PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Swooper Santa: Do Jalen Hurts, Eagles have a Super Bowl-level test in Josh Allen & the Bills?

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

ESPN’s Mina Kimes joins a loaded show as we preview Eagles-Bills with a full rundown of the latest Eagles news and a special edition of Swooper with Secret Santa gifts for Fran Duffy, EJ Smith, Lindsay, Julia, the professor and Bo. Does that sound inscrutable to you? Find a different Eagles show, then. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everybody and welcome to the P. H.L.Y. Eagles podcast live from the Xfinity Studio and presented by Bet365 and Ashley. This is the very special swooper secret Santa episode. We're off tomorrow. We're off Thursday. We're going to give you a nice long episode to unpack. of Eagles, Bills, Bow Wolf, Fran Duffy, E.J. Smith, the professor, Danes is here. We're going to hear from Mina Kimes in a little bit to break down Eagles Bills and get some of her thoughts. And we're going to hear from you in the chat. We got a lot coming up. Should be a fun episode.

Fran, how you doing? Doing great. Yeah, it's a great time of year. It's going to be a fun show. I'm excited. Professor, on a Tuesday. We don't get a lot of loopy Tuesdays. Yeah, I got four hours of sleep last night because I wanted to make sure I watched enough of the offensive film that I was

I was confident in some of the positivity I'm going to try to bring today and so I'm feeling the loopie Tuesday for sure We're going to give you the positivity baton to carry today as we talk about the Eagles offense and EJ we do have some We can call it news It's a little bit silly

We don't need to make too much of the pro bowl But what's the scoop from Novacare The Eagles have five players named to the initial Pro Bowl roster Okay, okay that seems about right Maybe a little more than I would have expected Okay, hit me with it. Maybe not the right five.

Well, we'll get to that. So, Zach Bond. Okay, that makes sense. Cooper to Jean. Okay, got it, yeah. Quentin Mitchell. Sure, definitely. Jalen Carter.

Huh. All right. I mean, good player. You missed enough time that I wouldn't have expected it, but reputation. Okay, that makes sense. Hold on. Let me say, just, I'm a little bit. Cam Durgan's was the last one.

Oh, jeez. What on earth? Is that why you... Oh, man. Wow, what a start. Are you all right? Went through the nose. I can't even tell if that was...

What? Oh, man. I don't think that went nearly as well as you thought that was going to go. I appreciate the commitment to the bit, though. Wow. Oh, Bo, can you breathe presently? Tears, run it out. Loopy Tuesday, everybody.

Oh, my God. For audio listeners. The Eagle Center? Wow. Yeah, the Eagle Center made the Pro Bowl. Oh, man. That is surprising. Real tears.

It's all over the chase. I have a question. I have a question for you about, about, I think it's, I think we all, I think we all know that Cam Juergens, did I get you? Okay. I don't think there's anything to debate with Cam Juergens. Like, he clearly doesn't deserve to be in the Pro Bowl. However, I am curious about, about something, I don't, I don't, I personally don't care about the Pro Bowl much. But I do wonder, what do you think Cam Jurgens' own reaction will be to making the Pro Bowl?

Both publicly and privately, like, what do you think he thinks? about him being in the Pro Bowl? I would say Cam's one of the harder players to get a good read on from press conference situations. I don't know if he's guarded, but I do kind of like, I understand what you're saying. He's at times been the one to say

as Beau gets tissues delivered to him. As a reminder, if people don't remember last year when he made the Pro Bowl, his reaction was like, oh yeah, like I was definitely the best or something like that. So I'm just wondering this year, since that's not true, what he thinks, like what you think he thinks.

It'll be interesting to hear it because I agree like there have been times this season when things haven't been going well that he's been like defiance about them being better than maybe the outside perspective would suggest. So maybe he would feel like his play is warranted it. I don't know. Like I said, it'll be interested to hear from him.

You good, Bo? I don't know. Really got myself. Who do you think? Do you want me to take over for hosting a little bit here? Who do you think should have made it? I think that Zach Bonn, Cooper, DeGine, and Quinion Mitchell are all deserving inclusions to the Pro Bowl roster.

I agree. I would swap out Jalen Carter for Jordan Davis. I think that Davis has had, he's obviously played more games. And I think he's been, if not the best defensive tackle against the run this year, he's been close while also impacting the quarterback. So I think he had a good case. I'd put him on the Pro Bowl roster. and then if you made me pick five, I would go with Dallas Goddard.

Now, I'm not sure that the tight ends that are on the pro bowl roster are worse than Dallas Goddard, but if I had to pick a fifth Eagles pro bowler, if I had to pick a top five, I think Goddard's contributions in the red zone, how important he's been in that area. He's got 10 touchdowns, which is tied for the most by a titan in the NFL this season. I think he had a good case for it at the very least. Yeah, we went through this exercise, all tried to pick five. We all agreed on the top three, for sure. then we all go with Jordan Davis

and then I'm with you and you sort of got a squint to get there I don't know that I would really affirmatively make the case for Dallas Goddard but if I was picking a guy it would be him and even Jordan Davis I mean I think he probably should but I could argue

if you wanted to say he only plays 65% of the snaps should he really belong I wouldn't be too upset about that I do think he's been just that good to make it he's been impactful in those 65% of the snaps enough where I think he had a good case. How about you, Fran?

For me, the way I went about it, I looked at it like, let me just go look at the depth chart, and who are the guys that I feel have played to that level consistently throughout the course of the year? And so, yeah, Quignan, Dejean, Bonn, I felt like those guys

across the board. After that, I thought there was a little bit of a tear break. Lane Johnson, when he's been out there, absolutely is deserving. Obviously, the injury plays a part in that. And then also as well, when you look at the rest of the field in the NFC, you've got some of the other best tackles in football,

happen to be in that conference, right? So I do think that that certainly affects it. And then I put Jordan Davis in there over Jaylon Carter. I do think that he's been more consistently impactful. But yeah, it was certainly not the same type of, you know, push for a lot of these guys as what we've seen in recent years. You could, I mean, you can make the argument Davis over Carter. I also think you could probably make the argument Jordan Davis over Quinn and Williams

in that spot. The tight end one, it's tough. It's George Kittle and Trey McBride. It's like, got it over those two. it's a tougher sell I mean McBride's numbers are ridiculous and Kittl makes contributions in the run game a little bit more

than Dallas got it I'm honestly surprised that you didn't make the case for Latu I thought about it and as a fullback there's to be a is there still a fullback position that's very funny or special teams he kind of fell off a little bit in the special teams like rankings like Kylan Granson actually probably would have

a stronger case in Kam Latsu I can be up I got to be objective Keeley Ringo making it as an alternate and special teams, by the way, like, people were laughing about that. Keelearingo was an awesome... Are you okay about you? No. Do you need to, like, go out and collect yourself? Okay. Do you remember when the Eagles used to do the special teams' points?

Hmm. Would I put it on display? Yeah, that was the best. Yeah, that was good. Missed those days. Coltonerson used to wrap them up. With which regime did that end? Was that like, did Doug end that? Did Chip even do it Or was that Chip did it? I thought Chip did it

But maybe not Doug No, that was cool, that was good It predates my beat coverage days for sure Okay, it got points for like There was like a point for random things Right, like downing the ball And stuff like that Okay, let's take a break

On the other side We're gonna get to A discussion about the Eagles offense We'll also check in on spread your wins and fly But we're gonna give Dana's a chance To make the affirmative case for why you should feel good about the eagle's offense. If you have been waiting to take advantage of a great deal, a great offer to boost your savings,

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heat they've got you covered back in the phton y eagles podcast i got to say i mean you've put up a full-hearted defense about being washed and i just watched you almost get taken out by some some kirkland water here wow some filtered water i did not put up that much of a defense Cleanest water you can find and you over here. You got to go take a break during the ad reads. Come on, man. Next time I'll spit in your direction. I mean, wait until I'm not in between.

I think it would be more entertaining if you're in between. A lot of tension in the table today, by the way. Feeling some heat in between these two. Because of you. No, I'm talking about these two. Oh, that's true. Don't start. Washboy over here.

Vic Fangio saying... Go get your lotion. Nikovi Dean is iffy for Sunday's game against the bills, but I didn't say, I don't think we're done seeing him this year. That's thanks to EJ's former colleague, Jeff McLean, on social media. So for him to say, I don't think we're done seeing him this year, means that he's not going to play this week. What?

You're okay? What are you looking to me for? I don't know what's going on right now. I've got a lot of respect for Jeff. This is a, this is. That could mean playoffs. Oh. For a go-obey, it sounds like it.

True. Good big. Um, do you guys, do you guys think Lane and Janet Carter are actually going to play this week? I do. It sounds like Carter is. They wouldn't have, they wouldn't have like had that report, right? But the week before they had the report that Lane was going to start practicing and he didn't start practicing. That's right.

That's right. I kind of read it as if they, if those guys play this week, they're going to sit everybody in week 18 no matter whether they're playing for two or three. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. I think that's a good point. I think it's kind of like they've made that decision. Well, that's a good time to get into the playoffs scenario. because there are ones where the two-seed would not be a far, you know, a far cry.

In which case, I don't think they would rest guys, but... Let's hear. Yeah, so playoff update with the 49ers win last night over the Colts. The Eagles no longer have a chance of the number one seed, so they are eliminated from that. There are, however, still three paths remaining to get the number two seed. The first one is if the Eagles win both games and the Bears lose both games. So this is the most likely, most straightforward one. The Bears play at San Francisco.

San Francisco is still playing for the number one seed, so that's going to be a tough game for Chicago. And then they play Detroit at home in the last game. There's a world in which the lions are playing to get into the playoffs. There's another world in which Dan Campbell is going to try to win anyway, right? And so that's not one where you'd think that it's going to be an easy game for Chicago. And then the second path is if the Eagles win both games, the Seahawks lose both games at Carolina and at San Francisco.

The 49ers lose to Chicago. and then the Rams lose once either to Atlanta or Arizona. So that one's a little bit, you know, harder, but it's still possible. And then the third one, this is my favorite one. If the Eagles win just once, the Bears lose both,

and then the Packers go 1-0-and-1, but they have to go exactly 1-0-1, and then they would finish in a tie with the bears, 10, 5, and 2, tied with 11 and 6, the Packers win the tie-breaker. The Eagles then win the tiebreaker over the Packers due to head-to-head. but that scenario requires that the Packers

tie one of their games so that one is obviously the least likely one So those are the three paths of the two seed And then the Eagles still haven't clinched the three seed They need either a win or a Carolina loss at some point To do that if Carolina wins both eagles lose both Eagles will be the four seed And so this weekend

The Eagles can clinch that three seed obviously By just winning or Carolina losing And then the only ways they'll be eliminated from the two seed are if Seattle and Chicago both win or if the Eagles lose in Chicago wins or if the Eagles lose and Green Bay loses. So there are a lot of scenarios where week 18 the Eagles will still be alive for

the two seed. And by the way, the Bears don't play until Sunday night football. And so the Eagles will be alive for the two seed at kickoff against the bills for sure. So to me it reads as I think anything barring a win and a bear's loss where it becomes

very clear heading into week 18, I think they're just going to rest guys. It's possible, yeah. I mean, you don't think the one where it's like they just need a Seattle loss would do it? Seattle against San Francisco? That's a scenario as well. Yeah, I don't know.

I kind of feel like pushing Lane and Jalen Carter to play now, you sort of want them to get the rest of them back. I feel like that's the threshold, though. It's like win and one team lose. Yeah, as opposed to win and multiple things happen. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, if the Rams happened to lose to Atlanta and, like, Carolina beat Seattle

and Chicago beat San Francisco. Disco, then you just need an Eagles winner, the Seahawks loss at San Francisco, I feel like you'd have to go for it. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah. So, yeah, I think, I think that sounds right. All right. Let's also take this chance to check in on Spread Your Wins and Fly before the season when we all drafted the season over-unders. Fran in the lead right now has not, it's not over. Now, I will say I do believe that this is our worst collective performance in a while. E.J.'s, uh, picks at the top of the draft. It's like, it's like Shanahan. drafting.

