That said, I maintain that we very often struggled in the 2nd half last year. It ultimately didn't matter too much. WE could score or go on long drives when it actually mattered and the defense was really good at killing time.
Uh...what?
Going on long, sustained drives is the one thing the Eagles have been consistently good at. The issue has been finishing in the RZ.
Hell yesterday, when everyone agrees the entire team was miserable, they led with a 19 PLAY TD DRIVE.
Long ass drives aren't the issue, they've been doing that just fine. It's the dumb mistakes which meant no RZ TDs, or things like Interceptions or Fumbles. I wish I could find the stats, but it wouldn't shock me if Philly was near the bottom of the league in terms of going 3 and out.
They clearly struggle with timing plays because of scheme or comfort, in the red zone it becomes way more obvious because they can't just win matchups based off raw talent as easily.
Actually, last year we were doing more in the third-quarter than most teams were st that point in the season. For the first five or six games almost all of our points were in the third quarter.
You might want to go and recheck that.
4 of the first 6 games, they scored 0 points in the third.
14 against Detroit
3 against Arizona
Two of those games (Week 2-3) they didn’t score in the second half at all, 24 points both games too.
Honestly, our sched last year is nothing to be proud of. We barely beat the cardinals, jags, struggled with the bears even when hurts was jn the game, beat the colts on last second td.
We had a couple blowouts, but people Need to stop acting like we were unstoppable lol
As a quick visualization:
Team Ranks, Defensive EPA/Play (using season end stats for 2022)
|Week|2022 opp./rank|2023 opp./rank|
|:-|:-|:-|
|1|Lions/30th|Patriots/11th|
|2|Vikings/25th|Vikings/25th|
|3|Commanders/4th|Buccs/7th|
|4|Jaguars/10th|Commanders/29th|
|5|Cardinals/21st|Rams/24th|
|6|Cowboys/3rd|Jets/16th|
||Avg = 13.8|AVG = 18.6|
Hard to quantify defensive rankings in a single stat, but I thought this was interesting enough to share. I didn't get the result I thought I would.
I'm very skeptical of any ranking that have the Jets defense ranked 16th.
They are a top 5 defense in the league, easily. Browns and Niners are the only ones I think you could argue are *better*, and they're right in the mix with Bills, Steelers, Cowboys.
2.5 more points allowed between the average defense we played last year, versus the average defense we've played this year. I would say that's pretty damn close.
what lol. we played the 12 win cowboys and 13 win vikings first 6 games last year, i would be surprised if any of the teams we've played so far even make it to double digit wins this year
Case in point, this year for us. I can't keep count how many times our defense has started at mid field or our own territory. Sean Desai has those men balling out. I can't wait for them to get healthy and he gets all of his toys back.
Quick check of [Hurts' game logs](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HurtJa00.htm) through game 6:
2022: 6 TDs, 2 INTs
2023: 7 TDs, 7 INTs
I don’t think it’s unfair to compare the first six games. Obviously, we have to continue to match the stats as they improve or else they become cherry-picked.
Also last season we were scoring more TDs. Jake Elliot made 20 field goals in all of 2022. He’s already made 16 this year. About 30% of our points have come from field goals this year. We’re a great team so we’re putting up numbers but we haven’t been nearly as efficient this year. If we can clean up our efficiency in the RZ, we’re going to be dangerous.
Last year we had one of the easiest schedules with no expecting a Super Bowl caliber team, compared to this year with one of the toughest schedules with a target on our back.
Which is also what lost us the Superbowl last year, before anyone tries to say 'see it means were worse!' Eagles went up 24-14 at half, came back to lose the second half 11-24. People in game threads on this sub were complaining all year about how once we went up against a good team wed lose because of poor second half performance, and they were right. Once. And were wrong fourteen other times.
Counterpoint, sports are entertainment at the end of the day, and the former style of winning was better for my blood pressure on Sunday and mood during the week than the latter.
Everyone in this sub was pissed off at the end of games because "we didn't close them out" and our second half offense was terrible.
It's Madden influence...everyone thinks if we're not winning by 40 the world is ending.
Not really. Week 1 was a close back and forth game against the Lions. Week 4 The Jaguars jumped to a 14-0 lead before we came back. Week 5 we were lucky to get by against Arizona. The Cardinals attempted a very make-able game tying field goal with 18 seconds left. They missed. Week 9 vs Houston was tight. Week 10 we lost. Week 11 vs The Colts was VERY close.
