PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Will Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ running game get UNSTUCK in Tampa?

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

A.J. Brown had his breakout with Jalen Hurts and the passing game, now all eyes will be on Saquon Barkley and a running game that has struggled thus far this season. Against Todd Bowles’ stingy defense, that might be tough but the Eagles will give it their best shot. Deniz Selman joins EJ Smith and Bo Wulf as they get into the nitty gritty. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With Josh Harris in the news, we are here with the Professor Danez Selman to talk about the Eagles going up against the bucks on Sunday. E.J. Smith will join us the latest from Sequin Barclay as the Eagles look to get the running game unstuck against Todd Bowles' blitz-heavy defense. 365 and Exfinity. And our friends at Ashley. We're here. The professor, Daniz, to my left. E.J. Smith, he's grinding it hard. at the NoviCare complex right now, hoping to talk to Sequin Barclay and some other people. We expect him to join us midway through this show.

Let's get the energy up here. How you doing, Professor? I'm doing well. How are you? Great. I need to work on my sleep schedule. Yeah. I've been staying up until 5 a.m. Thursday nights.

Just Thursday nights, huh? Yeah. Well, yeah, I teach. Is it nerves about the show? Tuesday, Thursday. And it's not nerves. I just want to be prepared for the show. You know, give the audience what they need to know about the opponent and all that.

So I've been grinding the film late at night on the opponent. But I need to change my schedule. You know, 5 a.m. is not sustainable. What would you like to do? I don't know. You're going to try to get a little bit more. Earlier in the week. Yeah,

earlier in the week. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I'm a procrastinator by nature as well. I would also save it until the end. You know third down is all about how you do on first down. Well, that's true. So, you know, if I can, if I can watch more film early in the week, I won't have to stay up to five.

You know what, actually, that is making me change my tune about on Thursday. the eagles offense because as a procrastinator, now I can actually kind of respect just wanting to get till fourth down to actually do your job then. Yeah, I mean, I think it fits better with the procrastination, life philosophy for sure. Yeah.

Now, whether it's, that's a sustainable, put together a good offense in the first half, miss me with that, those tryhards. No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to wait until the very last second. I mean, it must be so nice to know you're going to, win every game. You know, like I'm sitting in the stands. It's 26-7. People are upset. But there isn't like a feeling of, oh, no, you know, like here we go again. Like people aren't leaving early or

anything. Like, what a time to be an Eagles fan. You know, like, it was just like, I won 18 of the last 19 games. Probably win this one too. And if you find some sort of way. If you know that you're going to win the game, you might as well make it interesting. Make it exciting. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, think about how much more boring this week would have been if it had just been like a routine routine really you know yeah what would we be talking about yeah we'd find so good oh my gosh that's not interesting people would be yelling at us for yeah

for what criticizing the team they're winning every yeah they're gonna they're gonna do that anyway but all right uh plenty to get two uh let's start with the eagles offense and the state of the eagles offense um you wanted to talk about just from the jump, just how ugly that first half was. Yeah, and how some of the things that they did in the second half were not really schematic changes,

but really were just execution changes. Yeah, and I thought Fran touched on this very nicely earlier in the week on both of the shows. He was on, like, there wasn't really a dramatic change in play calling. Like, you know, two of the plays that have been broken down the most this week, the sack by McCullough that wasn't picked up, and then the 16-yard dig

to Devante Smith or on the- Huge third and 10. He's patient. Exactly. Those two plays, exactly the same play. It's a mesh with a double dig. They called it three times in the game.

Okay. And including on the, like, same formation, same formation, different players. I thought it was interesting. DeMonte Smith and Jahan Dotson and Dallas Goddard, the three of them all changed roles.

Okay. In one of the calls versus the other. It's something. It's a different guy running the mesh versus the dig. So that was kind of cool to see that at least there's a wrinkle. Like you're not using the, the exact same players. But yeah, same, slightly, a slightly different, you know, the way it played out because of the coverage. But at the end of the day, like one of them is a blitz, so they're going to

pick up. The other one was a drop eight. And so there was nothing to pick up. And it just worked. But that's the same play call. Like, it's not like they were running it up the middle on first and 10 in that terrible stretch. I mean, the other thing is, you know, I'm all about small samples, right? That horrendous stretch of football was only 14 place. Like, and I don't mean to say like, you know, If you, if you, you know, throw 14 pick sixes, that's also only 14 plays. But like, it was 4-3 in outs and then the two in fumble, happened to be the plays that Matt Pryor was in the game, like exactly the 14 plays who's in the game, not all his fault.

Those 14 plays was a minus 3.3 EPA per drive. That would have been the worst performance if it had been the whole game of any team in any game in the last five years in the NFL. And then the other drives was a plus 3.5 EPA per drive. as bad as it could go. Yeah. Um, and the other five drives would have been like the third best game in the,

in the NFL in the last way or something. So it's like a huge difference, but you look at those 14 plays and it's like they were so conservative. They weren't trying. Four of the five first and tens were passes where guys are just running the same route or they weren't picking up the protection or whatever. So it's not like they were just running it up the middle. I think one of the reasons for the perception of they gave up and they weren't trying

is because of the runs on second and long, third and long. I think they get discouraged when the past game isn't working and they stop trying, right? They ran it on second and 17 they ran it twice on third and long and those are going to invite the booze

from the stands and I totally agree that you have AJ Brown to Wanda and 10 like throw the ball. Yeah, I mean, I mean booing works sometimes as well. Were you booing? I was booing. Okay, good. Yeah, I totally was booing on

on at least two of them. I was booing, yeah. Oh, just on that, just on the The cowards draws. And I was also I was also booing with 10 seconds left. They kicked a touchback.

Yeah. They gave you a gift. Like they've been kicking it and making you return these squib kicks that no one can like, you know,

catch or field or anything. They do you a favor with 10 seconds left and kick a touchback. Yeah. And you have timeouts. You have a kicker who can kick long field goals.

You only need a 20-yard completion. Yeah. It's not like a hail. Mary, you need 20 yards. You have 10 seconds. Yeah. And to take a knee there, I mean, I was booing that more than anything because that's like, that's one where it's like what's the downside of trying a play there?

Yeah. Like, it's so unlikely that you're going to actually like give up a score at that point, you know, and you're down by 12. I was very upset about that. But in any case, like, the second half turnaround, so now this is the other side of it. The first, the disastrous plays were just like normal play. Well, actually, the turnaround wasn't, yeah. Before we get to this. Yeah. The execution issues in the first half.

Yeah. To your eye, were they, you know, these are professionals, they have to get this right? Or did you think that they were a case of a coach asking a player to do something that he shouldn't be asked to do? It's a good question. Jordan Milata made a big point this week about how they're over-complicating the protection calls. And they have to simplify it this week and how they weren't on the same page way too many times. And this actually continued throughout the game. wasn't just enduring that really bad stretch.

The last third down, before the fourth down, game winning touchdown, Jordan Milata thinks that the line is sliding to him. And so he fans out to get the blitz. And meanwhile, the defensive end is like unblocked on the play. Like, Zakewan has to like adjust at the last second and block him and it turned into an incompletion. That's the second to last play of the game.

It's not like they turned things around and everything is fine in the second half either. There were some, there were three obvious examples where two guys ran the same route or were in the same part of the field. Like that didn't happen in the second half. But I don't know, I have no idea whether to think it's like

the play call or the coaches or people just not getting the right call. It looks more like people just aren't getting the right call on some of those. And I don't think it's like last second adjustments, though I don't know. I could be wrong about that. I mean, when we talk about handling the Tampa Bay Blitz,

maybe we can talk about like the lack of hots and like whether they're changing routes at the line and whether that's causing confusion that didn't really look like what it was on some of those how about to you? I think I agree it was not to me the case of like you know asking grand

Calcutera to block a guy one on one when you know what his skill set is and he has to do that it felt to me like and it's hard to know whether this is they didn't hammer it enough on the practice field or guys just weren't paying attention or what it is but you know it's 11 guys.

that you have to have moving in concert, also reacting to what the defense is showing them. Like, you know, they're allowed to have some mistakes, but there were too many of them. Oh, yeah, for sure. And it was run game and past game. I mean, run blocking as well. There were all kinds of issues,

not only with the way that, you know, we were talking about this earlier before the show. Like, there was a play, there was a pass play where two of the offensive linemen were run blocking. They just like pushed a guy like five yards down the field. They didn't get called for ineligible downfield, I guess because they were still blocking.

