PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - What is broken with the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense and what’s fixable? Fran Duffy explains

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson are coming back. But Jalen Hurts is turning the ball over and Kellen Moore seems to have forgot how to use motion. What is Nick Sirianni’s influence? Does Jahan Dotson exist? With the Philadelphia Eagles on their bye, it’s time to figure out how to fix the offense.Join Fran Duffy, Zach Berman & Bo Wulf for some film review and, if you’re lucky, nudity. 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 PHLY Eagles podcast presented by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code, PHLY365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. At Bet365, we welcome you in to a Tuesday afternoon show, the bye week we heard from the three coordinators today. And Fran Duffy is going to break down the film. Zach Berman is going to tell us what we heard. Everybody's looking good. How are you guys doing?

Doing good. Obviously, it was a not a fun experience re-watching that film from Sunday. Would you like to drag yourself through the mud? Yeah, you know, spend like six hours doing that yesterday and on the other side, better for it. Now, you know, we've got the setup out in the green room where we've got, you know, three TVs out there. And one of them is playing some old PHLY videos. And one of them up there was the pod that you and I did, Zach, from Foxborough, you know, close-up shot from the Foxborough press box. and you looked at that and you go,

fresh fade on that guy. You're self-slaubbering all over yourself. And not self-slobbing. I appreciate the introduction. It's great to see you guys. Good to see Joya throughout the bee here for a Tuesday episode. Good peek into what it's like when you look in the mirror. It's not like that.

When I look in the mirror, I was trying to figure out when that was because we were in a press box. It was like the old days, right? And so I was trying to determine when that was. I don't get that joy anymore because you're the heart. host in studio now. So I was going through it and then Jamie brought up New England. I said that makes sense. That's New England. And I think I turned. I saw the fade on the, I turned on camera. I saw the fade. I didn't say it was a night. I said it was a fresh fade. Yeah. I think I went to the barber shop before that train. There you go. Well, you're looking good today, Zach. I appreciate that.

Bow and eager to talk about the Eagles. All right. Let's get into it. Let's let's drag ourselves through the mud here. Let's start on offense. And I guess my first question for you, Fran, is, and I try to ask this to Killen Moore today, like the flow of this game, you know, they come out in these like in the, in 21 personnel, second drive. You see like the Ben Van Samarren as a fullback thing going on. Do you think that they had a specific plan for this game that was to lean on those heavy packages and they just sort of had to throw it out the window? because by the second time they got the ball, they're down 14-0. You know, by the seventh play of the game on offense, they're down 21-0,

and they just had to sort of go from there? Or do you think that this was just sort of a bad plan from the beginning? I would respond with one of your answers, poor K. Nolos Dose. Okay, all right. It could be both. I mean, it is so funny to have Will Shippe on the field for the first play of the game and then not to have them again.

You keep harping on Will Shippley's involved in on the first play. Yeah, it's so funny. It counts as a start. So, you know, in four years when he signed somewhere else, you say he had X amount of starts, right? Yeah, like either you were trying to set something up for later in the game. I mean, maybe for later in the season, but like, I mean, come on. What are we doing?

I do think, though, that they clearly came out and said, okay, we're down AJ Brown, we're down Devante Smith. Let's lean into some of these heavier personnel packages and try and create some matchups. We'll run and we'll throw out of these looks and we'll see if we're able to create some positive yardage. insert narrator that did not go well that did not happen for them in this game those first three drives you get 10 total yards uh no successful plays uh on those three drives and i think when you're looking at overall what the eagles were able to try and do after that they leaned heavily into their three receiver sets and honestly i didn't the while they scored on that fourth drive it was the only

time that they actually moved the ball in the first half i didn't really love the the plan of attack once they got into the red zone because what they did was that they kept three receivers on the field and they bought everybody tight to the formation. It was like the antithesis of what everyone's doing right now where you bring everybody in tight and then we're going to run the ball with three receivers. And so you had some negative runs. You had some unsuccessful run plays for Sequan Barclay where a receiver misses a block because the safety is right next to the formation.

And so they just had trouble being able to punch it in. And thankfully they were able to get the RPO touchdown to Paris Campbell to top it off. Go ahead. I thought you were going to follow up. There's a lot I could follow. I was reading your face. I thought you were about to speak. I'm sorry.

I feel like I'm disturbing the chemistry between these two. No, I do think. We have our moments. That's a good drop in. As we continue here, I do want to intersperse some, you know, thoughts on the opening drives of games because that did come up with Kellyn Moore today. Go ahead. Yeah.

So I ask Callen what he's trying to achieve early in games because, The opening script tends to be used the way Kellan described it, which is he's really trying to see the defensive look. So he's trying to see the different packages that they're going to use against the Eagles packages. So you mentioned Shipley on the field. Yeah, they probably wanted to see how the Bucks would counteract, you know, that heavy personnel early. And they kind of got away from it. And I was trying to ask my question about the missed past the Saquan Barkland in the first play. He answered it initially about like first plays overall of games before I followed up.

But he said that first play, sometimes you're trying to get jam on something in rhythm, which is interesting because that play didn't really work in rhythm. But they are taking it now there are different reads as you've mentioned. But they're taking a hard look at beginning of games. As we've harped on here, the Eagles are the only team that does not have a point in the first quarter. and when I asked Kellan Moore what from his perspective

this offense needs to improve upon going forward here he mentioned like the flow of the offense the consistency of the offense and so that's all kind of tied in together I would imagine

go ahead yeah go ahead no I just I want to ask a big picture question because I know that they're missing AJ Brown he hasn't played since week one obviously that changes how good they can be

how efficient they can be like the upside of the offense. But the offense looked in this game so much different than it did in week one. And like what happened to the purposeful motion, like some of the dynamic route combinations, what is your guess from the outside looking in as to like why things look so different? It is very different from what we saw in week one to your point where, you know, we saw those motions that, did actually accomplish something within the structure of the play. You know, get created space for other people,

for, you know, getting guys open one-on-one and finding that green grass. Whereas in the last two weeks, I mean, I went and pulled the numbers because it's kind of crazy to think what the offense looked like against the Packers and then what it is structurally the last two weeks. And honestly, it brings me back to what Jalen said

on Sunday after the game about trying to find identity. I know, Zach, there were other players in the locker room. That's the same thing, right? Trying to find identity. Zach doesn't like the identity. He really dislike it. Oh, I see, like, I feel very, I feel very strongly about the identity thing. I think it's okay.

Because to me, I look at this offense. I'm not sure what they're good at right now and what they think they're good at right now. And so I look at it from a motion rate standpoint, right? We know last year they were last in the league, 31.6%. They come out week one, 56.6%. So 22nd in the league, it wasn't, you know, a huge, but a big jump, a 25 percentage point jump in terms of what they did. the last two weeks, weeks three and weeks four, they're down to 41%. They like cut so much of that away.

And I look at it. Why is it so much different than what we saw on week one? The two by two, three by one stuff that I harped on in preseason. That has gone back the other way. Really? It started back where in week one, they were sixth in the NFL in two by two and 17th and three by one, which is that's, I wasn't expecting like a huge flip, but all right, just get back towards the median the last two weeks.

at their first and two by two and their 30th and three by one. Shotgun rate is all the way up at the top. So it's all of these things where I look at it and I say, what is it that they feel like they are really good at? And what can they lean on right now? And right now, I don't know. Obviously, you get A.J. Brown back. You get Devante Smith back.

But I don't know that when you lose those guys, is that enough to just say, all right, take our whole structural plan and throw that out the window. This is what we're going to be now. If anything, you would think that when you, you're without your best players, you would lean more into the motion stuff, right? Because you need to find some way to free these players who are of lesser caliber open, right? Now, maybe you could say, like, you don't trust these guys enough to execute that stuff. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a jailing

preference thing. But those numbers tell the story of this offense going from Kellan Moore's offense to the old Nick Seriani offense. And I just look around the NFL right now. And what we've seen just in four weeks, you see Green Bay with what they did without Jordan Love and Malik Willis. and completely revamping what they were doing. But then you also look at what Sean McVeigh has done with the Rams. And you say, you lose Cooper Cup and Pooka Nakuwa. And you insert to Marcus Robinson and Jordan Whittington, a sixth round rookie and Tutu Atwell.