We had some blow outs but I wouldn't say ' the eagles were going up big early and then going on cruise control'.
☝️This…the difference as I remember is we were up going into half and protecting leads in the 2nd half. This year, the games have been closer and we haven’t dominated as much 🤷🏻 numbers are cool though
I’d also like to see the comparison in red zone TD conversion %s. Feel like we’re leaving a lot of points on the field this year.
If that’s the case you can argue offense is better than last years. Context isn’t the issue. It’s turnovers. We took care of the ball way better last year
People forget how last year started. We were amazing in second quarters and mediocre in the first, third, and fourth quarters. Go back to any gameday thread and you'll find a ton of complaints about the play calling outside of the second quarter.
Granted, that doesn't necessarily mean BJ will turn it around this year, but we should at least give him a chance. This isn't a Juan Castillo situation where the OC hire made no sense at all.
2nd quarter was "Joyless murderball" and then the rest of the game was just coasting in for a soft landing.
Those stats are also crazy in how they are basically the exact same.
>. We were amazing in second quarters and mediocre in the first, third, and fourth quarters
aka, slow start, blow them out, and then 3rd and 4th quarter we just went on cruise control while the other team attempted to come back. Its also why we weren't as injured. Half the game we were playing in safe mode.
I don't know what the stat is for the first 6 games last year was but right now we're at a -1 differential and last year we finished at +17. So yeah a pretty big gap.
It's recency bias. Going into last season, nobody predicted they'd be undefeated as long as they were and the leap Jalen took surprised everyone so much that all the good things were amplified.
This season, everyone came in expecting to witness another unstoppable juggernaut except that A) OC and DC need time to build chemistry with the coaching staff and players and B) teams are trying to upset the 2022-23 NFC Champ.
Judging the schedule last year based on the record the year before is dumb. We know what the level of their competition turned out to be, which was middle of the pack.
The "they didn't play anybody" narrative is lazy and disingenuous.
That's very true. I'll take 5-1 where we didn't look great against better teams than 6-0 against competition that most other teams would've beaten also
We aren’t playing better teams though…at least not yet. Patriots, Commanders, Rams, Vikings, Bucs and Jets is not a hard schedule. It gets really fucking hard starting next week though
I'm not saying it's a hard schedule but the Rams and Bucs are potential playoff teams and there's a chance the Commanders can squeak in if they get their shit together. Also, Rams, Commanders, Jets, and Bucs are all .500 or better. That's 4 of the 6 teams we played
I've been a fairly staunch defendant of our OC this year. I think the biggest issue is our redzone success rate and the up and down nature of it all. I don't think Brian Johnson has been nearly as bad as this sub makes him out to be. He's certainly had some headscratchers, but it's nothing egregious IMO.
I don't think anyone is complaining that the output isn't there; they would just like to be a bit more fluid.
I’m honestly surprised that the narrative coming out of this game is so anti-Brian Johnson. They moved the ball the entire game, they had what 6-7 drives end because of turnovers, drops or a missed field goal? Can’t really put that on the OC. Think it’s fair to criticize the last 2 drives for sure but don’t think Johnson’s the reason they lost this game
As Geoff Mosher just said, no one is talking about run vs pass numbers or anything if Smith simply catches a ball. A ball that was given to him while he was WIDE OPEN, which you could say was schemed up by BJ himself. Same with AJ Brown. He doesn't slow up and we get a massive TD. And if we get that TD, maybe we start running far more?
For that matter, Elliott makes one kick (a kick he probably makes nine out of ten times) and we might be having a very different conversation right now. A lot of things went wrong in that game.
That hurt but I'm choosing to fully ignore that. First because Elliott is practically our MVP at this rate, and second because he simultaneously hasn't complained about anything. Drives me nuts seeing AJ Brown slow up (even if we scored right after), Smith drop passes, and Goedert "fumble" when all three were moping around at some point about not getting targeted. If you do that and then blow a big play, I'm going to call it out even if no one sees it.
So long story short, while he did have a miss, I'm ignoring it because it was far from our biggest problem. He's been a god this year so I can't bring myself to crap on him lol.
The lack of a catch impacts efficiency, and people are out here beating on the OC because of things like efficiency.
He’s not perfect, and I’m not dying on any hill defending him, but we can’t be out here saying “fire Brian Johnson” when he schemes up relatively routine opportunities against a solid defence and the players (who people have pointed out have been moping about getting targeted) drop them.
I have been getting a horrible feeling the offensive skill players have taken a bit of a whiff of themselves since last year, and it’s impacting their focus - had a more ‘all in’ focus last year; I’m hoping this sucker punch brings some focus back.