And then there were other plays where it was like, was that a draw? or did that guy think it was a pass? You know, like, there were just a little bit more of that than we've seen from this team. You know, some of it might just be early season stuff. Okay. We're going to take a little break here on the P.H.L.Y. Eagles podcast on the other side,

we dive into the running game. Why maybe the Eagles haven't popped a big one yet and how difficult that will be against a Bucks defense that is very good against the run. I see Fran in the chat. Good to see you, buddy. Unfortunately, I can't come over tonight. I know that you want to watch the big game, but I'm not getting fanfished again

because last time I went over there, lagging, buffering, switching between apps trying to find the game. Claims he's a big fan. Felt like I was fanfished. Because if you call yourself a football fan, you had just gotten to have Xfinity. It's the ultimate sports destination.

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The big takeaway, Professor, is right now that he goes, can't run the ball. What's going on? Yeah, the run game has not been good. A lot of it is just guys losing one-on-once. I mean, it's not that exciting to talk about that because it's not obvious how to fix that. But we haven't seen the kind of dominance from Landon Dickerson, from Cam Juergens, honestly. Like, I don't know how much of that's being talked about. But like, yeah, like those two guys are both.

below what they were last year for sure. In terms of Tyler Steen, I'm not sure whether it's just that they don't trust him to run some of the types of runs that they were running with McKaye-Becton last year. I noted that this last game was the first game since 2021, 72 games later,

that they didn't run a single gap scheme run the entire game. Week 8 of 2021 is the last time that happened at Detroit, where they didn't run. run any counters, the flowers blooming game. That's right. That's exactly right. You like would like to see a little bit more variety in the run game in that way, like keeping the other team off balance.

There was one draw after a sequence of passes that worked well. I thought that was like well sequenced. But otherwise like you're just seeing look a lot of those inside zone read keepers and some of those runs like worked okay in this game like Jalen keeping the ball. we hadn't seen any of that the first two weeks and now this week we didn't see any gaps game runs so it's like you know maybe it's just a matter of Patuolo figuring out like how to mix those things in

I don't know how much he is deciding what run is being called versus Jeff Stoutland like in game maybe you have more insight on that I don't well I'm also curious about it okay yeah I mean but like you know it was just kind of strange to see that this is a team that like we've seen dominate with those runs especially against the Rams. I mean, last year they had the, what, like the 60 plus yard touchdown in LA was on counter. And then Jalen had the 44 yard touchdown on, on bash counter Reed. Those are both

plays where offensive linemen are pulling, creating extra gaps on the front side. And we didn't, they didn't even try it this game against a team that was playing similar fronts again. Yeah. And that you knew you did this well against last year. So just a curious thing. I mean, it's just a just a curiosity. I mean, maybe it's just a small sample. Maybe it's just they didn't get to it or whatever. Now the numbers say that by success rate, just if you even if you just filter out for running back runs, they're actually like even a little bit better than they were last year. It's just that they're not popping the big ones. Yeah. And it's true. Like that's one where I think our eyes probably tell us maybe a better story than that. What do you think? Yeah, maybe. I mean,

it's it's hard to tell. Success rate's also funny. Like I'll look at the way they got those successful runs and and there's a big difference between like getting eight yards on second and seven and getting four yards on second and seven but those are both considered successful right so four yards on second and seven which the equals love to get um like you that's still putting you in a third and three which isn't great yeah uh but that's technically a successful run because you're getting more than halfway to the thing i don't know like i i think there's been a lot of those kinds of successful runs like um this year second and then you're not you're not getting the explosives They're seventh in EPA per rush, but so much of that is the sneaks.

Like, because those sneaks are super high EPA. Like, if you can get like a fourth and one conversion, that's a massive, like, you know, boost in EPA. So, like, when you filter those out there more middle of the road, I don't know. I wish they would stop calling the game. Like, even though we said they did throw it on first and 10 a little more of this game, I kind of wish they'd stop going into the game with the thought that like, well, Sequin's going to hit one eventually. Right. Like, you just can't trust that that's going to happen.

You know, they're 25th in the league in explosive runs, and there's no, like, reason to think that they're just going to go back to being best in the league at that, you know, especially when teams are more concerned about that. And while we spin this ahead, we need to note that this buck's defense has been very good against the run. If you check out just how the running backs have fared against them over the course of the season, Bejan Robinson and Tyler Algeria combined for 48 yards. Nick Chubb 43, Breland Allen 30. So it would be bucking a trend.

No pun intended for Sequin Berkeley to have his big one this week. Yeah, they've been, they're what their second in DVOA and run defense as well, second in EPA per rush. Their first in success rate, only 26% of runs have been successful against Tampa Bay. Looking back to last year, the score got a little lopsided in that game. And so there were only 12 running back runs. but they didn't go that badly and there was a 59-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half

by Sequin. That was on an RPO zone run with Cam Juergens pulling and they also this narrative that like Tampa Bay is good against the sneak I mean the Eagles were four for four on the sneak last year.

They got stuffed on in the playoff game and there's been this like weird thing that Oveda Vaya is big and you know it's hard to do the thing I don't know like I don't know four for four Sumer Sports crumola down. One of my former

students who also won the Super Bowl is the starting right guard of the Eagles, Brandon Brooks, was talking just random day. We were just talking about the run game and why it didn't work in a certain game. I don't remember which game it was. And I was like, yeah, but like

last week they were doing these and this week. And then I referenced a game against Tampa. This was after he had retired, so he wasn't playing in this game. And he was like, the Tampa game that like none of those, they didn't call any of those or they didn't do those. And he just looked at me

and he was like, he was like, basically he was like, do you ever try to block Vita Vaya? I was like, no, I have not. And he's like,

yeah, like you just can't, you just can't call those plays or like you can't expect to do that. Like, like he, he, the way he talked about Vita Vaya,

and he talked, you know, complimentarily about a lot of opponents, but the way he talked about Vita Vita Vaya, like, like really stuck with me. Like how like when Vita Vaya is on the other team, you really have to change the way you,

approach the run game approach like you know like just like your whole thing like because you cannot just assume that any normal run that you run will work against him so interesting yeah so that's so you would think more outside stuff yeah if you look at

if you look at like the past years I was trying to find a pattern like that and there wasn't really one like they tried to run they kind of tried to run everything but but I don't have like exact data on like exactly when Vita Vaya was in the game versus not.

Yeah. All right. I'll do it for the big takeaway presented by Xfinity here in the Xfinity studio. Anything else on the run game that is concerning you before we move on to

the tempo discussion? No, not really. I mean, like, my tempo. I do, I do hope that, like, you know, the Eagles are still running it on first down more than any other team in the league.

Like, you hope that they are? I hope that that stops. Like, I hope that the second half last week, and we talked about this, little like, well, what is your guess just as what they take away from it? Do we, do we see them go right back to conservative page one? Or do you think that they come out trying to throw the ball more taking that lesson from last week? You know, it's been four and a half years of like microdiagnosing everything that Nick Siriani has done and thought. And it's so hard to tell exactly what he's going to

get out of something because it's so unscientific and so anecdotal. Like he could point to like one play and be like, we did this on this play and it worked. So we're going to do it again. Like he could look at those terrible drives and be like, we threw the ball on first down and ended up in third and long. Yeah. And so let's not throw it on first down anymore. Like, you know, we had to when we were down 17.

But or he could say when we had to throw it, we threw it great. Maybe we should keep throwing it. So it's really hard to tell. I think it's more likely it's the second one, especially because the players. there really seemed to be a messaging between Jalen telling Pam Oliver that they were playing not to lose between the things that AJ Brown said in the locker room

I really do yeah I think I think if those two guys are telling Nick like come on man like like let us play let your killers what did he say let your killers do their thing yeah that's so good and such a good good um like I think if it's like even if it's as small a change as like we are actually going to throw the ball to AJ like yeah and that's the thing Like we were talking about like the play calling so many of the successful plays were just like

ISO you know three by one. Yeah. AJ Brown by himself. It doesn't matter if it's man or zone coverage because it's basically man on man on that side. And I mean his AJ Brown just boxes out a guy. Like yeah, he's running. That's his thing. He's running a like a basic stop route.