And you say, okay, we're going to keep doing what we're doing and still put up numbers and still find a way to beat the 49ers. You know what I mean? Like I think that you could still find ways to run your offense, do what you do well, or find ways to put those guys in position to succeed to use the old Andy Reidism. I think it's finding ways to be able to create successful offense. It doesn't need to be as hard as what we saw on Sunday. Yeah, the reason I push back on the identity conversation.

I hear what you're saying. I view that more as the accessories than the identities or than the identity. You know, there's an expression. I've heard often, I've heard Joe Biden use it, which is like. Oh, politics talk. All right. Which is don't tell me what you, I'm sorry, don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget.

And I'll tell you what you value. you. And I think, what's that? Vests. Okay. Let them go. Let him go. Let him go. If you want to know what, if you, if you want to know what the eagle's identity is, look at where they spend their resources. Their identity is, I don't mean to be simplistic about this, but their identities on offense is A.J. Brown, Devante Smith and this offensive line. And they are going to, you know, and then you put J.

Helens in there, too, right? Their identity is their stars. What I said after that Packers game is this is a star-centric team. and their stars performed that day. And you can mention Saquan Barkley from a, you know, proportionate perspective of how they're allocating those, those resources. But, yeah, their identity is to get the ball to these high-priced, high-profile players. It's not an offense that's designed to be interchangeable. It's not an offense that's designed, you know, like the Buffalo Bills, for instance. Yep.

They keep talking about how it's these, it's all these different parts. since like a different guy each week, right? That's not the way the Eagles are designed. The Eagles are designed to have AJ Brown, Devonte Smith, Jalen Hertz, this offensive line, be the stars and Sequin. And without AJ, you know, it's not a coincidence to me that the one week they had A.J. Brown that scored 34 points. And it shouldn't be, I might be inflating it too much in terms of AJ's role,

but that's, he's their $30 million receiver. Like, it's designed for AJ to be a star. Yeah, I think you guys are talking past each other a little bit. I think we're getting into like what is the definition of identity. But that's a very deep conversation. But if the offense. Who's talking politics now? If the offense can't function without A.J. Brown and Devonte Smith, it's not an offense.

It's just two players. Like, and so what was the like, what is Kellan Moore's offense? It's to accentuate the stars. Yeah. I mean, look, that's the way I see it. I think that there's got to be, there's got to be something when I think of identity. And we, I remember offline, we had these conversations during the coaching search when they were, when they move on from Doug Peterson and they're hiring Nixiriani and all the different candidates. And to me, when you're looking at offensive minds and for defensive minds as well, in terms of what, what is it that you feel like this is what our offense is or this is what our defense is.

And I get the whole idea of we want to be multiple and we want to be able to change week to week. But I still think you want to have like those core philosophies from a tactical standpoint, like a pure like X and O standpoint and say like this is, this is what. we are. This is what we do. I do want to say, too, it's so easy. And I think that we kind of fall into it to say, like, all right, this is Nick's offense or this is Kellan's offense. I think we do have to remember that all of the coaching staff, everybody that's in that room has a job and a role on a week-to-week basis of putting the game plan together, putting the offense together. And so everybody's going to have their area that they're going to impact. We know that Jeff Stoutland is in charge of the run game.

He's as the run game coordinator. But, you know, there's a, I don't know what the roles are here this year, but I know like in years past, okay, well, you know, this coach is responsible for third down. So all third down dropbacks, that's going to fall. We'll say, you know, this is going to be Aaron Moorhead in years past, the Super Bowl year, right? So John D. Filippo is responsible for Red Zone. Frank Reich is responsible for third down. Jeff Stoutland's responsible for run game. Doug Peterson's responsible first and second down dropback pass game, right? And so you start getting into these different areas. And someone's responsible for the opening script. Someone's responsible for the goal line short yardage. So everybody has their area.

of expertise that they're putting together the game plan they're in charge of watching the opponent in this specific situation and saying these are the plays that we have at our disposal to be that will be good in this week's game plan and so you know when we get into what's what is it that's nick syriani what's kelly what's kelly what's it that's kelly what's it's kelly the other people who are putting that those recipes together are still from his offense, right? Kevin Petulow and Aaron Moorhood, who you mentioned. And that goes to the decisions they made this offseason to Frankenstein this offensive staff together. It's not all Kellan Moore's staff. He doesn't get to build the bones of the offense from the ground up. He brought one guy with him.

But otherwise, he's building off of this structure that was already here. And so to think that you could completely change the offense, you know, the 95% thing that Jalen Hertz, said in the offseason, the longer you get into this, this season, they only have the answers that they already had last year. They don't, they don't have this, uh, all of this new, new information and new ideas. It's, it's still building off of that, that same offense that failed last year. Yeah. I mean, down the stretch, certainly. Yeah. And when you look at what, to Zach's point, the identity of the off of this team is, in their stars, where you have to find ways to put those

stars in position to be stars. Uh, and they didn't do that enough last year. And, and, And so far, obviously, look, AJ's been hurt, and Devante was hurt last week, but finding ways to be able to get the most out, certainly the franchise quarterback and make him, you know, reach that level that you know that we've seen Jalen Hertz operate at peak level. You want to be able to get him to that point on a consistent basis. Go ahead. Well, just to circle back, Nick Siriani was asked about identity yesterday, and his exact answer to that, if you want to know what Nick believes here, he says that identity is what you do. well. Identity is what you do well, what you do consistent, and what you hang your hat on. That changes year in, year out, what our identity was in 21, 22, 23. All those years has little differences in who you are. Same thing now. You figure it out as you go through the year.

And he mentioned the small sample size. I agree with that. I agree with everything he said there. I think that that's what, look, having the early buy week, and we said we joked about it in the post game show that we were going to hear all week that the by week's coming at the right time for this team. I do think it's true, but they still have to make the most of it over the next 10 days. Yeah, well said. So you mentioned the quarterback. Jalen Hertz in this game, you know, he's not working with his top two options. Yep. But it wasn't a very good game for him. What did you make of his performance? Up and down. Certainly there were plays that he would like to have back. There were individual throws that he would like to have back starting on the first one of the game. You know,

they come out and they, and this, to me, it was interesting to hear Kellan Moore's answer to your question, Zach, about the opening script and what they want to try and do. You would think that, okay, you know what, like a simple quick game concept where we're running the same route concept to the left as we are to the right. It's two by two, have Jaylen Hertz read it out should be a quick, easy completion. In the past, I don't know that those have, that's been like Jaylen's strength is reading those plays out. It feels like to me anecdotally that a lot of the times where we've seen Jaylon kind of drop his eyes and run around and then the scramble drill goes to effect are those kinds of plays. And that's exactly what happened on the first play of the game.

Now, he breaks the pocket. He's got Seekwan wide. open on the scramble drill down the right side line. And he looked like he got caught in between and wanting to throw it away versus actually go for it. And it was just a weird incompletion out of bounds. But that was a bad start, certainly. And then they go into the run game and then that was it. You asked Kellan more about that play today.

Exactly. What did he say? He said it's easy for us to say, you know, there's a lot going on there was basically what he referenced. You have to think about kind of what he sees in that moment as well. you know, where the safeties are, things of that nature. Yeah, I mean, and Jaylen's saying he's throwing that ball away. Yeah.

I don't know that I believe that because he throws it so far down the field. I think what happened on that play is Jalen doesn't know if there's a safety learning. So he's not willing to put the ball out in the middle of the field. I think he's trying to hit a very precise like back shoulder to Sequin and just just misses it. And it's a little bit closer to that than it is throwing him open. But it could have been a touchdown. Sure. But, you know, we talk a lot about the turnovers.

