PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Saquon Barkley could still be DRIVING FORCE for Eagles offense
Episode Date: October 3, 2025Saquon Barkley has yet to run for 100 yards, but the offensive line has a chance against a tough Broncos front to get him untracked while the focus remains on A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert... and Jalen Hurts. Denis Selman joins EJ Smith and Bo Wulf for a freaky football Friday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
And welcome to the PHOI Eagles podcast live from the Xfinity Studio presented by Bet365.
And Ashley, I'm Bo Wolf.
My left.
The esteemed professor himself.
Dane is, how are you, my friend?
I'm doing well.
I wouldn't say esteemed, but thank you.
Why not?
I guess I don't know.
Would you call yourself esteemed?
Yes.
Okay.
All right, well.
How would you describe the sauna?
Oh.
It's themed.
Are you, are you, uh,
off to a rolling start?
Julie, I can't believe that hit you so hard.
We stayed in a place that had a sauna in Columbia this summer and...
I am not.
How did, how did, um...
I am not a sauna guy.
How did...
Oh man.
Uh, Danieli DeRossi describe A.J. Brown after the Bucks game.
It's steamed!
Luckily E.J. will be here soon, so...
Happy Friday, everybody.
Super Chad from Frank Barber, who astutely asks the question, is Dana's drinking water from a wine glass?
That's actually Uzo.
Rooka, come on. I would never drink Uzo.
What else?
What else?
Ready? Should I try?
Down the hatch.
Oh, man.
All right, we'll have it covered on Sunday
with everything you need to know.
Pre-game show, halftime show, post-game show.
That'll do it for the PHA.
I Eagles post-game show.
All right.
It's been a fun week.
I went to,
my wife and I went to
the performance of falsettos
at the Arden Theater.
Oh, okay.
Last night.
I had a great time.
Shout out to everybody who put that on.
Thanks to Ms. Aniland.
for hooking us up. And I did have an awkward experience at the concession stand.
Okay.
You know, it's a classic tablet situation. You put the, you know, I flip it over.
Yeah. You got to do the tip. And it's, and it's so, you're really on performance. Like,
you know that everybody's watching, right? Yeah. But I was, and so because of that,
I was really trying to just do it as quickly as possible. That was,
my main goal and it was
like a $10
thing so I was just going to do a dollar
and so I just
hit one go
okay because usually it's
just the dollar yeah but instead I
tipped a cent
and Riche was looking
at me like
what are you doing?
So insults it so then I took a dollar
out of my pocket and put it in the actual
tip jar which maybe I should have done in the first place
that's good I was like
I mean, that seems like an interface issue
more than a new issue, but that's great.
Do you ever do the custom tip?
Yeah, this was a custom tip.
Okay, okay, so you were doing the custom tip.
I see.
And I was, but I know,
I'm so, you know,
normally the custom tip you have to type in the whole thing.
Yeah, I just got to do one thing, but yeah.
Yeah, some of those default minimums are so high these days.
Yeah.
You know, like a $3 espresso and it's like a, you know,
like a, a.
Where are you getting a $3.00?
It seems like a great deal.
Yeah, it was, you know, it was rounding.
$3.50.
But yeah.
Do they still have the wine in the sippy cup at the Arden?
They do.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaking of water and wine glasses, you can get wine in a sippy cup at the Arden.
Well, then you bring it back the sippy cup and you get a nice discount on the refill.
Yeah.
That's what it's all about.
No, you know.
No dummies here.
No.
Plus, you're tipping a cent.
Well, now that they know you're tipping a cent.
All right.
Let's get into it.
The Philadelphia Eagles are a football team that is undefeated.
Everybody hates each other, but that's fine.
20 and 1 in the last 21 games.
17 and 0 in the last 17 games, Sheila Hertz,
I started and finished.
Unbelievable.
I asked Evren to make sure that Evren is my 7-year-old son,
and I asked him just last night,
I was like, when's the next time in your life?
The Eagles will be 20 and 1 in 21 games,
like other than this current team.
And he like rolled his eyes and he was like, never, I know.
I was like, stop telling you his dad.
I was like, say you live to be like 97 years old, so 90 more years.
When's the next time?
And he's like, never, I know, never.
It's never going to happen again.
I think he, I think he appreciates.
Do you think you're sucking the joy out a little bit of that from him?
I'm trying to do exactly the opposite.
Like, appreciate this team.
Don't take it for granted.
You're trying.
I think it's working.
Okay.
I think it's working.
The other thing, the other thing that was like just fantastic from earlier this week,
Monday night, I'm walking by his bedroom, he's talking to Emily, I'm overhearing them.
It's Monday night.
And he says, I saw from my dad's graphs that the Broncos play a lot of man and they blitz a lot.
But about the man, mesh.
I think we're going to use a lot of mesh.
And I was just like so happy.
Like, first of all, that he's onto the next opponent on a Monday.
Oh, yeah.
That he's studied their tendencies, and he knows the answers.
I mean, this is just fantastic.
Well, do you think he's going to be right?
Yeah, I think we'll see Mesh a lot.
Okay.
I don't know if it'll work.
They've run Mesh a lot against Zone as well.
And it's looked kind of silly, but yeah.
Okay, well, let's use that to get into, you know,
the discrepancy from the offense
and how good we've seen them be at their highs.
Yeah.
In three halves of the eight halves?
Three incredible halves, right?
Better than any half of football they had in the first half of last season for sure.
Okay.
Like all three of those halves were better than any of the halves from the first half of last season.
Right.
And they're all, yeah, they're all among the, you know, top 10 percentile halves of any offensive performances this season.
Sure.
But on the whole of the season, they've been out gained.
Yeah.
29th in yards.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
When you look at their, like, it's half to half.
So what do you make of it?
because of half to half, you also have the drive to drive.
Yeah.
They're fourth in the league at touchdown rate on drives.
37% of their drives have ended in touchdowns.
Like that seems like a pretty important stat, right?
Like they're sixth in the league in points per drive.
I mean, these are all stats that like before the age of analytics and everything,
you'd be looking at this and be like, this is like, you know, like a high flying, you know, great team.
But yeah, like you said, 29th in yards.
And you turn around and you're like, well, how can this be?
well 37% of the drives are ending in touchdowns
another 37% are ending in three and outs
which you know the touchdown one is fourth highest in the league
the three in outs is depending on how you measure
like highest or second highest or whatever
you mentioned pretty funny earlier this week
like how I've talked about this in the past
because this was true in the past as well
at least up to a certain point in the season
11 for 11 in the red zone
and only one turnover all year right
so what this results in is
a team that's 29th in yard
per drive and sixth and points per drive.
Incredibly efficient use of yards and first downs.
Like, it's like anytime you get a first down, you score a touchdown, right?
Like, it's great.
They're actually scoring at the same rate as last year.
If you were a statistician in the laboratory, that's what you, you know, that's how you try to maximize.
Yeah, like, oh, yeah, don't get tired, like getting first downs and then punting the ball.
Like, what good is that?
And they're also not turning it over.
And so what that means is that they're scoring all these points and winning all these games
without A.J. Brown.
Devante Smith
Sequin Barclay
Like I don't know anything about fantasy
I don't play fantasy
I don't condone fantasy
But I'm sure if you have those players
In fantasy you're not happy
Right because they're not getting
Individually yards
You condone the genre
The genre of fantasy like literature
Yeah
Yeah that's fine
Yeah I don't mind mind that
Just getting the record straight
No yeah that's all good
But when you look at like
If you're not
If you're not watching every
If you're not watching every
Eagles game and you just have like those one of those players in fantasy and you're wondering like
how are they winning these games and my guy's not getting any yards well don't worry no one's
getting any yards like the team is 29th in yards right like so that's the weird that's the that's the
thing about the and that's kind of goes back to what a j brown is talking about like it's he's like
it's not about me it's about the offense isn't good right and I want to make the offense
better and it's true I mean like um that's been how it is and if you look at like the lack of big plays
Like this is related to that as well.
Nick Siriani talks about the double positive.
Like I don't know if we have a graphic on this one, Julia,
about like big plays and turnovers, but I don't know.
Yeah, it's as a date is.
Like if you look at this season so far,
the Eagles offense is 25th in generating EPA from big plays,
20 plus yard plays.
But they're third in avoiding EPA loss from turnovers.
So Nick Seriani talks about the double positive,
of winning the explosive play battle
and winning the turnover battle.
So this is the graph that's up right now
is last year's where the Eagles were really good in both, right?
And you see all the way to the right,
that means that they benefited from 20 plus yard plays
offense minus defense more than any other team in the league last year.
And this year, they're all the way down to 26th in that, right?
Like the defense is giving up big plays,
the offense isn't generating big plays.
And in turnovers, everything's going great, right?
Both the offense and the defense are doing really well
turnovers they're doing fourth than that.
But typically you think of like there are more big plays
than there are turnovers like in football.
It's more of a sustainable thing.
Yeah. And I'm just worried that the turnover luck is going to run out at some point
and the inability to judge.
I think on defense they'll be fine. Like they'll stop the big plays eventually.
But on offense they have to start to generate big plays.
As AJ Brown said in a very insulting manner to the past opponents,
let's get this thing fixed before we run into a serious team.
which I missed that.
One of the best things he said.
I watched his entire, entire screen.
And this was the tough part of the schedule.
No one's talking about this quote was so good.
Like, I mean, after you face spags and Todd Bowls.
Yeah, it was so good.
Like before we run into a serious team, fantastic.
So.
You think he thinks the Giants are that team?
Yeah, I'm not sure.
I don't know who he thinks is a serious team.
When you win every game, it's hard to take any opponent.
Yeah.
Seriously.
When you look like schematically, right?
I think you want to talk about the culture thing on this, right?
Like how do you deal with all the winning?
Yeah.
While it doesn't look good on the field necessarily.
And I think this is where Nick Siriani comes in
because he lived through and coached through
both the experience of the 2023 and 2024 season,
both seasons in which at various points in time,
the team was winning and it didn't necessarily look great.
and I'm curious what lessons like Nick learned from 2023 especially
and then the beginning of last season
which it didn't feel like was a learned experience
and then things got better but I just think from a
you are the culture guy and you have whatever disagreements are happening
in the locker room like let's this is it like this this is what the money is
for for Nick Siriani right like if he can if he can if
If he can design help with the offense, great.
That's not what he's here for.
He's here to make sure that everybody's pulling in the same direction,
whether they agree with each other or not,
whether they like each other or not.
And so I just, I think this, all of this is a, is a test of Siriani.