Yeah. Boxes out Darius Williams and throws him to the ground. He boxes out Emmanuel Forbes and runs right by him. I mean, those are plays that change the game, and it's not like you have to call some sort of brilliant, you know, like play action that schemed him open or anything. Right. Like you're running the same three-man concept on the other side

that you run all the time. And it's just a matter of telling Jalen like, hey, look that way. You know, you got A.J. Brown over there. So as long as you do that and you make teams respect that and start to put a safety over there, like maybe that'll open up the other concepts as well. So I hope that that that's the lesson they got. So you...

But I'll believe it when I see it. You do not think that, No huddle in tempo was the panacea here. No huddle definitely helped in this game. Now, I don't know if that was like a coincidence. I don't know if it was because it prevented the Rams from running some of their more exotic stuff. Though Chris Shul is kind of a madman. I mean, like he was sending the, like he was lining up two high safeties and sending one of them on what looked like a blitz.

Like from up high like that, no chance of getting there. Like I don't know what the, what exactly. the point of that is. But he did that like two or three times. They were calling some crazy stuff throughout the game, including during the no huddle stuff. So I don't know if it was that, but the no huddle stuff worked. Jalen was nine for 10 for 80 yards and a touchdown out of no huddle in this game. And last year, he was also very good in no huddle. 71 for 96, three touchdowns. So we have a graphic, I think, about no huddle. The Eagles are third and running it. And if those of you who can see this graph, Washington is breaking the graph because there are no huddle over 60% of the time.

But the Eagles are no huddle third most in the league. That's around where they've been the past few years. And Jordan Maelada this week said that when they get on the ball, as they call it, they don't have as much time to adjust to our formations. And our formations are pretty basic, three by one, two by two. They don't have time to get to the things that they've been practicing all week. we also tested their conditioning and showed our conditioning we were able to go to the distance.

So that'll be an interesting thing for this game which is going to be played in I think real feel like 100 degrees on Sunday of do you want to go no huddle and test your conditioning against theirs? That might not be as obvious a ploy this week if you think they're used to be. I think their perspective is

they would rather have a tired offensive line than a tired of an tired of offense of line is better than an tired defensive line. Right, right. But if they're more acclimated to it, you don't want a tired offensive line against a not tired defensive line. What is the logic there, given that the defensive line can rotate and the offensive line doesn't? That's a good question. It's always like, let's tire out the defense.

And it's like, what about you? Like, you're getting tired. I think there is less, I think a difference in explosiveness. Okay. Makes a bigger difference for the defensive line than for the offensive line. And if you think about athletically, that's probably the biggest difference there is

on the field in terms of a one-on-one matchup is a D-Lyman versus an O-linman. So there's a maybe a minor advantage there. The flip side to that is, which we can get to, is I don't know how that works in concert with always snapping the ball late because you're giving the defense

the knowledge that the, like you're about to have to go. Right. You know what I mean? There's less of a surprise that the ball is snapped. You're also giving them just more seconds of rest. Yes. Yeah. So that's a different issue. Real quick, we can talk about that in a second about when they don't huddle, when they do huddle, sorry. When they don't huddle last year, they were 12th in success rate. When they did huddle, they were that dropped all the way to 25th last year. And this year, they're seventh in no huddle and 19th when they huddle. So the overall success rates are higher with no huddle across the league so I don't even want to quote those because that's it's it's that's a little bit like you know that could be misleading but they also rank higher

when they when they go no huddle so there has been some truth to no huddle works for this offense you could argue that other teams like the Rams for example when they go no huddle which no huddle or or like two-minute drill their plays are far more simple than in the normal yeah time like you know like in charting this game the Rams are doing all kinds of play action. The first six or seven plays that they had in the passing game in the second half were all under center play action plays. And they're all very complicated motions and they're selling a certain kind of run and

running certain kinds of routes. That last drive when they have to drive for the field goal, they're in shotgun. They're lining up pretty much the same way. Where is he? Yeah, looking for Tori and Bennett with Nakua on that side. But those are all like kind of similar route concepts. You could argue that with other teams, like it's simple. their offense and I mean no shot against the Eagles but like the Eagles passing game is pretty simple already and so like it the like going no huddle doesn't exactly

Take away like interesting past concepts. They're able to run a lot of the same stuff because they have pretty simple Formations already makes sense. Okay, you want to talk about the Snapping late stuff sounded like you wanted to talk about that I do Because you're the one who really like first first got me on to this and it is it is kind of maddening and I don't know if it's purposeful. My sense is that it's... Andrew, there's a graphic on the...

On the snapping the ball late. My sense is that it's not completely unintentional, but it's something that they would like to do better at because it does seem like there are times when they are breaking in the huddle really late and that it's maybe messing up the functionality of the offense. Yeah, the first thing I thought back to, and I had...

What are we looking at here? I had to look up my... Oh, on the graph. So that is the percentage of offensive snaps. This is only the first three quarters and only when huddling, okay, that the team waits until the play clock gets to five or less on the horizontal axis there,

and the vertical axis is when it gets to two or less. And you can see the Eagles are far and away the highest in both metrics. They were similarly highest or second highest last year in this as well. And it kind of comes back to, so just the pure number is crazy, 68% of the snaps this year, first three quarters when they're huddling,

the play clock has gotten down to five seconds. And 32% of the time, it's gotten down to two seconds, which is like when you're watching as a fan, you're like nervous. You're like, get the snap off. Tipping off a defensive line. Like, okay.

Yeah, there you go. Exactly. And now, if you are worried about delay of game penalties, it's worth noting. The Eagles only had one delay of game penalty all of last season that wasn't an intentional fourth down. delay. They don't have any this year. Since the start of 2023, they only have three such delay of

game penalties. They're only five teams with fewer. So it's strange that they're like off the charts, but how high rate of waiting till the play clock gets down, how often do they burn time out? Not as often as you would think. I didn't look that up last night, but like I know they burned one in this last game. That also hasn't been like more than it's harder to find that. It's harder to find that stat but there was there was a place I think you know a guy no no no no I think like two years ago on the show or something we actually talked about I don't remember

that they really aren't that bad at that either like at burning those timeouts and Siriani like really hates that like I don't know if the TV showed him but like like just watching with my binoculars like he was pissed when they burned that time out he was yelling at anyone he could he could find to yell at he was yelling at just like random people on the sideline

they really it's usually how he celebrates that's true Yeah, he really didn't like losing that timeout. You know, his brilliant timeout usage on that last drive might have been, might have been different if he had, if he had that extra one. Speaking of this, by the way, like, what, what's with the silent cadence at home? Like, I'm an old man, okay? Like, the people, the people, thank you, people, thank you.

People around me are getting younger and younger every year in the stands. Okay. But like, there used to be a thing of being quiet on offense at home. and it is gone. Really? I'm telling you, like, I don't think there's hardly any difference

in the noise level between offense and defense anymore. And it's a combination of people don't yell and scream as much on defense anymore because they're like looking at their phones and stuff. Okay. But also on offense, like,

yeah, they're getting ready to run the quarterback sneak. Like, the most important thing is that the players can hear the cadence on that. And everyone's going crazy, like yelling and screaming, excited. Maybe that's why they're going to. gotta ban the plan. Well, they're running the silent, watch the watch, watch next home game. They're doing the, the, the Tyler Steen like butt slapping like silent cadence.

Yeah. Regularly at home. And that did not used to be the case. Like, they used to do that on the road. Slap that man's butt. Maybe, maybe that's it. But I don't know. I look, Lane. I'm not going to tell you try it. Tyler Steen. Who. Lane, Lane, Lane Johnson, last year, expressed concern about this very issue, snapping the ball too late in the play clock, letting defenses run more exotic packages also said they were just better with tempo Siriani last year on this topic

said that in practice they set the play clock to 35 to make sure that they're getting plays in on time okay so according to the metric I gave you earlier if the play clock was actually 35 how many would they have 68% of the plays would be delay a game so I don't know if they're really like doing this

and they got them in on time yeah I guess I guess that's what it is but between the silent cadence thing and the getting the play in and all that, I don't know. I don't know what to think. We just have to, we shouldn't think that it's going to change.

All right, time to take a break. On the other side, we'll be joined in the studio by a special guest. You'll never guess who's joining us on the show. Bet365 has 90 million users worldwide and they live stream 780,000 events each year with early payout offers across the NBA and NHM. And guess what?