I can promise you that, well, I agree, turnovers are a major problem here. It's not for like a lack of discussion in that building, right? This is something that Nick harps on. So you can imagine in, no, so I'm saying. No, I know, which is like. So you can imagine like in J.11's head, he's thinking exactly what you said. Like first play of the game, if you throw that up and it gets intercepted, like what's, you know, he's, he's being very conscious of the turnover here. A matter of fact, you know, Fran has, will, I imagine will,

discuss the forced fumble, but Fran has a great clip up on all p.hly.com in his article. And if you watch Jalen after the play, because Fran slows everything down, you see Jaylen after the fumble. He's like, you know, the body language that he has there, because he's not again, right, is he so hyper-focused on not turning the ball over. I mean, it is funny to think back to the conversations from 2022 about, you know, Jonathan Gannon laughing. Like, I laugh at the idea that, you know, we can't.

this isn't something we can coach and like turnovers, turnovers, fundamentals, fundamentals. 12 games in a row, they've lost a turnover. Exactly. Like, you know, what do they need to do? Teach it more. They focus on, they focus on more than anyone else, right? Yeah. Come on.

What happened on the force fumble? Yeah, I mean, basically, they called a play in the red zone that was going to attack a coverage that the bucks had run a decent amount. Now, it was an inverted, like a weird coverage because the bucks were running a blitz on the inside. It was a four-man blitz where they're dropping defensive ends out. They're sending Levante David. Obviously, he's the one who gets with the sack fumble.

but it was a type of zone coverage. It looked to me like a version of a cover two, Tampa 2 style defense. And the Eagles had a play call that would be good to attack that coverage down the field. You're sending two vertical routes at that safety on the right side. Safety can't cover both routes. Jalen basically has to read it out. He's going to start on the inside, Grant Calcutera, the second round, I believe was from Johan Dotson on the outside. He wants to go to Calcutera.

Calcutera got jammed up at the line of scrimmage. And so when Jaylen hits the top of his drop and you freeze it and you say, all right, this is when the ball typically would come out, to me, if he makes that throw there, that's like a 99th percentile throw. The chances are that is incomplete, if not intercepted by the safety, because the timing was off with Calcutera after he got jammed up at the line of scrimmage by the defense event. So he's got to hold up a little bit. He's got a hitch. And obviously with Levante David coming down, he does a nice job of protecting the ball.

You can see Jaylen steps up, two hands on the ball, you know, tucks it over to the left shoulder, steps up and delivers it by that point, David had circled back and slots the ball out. I feel like we say it every week, though, where it's like, yeah, like, I see why the turnover happened. I don't want to say that that's on Jalen. I know it's Tom Brady said it in the broadcast. Like, Jayland's got to understand that that rush is coming. I see why the ball didn't come out. He didn't really have another answer there to say like, oh, this is where he should have gone.

This was a hot route thing. I mean, it was first in 10 in the red zone. I don't think that's like a blitzing down. So I don't blame them for calling that play in that situation. Yeah, it was just, I mean, a tough break on that play. I get why Jalen was frustrated after the play. Well, big picture that takes us to the super chat here from Chase Daniel Plainview, who wants to know how Jalen has done in general with protections.

He says anecdotally, it felt like there were a lot of unblocked runners in this game. So they got fooled a couple times in this game. There was the one I posted, and this was like a garbage time sack. That was the one late in the game where I was just beautiful from Todd Bowles. They set it up early in the game, a bunch of stunts over to that side. Now, I would say that the protection calls in this game weren't the major issue. I mean, Fred Johnson got beaten up in this game.

Yeah. You know, I mentioned it after the, at the end of the Saints game, that the Saints rushers kind of started to get a bead on Fred Johnson, and there was a lot of bull rushes and going right through his chest and borrowing him back into Hertz's lap. And, I mean, I think the number I saw from next gen was he gave up nine pressures, Fred Johnson, to six different players. Has to be some kind of a record because there was only 30, I mean,

Jaylon only dropped back like 30 times in the game. So it was like one every three dropbacks, Fred Johnson was giving up a pressure. You know, Jaylon was actually pressured on 55% of his dropbacks overall in the game. It was just not good from the offensive line. Some of it was, yes, they had a free runner because of a blitzer, but more often than not, it was Fred Johnson or the offensive line getting beat. I thought this was the offensive line in general, aside from the blitzes, was not very good in this game.

Even Fred Johnson aside, is that fair? I think that I said this in the post-game show. the playing when you're past protecting in that heat over and over and over again that can be strenuous for an offensive line.

And you can kind of see it like that when Milata gave up that sack on the last offensive play he just looked gas getting out of his stance. Landed Dickerson at the end of the game like look gassed at the end of that's that just kind of is what it is with what the offense

had to do in that second half to try and get back to the game. I just want to make a point during the summer Doug Nussmeyer, the Eagles quarterback's coach emphasized a number that him and Kellemmore have used together, you know, they work together in Dallas, they work together with the Chargers, and that's 2.3

seconds. And he said, you get rid of the ball where you check down in 2.3 seconds or you can go off schedule. Tom Brady's point, when you, when I listened back to the game, was Jaywin has to get rid of that ball quicker. I thought

that Jamie made a good point in the post game show when he talked about Eli Manning, sometimes just throwing at the feet, live to the next down. But I bring this up because Tim McMahon from ESPN had a good question today to Kellan more, which was that Jalen Hertz ranks 32nd in the league in time to throw. Now, I know part of that is because he extends plays, right? And so you don't know what the, you get to look what the time throw is in the pocket. Yes. But one of the points of emphasis from this coaching staff was supposed to be

the quick passing game. And we saw that throughout training camp. And so whether it's pressure that the offensive lines allowing like you just discussed, or whether it's Jalen holding onto the ball too long, this is something that we do need to monitor here. Because the coaching staff, their big, not the big point of emphasis, but a big point of emphasis during the offseason was getting rid of the ball quickly. I want to pull up a number because I saw it last week, actually, and because obviously a lot of the reaction to this game was, oh, same old Eagles offense. It's all vertical routes. There's nothing down the field. And there's a number from next gen that kind of went against this a little

bit in terms of how Jalen has operated. Here we go. So Jalen Hertz is thrown, this was going into week four. And I think that that's, for the most part, carried through, carry true in this game. Jalen Hertz has thrown short of the sticks on 35% of his total attempts this season. That is his lowest rate, since entering the league. He's completed a league high 87.9% of such passes this season, but just 28 of his 58 attempts have generated positive ETA. So, or EPAs, rather. So he is absolutely, like in terms of getting the ball out, getting the ball short of the sticks, he's doing that at a more at a higher rate so far than what we've seen in years past. I think just on that play, that's the thing is when you look at that play individually,

you say, all right, well, yeah, should he have gone to a checkdown? There wasn't a checkdown on that play. You had three guys from going vertical on the right. You had Johnny Wilson running a vertical on the left. It was either that throw or he's going to take off and run. And so, you know, that's, you and you could say, hey, there's their space there for him to run. Levante David had blitzed. So there was a gap there for him to do it.

So that might be the checkdown on that play. So if you had to split the turkeys of responsibility for a subpar offensive performance on this day between Jalen Hertz, the offensive game plan, and the rest of the players themselves, I would just split it? It's a good question. I'd probably go 40% we'll say 45% game plan. Okay. 30% Jalen? Okay. 25% that adds up right 40s yeah there go yeah so I go 25% the rest of the team okay 25% on will

Shipley right yes 24% will Shipley 1% of the rest of their officer well there you go uh let's take a minute here to talk about our friends at bet 365 bet 365 you know it's never ordinary they've got 90 million users worldwide and they live stream over 780,000 events each year and you know that that's true because it's such a specific number 780,000 they're not going to I'm not just making that up. Early payout offers at Bet365 across the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. Today, Bet365 offers the widest range of games and markets available for live endgame betting across 78 sports.