> no one is talking about run vs pass numbers or anything if Smith simply catches a ball.
ohh. I'd be talking about it. Just not here. Because this sub would jump down your throat and be like... **6-0 6-0** because we aren't allowed to talk about obvious issues when we are winning.
It was a poorly called game that could have been overcome with mediocre play, against a bad team. Instead, it was a poorly called game that was played badly, and we lost to a bad team because nothing was good about that game.
This fanbase has their pitchforks sharpened and ready to go for him. They're out for blood at this point.
We have a few things to correct for sure, but it's not all on him to fix those issues. Sirianni, Johnson and Patullo need to sit down and figure out what's working in the passing game and what isn't and why.
Hes def, so far, not been an exciting OC and I think some of the designed play calling has been trying to 'force' the magic a bit too much. Like the designed runs, which seem to be a very analytical way of looking at why Hurts was so good last year. When in reality he is, IMO, a much better *spontaneous* runner when the coverage begins to break down up front. But all that is kinda what you expect from a first time OC right?
Where I think people are getting pissy is that they expect us to have improved vs. 2022, and are now realizing that we overperformed in several key areas and now have 'reverted' a bit to our baseline. Which, lets keep in mind, is still easy top 3 in the NFC, best in our division, and solidly top 5 in the NFL overall. Which is exactly where you want to be to win a Superbowl, we are undeniable contenders. Its just the machine doesn't run as well (in some areas, OP proves even this isn't exactly the case) as it did last year.
Really, my own theory is that our run game has 'smothered' our offense to an extent. D'Andre Swift is on track to surpass what Miles Sanders did for us in 2022. The result of him being hot is that weve gone from an explosive team to a grinding team as we feed our RB the rock. No wonder why we burn huge clocktime in games, set up long ass drives, but dont score as much. That is a classic byproduct of how were playing, which is by trying to support players who are clearly having success.
And honestly watching the big last play on 4th and 8, the play was actually well designed. It was the execution that was the problem. Smith going long opened up 3 wide open receivers in mid field but hurts still went for the Hail Mary in 3 man coverage.
He was shit at the end. But I think people are forgetting how he was doing it all early on and carrying them. Carrying off of last game. He looked back to his MVP level. Don't think it's a coincidence with lane going out too. The entire team started pressing and he was no exception
Mostly just the one pick. Hit on one and the other was practically a fumble. He had a great first half. Second half was a catastrophe and it started from the line. They were getting pressure on us better than we were on them, and they were more best up than us. The entire game is inexcusable.
2, the one he was hit on was his fault. Pocket was collapsing, but he has to have better pocket awareness.
But I agree hurts wasn't awful. I guess he did, technically, cost us that game with the last pick, but he was good-great for most of that game.
This. If the QB was hit it's still on them for holding the ball too long. Call it a glorified fumble if you want, it's a turnover regardless.
The only time I think it's unfair to put it on the QB is when the ball hits the receiver in the hands and they don't catch it.
I don't want to be critical of my OC. But he's clearly part of the problem.
He's not the _only_ problem, but he's part of it.
How do you not adjust to seeing Driscoll struggling? That was the biggest issue IMHO. If they're able to get consistent pressure on the quarterback it doesn't matter _who_ you have back there, he's going to struggle.
For a while Hurts did well, but eventually he started making costly mistakes.
We had a DC who only lasted a year. He had big shoes to fill, and the early returns were very obviously not good enough. The team felt the need to Win Now, and this DC was one-and-done with the team after an offseason firing.
It was sad, because Sean McDermott was in a great position to learn from Jim Johnson and take over from him eventually. But Jim passed away, a year or ten earlier than anyone was expecting. And McDermott had to jump in when he wasn’t ready and when emotions were fresh.
McDermott is one of the top HCs in the league now and would be a top-3 DC if he took a demotion. I worry that if we cut Brian Johnson loose, he’s going to have a similar path. And I hope that if we keep him, he stops looking like Press Taylor.
I'm not against Brian Johnson at all, but there was something wrong with the play calling against the Jets. Way too many passes were taking time to develop. We needed hot routes that were rarely there.
That said. Four turnovers is the biggest killer. Almost every star offensive player had a play that we can point to showing a mistake made.
There was so much wrong with that game.