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With Rocket Money, you can easily find forgotten subscriptions and have them negotiate bills for you, putting money back in your pocket. With all those savings, Rocket Money practically pays for itself. So, cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter P-H-L-Y, Philadelphia Eagles podcast, in the survey so they know that we sent you. Don't wait, download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from our show. Welcome to the show E.J. Smith. Talk for a second so I can move my mic.

It is good to be here. Sorry, I'm late. I was trying to get some color from the Eagles locker room for you. I did not hear from Sequin Barkley, but I did pick up a couple of things that I think will be valuable for the show. So I appreciate you guys holding down the fort

while I was away. How useful do you find Sequin's availability normally? I find them instructive. I think all of the you know, all of the big star skill. Don't ever put your hands on my laptop again. I think they've all been

interesting to hear from this this year so far. Okay, but I did not. What did you learn? I learned that Devante Smith. He's still wearing his press pass. Still wearing his credential. Oh, can I see that? You can. I don't know if I should let the, does that like.

Oh, he's going to take a picture of this with his mind. No, no. I'm just in his own version. I'm curious. I still have mine. from the Super Bowl Radio Row. They told us not to show those on camera, the Super Bowl credentials. So I hope that the Eagles ones

aren't the same way. That's right. But yeah, I learned that Devonzi Smith feels pretty much very similarly to A.J. Brown in regards to the aggressiveness or lack thereof

from the Eagles offense. You not speak after the game? I don't believe he did. I wasn't there if he did. But one of the things I found really interesting and I want to hear what you guys think about this. Like, Devante talks about how defenses are

trying to limit explosive plays from the Eagles offense, you know, and while also taking Seekwon Barkley away and zeroing in on Sequin Barclay. So I asked him, like, where's the space, you know, if it's a shell coverage that's limiting explosive plays, but also aggressive against the run, like those two things are kind of at odds with each other. So DeVante explained that they've been seeing

a lot of cover two, a lot of cover four, a lot of two high safeties, but in that, there have been aggressive fronts, you know, a lot of blitzes and a lot of things to try and take away the running game while also being able to have that, that shell coverage. So he talked about needing to be aggressive against those and, you know, being able to, you know, take downfield shots against even those two high safety coverages. Yeah, this is an interesting, like, sequence in the schedule where you go from Spags to Chris Shula, who's basically been running those kinds of exotic exchanges and pressures to now that maybe the, uh, the evil genius as Jordan Milit called him this week in Todd Bowles where yeah, I mean, you can chart the coverages and it's like, it looks

like they're running cover too. Yeah. But they're running cover too where like the corner is going to be the safety and the safety is going to be the nickel and the nickel's going to be the corner and they're doing the late rotation. And meanwhile they have two defensive linemen dropping into coverage and two, uh, you know, like linebackers blitzing. It's not like just a matter of it being zone or man, it's a matter of it being, you know, being able to communicate it all out. And I think like, you know, my lota was talking about, he called it splashing of the water where they show like they're blitzing and then they don't. And, you know, the Rams did a lot of that and it messed up the protection call between the

offensive line and Seguan a bunch. And I do wonder, like, if you as a coaching staff don't think, don't trust the offensive line and the running back to communicate and protect against those things. and you're expecting those blitzes on a certain down and distance, are you less likely to call certain pass plays, right? So it's not just a matter of like you have AJ throw him the ball. It's like you also have to not get your quarterback killed. So Devante did speak about what's important against the blitz.

I appreciated his candor. We can't give the exact quote because we're not in bovertime yet. But he says when we're on the same page, it works. When we're not bad stuff happens. So I think it is interesting. And I just saw from Elliott Shore Parks at Saquan talked about the aggressiveness, the want for more aggressiveness. He says that that is something that is coming from Kevin Petulow

rather than just a player-led push. So I think we've heard that throughout the week. The Kevin Petulow talked about the word of the week being, you know, be the aggressor, attack mode, be on the attack. So I do expect that the Eagles offense is going to try to find more explosive plays in the coming weeks. Well, Professor, what can you tell us about the way that the offense has done against the blitz this season? Yeah, Andrew, I think we have a blitz. graphic where you can see that the Eagles have faced blitzes, the fifth highest of any of the teams

in the league this year, 36% of their dropbacks and only have a 32% success rate against the blitz. EJ mentioned this on yesterday's show as well, the 30th on those plays. And Petulow and his presser said that teams are doing something every down now, meaning blitzing on early downs and also blitzing the run. So he thinks it's kind of affecting everything. Last year, by contrast, the Eagles also faced. faced a lot of blitzes, 32%, third most, but were successful on 51% of the plays against it.

Remember, one of the biggest narratives about Kellynne Moore was, yeah, the offense is boring and all that, but he did put in answers against the blitz. We're doing better against the blitz. Perfect time to talk about this next game, right, against Todd Bowles, who has been famous throughout his career for blitzing. Jalen Hertz talked about how he has more authority and more tools of the line of scrimmage than in the past.

and you know that made me think about like well there are two different things here right there's the protection call right and then there's also adjusting routes to play call and the Eagles were middle of the road 73% last year at getting all five guys out in the route this year they're all the way down to 28th in that 61% and that's because Seguan is staying in to block when he thinks that there's going to be a blitz and part of that's obviously based on the opponent but he's he's terrible like that's Like he's really bad at it. Like, and this isn't like, I know I'm known as the Sequin Hater, but like, I think Sequin would tell you this is the part of his game that he has to, has to improve the most. They had A.J. Dillon on the field on a third and long last game to protect. They called the weirdest protection you'll ever see. They had A.J. Dylan one-on-one against Jared Verse and they slid the entire line to the other side. I don't understand that protection call.

But the point is like, that's a situation where they thought like, let's have A.J. Dillon in there instead of Seek-Wan. So one of the things is you can keep Sequin in And try to have as many guys as they're sending The other thing is you can have hot routes, right? And Grand Calcutera asked about this this week said It's usually up to the quarterback to adjust those routes to be hot against the blitzes So that was interesting to me like to hear a player say that because we always wonder like is it the design

Is it like you know is Jalen supposed to do something Where the absence of hot routes in the offense was really just staggering Yeah Yeah Fran says he was really really good Last year at past production. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's been really bad this year.

Last year, like, you know, that was one of the things people said is that like Seguan's better at this than he has been in the past. I don't know. He just hasn't been good this year. I should have known you're going to come in here gloating about the Eagles being three and O and Sequin having nothing to do with it. I've heard it's because teams are respecting Seekwan that the passing game opened. It is. How do you feel about the Dallas Goddard versus Isaiah Roger? you know the the inflection point of the offseason i mean this is just unbelievable

isaiah rogers goes and has the best game in the history or the best first half in the history of like the NFL defense last week um yeah scored a touchdown on like half the plays or something uh yeah i mean yeah i don't know what to say i mean i just if i'm ever going to bring it i'm i'm not going to doubt i'm not going to doubt you again e j i mean watch the seagulls defense and all the ways they're bending over backwards to protect the second cornerback from being exposed. And then you watch Isaiah Rogers over there. And then you watch Dallas Goddard having issues. Yeah.

Maybe you were right. I do have something on the cornerback situation, but we can get to that. Don't want to interrupt the competition. Yeah, I'll get there when we get to the deep. Okay. Write that down. Okay. Now, when it comes to Todd Bowles, the kinds of blitzes that we're going to see.

Todd Bulls. Last year, baby. Last year. What has he typically done against Jalen Hertz? And what do you think he's worried about? Yeah. So it's been different in the different games. If you go back to that playoff game that we all want to forget from 2023,

no AJ Brown in that game. And also the Eagles were in free fall. He sent nine big blitzes at Jalen Hertz. And the Eagles were only successful on one of nine of those plays. He also used... 11%. He also... That's very good.

He used a... Didn't even need the abacom. He's been practicing with the abacus. You got that, you got that the 11 thing, abacus. You know? Why is it? I'm still angry about that. No, that's weird.