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All right. I want to ask you about one more player on offense, Fran, which means that it is time to do our little Ace Hardware, temperature check. Take a look at which player is heating up or in this case cooling off with our Ace Hardware Temperature Check. Visit Ace Hardware Home Services online at www.com to get started on your next project. Fran Duffy, former first round pick, Jehan Dotson. He'll send a third rounder to get him through four games. five catches for 21 25 yards he's on pace for 106 yards receiving on the season uh will not hit 60 catches the of course uh we don't know that yet well not i'm certainly not on pace yes

definitely not as i said before yeah olamade zakiya said more uh receiving yards last week yeah then he has all season he's like the least productive receiver on a per route basis in quite some time what's going on i personally don't look we're on the outside look looking in. Right. So there's, there's going to be stuff that we don't know. But from what I see on film,

I don't see anything that makes me think, oh yeah, this guy doesn't have it. Okay. So I think it's more of, uh, function of opportunity. It's the same thing I said last week.

And there's nothing from this game that's going to make me change my mind on that because it's not like, oh, he got targeted eight times and he had three catches. Uh, everything that he's being targeted at. I mean, it was like bubble screens,

a quick slant. We saw a shallow cross. Like, I don't know what else he's supposed to do to, to make himself more productive, uh, you know, there's the whole like demand targets thing. You know, I don't know what else he's supposed to do.

So the perception that Jalen Hertz does not like throwing two players who are not his top three receivers, even if they are open, do you think that that is a fair perception? I do think that that is a fair perception. I don't know, even though with Dotson, though, there was only one plug, because I did try and keep it. He's not specifically being turned down. Yeah, I knew this was going to be a discussion, right, just because from post game. So watching the game through on film on Monday, I said, okay, I'm going to, if there's a drop back pass where Dotson's early read is Jalen turning it down. There was only one play where I felt like, all right, like this would be one.

I put it in the piece on all PHOI so you can go back. You can go and you can watch the visual. But they ran basically like a vertical route where they faked the bubble screen and then Jahan is working down the left sideline against cover two. And he should be wide open down the sideline. Jalen doesn't even like look to that side. and he just goes right to Goddard in the middle of the field. You know, to me it looks like that should start over on that side, but that's one play out of, again, 30 dropbacks where that happened.

So it's not enough for me to say, oh, yeah, with certain, he doesn't like going to Dotson because there was just that one where I was like, all right, he's wide open, he should throw it here. Zach, does this Dotson situation suggest to you a disconnect between the front office and the coaching staff or the quarterback somewhere along the line there? It doesn't look good. right now I know in these evaluations which what you do is is you you go back typically to the college of how you have your pro scouting department you look at you know the pro scouting of evals but

um I don't know for instance how much you before you make this trade how how much you say all right how specifically does he fit like you're not going to jail and I imagine and and saying jaylin what do you think of of jahan dots and in this offense these things tend to happen pretty quickly, right? Especially that time of year because teams are putting their rosters together. So, yeah, look, Jaylen clearly doesn't have chemistry with him yet. We obviously know that. If Jaylin's the type of quarterback who has to have that trust in the pass catcher,

then you can say there's a disconnect there because you imagine there would be a learning curve. I got to imagine that if we had spent the offseason talking about the third wide receiver spot, than Howie and Nick had spent the offseason talking about the third wide receiver spot, right? I can't imagine that either side, when I say either side, either coach or front office, was surprised by the idea that they would upgrade the number three wide receiver.

So I can't imagine. Certainly not once Devonte Parker retired. Certainly not once DeVarke Parker retired. So I can't imagine there was a disconnect in the front office and the coaching staff, although I still subscribe to Noah Becker's tweet for that we discussed yesterday, that this will be put on Nick

if this does not, work out this year. I don't know what a Becker pop. But, well, because I can't claim credit for someone else's thing. I mean, we can ask E.J. what that's like, right? It's a joke. I'll sell that.

I'll sell that. I don't want to take someone else's joke. But I can say it could extend to the quarterback in that the disconnect there. Because if, if Jan one needs time on task with a player, bringing in someone this time a year could be problematic. Well, I mean, and if they knew that or thought that, then they should have addressed it sooner, right? If that's part of the problem. Yeah.

Yeah. I thought they were going to look in the draft, honestly, and they clearly didn't. All right. Well, that'll do it for our ACE hardware temperature check on the ice cold, Jahan Dosson. Let's talk about the defense now, Fran, and I mean, about as bad a performance as you can put out there. Now, I guess let's start this way. Once you watch the film, you know, Baker's getting rid of the ball, so quick. quickly, second quickest time to throw in the league this season.

Is this on the guys on the outside? Now, Vic was asked about it today, and he said it's a little bit of both. Like, you could call it in, but they still have to be comfortable with it. Or was there, were there bigger problems at root than just, you know, not, not pressing in this game? Yeah, I mean, they were 32nd in league and press coverage entering the game. We had no problems with the Eagles defense, the coverage last week. In the article, in the breakdown. Well, yeah, but they were playing a team and doesn't throw the forward pass.

Yeah, but they took a lot of shot plays. down the field. And I thought that Reed Blanketship and Dariusleigh and Queen now Mitchell, they did a great job of hunting those plays up. And again, like showed like multiple several examples from that game of guys doing a great job against play action and finding crossing routes and hugging up and plastering those routes. And this game, it was like the polar opposite. It was a lot of guys running free, you know, miscommunications. Some of it was created by the offense. Some of it was because I thought Liam Cohen did an outstanding job using motion, especially in the first half of the game. I think there was something like 74% of their

plays used motion and they were at an extremely high success rate and they just I mean it was outstanding it was a clinic from leant cohen in that way but even throughout the course of the rest of the game just miscommunications guys not the spacing where you had two of three guys as close as we are wow look at this uh three guys as close as we are together right now like on the field you don't want that if you're playing zone defense because if if you have three guys this huddled together that means there's a lot of green grass elsewhere and so um you know I think that too often that would that was a problem for this defense. Perhaps I'd name this door away,

Liam Cohen, just to think about. You know, I actually saw... Things to be the next head coach of the Eagles? No, I don't. I... I'm just, you know, Beau was making this uncomfortable for the audio listeners.

It's not uncomfortable from the audio. Yeah, if you're... He's of the, you know, I once met Sean McVaetree, right? But he was a good offense coordinator at Kentucky. I actually saw him before the game, you know, chatting up with Dary and Kinnard. chatting up with Jack with Jack he might not even have been there though no because he was there

and then he left him back come on don't correct him on that he was chatting up with Jack Triscoll he was at UMass with Jack Triscoll wow yeah wow you are deranged in the best way appreciate that we were we were talking during the broadcast that he has he's a little bit of like a young Arthur Smith like looking wise yeah very much so but yeah I don't think he looks like Bo I actually think he looks more like handsome rich I think he's got some Well, some rich Hoffman. Okay. All right.

That might be worth a screen grab. We might be spending a February episode dissecting that. Then again, I still think they can recover here. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. That's what I meant. Yeah. Regardless, but we'll do a February.

I mean, if we're doing that, it's because Nick gets fired. We're doing that in January. Yeah, that's not February. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Oh, no, I meant if Liam Collins the coach, yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I think, yeah, I think we can do that, whether he's the coach or not. He's going to do it.