E.J. at 5 and 5. Got Jake Moody up there. Tray Lance. Needs two Falcons wins to get that one and needs no more Cowboys wins for throwing the challenge flag there. So you can get up to 7. I'm at 4 and 5 with 3 pending.

I need the Saints to not finish 2 and 0. The bills to win one more game and the Cowboys to win one more game. Or win one more. No, they're at 7 and 5 right now. So I just need them to win another half of a game. And that would get me to seven.

Fran in the lead at six and three with three pending. The Packers, over nine and a half. So you need one more Packers win would get you to seven. Two more Vikings wins would get you over. And Dallas. So Dallas, you're bidding against me. Cowboys are six and one right now, by the way. They're six, eight and one right now?

Oh, so I need them to win the last two games. Yeah. That's what it will come down to with all of this. So Fran in the pole position, but not definitely. Vikings have two division games left. They play Christmas afternoon against Detroit and then they've got Green Bay in Week 18.

Okay. While we're looking at this league-wide thing, noteworthy that the Eagles are quite likely to be the only team to repeat as division champions in the entire NFL. The other seven division winners from last year,

the Lions, Tampa Bay, the Rams, Buffalo, Baltimore, Houston, and Kansas City. very possible. None of them are leading the division right now. Some of them are already eliminated from it. It's very possible that literally none of them win it, which would be, you know, it's something. Like, you know, we talked about, like, how it's hard to come back from winning the Super Bowl. Like, none of these teams have been able to come back from winning

the division, even. It sounds like you've got a lot of banners you'd like to fly. Oh, I mean, look, the actual banner is hanging in the stadium, so I think it's okay to find, like, little banners like that as well, which is why I also was okay with them celebrating a little bit, winning the division in this room. I think that's fine. Like, I think I think for a team that has the goal of winning the Super Bowl and has never done it and probably never will do it, it's

kind of sad when they're celebrating the division. I think when you're literally the Super Bowl champions and you're doing it, it's a little different. Yeah, I think that's okay. It's an objective. Checked off. You just have to celebrate no doubt about it. They should celebrate that every year

every time they do it. I'm curious if Jalen Hertz lit that victory cigar. I saw it in his locker. I was surprised to even wore the hat. He wore that. Yeah, and there were other pictures, but he's still wearing it. Yeah, he wore it straightforward on the picture

with AJ and but if he doesn't light it while we're in the locker room like when's he light in that thing it's probably not right I don't know maybe maybe it's cigar for the division maybe I'll do reporting on it so you see what the significance is maybe he's carrying it around make sure make sure you ask about the chest hair as well I would not be asking about that some kind of reporter you are what are we're gonna say friend uh it's not important all right well since we're talking about banners and celebrating the Siegel's team take take take take take take the ball here, Professor, and make

the case for why some of us have been unfairly harsh about the Eagles offense? First of all, I'm not, I was not one of the people saying, like, saying, like, oh, you guys are so negative, what's wrong with you? I was not saying that. I think you guys made a lot of good points. I think it's good to have high standards. I think it's good to

point out that there are a lot of things wrong with the offense. I'm going to kind of play the role of like a defense attorney here. Sure. And make the case for positivity with the offense. So you're a better defense attorney than bow. What are you talking about? I'm undefeated.

He got you acquitted each. Yeah. You literally won. Yeah, but. But what? I mean, unconventional methods, for sure. Yeah. I'll use more conventional methods here.

My pride was wounded. I mean, you can't come up here and talk about the ego's office and be like, they are such buffoons. Look at the year. Did you pay me to make you feel good or to get you acquitted? I definitely didn't make me feel good. Get your money back. Well, I could have said to get you off. but I chose not to say this.

Oh, man. Not overtime yet. Go ahead. Okay, so I'll start with some numbers from the last game and also kind of relate them to numbers for the year. And then I would like to go through

some of the things I saw in the film because I think the whole, like Fran knows the numbers looked good. His whole point was that the film didn't. And I agree that a lot of the film didn't look good. However, there are plenty of things that I think were encouraging

from the film as well. So first of all, the numbers. I mean, this last game, eight drives, four touchdowns, two field goal attempts in eight drives, that's just good, right? Like 94th percentile game by APA per drive, 96th percentile game by series conversion rate. My favorite thing that I always talk about, moving the sticks before third down, not letting it come down to third down. Eagles move the sticks on third down on 63 percent of the series. That was their fourth best rate in the Siriani Hertz era in any game.

15 first downs on second down itself, the down where I always complain. They're trying to set up third down instead of moving the sticks. They move the sticks 15 times on second down. Third most by any team in any game this season. That's in 480 offensive outings. And the most by the Eagles since week three of 2002. Okay? At one point in the first half, they're starting with that no huddle empty sequence,

they move the sticks nine times in a row without needing third down. Unless you're playing against Jonathan Gannon in the Super Bowl, that's impressive. Okay, no matter who the opponent is. The Chiefs did that in the Super Bowl against John. I think you understand. So there we go. Now, those are the numbers.

That's what the cigar was for. There you go. Now, the positive things I saw in the film. Okay, very first play of the game, Eagles are in 11. Washington's in base. Eagles tried to run it from under center. Goddard misses his block. It's a disaster.

And I'm sitting at home thinking like, man, this is, it's going to be another one of these. Like, they're going to run. They're going to keep trying to run from under center. They've been terrible from under center this year. There's this weird myth that the Eagles are good from under center. They have 33 percent. success rate running from under center that's 28th they're 41% from shotgun that's a lot

better than 33% they're 19th so it's just a false narrative that they've been better from under center they never run enough under center play action to be worth all those under center runs I've always talked about this so back to this game all of all seven of the runs in the first half after that first one were out of shotgun there were no negative runs in a game for the first time all year for say Juan berkeley and as we continue like the way that they adjusted to the way that Washington was playing, like adjusting to the strange defensive approach that they took where they left three linebackers on the field against 11 personnel, going tempo, you might say, like, that's table stakes.

Like, of course you're going to do that. Of course you're going to make them cover Devante Smith in space instead of having Grant Calcutera blocked the extra linebacker. That's not what this offense has done before this year. Yeah. Remember the Lions game. The Lions who are famous for keeping three linebackers on the field the entire game. What did Petulow do against the Lions?

he had Grant Calcuttaire out there trying to block those linebackers the whole game. They played heavy personnel the whole game. They tried to do this under-center thing and it was one of their worst offensive performances of the last five years by a lot of the numbers. So it would be hypocritical of me to not praise them for having Devante Smith out there running option routes.

I know the empty, like when you draw the routes on, like, you know, paper, like it wasn't like the most creative game plan in terms of the empty stuff, but it was getting guys open against predictable coverages, which is exactly what you want to do in that situation. I also thought it was good that they didn't continue to force it with the empty tempo stuff when they switched to starting to play nickel. DeMante Smith actually talked about that. He said, hey, we had something going.

They adjusted. We adjusted. And that's exactly right. Second half, Washington briefly went back to playing base against 11. Very next play, the Eagles go empty again, and they hit A.J. Brown for nine yards on the next play. Mixing in some actual zone read stuff, I thought was good. QB plus one run game, something we've been looking for all year. 17 runs or RPO's in this game out of shotgun

that had a read element on eight of them. They left the backside edge truly unblocked. I have not gone back and checked for sure, but I'm almost positive that there's not been a game this year where they left the backside edge unblocked eight different times. Just one of those were keepers, and one of them was a thrown RPO, and mostly those plays had good results. I like the approach on early downs.

11 passes, 11 runs on neutral first downs. That's very balanced. They've been too run heavy, in my opinion, this season. There was a decent amount of play action sprinkled in. That 21 play drive, including the penalties, it was 21 plays to start the half. There was a stretch of four straight passes that were either RPO's or play action of some sort that had a pulling lineman with trap protection. So that's when the O line slides one way, and the guard pulls to block the backside edge on the other side.

So it looks more like it might actually be a run. That was clearly influencing the linebackers. Only one of those was under center. So that means that they're finding ways to make play action impactful while also keeping the QB run in play. That's the first time this year that they've really done that more than like, you know, maybe once a game. They brought back that curl flat wheel RPO that the dolphins made famous, hit Goddard in the flat for eight yards on one of them, handed off on one of the other ones. We hadn't seen that RPO this year.

So they're going back to some of the things that worked in the past. And then one of the things I've hated this year, the second and long approach, they've been running it too much. They've been terrible on second and long. There were 13 second and long plays on this game, 10 passes, three runs. So they were willing to throw the ball on second and long, and they were able to move the sticks on a lot of that. them. The empty stuff, eight empty dropbacks, 75% success rate, and the successful plays, 16 yards, 14 yards, 15 yards, 16 yards, 24 yards, 9 yards. These are all actual good plays. It's not like success where he gets six yards on first down. Only 53% success on other dropbacks, so they were better out of empty. They were good in general. So the one run out of empty didn't look very good. We can talk about that, like, whether it's a good idea to have bash counter read with a motion guy coming in, kind of messing up the timing. But those are, Those are the positive things I saw on film. I feel like I've been talking for long enough.

So I don't know if we're going to go back and forth here. All right. Well, it means your turn. I mean, I just... Are you moved? No. I think the results are the results. Yeah.

I tend to think that looking at a lot of this is more... It's coping with what we... To me, like, looking at this, this is not about winning this game. my feelings on it are have we seen enough from this offense over the I guess where my frustration comes and we were texting about this the other day

and I was getting aggravated even texting it with Dana's not with Dana's but just you know in general it's okay is that the last two weeks I feel like we had seen them kind of build what they were trying to do from a past game standpoint

I was like oh they're more content more aggressive down the field and this coming into this game I was interested okay are we going to see more of that or was that just opponent based like oh it was this was kind of like a side blip and to me this was reverting back to what we had seen

in you know other parts of the season and it was less of the concepts that we saw the previous two weeks and so now that makes me think they're not trying to build towards anything they're just trying to throw stuff on a weekly basis that we think this is what works against this defense

and I'm going to be honest that's what this offense this what that's what this drop by pass game has been for most of the last four or five years, but you had a great offensive line to fall back on. You had a great RPO game. You had a great run game to be able to fall back on in those instances. And you don't have that this year. And so if the idea is, hey, we are better off, not making up as we go along. That's not what it is, but it's like, hey, this week, we think this is going to work against this team. So we're going to pull this. We're going to try and do this. We're going to try and do that. But it's not like

what we are. It's more this is what we think is going to work. To me, like the volatility of that is so frustrating because they are, they aren't good. They aren't good enough to on the margins to make me think that that's going to be sustainable moving forward. Honestly, like when we look at the success rate stuff, I mean, a lot of that was those last couple drives. Again, they were losing at halftime to this team and a lot of it missed field goals.

You know what I would take away? They moved the ball nine straight times before third down. Early in the game, it wasn't the last drives. If I put Temple's defense out there and they had a success rate of 100%, do we celebrate that at 100%? Other teams haven't done that against this Washington defense. Yeah.

It was the third worst game for the Washington defense all year. Light cigar. Like, to me, like I just, but you're not, but you can't just say it was a bad defense. And then when I say, not everyone's done this to this defense, be like, oh, well, it's not a big deal. I mean, like, yeah, to me, I'm just, again, I'm looking forward to what, is this something that is sustainable moving forward? When Sequin Barclay, again, he made an outstanding spin move and he takes off 40 yards. You hate all the early down runs and you hate the undercenter runs. And you've talked about how, like, that's not something.

No, I like the QB plus one stuff, though. Yeah, but this was an under-center duo run. Yeah, I know, I know. Where pro-bowler Cam Jergens had some trouble with the one-tech there, as he has throughout the season. But if you don't like the under-center runs, and you're like, oh, this team's not good at under-center runs. I love that they didn't do that as much in this game. Then they did it. Sequin got met four yards in the backfield, and he happened to make a superhuman play.

