PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Scouting report: Can Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown dominate the Packers defense?

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Another big episode as we dive deep into the matchup that may decide the game on Sunday. Can Saquon Barkley, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Dallas Goedert and co. win in the trenches to spring Saquon Barkley for a big day on the ground against a good Packers run defense? Can Jalen Hurts beat zone coverage and get the ball to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith? Will the Packers blitz often?It’s the second part of our exhaustive preview, with Fran Duffy, Deniz Selman, Zach Berman and Bo Wulf. Plus, the first and potentially final edition of playoff swooper! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

to the P-H-L-Y Eagles podcast on a playoff Thursday, presented by Bet-365. Download the Bet-365 app and use code P-H-L-Y-365 to sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet-365, and we have a lot to talk about. We've got a full house in Studio A, Zach Berman, Danaes Selman, Fran Duffy. And we're talking about the Eagles offense against the Packers defense,

an Eagles offense that Zach will probably have Jalen Hertz. Oh, yes. I would be surprised at this point of Jalen Hertz is not out there. Now, I don't know how he tested today. The Eagles practice during our show, but my guess is when the injury report comes out later, Jalen is listed as full participant. And then my guess is tomorrow, Nick Siriani will say he's out of the concussion protocol.

That's just me guessing. I'm expecting Friday out of the protocol, Thursday, full participant. All right. And just for the timing of it all, locker room is later today. They're practicing right now, all of that stuff.

Yeah, practicing 225, I believe, at the stadium again. The turf is frozen at the practice facility. The frozen, dundra, NovaCare complex. Although, as I said, I hope you watched our bonus show last night.

I know you were on it, but the audience, but watch the audience, that it's a cool visual being in the stadium for, practice it's kind of more truncated space there you're closer to it the sight lines are awesome you're on the field you told us all about you got to take pictures uh closer to gillenhert stretching correct bell and then uh so and then locker room access is at uh around five o'clock tonight

much to your chagrin much of my chagrin happy birthday sloane's my birthday happy birthday yes happy birthday yeah my which birthday is it is her sixth birthday today and you and i i i know that because I know my daughter but no she was born she was born

in between she was born in between the Saints the Bears playoff game and the Saints playoff game okay which was

six years ago but no I know I know she's six years old I recognize you you're the one the double joint one right

yeah right in between those two games fortunately she was she was know that. She was born and all in the morning. I talked about that today on the ride to school. Born early in the morning. So I was able to get to a locker room that afternoon. Wow.

Fran, how you doing? Better now. I think we all are. And professor, we're treated to you on a Thursday. Oh, playoff week. Let's go. Let's get into it because we got a lot to get to in this episode. Obviously, super-sortcasting is coming up towards the end. And we are locked in a heated battle. with the stakes rising and the game theory ratcheting up. But before we get to that, let's talk about the real football game. And this is the Eagles offense against the Packers defense, Fran. So let's talk Packers defense in general, fourth and EPA per drive, but 17th in success rate.

They are seventh in DVOA. What is their identity? What kind of style do they play with? Yep. So it's zone heavy. They're 28th in the league in man coverage rate. This is a team that wants to play zone coverage on the back. end that number has only risen especially since Jaya Alexander's injuries so these

last several weeks they've been heavy cover two heavy cover three obviously they will mix in some man-to-man coverage at times where this is a primarily zone coverage team they want to try and throw just a four-man rush and have seven bodies in coverage and shrink down those passing lanes get population to the football and create turnovers and that's something that they've done at a really high rate so far this year one of the best in the in the league so far at taking the the football away. Again, not a high volume blitz team by in terms of like five and six man pressure, but the linebackers, the nickel, they are very, very involved with the pressure scheme. And so you're going to see a lot of guys up on the line of scrimmage. And then every, you know,

four guys falling out and four guys rushing at the quarterback. And it's up to Jalen Hertz and the offensive line to kind of navigate who's coming and who's not before the snap. They've been very good against the run. They are a really good tackling team. The linebackers, uh, health for the first time, really together, these two starting linebackers, Quay Walker, former first round pick. Edron Cooper, the rookie second round pick, who has been just nails over the last few weeks. He has been a playmaker for this defense, really explosive. And it covers a lot of ground. On the back end, I talked about the Jaiyar Alexander injury.

They've had to shuffle some chairs in the back end. This is a much different secondary than what the Eagles saw back in week one, where Kishon Nixon started the season as their nickel. He got paid this offseason to be kind of that nickel. He's their most valuable DB right now because he can slide inside and outside. a really competitive player on the shorter side. He's built like a nickel, but he can run vertically down the field, really competitive at the catch point and good against the run, good glitzer.

The safety, Xavier McKinney signed over from the New York Giants. It's been extremely productive, a ton of interceptions, eight picks this year. And when you look at McKinney on the other side of him, it started as Javon Bullard, the rookie second round pick from Georgia. That's who got to start in week one against the Eagles. But he's kind of bounced back and forth between safety and nickel. and now the way they've had injuries these last few weeks, everyone healthy, assuming everyone's healthy here this week,

which it looks like it's trending that way. My guess is, is that when they're in their base defense, it will be McKinney and it will be Bullard at safety with Kishon Nixon at corner with Carrington Valentine opposite him as the other corner. So those would be the four DBs. When they go to nickel, Bullard will come down and play in the slot, and Evan Williams, a rookie fourth round pick,

will be the third, will be the second, safety there. And so that's the way I envision it. And we'll see if that's the way it rolls out. But I think that's, if everyone's healthy, I think that's the way this back seven will look. And Williams has been out the last few games and he was limited in practice yesterday. Yeah. If I can ask follow up for that. First off, as far as Nixon, you have him as a green player. Yeah. Which, which stands out that you think is a high level player here. I spoke to someone from Green Bay who brought up who I see you've raised your eyebrows. Yeah, flex.

who brought up Williams as a player that's like a key to that defense, not someone, I knew him in college at Oregon, not someone I've been as familiar with this year. Is that an apt statement? Is he a key player on that defense? Yeah, he's definitely an important cog just because he's got that versatility. Much like Bullard, when he was coming out last year, I thought that he had some nickel and free safety flexibility,

and he is used that way in terms of, because they do a lot of disguise, rotating coverages, invert coverages. And so the guy might be listed. safety but you're going to see him lined up to the outside you're going to see him lined up in the middle zone so you're going to see those guys moved all around the formation from a coverage alignment standpoint and so i think williams his flexibility bullers flexibility keishon nixon's flexibility that's all really important in terms of how this defense is structured

jane is as you did the exercise of rewatching week one and then watching some of their their recent games how different did it look well uh definitely some okay so week one in terms of personnel or in terms of scheme. Just stylistically. Yeah, I think Fran got, I think Fran hit a bunch of the personnel usage differences. In terms of the disguised coverages, we did not see the same rate of exotic spinning

to various forms of cover two and even cover six, like out of those looks. So Xavier McKinney will start at the line of scrimmage. Looks like he's kind of like the, he's almost like the seventh man on the line of scrimmage. looks like he might blitz and then at the snap he'll rotate to be a a high safety in cover two or or one of the higher higher safeties in in cover six you'll see um you know bullard will start at one point and then he'll rotate up like you know they do a bunch of different kinds of exchanges in terms of

the rate at which they do both those exchange pressures and blitzing with five or more i think eagles fans can just look at the Eagles it's exactly the same rate of both both teams blitz on dropbacks at around the same percentage. Green Bay, 17%, Eagles are 16, but 10% exchange pressures for both. So 10% of the opponent's dropbacks, you'll have a four-man pressure where it's not the four-down linemen

who are rushing. So if you're used to just watching the Eagles do the same thing with Zach Bond, the Kobe Dean, coming in with one of the edge rushers dropping back, you'll see the Packers do that as well. And then just to add to Franz's numbers with Zone versus Man,

one of the things with Green Bay is they're pretty predictable in terms of early downs versus late downs, right? Okay. On early downs, they are... And so are the Eagles. Yeah, similar. Similar. Like, I'm talking about the Eagles offense.

The Eagles offense, yes, yeah, exactly. So this is looking at just dropbacks. So yes, you're right, the Eagles run the ball a lot on early downs. But the Green Bay defense is just only 13% man on early downs. And that ranks 27th in the league. And that goes up to league average at 38% on late downs. And when, and they also blitz a lot more on late downs with five or more. They're dead last in the league at early down blitz at just 13%.

And then they're 28% blitz on late downs, which is league average. And another thing to note is that on those late down blitzes, it's almost always manned coverage. Yep. That's what the man coverage. Like all cover zero, cover one. And then as Fran was noting earlier, they'll have looks where it looks like it's going to be cover zero or cover one. And then McKinney sprinting back and suddenly it's a too high safety look. And I'm sure Fran has noted this throughout the season as well.

One of the things that I've noted repeatedly from game to game is, man, that corner route is wide open in the turkey hole. Why didn't Jalen throw it? I feel like especially against teams that have disguised cover two this year, Jalen's had some trouble, recognizing it and throwing it to the right place. And his man's own splits, which Shield brought up earlier this week, which we'll get into a little later, kind of. Kind of show that. No, that's totally reasonable. We were going to talk run first, but why don't we just stay here? Let's talk about the passing game.

Because I do think you're talking about all the, you know, the SIM pressures and the exchanges. The worry that Jalen Hertz might be rusty for this game, I think it's a little bit overstated. Like, you know, he missed two weeks, whatever. But if there is rust, I think it's just as likely to be not recognizing what he's seeing. It's a mental game speed. Right. Yeah. Like as opposed to, you know, he's not hitting the.

or a corner throw or you know the go ball so in this game him being in charge of protections is going to be very important yeah honestly there are look the eagles have more talent offensively than the green bay packers have defensively similar to the way that we discussed the other side of the matchup on tuesday i think when you look at the way that the packers play defense with it being zone heavy if you are really good at running zone coverages that can level the playing field from a talent standpoint and i think that when you you look at the way that they go about disguising their coverages, showing pressure, falling out. You know, Dana is mentioned, sometimes they're showing, it looks like it's going to be cover zero. If you're Jalen Hertz, if you're Cam Juergens, if you're Sequant Barkley, you have to

respect the fact that it could be cover zero, even if it is first and 10, because while they might not do it, if it's 10 plays, they might do it nine times where they drop out. You have to prepare for that one scenario. Otherwise, Jalen Hertz is getting bum rushed. So you're, you're Jalen hurts you're the protection you have got to account for all that and at the moment it changes you are now saying okay it's probably cover two but who's playing where and cover two because they do it's why it's a lot of different varieties of cover two it might just be your basic where it's two high safeties and five straight underneath it might be tampa two where that middle player is running the shoot that's where he when he threw that first interception to devante smith zabhermackin steppes

zabherminton steps in front that was a tampa two that was the first interception of the season backed up and they're in their own end down in brazil uh that was a tampa two play uh where you're you had the middle linebacker running down the shoot. Sometimes it's invert cover two where, you know, the, the, both corners drop to the safety. Yeah, both corners dropped to safety and a safety that was deep. He's actually the middle player. And they do all these different versions of it. And so if you are Jalen Hertz, is it ever covered two buster?

I'm sure they got to you up, man. I was up late every night this week, Bo, looking for one snap of two buster. Still haven't found it. On the topic of Rust, when you look back, and it's for all of you, when you look back at that first game, how much do you think the way the Eagles opened that was a byproduct of rust and how much you think it was just a you know a tough start to a game they they have three plays in the first drive interception three plays on the second drive fumble I mean honestly that's been the way that they've been most of the year exactly they were rusty all year to

to open games so that's but it you know finished 30th in the league and first two drive offense yeah and again it's not just past game with the slow starts the run game has been slow to start in most games as well I just ask because someone who who thinks that J-Lan's going to be Rusty said like, well, he was, he was rusty in that first game and look how he played. I just thought that was a tough. I don't know. Rusty is like, I know.

