You probably read it when you were young. It's a timeless piece.

Dude, come on. I'm a football guy. I read like baseball encyclopedia and football encyclopedia. Football for dummies. That's what that is he reads. But I think even, you know, we can we can still obviously acknowledge, even with a dreadful performance. I mean, he hasn't turned the ball over a whole lot this year. It was just in a, you know, how many, how many times they bring it up in the broadcast?

It was like, well, he's got three tonight and he had three all year. And so, you know, I think we can acknowledge this day. There's been spots where he has not performed well. And Monday night was probably a pinnacle of poor performance. And he also has still done a really nice job of not turning the ball over and limiting turnovers. I can't get over this palm tree flex by VG with the lean back right there. You son of a man, man. Joining us from Paradise to talk birds, you're a true sicko.

All right, that's going to do it for us. Episode two tonight. I don't think anybody feels, you know, exponentially better about the Eagles, but they do have some cupcakes on the schedule. But so do the Dallas Cowboys. I had a wager with Anthony Gargano after the show today, VG. He's convinced the Cowboys are going four and O, and it's going to be a sweat down to the wire.

I got, I talked to him into Chargers plus six at Dallas for a coffee bet. What do you think? I think the Cowboys are going to roll. Yeah. They're going to four and oh, yeah. They're going to cruise past the Chargers, dude. Chargers stink. I mean, their offensive line is really bad.

Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us here. Thanks to everybody for hanging out with us. Thanks to Tyler Zuli for producing also, as well as joining us. tonight. Make sure you're tuning in tomorrow 2 o'clock. Eagles show, Anthony Gargano show at 9 o'clock. I'll be in then. Tyler, you got to talk about Kyle Schwerber in depth tomorrow at noon as he is back with the Phil's. VG, vibe check on Schwerber from the islands.

Love it, love it, love it, dude. It's like 30 million years. He's going to be fine. The last couple years might be a stretch, but he'll be here long enough to give 500 home runs. Perfect, I think. Yeah. So if you are new to the channel and haven't discovered us before, like and subscribe we bring you content all day every day and make us your home for phly sports head to all p hly.com and you can see some of the great writing we have as well thanks everybody have a great night and we'll see you soon here on the p hly eagles podcast