I got to say this, though. look there's probably much more there's probably more Liam Cohen conversation and Julian has pulled it up yeah there's more Liam Cohen conversation than we need here I'm I watched the bucks twice last year yeah uh in person and then watch them a bit going into into those games

I'm more impressed with what Liam Collins than than what Dave Canales did last year. Really? Really? I really liked what Canalis did a year ago I didn't I'd yeah we talked about how their week three game looked awful in this game they look great so yeah you know I think that you know if they can bounce it if they can keep doing what they did this past week because then yes then there'll be an

upward upward trend that way i got to say though there's the Tampa bay crowd uh not friend duffy readers yet i mean we'll get to that during the draft that crowd loves bucky irving like they're channing the players named their chanting is bucky bucky they love themselves bucky irving friend did not love bucky irving coming out of organ i did not no he was a uh you know a late day three type of player for me. They took him in the fourth round. Created some explosive plays for them so far. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, that was not like blown away by Bucking Irving, but

I mean, Rashad White's not very good either, so I could see, I could see the appeal there. To the point, though, the big thing, you know, a lot of people still hadn't seen it even in the chat about the press coverage, off coverage. To me, it's not as simple as, oh, if they play up in the line of scrimmage,

that doesn't happen in this game. Right. As I mentioned, Vic Fangio, the Eagles defense coming into this game, they were last in the league in off coverage targets and press coverage percentage. They were last in the league in that, but they were third in contested target percentage, meaning that they are always up in their receiver's faces at the point when the ball gets there. And so there is a way for you to play with depth and then be able to rally to the football

and make sure you're plastering those routes that just did not do that well enough in this game. I mean, so the important question here is, like, is this fixable? With time on task, do you expect that? that Vic Fangio is going to have the right answers against these different opponents who are playing modern football, and are these players going to be able to pass off things in zones the right way and not have these mental errors? So the way I would look at it from the motion standpoint, right? So, again, they got carved up by motion and most good NFL teams use motion now. Look, the Saints use a lot of motion and the Eagles did an outstanding job against that motion a week ago.

I think the bigger thing, certainly the mistackles, because that creates extra opportunities, these extra bites at the apple for the offense, right? And so if there was a play, remember the play that there was a third and one where Chris Godwin comes in motion behind the line of scrimmage and he catches a wide open play in the flat, Avanti Maddox. Yeah, but so they ran it early on the opening drive

and it went for seven yards. And then they ran it again and Avanti missed the tackle, right? They came back and ran it a third time and Avanti made the tackle on those in the red zone. So it's like if Avanti makes the tackle, that does not turn into an explosive play and where those motion numbers come down, right? Now it's second and long, and it completely gets the behind the sticks.

That changes the play calling, and it's the whole, the butterfly effect of making that play. So to me, it's a tackling issue, and then it's the communication on the back end in terms of handling some of those zone passoffs that, again, we praised them for, or I praise, I'll put words in your house mouth, I praised them for a week ago that they just did not do

at a high enough rate in this game. And that's read Blanketship, that's C.J. Gardner Johnson, the Nukobo Dean. Quinion Mitchell, Avanti Maddox, like, and it's always tough in those situations to know exactly it's the classic, oh, we don't know the play call. Whose fault?

Who's that fault in this play on this play? But from my eye, it's somewhere, somewhere there along the way, there's a break in the chain and they've got to get that corrected. On the topic of mistackles, I know some of the publicly available data had been saying 13 mistackles, the Eagles internal count for that was 15. Big Fangio said today, 15 mistackles. also two little morsels of information. Cooper the gene is progressing as far as his development in the slot.

I asked specifically if that's Avanti Manix's job or if that will be Cooper to Gene. And Vic said they're not displeased with how Alvante's playing. He can't play better, but he did say he made it clear, I thought, based on the context of the answer, that Cooper. He said Cooper's coming on. Yes. And I expect that to be Cooper the Jean's job soon. If it was up to me, it would be the Browns game. First game after the buy.

I think the best way for Cooper to learn is by playing. And then the second piece of information is Cindy Brown looks like he will, at least the return to practice, the return to play windows to the practice window will be activated when the Eagles get back. So he could be back soon. I don't know if that will have a material effect on the defense quite yet. Dick Vanjo did say that he wants him to focus on one spot when he gets back. so you're not looking at the slot, you're more looking at safety depth. But when he was asked for his evaluation of Sydney Brown last year,

the first thing he said was a good tackler. Yeah. What's your, who loses snaps when Sidney Brown is good to go and goes into the lineup? Good question. I mean, I don't think it's going to be CJ right now, and I don't think it's we read. I would think it's more of a dime.

I can see them having specializing in the dime look, you know, playing. And so that, yeah, so being like the dime safety. And I think maybe maybe if you're nickel and rundowns, he's just on the field instead of Cooper DeGine. Yeah. Or Montemax, whatever that is. And also, I mean, frankly, C.J. Garner Johnson has to prove he can stay healthy. But, like, right now, he has not been good so far.

C.J. Gardner Johnson has not been good. You know, he's made a couple of those run stops downhill. He had the fourth downstop against New Orleans. He had the one against Atlanta. But he's gotten beaten coverage a couple times, one-on-one. He certainly got, look, he got beat by Mike Evans in the red zone. That happens. He got beat by Olave on a similar route concept last week.

He got beat earlier in the year. There was the mistackle. against Green Bay, then turned to explosive play. He had a couple of mistackles in this game, both in the run game, on a bubble screen coming downhill. He's not playing great right now, which, look, you could, it's like the Bryce Huff thing. I can accept those negatives in your game if you pay,

if you make up for it by coming up with big interceptions doing what he did in 2022. If you are that guy. Yeah, but that's a big ask for that position. Yeah, but like if he, if he can be that guy, then I can forgive some of those issues. But right now, like, it's, and I referenced some of those miscommunications. things. It feels like he's too often involved with some of those miscommunications and like, oh, look, is someone supposed to pick this route up? There was that big third and the third and

10 to Godwin that went for 15 yards in the third quarter. It was one of the worst plays of the day for the defensive. They get a stop there. You force a punt. And so then you go down and score. It's a one score game. Too often he's involved. I'm like, oh, like, I think he probably should have picked that up, but I'm not entirely sure just because you don't, you don't know the call. Too often, CJ's involved in that. And so it's like, all right, like, there's a common denominator here. He just has to overall, he's got to play better. Yeah, my big read on him in 2022, because

I watched it throughout that year other than when he was injured, was the remarkable plays is what really enhanced his value. The plays around the ball, both in terms of interceptions, big hits. I think Nick Seriani made the reference that the last tackle we saw him make

before they signed him was that big hit. The only play they made all day on defense in the second half at least. He obviously, he had what, six interceptions in 12 games that year thereabouts. Actually, it might have been fewer games. He was around the ball. And that was the appeal to him.

And if he's not making those outstanding plays, then there's enough questionable plays that it decreases his value. Agree. And he was also steadier then, too. He was not making as many mistakes as he is this year so far. My guess he probably has more mistackles already than he probably had that whole year. That'd be my guess.

All right. Well, we can continue the conversation about some of the specific players on defense in a minute. But before we do that, everybody go get your flu shot, please. Yes. Don't miss the big game or Halloween or Thanksgiving. Get a flu shot at right aid while at the pharmacy.

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I don't know if I can follow that part of it up. But let's talk now about our friends at TrueMark Financial. And they've got that home equity line of credit that we talk to you about every single week, the HELOC, as they like to abbreviate it, the HELOC allows homeowners to borrow against home equity with a variable interest rate. Now, if you're like me, you might say like, friend, I need a little bit of a translation there. Basically, what you could do is you can take some of some money from your savings and you can allow you to get access to funds as needed for something big, like a big house renovation, maybe it help pay for education expenses or emergencies as that we know that those tend to pop up over the course of life, or you can do it for something small. Maybe you're saving up for an Eagles jersey or you're saving up for, you

something you want to get done to your house, another piece of clothing, nice jacket, like my friend Zach here has on next week. Call him Zach. Spomber season. It's best season as well. Maybe you're saving up for one of those vests that Zach's got hanging up in the closet.

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For more information, visit trumark.com slash p-h-l-Y. Now, when you see N-CU-A there, don't you think Pooka-N-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A- Interesting. That's how I'm wired too. Different wiring. Fran and I are similar in that regard. Well, Fran, you feel like a Berman. uh, C.J. Gardner Johnson had 12 missed tackles in 2020. We have nine already this year.