Yeah, I mean, it was noteworthy that A.J. Brown said that Siriani, like,
facetimes him, like, even on the days that he's not coming in the building,
certainly didn't say the same about, about Jayland.
No, no.
The quarterback, my quarterback.
To be fair about the my quarterback thing, he also said,
my head coach, my coordinator in that same sentence.
But then he did quickly name all those other people
and he never named Jaylen.
So yeah.
Without getting into that,
I totally agree that Nick has an very important role
in managing this.
2023 is fresh in all of our minds.
The fact that the team's undefeated.
I think that's actually really helping right now
because if we didn't have the 2023 experience,
I think there would be more of a feeling.
Yeah.
Like not just among fans, but in the building too.
Like we're undefeated.
Like what's everyone talking about?
Right.
Like, but we know that the team can be 10 and 1.
Right.
It should help them guard against.
Yeah.
We think we're great because we're winning games.
Yeah.
And I think Nick has openly talked about using 2023 as an example.
Right.
And it's harder to compare to last year because last year there were also losses early in the seasons.
That makes it a little easier to be like we have to get our act together because we actually
just got killed in Tampa Bay as opposed to just won in Tampa Bay.
Yeah.
What do you think is going to happen?
What's your, do you think he's going to pass this test?
of keeping the culture together.
I think so.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think, I mean,
you know,
I don't think they're going to have
like knives out in the locker room.
I don't think it's going to be a steady ship.
Mm-hmm.
But, yeah,
I think he deserves some benefit of the doubt.
That's another thing AJ said that I really liked
when he was like,
he's like,
I think everyone's cool with me
unless they're putting on a facade,
which I like,
which I really liked,
the idea that like,
they're just pretending that they're okay with him,
but they really hate them or something.
Well, I have an A.J. Brown question for you
that I would like to get to after the break, Dennis,
but let's hear a word from our sponsors first.
Evren knows ball.
We know that.
He's ready to run mesh this weekend.
Unfortunately, he doesn't know TV set up
because he invited me over the other weekend for the big game,
and I get there, and it was a terrible situation.
lagging, buffering, switching between apps trying to find the game.
He claimed he was a big fan.
He fanfished me.
So, come over to my place, watch the game there,
because the ultimate fan flex is having Xfinity.
It's the ultimate sports destination.
You can find the best games and your favorite teams all in one place,
and the way that you watch is next level.
Sometimes you can even get four games going on at once,
because why not?
On top of that, I get real-time notifications and live stats
right on my TV.
It's the best seat in the house every time.
Next game day, make sure that big fan isn't a big fail.
Learn more at Xfinity.com.
Xfinity.
Imagine that.
Restrictions apply.
Multi-view requires Xfinity 4K-capable TV box.
And I will tell you about my friends at Parks Casino.
You can check out brand new casino games at Parks Casino
like Huff and More Puff and Fireblaze Sky Queen,
a bet Parks exclusive.
It's the only app I ever use
to play all my favorite casino games
in the palm of my hand.
You can play hot online slots
based on your favorite streaming shows
Walking Dead Squid Game, Breaking Bad and
Peaky Blinders and all your favorite casino
games from wherever you are.
New users. Get up to $1,000
casino bonus back if you're down
in your first 24 hours.
Must be 21 and in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Maryland, or Michigan
for Bet Parks. You love to play.
You play to win.
you bet bet parks.
Gambling problem call 1,800 gamble.
I forgot that I was gonna have to do both reads
because E.J. is not here.
And I will tell you,
I don't believe in all of the rotation
of ads that we have at P.H.O.I.
There is a more perilous phrase
than hot online slots.
Because if you get that one wrong,
It could go a different way.
We could get yourself together.
We're professionals here.
Someone wrote, you have to stop getting invited by children.
And that's not just that the story ends with him then saying,
I don't like it here.
Come to my face.
That was yesterday's episode when we talked about minors, I believe.
Okay.
Here's my AJ Brown question for you, Dennis.
Okay.
In all of the
consternation about his usage
and his target rate
and all that stuff,
are we underrating the possibility
that he is just not the same player himself?
I don't think it's being underrated
because it has been discussed.
Okay.
It makes you wonder
the way that he's being used.
we can talk about like the ways, you know, what routes they're having him run and those
kinds of things. One thing that opened my eyes a little bit this week, I saw a clip of Jason
Avant, who, for those of you who aren't old enough to remember Jason Avant, he was a very good
like kind of slot possession type receiver on the Eagles back in the Andy days. He was not fast.
And he said about A.J. Brown, they're playing him as if he's Jason Avant out there running
go routes. They're sitting on everything, which is a great quote coming from, Jason Avant himself.
So, and they asked him like, what do you mean? Like, has he lost the step? And he even said, like,
I don't know if he's lost the step, but I know the way corners play people. Yeah. And they're playing
him basically as if he's me. They're sitting on everything. And he might be referring like,
kind of anecdotally to that three play sequence from the last game where they threw like little
hitches to him like three times in a row and they were clearly sitting on it. There are,
examples, Fran mentioned one, they're running dagger and AJ Brown is running the dig and McCollum's
Ion McCollum is like trailing him and if he just goes he's going to be wide open like but he's like
he knows he's going to run a dig now is that AJ Brown not threatening him with speed or is that
I know this is dagger because you guys run this a lot right and I'm I'm just going to trust that
like Malcolm Jenkins used to be the king of that like he would know the route the receiver's running
like better than the receiver did and he would just like not even
bother trying to, you know, like trust the other thing.
So I don't think it's, I personally haven't seen enough to know that, to think that it's
AJ Brown has lost a step or something like that.
We know he was somewhat injured in camp.
Yep.
He might not be as full speed now as he's going to be later in the season or something.
But I don't think that's the main thing.
Do you?
I don't think it's the main thing, but I also think it could be part of the equation.
I don't think he's being used the right way necessarily.
Right.
But I also think, you know, he could be down a half step.
I think that's certainly possible.
I mean, even in the past when he has not been targeted,
yeah.
His efficiency numbers have still been outstanding.
Sure.
And that's part of the usage problem.
But I think it's, I think there's also something too.
Potentially he could be just one of the 20 best receivers in the NFL.
Yeah.
No, for sure.
One of the three best.
Like, we should talk about this now.
like his route
frequencies and the team in general
not generating any yards after catch
like so AJ Brown
this is our number four
AJ Brown this season
has run
slants
15% of the time
which is second most out of a hundred
wide receivers with at least eight targets
okay so there are 100 wide receivers with at least eight targets
all these stats are going to be ranking out of 100
second most slants
in the league
24% have been hitches, those little short hitches,
that's among the highest as well,
and then 24% have been go routes,
but a lot of those are clear-out routes.
They're not intended really to go to him.
Just 5% of his routes have been crossing routes.
That ranks 97th out of 100 wide receivers.
He's run six crossing routes all year.
He's only been targeted on one of them,
and that was broken up by the safety cook
in the first quarter in Kansas City on a play action pass.
I had to look up what that was.
He's never in motion, I mean, except for little short motions
that everyone has memorized and doesn't really react to.
When you look at Devante Smith's usage,
this is kind of like talking about like the general offense here, right?
Only 7% of Devante Smith's routes are crossing routes.
That ranks 85th.
So they're both in the bottom 15 out of 100 in crossing routes.
Nobody runs crossing routes in this offense.
I've talked about this before.
Yeah.
30% of Devante Smith's routes have been hitches.
That's fourth most among wide receivers.
Basically, the offense isn't designed to get yak.
And sure enough, if you look at this graphic we have here,
this is yards after catch per completion.
Jalen Hertz ranks 32nd out of 33 quarterbacks in this year,
down to 3.7 yards after catch per completion.
That's almost two full yards less than last year.
and when you look at the like number of routes
that those same receivers ran last year
they were running like more than double the number of crossers
it wasn't nearly as you know
like with little variety as it is this time
Jeff McLean asked to Monte Smith earlier this week
like it was on his podcast whether there's enough route variety
and he said sometimes there is sometimes there's not
like you know I just I just make the play when it comes my way
something like that but
I mean, we can see all this when we watch the game, and especially when you watch the film,
that they don't have answers when the defense is basically covering those little hitches and stop routes and those kinds of things.
And this takes me back to the Tampa Bay game where in the first half, the Eagles were awesome.
And part of it is because Bowles was blitzing like crazy.
Eagles had one of the most successful games against the Blitz of any team this year.
82% success, right?
And then second half, 11 drop back.
0 for 8, 2 sacks, and a scramble.
There was only one blitz there.
There were five exchange pressures,
and two times he dropped eight into coverage.
One of the times he dropped eight into coverage,
there was a sack.
And Milata earlier this week on his radio show said,
when he stopped blitzing, we looked around,
and it was like, oh, this is nice,
but there's nobody to throw to.
I didn't see that coming from Todd Bowles.
For me, as a professor, this kind of reminds me
of like, when I'm writing an exam,
I have to make sure that a student who only studies, like, half the topics
doesn't get, like, a really good grade on the exam, right?
Because if you only put half of the material on the exam,
some lucky student who only studied exactly that stuff,
like could end up doing well.
It's like the Eagles offensive staff only studied for part of the test.
They studied for the part of the test where, like,
Bulls was going to blitz the whole time.
We were going to have hots.
Guys were going to be open on those little hitches.
It's like they thought they had the answers.
Or they had the questions ahead of time.
They had the questions.
And then when the questions changed midway through the test
and both started doing something else,
they had no answers for that.
And it takes them so long to adjust.
Like, just like it's taking them really long to realize
like the running game's not last year's running game,
like stop trying to build it around the running game.
It's also taking them a long time within games
to be like, hey, wait a second,
like they stopped doing the things that these plays were working against,
maybe start calling different plays
or have different plays ready for those situations.
And we just haven't seen that.
one of the things they've been doing a lot this year,
which is different from last year,
is they're keeping the running back in to protect a lot.
And part of that's because they're playing teams that blitz more,
but they've been doing it at an alarmingly high rate,
even when they're not blitzing.
Like, Sequin's just staying in.
And what the Eagles often do is they'll have the running back check release.
So he checks for blitzers, and then he releases to the flat.
That's usually what he does.
And it gives obviously the quarterback an extra option,
but it also keeps one of the linebackers eyes on that running back
and opens up passing lanes for the guys in the middle
for the routes they love to run, the slants, the hitches.
This year, if you look at how often the Eagles
have all five guys out in the route,
which is basically a measure of whether the running backs running around,
they're dead last in the league, 56% at having all five guys run in the route.
This is Jeff Stoutland's offensive line
that doesn't need help ever
that we always talk about, like,
left on islands, dead last.