He doesn't mind. I wouldn't, yeah, I don't know. In that game, he used a highly unconventional and highly insulting. 6-2-3 personnel in all 14 snaps against the Eagles 12 personnel. For those of you don't know, like, this is something that NFL teams will never do. like zero percent of the time outside like their own one yard line. I mean like this is like a goal line defense six actual

defensive linemen like four defensive tackles, two to two head rushers, two off ball linebackers two corners and one safety. They played this against 12 personnel the whole time like that's what they thought about the Eagles passing game without A.T. Brown. So that was just the game that like let's just

throw that out. Okay like I mean because like I just don't even want to think about that. Eagles were successful three of 14 plays against that six to three. Last year, it wasn't nearly as much big blitz. No A.J. Brown, no DeMante Smith, no Lane Johnson in that game. Eagle started with three straight, three and outs. But it was a more measured approach from Bowls.

It was actually a lot of like those exchange pressures where you're not even necessarily sending more than four, but you're dropping an edge rusher. By the way, which Tampa Bay defensive lineman drops into coverage more than anybody else? Hassan Redick. Yes. By a mile, Hassan Reddick.

And last week, there were multiple plays where he was like looking at the sideline all upset. after a play where he dropped into cover. I almost made it a spooper. Like Asan Redick is going to be seen on the broadcast looking visibly upset after a play in which he drops into coverage.

Good to know that he's still out there doing that. Yeah, no, it's awesome. He's dropping into coverage. So, Sacks. While either a safety or the nickel or somebody is blitzing. So we'll see. Last week against the Jets,

they sent the nickel Jacob Parrish on blitzes seven times. And a lot of those were those exchanges where they're dropping out. So we're going to see that stuff. Myelada talked about how they have to communicate to the running backs, which five guys the offensive linemen have. That's so hard to do when you don't have no idea like who's actually going to rush. Like you think Vita Vaya and Logan Hall like two big defensive tackles, you'd think there wouldn't be a play where both of them drop into coverage. And yet last week against the Jets, we saw a play where not only did they

both drop into coverage, but they allowed a little completion in the middle of the field. And Vita Vaya is like yelling at Logan Hall. Like, why aren't you standing in the right place? place. And he's like, I'm standing here. And he's like, no, you should be standing there.

I mean, they take pride in dropping into coverage and doing it well is what I got out of that exchange. Doing it and doing it and doing it well. Yeah. All right,

then it'll take us to our last break. One more word from our sponsors before we get back into the action here and talk about the Eagles defense going up against Baker Mayfield and the Bucks O. At ACE Hardware Home Services, whenever they get ready for the next job, they remember what to bring.

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TrueMark Financial Credit Union is federally insured by N-C-U-A. I got a tagline I just thought of. Turn your financial situation into a financial situation. That's pretty good. I got to give that one to you. And for the chat, I am familiar with the music reference you made. Thank you. Speaking of the chat, we got a couple super chats to get to.

We have Polar Jam who says, will the Eagles finally blow their run wad? And then Fran Duffy, attorney of bird law, says, am I crazy or why can't the Eagles control P, control V, stiken or McVey's exact offense? Also, how can D stack the box to stop Sequin and umbrella slash takeaway, AJ? That's the question. Yeah. So great, great. We're two minds just on the same way. And it's like the Eagles just take Stuygens offense.

Wow. I don't know. They don't have Daniel Jones. I mean, he looks like the best quarterback in NFL history. I heard E.J say that he's taking the owl on Daniel Jones. What are we doing? And this is like a shocking early. E.J. is giving up earlier than the,

than the Eagles play callers. This is like, yeah. And just talk about a coward's draw. Shout out to Dan. It's like running a cowards draw on second and, you know, second and 30. Shout out to Dan Baxter who called me out on this in real time a few weeks ago. I know there are some things I won't take the L on. You know, I'm still holding out on.

But this isn't one that I had to look inward on this. Did you take an L on Clint Kubiak after week two? You're going to be wrong. It was like 40 points to be wrong twice. now. No, I'm not saying that like I think Daniel Jones is like a world beater or something like that. I just, he is my type of quarterback. I should have always realized that. He's not. I tell people, you know, I've been, I've been to, I've been to, uh, no arm strength. I've been to two. He's athletic. He's athletic. That's not traitcy though. Yeah, you know what? All right. You just gave me a life raft. But now people are

just going to say I'm flip flopping. Yeah. Sure. I am flip flopping. What do I care? You just gave me a life raft. It's got to be like the Justin Fields archetype is arm talent and athleticism. It's got to be both. It has to be both. Justin Fields doesn't have that much arm talent either. Oh, come on. Certainly more than Daniel Jones. He's got armed talent. He has a strong arm. It's not that he's like, you know, he's not like got the angles and the, you know, the manipulation and all that stuff, but he can throw the ball far, which is, it doesn't have to be that complicated. I'm, I'm lucky enough to have been to two Super Bowls. I've been to, at six World Series games.

I've been to three NBA finals games. There were thousands of people at those games. The game that I tell people that I was at, the Daniel Jones tripping over himself game, was during COVID. There were only like a, you know, a few thousand people there. And I can proudly say that I was one of the people who saw Daniel Jones trip over himself live.

What a time. Last thing on the Eagles offense. Best thing about the pandemic. Last thing on the Eagles offensive going up against this, uh, Bulls, D is you caught a funny little, interesting little nugget from the,

the Bulls show. Yeah, Todd Bulls show, which we have to have two good nuggets. I mean, I watch these things on the other team's website every week because you can get some insight sometimes. Todd Bowles has a show where he just sits and the answers questions. But they asked him like the most, you know, vanilla question like key to the game on both sides of the ball. And he said, you know, offensively, we can't turn it over. Okay, not interesting. Defensively, he said, we can't let the quarterback out of the pocket and scramble.

So that kind of, you know, made me think like, yeah, I don't really. remember Jalen scrambling successfully against his team. And sure enough, that first meeting, 2021 week six, Jalen scrambled five times. Since then, the four games in Tampa, he's scrambled a total of five times. So, you know, not more than two scrambles in any of those games. Only scrambled once last year, only scrambled once in the playoff, each of the two playoff losses. And so they have put an emphasis on that. You pointed out that they made a big deal out of making him go left rather than right they kind of loaded the the front side especially in that playoff loss i remember in 2021 that was a big deal and so um that's something to keep an eye on because

obviously jalen has had a lot of success scrambling um in something in you know first game for sure uh this year and that's something that bowls is apparently putting uh emphasis on and the other funny thing from the goodness is so good so they're talking about field goal block because the the bucks got a field goal blocked last week against the Jets. They actually almost lost the game because of that. They allowed a touchdown on a field goal block. And then so the host of the show is asking Todd Bowles about the Eagles field goal block. He was like, you know, what did you see on that?

And he goes and I think she even said like, you know, like, you know, those two big defensive tackles. So like we know who we're talking about here. And Todd Bull says when Jerome goes through there and big boy comes through there, it can be tough to block. So Jerome is presumably Jalen Carter Right and Big Boy is is Jordan Davis But I think it's like good insight into like

Like how much does a defensive coach Yeah Like pay attention to the other team's defense Yeah Like like you know he doesn't he has no idea Who Jalen Carter's name is Like I can really appreciate when a coach Only refers to players by their numbers

Like I actually think that's like a kind of fun Old School guy thing like attribute Jerome It depends on who's doing it Yeah I don't think so depends on like Like buddy Ryan Buddy Ryan famously like

didn't even know his own players names. Like, I mean, that's just... 98's gotta get off the ball faster. Arkansas 86. All right. Well, before we get to the other side of the ball, sounds like we have an intruder, potentially.

Oh, yeah. We have somebody on the Xfinity mobile call-in line ready to join the show. Who do we have? This is exciting. Oh, man. Fran Duffy. How we doing, Mr. Duffy?

Who said something to upset him? Well, everybody, to be clear, but we have to, I mean, we have to address the elephant in the room. We've got another swooper controversy. Oh, get out of town. Wait a second. Get out of town. We have? I think we need a close up on this man.

This is ridiculous. This man right here. Uh-oh. Don't listen. We have worked hard to make this game get back on the level. Don't try to bring shenanigans here. Wait, is this the delay of game? It's not shenanigans.

It is shenanigans. This is ridiculous. If this was... If this was... If this was... If this was the opposite, if the inverse had happened, you would be throwing a fit.

No, no, no. I have no idea... I have no idea what this is. The item in question, the Darius Cooper versus Cameron Latz who snaps, in no way, shape, or form was it clarified that it was offensive snaps. It was just snaps.

