The Josh Innes Show - The Eagles Get Bounced Part 1: Should We Have Seen This Coming?

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

The Eagles lost and that was my biggest whiff of the weekend. We all knew the offense was bad. But, I assumed they'd turn it on in the post season. Shame on me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In gym. Even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got her seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel. Savings vary and subject to availability. All right, everybody. Welcome in all up in us. I am Josh. Hello, hello, hello, hello. So big weekend of playoff football that we had. High jinks, Tom Foolery.

Mostly good games. Last night's game was terrible. But for the most part, things were exciting. There were a couple games more exciting than others. But, I mean, you got some good football on Saturday. Yesterday, two out of the three were pretty good. Although I could argue that the Eagles game itself was interesting because it was close. but the Eagles are terrible offensively.

We can go and look in some of the things I was right about and wrong about. First off, I mean, the main thing I was wrong about was the Eagles. I thought that somehow, because they have just mojo when they get in, they have mojo at home. I thought they would handle San Francisco. They didn't handle San Francisco. It turns out their issues are far greater than you would know. I mean, we knew it.

We watched it. But it was more of a denial thing. with me. Like I'm watching the Eagles all year long and I know they have issues. I know the offense stinks. It's bad. And we know it's bad. Yet I'm watching this over the course of 18 weeks. And I go, when they get in, they're going to figure it out. And they didn't figure it out. It just turns out the offense sucked. There was no elixir. There was no juice. There was no, hey, they're in the playoffs. It's magic time. Now it's January Eagles. They just sucked. They were bad. Let's play a few commercials and get moving.

All right, so we start with that game, which I was dead-ass wrong about. I'd say that was the one that I was the most wrong about. Because as far as the games went in terms of picking winners, outside of the Packers, which, I mean, look, I should have won the Packers. They're up 18 freaking points. They're up 11 points with six minutes to go. The fact they lost that game is disgraceful. We can get into that. That is disgraceful.

The fact that LaFleur even gets to show up at work today is ridiculous. You're playing a rivalry game. You're on the road. You're up 18 points at halftime. 11 points with six freaking minutes to go and you find a way to lose that game. It's absurd. It's pathetic is what it is. But that I was wrong about.

Well, we got the bills in a win. We got the Rams in a win. We got the Patriots in a win. We got the Chargers. Boy, that was a mess too. That game was pathetic. And Justin Herbert at some point I started answering questions about what he is. and prove things.

But anyway, let's go with the birds first. So all season long, we talked about the fact that the Eagles offense is terrible. And they can't really run the ball. Although they ran the ball fairly well, I mean, Seekwon had over 100 yards in this game. But they can't run the ball. They have long, long stretches of being bad, not just okay, not just mediocre. They have long stretches of being abhorrent. They're terrible.

and we talked about that on Friday, I thought they would be able to avoid that. Again, mine had no logic behind it. Sometimes you have a take and the take is void of logic. I had no logic behind this. There was no data that was telling me that the Eagles were going to figure it out. It was all truly just gut and past performance. And by past performance, I mean past playoff performance.

The Eagles, when they play at home and playoff games, generally speaking in this era, find ways to win games when they're favored. They find ways to come back and win games. They find ways to make one big stop and win the game. That's why I thought they'd win this game, and I thought they'd be able to move the ball. They moved the ball at some points,

but for the most part, the offense was terrible, and too often than not, what you end up with is Jalen Hertz led Eagles offense has long stretches of the game where they're not just bad. They are anemic. They are terrible. They are awful. And that reared its head.

It reared its head in that game, and that's why they lost. Now, you start looking at overall because it's a bigger picture conversation as it relates to the Eagles, because this game, I mean, you go back and think about the way the game played out. Look, they lost by four points and had the ball. I'll tell you this, when they were driving at the end of the game, I was convinced they were going to score. Weren't you? When you watched that game, you just felt, all right, they're going to figure it out, they're going to find a way. They're not very good.

We get that they're not very good offensively, but they're going to find. away and then they didn't find a way. You go back and look at the drive charts, right? First quarter, 10 plays touchdown. Seven plays only went 20 yards. All right, turn over on down, it's fine. Touchdown to start the second quarter, it's 13 to 7. After that, after that touchdown drive to go up 13 to 7,

three plays, one yard punt. Three plays seven yards punt. four plays negative four yards punt 10 plays 23 yards field goal three plays negative three yards punt eight plays 47 yards field goal 10 plays 44 yards downs ball game over and look we can sit there and talk bigger picture stuff about petulow who's going to get fired there's no way he survives that's obvious but if you're one of these blindly loyal people to jalen hurts. You got to start evaluating this shit. Now, I give him the same kind of benefit that I would give Siriani. I think Siriani's a hard on. It's obvious he's a hard on. And you can question what kind

of impact he has on the team or not. Does he actually do anything? Fine. The reality is the man's been to two Super Bowls. He's won one of them in five years he's been there. He's made the playoffs every year. You don't fire people like that. There is no argument you can make for firing him in that situation. You fire people to do that. I believe in bad karma, and you can go back not just in bad karma, but you start looking at places that have had very successful coaches and have decided, hey, we're just kind of bored with you and we want to go. And what ends up happening is those places end up hiring somebody worse, and they start a death spiral. And you don't want to do that. You don't want to get into that world if you're the Eagles. If you're the Eagles,

it would be dumb to fire Siriani. Anybody suggesting that's a fucking moron, anybody suggesting that you move on from Jalen Hertz. I won't say as a fucking moron, but they're not going to do that, right? You move on from the offensive coordinator and you see if that fixes the problem. If next year you're as bad as you were this year and inconsistent as you were offensively, that's when you have to start pointing fingers at other people other than coordinators. And that is when maybe Jalen Hertz becomes expendable. That is maybe when Nick Siriani becomes expendable.