When Nick Siriani said
a wise man avoids all extremes, by the way,
in his defense, he didn't say
he was a wise man.
Like, he just, he's just presented
that wise man,
wise men avoid all extremes.
Now, the Eagles are ranked like 30th or 32nd
and everything, like every tendency thing.
So take from that what you will.
Last year they were at 73%, which is 15th.
I think there's a graphic on this,
Trulia.
This is the first one.
This was the five-man round.
percentage. So in this game against Tampa Bay, Sequin was staying in to protect even when they
weren't blitzing. And I think that that's, that comes from the inability to adjust. This idea that
like all week they were like, he's going to blitz, he's going to blitz, he's going to blitz, he's going to blitz.
So like we're going to design these concepts where you don't think that it could have been
because they're worried about the offensive line? That's the other question. Could it be?
Because they don't think that the offensive line can hold up even against a four man rush.
And we're keeping, we're keeping the running back in. But there were plays where they weren't
blitzing or even exchanging.
the 4D linemen were rushing, and Sequan was staying in and just kind of like helping one of the guards or something.
And I'm just looking at this and I'm like, this doesn't look like the Eagles.
Like this has not been the Eagles with Jeff Stoutland, like under any of the head coaches.
So for me, that's a little bit of an alarm because that makes certain concepts that the Eagles have not work
because the running back's not out attracting attention from somebody else.
I'm not saying they throw to the running back a lot because they don't.
But it opens up some of that other stuff when the running back is out on.
a route and that's been a change this year from past years.
That feels like a waste.
Yeah.
I mean, that, but that also feels like something that, to your point, could have been,
okay, we were slow to react to Bulls.
Let's actually make sure that we don't let this happen again.
I hope so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
All right.
Let's get to more of the Saquan-Barkley discussion and what's going on with the running
game after these words from our sponsors.
E.J's on his way in. We'll hear from him shortly.
But you know what E.J. can't do?
Fix a goddamn thing in your house.
You know who can? Ace Hardware Home Services.
That's right. Because when the weather turns chilly, the last thing you need is a home project
piling up. Ace Hardware Home Services brings trusted local pros right to your door to help you
get your home ready for the colder months.
From heating tune-ups and plumbing fixes to generators and emergency repairs,
their experts handle it all.
No guesswork, just no stress.
Just a local pro to get the job done right, satisfaction guaranteed.
Find the help you need for your next home project at ACE Hardware Home Services.com.
And after you do that, go make yourself some money at Bet365.
Because you know where it's never ordinary?
Bet 365.
That's right.
With bet 365, you get the early payout offer as well.
If you're a winner, if your team goes up by 17 points,
you are a winner with an instant payout on straight bets
and parley selections marked as winners.
Download the app and use code P-H-L-Y-365 when you sign up.
Last NFL season, both money lines were paid out four times
because of the early payout and the end result to the game.
You would have had this if you bet on the Rams, for instance,
in week three, you would have got,
You would have got both if you needed to.
Breaking news from Bet365.
New customers now get $200 in bonus bets.
When you bet $5, win or lose, sign up, use the code P-H-L-Y-365, deposit $10, and place a bet for $200 in bonus bets.
Where's mine?
If your bet wins or loses, bonus bets can be used from the spread, totals, player prompts, futures, and more.
Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet-365.
Must be 21 or older.
And physically located in Pennsylvania, if you, you're not.
You or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help.
Call 1-800 gambler.
All right, Professor.
Let's talk running game.
Where are you worried about?
Well, we talked a little bit last week about how the variety in the running game hasn't quite been the same.
And what about me?
I'm sitting right here.
I mean, yes.
So we talked about the variety of,
in the run game how they didn't run any gap scheme runs against the Rams,
how they didn't run any quarterback designed runs the first two weeks.
Last week we finally saw them play a game where they actually ran some of both.
The run game success just hasn't been there.
And I loved your guys show on Monday with Fran breaking down all of those.
I had the film in front of me.
I was listening to Fran.
I was looking at the film at the same time.
It was great a way to kind of dive into the run game.
And as Fran very nicely put it, and as you guys discussed,
like it was a little bit of everything, right?
Sometimes Calcutera is losing on a block.
Sometimes Steen's losing on a block.
Sometimes Sequin's not seeing the right thing.
At the end of the day, it's not working.
Like, Seekoine Barkley is 20th in EPA per rush out of 32 running backs.
He's 31st in rushing success rate,
which when you're running on first and 10
and you have an unsuccessful run,
the way this coaching staff calls second and long
and especially third and long,
like you're basically just giving up, right?
And, I mean, they had a third and 13 that they gave up on
in the red zone in the,
last game. It's driving me crazy. Like, I know
you're up 21 to 3, but like, you can
score a touchdown and pretty much end this game right
here, make it like a four score game at half time.
They didn't even try. And so, that
makes it even matter more, if they're going to
do that. Like, it makes it matter more that you're successful
on those early down runs. And they just
haven't been, a lot's been made of
the yards before contact,
right? And so...
Now here we get your nerd to really
come out. Yeah, yeah. So everyone says
average yards before contact
was this last year, and it was... And it's
worse this year. Yeah, obviously it's worse this year. But when you quote those average yards before
contact, there's like a 70 yard touchdown he had against the Rams where he wasn't touched. Well,
guess what? Those are 70 yards before contact and skewing the numbers a lot, right? And so,
what you, what I think you should do, and this is what I did, is look at what percent of his
runs are getting one or more yards before contact. What percent of his runs are getting negative
yards before contact? And you can see this year, he is...
These are the run percentage ones, Julia, two and three.
He is being contacted before he gets to the line of scrimmage,
33% of the time.
Last year, that was down to 24%.
That was down at 24%.
So that's a big difference.
And then in terms of getting one yard before contact
or more, right?
It was 58% last year and it's down to 51 this year.
That's a significant difference.
Like, it might not sound like a lot,
but that's a significant difference over this largest sample.
we're talking four games worth now.
And Sequin last year
was like the king of turning that play
where he could get that initial blocking
into an explosive run.
He was first by a mile.
I think we have a graph on this one
where Sequin's like up by himself
in the upper left of the graph.
Like he was first by a mile
in EPA per rush
when he got that one yard before contact.
He was below average when he didn't.
And so
the fact that they're not getting him
that one yard this year is not
is basically not letting him shine
in this way. Now
he is 29th in success rate
whether he gets the yard or not this year
unfortunately. So like there is a little bit of
like Sequin isn't maybe doing as much
with this as he can. Part of it might be
that Sequin's expecting the blocking
that he had last year. Right.
And he's not in that mode where he was
you know on the Giants where he knew he had to create
by himself. And when you're expecting
the block to be there and it isn't,
like those runs aren't going to be successful
whereas when you know like the guy in front of you can't block
and you're going for the crazy spin move or whatever
you're going to get more explosive.
So I don't know what to make of how this is going to continue
whether Landon Dickerson like being a little healthier
or like everybody getting used to playing together with Tyler Steen
or whatever it is is going to fix this problem
but right now I mean the run game's not working
and until it is like they should stop calling it like it's going to.
What do you think?
see somebody is here.
What do I think?
I think I have some faith that it's going to get better.
But I agree with you that they need to stop treating the script
like they're going to just flip a squitch.
Yeah, no, that's the thing.
And I think you're also, I mean, you were on it early as well.
Like the lack of variety in what running plays they are running is not ideal.
And you wonder why that is the case.
And the sequencing and the not pairing it with,
and not pairing it with play action and all those things.
I mean, like, and we've talked so much about those things for so long now that I don't want to expect to think that those are going to change.
But one of the things that had been good in the Eagles play calling in the past few years is the sequencing of the run plays at least.
And that includes involving the quarterback.
And it would be nice to see some of that, especially this week against Denver with those edge rushers who are like fast getoff guys who are going to be trying to rush the passer.
If you can get them thinking pass and run and involve the quarterback and do zone reads and read those guys, that could be a,
that could be a good approach this week.
The reason I brought in E.J., who is here now,
from the Nobucare Complex,
is that the next thing we're going to discuss
is the running plays with and without Dallas Goddard.
Oh, yeah. I mean, you know,
as we know, Dallas Goddard is the MVP of this team.
This is some local.
And in this last game in Tampa,
the Eagles were 47% on success rate
in plays with Dallas Goddard on the field,
where they ran it 19 times
and were successful on nine of them.
Seven times without Dallas Goddard, E.J., how many were successful?
You did send this, but I didn't commit it to memory.
One out of seven, just one out of seven without Dallas Goddard.
I find it insignificant.
I did find it to be strange that Dallas Goddard wasn't on the field
and a lot of those 12 personnel runs.
It was like Granson and Calcutera on the field.
Like there were certain runs that they repeated a bunch of times
that Dallas Goddard wasn't part of that.
And then he was on the injury report with a knee on Wednesday.
like they're clearly managing him
like any and it's and this is something that like
availability matters right like
they can't rely on him to
be out there on all these plays and
the running game is worse without him that's just clear
it's not like he's been great at blocking this
this year but like the other guys are really bad
right and so he's gonna play this week E.J.
I think he'll play he had a bulky brace
on his left knee in the locker room just now
so yeah no I expect him to play
but again to Danez's point
Like, is he going to be as setting aside our, like, arguments about Dallas Goddard as a run blocker in 2025, is he going to be close to 100%.
I think is more of the question.
Yeah, he only, I mean, he only played 43 snaps out of, out of 57, and that's like a lower percentage than he normally plays.
I know it was hot.
I know he was injured before.
But, I mean, part of the issue with the run game is the tight end is blocking.
And your most reliable blocker as a tight end is being like load managed.
so he's not out there for like more than a third of the runs in a game,
that'll have some impact on the results as well.
Julia, I really like to load managed.
You don't get to come in here.
Excuse me?
I don't get to what?
Excuse me?
I don't get to what?
Julia, wait till you hear that Jonathan Cooper gets off in 0.69 seconds.
Best, best in the NFL.
Good thing Jamie's not in here for that one.
Okay, before we get to special teams and defense and everything that you have from the locker room, E.J., let's close out the Eagles offense.
The discussion we had last week about getting to the line of scrimmage quickly, feels like the rest of the media corps is picked up on this this week.
You know how it is.
We talked about something.
Come on.
Suddenly everyone's talking about it.
But you think in particular this week, this will be a bigger deal.
Yeah, so Jonathan Cooper gets off in point.
six, nine seconds.
This is actual stat.
This is from Luca Evans of the Denver Post.
That's the fastest get-off of any
any defensive end in the NFL.
This side of friend.
Nick...