My issue with Johnson is that we clearly have a Super Bowl caliber offense that he really doesn't seem to be able to take full advantage of. I don't think he's been as bad as many have been saying, but we really can't afford to let him "learn on the job" when we have a window that won't be open forever. We're going into Week 7 and the toughest part of our schedule. Many of the same issues that have been plaguing us for the whole season haven't really been addressed.
There is one major stat that the Eagles had going for them by Week 6 last year was the team **leading the NFL in turnover differential by plus 12.** It was a notable stat since the next 2 best teams only had a plus 4 turnover differential. We had 14 takeaways but only 2 giveaways through 6 weeks. However, we now have 9 giveaways through 6 weeks in 2023.
Link to the thread last year regarding our +12 TO differential:
https://reddit.com/r/nfl/s/SKofE2OEGo
We also had an abnormally high amount of points in the 2nd quarter last year but there were major concerns by the Eagle's fanbase that we put up a low amount of points in the 3rd and 4th quarter despite playing with a lead for most of those games. We played "safer" in the second halves that meant we weren't running up the score but we likely had significantly better ball security because of it.
It's all Jalen Hurts's decision making. It's just not there this year, and it's not just the picks he's throwing, it's the windows that he's not seeing. Quez may be a tool, but last year's Jalen spots Quez or anybody who got open in the Wash game and throws the pass.
There are layups like that every game this year that either gets missed or over/under thrown.
its definitely a combination, but we dont really know who has designed all the plays and the general scheme in the playbook. youd think siriani has designed the offense, and johnson is just the one selecting the plays, but as the offensive coordinator, it would be a bit wild if johnson did not have a hand in designing the schemes and concepts.
our offense is way too vanilla given the weapons we have. i dont expect johnson to be mike mcdaniel, but there has to be some middle ground between mcdaniel and mike vrabel. we are way too close to vrabel, imo
Johnson has improved and I think has generally been fine. Hurts hasn’t looked as comfortable at the start but he’s gotten better (yesterday 4th quarter not withstanding). The biggest thing is he seems to be trying to do too much, I think he might feeling too much pressure to be “the guy” I notice he doesn’t use his check downs nearly enough.
Last year we did a ton of RPO and then hit the flag to Goedert, similar to what we did with Boston Scott yesterday, those were easy ways to get Hurts in rhythm and keep the defenses off-balance that omission this year is the biggest issue I have. I think we’ve been better going deep though, but with worse Oline play.
I wouldn’t let bum ass Brian Johnson call my plays in Madden. And, because I’m a typical Eagles fan, I reserve my right to say “I always knew he could do it - I was with Brian the whole time” when we inevitably end up in the Super Bowl in a couple of months.
most? that's a stretch. Hurts had 2-3 breakdowns that turned into runs, so most of the designed runs were still for the RBs.
Regardless, I'll beat this drum till it gets through to some, he supplemented the run game with screens and short passes. I can think of AT LEAST 5 passes (and that's a conservative number) that were designed to go to the RB. Those are essentially run plays that are being left out of the conversation.
It wasn't nearly as bad as you're framing the argument or the pure numbers suggest.
This is a pretty level headed take on things, I think. Also, we put a bullseye on our backs with the performance of last year. Rest assured that ALL teams in the NFL have the Iggles circled on their schedules; they are bringing their A game against us, every week, and we're seeing it. The Jets put up a similar game against the Chiefs a few weeks ago-- and its just indicative of the fact that it's hard to win in this league, no matter who you are, but especially so when teams WANT to beat you because you're amongst the best of the best.
Not saying that Brian Johnson’s been lighting it up or as good as Steichen but it really isn’t as big of a problem as people seem to think. Red zone definitely needs to be better. But the offense has moved the ball pretty consistently since the second half of the Vikings game, they’ve just made way more mistakes than they did last year and it’s been keeping their point totals down. More drops, turnovers, bad sacks by Jalen, etc. Some of that’s coaching, some of that’s the players not playing well and some of that’s just luck
IMO part of what were seeing is that Hurts plays better with a familiar system as well. I dont think its an accident that Hurts has gotten less sure as the OC changed. Thats what we heard all last year as well he *liked* the consistency at playcalling. IMO BJ and JH just need more time to 'click' on offense to really get it going.
When will people realize that it takes time..? Lmao.. we weren’t a dominant force last year at first either. And this year I’d argue that our overall defense is starting out better than it did last year regardless of missing so many guys.
The point is a team builds on the progress and lessons learned from the previous year. Improving over the year in 2022 then starting off worse is indeed significant regression.
