The Eagles showed their Championship DNA by beating the Los Angeles Rams 33-26 in a game they had no business winning. In the first half, the Eagles’ offense looked even more dreadful than it had the first two weeks.
The Eagles were a completely different team in the second half, erasing the 19-point deficit and ultimately winning the game on a Jordan Davis blocked field goal attempt.
Here are my thoughts on the Eagles’ comeback win against the Rams.
Kevin Patullo
There were plenty of positives from the second half that could lead the article, but Patullo’s issues through three weeks needs to be the main topic of discussion about the Eagles.
Patullo may be a great offensive coordinator and play sequencer down the road. Unfortunately, the Eagles are not a team that can support on-the-job-training right now. They are in the middle of a window to compete for a Super Bowl, and in the NFL, windows open and close quickly.
Optimists will point to the second half as evidence of improvement. I have no evidence of my own, but my intuition tells me that the improvement in offensive production came from two things: a massive change at right tackle (we’ll get to that later) and Jalen Hurts calling his own offense.
Again, I have to evidence that Hurts started calling his own plays and took over the script; that is all speculation, but the altercation above tells me that he at least made his concerns about the direction of the offense known. They ran a much faster offense in and out of the huddle, Hurts was ripping the ball wherever he wanted and everyone on offense looked much more satisfied with the result.
Before the game against the Rams, the Eagles were very transparent with their formations. When the Eagles got into pistol, they were running. When they got into shotgun, they were passing. If they were under center, they were running. I have not charted the Rams game, but my suspicion is that, at least in the first half, the offense’s tells were the same.
If what I think is true, then props to the players for taking over the offense when it mattered most. That leads me to my second takeaway.
Jalen Hurts
It does not matter who is ringing the bell; when the time comes to step into the ring, Hurts answers the bell every. damn. time.
When a defense is focused on coverage in the deep and intermediate areas of the field (Week 1 against the Cowboys), Hurts takes advantage of the defense’s lack of gap integrity and wins with his legs. When the defense is determined to stop Saquon Barkley and AJ Brown (Week 2 against the Chiefs), Hurts sets aside his ego and gets the ball to the check down. When the defense is bottling up Barkley at the expense of the deep and intermediate areas of the field (this week), Hurts gets the ball to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith down the field. It really does not matter what the defense is doing, Hurts simply finds a way to win the game.
Over the past few years, quarterback discourse has really embraced the phrase “wins are not a quarterback stat.” To a certain degree, that proverb bears some truth. There are 22 starters on a football team; that doesn’t include the special teams specialists. In any single game, there are so many factors outside of a quarterback’s control that contribute to a win or a loss.
I prefer the statement that “wins are not a quarterback stat…until they are.” At a certain point in time, the sample size is just too great to ignore. Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time because he won so much. I don’t have the answer as to when the sample size is enough, but we seemed to have past that point with Hurts. The Eagles are 19-1 in their last 20 games with Hurts. He is the best quarterback in franchise history; it is time that Philadelphia and the national media accept that.
The national media’s crusade against Hurts often points to his inability to win games in the air. Hurts is plenty capable of throwing the ball to win a game. He is capable of taking over a game when he has to. He just doesn’t have to often because the Eagles are so good. Hurts’ career record when throwing the ball 30 or more times in a game, including playoffs, is 23-11. That is a 67.55% winning percentage.
Stats from Pro Football Reference.
Here’s at how Hurts compares to the country’s favorite elite quarterbacks.
Hurts is every bit as capable as the country’s “Top-4 Quarterbacks.” It is time for them to start including Hurts in that category. He does have more Super Bowl MVPs than all but one of the listed quarterbacks.
Defensive Tackle Freaky Friday
In an interview this past week, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio spent time talking about how Jalen Carter needed to get in better game shape. He didn’t provide much insight into why Carter was out of shape, but to Fangio’s point, Carter has not lit up the stat sheet this season.
Granted, he did miss an entire game (his own fault) and his impact on the field extends beyond just the counting stats, but rewatching games, he is not as sharp as he was last season.
On the other hand, Jordan Davis dropped 30 pounds this summer and has looked like the better player. Until this season, the issue with Davis was always his fitness level. He was a great player but just couldn’t stay on the field. It seems the two defensive tackles have swapped places.
I do not doubt that Jalen Carter will improve over the course of the season, but as he positively regresses back to his mean, we can hope that Jordan Davis continues his impressive play. Those two manhandling the interior offensive line will help solve the defense’s pressure problems.