What is happening,
Nick Benito on the other side,
he gets off in 0.72 seconds,
which is tied for second.
I just love Jamie.
Expressing his approval.
from the middle side of the glass.
So against these defensive ends that get all so fast,
Bo makes a point about how you might not want to let them know when you're going to snap the ball.
Right.
The more predictable it is that you're about to snap the ball, the easier it is to have a quick get-off.
Right.
And everybody's talking this week about why the Eagles are so slow at getting to the line of scrimmage.
Jordan Milata made a couple of points this week on.
its radio show. He said it's not just about like, you know, the get-up thing. It's also,
he says they practice all week watching film to find cues in the defense, right? So he's like,
Brandon Brooks used to talk about this. You look at the three-text foot, is the inside foot up,
which foot is back? You can tell which way he's going to go from that. You want to recognize
those cues. Are the linebackers fitting certain gaps? You have to look up and see all those things.
And he said, you have 35 seconds to do this. And then he said, in our case, because our
procedure was so slow we're breaking the huddle at 14 seconds now we have 10 seconds to make these
adjustments we go through all that coaching all these clips and then we don't have time to actually
like execute that's very interesting so it's interesting to hear an offensive linemen say that
you know that when they asked him like they asked him like why are you so slow sorry jay go ahead
i just was going to say you know what that brings some mind to me we're takers we should take what we
want like stop taking what they yes you know it's like do you want to be in attack mode or do you
want to be in React in react mode.
So yeah, no, just sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but just thinking about, like,
who cares about the three-text foot, like just play kind of thing?
A little bit.
It's like you have, you know, eight or nine pro-ball caliber players in that offense.
Like, do you need to give up the advantage of like the time of the time of the timeing of
the snap count in pursuit of like which way is, I mean, Vita Vaya is not a good example,
but which way is this three-tech going to go, you know?
Well, I think what Milata is saying is they want to be able to take advantage.
of those things.
Like,
because they've,
they've,
they've taped
studied on stuff
like that.
Yeah.
Like, why,
why are we wasting
that time?
Yeah,
it's like,
I think,
like,
just,
just having had the pleasure
of talking to Brandon Brooks
about this,
like,
like, he really,
you could tell
that he appreciated
those coaching points
and the ability
to be able to tell
what the opponent's going to do.
And Brandon Graham
has talked about this
on the other side,
like watching the way that,
you know,
where a guy's weight is
on his feet and stuff like that.
Like,
that little chess match
is a fun thing.
Jalen Carter is awesome at that.
like he says he's light, you know, that kind of stuff.
Like when they asked him why they were so slow
and he said, we don't have any urgency.
He said, especially as the offensive line,
we have to break the huddle faster, get to the line.
Like he was kind of blaming the offensive line
for being slow at getting back in the huddle,
getting from the huddle.
I don't know.
It's going to be a continued point that we make.
The Eagles continue to be by a mile the slowest team.
Like the team with the highest rate of plays
where the play clock is under five, under two, all those things.
So I don't think it's going to change.
It's been this way for three years.
Yeah.
But there was a week last year where they made this.
But this is one where I think we do know that it is not intentional.
It is.
Yeah.
This is something that they would like to do better at.
They want to fix.
Yeah.
Do you think it's mostly because it takes them a long time to decide what played around?
And they only have like three plays.
So you'd think it'd be fast, you know?
I guess it's a confluence of things.
I think if it was one thing, they probably would have fixed it by now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would be actually, I would be curious if it is any different.
home versus away?
You can check that.
Okay.
I mean, I went on that, I went on that low.
I went on our rant last week about how they were using the silent cadence at home and because the crowd makes too much noise.
So if they, if they're using the silent cadence.
I think this is one where Jalen actually needs to like say this during a press conference.
Tell the crowd to be quiet.
Tell the crowd to be quiet on fourth down.
Interesting.
Don't you think?
That's the only way to get that message across.
It would sound like he's like against his personality.
It would sound like he's making an excuse.
I don't know.
I think if Jalen just more adamantly told people to be quiet, that would work too.
Yeah, that's true.
Sometimes like Calcutera or somebody will do it.
He's always hoarse after games in his press conferences.
So maybe just one time.
So like, sorry, I had to yell over the crowd today.
That's more petty, though.
That's what I'm worried about.
It's like not his personality.
I'm a little petty.
Not above being petty.
Okay.
All right.
Use their speed against them this one.
week is what I say. Invite them
upfield. Don't block them. Read them.
You know, like run some of those RPO's where you're, like
they did with Vaughn Miller eight years
ago where like you just leave them on block.
They've done it with Micah Parsons with this stuff.
So that's, that's
what I would do. But yeah, the RPO
part of the playbook seems to be missing.
Petulow found Andy Reid's
Red Zone binder in his office.
That was great. It'd be great if he could find the RPO
binder too. It's just
gone. All right. Much more to get to
including this Denver defense.
The Eagles defense against the Broncos offense, special teams, EJ's nuggets, lots of good stuff, one more ad break.
Got two minutes to do this and he was wasted like 40 seconds.
Don't say a word during the ad break, Beau. Don't do it.
No, Ray, I will. I will talk about it. Not that, Ray. Shady Ray.
Here's the best part about Shady Ray's. Not only is it the best sunglasses that you can get, but they're protected.
If you lose them, if you get them stolen, if you're
break them. Shady rays will replace those bad boys as part of the deal. No better protection,
no better customer service in all of Iwear. That's why I wear my shady rays without fear.
Shadyrays is eyewear that has your back. We've teamed up with Shady Race to bring you an
exclusive offer. Head to Shadyrays.com and use code P.HLY for 35% off polarized sunglasses.
Traff yourself to Shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people.
Next, we're going to talk about Rothman Orthopedics.
We've all been there trying to power through summer plans with a nagging injury or stubborn pain.
But when rest isn't cutting it, it's time to call in the experts.
That's why we trust Rothman Orthopedics.
Whether you're running on the beach, swinging your golf clubs, or lifting the little ones for a pool day,
Rothman specialists are here to treat what's holding you back.
Their top-tier care will have you moving and enjoying every minute of the summer and the fall.
Patients will find the full spectrum of orthopedic cancer.
at Rothman Orthopedics, from diagnosis to discharge, they provide their patients with every
service and procedure necessary, such as x-rays, orthotics, end-bracings, MRIs, physical therapy,
and more. Year over year, Rothman consistently performs among the highest volume of hip, knee,
shoulder, and ankle replacements in the country, over 60,000. If pain is slowing you down this
season, take the first step. Head to Rothmanortho.com slash p.h-h-h-o-y and schedule your appointment
today. Rothman Orthopedics, your summer, your mobility, their mission.
All right, back on the P.H.O.Y. Eagles podcast presented by Bet365 and Ashley,
here from the Xfinity studio. Professor, from a matchup standpoint, what do you think the
Broncos defense is going to do? Do you think that it will be CERTN on A.J. Brown or
on Devante Smith? I was just assuming that it would be A.J. Brown. I was fascinated to hear
Fran talk about how he's not sure.
Devanté Sartan has their old teammates.
DeVante had a nice game against him in Denver.
It was four years ago.
They were both rookies.
But I'd be shocked if they have Sartan follow DeVante.
That would be so insulting to AJ, don't you think?
Can you tell the story?
We're going to put the white guy on AJ?
No.
No.
I shouldn't tell the story now.
Oh, no.
What I would say is that I think they are expecting Sartan to follow AJ.
Okay.
And because of that, I feel like I'm on friend's side.
of this. Right, that's exactly why I don't think you do the opposite because they're because, well,
and we know they don't have any plan ready for when they see something they don't expect.
The thing is like, if you have Certain on AJ, you're getting man coverage for A.J. Brown,
which is still a favorable situation for A.J. Brown. To me, I know Fran talked more about like,
Riley Moss is physical enough to hold up against A.J. To me, I almost wonder if the Broncos,
I mean, the Eagles C zone at an unprecedented rate so far. Like, to me, it's like, that,
That would be giving the Eagles what they want.
We're giving A.J. Brown what he wants if he's getting man coverage,
even if it is against somebody as good as Pat Sartan.
You know A.J. Brown doesn't care if it's Pat Sartan or anybody else.
If he has a one-on-one matchup in man coverage, I think that plays into what the Eagles want.
They run man coverage 40% of the time, fourth in the league.
They ran a decent amount of man against Cincinnati last week, obviously,
backup quarterback, but you're talking about Jemar Chase.
And they had Certan follow Chase.
Yeah.
When you look at Chase and Higgins,
Chase is more like AJ Brown.
Higgins is more like DeWante's.
There's a lot of reasons to think
that they'll have him follow AJ.
You hear the Eagles talk so much about unscouted looks
and not getting exactly what they expect from the defense.
I wonder if it's that type of situation where,
again, it's like we've seen the Eagles struggle so much with zone coverage.
Why would you play into their,
why would you not present what they struggle with?
I guess.
I mean, I don't know. It's not like Devante Smith is getting targets either. He's getting targeted less than AJ is. Like, do you...
Yeah, I don't know. What is the tactical advantage you're getting from having that go the opposite of what the Eagles expect?
Again, it's like, do you think they can beat zone coverage and have they shown that they've been able to?
I mean, the tactical advantage you get is AJ Brown might murder somebody in the middle of the game.
Yeah, that could... I mean, yeah, if you're playing with that, if you're like, okay, like these guys are...
you know, going to force it to AJ.
Let's really make them force it to him
by putting Riley Moss on him instead.
Not that Riley Moss is like terrible, but like,
I mean, I don't know.
Do they really want that, though?
Do they want it to become an AJ game?
I think they might dare them to have an AJ game.
I think the Eagles agree with you though.
I think that they are expecting AJ or certan to follow AJ.
One thing that Denver has not done
that has given the Eagles trouble is those SIM pressures.
Yeah, I mean, the last three games, it's been a theme with Spags does it all the time, Bowls does it all the time, and what's his name, Shula on the Rams did it a lot as well, is dropping D-Linman into coverage, taking away some of those hitches and short little things that they like to throw, and then, you know, blitzing somebody else, and only rushing four.
The Denver Broncos, I was shocked at this, I had to check the number over and over, and then I had to confirm it by watching some film to make sure they're not missing something, have not run a single one of those.
pressures this season. They ran it like 5% of the time last year. Zero this year. They've never
sent linebackers or safeties and dropped defensive linemen on the same play and ended up with
only four rushing on the play. They will do a lot of double mug like both linebackers are in the
agap like the sprinkling a little sugar in a gap. They'll do that. But either those guys
will actually blitz or the linebackers themselves will drop out. They won't do ones where
the D-Linman drop out and the linebackers go.