That's my problem, is that they are reliant on their superstars, being superstars. And I don't think that's a sustainable form of success when they're playing against the Rams and some of these other teams down, you know, the road in the postseason. They've gotten by this season doing that against some of these. They beat the Rams, you know, they beat the Bucks. They beat some of these playoff teams. I just don't know. To me, like what I saw this week makes me think that they're not building towards any kind

of identity. They're trying, I get it because they were trying to find it. They came into the season thinking that they were going to try and beat the same team as 2024. It was evident week four, week five. I feel like it was that Tampa game where I was like, oh, you know what? Like, they're not going to be the same running team. The offensive line's not as good as they were a year ago.

They're going to have to figure it out. So by the time they get to mid-season, it's like, okay, they're trying to figure it out. I think that's okay. It's not ideal. But to me, like, I think leaning into, oh, you know what, we're just not really an under-center run team. Let's just go back to, you know, being the shotgun stuff. And we're just going to, you know, again, like we're going to kind of tweak here and there.

That's kind of, to me, throwing our hands up and saying, yeah, this is what we've always done it. Let's try it again. Like, you're allowed to evolve. I don't think that when the Rams signed DeMante Adams this off season, that they were like, oh, we're going to be the best 13 personnel team in football this year. But they were like, oh, this really works for us. This is really advantageous.

Let's lean more into this. I don't know. To me, it's just this game plan, this execution, what I saw, it just left me wanting. That's just how I saw it. So if I can just respond to some of the identity stuff, I absolutely agree with you that they've been soul searching all year. I think they would agree with you that they've been soul searching all year. The head coach and the offense coordinator and the quarterback have all talked all year

about how they're looking for their identity. They're trying to figure out what they're good at. And that's been the case. I think at this point it's too late for that identity to just appear right

and so I think the what works against this team approach is going to have to work like the what works against this defense each week kind of like a defense would approach it

and I don't like that as a philosophy but that's kind of what it's just what it's going to be at this point maybe the fact that in this game some of the stuff

that worked at least matched what they've been good at in the past right the 11 gun run stuff like they look more comfortable in that than they do in the condensed stuff than they do with Grand Calcutera blocking like you know

in a condensed look so I guess the things that they did well this game masked some of the things that they've been good at bad at I should say during the season and that's what I liked like you you complain about the pure dropback game and the reason you complain about it is because it sucks

right like it's terrible like I hate it too it's awful like I don't think anyone could seriously watch some of the route combinations they have on those third downs and say like oh yeah, this was like good scheme. But when does that appear the most? Third down, right? So what do they do in this game?

They avoided third down 19 times. Like, that's exactly the kind of thing that you're going to do to mask the things you're not good at. Are you going to be able to do that against good defenses? Not necessarily. But the fact that they did that this game should be praised. Like, I don't think, like, you can just discount all the things that they did well. And hopefully the lesson they take out of this is, hey, we don't have to be under center, right?

We don't have to do all that heavy condensed stuff. They are a team that's better when they use the RPO's, when they use the plus one run. game. And when they, you know, when they go empty, like Jalen Hertz is like the best quarterback out of empty in the whole NFL this year by, by APA or dropback, like, things like that are more fitting to what they've done in the past. And it's, it'll be easier to have that identity than it will be to have the condensed one. I agree with that. Where I'll get upset as if, like, against the next team, they decide, hey, maybe, you know, teams have been good under center against

them. Let's try that again in the first playoff game. I'll, then I'll be annoyed. Let me, let me quick, I want to ask you a question, De Ness, because I remember you spoke really well about the urgency of this season, stakes of being able to repeat. And I think we viewed the team through that window. And what stands out to me, Fran, is like when you talk about the volatility of being a week in, week out, try on a new identity every week, right? The volatility of that, because if you're going into the postseason with that as your plan, you take the onus off of A.J. Brown, J.L. H. H. Hurts, Sequan Barkley, Devante Smith, and you're putting the onus on Nick Geriani and Kevin Patullo getting that right each week. And to me, like, that is a major concern in the postseason. And as someone like, I know how much you value the Eagles figuring

it out in the postseason, does that not leave you concerned? That this is, like, we spend a week talking about the under center. And now we're spending a week talking about. By the way, the Eagles are like 27th and under center usage this year. No, I understand. Like, let's not go crazy with the undercenter stuff. The search for the identity. And like one week, it's like, oh, they really leaned into this and it worked but I just I think that's a tough way to live especially in the playoffs when you're going against really good coaching staffs yeah no for sure I look I I I share a lot of friends concerns and remember I was acting in the role of a lawyer there I don't think Eagles are like

the best offense in league or anything but I do think that like if they had had a lot of success with under center play action this game and we were and they got 96 percentile using that I would have been like oh no they're going to try to continue to do this they're going to have like 17 unsuccessful undercenter runs to set up the one time they finally do play action off of it in the second quarter like it's not like they're the Rams and they're mixing in or the bears the bears start the game they're like run pass

run pass run pass it goes back and forth right from the beginning the Eagles feel like they have to run from under center like seven times before they do the first play action for some reason and so you end up with a lot of wasted plays if they had gone that route I would have said oh no they're going to take a lesson that this worked they're going to continue to try to be this remember the under center

experiment was kind of like a four game stretch in the middle of the season that they then kind of abandoned, right? They abandoned it after terrible performances against the Lions, and then, you know, you have, like, and it kind of ended with that Raiders game. They went back to the 11 personnel,

like, spreading it. The last two games have been that way. Like, friend, what would your main concern be about, what if you were to, you know, be in that building right now and you heard them meeting, and they kind of said, like, okay, like, screw the undercenter stuff. Like, we'll mix in a couple of undercenter play action passes. The one to Devante Smith for the touchdown was nice,

this game, et cetera. We'll mix in a few of those. But we're not going to beat our heads against the wall with all these under center runs anymore. If you heard them say that, would you feel reassured? Or would you say, like, yeah, but you're not good at that either? Like, I'm wondering how much of your concern is just that the offensive line isn't good, they're not being able to run the ball, et cetera,

and how much of it is the actual coaching approach? Yes. I think that, to me, the kind of the realization where it kind of crystallized for me was right around the by week, which is, right when this team started to, you know, the offense really went in the tank, right? Is this offensive line is clearly not as good as the, is previous years. And if the offensive line's not there, that means the run game's not there. And if the run game's not there and they're not utilizing the quarterback run game and they're not utilizing the RPO, which has changed.

Like you said, and that is good. That's why getting away from the undercenter stuff and getting away from the undercenter play action stuff is okay because you're leaning more into the QB run stuff. now are they going to be able to get to operate at that clip where they were they were humming the previous two years the previous three years using that like hopefully but you know they ran they came out in 12 personnel empty knowing that the commanders were going to match in base and then they ran 11 empty no 12 personnel

they came out in 12 personnel in empty and ran the QB that's when they ran the bash yeah yeah yeah the bash yeah if you knew you were going to run bash yeah do it out of 11 and get them to play a nickel because by that point they had changed this so you get them playing nickel play in later bodies but instead you came out in 12 empty yeah that was the only 12 empty snap of the game and it was the only run out of empty yeah and so they ran into three linebackers so you don't mean like to me like there are things that they can continue to tweak it's like oh okay well that's that's that's we haven't been that this year so now they're trying to figure out re-figure out that part of their identity in the stretch run where we're talking about like oh well they might not play anybody in week 18 so it's going to be Tanner in there and so it's going to be a completely different game plan When are they going to figure out the identity? When is that going to be, when is that going to be the priority? If the priority is, we're just, again, changing it every week, I don't feel good about that.

We've talked about sort of different analogies for the way that the offense feels for a while now. To me, it is kind of like it reads like someone who has done this a lot, someone who is cramming for the test every week, right? Like, you know, you're not coming with a perspective. You are like, oh, man, all right, let me, let me jam in as much information as I can. from the outside you know the night before and then just try to remember a bunch of different things yeah let's just see what the you know the week before did and try and replicate some of that as opposed to like you know you mastery of the subject or having a real point of view about it all and it also kind of tracks with like you know the late nights that we always hear about from from the

coaching staff truncated off season like did this I'm not saying that I like I'm not making an excuse or saying this is the case but it's a fair question like did this staff have enough time to like think about if this then that and like have a mastery of what they wanted it to look like this year and when you're cram and you're nervous you usually get the first question wrong on the test right like the first plays the first sequences

have been terrible like I mean like we were talking earlier in the season about good opening scripts it's been the opposite recently I mean like it's been like this is the first like you know Fran said on his breakdowns like this is the first drop back of the game like it was like that's the first play of the game this last game on that run so yeah we got to take a quick break on the other side

Mina Kimes of ESPN will join us talking about how the Eagles shape up against the rest of the NFC, maybe a little Jordan Davis conversation and then after that much more to come here as we get into Eagles Bills, do our secret Santa presentation, Swooper.

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Welcome back to the PHLY Eagles show, Boilf, and EJ. Smith with Mina Kimes of ESPN and the Mina Kimes show featuring Lenny. Mina, good to see you. Happy holidays. is hello happy holidays so festive as as we are here coming off two resounding wins for the eagles against the best of the best how are you feeling uh about the eagles vis-a-vis the rest of the nfc as as we we sort of peer towards the playoffs yeah i mean i don't know that raiders gave the texas kind of a hard time this week um the commanders defense that's true the commanders are a tough watch this year um um um

I feel, so I think the thing that probably encourages me the most from the last two weeks is not the actual results because, as you alluded to, the competition is so bad. But just the continued experimentation on offense has been good. And that goes beyond two weeks. I think that's been about three or four weeks now, really, where you're starting to see new wrinkles. You're starting to see them move away from stuff that's not working, lean into stuff that is working. That's what you do when you play bad teams, right? I mean, you want to beat them down, and the Eagles did, and that's a good sign. But you also want to use that time to prepare for the stretch run, the playoffs, and I think that the Eagles have done just that.

Well, go ahead. Yeah, you know, it's funny that you mentioned this, Mina, because this has been a point of contention on this show, and I think just from Eagles fans in general, whether or not this is going to stick. You know, this time last week, we were talking about under center a lot. You know, it's just something that they can lean into. Obviously, against the commanders, they used a lot of empty sets, and they had a lot of success with that. What do you think sticks from this stretch, you know, against bad defenses where they can sort of try things and maybe find an identity? What do you think will actually matter once the postseason comes around? Well, I think the empty stuff is really, really important.

And frankly, it's kind of puzzling now in retrospect that the Eagles didn't lean into it more often. Jalen Hertz, it's always been such a great part of his game, scrambling, and particularly because, and even this is, I think, been true his entire career. he is a quarterback who's been better running north-south than east-west and it's so I mean when you see him scrambling out of it and obviously that also it's it's assisted by the way defenses play you when you're in empty but you know the zone rays are just so ineffective right like I can't yeah don't do it so and I think they're they're you know that seeing how good he is scrambling out of empty but also throwing out of empty too that's something they're going to continue building on it's a really important change up for this offense, especially when they're playing tempo, which is another thing I think

they're good in. So that's something I think sticking. The under center run game continues to be, I think, an evolution. Obviously, you had success with it against Washington, but that comes with a grain of salt. I think this week is a good test because the bills run defense against under center runs is very bad, very bad. So there's going to be another opportunity here to show that you're continuing to get better running the football out of those looks. And honestly, it's probably going to be a pretty big determined of whether or not they win this game. Yeah, I think the belief in the passing game is, as it has always been, sort of talent-driven, right? Like, we're not going to get to see all of these fancy schemes.

But if Jalen is scrambling more, like he did in this game, I think his most first-down scrambling since week four. That was nice to see him open that up. You believe that AJ and Devante can get stuff done. How do you feel about the running game, Mina, and not just from under center? I mean, we saw Sequin bust probably his best run of the season to go along with that really nice, a powerful touchdown run. If they get Lane Johnson back, as we expect, you know, for the playoffs, do you feel like they can flip something of a switch with the running game?