How could you tell? Who knows? Yeah, like, I don't know. I also, like, don't get a ton. Like, that first game was so, so long ago. Yeah. That there's, I think there's, there are things you could take away from watching it. But I'm not making like wholesale opinions on this game here based off of, you know, September 3rd.

Yeah. I mean, in that game, the Packers ran exactly one exchange. And Jalen actually hit A.J. Brown on a quick out, and it went for 20 yards. And it was one of those early season plays where we were like, maybe they're going to be good against the Blitz this year. I don't know if you guys remember that play. But it was an exotic pressure. It was like they dropped both D-Tackles. They brought the nickel and both linebackers.

And it was just like a quick game answer to that blitz. But that was the only one. And obviously you can't go on that. where, like, people point to that one as the reason that teams haven't sent big blitzes against the Eagles. That one wasn't technically big because of the other guys dropping out. But they were like, oh, well, you're like, they should. I'm sure we could beat that. So that's why we're not getting it.

Yeah. And then to France's point earlier about the disguise in the last game against the Bears, I noted there were two different plays where it was exactly the same look. And they both spun to exotic coverages, but they were different. So in one of them, Bullard, the nickel was lined up in exactly the same. same place and one of them he dropped to be the cover two corner with the actual corner dropping to safety in the other one he blitzed and um 27 oladapo came down and became the cover two corner both corners went back but but he blitzed and that was later in the game and it fooled uh Caleb william

so it's one of those where you're just like it's not as it's not as obvious as like okay once we learn it they're going to do the same thing every time you can tell that a lot of thought has gone into it and that it's um that it's it's definitely designed to confuse the quarterback exactly did you like Victor Oladipo? Well, he's talking about Catan-Oledo from Morgan State, right? Yes.

I certainly liked Victor O'Dipo when he was at Indiana. I, when this is in college, with the Pacers as well, wasn't as bullish on him when he was with the magic, saw some promise when he was with the thunder.

It's a shame what happened when he was with the rockets and then the heat. Wow. Yeah, I mean, huge flex right now. Good for you. Even actually,

I mean, a true flex, if you will, is that I saw Victor Old Depot play at a high school basketball camp. That way. Yeah. I was doing a story. He's actually head coach now in George Washington. His name is Chris Caputo. At the time, he was an assistant coach of George Mason. I was writing for the Washington Post.

And I did up behind the scenes of like a day in the life of an assistant coach on the record. recruiting circuit and he went to three camps up here and I sat with him and one of the players he was recruiting at the time was Victor Altae P. Who went at the math, I believe. And so I remember in my, I always recall because I like interviewed the guys that George Mason was interested in and Victor was one of them. I mean, what a whole run of an answer. It's like when we found out that he went to a stranger's house in Tallahassee. He's got something for everything. Um, on the cover two front. Yes.

A.J. Brown. There's a lot here. Yeah. There's a lot here. Let's start with A.J. Brown. Because, uh, AJ Brown's numbers in terms of target rate are hugely different from man in zone. It's also an efficiency thing. Um, why do you think that is?

And do you have any faith that they will solve that? All right. So a lot there to unpack. Danes is pointed out throughout the season that when it's, there's the man to man coverage. Shorthand. Yeah. AJ Brown is,

that's where Jaylen wants to go and it's man. Devante Smith is where he runs to go on its own. We've talked about the efficiency numbers for AJ Brown and how he's been like near record setting pace in terms of like yards per route run this season, you know, for the majority of the season, he's been extremely efficient, extremely productive on a per route basis.

Now this is a stat I got from next gen stats here yesterday. AJ Brown has been targeted just 17.1% of the time versus cloud coverage. Cloud coverage, meaning that you've got basically cover two to that side. And so whether it's straight cover two or if it's cover six, where it is the cover two part of the coverage to A.J. Brown side. So 17% there, whereas versus all other coverage, all other coverages, it's 34%.

So you basically cut his targets in half against cloud coverage. Now, Green Bay led the NFL in cloud coverages this year with 38% and it's been 43% since week 10, since their by week. in week one between these two teams, Hertz against those cloud coverages was three for six, 32 yards, and that interception that we talked about earlier. So look, Jayland,

and we've mentioned this throughout the season. I remember there was that stretch in the Jacksonville game, mid-year, the Kelly Green game, where it felt like it was the end of the second quarter, and Jacksonville was just like, cover two, Tampa two, cover two, cover two, cover two, cover two, every single play, every single snap. And that's because Jalen at times has struggled with,

especially when it's a disguised version of cover two, because you have to be able to, especially if you disguise it with pressure, okay, is it pressure or is it not? Where is the whole zone? Who's playing where? It's a lot to go through. And if he's not patient in the pocket, he's going to roll out. And then as we've talked about, the longer he has held onto the football this year,

the worst things have gotten in general for the offense. And so to me, when I look at this game, Green Bay is going to lean into that and say, okay, we're going to try and play these cover two snaps, disguise cover two extremely well. And if that forces Jaylon Hurts to, we don't need to get, Quay Walker doesn't need to get home for a sack. Rishon Gary doesn't need to get home for a sack.

But if this forces a throwaway, if this forces a short and completion, that's a win for us defensively. And honestly, like when I was watching the Green Bay defense this year, or this week, rather, I'm taking note like, man, like another good disguise cover three, or cover two, and it's a throwaway. And there's a sack.

And so I went through, I'm like, all, let me look at these numbers. They led the NFL in sacks out of cover two throwaways out of cover two and which quarterback led was the head was the was the worst he actually was third worst in terms of sax and throwaways against cover two this season was jalen hurts and so when i look at that part of the matchup in a play because that's the thing and i've talked i've been talking about this game with a lot of people this week and it's like oh well the eagles have so much more talent the the talent should win out when you get to the playoffs when you when you get to the playoffs

it is one game yes it is one game a handful of plays it is a small sample of So that's why you go to like an elite quarterback can take over a game. A great game plan can change a game. Explosive plays and turnovers can change a game. So when I look at this and I said like these are the places that can create turnovers, Jalen Hurts has done a nice job of not turning the ball over. These are the types of things that can wreck this game for this past game. To your point, Danes, you have a chart that we can go to, Julia.

It's the it's the bar chart with the different colors. It's the quarterback dropbacks resulting in non-targets. And this is exactly to friends point. Yeah, I mean, to compliment what Fran was saying about man and zone real quick first, and this is piggybacking on something that Sheal and Sean Side were talking about earlier this week on their show. Jalen Hertz is 22nd in the league against zone in EPA per dropback. He's third against man. And a big part of that is because he's throwing the ball to AJ Brown against man coverage.

Now, in the NFL, I mean, just for context, over 70% of dropbacks are against zone coverage. So being good against zone is it matters more than being. being good against man. AJ Brown's numbers just quickly, very similarly. 4.3 yards per route run, number one in the NFL against man. He's still 11th in yards per out run against zone. It's 2.5. It drops down, but his target rate drops from 38.4%, which is fourth,

all the way down to 22.8%, which is 33rd. Yep. Yeah, no, and that makes sense. And I'm assuming, I'm guessing Devante Smith's is somewhat the other way. Actually, about the same, maybe? No, Devante Smith is about the same target rate as, AJ Brown in zone as well. It's just that he's...

Right, but he's just much lower in man. Yes, got it. Right, that makes sense. So in terms of the non-targets, almost 25% of Jalen Hertz's dropbacks this year have resulted in a non-target. So a non-target means a sack, a throwaway, or a scramble. Now, that's the highest rate in the NFL,

and it's also the highest of Jalen's career. Jalen Daniels is the only quarterback kind of near him that among the playoff quarterbacks. When you look at year-to-year in Jalen's career, number has been pretty much exactly at 20% the other three years. And this year it's up to over 24. So there is a difference between the past three years and this year. And then when you break it down by zone and man to Fran's point earlier about the throwaways and sacks against zone coverage, 26% of his dropbacks against zone have been non-targets that leads the league by a lot,

including over Jan Daniels. Against man, it's down to around 20%, which is still above league average, but it's at sixth. And by the way, league average, it's 50% for both. So it's not like across the league quarterbacks result in non-targets more against zone than man.

It's not the case. In fact, it's a little bit lower against him than against man, league-wide. And so Jalen, specifically, whether it's Jalen or whether it's the, and I was going to ask you this,

Fran, how much of it is the scheme, the offensive scheme, and how much of it is Jalen? That's the big question. Leading to all of these non-targets, because from an offensive coordinator perspective, you would think that a non-target is, I mean, obviously it could be a productive scramble,

but a non-target is not the way you designed the play. Yeah, and honestly, that's been one of the big questions we've been asking for the last couple of years, right? In terms of the, are the inconsistencies the product of the system or are the inconsistencies of product of the quarterback? And I would say that at this point, we can say, I think with confidence, that's a little bit of both, right? I think that there are times where the system doesn't have the answers

for the quarterback, and there are times where the answer is there, and the quarterback doesn't take advantage. of it. And so in this game, again, it's going to come down to the one game sample of which one is able to overtake the other, which one is able to come through better for the Eagles. And just eyeballing that chart, I mean, like the scrambles are, you take the scrambles. That's part of what makes Jalen Hertz. And his scrambles have been productive. He's been a very good scramble this year. Right. So, so even if you take that out and he looked like just eyeballing it, you know, the third or fourth most scrambles on those, those dropbacks, the throwaways he looked like first or

he looked like second to Russell Wilson, which, those are you would probably think a byproduct of the conversation early in the season of two many turnovers to some degree and then the sacks he's also towards the top and that is a problem that that jillen hurts has had for a while and also scrambles i mean conventional wisdom is that you scramble more against man because everyone's got their back to the quarterback 10% of his zone dropbacks result in scrambles only 6% against man so it's not just a matter of like okay i'm going to scramble now because it's the thing to do i think a lot of his scrambles against zone are he doesn't have like sacks that he escaped because he didn't throw it you know what I mean and it's

he knows it's man he knows where he's going with the ball if it's man exactly right but that's what I'm saying like it's not yeah exactly I can tell you um you know the Eagles have these these daily full team meeting something they haven't had in the past and something Lane Johnson was was was was telling me is that Nick at every one of these is like bringing up turnover differential turnover differential so to your point yeah I think Jalen especially you know the big adjustment obviously during the buy was running the ball more, but I think with Hertz in particular, it was the coaching staff,

emphasizing to him, look at what happens when you don't turn the ball over. So I think he would much rather take a sack than put a ball up there. So in this game where the Packers defense, what makes them good statistically, is their ability to turn teams over? You know, just the difference in, you know,

their EPA and their DVA versus the success rate, you know, 17th in success rate. That's the right way for Gillen Hurts to play. in this game is to be a little bit skittish. Skittish, I don't know if skittish is the word I would use as the way I would want him to play, but I think that conservative, I think is a good way to look at it. That said, I mean, look, I do think that regardless, they're going to want the run game to be a big, that probably goes into the nature of it.

We'll get to the run game in a little bit, but that is where if that is, if that's the way that he's going to play, if they're going to come out and he's going to be a little bit more conservative, I do wonder if that's when they try and blitz them and heat them up a little bit to almost like have him second guess that. You know, because again, when they throw typically when they do blitz, it is man to man.

There are times where they will blitz and especially if it's with Cooper, because Cooper is so explosive and he gets there so fast that you might have some kind of fire zone blitz where you've got guys dropping into the past lane and Jayland's just going to have to be cognizant of where those

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Yeah, okay. A hat trick. One, Ian Book is back, presumably on the practice squad. Yes, I mean, Zach told me when they waved Ian Book that that was good news for Jaylon Hurts. Jailen Hurts. So does this mean this is bad news for Jalen Hurts? No, not at all. Practice squad, as we've, as we've outlined, it's a different situation.