So that might make things a little bit easier to diagnose.
But at the end of the day, like this is a good defense.
They're going to, you know, disguise coverages.
They'll spin into different versions of cover two and those kinds of things.
I don't know what the Eagles are going to prepare for this week,
but we haven't seen a game where they seem prepared for everything.
Like, you know, they're prepared for one thing or they're prepared for another thing.
And then one half it'll work, one half it won't.
It would be great to see a complete game,
but I'll believe it when I see it.
Let me know in the chat,
do you also, when someone says D-Linman,
do you also think of D-Line-M?
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely, yeah.
Used to see D-Line-M around the neighborhood a lot.
Shout out to D-Line-M.
I don't know if she moved,
but used to see her in the neighborhood a lot.
I've ever met her, but like,
this is going to sound like a flex,
but like, she's just like message me before
to compliment my work and just very kind.
Wow. Wow.
Shout out to D.
How about that?
I don't know if this is,
going to sound like a flex.
I mean, of course it sounds like a...
I wanted to express how nice it is that she's reached out before.
Yeah, and listen, I appreciate all the letters that she sent me to telling me that I'm the most talented person in the city.
And the most handsome guy in the show, right?
Yeah, that's exactly right.
But, you know, thank you, Dee.
Okay.
Before we get to the Eagles defense, let's talk special teams.
I guess we got to take like, let's give it 10 seconds to give you credit for the Cam Latu thing.
I mean, look, who else in the city?
E.J. is going to...
E.J. just says...
like, oh, look at Cam Latu, he's going to be good.
Look at this look at this look off.
I on the show said
Cam Latu is going to block a punt.
Now, Bo mentioned that it was before the Rams game
and not before the Bucks game.
However, in the Rams game,
the Rams only punted once,
and it was like a fourth and one,
and so the Eagles had the entire defense stay on the field.
So Cam Latu wasn't out there.
Now, Cam Latu blocked the very next punt
after I said that he's going to block a punt.
I think I should get some pretty.
credit for that. That is a very specific...
Let me set the record straight here.
Thing to predict.
You deserve a ton of credit for predicting this.
I've got no issue with that.
I'm not coining this.
I did not coin that he would block a pun.
All I would like to point out is that I was the original
and don't, do not cut me off, because this is important.
I get this all out in one sentence.
I was the original Camlato appreciator.
And I was told,
settle down, E.J.
The guy's got one good.
good block and all of a sudden you can't stop talking about Cam Lutu.
Fram just hates Cam Lottu. You're a touch and uncle because you like the fullback tight end hybrid
player. And now that Danez appreciates something about Cam Latu.
No, he predict something. Oh, we got to clear it out. We got to make sure that Danez gets
a victory lap here. Oh, good job, Danes. I didn't say he's going to the pro. I'm just saying.
The thing I predicted actually already happened. I didn't say he's going to the Pro Bowl either. All I'm
saying is that, you know, there's a little bit of a different energy here about certain people appreciating
Cam Latu. And as I have said,
what predates even that is the correct
call that if you
had Cam Latu all along, you didn't need
Ben Ben Sumrin on the active roster,
which makes me correct. Which is why you lost
the King of the Beats. Well, that makes me,
I should just beat the general manager.
If we are, if we are
talking special teams, it is worth
mentioning, and E.J, this is going to boost
your Cam Latu
thing. Cam Latu's a monster
on special teams. Not just the block, not just the pun
he blocked. He's awesome on kickoff. He drew a hold
calling against Anthony Nelson.
That's a huge play in special teams.
Drawing holding is like the biggest thing you can do
on special teams. It totally sets them back.
He just destroyed Anthony Nelson
on another rep. Good,
good player. I like Anthony Nelson.
That was my guy. It reminds me,
Fran shared this on social media probably
might have been after week one that the Eagles,
I think they're either first or second
in the RAS score, like on their roster.
They're just a young athletic team.
And when you have those players,
it benefits your special.
You get guys like Kam Latu who become cult heroes on podcasts and you know some podcast hosts.
They appreciate him as a player and they get ridiculed for it and you know, just saying.
This is also interesting in conjunction with your thing about how like give Michael Clay a break if the, if the special teams isn't good because they don't put a lot of resources into that.
Yeah. How do you explain Kam Latu? I mean, well, it's not a lot of resources.
He's like a third year player. But it's like they around the margins of the roster they seem to
who have sued more aggressively toward athleticism.
You know, just like getting really good athletes in,
raw players.
And yeah,
you're seeing it show up on special teams for sure.
Even like Jordan Davis is an example of like traitsy.
You know,
like he's even contribute like he's the edge protector
on the field goal unit because he just has really long arms,
you know?
I think that that starts to show up in your special teams
and you have a really athletic team.
A lot of discussion about the K ball this week.
I had a nice chat with Jake Elliott yesterday.
Oh yeah?
Yeah.
This is serious, Julia.
Can I give you a quick story about your chat with Jake Elliott?
Sure.
Jeff Nyberg, my former colleague, was waiting to talk to Jake.
And he turns to me and he's like, does Bo even have his recorder out?
Like, was he just chatting with Jake?
I was like, we do a podcast.
Like, he doesn't need to like have a tape recorder about.
I mean, he didn't say like that annoyed.
I think he was genuinely curious.
Like, is he actually gathering or is he just chatting?
And I was like, no, like he's probably gaining insight for the show.
So I defended your honor.
Plus, I was recording the conversation.
Oh.
That don't have to be.
Since we're, hold on, about the K-balls.
I know we're going to talk about it.
Since we're keeping like, you know, receipts of who said what and when people said it.
Vic Fangio talks about the K-ball on his own.
No one asked him about it.
Yeah.
And now suddenly everyone's talking about it.
Okay.
So during...
He was too busy asking questions about Denver.
so we didn't get to the cave all over time.
It's not quite bovertime, right?
So we can't say what he said.
You guys talk.
I'm going to find, I'm going to find the...
So you cut me off and you don't have me.
I thought I had it.
I know you want to talk, but let me just say something.
You've definitely...
All right, you vamp while I find it.
Found it, found it.
All right, I found it.
All right, he found it.
He found it.
Yeah.
But we're not going to get to here.
No.
September.
Bovertire.
September 28th during the game
343 p.m.
I posted
letting teams treat the K-balls all week.
This is a coining situation.
This is...
Letting teams treat the K-balls all week
was a bad rule change this year.
It's just too easy to get into field goal range now.
Okay, so here's and here's the discussion I had
with Jake Elliott.
Yeah, what did he say?
A couple things. One is,
and Michael Clay said this too.
It is still early in the season.
Right, so the weather is warmer, the ball is going to travel farther.
That's a clay special.
It is a clay special, but it is true.
It's just the truth, yeah.
Jake Elliott's...
He coined the summer.
Yeah.
Michael Clay.
Jake Elliott's point about this is less about, he believes,
it's less about like the ball is different.
And they're doing, you know, the same treatment that they do during the day over the course of the week.
And more about the ball becomes predictable for them.
So his point is that like the push from the special teams guys to make this a week-long thing is it's also not just they get all day to treat it all week to treat it
There are like three of them as opposed to just one of them
So when it used to be the K ball day of you just had one ball and now they get multiples of them and like you get to kick them all week
Yeah, and so there's there's predictability and how it's going to come off your foot
Okay and so that's not only like it makes it easy
easier for them. But there's also probably like some kind of psychological effect to that too,
where you're not standing over the ball and wondering how it's going to react. And that's a bigger,
a bigger, in his mind, a bigger part of it than scrubbing the ball for a week.
You remembered all that without a recorder when you were talking to him? That's impressive.
It was an active listener.
Were you actually, so were you recording or not? Now this is unclear.
I was recording, but not to write it. Just, yeah. In case he said something.
So did you listen back to it? No. Oh, so you did just commit it to memory.
Yeah.
I'm interested.
So do the punters also get to use K balls?
It's a good question.
Because Clay said there were six.
Because Braden Man is just dropping palms.
I'm just wondering, like, and also can you,
Clay said there were six of them,
and he said it was a problem when you lost one.
I'm not sure how you lose one.
If you get a kick blocked,
then the other team just literally steals the ball.
I don't know.
Or it goes in the crowd.
Or something.
Maybe.
But, like, are they using different balls for kickoffs
and field goals?
There's so many things I'm,
wondering about because like when
Cardi, who's been really good at the kickoff
so he really messed one up last night,
I'll tell you about that as well.
Like is he using a
like a different ball for the kickoff?
That's a good question. Yeah. I'll ask him that.
Yeah, what did he say?
So then I asked him about the kickoffs because that first kickoff against the bucks
was like perfectly executed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he said like, yeah, we saw what the Rams guy did.
We saw like the technique of it and
this is me editorializing.
But like we've always talked about how Jake
Elliot is like such a good athlete, you know, like he's a great golfer.
He was a great tennis player when they play the softball games.
He's the best softball player.
I think it's nice to have, it's a nice thing to have Jake Elliott as your kicker for the kickoffs now.
Because to me, the kickoffs are more, they've become more art than science, right?
It's not just line back and boot the ball far.
It's, you know, it's a difference between like a trackman golfer or like a shotmaker, right?
I was just about to say that.
Oh, I'm so mad you took my analogy.
He can, he can, he can.
he's like the guy with the soft hands around the
kicks, right? That's so cool.
And so yeah, it is kind of cool
and it makes it much less predictable
and like he can, they can take advantage
of the different looks they're getting
because he can execute those different kinds of things
because he is that talented.
It's like the athletic version of like the musical genius
who can hear a song and just like play it on guitar.
Yeah, right, that's really cool.
And he, and I was also asking like,
is this how you expect it to play out?
And he said they practiced a bunch of different kicks
over the course of the off season,
but they weren't exactly sure.
And he said like watching the Rams
guy like did change their thought process a little bit.
Yeah, it was interesting.
I mean, last night, the 49ers were trying to catch those, like on, like,
without letting them bounce.
Right.
And they, and they, they muffed one and it almost got recovered by the kicking team,
which is crazy, like, on a, right, on a kickoff with the current rules that you could, like,
actually, yeah, I thought, I thought, like, the whole league was going to shift towards more
of those.
It was weird that Jake did it on the first one, and then they didn't do it on the other ones.
Right.
Afterwards, I guess they're trying to mix it up, the look was different or what, but
something yeah. All right, let's go to the other side of the ball, Eagles defense. You have a very
quick summation of how you feel about the Eagles defense right now. I mean, four legitimate
superstars on the defense being coached perfectly, like full of young players, a pleasure to watch.