Lane back will help a lot. I think it's going to really depend on the opponent, you know. Think that the NFC, you're looking, I mean, let's say it's, I mean, it's so up in the air right now. But if you're to play, like, the San Francisco 49ers, I think they can definitely. Probably the most likely thing right now would be in San Francisco. assuming Seattle wins in the week 18, which is going to be a really fun game. So then you're looking at a 3-6, right? So, yeah, you should absolutely be able to run the ball on San Francisco.

I know that, you know, they had a decent job against, they did a decent job against Jonathan Taylor last night, but that Colts offense is pretty defanged, right, throwing down field. So the San Francisco run defense is dead last and success rate against the run. It's been an issue for them with all of their injuries all year long, but especially not all year long, actually, as the year has gone by. So to me, it's really about matchups for Philadelphia. That's one, I think you'd be famous last words,

because the San Francisco 49ers' offense is so good. But I think your offense versus their defense is a matchup where you feel good about running. Yeah, I said this on the morning show. Like, I'm not particularly worried about the 49ers, but this is a good segue. Because you believe in the Eagles defense? Yeah, I think that that's,

I think the Eagles defense can make that into a slug fest. But this is perfect because I want to hear what Mina has to, what Mina thinks about the Seahawks and Eagles, as a potential playoff matchup. I kind of feel like that game would be 13-9, and it's just a matter of who scores 13. But maybe you've got more belief in the Seahawks offense, and as we call him on this show, KK.

Oof. Yes, you call him KK. Yeah. Okay, so let me think through this one. If it did end up being Seattle versus Philadelphia. Probably in Seattle, you would think? Yeah. Unless Seattle loses that, but yes.

Yeah. So I do like the Seahawks. defense against you guys in that matchup i think the style that they play and there's some similarities between the two but um i think you would they would especially the types of coverages and blitzers that they run are things that have given this eagles offense difficulty this is also you know i talked about san francisco and had the 32nd success rate against the run without looking seahs probably top three right so that's very very good defense but on the other side of the ball i also think that the eagle's defense would give sam darn a lot of pressures or

Well, a little slip there. Trouble. So, yeah, I think that one would be very, I think low scoring would be the name of the game there. That would be a hard one to pick, honestly. And that's kind of true, by the way, of every Eagles game because the defense is really good. And I think the Eagles defense, you don't want to go,

and this is unfortunately the case this weekend, is against a really good rushing team. I think that's probably, you know, if you're the Philadelphia Eagles and you're facing, it's not really the NFC. The Rams run the ball really well. The Rams, that would be a little bit more concerning for me. Well, before we get to this Bill's matchup,

I have another sort of Seahawks-tinged question for you. And that is the pro-ball rosters, which we don't want to give too much credence to. But the one guy who we have sort of highlighted as probably deserved it, especially in relation to his teammate, Jalen Carter, who has missed so much time, is Jordan Davis. And he leads the NFL in tackles against the run. It's a very high percentage of,

snaps that he's on the field that he's making a run tackle and if you compare that type of season to the best run stuffing seasons of the past decade or so I mean his four and a half sacks are the most of those guys so he's combining those two things but there's also you know Byron Murphy who didn't make the team and Leonard Williams who does make the team how do you feel about Jordan Davis standing out among the the crowd of NFC defensive tackles yeah I'm looking to see who's so Leonard Williams Quinn and Williams and Someone else.

And Jalen Carter are the three who made it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I would not have taken him over Leonard Williams. I would have taken him over Quinn and Williams. Okay. That's, people might be listening.

Well, Sony Williams is. I don't think that's a home or take. Leonard Williams, for those who, you know, if you guys watch the Seattle defense, I think he's the straw that starts the drink. And you could argue Jordan Davis is the same. But, you know, the Seattle, he has so good at getting pressure with four. And they line up Leonard Williams everywhere. He's so disruptive.

You saw that, I think, against the Rams on those. the final in the fourth quarter when the CX pass rush really came alive he was so impactful getting the staffer almost getting to Stafford he's been really really good he's been really really good his entire tenure in Seattle but um that to me strikes me as fair quinin's been a lot better against the run as a pass rusher he's come alive a little bit in Dallas but obviously not enough to help that that defense and I think Jordan Davis has been probably more impactful I think the case you can make against him which would be fair is that he's playing way more snaps than he ever has, but he's still only playing

65% of the snaps, whereas some of these guys are playing a little bit more than that. Yeah, yeah. All right, let's close out, Mina, with how you break down this bill's matchup here, and what do you think are the most interesting parts of this matchup? Because it does, it seems good on good and mediocre

on mediocre. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, so I I'm previewing this game with Solex, so people go check it out, the podcast is going to drop later today. on the Minicam Show featuring Lenny.

You can check it out at YouTube. And I was looking at it from the Bill's standpoint. He's looking at from the Eagle standpoint. And one of my notes was, it's really, this is actually kind of about Philadelphia

in a lot of ways. Is Vic Fangio going to stick with the light boxes against Buffalo? It's just Eagles know. You guys fans, you know, he played with the most light boxes of any defense in the league.

And it's a big part of why the Eagles don't have the greatest efficiency metrics against the run. A lot of it is structural, right? But the problem is that's what that's exactly how the bills want to live. They're like, great, cool. We'll run that. We'll go. We'll take five yards a clip and go down the field.

And then our quarterback will get it done in the, in the red zone. So and it was interesting. I was looking back and I was like, has Vic changed that up against opponents? And I was looking at run heavy team, Chicago, Detroit, although that's less so. And no, it's just light boxes, light boxes. And Chicago was the one where it really, really hurt. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if that's the right approach against this Bill's team

because the past catchers are not great. You want to dare them. You want the to try to beat you, you know, throwing to Cleo Shearer Downfielder, what a famous last word. So that's something I'm interested. The other thing that jumped out to me from the Bill's perspective, FDN does run the track run types, which is really useful for people who are looking for that.

and the Eagles defense has been much better against duo than outside zone this year, which kind of like a Jordan Davis stat, right? Yeah. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of those types of runs from James Cook, because he's very good outside of zone running back. All right.

Good stuff. I mean, you have the in-laws coming in. What do you expect to be the first Eagles-related words out of? The vibes are good now. So, yeah, I'm actually, the timing could not have been better. um yeah i i think she's going to be in a good mood i don't know i'll have to report back that's the one thing you know we went from talking about benching the quarterback to benching the kicker you know that's true very similar it's funny right because on one hand it's like

we shouldn't kick anymore but on the other hand the tush push like doesn't quite work they're they are in their heads about the tush push they've got to just throw it away for the season i think but yeah it's not working um it's funny because josh allen they might exactly yes sassily um Before I go, what would you guys do? Would you ease up on the light boxes? I've been thinking through this all morning. So I think that there's a case to be made for it.

Now, I wonder how the absence of Nekobi Dean expected will affect this because it could just mean having Jihad Campbell be more of an overhanging player. And that's how you have a little bit more of a just presented heavy box. And then no Jalen Carter means that they don't usually lean into those three-defensive tackle formations as much. Yeah, I just think whatever, we saw against the Bears, like, whatever they, whatever they do, they can't have re-blankenship as manipulated by motions as, as he was in that game. So I think that's going to do.

Have Byron Young on the field more? Like, that's not what they're going to do, right? There was a point in this season where I felt like their best defense was out of base. It's definitely not the case anymore. Unless you want more Brandon Graham and you're playing him, Morrow, and Jordan Davis together. I like BG as like a NASCAR package, three-tenths. not like a constant run stuffer in there. I think he's a every down, yeah, player at this point, yeah.

Interesting. All right, well, it's a tough one for Vic. Yeah, we'll see. And we will listen to the extended conversation about it with Ben on the Mina Kimes show featuring Lenny. Thank you so much, Mina. We'll talk you in a couple weeks. Thanks, Mina.

Bye, guys. So the other day, I'm over at Donner's house, and he's, first of all, he says he's a fan. That's fine. Like, I'm here to watch the game. I don't need you talking smack about Rudolph the whole time. Like, let the guy live. He has his own skill set.

We are not pro-bullying here. Okay? Keep it to yourself. Be nice to the guy. And by the way, fix your garbonzo bean setup. Because I'm here to watch the game, and you've got lagging, buffering, switching between apps trying to find the game.

You have completely fanfish me, Donner, and I'm not here for it. I'm going to go home and watch the game where I know I'm going to get a good vantage point because I've got Xfinity. We're talking the perfect fan flex. Action right in your living room. Xfinity's best picture and sound for enhanced 4K, all that good stuff.

So make sure that big fan isn't a big fail. Learn more at Xfinity.com. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply. Multi-view requires Xfinity 4K capable TV box. So the Smiths had a little car trouble over the weekend. I ended up having to take a rental card down to Washington, Northwest Stadium. And I got to tell you guys, I had a Chevrolet, and I didn't want to give the thing back.

It was so nice. It was comfortable. It was just, yeah, it was a really good experience. So I got to tell you about Elkin Chevrolet. They are located on Route 73, South in Marlton, New Jersey. It's run by three brothers, Jason, Adam, and Josh. These guys are in the store every day, working to make sure they have a huge lineup of Chevys

at the best price and providing honkin good service. I might have to visit these guys myself after that, that long trip I had because, again, that thing, obviously you guys can tell. I haven't been able to stop talking about how nice that truck was. So they've got no fumbles, no drama. They're just real brothers running a local business and backing every deal like it's the championship game.

So if you're in the market for a new Chevy, make sure your next move is to Elkins Chevrolet. Real brothers, real deals, and a whole lot of honking good service. Shop now at Elkinschevrolet.com. Together, let's drive. Welcome back to the P.H.O.I. Eagles podcast. Here we are.

Bo, Fran, E.J., the professor. Let's talk a little Eagles bills. to get into this match-up guys at the 57 mark of the hour well listen it is Tuesday to be fair it's Tuesday yeah

yeah I wasn't ridiculing it's just it is funny oh here we go watchboy over here Mr. Lotian you was trying to plug up the works you said that we're not a bullying podcast in your ad read

yeah since when I thought that was like the main theme of the show. All right. Fran, what can't tell us about the Buffalo Bills? Where do you want to start? You would go offense?

Let's do it. Let's do the good on good side first. Yeah. It's a fun offense to study. It can be a little up and down, like the past game from week to week. There's a little bit of volatility there. I think a lot of that honestly has to do

with the skill talent around Josh Allen. You know, you look at it. And Kalia Shakir is slot receiver, mostly underneath work. I think it was like his A dot is like just under four Yeah it's like now Every once in a while you'll see a you know

Like a deep corner route They hit on one of those midseason I went back and just watched like all of his explosive plays Just see how they came And yeah like there's gonna be a lot of yards After catch with him Good player Outside of that

I mean Keon Coleman their first round pick last year Healthy Scratch last week You know they've gotten a lot of run from guys What's so funny about that? Every time I see you or hear Kean Coleman when I think of like the Cam Newton thing. Have you seen this? Which one?

It's like, oh, I like cookies. I'm a joke sir. It's just, you have to see it. I can't, I can't really describe it. It's just like. So therefore it was good enough to interrupt the breakdown. I didn't interrupt it. I like cookies.

I'm funny. Well, Keanu Coleman Coleman was a healthy scratch last week as a former first round pick. Did they signed Brandon Cooks off waivers? He's playing significant snaps. They brought in Gabe Davis off waivers. He was playing significant snaps. He was a healthy scratch last week. They've gotten a lot of run from Tyrell Shavers.