He's not joining 53. The Eagles have never, the Eagles have never not gone to the Super Bowl, and Ian Book is on some part of the roster. So, yeah, he was on the 53, two years ago. The second piece of news is that they've painted the end zones since yesterday. Nice looking midnight green. Okay. And then the third is that Jalen Hertz is on the field again.

So in that order. Is he practicing or is he's just there? It looks like he's frozen solid after the end up. He's practicing. He's wearing sleeves today. He is. So he made the statement yesterday. Wow.

He, you know, got his point across. Yeah, proved how hard he was. Yeah. And now he's, he's wearing sleeves. He's also, I don't know which Jordan's those are, maybe the threes, but he's got some nice kicks on. Is he stretching? He is stretching, yes.

People were able to get closed photos of him stretching. That's very exciting. All right. I want to get to the trench battle here first, but circling back on the passing game. I mean, I know that this is a ridiculous question to ask, but is there anyone else besides A.J. Brown and Devante Smith, who could be a. value in the passing game this week. Goddard.

Yeah. Goddard should be. I think that when you look at the way that this team has given up some explosives, look, some of their guys in the outside have lost one-on-one. I think when you look at Carrington Valentine, who's the other starter, number 24, he, the way I kind of describe it, he's like Rizul Douglas, all right? So he's big, he's long, really good ball skills. He'll climb and finish for interceptions.

Does not run all that well. So you can attack him. Kishon Nixon, he's really, really competitive, but he's on the shorter end. And so, like, A.J. Brown against Kishon Nixon, I don't think that they would feel comfortable with Nixon playing against AJ one-on-one consistently the way that they did Jaiyr Alexander back in week one when they shadowed Jaiyr Alexander against A.J. Brown, essentially. That said, I think when you look at the middle of the field, you look at those safeties, you look at Bullard, you look at Williams, they're both on the shorter side.

If you can get, if they're defending the middle of the field, Dallas got it down the seam is a nice option there. Now, both linebackers, again, both, if you anticipate both being healthy, Quay Walker has missed the last couple of games. So if you look at Quay Walker, really long, really athletic, he can match up physically with Dallas Goddard. And then Edron Cooper is smaller, but he's so explosive and he's been really productive on the ball. And so I do think when you when you look at both those linebackers healthy, probably want to stay away from the middle with those guys, but if you can catch them in one of these invert coverages where the safeties are playing in the middle of the field, I think that's an area where Goddard could have success. You were curious about the

linebackers because these two guys haven't played together yet, right? Yeah, that's, in terms of the linebackers, the two guys that Fran is anticipating will start, are Quay Walker and Cooper. They've played only 144 snaps together this season as the two linebackers on the field. It goes up a little bit when you go to the ones where there are three on the field, but, you know, by comparison, Nikobie Dean and Zach Bonn have played like a thousand snaps together, you know, like so and they have it the last time they played a full game together was back in week 11 so two months ago against chicago is the last time and then walker got injured in seattle week 15 and hasn't played at all since yeah basically cooper got hurt in camp and so he was injured coming into the season macduffy was the starter next to quay walker uh they did everything they could to get mcduffi out of the lineup uh so then they get cooper in so then it was uh so cooper and walker were playing cooper got hurt again so that he was out for a little bit eric wilson came in the former eagle uh He was the, I can't believe that. Unbelievable.

He's like such a big player for them. And it's his second time coming up in like two weeks. Yeah, the reception against the chief. So when you look at, so it was Walker and Wilson for a while, then Cooper came back. But then as Dana has mentioned, that's when Walker got hurt. And so I will say like Green Bay fans are very excited to have both these guys healthy because both of them have had really good moments this year. And there are a big reason why this defense has had success.

And you mentioned the linebackers not playing with each other. You mentioned, is there anyone in this passing game other than Smith or Brown getting targets? We've only seen Goddard, Smith, and Brown on the field together three times this season. The Green Bay game being one of them, of course. Yeah. I mean, in terms of that game, Goddard had a 21-yarder on a mesh concept. It was an obvious pre-snap man read by Jalen where he checked to mesh at the line, which we've seen a bunch of times this season.

AJ Brown was the one running the interference, and it was Bullard who was covering Goddard on the play. Bullard in the role of a safety in that. But as we as we know from all these years of Dallas Goddard, there are some staple RPO's that they run with him, those curl flats and those slides. The crash concept with him and AJ Brown is something the Eagles have done over and over and over again these last three years, where AJ Brown runs a short inbreaker from the outside.

Dallas Goddard runs the corner from the inside. That's something that they've done much less in the games with Goddard not playing. And that's a, that concept is good against cover two. If it's a, if you know it's going to be covered two before the snap and it's not like a disguised version like that is a good cover two beater because that corner route should be going into the turkey hole into that space between the corner and the safety along the sideline.

Kurt Warner had a video where he was just like very annoyed that the Eagles ran that all the time because he was like, this is a man beater why they run it against him all the time. And he thought it was interesting that they run it. They run it so much. Do you have DeNez any faith that like the structure of the passing game alone in this game is going to. going to sort of break tendency and not be quite as predictable as it has been for most of the year.

I'm really glad you asked you asked Gellon Moore on Tuesday about the low rate of under center play action this year. And that's just one example. And he said, good question, which I agree. Good question. It was your question. And he usually says good question and he doesn't have an answer. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah.

Every week, he said every week is going to be focused on tying things together, run game and past game, we'll see where it takes us this week. In terms of under center play action alone, they hadn't run it in a month. There were zero snaps of under center play action in weeks 15, 16, and 17. That's starting with the Pittsburgh game, which was like the return of the past game. They didn't have any in that game. They have 34 such plays all year, which ranks 30th in the league. And this is something that Kellan Moore used to, it was up in the hundreds every year when he was at Dallas.

in terms of breaking tendency I think Nick Siriani has this message to the team this year this week and all the players seem to be echoing it in the locker room that you don't get to 14 wins and then suddenly say okay it's the playoffs now we're going to do this I feel like it's not just the players

I would be shocked if suddenly it's like okay we're going to do a bunch of things more than more than like one token play yeah maybe they'll have a they'll have like a new concept out of empty this week that they run like six times or something but uh yeah we can get into that actually think that would be a good tool for them

in this game would be uh the use of empty well um going through some of just some of their numbers uh they they were pretty poor against empty success rate was the 30th in the league defense you said you were going to spend your evening watching all there it didn't take me long because it was only 80 81 snaps of empty um you know so i got through it in a little bit but uh one of the things that look they they play they play man-to-man coverage like about 11 12 percent clip uh against empty so uh which that matches with all the other downs as well. So this is a team, again, they don't want to play man. So you're not going to force them to play man.

It's not like, oh, they're going to go empty and then they're going to run mesh. But what you do is you can spread them out. They're going to play cover two or they're going to play cover three out of this. Unless they're going to blitz and they will show blitz. But if that's the case, like now they've become predictable, you can run these route concepts to get the ball out of Jalen's hand fast. It was a couple weeks ago. That Pittsburgh game, they used empty a handful of times in the first half that allowed

Jalen to get the ball out quickly. and get it out clean. I feel like that would be a nice tool. Because that's the thing, guys. Like there was all that. There was the AJ Brown, like that what's wrong with the offense, the past game.

That feels like a while ago now. Yeah. But in terms of like, the last full game they played together. That's the last full game. And it was the first half when it was like really, really good at the past game.

And then we talked about it afterwards. All the second half, like it kind of leveled off a little bit. It was more of the same things that we've seen in the past. And then Jalen got hurt on the second drive the next game. We're not that far removed from it

from an Eagles timeline standpoint. To me like going, getting into empty, and especially out of 12 personnel, because the Packers, they match up to 12 personnel with base defense 90% of the time. So if the Eagles go out. Most in the league. Yeah. So if they go out with Dallas Scottert and Grand Cautil,

with AJ and Devante and Saquant, and they're going to play base defense with Eric Wilson on the field, even if they're playing zone, spread them out and take advantage of a matchup. That might be Devante Smith working against Eric Wilson with eight yards of space and a two-way go. take advantage, nice, easy completion, and continue to move the football. Fran, if you thought those 81 snaps

were quick to look at, that Green Bay faced an empty, let me tell you how many times the Eagles ran empty out of 12 personnel this year. Seven times all year, twice against Tampa, twice against Jacksonville, and three times against Pittsburgh.

Okay, three times against Pittsburgh, last full of game together. That's something. Yeah, three times against Pittsburgh. That was the big empty game, remember. And that didn't even have got her. Two of those were against base. One was against Big Nickel.

it's true that there was no goddard is that without Goddard for eight games nine games that'll affect that might be that might be part of it though they ran more 12 personnel than almost everyone in the league like during the time the Goddard was out you're not going to put CJUZO but it's not going to have right right

CJ Usum or EJJJJ yeah exactly that's true okay you know what let's take our last break because we have not even gotten to what figures to be the most important part or at least the most high volume part of this side of the matchup,

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We've got some news. Yes. That could potentially change the scope of this matchup significantly. We'll see. AJ Brown is not on the practice field right now. He is dealing with a knee injury. Now,

Jeff McLean from the Inquirer says that the expectation is that Brown will play on Sunday from what I understand, but he's obviously dealing with a knee injury and will receive maintenance. This has been lingering for Brown. Brown was on the practice field to start yesterday

and left early. He was officially limited in practice. This is the third time this season, I believe, that something has happened during practice with AJ. Yes. But then this knee has been going on for about four weeks now.

And I can tell you, AJ was, particularly interested in the by in the off week in resting last week he has made repeated comments when asked about

like you know player injuries he's like everyone's got something right now you know in reference to him dealing with something too so this is not something to be ignored now perhaps he you know

this is this is maintenance he'll go out there through this but I will say last year going into the playoff game, it really didn't come up until the Saturday that he wasn't going to play. It was like they were hoping up, you know, if, and they had a Monday game. So Saturday would be a Friday last for the game last year. But I remember being at that Saturday practice when it was determined that AJ wouldn't play. He got hurt the week before during the game, but it wasn't like

obviously going to rule him out. By the way, like that's what, that was one of the things. I wouldn't say that's the reason why they traded him. But he was dealing, he dealt with like chronic knee stuff in and he's been healthy here in Philly. But that was the issue with him in the Titans. Sock, would you say that's also why he didn't speak yesterday? He often speaks Wednesday. No, he usually speaks Thursday.

Oh, does he? Okay, okay. So my guess this is not going to speak now. Devante usually speaks Fridays. Devante said yesterday, let's just get this over with. There's some people crowding around. This is his locker. AJ, I'll be in the locker room tomorrow.

He said, he said yesterday. I'll get you tomorrow. AJ said I'll get you tomorrow? That's what he said yesterday. Okay. Yeah, my guess is he doesn't get them today. No, I don't think so. Friday's going to be interesting.

I'm sure Nick's going to love those questions. One take away I saw from Devante was they asked him if the Green Bay secondary is different with Jire Alexander out, and he said, yeah. And then he said, and then when he was asked like, how he was like, I'll just leave it at that. So he didn't want to say like Carrington Valentine's garbage or whatever. Yeah. I mean, that would be funny if he did. That would be, yeah. By the way,

this AJ thing, like, would completely change the game. Yes, obviously. Yeah, no question. Yeah, that's, Okay, well, with that in mind, if he did miss this game, the Eagles would lean even more into the running game. This is the team with the highest percentage of design runs in the league. This Packers run defense, pretty good by the numbers.

We haven't really talked about the personnel of the Packers up front. Yep. But what makes them good against the run? The really stout up front, I think when you look at this defensive line as a whole, they have underperformed from production standpoint. A lot of former first round picks up front. I think they were expecting a lot more production from this group. Gary Roshan, Clark Kenny.