Well, according to PFF. According to PFF. I actually have him down for 13 this year and only eight in 2022. And it's equally the same level of trust. Okay. I like the P.H.O.I. merch that you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice.

That's a good hoodie. that's a good hoodie I want to compliment you. Reping the brand. I like that. I saw you come into the press conference

to tie-dye hoodie. I like it. We're going to go off the Rouse on. So not only are you passive-aggressively dissing my outfit,

you're also dissing the company's merchandise. Dissing, that's a compliment. I'm reping the brand and you're over here saying, well, I'm in my bummer.

like, you know, he's on a tie-dye owner. I literally complimented it. I literally complimented it. Gina, it's here for our headquarters. She runs our store. I went chasing her down because I won the show or actually happy birthday to my wife, Emily. Emily at soccer the other day,

she sent a picture with, she was wearing the PHLY hoodie, not the tie-day one, the black one. You keep doing this, that. This is an important difference between reading the transcript. and listening to the way that you were saying something. And the white PHLY hat. The one, I don't know if we call it a golf hat or what,

the one with the black, what all the coaches wear now, the black line across it or the band across it, you know what I'm saying? Or we calling that a golf hat. We can get all that on all pHLI.com. But I compliment you. You look good in it. It feels like a Thursday in here.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think anyone is taking you in face value in that. I mean, I'm being genuinely. Anyway, yeah, that's a nice hoodie, a pHOI. It is a nice hoodie. It's a very comfortable hoodie. Yeah. And if everybody else wants to thumb their nose at Zach, you can buy them on the all-P-H-O-My locker. Tell them you think it's a good hoodie.

All right. How did the linebackers do in this game, Fran? What's your temperature check on the linebackers in general right now? I mean, look, no one on the defense was good. I think that I think that Kobe Dean definitely had his share struggles in this game. And I think that you saw the limitations with Nikobe Dean, certainly in space here in this game. He's a player that if his, if everything is right mentally,

you can get by and he can play really well. And he can make plays for you downhill against the run. The physicality shows up. The mental processing shows up. All of that was really good in weeks past. Last week, praised him for his play against. And even against North Atlanta, I thought he did a nice job more often than not, Nicoby Dean.

In this game, his eyes betrayed him a couple times in coverage. and even on the plays where they didn't, the touchdown. And look, Baker Mayfield made an unbelievable throw on the touchdown to Trey Palmer in the red zone. Great throw. I didn't think that Slay was in bad position there. I thought the Slay coverage was good. I remember having a conversation with Troy Vincent a few years back, Flex. A few years back.

That was gross. We got to spend some time apart. Troy Vincent, and he said, look, a good throw will always beat good coverage. A great throw will always be good coverage. a great throw will always be great coverage. You go right down the line. And I thought that Slay had really good coverage there, and it was just a better throw.

Nicopi Dean's in the passing lane there. And that's what, to me, like, you might say, oh, that Nicopi's going to get better depth there and try to take away that throw. I thought he was in fine position, but with his stature and his athletic limitations, he just doesn't have a, he's not, he doesn't have a ton there to try and take away a throw like that.

Zach Cunningham a year ago, Zach Cunningham's got, I don't know, four inches on them and how much more length? But a shorter lifespan, though. Yeah. As I was going to say, right now, Nacobie Dean is not going to be better at that than Zach Cunningham, but 60 years from now,

only one of them is going to be on the field. Well, today, Zach Berman, today, Zach Cunningham would have taken that throw away or potentially try to impact that throw if he was in that spot. And so I think you saw some of the physical limitations from Nicobee Dean in this one, and it just wasn't his best game from an eye-discipline standpoint either. Well, and that's the thing, right? If you are limited athletically, you can't afford.

to have your eyes be wrong. He's not a player where he's got that right. There are other players where you can get by with that. And it typically happens for younger players or in the career. If Jalen Carter makes the wrong read on a play and steps, he's got the explosiveness, the power to make up for that. Nicoby Dean just doesn't have that in his body to be able to make those kind of players. If you want to be positive, though, I mean, part of the problem with Nicobo Dean is that he

hasn't been able to be on the field. And so I think some of that stuff, the more reps he gets, I think some of it can approve. I mean, in theory, when you're drafting the guy who was the captain of the defense at Georgia, there shouldn't be so much of a learning curve. But I think some time on task could help him. I'm generally a little bit more bullish on Nikobi Dean through four games than I was, you know, entering training camp. I agree. I actually, I've liked what I've seen for him for the most part so far this season. This was his worst game of the four. But I think overall, like he's shown that he could be a serviceable starting linebacker. Like I don't think he's as good as what

T.J. Edwards was. And it's not a difference maker. But yeah. But I think that he's that ability to be just a fine starter in the middle. Okay. And then, you know, we talked about on the post game show, it's hard to really knock the pass rush in this game specifically. But over the course of four games, they have been unimpactful for the most part. What did you see in this game from that group? Yeah, I thought that we saw some nice things, some nice reps.

But again, with the ball coming out as fast, you know, for the majority of the day, you didn't get to see it come to fruition all that often. You saw the BG sack. We saw Josh Sweat get home. That was off of Milton Williams rush. Milton Williams had a nice rush that forced the quarter. back off the spot and then Josh Sweat was there to clean it up. But I think overall, like Jalen Carter had some nice wins.

He had the ability to push the offensive lineman back a little bit. The ball was out too fast. So this one was not as much on the defensive line from a pure pass rush standpoint. The one thing I will say that I thought was interesting and it's going to be in my piece that'll be up later today on all p.hoi.com. The way that they utilized the fronts in this game and the personnel groupings, They came out right out of the jump with Milton Williams as a defensive end, essentially. And I kind of thought, because in the game, I try not to like get laser focused on one part as I'm like charting stuff.

Because if I get too far into the weeds and then it's the end of a drive and I'm like, I have no idea what just happened. You're the complete opposite that way. Yeah, I know. You charting. I'm like, how the hell did he just do? Did he do that? Very astute observer of the game. No, but I get lost in the weeds.

I'm losing a little bit of the forest sometimes. But so I thought I figured, all right, well, probably. probably it was the Eagles came out in base. Right. And they got spread out. And I know, because I knew there were clips out there of like Nolan Smith lined up over Chris Godwin and space.

All right, well, that's what happens when you line up that way if you come out and base. But, no, the Eagles decided we're going to come out and we're going to play with five defensive backs, two linebackers. So Zach Bond and Nikobi Dean,

three defensive tackles and a defensive end. To me, remember last year we talked about the penny package with the Eagles where it was five defensive linemen, one linebacker, it was typically Nicholas Morrow. and five dbs. And that was their answer of, all right,

well, you've got to get the best of both worlds and being able to stop the run with heavy bodies up on the line of scrimmage and with five guys in coverage. So you're not losing much from that standpoint. Eagles have had a lot of issues trying to stop the run out of nickel so far this year. We know that that was a big talking point

against the Atlanta Falcons. To me, this was an adjustment there. Actually, I had to go right to the source. I had to go to our friend who wrote the book of Fangio. Really? I went to Sean Signee. He and I were having a back and forth. Wow.

I actually went and checked my before I reached out. Cross pod pollination. Well, I wanted to go about. I was like, you know what? Because he obviously knows Fangio in the scheme much better than I do. And so I went, reread the piece just to make sure I was there any mention of this. And there wasn't. And so I was like, Sean, I don't know if you've seen this.

And we went back and forth on it a little bit. And where we ended up was that this is kind of we didn't feel great about. I personally, I don't want to put words in Sean's about it. I didn't feel great about it. But I think it's a offshoot of that penny front, right? where you've got five down linemen, but positionless football, you've got Zach Bond

with his ability to be both a linebacker and a defensive end in some of these looks. I think that's where they kind of felt comfortable in doing that. I also think, because if you look at the snap counts and the snap percentages in this game, Brandon Graham was at 63%, I think, last week.