Big body, good blocker. And that's right. Honestly, that's why you get, but it's like he's three targets in the last five games. Yeah, well, that's the thing. But if you go to like the previous five, he was a little bit more of a factor there. And it's all deep stuff. It's like, all right, he's a great blocker. And it's like a souped up Mac Hollins is like the body type and the usage there.

can take a guess as to what his chest hair situation is I don't know if he wears he's Matt Collins with shoes on I need to guess it in what

no I guess we're not at overtime yet no we're not man the bovertime is you're lucky don't speak for me

you're lucky Lindsay's not paying Lindsay and I work this whole thing out she's got a whole plan we're going to nail it on the dot and you are stepping all over it I was trying to be helpful Josh Palmer's not that great. They're very productive throwing to the tight end.

They play a lot from heavy personnel sets, 13 personnel, 22 personnel. They work all three tight ends into the offense. So it's Dalton Kincaid, former first round pick, Dawson Knox, and then this great player, Jackson Hawes, who's a rookie day three pick from Georgia Tech. And when you're looking at all three, all three of them have very defined roles. Reggie Gilliam is their fullback.

It's a good blocking fullback. They do a lot with him, like in the backfield. They incorporate all these guys. James Cook has really developed into a really nice runner. He's a good player, very productive, really explosive, one cut back. Six most empty, most 22 personnel, fourth most play action. They're fourth in screens. They're number one in motion.

Explosive pass. Their seventh and explosive pass rate, third in yards after catch. So it's a lot of, like the top five offense by a lot of the metric success rate, EPA, you know, all that stuff. We're going to talk about it in overtime. I can sense the attention ride. Like a shortness of breath. Conspiracy for overtime. What are you talking about?

You said you and Lindsay had worked it out. Yeah. She's got the clock up there at the top. Oh, I do see that. Okay. You guys got to watch this camera. Got to hit it at 5950. You're supposed to be our number one.

And you play in like a bum. You better get to doing your job. You haven't seen this? I've not seen it. It's very funny. Yeah. So, anyway, Fran. the ways in which the eagles got pushed around against the bears

yep feels like it is a replicable thing for the bills in this matchup how do you expect vic to counteract that yeah i think that the big thing will just making sure that all their motion rules are like you know hey if they do this this is how we have to make sure respond you don't want to see those plays where all they they motion you know they brought one guy from one side of the field to the other and that removed reed blanket ship from the from the box and now there's nobody there to replace him a lot of that they can replicate from a motion standpoint you look at the the one cut nature of like their zone run game and i think back to the rams game where kairn williams what was that that

success rate in the in the first half it was like uh you know it felt like every run went for like eight yards 10 yards 12 yards yeah that that's the way that this team can beat you um you know i think of some of those explosive plays in space for jimier gibbs in that lion's game that's the same kind of back the same archetype of back here where you're looking at james Cook and they do a good job. It's not just getting him in space in the run game, but in the past game where, you know, they'll kind of weave him in between the formation and run him to the flat. They'll run vertical routes with him from the backfield, deep wheel route. So I'd be alert for that, especially no Nicobi Dean in this game. Jihad Campbell, that's an area where

they could try and target him and say like, all right, let's mess with the rookie's eyes, you know, show him some kind of misdirection, then send James Cook down the boundary, down the sideline. That would be something I would, a thousand percent they will try and run a play like that. And by the way, E.J., we do have some news from the practice. Yes, Jalen Carter is at practice. That's according to our friend Jeff McLean. Blaine Johnson was not present at practice, at least at the start of practice. Okay.

Interesting. Okay. Fourth highest scramble rate in football. We're talking about Josh Allen. Obviously, there are going to be times where he kind of puts that superhuman cape on. He's number one in the NFL in EPA per dropback in those scramble situations. So when he does scramble, they are, he is big play hunting. And he's going to make plays with his arm and with his legs.

I talked about the screen game and the running backs vertically down the field. They're going to go heavy personnel, and they're going to try and create explosives. It's a fun offense to watch. You know, even just now, like before the show, I was going through and just trying to grab with some plays. I'm going to break down during pregame, and I'm like, man, like, that's a really cool play. That's a really nice design where Josh Allen, like, works the running back vertical out of the backfield, not there.

They have the tight end coming across. Not there. Let me get to the checkdown. It's James Cook in the backfield. dumped that off and it turns into an explosive that's what they can do they don't have great talent on the outside but they can still beat you in a lot of different ways

Yeah I hear you going Oh man we do that's tough For the part of the audience that Like doesn't pay that much attention to the bills Like it can be surprising sometimes To see where they rank and like how Run heavy they are Right like they have Josh Allen

He's just like top three quarterback Like everyone thinks like oh it must be his show But they're 30th in neutral situation pass rate they're 30th and first down pass rate they're 27th and pass rate overall so the run really does set up so much of what they do and I was going to ask you

like if the Eagles can stop the run do you think that that could also be the path to stopping the drop back game like what do you think of the bills when they have to drop back like when it's third and 10 like given their maybe lack of weapons so I go back to almost I would say similar to and this was one

of the other things I wrote down that Chargers game where Herbert drops back and the secondary did a great job locking it down. He's got the ability to break contain and make plays with his legs like Herbert did in that game where he's creating all these first downs as a scrambler, but then also, like I mentioned, late in the down, like he'll fit one in on a tight window

and throw it into a mailbox to Josh Palmer and it's just a matter of his Josh Palmer going to come through and make a play for him. So yes, in theory, it's third and eight. I like, you know, the Eagles are going to, you know, they're going to play cover six, and it's going to be a four-man rush, and are they able to, A, contain Josh Allen,

don't let him beat you with his legs, and are they able to take away those threats? I feel good about that, but Alan could still make those kinds of throws. So it's good to me that comes down to like those high leverage moments. We saw Josh Allen have those three double-digit yards scrambles against the Eagles in 2023, including that one in overtime.

Of course, that was before Vic, but we saw him do it against the Eagles as well. Jordan Davis chasing down play. We all remember that one. And then I didn't hear much of Jordan after that play. May or may not be as Hooper related. that. I thought about doing that too.

Three favorite bills. Branded. Branded number one. Absolutely. I mean, Little Bill. Dollar? Who's Little Bill?

It was a TV show when I was a kid. I know. That's why I had to think about it. I had to really think about it. This is okay. It's not. Is it a Cosby? It sure is.

Little Bill. No, no. I'm done with this game. Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill? I love a duck bill. Duck bill? Oh, you're giving me some...

Here, go out. Well, yeah, I couldn't... I'm terrible at this kind of thing, so I just had to look at a list. Pulitzer? Yeah, Bill Russell. Oh, Bill Hader. I like Bill Hater.

Okay. You weren't going to go, Bill Walton? one of the greatest announcers over. Burr? I feel good about my Bill rankings. Yeah, I feel good about my Bill rankings. Clinton? I feel good about my Bill rankings.

Brandon, Bill Walton, and Bill Hayden. Paxton? Like Bill Paxton? Murray? Murray's got to be up there. Nye? I do like a Bill Nye. Shout out to Bill Nye.

Still creating content. Yeah, I mean, you're in the content game. Yep. Friend? I mean... That's not friend. That was a staffer, no look pass. I don't even know

have these people. I'm so out of touch. This is supposed to be the most famous bills? Crossky Merritt. O'Brien. Oh, of course. Cower.

Good one. Let us know in the comments. Let us know in the comments. Who is the most mid bill? I just liked his like... The gruff. Yeah, the gruff. Yeah.

You know, you could go. you want to go Cosby on the bottom whoever at the top who's the most mid bill just give me a down the middle bill a median bill I would say like Bill Paxton is probably a median bill

what about Pullman you go you go you go Paxon or Pullman who are you going no I mean the Independence Day speech sends him ahead of Bill Paxton I think I agree yeah so I think that's an easy one okay I don't know if

That's a Billy, yeah. Billy Bob. I think it got to go by Bill. One of my favorite movies of all times. A movie that will still probably make me cry. What movie? Friday Night Lights. I think the movie is better than the TV show.

I think that that's my, maybe that's a hot take, but. That might be a little bit of a hot take. I like the TV show. Marr is a very low, is a very low bill. Oh. Uh-oh. All right. All right.

Bill's defense. Sucks, right? Sucks is probably a strong word. 24th by DVOA. Yeah. The run defense sucks. The run defense is very bad. The tackling has not been very much.

The big thing when you're looking at that style of defense, I talk about this all the time when it comes to like draft and like, you know, what type of player is this player? And what does that mean for what they need to be good at in order to excel as that kind of player? If you are going to be like, hey, we're going to be a zone heavy team. Imagine you're talking about the Eagles. Hey, we're going to be a zone heavy team.

We're not going to play a lot of man. We're going to rally and tackle. Well, you better be able to rally and tackle. Otherwise, they're not good. And right now they are missing way too many tackles. And that's one of the reasons why. It's been one of the leakier defenses in football. The run defense, like I said, it has not been good.

They're getting pushed around up front. That's been an issue for them. So from a coverage end, you're still getting the, hey, you know what? They disguise coverage. They play a ton of split. safety it's cover two it's cover four it's cover six so that that could be problematic at times for jalen hurts but they're also like these one-on-one matchups like i feel good about uh you know in in theory tradavius white this version of tradavius white going up against devante smith or a j brown

like i i like that so um yeah there are some matchups to be one but you got to be able to weed through it as well linking it back to the stuff we were talking about earlier with how the eagles matchup to teams based on whether they're playing base and all those things the bills are the opposite of what Washington did in this last game. They are 29th in the league, and how often they line up in base against heavy personnel, even, only 45%. And overall, they only play base 21% of the time.

They play dime on late downs. And Fran, I was going to ask you, they lead the league in two-man coverage. And I was going to ask what you think the, if you think the Eagles will have something better against two-man than they did a couple weeks ago against the Chargers. I hope so, yeah, I hope you see like more crossing

and things like that. We'll see. Because that's been something the Eagles does not seem to have anything good for. Maybe the fact that Jaylen's willing to run a little more will make that a little bit.

I feel like what we've seen a lot from teams, especially, you know, and this shows up against the Eagles, but I feel like I've seen it anecdotally around the league. I had to like look through and see if this is just something

I'm good at my end, but a lot of two man with a three-man rush and that fourth line dropping as a spot. Drop a two-man, yeah. That's what the Chargers did on that play. that we criticized yeah so I wonder if that's something that we'll see the bills do as well

yeah Eagles I feel like the Eagles have faced that drop a two-man spy type look at least like seven or eight times this year which is which is a lot for you know that's that's a rare coverage yeah I have my favorite bill okay mats oh of course come on bad job by us that's a terrible job by me I have seen the most offensive thing I've ever seen in the chat by the way The most offensive thing? Yes. Okay. Someone thought I was a Bill Mar guy.

Go to hell. Please block them. All right, you guys ready to get into it? Let's do it. All right. Let's do it. Now, before Swooper, we are doing our Secret Santa Gift Exchange. Before Swooper, no.

And this is, there are Swooper ramifications to this. Secret Santa. the P.HL.A. Goes podcast. Here are the rules of Secret Santa. The six of us, the four of us here on camera. Julia and Lindsay, we're all in the web here. Everybody got a present for somebody else. Here are the rules. What? Go on. Nothing. This is my first time hearing the rules, so I'm excited to hear. It's not. I don't even know how Secret Santa normally works. It's just like, we're all in the web here. Like, I don't know. Get your mind out of the gutter. It's not a human centipede. It's just like, what a ridiculous thing to say. Should I say orgy instead? No. We're like a big family. It was right there for you. Anyway, here are the rules.

Everybody is going to, you get to predict who it is who is giving you the gift. And there are turkey ramifications. But you predict at the beginning before you open the present. Oh, that's less fun. And then, after opening the present,

you have a chance to change your pick if you want to. If you don't change it and you stick with your initial prediction and you're correct, you get five extra turkeys. If you change it and then are still correct, you get three extra turkeys. For the professor and Julia and Lindsay, they also can win those turkeys

and then can dispense those to the three of us however they see fit. Wait, what? Okay, whatever. Got it? Now, keep in mind, no reverse. I'll just add them to my items. No revealing if someone has guessed correctly or incorrectly until everybody has opened so that there's not a process of elimination thing going on.