You have missed your chance here. No. And even going back, even going back and listening, it was just total snaps. Come on. I don't know. I have to, you know, it pains me to do this, but I have to side with Bo here. What do you mean? I mean, since when on, since went on any of these snaps items, have we counted special team snaps?

Right. And it also wasn't clarified that we were counting special team snaps. This is nonsense. You were the king of the clarification. And you did not clarify. But it was snaps plus catches and carries times four. It's like clearly an offensive. offensive

item. Corts coming up small again. It's very clearly offense. This is... Yeah, I agree. The integrity

of the game is at stake here. Especially because if you do include special teams, it's almost impossible for it to hit. Like you wouldn't

put an item like that. Actually, you know what? You know what? Ladies and gentlemen, look at this boob. Look at this idiot. Look at this moron. Anthropomorphic

ruling golden retriever he could never have circumvented the rules of course he would mess up his super entries and the ruling here of course he couldn't have come up with something so sophisticated

I agree yeah I'm a dummy well I wanted to make my presence felt just before I've stayed in my case the chat can be angry about it later I'm you know I'll be angry about it

but I wanted to just make sure my my voice was here Russ heard yeah I feel like it's nice to see you I feel like we shouldn't let Bo off easy here I feel like he's getting off the hook the fix was in clearly he got or load it doesn't matter yeah clearly clearly he got to Dana's beforehand

I think I am team EJ on the Wad versus load argument really yeah thank you the first person I'm not even Boa time now at how confident you guys are the very first person to be on his side on this why he's poor graphic Wad like literally is

never used in any other context. That's not true. Whereas load, load can be anything. Yeah, you can have like Wad management. Wad management. Yeah, that would be worse than load management. No. Wad is definitely worse. Thank you.

On that note, I'll see you guys. I'll see you guys later. All right. We'll see on Sunday, Fran. I'm disappointed. Good to see where your bucks read. Thank you, Fran. I like the idea of Fran just getting shut out and swooper the whole year. and coming out, coming up with some, some new, some new excuse every week about how he was cheated.

I love it. We might need to get Judge Syed back on this one. I feel like, get out of town. Oh, I have, I'm going to call you out, E.J. Oh, no. E.J. texts me. Okay. Texts me. Not Sean Syed, me. And he says, you're the only person I can trust with this.

Oh, no. You can't air out. Oh, I'm, I'm doing it. I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to do it. But, you know, like she'll always says, you didn't say it was off the record. So he's like, you're the only person I trust with this. Am I interpreting this rule right about the CJGJ thing? Yeah. Like, can the Eagles resign him, all that?

And I say, you know, like I've been texting back and forth with BLG about this all day. Like, I'm not sure. I would say text Sean Syed. He's the lawyer. And E.J. says, like, oh, yeah, you know, I hadn't thought about that. Thanks. Then he comes on the show. and he's like, oh, I texted Sean Saya

to ask him to ask him about this. Well, you gave me great advice. I supposed to go. I get no credit. I get no credit. Oh, yeah. And then I texted Sean. Just a little detail.

I mean, you know I'm coming on the show like the next day. Like I'm, you know. Now you're upset with me and Sean's going to be. I mean, Sean's going to make this point in the show, obviously. Yeah. He's going to be upset. Did you tell Sean like, like, you know, you weren't the only person I could dress on this before. But here, I'm, I don't know if that came up.

Sean and my texts are insane. We have. on a lot of different topics and it moves very quickly. The man is always ready to take that. I think that Sean, I think there are like seven of him. Like, because like I have never texted him about anything and not gotten an answer within like seven seconds. But like you should see the speed with which we change topics.

We talked about call of duty yesterday randomly. I was trying to explain it to my wife why I was like going through my like old videos to find like call of duty highlights from the pandemic. And like it is just insane how quickly you can move through topics with Sean Syed. But pretty good call-a-duty player, by the way. Well, we can also move through topics, and you'll get to the other side of the ball in. Overta.

I like that one. That one was a lot better. It wasn't like guttural. It didn't feel. The more you criticize, I'm only going to lean into the other stuff. You got to learn that. All right, so I hated how casual and how smooth is that was.

I know you're not telling the truth now, but yes. All right. Call of duty. You want to keep talking about Call it, do you? No, I don't. Okay, I was going to say. Let's get to the other side of the ball. Why is the Eagles run defense so bad right now, in your opinion, Professor?

For one thing. And do you think that the loss of Nolan Smith will make a bigger impact here? Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. I hadn't thought too much about that. Watching the film, it's impossible not to notice that Jalen Carter just isn't himself. I mean, he's getting moved off the ball. By double teams, he's getting handled.

by Kevin Dotson, like on that last play of the game where they got the seven yards, like he's just removed from the play by Dotson one-on-one. You don't see things like that. He's ending up on the ground a lot more than he was. He's coming off the field for rest more and he's still not getting back there. I know Vick said that he was going to get in better shape as the season went along. But yeah, the run defense hasn't been good. Rams were 58% rushing success.

That was the highest against the Eagles in any of the 24 games under Fangio. EJ talked about being in base could be better. I mean, in this game, it didn't make a difference. So 58% run against them, success against them in nickel, 55% in base. So it was basically the same in both. They're putting Jahad Campbell on the line of scrimmage more to make the front wider. Now, the Rams play so differently than everybody else because they'll have a wide receivers lined up like tight ends. They'll also motion one of the wide receivers to insert block on a lot of rams.

on a lot of runs. They do that on zone runs. They do that on duo. And so you end up needing more bodies at the line of scrimmage. Fangeo used the famous like 6-1 front, a bunch out of base where he had Shahad Campbell lined up on the end and had a little more success out of that in the second half. But for the most part, I think it's just guys are getting pushed around on the inside. As much as Jordan Davis has improved this year, he was always pretty good against the run. So it's not like his improvement is helping that much. Like he was already good against that. It's just when the other defensive tackle is getting pushed around that makes it hard to to do this. I know BG talked to you on Brandon Graham unblocked. You should all subscribe to that. About how it's hard to set the edge and

figure out the gaps against the Rams, right? Because they're so condensed and that more conventional run games coming up against the opponents in the next few weeks and so we'll see if those things continue. But yeah, no, the run defense hasn't been good. Eagles have been

bad on early downs in general. They've been terrible at getting to third down. I mean, you know, one of my favorite stats. Your favorites. Getting to third down, the Eagles are 27th in the league at actually getting to third down. They're allowing first downs before third down, 51% of the time, which is way higher than it was last year. They were really good at this last year. They've been doing okay on late downs. They end up 21st overall in series conversion rate, but they were first in this last year. I mean, like, this was a defense that was off the charts last season and they've been kind of living on being good on late downs and being good in the red zone. They're also seventh in the red zone at stopping touchdowns. And so the sustainable things,

like the early downs, the middle of the field have not been good. And a lot of that I think is the defensive line play just hasn't been as good. And maybe they're picking on to hot Campbell very interesting in the run game and it's hard it's i think it's actually too easy to just shrug it off as he's injured like you know if if jalen carter is just 90% of jalen carter that makes a huge difference on this team yeah i mean he was the driving force for them especially in that front seven last year for so long i i think it could be as simple as he's just not totally right but to your point, like, it kind of helps contextualize like the superhuman nature or the Superman nature in the way that he played last year. I think we had a little, we had a bit of a disagreement in the summer about, like, I didn't think that he had the kind of camp that we were expecting him to have.

I completely agreed. I thought, I, in the moment, I attributed it more to like he doesn't have to be a practice record every single day. But now that he's sort of started the season a little bit more quietly than we expected, I think that, yeah, no, it probably. was foreshadowing for what was to come. Now, like, could this be the type of thing? Like, I feel like Fletcher Cox had a season like that where he's absolutely, he's allowed to play him into it. Yeah, no, maybe this is the case where he needs to kind of play his way in the shape,

play his way into the season. And, you know, by the second half of the season, he's back to looking like he did in that Rams playoff game. How do you feel about EJ's fascination with the base? He loves base. Kind of speaking of base, it's in base that Jahad Campbell lining up turns it into a six-man line, friend of the show, one of BGM, who was on the show

with you guys. Points out that it wasn't the usual 6-1. He went barefront. It was a very effective change-up. Looking at the way that that went in the second half, there were plays where they were 6-1 like that in the 4th and 1, the big stop, was one of those. In fact, Sidney Brown blitzes on that

and makes it seven at the line at the last second. A lot of those are, and I'm not sure if this is what 1 of BGM is referring to, but a lot of times it's a late shift into it as well where you've got Jahad Campbell you know shifting into that and then the defensive end tucking in and and kind of you know

if they have a run called that's going to work against the other front and they didn't do that nearly as much last year where they were they where they shifted late EJ's fascination with the bait with with base last year the Eagles were 51 base against heavy personnel.