I always watch the offense first, and it takes me like a day and a half, and then I have a day
and a half on the defense. And man, like when I switch from offense to defense, like you know
you're in good hands. It's like, ah, I'm just like.
Like, is that a, I'm not sure where you're going with that.
Was that like a reference?
Okay.
Yeah, no, just watching Quinyan Mitchell.
You think I'm pulling out of Mr. Hands reference?
No idea.
It's been a weird show.
Yeah, it's been weird.
Quinion and Mitchell, just how ridiculously good he was this game.
And we all know how ridiculously good he was last year.
But because he wasn't getting targeted, he was like so good they weren't targeting him,
that we didn't really have a chance to see him actually play the ball.
like the as often as we did in this last game right and for whatever reason they kept on
attacking him and I know he was on Akuba and that's the guy they wanted to throw to but like man like
he was just awesome like I mean I know you guys are talked about it everyone's talked about it but he was just awesome
Cooper to Gene just ridiculous there's that one snap that I was hoping you guys would ask him about like it was the cover two snap
post cross no nobody all right well um you had a little bit of an online meltdown about
about this. It was awesome.
Did I? It's not a nice characterization.
I don't think that's what it was.
I was just excited.
Post cross, they're running two routes and Cooper DeGine
covered both of them. I mean, he ran with the post
and then he almost intercepted the cross
on the same play. This is ridiculous.
And then I think it is worth talking about
the blitzing. Fangeo was asked
this week, are you blitzing more?
Because
you can keep talking.
Okay, okay. I'll worry about the show notes.
Are you blitzing? Are you blitzing?
more because you're worried about the pass rush.
And he said, I haven't felt an epidemic
where I'm calling the game
that our rush isn't good enough.
But do you guys believe him?
No.
I don't believe him at all, right?
And it's like he's blitzing more
than he did last year
and he's having a lot of success with it.
Julia, there's a graphic.
He has been, yeah, he has been much,
in the past,
his defenses have not been very good
when he has felt like he had to blitz.
Right.
And he's still below average at blitz rate.
Right.
But he's close to average.
And in success,
success rate by the opponent, the opposition is only 31% successful winning blitzes.
That's number one in the entire NFL.
The Eagles, I mean, I'm shocked to see this graphic, but the Eagles are at the very top of the
graph of best blitzing defense.
I mean, like, they're not the most frequently blitzing, but they've been very successful
when they blitz, and you can really tell that the pass rush just isn't there when they
don't.
So I have a take about this, and this may have necessitated me, and I should have texted
you about this day, Niz, but it's late.
night. I'm texting Sean Syed.
Oh, you know, I'm up. Oh, hold on. You can text me.
Before we get to this, let's get to something else here.
Oh, no. Tell me how you feel about this kind of etiquette.
Oh, come on. You're really going to, you're going to air this out and you're going to be all
fake. You, nobody does fake aggrieved as well as both. I'm sorry.
My God. I'm sorry. Tell me how you would feel about this.
And I'll name names. E.J. C. I can't. I can't. Don't say the subject.
Okay.
and says, how would you, what do you think this situation?
How do you think this situation would play out?
Okay?
And I have, and I tell him my response.
And he goes, oh, that's why we're a co-host, baby.
Like, same page.
And he then, he sends me a screenshot of a text thread with him,
Sheel, and Sean Syed discussing this same thing,
as if I'm going to be happy to see that we're on the same page
and not mad that I wasn't involved in the country.
conversation in the first place.
Okay, so I'm not allowed to have group chats that don't include you?
No, no, but why would you share?
I didn't know that that was the terms of this podcast marriage and I can't just text
Sheel and Sean about something.
You have to be included.
You're allowed to, but then don't screenshot.
That's like she...
I thought you would be happy.
I thought you were like, yeah, we got synergy.
That's like, that's like texting your spouse and being like, that's why we work so
well together, baby.
And like, you know, and then a screenshot.
What would you order from this menu?
And then a screenshot of you, like, texting your mistresses talking about the same thing.
It's not a mystery.
What would you order from this?
What would you order from this, sweetheart?
That's why we're the best.
Me too.
Here's a picture with me with my guma.
Yeah.
I didn't.
We, with our relationship is not like an exclusive relationship.
I'm allowed to talk about football with other people.
I didn't say you weren't allowed to.
But to then screenshot it and send it.
Oh, yeah.
think I'm going to be patting you on the back.
It's just like, I don't, again, I'm allowed to talk about football with other people.
I figured, like, you would, I didn't know that that was going to cut, cut any part of you that
E.J. is talking.
I think you must be talking about football with Shield.
Like, I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know it's going to strike a cord.
That's all I'll say.
I mean, Julia.
Just like, yesterday I said to my former Inquirer colleagues, like, oh, I missed the Inquirer
huddle.
You know, they always huddle up after the locker room.
right next to me when he says this.
You know, one of us is secure
in our podcast marriage here.
You know, I feel like I can say
those types of things.
I'll be more sensitive.
Oh, man.
Moving forward.
Anyway.
Absolute party foul.
So I have a take.
Fran says,
at least you got a screenshot.
I have to hear about it here on the show.
Oh, Fran.
I'm sorry.
Oh, man.
Okay.
Eagle's linebackers.
I was texting Sean Cyanne's
well past my own bedtime.
You decided to text them on your own
instead of needing me to tell you to text them this time.
About like, because I don't know enough about a 3-3-5 defense.
And I'm not, listen, I'm not suggesting the Eagles
should be doing this.
But I was just curious if there was a defensive coordinator
out there that would look at the linebacking trio
of Nikobe Dean, Zach Bonn, and Jihad Campbell,
and go, yeah, that fits.
Like that works.
And it seems like the answer is yes.
with a necessary caveat
that like it still puts
Jahad Campbell and Zach Bonn in positions
like they can do it,
you really wouldn't want them there.
Like they are so good in the middle of the field.
And from what I understand from talking to Sean,
it's like a 3-3-5 plays like a 5-1
a lot of the time,
like those penny fronts that they use to use a lot.
And I just,
I don't want any part of having those guys on the edge that much.
But what I do think we've seen Vic Fangio lean into
and I think that what they should lean into more
is the fact that they've got three linebackers
who can blitz.
Maybe there are only two of them on the field
at most of the time,
but we've seen them have a lot of success
with SIM pressures.
I said this on the show yesterday,
that Zach Bond got a lot of pressure
against the Bucks with SIM pressures,
blitzing from depth as a linebacker,
dropping Jalick's Hunt,
you know, Josh Hushet or Zadaria Smith
into coverage.
If you don't feel great about your eddrusher group,
that's a perfect way to compensate for it.
Like have those guys operate
from the spaces that they are elite in,
but send them on blitzes more often.
I think we've seen,
we've seen Vic Fangio lean into that.
If I can follow up on several of those things.
So in this last game, the Fangio sent nine exchange pressures and 11 blitzes.
Ooh, I like an exchange pressure.
I like that expression.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, last year there was this whole rhetoric of is it a sim pressure?
Is it a, I don't know?
Zach Bond rushed the passer 12 times in the game.
On those 12 plays, Tampa Bay got zero first downs.
There were two sacks and negative two totally yards.
So those plays were working.
Wow.
Now, in terms of Jihad Campbell being the edge rusher in those,
if you were to play all three of them at the same time,
Shahad Campbell lined up on the line of scrimmage 18 times this last game.
It was 19 times the game before.
There were five snaps of nickel with three defensive tackles
and only one edge rusher on the field.
Now, it's only five snaps.
This happened for the first time this year.
Fangio hadn't done this before.
This is, of course, post-Nolan Smith injury, right?
So you're trying to steal some edge snaps in the heat, et cetera.
He did do this 51 times last year.
Okay, so it's not like he didn't do it at all.
When I first saw that, this was before I watched the film,
I was assuming those were plays where Jahad Campbell is basically a quasi edge rusher.
Yeah.
But that's not true.
These were all in nickel where the quote-unquote other edge rusher in the 5-2 box was
the great Cooper DeGine, right?
Because Cooper DeGene can play that role where he can be the edge in case it's run,
but he can also just like cover the slot receiver if it's,
if it's a pass.
So that's kind of a way to play more nickel rather than base.
I've been thinking like about,
are they going to get Nacobi on the field?
Are they going to do like a 3-3?
Where what would that look like?
One of the linebackers would have to basically be a, an edge.
Yeah.
And then you play with the other three like kind of in this,
in this kind of like you kind of make it a penny from the other side.
We look at Fangio's history,
and I'm sure Sean either talked about this
or thought about this or whatever.
When he was in Miami, Van Ginkle
was sometimes one of the two linebackers on the field
in a regular 4-2 nickel,
but sometimes they would play with two other linebackers
and Van Ginkle was basically just an edge.
Yeah.
And the Eagles could do that.
What Fangio would do was he would just take
one of the edges off the field
and put Van Ginkle there.
So who do you think occupies that Van Ginkle role?
Because I just, I don't think.
Oh, it would definitely be Jahad Campbell.
Okay, good.
Like he's the one that he's the one that he's putting.
No, no, no, no.
Zachon could do it too.
And he did it a bunch last year where he was the guy on the line when the Kirby was in the middle.
The Eagles defense right now is set up where they put all of their best players in the best positions possible.
Yeah.
Putting Zach Bon on the edge is not that.
Well, right now, I mean, those numbers are, it's not like anecdotal.
It's like 18 times.
Jahad Campbell lined up on the line of scrimmage of this game.
He's clearly the one that Vic wants to be on.
the line and he said that it's because he feels more comfortable with Zach Blahn being in the
middle now. Yeah. At the same time, they asked him, like, would you think about putting Jihad Campbell
at edge when Nikobe comes back? And he said, not right now, right? So, like, but maybe that is,
like, there's a, there's a nuance there that he is taking advantage of. He can do that sometimes
at the podium. Like, he will answer it maybe more literally than, uh, than it is actually true.
Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, I think if the, if the edge guy,
continued to be as unproductive as they've been.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see them mess around with that a little bit.
Yeah.
Fanjo just doesn't, like, other than the Vangelo?
They have two sacks all season long from four-man pressure.
Right.
Yeah.
And half a sack from the actual defensive line.
I mean, from the Eddressers.
Jaylix Hunt says that there's not concern in the Eddresher group.
He said that it hurts their feelings that there's not,
that they don't have a full sack yet,
but he said that they come in bunches in that.
He really, like, leaned into, like, or emphasize.
One of the great just NFL sayings that is just accepted as a truism.
Sax coming bunches.