That's a good idea. Wait, let's repeat that. Let's say I open my, let's say I open my gift. And I predict it's Danez, and it's actually from you. Don't correct me. Nobody say I'm right or wrong. No spoilers. No spoilers until all six people have opened their gifts.

Okay, I like that. So how are we predicting before we open, like, are we going to send it to Lindsay? No, I think you can say it on, you say it out loud. It's sequential anyway, right? Yeah. Since we're doing Secret Santa, and I'm from Turkey, I have to mention that Santa himself, St. Nicholas, was born in the province, what is now, the province of Antalya, which is where my father's family is from,

where we spend a lot of each summer. He was also, he also died there, and he is buried there. And it is a tradition for people to visit his grave, and we drive by the, and we drive by that town every single summer on the way to the beach where we go and i told evren you know this is where santa is uh this is where santa died okay and he doesn't care about santa but like his friends and so he went into school and he told some of his friends like i saw the place where santa died and you know like this was this was this was back in like kindergarten and he dies and passes someone else become santa okay yeah yeah well thanks for selling my story but yeah

Yeah, there we go. How would you say St. Nick, like, with a Turkish accent? St. Nick. St. Nicholas? In Turkish, we call Santa Claus. We call him Noel Baba, which literally means, like, Christmas, like, Father. Christmas Father? Yeah.

Noel Baba. Okay. I thought that was good. All right, Julia, do you have the gifts? Okay, all right. Lindsay has been presented her gift two things stacked on top of one another You could get hints from looking at the wrapping

So we should guess now No no no wait wait wait wait we gotta guess before you see No that's part of it's wrapped No isn't the wrapping the whole thing you're guessing based on Otherwise it's just a random guess The wrapping and also just your general vibe of What you think Because without the wrapping it's like

Yeah okay All right yeah bring it on bring it on Julia yeah What? Fran's giving me a disapproving look because swooper's coming up. He's on edge. That's true. That's true.

All right, Danes has been given a wrapped present in beige wrapping. I feel like I can eliminate. E.J. has been given a green box with red tissue paper. Fran has been given a nice reindeer gift bag. Mrs. Beau.

I have been given a white gift bag. Julia has been given. given a red gift bag. Am I the only one who got something that's actually wrapped like in a, with like not just to get by? It looks to be that way. All right, Lindsay. That's a clue.

Do you want to make a prediction? You want to go first? Yeah, I can't even like if I have thinness. Okay. I believe mine is from Julia. Lindsay believes hers is from Julia. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Okay. Well, now nobody else is going to pick Julia. All right. Lindsay is predicting Julia. Professor, who are you predicted? Okay, it's very nicely wrapped, carefully taped. Now, the one clue on here is that it says it's two Wharton Boy, which I'm going to assume it's not from,

I'm assuming it's not from Lindsay or Julia for this reason. Now, oh, man, I hope that's like football for games. I feel like it's not very E.J. to tape things so nicely prepare ahead of time. The Wharton boy thing really could be Bo or Fran. I'm going to guess Bo. Right now, right? Okay. I was trying to make eye contact with Lindsay

because I feel like Lindsay would give it away. I think it's... Oh, my God. That is a really good poker face, by the way. I think it's Fran, but I'm also suspicious of Lindsay. That's what I would say. You can't just see your answers. Who are you going with?

I'm going with. But I'm going to guess that Meg helped you with this. Okay. Otherwise, I would have been with later. Based on one, it's like a wrinkled gift bag. Oh, wow. Like, why can't Fran be? Yeah, what the hell?

Some of us stayed up rapping all right last night. More on that later. More on that later. I'm not saying that Matt could be great at rapping. Julia, who are you predicting? My first thought was E.J., but now I'm thinking Fran. I do know, like, I'm pretty confident in, like, two. of what people are you confident in this one uh yeah i think it's fran i'm gonna go fran fran for

fran who are you going with um i'm gonna go with lindsay here on this one i like i like the vibe of the bag it's a little too fancy for the gentleman on uh sitting at the desk here i'm gonna go lindsay i think that's oh man i think that's bow something about i've got here what it's is this is just a random bag. Lil thingimajigs. Asian pop project. Oh, that's got E.J. all over it.

I thought it was you. Yeah, you don't know. I think I'm going to Dennis. I think I'm going to Dennis on my. All right. Lindsay, well, let's go back in that same order. Lindsay gets to open first. No, no, no, no.

Not until after you. Because you get a chance to... After you... You can change your guess. I'm not going to... Oh, no. Is it Alvesto, I guess? But you still don't say, right?

Because it could mess it up for other people. Oh, I'm sorry. It is a... A nice... Oh, it's a fly? With a Sequin ass jump. Wow. Beanie.

Very nice. It's like I've seen there on a book cover before. I think it's time to convert. I think it's time to convert. And there's something else in there. Julia wrapped it too well. Someone wrapped it too well. Cousin Grace says,

Wow, a man can't put a present in a bag. And a photo. Oh, Taylor Swift, man. Holding a cat Let's show it No, don't throw that, yeah Especially after how the first throw went Wow

I mean, but doesn't have good hands What are you talking about? I didn't drop anything I said what I said Hold on This is more offensive than the Bill Martha I have great hands Yeah When have you ever seen me drop anything

I was gonna say something would be inappropriate. I mean, listen, you were choking on water earlier in the shell. You had something to do with my hands. I don't trust you. What are you talking about? Just making stuff up. All right.

Lindsay's sticking with Julia. All right. Who's up next, Danes is up next? All right. Two Wharton boy. The Wharton boy. Oh, man, I hope. I wish that he had like a book that he had and somebody could have bought him that book.

Okay. a box inside the bag and then there we go oh we've got oh this is a multi tool for my

bike nice, okay something for the bike and then football for dummies thank you I like football so I appreciate this that's very funny oh this is great That's great. What a good gift. Yeah. So I'm 100% sticking with my earlier guess that it's Bo.

Okay. All right. I'm thinking it might be Fran, but I'm sticking with Bob. All right, so my guess was Fran. Oh, yeah, no, this is definitely... This isn't Frank. What? E.J, what are you talking about? You don't think I got wrapped like that?

It's like a wrinkled piece of... It's not even like well wrapped. Oh! Oh man Cam Lottu in an Ashton oh wow that is amazing Look at that I mean this is

Wow Get the lotion That's That's I don't know who this is Is that just going Up in your bedroom E.J? Wow a lot too

Aston Villa sure I mean he'd be in a really good centerback That's what Photoshop was invented for. I think you should show that to the camera again. Who would this be? That's pretty good. I'm going to guess this was Bell at this point. I'm now starting to think mine.

I'm starting to think mine was Fran now. I'm switching to Bo. Okay, you're officially switching to me. You don't care about Ashton Villa. I know that's right. He knows you do. Yeah, right. That's all you talk about.

Literally all you talk about. I think it's Bo. I think it's Bo. All right, he's sticking with me. Julia, you're up. All right. I said, Fran, I guess Fran. Yeah.

Oh. Oh, this is awesome. What do we got? Wait, what is it? Natural mallet. Oh, Judge Julia. Nice. That's awesome.

You have, like, a judge, wig and robe? Oh, my God. The glasses, the wig. Okay, all right. Oh, wow. Oh, in the little, the neck thing. Oh, nice. This is awesome.

Very judicious. Hmm. I still think it's Fran. And France's been getting a lot of action. Yes, everybody thinks their stuff is France. I saw the, the keyle wrinkgo of power. I don't think that that's the work of a man

who wraps. If we were to judge by that, I don't know how you would get you like your pants on in the morning. More on that in a minute. More on that in a minute. More on your pants? No. I think I might may surprise you.

Oh, I'll say. Okay. I'll put the gloves too. Ooh. All right, Julia. Who are you predicting? I'm staying with Fran. Sticking with France. Okay. All right, let's see what we got. My prediction initially was Lindsay.

Bo is the second guess there. Oh, chocolate-covered cherries. Made with real fruit. Very nice. Thank you. Let's see. Chocolate covered cherries. We're stick with Lindsay.

I think that's what Lindsay gift. I'm sticking with Lindsay. Okay. Sticking with it, going for five. Nice pack. All right, I'm going into my little thing with jigs here. I have a notebook because I've been, I need a new notebook with a T.J. Max, shout out to T.J. Max. And some socks. Two can do it.

Oh, that's, that's very cute. I'm switching to E.J. You didn't guess me originally? I guess Dana is originally. I'm switching to E.J. Okay. All right. So.

It's the time to... It's time to reveal. Lindsay. Julia, were you, Lindsay? Yes. Lindsay gets five turkeys. Should we get a poll going for one of these? It's too late.

All right. Dennis, who did you? You guessed me. Yes. Was it you? It was not me. Oh. E.J.

You guessed me? No, I guess. Yeah, I guess you had... You changed to me. I changed to you. Yes. You get three turkeys. Yeah, I knew it wasn't you once I saw the...

Once I saw the Camelotu shirt. Julia. I know, Astrid Villa is I can wrap a damn... Okay. The credit you were giving to that rap job. The wrapping... The wrapping job was not good. Yeah.

You just strike me as, like, stuff it in the bag guy. That seems like your vibe. That's exactly what that was. Did you see the bag? It was like a wrinkled bag. It was not much. It was very in the middle. It wasn't the best.

It wasn't the best rap gift. That is true. Yeah, I agree. But I also not just stuff it in a bag like you did with me. All right, Julia. Also, this is a little necklace. Oh, nice. You predicted Fran.

Yes. I think you or Danes No, I think it's Fran Not me It's not me Unless it was Oh it was Lindsay Oh

So they got each other They got each other They got each other Okay All right so you I guess Lindsay I stayed and I stayed with Lindsay So I was wrong

Friend take that out of the box again and let's have a careful look. Now, first of all, it's milk chocolate. Milk chocolate covered cherries. Now, here's the thing. We've had a long discussion about chocolate on the show. Yeah. And you were the milk chocolate guy.

Yeah. The other thing about those is you can pick them right out of the box. You're not, you're not understanding. You can pick them right out of the box, in which case you would be... Cherry, man. Oh, nicely done. Okay. That was good.

That's good. I like that. It's pretty good. That's pretty good. So then you or me? No. You or me? That's right.

Oh, so you got him football for dummies? I did. Good job. I want the record to show. I wrap that gift. And you can attend. Pretty well wrapped. I hit the tape on the back.

You know, listen, guys, I have some skills that maybe you're not up to speed on it. I can wrap a gift now. Okay. Thank you, E. Because none of us guys... And thank you for throwing in a gift that I could actually use. I wanted you to actually have something to use, but yeah. Oh, that was nice.

Yeah. Thank you. That was nice. Okay. So the only person who's getting extra turkeys is Lindsay. No, E.J. Oh, you can change to me if you got three. Okay. So you get three extra turkeys. Lindsay gets five. I don't know.

You can figure out how you want to dispense those turkeys or keep them yourself and bid on an item, you know? Oh, that's okay. I'm going to give my five to E. E.J. Because he got me super first. Oh, wow. He's a new man. New Year new me. First, I am.

New Year, new me, baby. Wow. You guys got to remember. I might be chaotic and disorganized, but I am first and foremost a good husband and a family man. Gotta wrap my wife's gifts. Gotta make them look good underneath the tree. It has nothing to do with you getting super in first.

No, but that doesn't have... I think you are first and foremost... shamed into doing the correct thing that is actually pretty fair but no if I want to make sure Christmas is good for my wife I mean I talk about Julia on here more than I talk about Ascent Villa

so I make sure I got to I make sure I wrap the gifts properly now I do have a story about the shirt okay because I place the order online you know place place says that

it's gonna be a disaster you know it's gonna get a delivery and I'm you know it's going to be set to arrive yesterday and all of a sudden I look at the thing like okay when's this package coming and it says the order was canceled order was canceled I didn't get an email I didn't get any kind of notification that the email was canceled so so Zazzle can go to hell I hope the I hope the company folds but what a wonderful mitzvah because then I got I got to figure out how I can get this done locally

We're over at, we're over at Reading Terminal. There's a place in the fashion district mall where you just get, you just get a shirt printed same day. 40 minutes. Nice. Shout out to that place. Good reminder. Forget about the big companies. Shop small.