Yep. Wyatt. Van Ness Lucas. Wyatt DeVante is another good one. Yeah, Van Ness, by the way, got shredded in your notes. Van Ness isn't good. Yeah.

He's not a good player. Yeah. He's not a good player. But I think when you look at that group, they were expecting more, especially with the change in defense. They were expected because they went from Joe Barry to Jeff Halfley.

And the thought was, oh, it's going to be more one gap, like get up field, they're going to cut this group loose. And they just didn't get that pass rush production. Kenny Clark is usually a really good player. He had a down year this year. So I think when you look at this overall, they're stronger against the run. So I would say they're really stout up front. The linebackers are so fast closing downhill.

It's a really fast group. And they've been a really good tackling back seven. I think they're like fifth or sixth in terms of tackle rate coming into this game. So I think when you look at those three things, I would say that's why they've been so good against the run. But I would say the big things, T.J. Slayton is the nose tackle really stout inside. If you look at like their numbers inside runs over the last, you know, six, seven weeks, the yards before contact. It's very, very minimal. So they basically, they're not giving up any kind of ground inside. And Slayton's usage seems very similar to Jordan Davis, right? He'll make like a play on first down and then he'll come running off the field.

it comes out. Wyatt comes in. Very excitedly running off. So, yeah, Slaten is the Jordan Davis in this scenario. And then, again, those linebackers, they come downhill with a fury. They are third in the league in yards before contact allowed per rush. Eagles are second in the league in yards before contact per rush. So that like that little just collision at the line of scrimmage is going to be interesting.

immovable object versus unstoppable force. It's also the one thing that they're consistently good at, like success rate-wise. They're seventh in stopping their own success rate. They're only 20th in success rate against the past. The reason that their past numbers are good is because of all the interceptions. But against the run, they've just been consistently good. Exactly. An interesting nugget from Lane Johnson yesterday that may or may not be true.

Sure, yeah. But just real quick, on the linebackers, Edgern Cooper was named NFC defensive player of the month today. Wow. Had a real strong close to the season, missed time going into December and has been scorching ever since then. That's why he earned that honor. Real quick, the next gen numbers from Cooper, just on that point. In the last four games, over the last month, six pressures allowed. The fewest receptions over expectation, that's that next gen stat, among linebackers in that span.

The highest run stuff rate amongst qualifying linebackers in that stretch as well. So this is a guy that matches up in coverage against running backs. He's a really good blitzer, plays against the run. I mean, he's been all over the field for that team. So that's a good note. Yeah, so Lane Johnson, when he was talking about the past, Packers' defense and kind of some of the changes over the course of the season. He said, quote, I think their approach might be different with Sala being there.

Sala being Robert Sala, the former Jets coach. He said more of a penetrating defense than a two gap. Now, the published reports have suggested Robert Sala had been working, giving the Packers offense defensive perspective, similar to Vangio going into the Super Bowl for the Eagles. Of course, it also came out this week that Luke Getsy, their former offensive coordinator has been helping. So maybe...

All hands on deck. Yeah. You know, the Fleur is bringing all the boys back. But that was an interesting note regarding Sala, especially because it conflicts with maybe what you see on film. It was going to ask Fran. I mean, I didn't see a whole lot of... Like, I mean, I think Lane was saying that there was more two gaping earlier in the season.

A, like, it wasn't Halfleys past, like strictly one gaping. I think that's, and B, just looking at the, I just looked very quickly at every single front they played in week one. And once in a while, they'd have like,

Wyatt over the, right over the guard as a two tech or something, but they still have that. So I didn't see any difference. Yeah, I don't think it's a huge change from week one to now

from that standpoint. He might, and look, he might be thinking about it as, because, you know, Lane has faced Green Bay a number of times his career

and say like it's less, it's less too gaping than what I think of with the Green Bay, even. So he may have been thinking of a big picture as well. I also think this is something

Stout must have brought up in a meeting or something because Cam Juergens also referred to how they have different coaches in there. So it looks a little different. You didn't name a name. Yeah. But he said they have different coaches. And so there's a. Yeah.

I couldn't see Stout bring that. Yeah. Interesting. Now, one thing that the Eagles have in their advantage in the running game that they haven't had for most of the season, Danes is you boy. Dallas Goddard. Yeah. Yeah.

Dallas got her. The biggest reason why the rug game has been so successful this year. Yeah. Dallas Goddard's impact on the run game has been huge on all Eagles running back rushes this year. So I'm taking out the quarterback runs with Goddard on the field rather than off. The Eagles go from 25th in success rate to third. So if you just take the runs where he's not on the field, they would be 25th. With him, they're third.

In EPA per rush, they go from 9th to 1st. Now you say, okay, well, what about Seguan? Just Seekwon rushes. Sequin rushes without Dallas Goddard, Sequin would be the 15th most successful in the league with Dallas Goddard. He goes to first. EPA per rush goes from sixth to first

when Dallas Goddard is off versus on. And then some people pointed out on Twitter that, well, Jalen Hertz didn't play in some of the games that Dallas Goddard missed, so was that the reason? So I filtered for with Jalen Hertz on the field. Just looking at Seekwan rushes with Jalen Hertz on the field. Dallas Scottert off versus on Sequin with Chalin goes from 10th to first in success rate

second to first in EPA per rush But the EPA per rush like actual number jumps up a lot It goes from 0.06 to 0.20 and then if you just want to look at old school yards per carry 5.4 jumps up to 6.6 and on the film when you see CJ Usoma Just not blocking the guy right in front of him and Grant Galcatara getting beat on a backside block and things like that it matches the eye test I mean I'll let you know Fran agree or disagree with that

I mean I've been saying for a while since Goddard went on IR like that they that's where they miss him the most and so the the fact that that backs up the eye test was I was good to say the only thing that I had prepared here because you were going to bring this up last week and I had to go dig in find this old notebook

how many of those do you have though think about I think this is number five okay I knew you're going to use this as a way to bury Seekwon and say that like this is a guy He's a product of this. He's the most productive running back in the league. Yeah, like, you know, Goddard's really the one who's responsible for his success.

I just wanted to also do the same exercise for Seqwan, no Seiquo. And what difference? Sequin, no Sequan, no Sequan. No one is arguing that Sequan is not better than Kennegan well. Sequin makes a bigger difference than Dallas Goddard does. Well, first of all, did you filter for backup offensive line in the game? And did you filter for Goddard on? The success rate difference is 51%.

36%. I'm prepared for this. In the running game, it's 52% to 36%. How many? How many per run is point one for? Bo to negative. Point one two. Here's the problem with this.

This is where he jumped out. Kenny Gainwell has 14 rushes this season with Dallas got it on the field. 14. So the point is that he's getting a lot of those rushes late in the game where they're resting Dallas and that kind of thing. And so it's hard to do that comparison. Also, no one is saying that Sakelwan isn't better than Kenny Gainwell. Well, no, no one.

when saying that Dallas Goddard isn't better than Grand Calcuttaire. Yeah, but this much better? 25th to third or whatever? I'm just saying clearly one of them is a little bit more important. Comparisons to Thief of Joy. Dallas and. Dallas

Goddard was the tight end on the team that was first in EPA per rush in 2022. Where was Seguan that year? I'm just saying, man. The running game is a team thing. I do want to ask you guys, when we're talking about the Giants real quick.

Do you think when they watch this game this weekend, are they feeling the pain of Sequin not being there more or Xavier McKinney not being there more? I think it was dumber for them to let Xavier McKinney. Yeah, I agree. He's legitimately

good. Like I can see why he was the player. We were talking about that the Eagles should go after the most in free agency this past year. He is a difference making safety. This might be a good segue to ask the question. If you guys could make a starting 11. offense and defense from players in this game

what Packers would be on your part of your 22. It's like year one at PHLY Sports. So without doing it as a draft, just 11 personnel on offense. Okay. And nickel on defense. Who's the quarterback? Yeah, I'm just going to say, we're opening up a can of work. Yeah. I know who I know who friend. I think it's Xavier McKinney. I think it's Xavier McKinney. Uh, yeah, start fair. It's probably safety. Probably CJ Sean Gary.

Oh, we're talking to. which Packers would make it. Right. Which Packers would make it? Yeah, I would say, Rishon Gary, okay, Xavier McKinney, um, and Jordan Love, and that's about it? A third wide receiver would have to come from the Packers. The third wide receiver would not be done.

Jaden Reed, would absolutely be. Yeah. Yeah. Would Walker make it over Dean? I think either of them. Yeah, I would say Walker or Cooper over Dean. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're playing three linebackers. Both of, yeah, both of those guys would. And Kenny Clark would make it over Milton? Uh, not this year. I think I was like, I think Milton right now over Kenny Clark. Okay. You can weigh in if you go over to all-pHly.com.

If you happen to be watching this episode on Fast on your television, we got a lot more to come. So go check it out on all-P-Hly.com. Danis, why would you take Josh Jacobs over Saquan Barkley? Good question. So my, well, off the record before week one, I asked Fran if you would rather have Jalen Hertz or Jordan Love.

And then I regret it, because we did a show together before that game. I regretted not asking you on the show. Why would you take, I would not take Josh Jacobs over Sycambe one birthday. Why would you, why do you take Jordan Love over Julian Hertz? I think when you look at the overall skill set

for Jordan Love and what he does, look, that system, as I led the show off on Tuesday or led the discussion off on Tuesday, that scheme, that system is one of the best in football. But Jordan Love, I think from a physical skill set in terms of how he navigates the pocket we've you talk about the arm talent and all that but i think in terms of how he operates the position uh i just i think he does it at a higher rate i don't think he does it does it if i can just interject real quick i mean you had the big you'd rather be good

against zone than man one guy's better against zone i think one guy's offensive coordinator and and and and play caller is much better against zone than man that's what i've been on kellen more fraud watch the whole season and i can't it's so weird for you to put it all and kill more i'm not putting at all on him. But this offense somebody did it at week 18. This offense was 13th by DVOA. If I had told you that before the season started

with this roster, that there would not be a major injury to anybody. And this is incredibly disappointing. This team would be 13th in DVOA. Would you think that Tellin Moore would be a hot head coaching candidate? Not that he necessarily is, but that he's getting these interviews. I find it similar to how Gannon was getting interviews after 21

when the defense was talking about the attractiveness of a guy that we actually cover. Um, what? He's saying is Kelly Moore a hot head coaching candidate? Oh, that went over my head. Yeah. Uh, I just want to give a quick update here. Um, and then you can get back to talking about Kellan Moore's candidacy for head coaching jobs.

Uh, because we are not on the practice field. We're obviously in, in, in studio right now. It seems. I just that way. Yeah, it seems that beat writers that are on, that are on site are consistently putting out this, this message. Um, I'm reading E.J. Smith, Dave Z and Garry. is that AJ is that my understanding is Brown will be a DNP today with a knee rest designation that he's expected to play Sunday. Dave Zengaro said the Eagles expect him to play on Sunday.

They are managing him to get as healthy as they can for the Packers game. I mean, I don't want to go into all that what happens. AJ Brown is going to play on Sunday T-shirt is. Yeah. So I think this is I would imagine behind the scenes the Eagles are trying to make it clear that look, don't be alarmed. they're managing AJ Brian Westbrook didn't practice during the week and so my guess

is that there would be more ambiguity coming from the reporters at Novacare right now if AJ wasn't playing. And Zach's pretending you didn't get a text but when every single beat reporter tweets exactly the same news of the exact minute you know that that news is coming directly from there in person. Yeah, they're all there in person.