Josh Brett was up there. He was much lower this week. I think that that might be a way to tone back some of the snaps for BG and some of those defensive ends. Let's get more for, if we think of Ojamo is giving you good snaps. That's a good way to get those guys on the field more.

That was the whole theory behind it a couple weeks ago when I thought about it. Yeah. And so you can line up with four down on the line of scrimmage and feel okay defending the run out of nickel because you've got that extra big body up there. And if you do want to go to that 5-1 front, you feel a little bit better with, all right, we're going to take Bond down and we're going to kick that defensive end inside because it's Milton Williams. He's natural playing inside.

Whereas last week when they did that, it was a defense event. Nolan Smith having to kick inside or it was Josh Sweat having to kick inside. and he has not been very good when he's been asked to do that. And so I think that's kind of the best of both worlds that they were hoping for from those looks. That might only interest me. I thought that was I thought that was really notable, though, because they did it. I mean, it had to be 15 plus times over the course of the game. The reason I was looking at my phone is very concerned.

No, no, my laptop's dead. And I was looking at my Fangio notes to kind of support what you were just saying. There's two things. Now, we've spoken about the defensive front. We've spoken about the coverages here. He, he, Afangio made the point of, of mentioning that they played more man than they typically do early in the game. Yeah. Which, you know, I, I thought, I know fans kind of assigned this soft zone, the Fangio, but Fangio said they played more man.

They just played, they weren't tight enough in coverage. Yep. And as, as both said earlier, the communication from the sideline was trying to get the, the, the, was trying to get that coverage tighter, right? And so whether it was, it's up to the players at that point, probably a little bit of the coaches, a little bit of the players. a little bit of the players. Regarding Bryce Huff, it is interesting that Fangio said they're not really asking him the drop. He hasn't really played against a run in his career.

Like, they need to rush the quarterback. And that's kind of the way they're using him. And he's not really doing much in that regard right now. Yeah. Make sure that you subscribe to the YouTube channel and all that good stuff. Hit the like button. Zach, what did he say? You mentioned the snaps.

I mean, Julian Carter is playing an insane amount of snaps. And he came out of this game at the end of it. What did what did Vic say about that? He didn't sound concerned by it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, am I explaining it correctly there? Yeah.

He's like, I've been places where guys play that much. Yeah, Christian Wilkins last year, for instance. Right, I know. But it's kind of wild. I mean, he's on track to play like almost 80% of the snaps. Now he did come off the game of cramps. He did come out of the game in cramps. So clearly he's not going to play in that heat all the time.

But yeah, you're absolutely right. But you were on this before anyone else. So it was the question you asked Howie Roseman back in the opening press conference in the in the summer is that they this is a team that historically is rotated their defensive front. That's not the way Vic Fangio's used it. And like they're hiring Vic to be Vic. And I think Jalen Carter is going to play that volume this year barring injury. He did say there was it comes down like the individual, right? And so I also kind of think is that a way to say, all right, do you have it in you to be that guy?

Oh, yeah. There's also a reason that Jordan Davis is not playing that many snaps. Sure. I mean, the first thing Clinton Hurt said about Jalen Carter this offseason, and Clinton Hurt is the defensive line coach who looked at Jailen Carter closely coming out of Georgia, right? It was down to Jalen Carter and Devin Weatherspoon. And Clinton Hurt said, the first thing he said is the shape that he's in to play the amount of snaps that they want. Like that's what they wanted him to focus on.

When I spoke to Jalen Carter throughout the offseason, the thing he said he was working on was the shape that he's in. because I think it was relayed to him early this offseason. You're going to have to play a lot of snaps for this team. And I see no reason why this is going to slow down. Now, some chatter in the chat. They want to know how it is that your laptop died despite the fact that it's plugged in, but it's not plugged into a power source. You have your phone plugged into the computer.

My phone died as well. No, not now when we were at lunch or like earlier coming from the press conference. My phone died during the press conference. And so I had to charge this up. and yeah my laptop I was using it I was using it late last night early this morning I forgot to plug it in overnight what's that forgot to plug it in overnight I didn't plug it in overnight I was I was

using it in bed and I was reading I mean I was using it in bed last night like and then you read tomorrow just everything else nothing like that I was responding all my emails and And then this morning I was reading a book on the Kindle app on the laptop. And I think that uses a lot of power. Wow. I mean, I got like 90.

This is a judgment-free zone. I got like a 90-100 words into the, I'm sorry, 90-100 pages into the book, right? I mean, I was scarfing away at that thing. Well, you think it was worth it? Yeah, I learned a lot. But your computer died. Yeah, it was the Michael Silver book on. you love a Michael Silver

Look, I love anything with inside access And I was learning a lot here Okay Any other leftovers on the defense, Fran? No, I think that's pretty much everything I mean, look, my piece this week is a little bit shorter Because at the end of the day, like the mistackles are the mistackles Right?

There's not a lot to break down here The The Don't make them repeat it The miss tackles are the mistackles There's not a ton to break down from those plays to me that that's that was a major issue obviously in this game uh you do you do that and you just give them extra chances and that was the big issue for them so the the uh similar question to what

zach asked me yesterday you know like how do you how do you fix it over the course of this biweek what are what are your big priorities if you're a vic fangio what are the things that you're working on yeah adjustments that you can make yeah i mean they'll go through like tackle drills and tackle circuits and all that happy stuff i think the bigger the bigger thing to me is like They have to button up the pass off in zone coverage. That is the one. And that can improve. And you ask some about that today.

That's one that that can improve. That can get better. And we saw it again last week against New Orleans. They did a great job in that area. And so to me, that's just an area. That's a thing where they can hammer that home over the course of the by week. You can do that in the classroom. You can do that in the field.

You can do that through meetings, all that stuff. So, you know, I think that that's a big one, certainly, that they can fix. I do wonder. And I say I, I wish I could ask Vic Fangio this. I have access to Vic Fangio every week, and I, and I don't, I don't know how honest he would be on this, although he's honest about everything, it seems like, is if he foresaw this, because I, the, the lament about the practice time and the need to play in preseason games.

Oh, that's interesting. The perception of that was, oh, this is, this is an old school football guy, but maybe he just, he knows that his system takes time, that he didn't. didn't see a good tackling team on film, but that, like, because he, he very much believed that his guys needed to play in the preseason, because you need to tackle. And that was like, there was, I think the expression that that was conveyed was the physicality. In terms of, like, the scheme adjustment here, we talked, and you've pointed it out, the numbers in, in his past stops, what it's like year two compared to year one. Like, maybe he foresaw a bigger transition than the Eagles did. Maybe the Eagles, maybe the Eagles kind of viewed it like, well, you know, we, we, uh, we, uh, We've run a version of this during the past two years. Now we got the guy who we got the architect of it. We've got Jordan Davis. And like from Vicks perspective, it might be, no, those guys weren't running my deflake.

And it takes time here. And for, you know, U.S. Vic today about how long it did. What's a realistic expectation. Yeah. Exactly. So maybe some of the. Hopefully soon. So maybe some of the communication parts of this, maybe he felt that it required more practice time.

and more time on task during the summer than the Eagles believed in and that he foresaw a transition period here. I like that theory. You could also then say if he knew that it would take this long, couldn't he make adjustments to make it easier and not ask them to do quite as much in the short term in service of being ready earlier. Yeah, the thing where I fought the Eagles,

and I understand Training Camp is about competition. Like I get that. but it just it befuddles me that you would spend your entire summer with devon white as your starting linebacker with queen on mitchell basically playing the slot like you know and and then week one comes and your cornerback alignment's different than it was throughout five weeks of camp basically you know they didn't put avonthe matic and you picked up on avonte max right away but they didn't do that till the last week of camp that they didn't that with a different linebacker combination like throughout the week of camp yeah that's a fair point from a communication perspective, what they had in that Packers game was different and in the subsequent

weeks thereafter. I don't need to say subsequent and thereafter. It's redundant. That's great. But that like the training camp at the preseason was the time to prepare for this. Why was the personnel entirely different come to season than what you had, or not entirely different, but partially different come to season than what you had during camp? Yeah, I think that's fair. It's a fair question.

