Philly Front Office

[UPDATE: added the ridiculous disparity in run pass ratio]

It seems like there’s one game per year where everything seems to go wrong. If just one thing goes differently, we win the game. Just because that game usually happens against Washington doesn’t mean it can’t happen against a different team in orange. That’s what happened against Denver in today’s 21-17 loss. It is what it is. We are 4-1.

We Deserved This

The focus of the fan and media ire has been on Kevin Patullo and the passing game. That’s not the problem. When the team needs to throw it, they can throw it. AJ Brown is upset with a lack of targets, but it’s Saquon Barkley who should have the real gripe. How come we can’t run the ball at all?

I’ve heard that Cam Jurgens is being used much differently than last year and from how Jason Kelce was used before him. They are both smaller, athletic centers who are usually deployed as centers on the move, using leverage and angles rather than power to open up running lanes. This year, Jurgens is being told just to basically push forward and block the DT one on one. He can’t do that. He simply doesn’t have the size. The holes aren’t opening up and Barkley has no where to go.

It’s not only Jurgens. Part of this problem is that Landon Dickerson is both hurt and bad right now. Just in terms of continuity, he seems to be leaving every game with a new ailment. For a position that relies on synchronous movement from a group of 5 working together, this is not ideal. Getting him to sit a few weeks to get right would help him, help Saquon, and help the team.

It’s not helping that Patullo is dialing up plays with a total lack of variety. After 5 games, he seems to be either focused on running it and only passing when he absolutely has to or passing it for passings sake like today. There are no disguises. The defense knows exactly what’s coming for the most part.

Without the running game, this team can’t be special.  Everything worked last year because teams were constantly afraid. If they sold out for one thing, the Eagles could beat them they other way. Not this year. No run game means that the opponent can drop extra guys into coverage and clog passing lanes. Jalen doesn’t miss guys anymore, he just has nowhere to throw.

We Were Also Robbed

I’m never a blame the refs guy, but if literally any of the following officiating decisions go the other way, we win

• Cooper DeJean strip sack. It’s weird that at full speed this looks like a clear good no call, but in slow motion the ball looks loose
• Jahan Dotson was in bounds. Hurts put the ball on a dime, Dotson caught it, and they ruled him out. It was clear as day. Instead of an early TD chance, we had to punt
• Intentional Grounding flag picked up. There was not a player within 10 yards of the ball, but for some reason they picked up the flag despite it originally being called grounding. It would have been 3rd and long.
  • Bonus: here’s why that’s extra bullshit. Apparently they used video review to determine if there was a player in the vicinity. They aren’t allowed to do that. Were you wondering why the officials simply didn’t mention what was going on? Because they screwed up.
• Late hit by Zack Baun. While the Denver receiver was stretching for extra yards, Baun came in and hit him. He was already down, but this was in no way late because the receiver was still fighting. This was a 3rd down play and the Eagles would have had the ball with time, down 1. Instead, Denver was allowed to run the clock and kick a field goal.
• Illegal Formation on Saquon Barkley. On the big 4th down play late, Jalen hit DeVonta on a big gain, except the officials said Barkley wasn’t set. He was, even if just for an instant. It was a ticky tack call at one of the biggest moments of the game
• No Pass Interference on Goedert. With 9 seconds left, Dallas Goedert was mauled in coverage right in front of the official. The same thing happened on the previous play and the flag was thrown. Not this time. Instead of a final play from inside the 5, the Eagles had a 30 yard toss up.

If literally any of these go the other way, we probably win.

(I don’t have anywhere else to put this but that 2 point conversion try changed everything. Without that, we only need a field goal at the end)

We Needed This

There has been a lot of negative energy around this team. As nice as it sounds that winning fixes everything, we’ve proved that’s not true. Escaping with victories doesn’t motivate anyone to look in the mirror. Getting this loss out of the way early is way better than skating by each week. We are by no means a bad team after this. Anyone claiming that is either a hater or they hate themselves. We do need to change things though. Reflection is needed.

We Did a Lot Right

Hurts looked phenomenal this week. He made every throw. There were two where the receiver turned in the wrong direction and a third where AJ Brown seemed to give up on a route, but otherwise he put the ball exactly where it needed to be all day. Again, no turnovers.

DeVonta Smith is one of the best receivers in football. He may have even come down with the last ball of the game had AJ Brown not hung all over him. A huge break out game for him.

The defense held the Broncos in check for 3 quarters. Even in the 4th, the first TD drive was legitimate, but the second was routinely stopped before receiving bailouts from the officials. When they needed to come up with stops, they did… Even if they were taken away.

We Did a Lot Wrong

The offense still doesn’t look right and the defense can’t get after the QB. These staples of the Super Bowl winning team of last year haven’t shown up yet. This game shouldn’t have been close. Without these two fundamental pieces of the team, games will continue to be closer affairs than they need to be.

Patullo dialed up 44 passes in 50 plays despite the team leading almost the entire game. How is that possible? He doesn’t seem to have any feel for calling a game. It feels like he scripts the entire game rather than calling with any sort of drive plan.

AJ Brown stopped running on a play that was a sure TD. Yes, that kind of things happen, but you can’t go through the drama of the last week and be the one to do it.

We Had to Listen to Romo

He sounded like a barely sober alcoholic most of the game but started hitting the sauce hard by the end. He lost his point, flip flopped, trailed off, and gave Jim Nantz nothing to work with. His most brain dead moment though was continuing to go back to the non-grounding play late in the game. Every 30 seconds he seemed to change his stance. He would have picked up the flag followed by he believed it was grounding, lather, rinse, repeat. He was still going through this grind after the bogus late hit call on Baun that really changed the game. Like your friend at the bar who is about an hour past his bedtime, Romo just couldn’t get on the right page with his own rambling and now irrelevant point.

Also, two words: “signature win.”

We Play Thursday

Get ready for the worst 4 days of our lives. I’m not kidding. Until the Eagles take the field against the Giants Thursday night we are going to be getting it from all angles. Every media head will be telling us that the Eagles are frauds (like they said) and will skewer Hurts without context. Then there’s the Phillies part of this. Game 4 starts at 6 on Thursday. There’s a miserable chance we don’t even get there.

Of course, 3 wins by the Phillies and a trip behind the woodshed for the Giants and we are right back to the good side of the cocky distraught scale.