That was 23rd in the league. It was only 45% after week six when Scupor Dane started playing. So that was one of the lowest rates in the league. This year that has been slightly higher. They've been up to 59% base against Tevi. That's still below average. League average is 65.

So I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that's their best group, like just the most talent on the field. Yeah, like it has the fewest, it probably is the best collection of talent they could put on the field and base. Like you prefer the third defensive tackle on the field than having a doorway judge. Sure.

Now, you're not going to play that against 11 personnel. Yeah. And so it matters more against teams that play more in heavier personnel. Tampa Bay has been 73% 11 personnel, 7th highest. So maybe that will come up a little bit less in this game. In terms of Fangio's use of base against heavy personnel, the numbers can be misleading sometimes because of who you're playing. but as an example, the Chiefs came out in 12 personnel in week two on the first two plays and Fangio was in base on those plays.

Last year in the Super Bowl, the Chiefs came out in 12 personnel a bunch on first downs and Fangio didn't play a single snap of base in the entire Super Bowl. And so there clearly is a difference in Fangio's thinking about which group he wants out there. I think maybe the biggest difference is that Cooper de Gene's out there either way, whereas last year it's like you don't want to take one of your best players off the field in that situation. Now with Jacori and Bennett out and you have news on Adori Jackson?

It's not necessarily news. We heard from him today. He said that it sounds at least like he's going to need through the weekend to kind of get a feel for if he's going to be close to 100% and able to play. And honestly, the way he was talking sounded like he was excited for Keely Ringo's

opportunity. So the injury report will probably come out in about an hour here, but definitely doesn't sound like it wasn't like a confident like I'll be out there. It was a lot of. Yeah, this is not like, you know, Darius Slay doesn't need the week of practice reps.

Absolutely. There's such a big difference between him and somebody else. I mean, the margin between Adori Jackson and Kili Ringo is so small that there's no way that they would start him. Yeah. If you're missing a couple days of team, that definitely does make it.

Again, everything has kind of been leading toward, you know, Kili Ringo taking this opportunity. So, yeah. Fingio obviously. Ringo stars.

Vanjou obviously knew that Kili Ringo was, was likely to start when he said that he's gonna get his opportunity at some point. I was thinking like, you never got it last year. He did. Like, yeah, like, yeah,

um, the last time Keeley Ringo played significant snaps in a meaningful game. Uh, last year. I guess that's a meaningful game, meaningful, and a meaningful, yeah,

the, uh, watch this, like, it was either the, the Browns of the Bengals game. Um, it's not enough snaps.

I can't cheat. I have to guess. I was talking about, He was talking about he made a, he hit a guy on the sideline. Yeah, yeah, but he played like 10 snaps. That's against the Rams, was it? Now, the reason I'm bringing it up is because it was the playoff game in Tampa Bay. He came in for a horrendous James Bradbury who was benched midgame,

and he ended up playing 35 snaps in that game. Well, that game didn't matter. He didn't play more than 11 snaps in any meaningful games last year. So, 11? 11? Was it the Browns of the Bengals? The Bengals was eight snaps. The Browns was

six snaps. How many special team snaps? Yeah, special team snaps would change. Nobody cares about how many special team snaps. We care. One of the best special teamers in the league according to Vic Fangio. Who knew he paid attention?

Everybody in that building talks up his special teams. It seems like he really is trying to breathe confidence. It is. He treats so rare that he compliments players. Yeah. Much differently publicly than everybody else. Yeah. Talking about how good he's been on special teams?

That's very un-wick. Yeah, yeah. What did you say? He's confidence into something? Is that an expression? Sure. Okay. All right.

I believe, I think breed confidence is for things. I think the way that you like confidence. Listen, he's got kids. I think he's trying to breathe it, not breed it. Come on. Give me a life wrapped here. Just because he's getting up there doesn't mean it doesn't have human urges.

Like Keely Ringo has kids? Or Vic? No, Vic. Oh, okay, okay. Got it. Yeah. To go back to the Nolan Smith injury and also playing bass, Zadarius Smith hasn't played any base at all so far.

Okay. In this week, he said that, he said two things that were interesting. One, he said, I have to learn how to play bass and play four eye and drop into coverage because I don't do those things normally. He said that because base means a lot of times you're dropping an edge defender. and he also said he'd never played against Baker Mayfield and I'm like there's no way that's right there's no way that's right and he just flat out

he was asked about Baker Mayfield he said I've never played against him and he has a sack against him in 2018 this rookie season they were in the same division it was so Browns Browns Ravens and he had he played against him twice you know hundreds of snaps against Baker Mayfield but it was seven years ago so I love Zadaria Smith I would say I really enjoy so what a what a

like, he seems so relaxed. Yeah, he's a very cool guy. Like, you know, just very calm. He's, like, I'd say he's cerebral, maybe not always correct in how he is in the, with the media, but I appreciate his candor. So, like, someone asked him about, like, whether he feels pressure and he just kind of laughed.

Yeah, he was like pressure. Like, I'm in year 11. I'm a Darius. Yeah, yeah. There will be like two people that understand this reference, but I'm going to do it. Maybe Andrew will know this one. Pressure?

What pressure? Do you know that you don't? this? Do you know it? I feel like I've seen that or heard that, but I don't remember what exactly it is. It's, uh, I think your name's Chloe Kelly or Grace. Grace Kelly is a celebrity. It's Chloe Kelly. Yeah. Okay. Female soccer player. Nice. Somebody will get it. Somebody will get it. Clip it. Chat's not helping you so far. All right. Anything else you want to get off your chest? Uh, are they going to be wearing green jerseys? Yeah, green, green jerseys and, and white pants with white socks has

announced in Tampa Bay will be wearing their white jerseys with the pewter pants so it's going to be identical to the how do you feel about the fly under barbber game i think that you are a little little bit too anti i'm the voice in the locker room man it's so it's so it's so do not seem to be a fan of yeah i would i would imagine i would imagine i would imagine i would imagine the players don't like it for sure but i loved vic just saying like it's not like you know it's like you're going to get acclimated by going to a day early. Contrasting it with Zach Bond, who I always compare Zach Bond to like a character from like a Hallmark, Hallmark after school special movie. Last year he was unmiked up. He was like, he called that play because he believes in us.

Like, and he was like completely, completely sincere. And yesterday he was talking about the flying down early. And he was like, yeah, I mean like, you know, like Nick's thinking so hard about all this stuff. And this is going to be great. Like he, he's, you know, at least publicly. he's bought in, but it sounds like maybe behind the scenes the players don't love. I mean, I don't know if it's a it's a night away from there. Some players that would prefer to be at home instead of having a way. I think it's an annoyance. I think it's like

I said yesterday. It's Friday night you've sort of like a night off for them normally. They usually have it's like a night they can do whatever. You've heard guys talk about this week like not wanting to make it more than it is and I think that's exactly what it plays yesterday. It's exactly what it is like going down early makes it more than what it is. So

yeah. I wonder if I think it's like it's like I said it yesterday. Everybody has been in a situation where like your boss is asking you to do something you think is dumb And like okay, I guess I'll do that doesn't mean that never think it's a good idea How much of this is how much of this is Siriani listening to the sports science people and how much of it is him using this as an excuse to for the team camaraderie and togetherness they they had like the all access video and last week it seemed like he was focused you know how there are only three things now instead of five it's like tough detail together instead of whatever the other five were. And he seemed really focused.

Yeah, whatever it was. Competitive compete football IQ. Yeah, tough. Yeah. Yeah. Toughness. Yeah. So he got that down to three.

And as he continues, everybody needs an editor on his path to becoming the highest winning percentage coach in NFL history. It's probably going to whittle down to just one thing by the end. But he seemed focused on the together last week. Like, that was like a thing. And so I'm wondering. if this is part of his get an extra night in the hotel, hang out, go to dinner together.