I'd love to if I got a text. No, I got you got you. Zach, you know, Zach, you were talking about off air that, like, Jalen, the way that he's wired, he might not love the idea that, like, the team was doing well without him necessarily. Not that he was against him in any way, but like he likes to be the guy coming back. But I think that there's a twist to it now where it's like he has a chance, you know, this concussion thing has lingered on. He has a chance to come back and there are plenty of doubters.

Yeah. And Jalen loves that. Like you know, Janwin was was ready after that game against Pittsburgh. Yeah. Is that what you all wanted to see? And through the years, he has, he's enjoyed, this is me speaking here,

the myth-making component of it, right? And to his credit, he's often come through in these situations. But he has, yeah, I think that you're going to see Janel, you're going to see a jail and her who who wants it to be like you know i'm back all right i i i think there's there's going to be like that michael jordan component to him how is this defense the packers defense um how are they prepared for the quarterback run game they've been very good against scrambles

uh their success rate against the quarterback scrambles i believe fifth in football um what i was to ask Zach was along those lines, how conservative or aggressive do you think they will be with the game plan in terms of design QB runs with Jalen in this game? Well, that's a good question because, look, I mean, you never want to suffer another concussion, right? Or like any concussions bad. But there is data that suggests like the incidence of two concussions within a period of time and how that can affect you. So yeah, I think that they're, you never want to get a concussion,

but you especially don't want to get a concussion when he had one three weeks ago. So I think that there will be an emphasis, over emphasis on not taking any hits to the head. And I also think internally, they don't think that the hit that got him to get the concussion was getting hit within the helmet. it was getting hit on the is his head on the turf and so that can often come when when when you're

close to contact yeah or getting sack things like that so i i think there's going to be um i think he's going to be especially mindful of of not taking hits so i went through and you know obviously we talked about the run game numbers uh for the packers defense since week 10 now i didn't go and watch every single run against them since week 10 but what i did do was that right what because they played against like Miami, which is one of the worst run teams in football. They had a couple of another team or two on there that was one of the worst run teams in football as well. So I went and I watched, okay, what did Kyle Shanahan want to do against them? What did Detroit? What did Ben Johnson want to do against them structurally from a run game

standpoint? And it felt like those teams wanted to take the approach of we don't want to run straight downhill into the teeth of this defense. We want to run to the outside. I'll be very interested to see what the Eagles plan of attack is here in this game. We've seen them in recent weeks with Sequin do a lot of the perimeter type runs, a lot of the pin- pool sweeps, a lot of the outside zones, a lot of the, just though those stretch tosses. I do think that that's something that they will probably try and lean on in this game. One thing that, you know, Dan, Dan is, I know you and I have bemoaned this when they've done this, especially early on in the season, where they come out in 11 personnel, three receivers on the

field, but everybody's tight and condensed. I think that plays into Green Bay's hands, just because, number one, I talked about how good they are inside, but then also, if everybody's tight, it is, you're inviting defenders. Yeah, you're inviting defenders, and because Quay Walker, Edron Cooper, those guys are so explosive, you're not giving them a lot of ground that they have to make up so they can get there so fast. And the Eagles receivers are not like the Rams receivers

where they're willing or good block. Yeah, Cooper Cup is walking through the door to block those guys. So I think when you look at this game, I think that it's more perimeter run base. I think that it's more spread you out and that goes into the empty aspect of a two. When I think about empty, that's why I ask about the QB run game.

And I wonder if that's something where we see those QB draws, those QB traps, getting Jalen downhill in this game. So that's something that I'm certainly going to have my eye on. To relate this to week one, the Eagles had one of their worst games of the year running the ball by EPA per rush and by success rate. Sequin did end up with over 100 yards,

but if you take out his 34-yarder, he averaged a little over three yards per carry. The Packers were especially contained the QB run games. You're talking about QB run game. On inside zone, Reed Keepers, Jalen had zero yards on four carries. I remember this early season. So it was like 2, 1, 0, and minus 3.

He ran into a blitzing nickel on one of them. Quay Walker and Javon Bullard were both scraping around the Reed man on one, and Jalen kind of just ran right into them. He just flat out made the wrong read on one. And then Devante Wyatt beat Landon Dickerson on the backside of one. So it's different reasons that it didn't work, but they completely contained that. And then they ran two QB draws that went for a total of nine yards. Neither one went for a first down.

And that was it in terms of Jalen keeping the ball undesigned runs. And then one thing we've seen throughout the year from the Eagles, more and more as the years going on is those counter runs, the gap scheme runs. It was a very heavy zone in that game. They only ran two gap scheme runs the whole game. They ran tackle power once with Lane Johnson pulling and blocking Quay Walker.

That went for five yards. They only ran counter one time. And this was actually something I was going to ask you about, Fran. It went for two yards because Landon got confused and blocked the same guy that Lane was already blocking. Landon was a puller on the play. And I think he got confused because they were running a T. And I know that Green Bay runs stunts at a pretty,

high rate. Very high fifth in league. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that's the stunts are something in general, not just for this game, but in general like football knowledge wise, something that affects the run game more than maybe people think. Like I know people think of it as a pass rush. Yeah. No, but I mean the slanting, that's been some of that's one of the things that has hurt this Eagles defense or this Eagles offensive line over the last several weeks. You know, we've talked about some of the issues they had against Washington running the football. Some of the issues they had the following against Dallas running the football where it's like, oh, you would expect that they should, they should chew up this game of this team on the ground.

And it wasn't until late in the game where you saw Sequin start to bust some of those loose. A lot of the stunting and the twisting, it can mess with blocking assignments and you think you're passing a guy off. And that's whether that's zone blocking or man block or a gap scheme blocking, that can certainly mess with those assignments. I do think that this is probably, I think counter will be a game. They'll run it more than once in this game, would be my guess. I also think from a play calling perspective, I know as that game progressed in week one, they were especially cognizant of the turf and different movements.

So like anecdotally, I think the reason why the quarterback sneak didn't work by the goal line there was because of the turf. So they don't even talk about the sneaks. The sneaks were a disaster like that. Yeah. So if you want to know how this game is going to be different, one thing will be the turf. Couple super chats to get to. DJ, aka Mr. Mr. Sandman says this referee team calls roughing the passer at a high percentage.

They also don't call offensive holding often. The quarterback should be safe. Good insight. Great insight. This is a Brad Allen. It's a Brad Allen. Brad Allen, who I think if you don't know,

you'll recognize him. He's the one who looks like a toddler became an adult. I mean, all of us are toddlers that became adults. No, but like he looks like it happened just at the snap. Some more than others. I'm looking at it.

I don't really say it. It looks like a toddler face. Okay. Don't you think? Yeah. Come on. You look more like Arthur Smith than Brad Allen looks like a toddler. We've also got from, I can't tell who this is from, just super chat.

The sign signing, the Lewis Seen signing, the Seen signing, has my antenna up regarding the Nicobi Dean nebulous abdominal injury. Any sense of Nicoby Dean status act? Yeah, I don't think these two things are related. First off, Seen plays safety and Dean plays linebacker. So I would think that if they were worried about Dean, you would see maybe a Dallas Gant activation, you know, signed to the 53 or something like that. But no, Dean was a full participant in practice yesterday,

spoke after practice. I'm expecting Dean to be on the field playing on Sunday. We also got a question here from Ben, who wants to know if Zach is doing any book signings coming up. I appreciate the question, Ben. I mostly have kept, I don't want to say turn down. I've politely passed up on for you.

New Year, New Year, New Year. A most request for January because of the playoffs, because I haven't known if they were going to have Saturday or Sunday games. I really don't like when I commit to something and then have to adjust thereafter. It gives me a lot of anxiety when I can't be in two places at once. So, yeah, no, I have a private signing coming up next week. Wow.

Wow. None of us got the invite to the private signing? Yeah, private. No, no, no. No, it's, it's, Fred, do you even have your book yet? No, I don't have a book. No, it's not, I'll give you a book. It's not for a public place.

It's like a private place. You understand what the word private means. Yeah, so that's not open. It's not open to the public. And that's like a dinner event where I'm speaking. Wow. Okay. I've done a few of these.

Stonecutters. No, I've done a few of these. Um, yeah. Union League. The freemans. The freemasons. I did one at the Union League earlier this year. But not for Union League.

It was a business group that had an event at the Union League that I spoke at. Yeah, I love to. What's the dress code on that? I wore, I did not wear a tie. I wore jacket and shirts. No tie. Yeah, I was going to wear a tie. Actually, I got overruled.

Just a tie. Oh, no. to answer your question, I have some coming up after. Moose says a private signing. I have some coming up after the season. And who knows, depending on the success of the Eagle season, I might need to take like 12 weeks not to do signings and do some other work.

What is this book? What's the book I'm signing? Yes. Oh, the franchise, Feldorf Eagles, a curated history of the birds. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Anything else that you guys want to squeeze out of the lemons of this matchup? One thing we talked a little bit about the pressures. Dana has mentioned that they do it the same way that the Eagles do. It's a lot of exchange pressures, linebackers coming from depth inside with defensive ends or defensive tackles dropping out. So it's still a four-man rush. One thing they love to do with this, and this goes hand-in-hand-hand with the stunt conversation,

they often, if they're blitzing Quay Walker, if they're blitzing Edron Cooper, they will use it as part of a twist with a defensive tackle inside. So it's Quay Walker pinning the, putting the guard and then the defensive tackle looping around it. That's added stress for the not just the offensive line, but for the running back to be involved with it. Was it the Tanner? Was it the Kenny Pickett touchdown to Devante?

I think it was in the Dallas game. Where Gainwell comes up. Where Gainwell, we step up and block both. And I would say, you're going to need to do lots of that in this game. It was that one. Yeah, the linebackers are very involved in the pressure scheme. They're both very good blitzers. but they do the twists off of it

that just it's another added layer of complexity and a lot of pirate stunts as well where the guys like or what Greg O'Sull calls a long stunt the long stunt but here's the thing with the long stunts too and this again goes back to Jalen Hertz and the poise in the pocket if Jalen starts to

drift one way or think he's going to a lot of teams will if they are big stunting teams they're strategic with how they call their stunts where hey you know what the quarterback likes to roll right if he's pressured from his left or you know if he's got pressure coming from this way he likes to escape that way they will run a stunt especially with these linebackers where all right we're going to force him out and we're going to have

somebody there waiting for him that would be something to watch here in this game they've been very good at that in recent that's one of the reasons why i think they are very good against the scramble is that they are very selective with how they use those stunts and this is somewhat related to this jordan my lot was on wip earlier this week and he talked about how another thing they like to do a lot is to stem the front late. He said they shift from like an over front to an underfront at the last second. And that that's caused false starts and it causes

confusion in the running game. So that's probably something you've noticed on the film as well. Yep. That's a good point. Anything else from you, Jane, is that you want to, you want to, we've got you tomorrow. So we've got some of stuff, but is there anything else you want to pick Fran's brain on before we move on? No, I think, I think

I think we've hit everything, yeah. You generally feel good about this matchup? Yeah, so here's it. You asked me the other day. All right, do you feel better or worse about it? I would say this side of the matchup gives me more angst than the other side. I think the other side, I think you feel really good. This is the one where I'm like, even though that's more about the Eagles, if you were to, yeah, because if you were to stack up the four units and power rank them, I would say that the Packers defense is the weakest of the four from my talent standpoint. And I think the numbers kind of bear that out.