Now, who is this? I thought it was Coutinho, but it's not Cotino. Do you know who it is? I don't remember who I photoshopped. All right, fair enough. You could probably put the photo in some sort of search and figure it out. So there you go. Use an AI.

All right. Well, then let's get to this week's edition of Holiday Swooper. Now, we've got to add eight turkeys to E.J., who he's going now from 26 to 34. He's not going to do that. Now, how did last week go? Where do we stand? Good question. Last week, Fran had four items.

The margin of victory in this game is greater than at least one of the college football playoff first round. He nailed that for seven turkeys. The Eagles do at least one of the following six things. Score a 60-yard touchdown on the first-offensive play. Score eight or more touchdowns. Have 28 or more first downs. Almost got the first downs. Did he?

Almost. Get two or more fourth down stops. Allow five or fewer successful run plays. Only spent two turkeys did not happen. Jalen Hertz runs for more first downs at Marcus Mariotta. Got that. And then the Crusher. Oh boy, was this just a kick in the nuts.

For a friend. Josh Harris' team finishes with under 18 points. Whole game it was looking that way. Eagles go for two, rub it in the wound, and that provokes the commanders to then go, score a touchdown, and get the two-point conversion finishing with exactly 18 points. Now, you didn't want to make the argument

that the devils didn't score 18 points. Crystal Palace didn't score 18 points those are goals that's intellectual dishonesty those are goals not points nobody cared more about that two point conversion than

this actually explains why you were so upset about the Eagles going for two I did not know that until after the pregame because I came up thinking oh I got I got three points and I think I said that I was like oh yeah I got three I think it's

I think it's me and Bell were tied wasn't until like the game and I was like wait a minute they scored 18 out of the hit. Yeah, that was after I got done with the pre-game show, or post-game show. E.J., who had the lead heading in, had the record for longest field goal in the NFL history has broken that week.

Carried over, did not happen. An Eagles offensive lineman is targeted on a pass. Did not happen. Cam Latu is on the field for an explosive play. Cam Latu was not active. The four favorites in the opening round of the college football player have a total margin of victory that is higher than the number of receiving yards for Terry McLaurin. He got that.

And then the Eagles go 100% in goal. to go situations. So E.J. and Fran were tied at two. I had Sequin, Barclay has 18 rushing attempts, at least. Got that. The Eagles avoid going three and out in a game for the first time this season. They went three and out on the opening possession. There was a mirror play.

No mirror play. At least one of the following happens. The Fran Poo-Poo Platter, Jordan Davis sack. Cooper DeGine interception. Eagles return to kickoff past midfield, an eagle other than Barclay, Brown, Smith, Goddard scores an offensive touchdown. Got that. Got that. And then spent

25 turkeys actually spent EJ's 20 turkeys for the Eagles win so I won and now me and EJ on this season are tied at 5 and 5 6th Fran is 2 and a half points behind Playoff game counts is 2 I'm sorry it is funny how you're like staring at the first

playoff game counts as 2 and the points increase every round so it's about playoff positioning you expect them to only play one game so you need to get within 2 this week I have 20 turkeys

Fran has 28 EJ now has 34 thanks to the Secret Santa sequence of events and we begin with item number one item number one

is Brandon Graham records at least a half a sack but there is another addition here the winner of the item

also acquires no please hand this over Julia the jolly old St. Nick Cole. Oh, this is impressive. The jolly old St. Nick Cole.

Here we go. Beautiful picture of Nick Cole. Former Eagle Nick Cole in a Santa hat and Santa Beard. That's pretty good. And what does the jolly old St. Nick Cole entail? Here's what it is. You get to be a you get to be a giver.

No, no, this is, there is no nefariousness here. On Swooper Eve, so which is right before the final swooper submission, so before Danes' 12th swooper item, the owner of the jolly old St. Nick Cole decides whether to fill up the stockings of the other

two contestants with up to five turkeys, so you're giving them, you're handing out turkeys to your fellow people, or if you choose not to do that, you can fill their stockings with coal. And what filling their stockings with coal is is performing at least 20 seconds of Cole Beasley's chart-topping hit, 80 Stings.

The lyrics are readily available on line. You can read them, perform it however you want for 20 seconds, or you can give your competitors a nice holiday gift of some turkeys before the final submission. Are you, is it turkeys from your own cash, or is it turkeys from the void? It is turkeys from the void. I thought about that.

I thought about maybe from your own, but Santa doesn't give stuff. That's his own, you know, he's, he's creating things. So he's creating turkeys out of thin air. Before you guys bid, the 13 dropbacks with Brandon Graham on the field these last two games. Three BG sacks, one other sack, two interceptions, six incompletions, and just that one completion on the screen to Debo, Samuel. One for nine, 20 yards, two interceptions, four sacks on the 13 dropbacks with me. Brandon Graham on the field.

I thought that was interesting. Lindsay, can I see that rule one more time? Just the rules of the Nick Cole, totem. Totum. The owner of the jolly old St. Nick Cole decides whether to fill up the stockings of the other two contestants. Right before the final submission,

Swoop or Eve, you give up, you can give one turkey, you can give five turkeys anywhere in between, or you can choose to give no turkeys and do your best Cole Beasley impression. All right. Got it? Let's do it. I will start the bidding at three.

Four. Do I hear five? It's really good. It is good. Four going once. Four going twice. Five! Oh!

Did he get it in? You got it. All right. Do I hear six? Five going once. Five. going twice sold for five. Am I doing this right? Judge Julia. Okay. It's okay. I'm cost-playing as Judge

Julia today. As the one who sings on the show. Would you have sung? Hell no. My first item. Okay. Sequin Barclay runs for more yards after contact than James Cook. Start the bidding at three. Oh, no context.

Talk about how the bill's run defense has not been great. Six. Seven. Eight. They're going once. Sold For eight That's a good one

CJ Now Fran's gonna tell me Why I shouldn't feel good about it Merry Christmas I love this side of Fran that comes out Oh my gosh I really wish I hadn't bought that Jolly old St. Nick

But here I am What do you mean It's more than it deserved to go for All right over to you E.J. My first entry, the Eagles defense allows fewer than 120 rushing yards.

I'm going to start the bidding at three. And this includes scrambles. It's just playing rushing guards. Russian guards. Four. Four. Four going once. Four going twice. Sold for four. Am I supposed to do like multiple taps or just one tap? What does a judge do? I mean, Julia's got the whole lot. Get up. I see, you know. Yeah. No, I know. It's kind of...

But she's not the professor. All right. Is it my turn? It is your turn. All right. So all of my items are going to be unconventional auctions, as we do when I'm here. The first one is going to be a Dutch auction.

I'm going to begin at 15 and count down until somebody yells Swooper. This is going to be the same item that I had last week. The Eagles avoid going three and out in a game for the first time this season. This includes only punts on fourth down, so four and outs and turnovers don't count.

The bill's defense is 10th at forcing three and outs. The one thing I'm going to add to this is you are going to, the winner is going to get to keep this for the remainder of the season until it hits, hoping to will it to hit at some point. Okay. That the Eagles will not go three and out. So, are you ready? I'm going to count down from 15.

Whoever yells swooper wins the item. 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 10, 10. nine eight seven six five over got it a five I think yes all right EJ loves the carryover yeah I do carryover items in although that may never hit so it may never hit targeted no all right a Christmas themed submission here for item number five Sequin Barclay has a rush of at least 12 yards and Jalen Hurts completes a pass of at least 25 yards Bless you bless you best I'll start the bidding at four Hmm

Four going once five Five going once five going twice six Seven seven Seven going once. Seven going twice. Sold for seven to Egypt. That's too cheap. My next one.

Jackson Hawes gets a first down, touchdown, or two-point conversion. We'll start the bidding at three. Four. You suck. I got 28 turkeys. Four going once. Four going twice.

I think France, France just is going all be hoarding. Sold. Fran, which one of Jackson Hawes 15 catches this year do you like the best? I like all the runs that you open up for all the explosive runs. He's awesome. He's such a good blocker. Such a good blocker. All right.

Over to you, E.J. All right. My second item is Sequin Barclay rushes for more than 100 yards. Let's start the bidding at 6. Over 100. Over 100. Starting at 6. More than 100.

Six going once. Seven. Seven going once. Eight. 8 going once 8 going twice 9 9

there's a good gift of E.J's head just dropping in the Santa hat 9 going once 9 going twice 10 Oh add All right sold for 10

to EJ is it me yes okay okay this is going to be a reverse dutch auction where i'm going to count up and you have to yell swooper out to not be involved anymore and this is going back to jordan davis's famous chasing josh allen out of bounds in 23. The item is Jordan Davis either sacks or tackles Josh Allen. So it can be

a half sack, it can be a... Credited with a tackle. Credited with a tackle. If he's the closest defender and he runs out of bounds, that counts. If he, yeah, if he's credited with a tackle on the play and Josh Allen was the player who had the ball, it counts. So I'm going to count up. You have to yell swooper out. All right. One. Two. Swooper out.

Three. Four. Super out. Okay. So Frank gets it for four. That's you should I should wait a little bit longer just like a touch push could be a Jordan Davis tackle. It's could be. Could be, yeah All right item number nine. I got a poop-poop bladder. None or all of the following things happen Darius slay who still lingers on the inactive has not reported yet. Darius Slay

at some point in the lead up to this game posts something on social media about the matchup. It could be, I'm rooting for the birds, could be sorry I'm out there, could be anything. Slays on the reserve slash did not report list on the bill's roster still. Yes. Jackson

Hawes plays more snaps than his age. So that would require him to play 76 snaps in this game. Jordan Poir has more tackles in this game. then career carries by Matthew Tucker. Now, why do you ask about that?

Well, of course, we all remember that the Eagles waived draft pick Jordan Poeher in order to make room on the roster for Matthew Tucker. Brandon Cooks is tackled in this game by an Eagle safety. And how many career carries Matthew Tucker at? Well, that's for them to figure out. Brandon Cooks is tackled by an Eagle safety. Of course, a callback to Malcolm Jenkins' big hit. and then the broadcast at some point mentions

that Dionne Dawkins went to Temple. So you got five little connections here between the bills. None or all of these things happen in the game. I will start the bidding at one. Two. Four. Five.

five going once five going twice sold so am i correct that Matthew Tucker has zero that's correct Matthew Tucker never once had an NFL carry so you just need Jordan Poir to make a tackle for that basically need all of them to happen need all of them yeah yeah yeah good move by the Eagles right over to you friend that was mine Oh, yeah, I went. OK. Sorry.

OK. Josh Allen has a higher dropback success rate in this game than Jalen Hertz. Hmm. Lindsay, I believe I have eight turkeys just to put a to be specific here instead of seven. I believe I got the Jackson Hollis thing for three. Now you got it for four.

I got it for four? I apologize. Josh Allen's right around 49% for the season. Dropback success rate. Jalen hurts around 44%. Because I started it at three, and then you went up to four. And I said, screw you. Or you suck or something.

It was screw you. Okay. Okay, Josh Allen has a higher dropback success rate than Jalen Hertz. We will start the bidding at four. Screw you. Four going once. Five. Six.

Six going once. Six going twice. Seven. Seven going once. Seven going twice. Yeah, eight. Eight. What was that?

I was doing the math in my head if I wanted to just take the next two, but then EJ submits items that don't hit all the time, so I'm like, oh, that's... Wow. Wow, true. Yeah. Is there anyone you haven't blamed for your swoop?