Categories. I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there. I'm wondering if you think that's part of it. Could be. Yeah. I don't know. I'm sure somebody in the training staff is.

But it sounds like the players aren't saying that, right? The players aren't saying we're going to get to hang out. This will be, this will be fun. They would have preferred to do the normal thing. Yes. Also, shout out to the truth for knowing my reference. So I told you something. somebody out there.

Yeah, that's what it's all about. The truth has had some really good comments. He's been... All right. We've been on the same way of them. They have been very much... Don't go overboard. Thinking the same thing I've been thinking,

talking about base defense, the hybrid players, female soccer. We got a great sale on diehards that started today. You have a chance to read E.J.'s Drew McCuba story and everything else that's going on.

Flyers guys just came back from Flyers Media Day. I'm sure they're going to have all kinds of cool stuff. And check out that sweet new PhD-LY green hat. I like that bad boy. I hear the Carolina coach always travels five days early

to see all his other families. This is an excellent. Quignan Mitchell watch how he's going to play. Fran seemed to think he was going to travel with Egbuka this week. So he traveled with Pickens and Lamb in the first game. He played to the field the entire game, the second game. He traveled with Devante Adams last week. Combination of Keely Ringo being in there

and Tampa Bay having three kind of slot type starters. None of them are a star. Do you guys agree with Fran that he'll be traveling with Ibuka? I was surprised he said that. I thought this would be a sides. My thought was that this was going to be a sides game. Yeah. But I didn't, I don't disagree with Fran.

Yeah, I mean, Fran, I'm going to yell at me again. Franz, you know, doing the guys and knows how much better Egbuka is than the other guys, I guess, like, as a rookie, like he's a guy that I've watched very, little. So if that's the case, like, you know, more communication to sort through, like, stuff that, that, you know, might be harder for Keeley. It might be easier on Keeley if it's just sticking to sides. I don't know. I think it's also easier on Kili to not have to cover Igbuka. Maybe, I think, I agree that, like, Agbuka probably is, like, right on the fringes of, like, would you really want, like,

to sacrifice the continuity to have Kinyan take him, theoretically take him out of the game? I sort of lean with Fran, though. I think that him. Well, like, exactly. If, you know, if Mike Evans was playing in this game, we'd probably assume that he'd follow he'd follow Mike Evan. Yeah, and that's also another aspect to it. It's like maybe you think it's week four, the games we want to win, we're going to need Quignan to follow. So while it is an ideal, maybe it is, maybe there, maybe the growing pains early in the season

will be worth it. You know, I don't know. I know that you don't want it to be too forward thinking about it, but if it's close, maybe you lean toward, they have to get used to it eventually anyway. One of the things this has done is it's forced teams that North, use a guy in the slot to be more, you know, like motivated to use him on the outside. Because if you put the guy in the slot, Cooper DeGine's going to be on him. And then Quinyon's going to be on one of the outside guys.

We saw how much Nekua was playing on the outside last week so that they could get him on Jacorra and Bennett and Adori Jackson. Have you been a little bit disappointed in Quinyan? Yeah, for sure. But I mean, I think it's because of how unbelievably good he was last year. Yeah. Like, I think if this was just like a normal, like if he was a rookie now, yeah, you would be like, Cuneon's doing great.

Yeah. Right. But he was so off the charts good as a rookie. Yeah, Emily asked me the same question, actually, after the last game. Like, she was like, is Cunion not as good this year? And for her to say that, like, I mean, she's watching all the games, but like, you know, that like stuck out to her. Be careful here.

No, that stuck out to her as like a detail that she wanted to ask about. And I was like, I think he has a lot more on his plate. Yeah, no doubt. might be part of it, right? Like traveling with the guy, like not always being on the same side. You know, this is the, you know, you mentioned, you know, Jordan Davis taking that leap. The counterbalance of that is like some of the stars, like Quinnian's been not quite as good. Yeah.

Jalen Carter has been not as good. Lennon Dickerson has been not as good. Even, you know, Juergens, we get to the A.J. Brown discussion. Like, you know, the superstars, maybe that is encouraging because you're thinking they're already three and O and these guys are probably going to get better. But. Yeah. Zach Bond's the only one I think who's been at the same level right probably

when he's been awesome yeah but very nice of you did not mention Sankwon I know you were thinking it I was thinking defense but no I mean it's hard for Sakewon it's hard for Sakewon had a couple of runs last week that should have been big losses that he turned into something I mean it's very impressive three yards yeah yeah yeah third down red zone on the final drive the final offense the drive I still that wasn't such an awesome run I'm sure I'm not I'm not coining this because I'm sure there's a lot of people there are a lot of people who have said this, but this must have been what it was like

to watch him with the Giants, where he needs to create three yards, four yards out of just absolute chaos. Yeah, that's, oh, the spin move. He spun into the front. Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah, he spun like four gaps over. All right.

That's it. That's for the week. Okay. We did five shows. Got the BG show too. You don't want to hear what music was playing in the Eagles locker room? I could give you a fun.

Yes, you got. Happy feelings by Frankie Beverly. Oh, that's a Jalen Yeah, Jaylon. Jalen always has the ox on Fridays And that's mostly context clues of like It's the music my dad listens to Yeah

So I believe it's I like this from Jalen Yeah, you know Well, the chat or I guess that's that's chat Chat may not know that that's the song that was playing When he had his Michael Jordan moment He walks out with the Lombardi Trophy and sits there In the hallway with it by himself

That was a song in the background. We get so much into like the weeds with some of this analysis stuff that like, or at least I do, that it might not be clear to everybody. So I just want it to be known. Like, I love Jalen Hertz. Like, I love being a fan of the team that Jalen Hertz is the quarterback of. I've said this since like his first year playing. Like, you get frustrated with something, sometimes, whatever, but like, I mean, look around the league, look at a bunch of those other quarterbacks. Why would you want to root for any of them? I mean, that's all. I think he's great. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is a pro Jalen podcast. I mean,

I, a little tease here. In the early bird, I'll have a discussion I had with somebody about the, the completion we talked about with Fran to Devante Smith against the Rams where he gets to the third man in the progression. And just how like, this will be my commentary on it, like how if other quarterbacks had made that, that throw. Oh, if Justin Herbert had done that? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Got to the backside. Oh, yeah. Totally. I just think. Totally. I think he has taken a step in processing this season that. I think in time people will probably appreciate.

And he doesn't get credit for making the right read on RBOs and zone reads and things like that that some of those quarterbacks don't have to do. Like those are decisions that you're making too. I also that one thing that that does bother me about those is this happens with Herbert a lot, but also a lot of the other, you know, hipster favorite quarterback. If you don't pay attention until the later rounds of the playoffs to football, Justin Herbert is the quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers is they. they are, it's always like, oh man, look at this throw he chooses to make and he just misses it. Like, oh, like, this is a great read by him

and he can attempt this throw, but it's not quite complete. Like, what is the participation point trophy for that? Like, Jalen doesn't get credit for that, right? Yeah. And he doesn't miss guys. Yeah. When he throws the ball, you know?

Completely agree. Yeah, that's all. He's not the Tacticos quarterback, but he's been playing well this year. Yeah. I've said it. I have, like my, my, my Jalen opinion has really moved even more this, this year. We're putting this out there right before the Bucks game, though.

Yeah. What a, what a psycho he is and how much he wants to win. And the fact that there's no way that the only study he cares about is like, he wants to catch Michael Jordan. Like, he wants to get six championships. I'm not even kidding. Like, I think, like, that's his thing. Like, he wants to get six championships. And I'm just like, him just like, some of the.

just like imagine maybe he wants to get seven to catch Brady. But like that's what he cares about. And he won't celebrate until that happens. And like what could be better as a fan? He can't even celebrate that. But yeah. He might not even celebrate that. Yeah. So yeah, I think you're right.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. That'll do it for this episode of the P.H. Why Eagles podcast. Got you covered on all facets on Sunday. Kickoff show 1220. E.J. will be down in Tampa.

You got any big plans? I'm going out to dinner with Back Zerman. and I'm going to celebrate because Aston Villa finally won a game. Oh, congrats. Oh, man. That, what a feeling. Forgot what it felt like.

All right. Very exciting. We'll have the halftime show and of course we'll have the postgame show all here. Fantastic. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Professor.

Thank you, E.J. Thank you, Fran. We'll talk to you on Sunday. And as always, we love you.