But I think that that this is a styles make fights kind of matchup where the things that Green Bay does, I think could give Jalen Hertz in this passing game some trouble. To tie the bow on the other side of the ball, the things that the Packers' offense does, the Eagles defense handles. Yeah, it's why, like, missing Christian Watson's not huge for them

because they weren't going to get explosive plays against the defense anyway over the top. Like, yes. Roster-wise, to tie the bow, this is, this, it is, you know, speaks to both sides of the ball, but like to tie the bow, yeah. Do you normally think of yourself

when someone says that? Of course, that's my name. You're saying my name out loud. Yeah, that's interesting, yeah. What about when you hear Bow as part like one syllable of a word like it's not the whole word of course my ears perk up yes so debo samuel less so okay all right it sounded like we agree that of the 22 players maybe four would be from greenback maybe five yeah so would you would you say that if this is a loss it's on the coaches i would have to see

yeah i would have to see i i will push back because uh i'm going to go to something franz said earlier and it's a point that i made on anthony's show today which is for as confident as eagles fans are I know, you know, VGA was confident, and they played Darren Sproles on Kay Adams, and he's confident. And there was like four people on me before who were saying, like, the Eagles are going to blow out the Packers. And I just go to what Fran said and see the absolute truth. This is one game. Okay. And this is a high-level quarterback.

A quarterback can get hot. And that's so, to answer your question, could it be on the coaches? If Jordan Love gets hot, you know, we've seen quarterbacks. and will there can take over games. That's that's that's number one. Number two, the Eagles have been so sound at tackling this stretch. But, and we saw this in that first Packers game, you miss one tackle, a 10-yard play becomes a 70-yard play. And it changes the complexion of the game.

Is that this game, the over-under is 45 and a half. Vegas is not expecting this game to be scored in the 30s. is that if there's one explosive play, a third and eight, and you fail to bring the guy down and he takes it, it can change the entire game. So I'm not saying, like,

I'm not deifying the Packers here. I'm not saying that like the Eagles are going to lose. What I'm saying is that this is a real tough opponent for the Eagles in round one. And by the way, too, like, because I've gotten the same kind of pushback, Zach,

when it comes talking about the Packers. And that's how, that's how coaches and players think and how scouts think, you're going into these kind of matchups you're not going to blow this team out you're looking at the things that this team does well what are the things that are give us problems what are the things that we have to stop i think that that's you're going into this matchup there are a lot of ways that green bay can win i still think that the that the eagles do win this game but there are a lot of past where i could say like yeah this is this is how green bay would win it yeah to that point

there's only been one time in my time covering the team when they went to a playoff game where i kind of felt like inside they felt they were going to blow the team out and that was the giants two years ago. Yeah, I like going to that game, they felt really good about those matchups. I think this is a team that there's like a lot of healthy respect. I do feel like,

and I said this to Anthony early in the week, I think the most realistic way that this game starts is like the Packers take the lead early. Like the Eagles start slow. The Packers have a really good like opening script that and the, you know, the fanjo defenses have been a little bit looser in the first quarter than as the games go on.

And it's like, I don't know, 10 nothing at the end of the first quarter. And then the, the Eagles have to work their way back. Like, this is not going to be an easy game, I don't think. And the Packers are going to try to slow it down. Packers are going to try to control the clock. They're going to try to run the ball.

Yeah. Packers also went on the road and beat the NFC champs last year. It's the most of the same group, right? They're not going to be afraid of the moment. It's not going to be too big for them from that. Matt Lafleur's been good in these opening round games in these last six years, the last five years. All right.

We still have a lot more to come on this show. And so before we even get to Swoper, Julia, we received a package. Several packages. Wait, did I miss something in like a tease? Because I saw the chat. I have no idea what this is. I believe it's on behalf of the sickos.

Are you sure? Have these gone through security? No, this could be. This is Joy, everybody. Julia, thank you, Joey. A Julia reveal. It says Boe Wolf and Zach Berman. Oh, Boe Wolf.

What is that one? Bo Wolf and Zach Berman. Oh. Is this from... We're leaving Fran out? Who's this from? One is just for me. I don't know.

Here. Shout out to Amazon. Shout out to Amazon. They really need... Not thank you to the listeners who sent you a gift. Shout out to Amazon. That is such a reveal. No, I'm asking.

At this point, God from Bezos. At this point, I don't think that's a reveal. I hope that's a pair of slippers eagle. wear inside. What should I open this? I feel like that. Open it now. Open it now.

Okay. Thank you. I didn't realize that. Did you think that Amazon sent it themselves? I didn't know who. I didn't know if this is something you purchased. We got here. Oh,

shoes. Wow. Thank you. Wow. Are these house shoes? Thank you very much. House shoes. Yes.

We've got some slippers. Slippers. Slipers. I appreciate this. I wear this. Who do I write a thank you note? Oh, these are Zach's.

Oh, those are for Oh no no no no those are for Zach. Oh nice. No, I'm not wearing those. We got some pink ones for Zach. Not wearing those, why not? It clashes with anything I wear.

Yeah, so. Julia, it clashes with anything you wear. I don't have. I think we've got to give the pink ones to Zazana. No. These ones say Papa. Oh, there you go. Okay, that's a bow item.

Yeah. I'd rather wear the pink. Thank you so much. I didn't love to case here to the Charlotte. I mean, I didn't get to ask you about the shoe situation. as baffling a thing that I've heard. Yeah, that was one of the most surprising things I've ever heard you say, Zach. It's not like a regular thing.

I shouldn't have said it. I mean, I'm Turkish. Imagine me hearing that. Like going into the house with shoes. It's not even the house. I can understand. You get into the house. Yeah.

The bed? I don't take in the bed with it. I mean like the very interior parts of the house. Yeah, I don't get in the bed. They're next to them because I take them off before I get in the bed. I don't lay in bed with shoes on. I know, but in the bedroom, that's wild. Sorry.

Yeah. Thank you so much, truly. Claire says they're all for Zach. So these are all for you. No, by all means. No, please. Claire, thank you. The Lord knows you.

You need them. I want to write a thank you note to whom I write a thank you note. I think my guess is what they want for a thank you note is for you to wear the pink ones. Yeah. Why? First of all, they're not going to see me wear these. Well, not if you don't send pink. And then if I wear, if, yeah, I mean, I would, I think you're better off with the pink ones than me.

I'm good with these. I've seen you wear pink. What hell is that supposed to me? I've seen you wear pink. Yeah, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of my masculinity. It's not, it's not being afraid of masculine. I just don't own any pink.

If you want me to wear the pink, I'll wear the pink shoes. I just don't. Well, say in the chat whether you want Zach to wear the pink shoes or not. Okay. Let's reset. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful. It's very nice.

Now, before we get to Swoper, we had the inactives game from last week. All right. That had one turkey up for grabs. Now, this was interesting, and Fran and I had to talk about it because, Zach, you had six correct predictions among your seven inactives. Fran and I only had five. Fran and I both had a correct elevation with Chuck Harris that tied it up. and then you predicted Dallas

Gant to be the sign to the active roster player which I think by the rules of the game probably wouldn't have counted and then we would have had to go to the tiebreaker and Fran and I would have split a point but I think that you should get credit for the Gant. Oh, thank you. And I think we're giving Zach this turkey.

I think so. I'm so grateful. Thank you. That's nice. It's like that. All you have to do for it is wear the pink shoes. I will wear the pink shoes. That's fine. There you go. So Zach gets an extra turkey. this week. Now, on that on that same topic for this game by the way, just looking at the numbers. Yeah, what do you think? The Eagles have the 53 full now,

but they're allowed to dress 49 including the, including the third quarterback. And when you look at the guys who are almost definitely going to be inactive, you've got Kennard, Keegan, Gates, Eli Ricks, almost surely and then Lewis Seen. So that's five inactive, which means there is room for one practice squad

player to get elevated and dress. I would think Blassing Maybe Blassing game, though they've only used them on like two snaps in the games he played. It does play special teams. I think Gant is the other. Yeah, Gant is the other guy. So if they think one of them is much better at special teams than the other, maybe, Chuck Harris is the other possibility.

Yeah, I know. But it seems unlikely, right? So much. Michael Clay did give Dallas Gantle's shout out for his block on the long Isaiah Rogers kickoff return. That might make the difference, honestly. I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of fullback. I think probably not. I think it might be Gantz.

Okay. last week uh i didn't have i only had two items i had tanner mckee does at least one of the following things has a passer rating greater than one 25 throws at least two more touchdowns and interception scores a touchdown or has a top three EPA per dropback for an eagle this season that did hit and i had the eagles defense combines for more sacks and turnovers than points by which the eagles are favored in the wild card round as of the post game show it was three and a half didn't happen though, no sacks in the game, so I had one item hit.

Fran, well, let's go to Zach first. Zach had Tanner McKee throws for more than 2008 yards. Bang. Boom. X leads all Eagles defensive linemen in defensive snaps played. You chose Bryce Huff, and surprisingly, this did hit. By two. I'm not surprised by it.

I expected to be Bryce Huff. That's why I bid on it. Fall whole three turkey. Don't be it. Don't be a jerk. By virtue of bidding on it, something that I thought would happen. I wasn't throwing turkeys around that early in the game for no reason.

You also had Jahan Dotson is the solo leader among the Eagles in receiving yards and or receptions. Big game for Jahan Dotson. That hit. That's three. And any Eagles player finishes with more receiving yards than his jersey number. You got that one too. Was that Shippley or Gainwell? That was Shippley.

That was Dotson. And that was both. Dotson did it too. Dotson did it. Okay. So you hit that and then you did not hit Johnny Will. Wilson leads all Eagles position players and targets, so you had four. Now, Fran, the Eagles running backs, including fullbacks,

combined for at least 102 rushing yards. Did not happen. Drew Locke throws four fewer than 228 yards that hit. Fewer than 82% of the kickoffs result in touchbacks that did hit. The Eagles wild card opponent is the Packers that did hit. And then you had the Daniel Popper one. The Eagles finished the season at least tied for first and scoring defense, did not hit by the NFL's definition,

but if you did the only points scored by the opposing offense, it would have counted. That would have made it a tie. Unfortunately, you fall one turkey short, and that means that we are all bunched together as we head to the playoffs. I am at 5.83. Fran is at 5.33.

Zach is at 4.83, and now the stakes rise. Very much like the Eagle season. It was a nice fun year, but time to get serious. That's exactly right. So the points now, a week win counts for two points, not one point, and we know that the season can end at any time.

And then it goes up to three, four, and five. And then it goes up to three, four, and five. Okay. So the stakes continue to rise, but we never know when the game ends. So the game theory meters are not meters, but it's all cranking in your head, Zach. How you feel it? I'm excited.

I'm looking forward to it. but sound like it. Dynamic. Yeah. All right. Zach, you get to go first this week. Now, Zach has 28 turkeys. He carried over three, and then he got the one from the inactive game.

I have nine turkeys left over, so I have 33 turkeys. Right. And Fran, you are down six turkeys, so you have 18 turkeys. Okay. 28, 33, 18, and away we go. So my first one here is there are more points in the Eagles Packers game. then Penn State Notre Dame. And what's interesting about this is the over-under for Eagles Packers is 45.

The over-under for Penn State Notre Dame, 45. So odds make, and that's according to Bet365. So Bet-365 has basically, you know, the number is the same here. So it gives you something to watch tonight, gives you something to watch Sunday. Sunday's games expected to be colder, of course, than tonight's game. but as Fran said, that Notre Dame defense might be the best unit of the, well,

the game tonight, but maybe of the four teams playing this, this is like the biggest mismatch might be that Notre Dame defense. Should a report of the Notre Dame, they've got a flu bug going through the locker room. Yeah, and then I saw a follow-up report that it's mainly like special teams players

and bench players. It's like the Trevor Keegan illness. Like are those guys in different meeting rooms or something? Yeah. So I will start the bidding. at two. So this is that the Eagles game is more high-scor.

There are more points. And Eagles Packers in the Penn State in our name. Okay. Got it. Okay. All right. Danes can do the... Two?

Two. Three. Say four. Five. Going once. Six. Seven. Going once.

Going twice. Soul to Zach for seven. Cool. I kind of wanted that. So he's down to 20. Now, does that count as a 50-51? Because the overrunner is basically the same. Yeah, yeah.