I was blamed it Well yeah That's where I was trying to get But Eight going ones I can't Okay that's it Okay got it

All right My final item That apparently isn't gonna hit The Eagles go 100% In gold to go Situation one week only Now I know why you got it early Because you just copied paste

From last week You know the It's a good item I think it's fun The Eagles are down to third In goal to go situations The bills are ahead of them

90%. Second, the Eagles are the second at Gold to go defense, so it's going to be good on good when the Bills have the ball. Bill's defense is eighth in Gold to go defense, which is relevant for this item.

I'm going to start the bidding at four. Five. Six. Take it if you want. Six going once. Six going twice. Seven. The least enthusiastic six, seven.

I could have gone seven to make it away. I'm trying to be nice. Yeah. All right. Last one? Not yet. Oh, the, it's time for the... Swooper Eve.

Jolly old St. Nick Cole. That really is good. I've got seven turkeys. You've both got four. Should I give you some turkeys out of the goodness of my heart? Or, should I perform 80 Stings by Cole Beasley? Unfortunately, my Wi-Fi is not working, so I can't pull up the lyrics. Yeah, I just declined to share.

Just get them on your phone. This is about the Honey Spirit. It's helping all of us. We don't need to include Cole Beasley into our show. You decided to include Cole Beasley. A tough show for you. I think, in the spirit of... Nobody else was thinking about...

In the spirit of the holidays. Don't you get Nick Cole, Cole, Cole Beasley, the bills? It's a beautiful thing. In the spirit of the holidays, I'm going to give both of you three turkeys to set up what will be an interesting situation here for the good of the show, all of us going into the final swooper

with exactly seven turkeys. Thank you, Mel. All right. Thank you, Fran. Those are the words you're looking for, E.J. And of course, you are allowed to borrow from next week. As usual.

You're welcome. All right, we get it. I should have put in some lotion with that shirt. This is very classic Santa behavior. Give somebody something and they're like, you're welcome. Okay, you guys ready? Yes.

This is a multi-unit simultaneous sealed bid auction and what that means is there are not only one but two items up for bid okay so these items 12 and 13 in a sense you will bid in private for both of them at the same time so you're not going to get to see what anyone else bid on

either one you can borrow turkeys from next week and the two items are the Eagles win is item number one and item number two is the Eagles remain mathematically alive for the number two seed going into week Now it's possible that either of these hits without the other hitting. The Eagles could win

and still be eliminated from the two seed if Seattle and Chicago both win. The Eagles could also lose and still be alive for the two seed as long as Chicago doesn't win or Green Bay doesn't lose, then that second item can hit as well. So both things can independently happen or not happen.

So one more time. If the Eagles lose this game. If the Eagles lose, as long as either the Bears lose or Green Bay wins. Green Bay plays the Ravens. Okay. You're the Bears play? The Bears play, San Francisco in San Francisco.

Okay, so the only, the ways that the Eagles can be eliminated is if Seattle and Chicago both win, if the Eagles lose and Chicago wins, or if the Eagles lose and Green Bay loses. Okay, so if none of those happen, then the second item will hit. And the first item is just plain old Eagles win. So you guys have to submit bids for both items at the same time. The tiebreaker will be just a regular auction between the tie. And it's sealed bid, so we lose our turkeys no matter what? No, no, no, it's only the winner pays, yeah.

Gotcha. Yeah, first price. Okay. Okay. I slacked it to you, Lindsay. to clarify your thing was at most five to each to each yeah I'm assuming I don't need to yeah yes I had up to five to bequeathed to any to either of them yes

okay someone in the chat says you're grinchy Which is funny because I chuckled and you gave me a nasty look. Guilty as charge. All right. Let's start with, let's start with the Eagles win the game. The Eagles win the game. Lindsay, what is EJ's? Zero.

EJ had bid nothing on the Eagles winning the game. Zero. Fran, what did you bid? I bet four on the Eagles to win the game. Interesting. I. also bid four oh so now it becomes a normal auction normal auction between the two of you and let's do it just let's do it right now before we reveal the other one so do I hear five five going once got it all right sold to bow for five wow all right now the other item eagles remain mathematically alive for the number two seed EJ bid 13 I might overpaid wow 13 I wanted to get it.

I wanted to make sure I got it. It's a mission accomplice. Wait, you don't think the Eagles are going to win, but you think they're going to stay alive? I only wanted to risk one of them. I didn't want to risk one. Yeah, but what didn't you do the other one? That's the whole.

I didn't want to fall into it. That's too much. What did you bid? How bad of an overpay? I mean, I bid six. I bid three. Okay, so you bid a little too much. I wanted to make sure I got it after last week

when I didn't get it. You got it. Okay. It was a Fran-esque late-game turkey wasting there. I mean, that's the point of the sealed bed, I guess. I was worried somebody was going to run for it. So to wrap it up, E.J. has five items. Sequin Barclay has more yak than James Cook.

The Eagles have no three-in-outs in the game. Sequin Berkeley has at least a 12-yard rush, and Jalen Hertz has at least. a 25-yard completion. Saquan Barkley rushes for more than 100 yards, and the Eagles remain alive in the two-seed. He will have negative nine turkeys, I believe. 13, 6, you're right.

I forgot to update. Jeez, Lindsay, I'm killing you here. You're right. E.J. is going to be wearing, like, his cheesehead for the Packers' Ravens game. Fran has four items. Jordan Davis, tackles or sacks, Josh Allen.

The all-or-nothing poop-poutter from me about the ex-Eagles or guys with the Eagles connections on the bills. Josh Allen has a better EPA per dropback than Jalen Hertz. Success rate. I apologize. And the Eagles remain 100% or the Eagles go 100% in goal-to-go situations. Now they have to have a goal-to-go situation for that to hit, right? Because it's 100%?

100%. And then I have four items. Brandon Graham has a sack. The Eagles surrender fewer than 120 yards rushing. Jackson-Haws has a touchdown, first-down, or two-point conversion. And the Eagles win the game. I have two turkeys remaining. So there you go.

Super chats. That'll do it for swooper. Swooper chats. Now let's get to the super chats for the people who have been hanging around for the last two hours. Pat Fienis, five years in, still no Pro Bowls for Devante, only because he's always the guy who gets the shaft in the offense. I hate it. He deserves a Pro Bowl.

I think he's a Pro Bowl caliber ride receiver. I think he's known as a Pro Bowl caliber receiver too It's just, yeah, it's a tough position Did you guys see what Vic Fangio said about the pro bowl voting? No, I was doing the show. I mean, I can multitask. He said that they need to redo the way they vote. He said have some retired coaches, some retired players,

and some retired executives. Have them all, like, make a committee. Oh, great, let's get Bill Pollian involved. Nobody said anything about Bill Pollian. I think when you hear retired executives, You think Bill Polly, and we all know it. Lamar Jackson, first team, Pro Bowl, are at running back. That was an impressive sneeze hold by you.

Thank you. I don't have that in my game. It's not healthy to do, but I think it's not the worst general idea, but I think he's got to work at the kinks there. They don't even have the game anymore. Just get rid of the Pro Bowl. Like, the fact that it affects how much money players make in their contracts is just outrageous.

It's just outrageous. Like, it creates such a conflict. of interest for everyone involved. It's just ridiculous. Counselor King. Eagret Santa. Very nice. That's a good job. Thank you for the, thank you for the

Tucan socks, by the way. I thought you'd like that. That was very nice. Bird kind. Yeah. CDP. E.J. I thought your Cam Newton anecdote about Keon Coleman was funny. Which band is better? Blink 182 or Green Day. That's a good question. That is not a good question. What do you mean? It's not a good question.

I... One of those bands is horrendous. The other one is replacement level. Wow. It's going after both of these bands. In that order. I'm younger than you. I feel like I grew up in like the Green Day, like, their peak kind of matched up with me playing

guitar and band, so we played a lot of Green Day. I feel like Blink 182 is like a little bit more like classic. You don't think so? I mean, I feel like they have a couple songs that like are, I would. go as far as saying timeless. What? I'm actually struggling with this. I'm probably double bover time.

Double bover time. I'll tell you the answer in. Lindsay, Lindsay time. Double bover time. Okay, I want to hear you, I want to hear you lay in this plane because this is fascinating to me. I think it depends on what you're after.

I think if I had to pick one song from either of them, I'd pick a Blink 182 song. But I think I'm probably saying Green Day is the better band. that was a wild road why does that surprise you so much Blink 182 is timeless they have a couple songs that I really

think are beautiful songs look I grew up with Nirvana Pavement for me like Green Day was kind of Green Day was what kind of replaced Nirvana in a way like and so I probably I probably have like a more

negative feeling towards them than I should yeah I wouldn't look at Green Day but I don't think Green Day is like unlistenably bad in the way that I'm running to turn it off like Blink 182 is so I would definitely I don't think this is an interesting question I don't think Blink 182's like discography

is like excellent but they have songs I really like but Green Day has like more hits in my opinion I also don't think that Nirvana I don't think Green Day are like the I'm sorry no no they're not but they were treated as if they were in a way they shouldn't have been back then you know I understand

so I'm talking about when I was 16 and like the first Green Day album game out, like, is what I'm talking about. So, yeah, like that, they're not in their non-autic conversation. Right, yeah, right. Different genres. Flink 22 or the Beatles. Shout out to T. Dutton in the chat. Who's the,

is Mark Hoppuss more of a Ringo or a Paul or a John or a George? I mean, the Beatles side of it is what I'm struggling with. I don't know. How John Lennon could never

Couldn't even wear Hopas's pants What were you What was the we're gonna get to my pants by the way I wanted to You guys were bashing me like oh there's no way You could wrap a gift You're so chaotic and you're What are you talking about? That was you

No I didn't think you guys would be up to my standards You were looking at wrinkled you were looking at wrinkled tissue paper And you were like oh friend you could never do this Yeah Oh now I know it must have been Meg That's fair

That's fair I just Brands Doesn't strike me It's like a It's like insulting to Meg To say

It doesn't like It's like It's like Well thought out packaging for a gift What the hell I mean It's so offense

That's not Like There's nothing wrong with that You just seem like The type of guy That would Have like a regular

Gift bag I'm just digging himself for It's just like you I mean Listen you didn't want to sing on the show And you were like

Hell no What does that have to do with anything Listen, you didn't want to sing on the show, so it's okay for me to say you can't rap. You're the worst gift giver on planet Earth. But you guys are impressed with my rapping there. It was a good rap. Not really.

I saw your guy's stuff. My stuff was vastly superior. I'm good at rapping gifts. Weirdly good. You're mid at wrapping gifts. That was fine. That was not, that was nothing to be worried of, nothing to be. It is.

Puffing your chest out about. It's good. You wrapped it normally. You wrapped it fine. think it was me because it was so good I will say that yeah it was pretty well wrapped yeah but it's because it's well wrapped objectively it's because you you know you get your swoopers in late

Lindsay could not be rolled your eyes I thought you wouldn't take the time to to wrap it carefully I took the time to wrap it carefully I got my swooper two gifts to know what time it was very generous I get it killed on this Lindsay, would you get your head out of the gutter, please? Not in double bovertime. Come on.

Not in double bover time. All right. Good stuff, everybody. Merry Christmas, everybody. How do you feel? I feel like you're holding something in. I told me I'd be home to make dinner. Yeah, you go's locker room open soon.

I just believe they're not. Like, I might not have to ever wrap anything, but I can cook in the kitchen. Yeah, you do seem like a good kick. Yeah. Okay. I was good as a rapper You know who is a good rapper though Cole Beasley

That'll do it for this episode The PHAY Eagles podcast Thank you to Mina Kimes Thank you to Lindsay Thank you to Julia Thank you to the professor Thank you to Fran Thank you to all of you out there

It's Christmas I gave you three turkeys It's Christmas Thank you to EJ Everybody out there We love you Thank you for supporting the show Thank you for watching

for the last eight hours. We appreciate it. We will see you on Friday. And, of course, we'll have you covered on the game on Sunday Eagles Bill. So for all of us here at PHY, from the bottom of my hearts, as always, we love you.

My hearts. Thank you.