But as of right now, the idea that you would part ways with any of those guys is preposterous. It's not going to happen. see people on social. I see my guy, my man, Joe and Philly. It's like, oh my God, we got to fire Siriani. No, you don't. Like, you would be stupid. Now, do I think Siriani's particularly good? No. But there are guys who are not particularly good that find the right situation and they are successful. And they continue to be successful. And that's what Seriani's in. I don't think he's a very good coach. But the only thing that can tell us if he's a good coach or not is the results. He's been to the playoffs every year he's been there. What are we talking? His winning. He's a

mean percentage is incredible. You know, and he's been to two Super Bowls. He's won one. Now your argument could be, well, it's the talent. Well, the same talents there this year, too, and they're not winning shit. Obviously, talent matters. Dudes have to be successful. There's no successful coaches who have shitty players. Don't work that way, right?

Does not work that way. You have to have good players to be successful as a coach. So the people that just keep scoffing at Siriani and fire the guy, it's fucking stupid. You're irrational. You're angry. I get you just lost a playoff game. But let's also be real. The team was pretty mediocre all year. Very good defensively. Very mediocre offensively.

Defensively, very good. And you lost. You figure it out. You go out. You find some better players. You find a better offensive coordinator. You do it again. It's not hard.

Now, one of the uncomfortable truths and realities of the game yesterday is that, yeah, the offense stinks. And yeah, the offense didn't win the game for you. And yeah, the offense, I mean, again, we broke down the drive chart from midway through the second quarter on and it's preposterous. It's terrible. But the reality is, when the game was on the line in the fourth quarter, at one point, you're up 16 to 10 going into the fourth quarter. It's a 16 to 10 game. You've got arguably top two, top three defense in the NFL.

Your defense has carried you the entire season. You knew it was going to have to come down to. Defense wins to the game. Offense just doesn't fuck it up, right? You're up 16 to 10 going into the fourth quarter. You give up a touchdown, start the fourth quarter. You're down 17, 16. You punt.

Then you get the turnover. Turnover leads to a field goal. You're up 19 to 17. You're up 19 to 17 at home, and all you have to do is beat Brock Purdy and stop Brock Purdy, who has already thrown two interceptions in the game. That's all you have to do. When that drive starts in the fourth quarter and the 49ers get the ball back with eight minutes to go, they're at their own 34.

They march down the field against your elite, vaunted all everything defense, and Brock Purdy got to be the hero. Five-yard pass, five-yard run, 16-yard pass, incompletion, 11-yard pass, four-yard run, five-yard penalty, 10-yard run, six-yard pass,

incompletion, four-yard touchdown pass, they take the lead. So I understand that it's complimentary. I understand that offensively being inept will eventually start hurting the defense, but it sure shit didn't look like it for most of the game. Because as bad as the offense was, as mediocre as they were, it's just gross as they were for two and a half quarters, it didn't seem to hurt the defense all that much. They got the turnovers.

They got the stops. But then you got to the fourth quarter and Brock Purdy beat you twice. Two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including Brock Purdy having a signature. playoff drive against what people consider to be the best defense in the NFL, certainly one of the top two or three at home. Brock Purdy, who's already turned the ball over twice, you couldn't get him off the field without his favorite target, by the way, who wasn't there. George Kittle, of course, got hurt.

So we can shit on the offense, which we should, but going into the game, you knew what the offense was. I was wrong in thinking the Eagles offense was going to be able to figure it out in the postseason, and it was just strictly based on they always figured out. out, so why wouldn't they? It had no logic behind it, no reasoning. It was just they'll figure it out because they figure this shit out. And they didn't. But the defense, which you've ridden all year long, and I get that it's hard to shit on a defense that's had to carry the team the way they've carried them. But at home, in the playoffs, season on the line, you're one stop away from winning the game,

and you let Brock Purdy go right down the field on you. You let Brock Purdy go right down the field on you. you let Brock Purdy go 10 place, 66 yards, five minutes, take the lead, and then you never recover. And if you want, I mean, that's reality. And in this particular game, Brock Purdy, the guy that people love to shit on, was better in every big moment than Jalen Hertz. Now, in defense of Jalen Hertz, one of the things we've seen is the A.J. Brown shit, right? and we've watched that and we've seen the way that's played out. Hold on actually, let me do this.

Let me start another episode of this because I want to get a little bit deeper into A.J. Brown, a little bit deeper into Jalen Hertz. And look, Jalen Hertz has his floss. He sucks. But there were plays that should have been made for him and the game's different. That's why I view Jalen Hertz in a different world.

Like, I get that Pete, like, look, he's not very good. Like, it's not even fair to say he's not very good. He's mid. but you're only as good as the people that are making plays for you. Guys have to go out and make plays for you. And when dudes have three, four passes, hit them in the hands. Guys who are divas, guys who bitch, guys who demand the ball, and they fuck shit up, what are you supposed to do?

For as bad as you play. The name of the game is, for as bad as you play, as long as you've got the ball with the game on the line, can you make the plays you need to make to get the job done? And I think Jalen Hurst did. Made a couple big ones that were dropped. Now, maybe they don't win the game. Like, let's say A.J. Brown makes the catch initially on that last drive. Maybe they win.

Maybe they don't. But there were giant plays in that game that were failed by a guy that bitches incessantly. Anyway, let's get into that. So I want to start another episode. We will continue.