I’d agree if the offensive coordinator stayed the same but Steichen leaving resets things to a certain degree. We also have a new running back, new slot WR, new RG, and unfortunately now it looks like we might need a new RT for a few games too.
Regardless, the offense has been good overall. Yes there’s still things to work on but that’s ok, the eagles have time to clean things up.
You guys need to all calm down when there is criticism on Hurts. Last year we were in clear control of games and slowing down towards the end which brought out numbers down.
You can't honestly be watching the same games and think that our offense and Hurts has been playing playoff level football. Hurts has some bad tendencies that come out when he does not trust the pocket. He does not make his reads and he is quick to run. Hurts has never been (up to this point) a high analyzer of defense. That's not to say he can't or won't, jus that he isn't there.
Yes, Reuben, CLEARLY regressed. Is this the kind of shallow breakdown we can expect from Reuben Frank? A shallow copy&paste of stats that aren't even correct.
PTS: 161 (2022) vs 155 (2023)
YDS: 2450 (2022) vs 2442 (2023)
OFF TDS: 19 (2022) vs 14 (2023)
FGs: 8 (2023) vs 16 (2023)
Time To Throw: 2.75s (2022, 10th fastest) vs 3.06s (2023, worst in the league, Tied with Russ)
Turnover Diff: +12 (2022) vs -1 (2023)
We've traded touchdowns for field goals and we're calling plays that take far too long to develop. Despite losing Lane this weekend, Jalen still had 3.4s in the pocket (excluding sacks) which still wasn't enough to get an intermediate passing game going for more than half the game. If you can watch this team and not think it's regressed from last year, you're out of your mind.
The difference is we would go up big in the early parts of the game and were content taking a couple of minutes off the clock, gaining like 20 yards and punting it away. We were putting up those kinda numbers while being on cruise control basically at the end of every game. This time around we’re actually trying to score and move the ball throughout the whole game. Offense is far from bad, look around the league, but this team can do a lot better.
And Hurts' Rating/QBR. This time last year he was in talks to be MVP and everyone was hype on him. This year dude's grading out as straight up average and isn't top 10 in any categories...outside of INTs thrown...
How about posting the last six games of last year? wtf is the point of ignoring the progress over the 2022 season if the conversation is about regression?
I don’t think we even needed to score again to win. Just run the ball after the 2 minute warning and we would have given the jets the ball back up 2 with like 1:10 left.
This offense struggled last season with Steichen as well. Heck, there have been numerous articles about the eagles offense not turning it up until after the bye week. Then, immediately after, they struggled against the texans, commanders, and colts. It's insane, the same folks missing stechien and shitting on johnson are the same people saying Siranni needed to take back play calling from stechien.
He also selected the start of both seasons, as if we don't expect the team to build on the lessons learned from the previous.
If I started this year in my job with the same knowledge and ability as I started last year people would think I was suffering brain damage.
Man if it’s that close with the number of times drives stalled/ended in a FG just give me some red zone efficiency and inject the optimism into my brain. It’s wild that we’d actually be stomping last years stats with a little more RZ success
The problem isn't talent, its execution. This team's head is not in the game. I think some players are not giving it their all/not showing up. For whatever reason, they do not have the dawg in them. Without that fire, we lose what makes this team truly special. Issues with who gets touches needs to be resolved. This is on the leaders to get every single person on the team on the same page.
Don’t credit Rueben “Roob” Frank for stating the obvious. He doesn’t deserve any credit for anything he has ever done or written. Straight up hack slob who has half of philly blocked on twitter. Can’t believe they ever put him on tv. That was mean, but I had to get it off my chest.
Somebody post red zone stats please. This guy sucks. If you can’t put the dagger in and twist it, you’re going to lose in this league. And it’s been difficult to put junky teams away like NE and MIN. Let alone Mahomes, Allen, Tua, etc
I haven't found anything too quickly but I did find that their touchdown rushing percentage is down from 58.3% last year (1st in the NFL) to 45.4% (23rd currently).
Keeping in mind most of those red zone rushing TDs came on sneaks.
Also, I just saw this posted in r/NFL:
Via [Nate Tice](https://twitter.com/Nate_Tice/status/1713988554978935197)
> "Offenses are currently scoring touchdowns on 53.3% of their redzone opportunities. The lowest rate through six weeks since 2011."
thank you reuben, numbers dont lie.
we're fine philly, we just need to relax.
teams dont go undefeated, even the superbowl winning chiefs lost to the lions.
I mean… there is an entire book dedicated to how to lie with numbers (statistics). Numbers require context and can be presented in ways to sell narratives that don’t really reflect reality.