All right. Mine. The longest play from scrimmage in this game for either team is a Saquan Barkley run. Packers' run defense hasn't given up a ton of explosive runs. But we know that if Saquan gets into the open field, what he can do, I'll start the bidding at three. AJ Brand at a 67-yard touchdown in week one.

Jay and Reid had a 70-something, yes. That was against Jire Alexander in man coverage too. Packers have not allowed a 75-yard rusher since they're week 10 by. Two? I started at three. Oh, he started at five. Sorry, I didn't hear that. Three going once.

Three going twice. Sold. Did you want that one? For three, everything has a price. Yep. I know that. Bill, you got it, right? I got it.

Okay. Take one longest run. All right. All right. So, thematically, the Eagles and Packers have faced three times in the playoffs in their history. So each of my three submissions all have something to do with one of the three games. Oh, I like this.

Back in 1960, the 1960 NFL championship game, the Eagles won 17 to 13. They were losing at the end of the first quarter. Then they scored 10 points in the second quarter and then traded touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal the win. So my first submission, the Packers are winning at the end of the first quarter. We will start the bidding at three. I know Boat likes this one. You said earlier in the show. You did.

I'll go four. I'll go five. Eagles like to defer. It's true. The Packers in Dallas. last year, won the coin toss, and took the ball. That's a great nugget. Wow.

That's six. I think you did. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm not. No, no, no, no, no. What happened? He said six. I can't outbid myself. Sure you can.

No, I was. I was. You can bid at any point. Absolutely. I was doing that first. effect. No, no, no. That was a punchline. No, no, no. That was a punchline to what Dennis said. I mean, that's like. That's a six. I mean, I don't, that's a six. I mean, just like I lost this. I'm not going to. I'll let Julia be their reprimands. I don't even think that's up for the debate.

I was expecting. If you say a number, the way I said it was clearly men in a tone. But you were being, you were being honest about. As usual, we should probably let the chat decide. Yeah, I was saying it like, he said I was like, oh, that's a good number, six, right? As I thought that would get a laugh. Everyone knows six is a great number. What's that? Six is good. Six going once.

Yeah. I mean, I figured Bo was going to try screaming today. Go seven, seven. Okay, there we go. I figured I just let that all play out. Yeah, it was nice. Seven going once. Going twice.

Eight. Oh. eight going once going twice sold to Zach for eight Zach is down to 12 turkeys 13 because he got the extra yeah from oh he had the extra one he had the extra

yep so Zach's down to 13 bow's at 30 I'm still at 18 yep all right all mine are going to be different format auctions today okay the first one we've been doing the complete the

sentence once. Oh, I love the complete. This one's a little different. We're going to have the auction first, and then the winner is going to get to complete the sentence. Okay. Okay. So the item is X and Y, where X and Y are any two players in this game, you can choose

one from each team, two from, you know, two from the same team. Oh, man. We'll combine for at least 150 receiving yards. So we're going to have a normal auction. And then the winner of the auction is going to get to choose who X and Y are. Okay. The two players they think are most likely to add up to 150 yards. That's a great one.

All right. And well, this one's even better now with AJ Brown. Yeah, yeah. So someone has to start the bidding. I will start the bidding at four. Okay. Five. I'll say six.

You're going for six. Going once. Going twice. This is a fun one. Sold to bow for six. I like how Zach just. stays away from anything that's weird. Like, he's just like,

he's like, I'll text some emails during this one. Do I risk it with AJ? Wow. 150. I don't want to be D.O.A. if he doesn't do it. I think I'm going to do

John Dotson. I think I'm going to do AJ Brown and Jane Reed. We even more fun if the loser chose the players, right? Good idea for next week. You chose? I chose AJ and AJ. AJ Brown. And Jaden Reed, okay.

Could have gone Devante over AJ there, priced in the, if AJ doesn't play. But you could make a case for AJ and Devante, but. Okay. And week one, A.J. Brown had 119 yards. J.N. Reed had 138. So if that happens again, you will easily win this. That's a fun one.

All right, Zach, over to you. My next one here is Sequan, Barkley, Dallas got are combined for more total yards than Josh Jacobs and Tucker craft and this is rushing and receiving combined of course total yards so but for the purpose of in case any technicalities not including return yards if if one of them were to return yards from scrimmage uh i'll start the bidding at two three four five six seven eight nine it's a good bid going once

it's a good bit as if going twice soul to Fran for 10 Fran I know you didn't choose him over Dallas gutter but how obvious is it the Dallas gutterd is a better tight end than Tucker Kraft I think that Dallas gives you a little bit more juice vertically from a speed standpoint

and athleticism standpoint but craft is really good and I think they're very close craft is a really good blocker he's again not as explosive and athletic but he is a load to bring down he's been one of the best yards after catch tight ends in football just because they get him the ball and he's he's really hard to tackle all right uh zack down the 13 turkeys eight for fran 24 for me and we go to the next item item number six which is at some point in this game the eagles attempt to draw the packers off sides by the way i'll just say this you've been mocking them since camp for this but they've been doing this with some success recently. Well, they did it.

Yeah. Although I think the Giants did it on purpose. You think so? And lie. Okay. So we'll define this as, how are you going to define this as the EGELs? Line up to go for it and call a timeout. Okay.

Take a delay of game. Or they successfully draw them off sides. In a short yard in a situation. Okay. So it's got to be a short yard. So if it's first and 10 and somebody jumps offside. Correct. Doesn't account.

Yes. we're trying to define it is a it is a it is a beneficial offsides where it's either a first down or get some in better field range or eight they can go for it on fourth down something like that and I'll start the bidding here at three

four going one oh I'll say five five going once five going twice sold for the handsome man in the middle denous all right over to you friend

all right let's go back to that uh fourth and 26 game Let's go to the fourth and 26 game. This is easy. Either team converts on fourth and long. We're defining long as eight plus yards. Okay. So fourth and at least eight,

either team converts on fourth and long. We'll start the bidding of three. Mount Lafleur is one of the most cowardly coaches when it comes to fourth downs. He had six obvious goes, according to the Ben Waldwin model this year and went for it on one of those six. Four.

fourth and long would be more of a desperation situation anyway but those count in here yes correct similar to fourth and 26 eight counts right eight counts yeah four going once oh yeah sorry I'm falling asleep on the auction we're going twice sold to a handsome man on the end who got it Zach for four all right is that joke or right no no I actually just zoned out sorry all right Over to you, Danes. All right. Item number eight, we've done similar to this in the past.

This is a fixed price auction with an increasing item value as we go. And it's going to cost, change this. It's going to cost five turkeys to whoever wins. And the item is the Eagles hold the Packers to X points or less scored in the game.

So I'm going to start at zero and count up whoever yells swooper gets the item and pays five turkeys so the longer I go the more likely the item is to hit 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Wait, hold on, is it inclusive? It says or less, right? Or less, okay, yes. 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17 Was that at 16 or 17? 17 17 17 okay

Wow it's a good one Zach Thank you so that costs like five so he's down to four down to four I've got eight but he's got 19

yep all right sack over to you okay my next one here my last one I should say is Jake Elliott does not miss an extra point or a field goal

and I'll start to bidding at one two four five six in 2010 Andy read after the game said

we can all do the math after David Acres missed Zach I do want to the people are noting I do want to congratulate you you were you were very game and ready to get there first on that swooper at 17 well we're in person here so yeah so there's

there's no question about the connection and similar to how I did it last time when I heard it, I said it, but there's no delay in me hearing it when we're all in person together. Six going once. Six going twice. Sold to me. Thirteen. Elliot, no misses. No more misses. All right. I also have a unique auction. Whoa. I don't know we're allowed this. This is a first. This is the first ever strip swooper. Oh, I am not. Oh, my God. We're in order to bid.

Oh, my sure. A turkey, you have to take a piece of clothing off. And the item here is the Eagles do not lose the game without also losing the turnover battle. Eagles. So the Eagles either win the game or they lose the game and lose the turnover battle. This is so unfeversion. Hold on. Say this one more time.

The Eagles do not lose this game. without also losing the turnover battle. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's not a, they don't lose the game straight up, essentially. They have committed some turnovers. Okay?

And it's, you win if they do not lose the game. A turkey is based on a body, like a piece of clothing you take off? Yes, a piece of clothing. You have to take a piece of clothing off to bid a turkey. Do shoes count?

Shoes count. So weird. I will start the bidding. He won't even take his shoes out to go in his bedroom. You want to think he's going to do it here? I will start the bidding at one. Oh, my God. I can't believe this.

He knew this. Oh, my God. All right. You take off an item with each turkey or with each bid? With each bid. You have to remove an item. Each bit. So you can just bid something high.

Also, I don't have to remove that many items. Right, right. So you don't have to take two off. I don't have to take two items off here. It incentivizes you to just say a really high number. It says an item equals a number of clothing. I just thought it's like both shoes if you want to get to two. All right.

I'll take both shoes off here too. Okay. Have you seen my shirt in it? See now, here's the, I mean, he came in with all these layers of clothes. Yeah, he is. If I had known this, I would have worn like three pairs of pants. I still can't. Yeah.

Oh, wow. That's fantastic. Love it. How many of those did you have made? I have one for you. Oh, thank you. Oh, you took two shoes off? Yeah, it took two shoes. You got to get that sock out there.

I'll take off two shoes. But isn't this that that's only two turkeys? You have to do three. Well, I already took this off. But that's, that's, no, the total, the total number of. Okay. All right. So basically two at a time.

Okay. Okay. All right. then I will take off my watch and my aura ring okay so there you go well you can't you can only bid for Julia did you know about this the aura ring yeah the ring is yeah that's an aura ring should count but okay so that's I'm at four because if you go in now you're gonna have to go five I know yeah I'm not prepared to do this all right I did in preparation go Clifford two sides this is unbelievable This is unbelievable.

Two socks gone? Friend, you don't wear two socks on the winter? No, really? Yeah. Your feet don't get cold? Like, walking around outside? I can't get any more, unfortunately. I'm okay.

Oh, yeah, all right. Thank goodness. You're out? Yeah, I'm not. I'm out. I didn't come prepared for this. Got it for five. Unbelievable.

So this whole show, you've been wearing all these layers. Yeah, I can't prepare for a swooper today. I'm going to do something real esoteric next week that, yeah. So what was that? I don't even write even write down. The Eagles don't lose without also losing the turnover battle. Okay. Those down to eight, I believe.

Fran also at eight. Correct. Zach at four. Yeah, I mean, I agree with the people saying that shoes aren't clothing, but, you know, I don't think we were going to get Zach to participate otherwise. I mean, I consider accessories. You could have gone jacket, you know. Yeah, but that I would have to take multiple.

at that point. I consider accessory as part of your outfit. That's what, yeah. I knew I could only go so high. Like there was no point you mean starting to go. So it's like the watch is with the bomber, right?

So it's like it's all... The watch is with the bomber. Yeah, so. All right. Over to you, Fred. 2010. I don't think I've ever been angrier. I mean, I didn't make it like the eagle.

Like Sequin Barclay has a run in the game. Yeah. This is the only playoff game at the link that I did not attend. Really? Yeah, it was in Vietnam. We had a trip planned. Yeah, it was living in Turkey. Great food country.

It was a great food country. And we had some great food later that day. But, yeah, waking up at four, we had a, I'm going to butcher the pronunciation, but we went to this really famous fish place in Hanoi. It's got Chaka Lavong, I think, is the name of the dish, where you cook the fish in front of you and a thing. It was awesome

but that game was at 4 a.m. or something and it was brutal I mean I was able to watch it just fine synced with Merrill and everything but it sucked also congratulations to Merrill Pennsylvania SportsCaster of the year well earned

I didn't see that and congratulations too to Mike Sealski and Matt Breen who were co-winners of the writers of the year awesome Olivia got snubbed no she wasn't one of the finalists this year

Oh, extra. Didn't she win last year? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Were you a finalist? I was. It's okay. Mike and I'm a matter to be a finalist. Yeah. What's it? An honor to be a finalist.