Well, he talked about, he really, like, emphasized that, like, they're playing good football
and that sometimes what their job.
Like when Luke Falk comes to town, then we're going to get our sacks.
I mean, there is validity to that.
That is why they come in bunches.
You're going up against Winston Justice one game.
But, yeah, he emphasized the importance of, like, the role that they're playing
within the defense.
and I thought it was interesting that he said
in a Vic Fangio defense, like you don't have like,
it's not set up for one position group or one player
to really just go for it
or like have the freedom to do what they want to do.
It's you're always kind of part of a cognitive machine
for lack of a better expression.
So because of that, it does seem,
because you know, we've seen Eagles defenses before
where it's like it is built around the defensive line
creating havoc, getting upfield.
And Jalick's Hunt was talking about the fact
that this really isn't that type of defense
That said, there's really no way to dress up the fact
that they just have not gotten great production from that group.
Yeah, and they're getting really thin there.
I thought it was funny.
Zadaria Smith last week was talking about,
I mentioned on the show.
He said he had to learn the base defense
now that Nolan Smith is out.
Eagles play 13-snap a base.
Zadari-Smith's not out there for any of them.
And then yesterday, he was asked again,
like, how's it going or whatever?
And he was like, I got to learn the base defense.
That's very funny.
I hope it's a continuing bit.
Or he keeps saying he has to learn it and then he just never plays on.
To circle back to just the Quignan Mitchell appreciation.
Appreciation? Appreciation. Appreciation.
Julia.
It's about time somebody laughs about.
I'm doing this for you so that we can.
Use the graphic that you work so hard to create.
Oh, come on, come on.
Again, nobody does fake a grief like you.
She just laughed at the way you said it.
It's okay.
You don't have to make it.
Into a thing.
To circle back to the appreciation of young Quignon Mitchell.
Here's what Cooper de Gene said about him.
He definitely talks more trash than people realize, and I love it.
He's like a silent assassin because you wouldn't think like talking to him.
If you didn't know him, that he'd be the type of guy to go out there and talk trash,
but he kind of gets in that mode when he's out on the football field.
He's just so locked in and dialed in with so much comments.
confidence on the field. He just lets it fly and lets guys know.
Good quote, EJ.
Great setup. I mean, yeah.
Were you there, AJ, when Cooper was talking about how, like, someone asked him if him
and Quinnian had, like, code words for each other?
Did I ask it that? Oh, code words for each other?
Well, no, like, he said, like, we have certain things we say so we know, like, if we're
passing off or out or whatever.
Oh, no, I was there.
And someone asked, like, does that translate to off the field?
Like, do you guys have, like?
I asked him something similar.
and he said that they don't have, I mean, at least to me, he said that they don't have
a secret language off the field, but I thought in the mic'd up, in the mic'd up,
you heard it, you heard of Quinnion asking him about a route, and it did kind of sound like,
Oh, that was really cool, up, out, out, or whatever, yeah, he's like out, up out or something,
and I thought he was just describing the route, but yeah, I don't know what it was,
but Quinnie or Cooper's like, yeah, yeah, like, I don't know, they do seem like they have
some code words on the field.
Have you, did you guys, not to, this is really, whatever, it's not that off topic.
Did you watch the mic up?
Did you hear like Quinyan's like inflection of voice when he like he's like kind of like I can't even do it
He's like the really high voice? Yeah, he's like talking like a high pitch voice did you hear this?
So I think I deleted the video
I got to I'm I have to see if I can find it
He one time during training camp the ball like rolls like to my feet and like Quinion runs and grabs it and he used that voice to me
It's like I'm gonna have to do it. It's like thank you
Thank you.
And I was just like,
what a quirky thing for like, you know,
the Eagles second year cornerback to do,
like to have his voice on the field,
but it must be like a thing for him.
Like he has like this.
Because he does not talk like that off the field.
No, definitely.
Not even close.
It's like instead of going like Brian Dawkins Wolverine,
he's going like Mighty Mouse.
Yeah, honestly, yeah.
Yeah.
The alter ego of Michael.
I watch the mic up with Evan.
And it's always funny because it's like half,
half beeps.
it's like the beeps are there for you
but like you
oh
okay
how about this
Broncos offense
how do you feel
a lot of purposeful motion
bringing the motion guy
back on routes
coming the other way
they use mims a lot that way
a lot of play action
a lot of like naked play action boot
and I know
that would get your eyebrows up
wouldn't that be great
just BG
BG was
I mean, you want to talk about catching the defense off guard.
Just come out on an actual naked bootleg?
Yeah.
Would they all be naked?
Yeah.
No, no, no.
You have the quarterback is under center.
And you have like the, it's like a 21 personnel.
So he's surrounded.
You can't really see him.
And then you can't realize that as he's underneath the center,
he's taking all his clothes off.
And then there comes a naked boot.
Wow.
You got to get to the line.
early. Yeah, you got to get the line early. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of naked boot. I feel like
does eddress yourself? You tell me if this play the naked. If it was just bottomless,
so it would be hard to take the shoulder pads off. You wouldn't have time. So if it's just
Donald Duck in it bottomless, would you, could you still call it a naked bootleg or would you
have to be more prescriptive in the description? Huh. This goes back to which position
would be best off with a tail conversation?
Yeah.
Which position if one position...
I thought I forgot about that.
If one of the positions had to be naked,
strategically,
which player would you have be naked?
Fully nude?
Yeah.
They get to wear a helmet, though, I imagine.
Well, yeah.
Okay.
This is going to be the second...
Why receiver?
No, I think it's running back.
Definitely running back.
Wait, what?
Definitely.
No way.
Why would you rather be, why would you rather have your wide receiver be naked?
Well, because you can, you can send him deep.
But he's also, they don't want to cover him too tightly.
But the running back, I mean, the running back's going to get,
it's going to get in so many pileups.
Like, it's going to get destroyed.
People are going to want to touch him.
Well, yeah, but he's going to.
With the, like, they're going to want to avoid the naked guy.
Oh, edge rusher.
Ooh, edge rusher is good.
Yeah.
But they just block him that way.
You know, I could tell you what Devante Smith said in the locker room after today.
Like, I could give you some insight about some of the Eagles.
I mean, quarterback could be the answer.
No.
Because if you think about, like, looking guys off with your eyes,
I mean, you're looking them off all kinds of ways.
It's like a Tuesday show now.
I thought Thursday was the exposed bone show.
Oh, man.
Oh, man.
All right.
We did see the run defense make some improvements.
Yeah, for sure.
And, you know, it would be really hard to be serious here.
The run defense hasn't been great so far.
Within the Tampa game, I thought it was good.
Like Tampa ran the same runs, like, you know, run.
Every team does this.
Like, they run the same runs, like, throughout a game.
And it seemed like the first time the Eagles saw a run,
they didn't know exactly how to fit it or somebody made a mistake or whatever.
Tampa ran like the split counter run.
They got eight yards the first.
time, two yards the second time. They were ready for it. They ran counter with two pulling
tight ends. Got 15 yards the first time. Three the second time. That happened near the end of the game
as well where they just had hat on a hat. They got, you know, like seven yards on a duo
run, only one on the very next play. I think the Eagles are quick to adjust on defense in general.
So much quicker than the offenses. Like, Fangio is so good at that. The other, you can tell,
like, the position coaches are so good at that where they're not going to get beat twice by
the same thing, right? And so you see, like, and so you see, like,
like a mistake that they make giving up that long touchdown,
you know, like the one that Makuba gave up, for example.
Like, you just know that they're going to fix those things.
And so I think, like, some of the stuff, like the problems against the run,
some of its personnel, but a lot of it is stuff that I think will get fixed.
So, I don't know.
Are you worried about, like, that continuing to be a thing, like giving up runs?
I'm less worried about that, I would say.
Yeah.
I mean, right, right now the numbers.
Specifically their edge defenders are not great run defenders.
Yeah, no, that's true.
Nolan Smith. Without Nolan Smith for sure. Yeah.
That's part of it. And that would be one of the arguments for
occasionally maybe taking one of those guys off the field
and putting a linebacker there. But again, I don't know if that's like something that
Fangio would want to do within a structure.
E.J. What did Devante Smith say in the locker room? A few things that I found
noteworthy. He was discussing A.J. Brown at the very beginning of his
actually funny joke by Zach Berman.
Who?
Who? The back sermon, as you may remember him.
It was a very beginning.
It was the very beginning of his media scrum.
And as that goes, do you want to go first?
Because AJ's opening statement a few days earlier,
DeMonte did not have an opening statement,
but he did address AJ's social media posts
and all the drama around AJ Brown this week.
He said he's a great leader,
and I mean probably like most guys on the team,
he wants what's best for the team.
Things aren't necessarily going our way offensively,
and I don't think there's anything wrong with him to want better in that situation.
So very much aligned with AJ Brown on how he sees things.
I also found it interesting that DeVante said that there's ups and downs, I think he's how he phrased it,
or highs and lows in how he responds to having quiet games.
And when asked how he felt after the Bucks game, he said, I'd rather not say.
So, yeah, I've definitely found that noteworthy.
Was he asked about his relationship with Jalen?
Yeah, I actually asked him like what conversations are like.
He was because he was like, I think, yeah, basically I was asking him what it's like in the building after a game, after a situation like that.
And he basically said like what's understood doesn't really need to be said in that like they're frustrated.
It doesn't necessarily require a big, you know, like come to Jesus moment.
It's, I think they are all aware of the state of things.
So honestly, like, I wrote this this morning.
Like, to me, like the dust has settled on a lot of the drama that stem from the tweet.
But the question remains, like, will the Eagles offense run through these guys more than it has?
And if it doesn't, where does that leave them?
I think that's right.
I think this week-long tweet gate is over.
But everything that started it is still there.
Yeah.
Right.
every like a j brown is not he didn't come out and say i'm not frustrated anymore you know devante
smith didn't come out and say like yeah we we feel great about the way things are like the frustration
is still there it's just a matter of how they address it moving forward and i just really quick i thought
you made a good point about like how nick is kind of the one that needs to be able to navigate this
what i wanted to add is that i think it is a tough job if you're absolutely because and specifically
because I think you hear him talk about two separate things that are at odds with each other.
You hear him talk about taking joy in the wins.
Yeah.
But then you also hear him talk about like being hard on the team on a Monday to help them improve.
And it almost feels like a loss, right?
Because you are correcting things as if it were a loss to get where you need to go as a team.
Those two things are at odds with each other.