All right. Before we go, I'm going to go over a swooper. Oh, yeah. Fran, you had this item sells for more turkeys than the combined number of points in the first order. He got it for two turkeys. Did not happen. Nope. Tom Brady references or talks about Super Bowl 52 during the broadcast, but just saying, beyond just saying he won't talk about it.

And this was very close. We were watching it together. Yep. And you were an honest man. I appreciate that. You said he did not cross the line. He had every opportunity. He said his friends think he hates Nick Foles.

but that did not, it did not reference Super Bowl. Would you have counted that for you, Zach? I think Boat would count it. I think Bo may have counted. But I don't think so. These items are very clearly defined. The Bucks play at least five snaps on defense

with six defensive linemen, including edge rutches on the field. That did not happen. The Eagles win the turnover battle. That did not happen, but the Eagles do not win the turnover battle. Now, here's where I will say, I misinterpreted it.

You and I, I think, both thought that this meant that they had to lose the turnover battle, but it was actually even if they tie, or I guess whatever it is. But you got that one. So you got one. Got one. I had Will Shipley placed 10 plus offensive snaps. It looked good on the first step. He was on pace to play every snap of the game.

On pace. It did not happen. Johan Dotson has more receiving guards than Chris Godwood. Did not happen. No. The Eagles convert over 50% on 4%. down they were one for two so i did not hit that at some point in the second half either team gained as many yards on a play as points they have on the scoreboard uh sterling shepherd for 30 yards

when the eagles were down 30 to 16 that one hits for me and then the combined total offensive yards on offense fails to surpass 654 it was 672 yes so close but did not happen so you and i tied at one frant and then zack you had jalen hertz either throws two plus touchdowns and or throws more touchdowns than interceptions. Did not happen. Tom Brady makes a reference to Brandon Graham going to Michigan.

Had a couple opportunities. Did not happen. And then you had the Bachelor Party ones. Yeah, I know that. Let's, Julia, show me. No, no, no, this might be used on the big camera. No, this is my brother. Flash it up very quickly.

No. No, it's my brother. No. Very quickly. No. No, no need to post this. One photo. Okay, it's a picture of Nick Berman.

You can take it down. Fran, you are absolutely correct. Wait, yeah, that's not there. That doesn't count. Hold on. In the photo? Yes, that's in the word again. For the end of Monday's show,

I receive a picture of Zach Berman's Bachelor Party. Yeah. Zach Berman at, I receive a picture of Zach Berman at Nick Berman's. bachelor party. I'm sorry. You do not hit that.

Wait, so when I texted you, when I texted you, a point in swooper, and it's a picture of Nick, okay? Yes. You don't respond? That's not sufficient?

I'm sorry. It's on my job to handle you through the game. I had to be in the picture. You got to listen. No, a picture of Zach at Nick Spacher. I'm at the next passenger party. It's not a picture of you.

How do you get, no, how do you think you're getting the picture? And there's nothing in there that says I have to be in the picture. That's literally what I said. I received a picture of Zach at next bachelor party. No, of Zach. Yeah, a picture. So Zach's at next bachelor party.

I'm taking the picture. How do you think you're getting the picture? I'm at the bachelor party. You're not in the picture. You're not in the picture. Yeah, I think I got a sign with that as I would go on this one. Julia, Julia, what's your thoughts on that? He knew it right when he saw it.

Julia? I'm sorry, that. If you want to know where it's like to feel teamed up on? It's the studio right now. Yeah, no, it's a picture of Zach. Yeah, I'm at the bachelor party. I'm sending you the picture. It's not a picture of you.

If I say, Bo, send me a picture at the Super Bowl. Okay, it doesn't have to be you at the Super Bowl. You're at the Super Bowl. If you say send me a picture of you at the Super Bowl, it has to be a picture of you. I'm sorry. It's very clear in the item. Okay, well, can I send you? No, it's end of Monday show.

She's just all those turkey spent. I mean, this is... I'm sorry, you got to hold up your end of the bargain. You know what? I need to put up like a Dariusleigh tweet right now. All my career accomplishments, okay? All my career accomplishments. I'm not going on.

I am not going to let this disway me. I trust Caliph's. He says, Zeeb, I love you, but you're on Caliph watches every day. I will own this. I will, I will wear this. You know, I figure there would be a technicality. And look, I will own it. Good thing I have some turkeys in my back pocket.

And it's a long season. I'm 0.3. But it is a long season. So we'll see what happens. but yeah, that one, and you put Nick on the screen. I didn't know you're going to put Nick on the screen. Nick didn't, Nick didn't, I... Well, I had to prove it that it's not a picture of you.

I would, I could have told you that. You didn't have to put Nick on the screen. Yeah. Oh, come on, man. That's like, yeah, Nick didn't sign up for that. Yeah, I said, Nick, I need to take you a... That's why you should have taken a selfie of yourself. I thought it had, I thought it had the approval was at the Bachelor Party.

So that was like Nick. Because otherwise... It's like Isaiah Rogers. You got to read the other rules. I could have just sent you a picture of me from Tampa. Like I'm there. Like I could just send it from the field, the video. Well, no, that wasn't at the bachelor party.

Yeah. I mean... I'm sorry. I mean, this was a layup. Oh. All right. You know what? It's Emily's birthday.

I'm not going to get upset on anyone's birthday. That's a good mindset. Yeah. I will own it and I will wear it. And I will wear it. And I will. will I will adhere to the letter of the law going forward. All right.

And so on the, on the season, Fran has two. I have one. Zach has zero. Fran is down four turkeys this week. I have seven left over and Zach has four left over. Very quick. Are we doing a bye week episode or a scuba? I don't think so.

Okay. I don't think so. Very quickly, Zach, I actually thought that Michael Clay's explanation of Isaiah Rogers mistake kind of made a little bit of sense to me, like how Isaiah Rogers got that wrong, even though it's. It's an insane thing for him to do. Yes. Yeah, the explanation was that As Azei Rogers knew the role as a gunner.

He didn't know the rule as a jammer. As a gunner, you are allowed to push the defender into the punt returner. Yeah. But as it explains why he thinks it was a veteran move. But just like to take it one step further, the idea that you're going to like get your teammate killed. Yeah. He's like, what are you doing? You don't typically think.

He's like, you don't typically think about pushing someone into your teammate. Yeah. So Clay wore that. He said he has to know that better. I had a stat that I forgot to say in the beginning of the show. Okay. For the fans that are looking for any piece of like optimism, feeling good. Okay.

Come out of the game. Philadelphia has missed the playoffs in three of their last four seasons where they started three and one. And they have made the playoffs in each of their last eight seasons where they started two and two. I actually saw that stat last week going into the game. That was from NFL media research. And I thought, oh, that's a silly stat. I'm not going to use that for anything. And then, especially because I thought the Eagles would win the game.

And then, yeah, so they lose. And I thought, you know what, this will be nice to share with some of the sickos in the chat that are looking for an itty-bitty piece of optimism going into the weekend. I mean, that's a stretch. Okay. Eight for eight. One or two and two.

There you go. Yeah, but, I mean, even the bar for this team does not make the playoffs. Just got to get into the tournament. Okay. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the P.H.O. White Eagles podcast. Happy birthday, Emily Berman. Happy birthday, Naya Capadia. And thank you to everybody for watching and listening. We are back tomorrow, 2 o'clock. I'm excited about this one. We are doing

the book episode. Me and Zach talking about the franchise, we're going to dive deep into it. And if you want to have an opportunity to hear even more about that, there are still tickets available for the book event next Monday night. Whereas Zach's going to talk about the arc of the Jeffrey Lurie era and the big moments, the big players, all that good stuff, all the hard work that it went into it. So that'll do it for this episode. We will be back tomorrow at 2 o'clock for all of us here. We thank you for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow. And as always, we love you.