Honor to be a finalist. Yeah. Honestly, it was an honor to be associated with the names that were on that list. Yeah, you seem a little bit, a little bit chapped. No, it's motivation. Next year. I need to, I need to write better. So I will. starting tomorrow on all p hilly.com. All right. 2010. The Eagles lose this game

on the final play. Michael Vic targeting Riley Cooper in the end zone. So an eagle not named AJ Brown or Devante Smith is targeted in the end zone. Now I put in parentheses that the player has to be clearly across the plane. Numerous stat services have end zone target. So I think we can say with confidence that it is great as an end zone target. So,

an eagle not named AJ Brown and Devante Smith is targeted in the end zone. We'll start the bidding. At any point in the game. At any point in the game. We'll start the bidding at four. Ah, man, friend. I wanted that one.

Four going once. Five. Six. You guys each have eight turkeys. Six going once. Six going twice. Ah, eight. All right.

So that ends at eight, those down to zero. And that takes us to the last item. The last item is a Dutch auction with an extra credit possibility. So the item is, and you can borrow from next week, which there might not even be a next week.

So, you know, the item is the Eagles win. Now if there's no next week, you're not going to win this. So that's another thing to think about. The Eagles win and then the winner will then predict the Eagles opponent after the auction. Okay. And if you get that correct, you get an extra point.

So it's like you won two items. You only get that if the Eagles also win. So Dutch auction is counting down? Counting down. Yeah. So I'll start at, I'll start at 24 turkeys. And we also actually all, I'll start at 28. and Zach can

uh Zach you'll have exclusive rights until it gets seven to 24. All right. We ready? Everyone clear on the rules? Yep. Oh no.

You should start at 32. Brian has eight turkeys left. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I forgot. Yes. I'll start at 32.

So you'll have exclusive rights for the first four turkeys if you want. 32. 31. 30. 29. 28. 27.

26. 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 17, 15, 15. I heard Fran at 15. 15. Yeah, man, you beat me, Fran. All right. And Fran, your prediction for the Eagles opponent. Now, if Tampa Bay wins, it will be Tampa Bay. otherwise it will be the winner of Rams Vikings.

Tampa. Okay. So if Tampa wins... You gotta pick Tampa because otherwise it's... Yeah. Just odds-wise, it's more likely that it's Tampa for sure. You'd have to feel strongly about Tampa losing otherwise. Okay.

So that was for 15. So Fran's down to negative seven. All right. For next week. Fran is steamed. Frank got totally thrown off his game there. I thought that Zach was going to be the one frustrated by the nudity proposition.

I wasn't flustered. I was pissed. I do think that that opens up a lot of different rabbit holes here for future swoopers. Sure as hell does. Yeah. France back with a vengeance next week. Yeah.

All kinds of new rules. I mean, if I'm going to like, if I want to be petty, there's, there's, there's, lot of like, you know, specific things you could do that, yeah, yeah. Okay, let's hear them. You'll find out in seven days. I can do like, you know, for every, you know, every book you've published, you have to present, every book you published. Well, I didn't know to wear all those clothes.

It's very true. You can't, you can't, you can't give yourself more turkeys. No, no, no. I can say a bit of a turkey. Yeah. Yeah. You present a book. published for a turkey.

Okay. If you can live with yourself, if you can sleep or, you know, I can play that way. I could be like, you know, the Eagles score point in this game and present. Of course, you could do that, but there has to be some honor. This was a, this was not. Look at my layers you're wearing. Well, yeah, no moron. What do you have underneath there?

I got a long sleeve shirt. Yeah. I got a long sleeve shirt. Yeah. I got one under shirt on. This is ridiculous. It's absurd. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry. Did you tell the audio listeners what your shirt is, by the way? No, we have to watch. The shirt is great. The shirt is great. Fran, you have. I think Fran still has a good chance to hit all three here.

Sequin and Dallas Goddard combined for more yards from scrimmage than Josh Jacobs and Tucker Kraft. The Eagles win and the Eagles then play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I think you're in good shape. Zach, the Eagles. Hmm, what does my handwriting say here? There are more total points in Packers, Eagles than Penn State-N-Degals than the Eagles Packers game than total points in the Penn State Notre Dame game. The Packers are winning at the end of the first quarter.

Either team converts a fourth and long defined as eight yards or more, and the Eagles hold the Packers to 17 points or fewer. I have Sequin Barclay is responsible for the longest play from scrimmage in the game, AJ Brown and Jaden Reed combined for 150 receiving yards at any point in this game the Eagles try to draw the opponent off sides. Jake Elliott does not miss a kick.

Now, this only counts, like a penalty would not count, right? Like he misses it, but it's a penalty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Eagles do not lose the game without also losing the turnover battle. And at any point in this game, an eagle other than Devonte Smith

or AJ Brown is targeted in the end zone. There we go. Super chat from Jason who says ZB, we were so distraught by the shoe bombshell that I had to rally the sickos to help you make up for this transgression against Emily and all of us.

Yeah, I gotta say, if you asked Emily, she would tell you this isn't a frequent, um, a frequent thing. Also, uh, but I,

I do keep my shoes in my closet. Right? You know, do you have like dress shoes in your closet? and that kind of dress shoes yeah yeah well so what do I wear to games typically well yeah okay so not into the bedroom well I mean my closet's like next to my bedroom so to get to my closet I need to the bedroom I usually take my move is I usually take the shoes off and then I'll carry them up to to wherever I'm gonna say I keep I like a shoe closet near the entrance what's that this is like a

total cultural difference here but like like like a a shoe a place to put your shoes like near the front We do, but they are completely occupied by like five pairs of friends. Just not big enough. Like 17 pairs of Meg shoes and then one pair of sneakers for me. Yeah, yeah. Like everyday shoes are there, but like not the shoes I wear to a game. Yep. Right.

Right. Those are upstairs in my room in my closet. So like I will. Yeah. So, but I'll come in. Like I'll just say hello. Uh, and yeah. It's not like a thing where I constantly are wearing.

shoes around the house. Although I did think about it after after afterwards I'm probably wear it more often because I'll get like dressed for the day and might put shoes on. That's interesting to me. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I don't like being barefoot. Okay. And what's the pathology behind that? I'm really barefoot. I'm cold. Like yeah, my feet are cold. Yeah. And well, that's where these come in. So, yeah. So now I can wear house some shoes or slippers. Yeah. I don't know why I'm saying house shoes. I think I saw that in the chat the other day. You need a pair of house shoes. Yeah, slippers. I'm very grateful. I appreciate this. For those of you not watching on fast an hour later, now would be a good time to continue going back to L-P-H-L-Y.com. I was going to let you know that appropriate of our conversation the day, stubbed my toe badly last night in the middle of the night. Welcome back to the bed. I'm really sorry to hear that. On what?

On the bed post? Yeah, like the corner of the bed. Like where the hallway entrance comes in is not quite like there's a little bit of a clearing to get around the bed. You know, middle of the night didn't triangulate it correctly. You didn't have like six pairs of socks on to help soften the blow? No, no. I did. I was happy about the two sock.

Gambit. I'm surprised you even put your shoes back on you. Make yourself comfortable here. Well, I won the item. I feel like it's only fair that the audience. to see this, you know, all of this of me. Shout out the bow. There's a great story up on all p.hly.com.

Ten. It's, the headline says 10 players to watch, but it's people in, you know, associations. Does it say players or eagles? I thought it said players. I could be wrong.

Check the drafts. Let's see. I purpose, first time I read it was this name. You're calling me out on an incorrect thing. No, most compelling Eagles. You're right. Well done.

Thank you. So, yeah. I'm not calling out. I'm expecting an apology. I literally complimented you. I'm saying you said that was a backhanded thing you said that I mean the headline says players but actually there's what the headline doesn't say players you have to sign up to be a diehard to okay okay compelling eagles are on there yeah so a good job by bow make sure you check that out um ed barkwoods has a piece up last night 25 um you know kind of uh notes about the packers franz scouting report is awesome uh every single week but especially this week against the packers uh i i will have

a piece up tomorrow and then a piece up Saturday as well. So make sure you are subscribing to all-P-H-L-Y.com. And some exciting stuff coming up, non-Eagles next week or in the coming weeks. I think we could say, we can say what's coming up next week, right? Yeah. We've got an NFL draft show with Fran Duffy. Yeah. Debuting next week.

Next week. Can't wait. Debuting with. Mock draft? Mock draft. Yeah. Great way to get into it. Got the mock draft and we have a senior bowl shrine ball right after so it'll be a lot of fun weekly show

Fran's gonna be crazy busy during this I think the Eagles win on Sunday Franz got the draft going on he's got the Eagles going on this is gonna be Yeah, you're it's a good busy we have we appreciate all that you here at all page oh I don't given your biases in fair say that the mock draft will be Littard with the Irish no I actually don't think that their name I don't think yeah I don't think yeah I don't think they're going to have a player in the mock draft. Xavier Watts isn't a first rounder for you. I haven't done him to the length that I say that he's a first rounder now. Yeah.

I've not done him yet. Friend, you think the NILs are going to make it so that in future years, Bo is just going to hate every player in the draft because they're all going to be so old. Likely, yeah, probably. That's something to think about. Yeah. You might have to recalibrate like what a normal age.

I honestly can't answer a question about Bo at the moment. I'm not at a safe space right now. I'm still, I feel like your slate the best, though. Yeah, you got the, you got the best quality. 15 for the Eagles and the bucks is strong.

Short but sweet list. I didn't want to, yeah, but I didn't want to go in with negative turkeys for next week. So I was hoping to, you know, yeah. Not great.

I mean, can't take them with you though. Yeah. I was careful to make it an item that if it hits, means there is a next week. Yeah, right. You know, I didn't want it to become like a cheap,

like, you know, I'll just, I'll just win the season by having this one hit, you know, like, because this way, this way, if that one helped you, it means you're borrowing from something real. Yeah, one rationale. I was considering one piece of strategy there going like high on, on hitting,

and then offering up, like, hard-to-hit swoopers next week. Right. Because I would be at a terrific deficit. Sure, sure. I thought that would violate the integrity of the game. And I believe quite a bit about the integrity of the game. So do I.

So do I. One of us. Please. There's only one architect, baby. All right. That'll do it. Oh, we have another super chat. Jesus.

From CDP, check it in eight hours later. Does Sequin rushing for 2000 make Dallas got a lot of trouble? I think this is a really good question. And I will just say this. Sequan would definitely have the record if Dallas got it had played the whole year. Like without a doubt. You're probably right about it.

But Chase Daniel Plainview, thank you for thank you for entertaining these immature people. Well, Chase Daniel Plainview, I will say, and this ties into the mock draft conversation. I mean to be blocking There might be a good A-B sample next year because I think Dallas-Ga-Roccur could be playing his final month with the Eagles. Sequin was so close to 2000 all the years without Dallas-Gutter

that, you know, you have a good point. All right, two hours. I'll do it for this episode of the PHY Eagles podcast. A full breakdown. Some other stuff to make Fran mad, but that's okay. We'll keep it together. We've got another show tomorrow, 2 o'clock. the middle two here

myself and Danes with Zach checking in from Novacare as well and then it's all about the game day on Sunday. You know, we'll have you fully covered for that. So for Julia and all the sickos watching both live and after the fact and listening in their ears

we thank you very much. Subscribe, download, all that good stuff. Become a diehard. We'll talk to tomorrow for Fran, my dear, dear friend Danes, Zach and all of us here. We thank you for watching and listening. And as always, we love you.