Taking joy in the win and also like having to be.
critical of the wins, it's hard to do both of those things. And I think it's especially hard
if, I know how this might sound, but it's just, just hang with me here. It's especially hard
if 50% of your locker room is going, we're 4 and O. Why? Yeah. And obviously, I think they are all
more nuance. This is pretty granular the way I'm presenting it here, but we're 4 and O, we need to
take joy in the wins. And the other 50%, you know, you hear from AJ, you hear from Devante, those
guys are saying the way that we're playing isn't good enough. You know, obviously the serious
team talk like, you know, the goals that we have do not align with the way we're playing.
So I do. I just wanted to, when I heard your conversation on my drive-in, that was like really
what struck me. It's like, it is a hard job to figure out the balance between those two things.
And you add that onto, you know, the having to put the game plan together and wanting to be
able to take a zoom out to reassess whether the identity of your own.
team is what you thought it was going to be coming into the season.
It's just like, there's not a lot of hours.
Yeah.
Do all of those things.
Yeah.
I mean, I like think about my dad's coaching career and like after a win, they go to
Applebee's and they have a good time.
Like, you know, having that while also if you're obviously-
Always Applebee's?
Uh, I think they were, I mean, I wasn't always there.
I was, I was young.
But I remember some Applebee's trips after wins.
Um, but then, yeah, like the next day, you're watching the film critically.
So finding that balance is like probably more challenging.
than we give it credit for for a team in a situation like the Eagles.
Jay Needs, Peckness, Migrate.
Okay.
Applebee's, Chili's, T.J. Fridays.
Oh, why don't like it to do that?
I'm asking him first.
I mean, you just talked for a long time.
You know, I'm going to let you think about this because I need to address something
that kind of aligns with this.
Did anybody notice that Bo thanked literally everybody that was a part of yesterday's show,
except for me?
Like, thank you, Fran.
Thank you, Julia.
Thank you, Ethan for the graphics.
Thank you.
you know, Francis and Katie.
Hey, J.
Everybody.
Thanks to everybody, except for my co-host.
You know what?
What's understood?
Doesn't need to be said.
Oh, yeah.
You know, maybe that's why I was texting
Sheel and Sean last night.
You know, you've got to go where you feel appreciated.
At least he didn't call you my co-host.
I got a long find with my co-host.
Yeah, my co-host.
Yeah.
And Julia.
I get along.
Do you have an answer?
I don't really want to nest any of them.
Um, I would...
What's that about?
I don't know.
I don't like big...
You don't have to...
I don't like supporting big corporate chains is the main thing.
But since you asked,
and I don't normally get a Becknest migrate opportunity,
I will...
To me, this is a clear migrate situation.
I haven't been to Applebee's or Chili since I was like 10.
So I don't have a great way to distinguish between the two.
TGI Fridays, I think.
it was the place I went to for like
margaritas at happy hour when I was
like in college. They got those at the other places too.
Do they? Okay. All right. Well, you need me to step in here?
He's a bad job by you. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I'm going to
Pek. E.J. was right. It should be. I'm going to peck TGI Fridays. Really? Just because
you can get ice cream there. You can, you get by if you're out of TGI Fridays. Interesting.
Nesting Applebee's all day. Oh, man. Applebee's?
Well, you have like a history with Applebee's in your family. Like you went there for
special.
I don't know if I'd be married to my wife if it weren't for Applebee's and like the half-price boneless wings.
Yeah.
There you go.
It was right next to where we worked.
We would go there like all the time for half-price apps.
When you're like a high school kid, that is actually good living right there.
I agree.
On Applebee's getting some chicken bacon, uh, casadies.
I think, I think you could make a, you can make a strong case for Applebee's or Chili's.
I am, I am flabbergasted that you're not migrating TGI Fridays.
CJI Fridays is absolutely the gutter bottom barrel of those choices.
Are you getting like pretty mid-barbecue items at Chili's?
Because to me, I don't want that stuff.
I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, get the same stuff you get at Applebee's.
I also am a little scarred because my friends,
whenever I send him pictures of my barbecue,
he's always like, oh, yeah, that's like a Chili's type thing.
It just kills me.
He knows what he's doing when he says that.
When I lived in Istanbul,
Alan Iverson joined Besiktash in the Turkish League for about half a season.
And he lived in my neighborhood.
Like, like, their arena and their practice facility was close to where I lived.
And I heard him give an interview to, I think it was the Philadelphia Inquirer, about life in Istanbul.
And he said that his favorite place to eat in Istanbul was TGI Fridays.
Of course.
And he said, I didn't realize how good their Philly cheese steak spring rolls were while I was living in Philly.
It took me to come to Istanbul
To learn how good the Philly
And I was like
Every single thing about this is wrong
But I thought that that was
Like very funny
That Alan Iverson's spot in Istanbul
Was DGI Friday's and it's the one time
I was like maybe we should go to DJI Fridays
Once in a while
I'll see if CIFRsen's hanging out
See if AI's over there
But there's a never saw him
There's a Wonder Kid that plays for Bessita
Besiktas
Bichitas
Semi Kulikshai
Semi Kulikshui
Your pronunciation
of
Abal manager guys
I know what that is
Galatasaray.
Well, I mean, I also need some improvement.
It was better than Andrews.
Big win over Liverpool this week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There we go.
Is that your team?
Yes.
My family's team.
I had season tickets for years.
Yeah.
Okay.
Anything else from the locker room, E.J.?
Those are the two big things.
Sequin spoke after I left.
He's been pushing it on the Friday availability.
It's like he's like he's counter-programming us or something like that, you know?
Yeah.
This is specifically aimed at Danes.
This is his retort to a year of you making fun of him during the best year of his career.
Also, those in the chat saying that Outback is great.
Yeah, Outback is kind of a tier above these in my opinion.
You got to know, like, I know my chain restaurants.
I like, I'm not a foodie like you.
Like, I was a big chain guy until like three years ago.
I think I told you, I spent my 21st birthday at an Applebee's.
A lot of margaritas.
It really was.
What's your go-to Applebee's order?
I like the cassadilla burger, but really just boneless ways.
When you go on the road, do you find yourself ever at, like, do you make a point to go to like a regional fast food type situation?
No, and this reminds me of the time that you embarrassed me in front of all my former colleagues at the Inquirer when we went to the senior bowl and you're like, oh, you got to go to cook at.
So I take all of my colleagues to cookout.
And again, I'm not a foodie, but some of my former colleagues, they're foodies.
Like, they like good food.
And I'm like, both told me about this place called the cookout.
And we get there.
And it's like $2 chicken wraps and milkshakes.
If you want to talk about college living, there is nothing better than a cookout, trade.
You didn't frame it as like, this is a good, cheap place to get food.
I just thought it was like a good lunch spot.
So, like, they were really disappointed to see Jeff McLean's reaction.
That's very funny.
That is very funny.
He got a milkshake and he's like...
Oh, their milkshakes are very good.
But they're not milkshakes.
They're just, it's just ice cream.
Well, yeah.
That's what a milkshake.
That's what a milkshake should be.
It's like, sick ice cream.
That's what a milkshake is.
He has a straw and he's just like, what am I supposed to do with this straw?
That's very funny.
See, I...
That's very funny that you took that as like...
For it to be very clear.
Like, if people are going to think I'm a snobber or something because of the Applebee's thing,
I don't like supporting chains.
I love local cheap, like grease joints.
Like, I love that.
So, you know, McLean's a foodie.
Charlie's and Delgo doesn't like that place.
Like, like, I think, I think being a foodie and liking places like that, like, definitely go together.
Like, you can be a foodie and appreciate $2, you know.
That's a, that's a totally different thing.
He, like, will eat, like, a domino's pizza at, like, midnight on the road.
That's a little different.
Yeah.
It's called depression.
This is like a Tuesday show
We're an hour and 40 minutes into this
And we're talking about Domino's pizza
Bojangles
Here we go to Bojangles?
No, I probably love it
How do you feel about Raging Cajuns, though?
A Raysian Cajuns, sorry
It's good.
It's like it's somewhere between Popeye's and Chick-fil-A.
Okay.
I was trying to decide if I should say, Chick-fil-A.
That's you.
We're giving up too much free advertising.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, you've got to close with the uniform stuff probably, right?
Eh, just standard.
Midnight green on white.
Too much white on the field.
Denver's wearing all white, especially both these defense.
Both teams have white corners.
And the Eagles are wearing white pants and white socks.
So is Denver.
That shouldn't be allowed, by the way.
Like in-
In, no, no.
both teams wearing the same color pants.
In, like in soccer, like, that's not allowed.
Like, you can't wear the same shorts or socks as the other team.
In the NFL, they're way too loose about that.
You know, it would solve that.
The naked bootleg.
No pants, yeah.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay.
It'll be a good game for E.J.
Denver plays with a sixth offensive lineman a lot,
which means base defense, baby.
I didn't get that one in Swooper.
How did you feel about the game theory of Franz?
You got to sit out the next two items.
I loved it.
Loved it.
I was so happy about that.
Like that,
it was,
I think it was the first time
anyone else has presented
a non-standard rules option.
You forget about the strip.
Well, okay,
I'm not even...
And then the penny auction.
Yeah, okay, fine.
All right, that's true.
But I thought, like,
like one that involved strategy
as opposed to nudity,
first time.
And I really liked,
no, I have this week's though.
Yeah, no, I really,
I really like that one.
Oh, nice.
symmetry on this.
He could have gotten, yeah, you guys each got four.
He could have got, he was a little unlucky because the next two items were kind of.
Yes.
Kind of cheap ones.
Yes, I agree.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But E.J. got a half a point shopping in the bargain been last week.
So how do you feel about my, my strategy so far?
I mean, you know, those, what is Jordan my letter say?
Points don't lie, right?
Does he say that?
Yeah, he says points don't lie.
I mean.
I felt like last week was kind of just like recuperating, trying to save up some turkeys,
to get a half point out of that.
Yeah, I agree.
I was pretty happy with that.
No, it was really good.
Easy game.
A lot of, a huge turkey advantage.
DeLine him, can't wait to tell you how well you're doing in Swooper.
I think she might have already sent you a note.
Those are a huge turkey advantage for next week.
Good stuff.
Just a dynamic Friday episode.
Thank you, Julia, for making it all happen.
you professor for bringing all the stats.
Thanks to everybody in the chat.
Thanks to everybody here at PHLY.
Remember, we will be with you on Sunday.
The kickoff show, the halftime show, and the postgame show.
Looking forward to it.
Eagles Broncos.
We'll have it covered in all different ways.
And they'll do it for this episode of the PHLY Eagles podcast.
Like, comment, all that's good stuff.
We're like four subscribers away from 50,000.
Very cool.
That's all we got.
They are.
And as always, we love you.