Obviously, kudos to Davis for the thickest six of all time. I was watching from a Philly Sports bar in San Diego–Pretzels and Pints for those who are curious–and it was the loudest reaction I’ve ever heard with the exception of being in a stadium.
Offensive Offensive Line Play
Lane Johnson got a stinger on the Eagles’ first brotherly shove of the game. After the first series, the Eagles replaced him with Matt Pryor. Pryor struggled early and often. A few of the pressures he allowed may have been communication issues; one seemed to be a miscommunication specifically between Saquon Barkley and Matt Pryor that allowed an unblocked interior rusher.
Pryor’s final series resulted in the unblocked strip sack on Hurts.
The following series, the Eagles replaced Pryor with Fred Johnson, who immediately improved the offensive line.
Fred Johnson’s addition along the line provided immediate stability. He lost to Jared Verse on a few bullrushes that forced Hurts to get the ball out quickly, but that is expected of a backup RT against a premiere edge defender.
The Eagles said that Fred Johnson didn’t take the backup RT snaps at first because he had not taken snaps there in practice. That may be the case, but moving forward, the Eagles will likely have Fred Johnson take the backup snaps at both tackle spots.
The Rams clearly had a plan to take advantage of the backup tackles, whether it was Fred Johnson or Matt Pryor in at RT. They frequently sent extra rushers, either linebackers or defensive backs, at the right side of the offensive line to stress the Eagles’ sliding protections. It worked well and the Eagles offensive line struggled throughout the game. The offense did not provide with the offensive line or Hurts with easy outs against pressure.
This aligns with the first takeaway from this game; Kevin Patullo does not have answers for the blitz. Hurts has been better this season with combating the effects of blitzes, but he’s been doing so either by pushing the ball downfield or by picking up first downs with his legs. This offense has not had hot reads for Hurts to take advantage of really since he’s been the starting quarterback. It is a dangerous line to walk, one that produces either an explosive play or a sack. There is no easy answer for Hurts against the blitz. He’s been brilliant, but we can’t expect him to be otherworldly for the rest of the season. The answers to protect him and the offensive line must be built in to the offense.
Quinyanamo Bay
He has had two bad penalties this season, but outside of those two penalties, Mitchell has picked up right where he left off last season.
In this game, Mitchell shadowed Adams for most of the game, something that he has not been asked to do previously. He acquitted himself well. I won’t be surprised if he’s asked to shadow more often now. He essentially eliminates an entire third of the field.
That the Eagles have two young, talented cornerbacks is such a benefit to a defense that cannot pressure the quarterback. Once again, the Eagles will need to create coverage sacks. With Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, that is a viable strategy.
Defensive Line
Simply put, the Eagles rank 29th in the NFL in sacks. They have 3. Now, Josh Uche continues to be one of the best in the NFL in terms of pass rush win rate, but the sack total speaks for itself.
The indicating statistics are not much rosier. Between hurry, hurry %, pressure, pressure %, and sacks, the Eagles rank best in pressure %. They rank 15th in the NFL with a 19.4% pressure percentage. The defensive line is the weak link on the defense.
Nolan Smith just went on the IR. Azeez Ojulari has been a healthy scratch. Things are looking bleak for the edge rusher room. Despite the addition of Za’Darius Smith, the Eagles need to make a move for a needle-moving pass rusher before the deadline.
Considering teams that already look like they will miss the postseason, here are some names the Eagles should keep an eye on:
Danielle Hunter (Texans)
Bradley Chubb (Dolphins)
Leonard Floyd (Falcons)
Joseph Ossai (Bengals)
Jermaine Johnson II (New York Jets)
Skill Position Players
Throwing the ball to AJ Brown is a great idea. Brown is bigger, faster and stronger than almost everyone that is covering him. His ability to out-muscle defenders at the catch point is really unmatched in the NFL. The Eagles offense will continue to excel as long as they keep him and Smitty involved.
Saquon Barkley has not had a signature game yet this season, and as long as the Eagles continue to run condensed sets or run inside zone over and over, he probably won’t. I’m not so sure that defenses are selling out to stop Barkley as much as I am that the Eagles’ formations (both in terms of proximity to the ball in condensed sets and formation tendencies) invite added bodies in the box post-snap.
Patullo will need to start leveraging 11 personnel and spread the defense laterally to really get Barkley going; that is something this offense needs desperately.
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