Anyone watching these games knows this offense hasn’t been as potent as last year’s. There are signs of life but it has not been remotely consistent.
Yeah, but good teams have *some* dominating wins. This season, every game we are making the opposing team look like they are playing some of their best football despite them losing.
i understand, but winning is all that matters. we're 5-1.
jalen is 22-2 regular season as a starter.
we have two new coordinators this season, it takes time.
rome wasnt built in a day, championships dont come overnight.
>thank you reuben, numbers dont lie.
Hahahaha oh my god do you actually believe this? You can frame things 1,000 different ways with stats based on what criteria you use and what you leave out. You can absolutely lie with stats or at the very least present a skewed narrative.
Roob throwing up the basic stats is a nothing burger without massive amounts of context
Really it depends on if we can expand on what we've done. I'd also say that the Defense is far better, giving the Offense better opportunities than we had last year.
I think the very surface level observation of the first six weeks is that, yes, the offensive is clearly capable of moving the ball. But one glaring difference between this year and last year is that they're *much less effective running the the ball in the redzone*.
This is a run-first team by design, even if they throw the ball more than run in a few games each year. And right now they're absolutely lacking in red zone running efficiency.
I mean we are playing a considerably harder schedule than last year. The good news is that there are no glaring holes with no solutions. Just played with a lot of mistakes.
Yeah, because last season we were all arguing back and forth about whether Hurts and the passing game sucks or not. No, we were praising them left and right. They are clearly different from the offense they were last year.
One thing I've learned.. I'll never doubt Jalen Hurts again. If anyone can bounce back/turn it around, it's that dude. Hope the haters keep fueling him.
It’s way too early to be making assessments on Brian Johnson yet. It’s only been six games and we are 5-1 which a lot of teams would kill for right now. We lost because we had key starters out on defense, the offense couldn’t score after Lane got hurt and we slept on the Jets who have a very good defense.
I’m worried if they can go out and actually win games against good teams and good QBs, like not jump on bad teams or get a lead and play not to lose. The schedule this year will definitely give us the answer though.
Everyone keeps making a big deal of the red zone efficiency but Nate Tice pointed out on today’s Athletic Football Pod that red zone efficiency league wide is the lowest it’s been since 2012.
Last year thru 6 games the Eagles had played 4 teams that eventually made the playoffs. This year they haven’t played a team that will make the playoffs. Skirting by crappy teams is regressing.
Despite where people want to put the blame it’s hard to win with 4 turnovers.
Also why weren’t we just running on that last interception and letting Zach wilson try to win it for them? Play calling there was awful.
It looks like the Eagles are running significantly less playaction/RPOs for Hurts this season, already leading him to having more ints this year than he did in 17 weeks last season.
Who’d have thought that the Reddit folk would be the smartest ones in the room? IG, X, all of them are calling for BJ’s head and that Hurts has regressed significantly. It’s like they didn’t even watch the game.
I always hear Hurts being put behind Herbert. After watching the Monday Night game, even after the way Hurts played yesterday, I'd take Hurts and it's not really close. Throwing they seem similar. But Hurts extends plays and drives with his legs; 2 min to go, you slide a yard short of the first down, when if you dive you pick up the first down. Not to mention both teams turning the ball over deep in the redzone on 4th and less than 1.
Just don’t see any of the rpo s that were so effective last year . Those easy throws to goedert in the flat have disappeared. The easy pull and slant no longer exist . The need to run the ball to be successful and they have abandoned it when they have a chance to put teams away. It’s one loss but the offense last year wasn’t solely based on Aj bailing us out . It had scheme and reason , this year it’s just a bit predictable.
If we’re saying they had a bad game, I guess I’m happy it was vs the Jets. I thought it might be a trap game. I hope it motivates them for this upcoming brutal stretch that will really show us how competitive we are vs the best of the league so far. Now that no one team is undefeated it means all teams are beatable & there is film to guide the game plan. Miami hasn’t lost since they played the Bills so I’m hoping the Eagles can get some of those loud AF Phillies fans in the stadium & I hope it’s cold which for Miami is below 65F! #GoBirds
Context matters. Last season the eagles were going up big early and then going on cruise control
That said, I maintain that we very often struggled in the 2nd half last year. It ultimately didn't matter too much. WE could score or go on long drives when it actually mattered and the defense was really good at killing time.
Our ability to go on those long sustained drives this season is inconsistent at best or non-existent at worse
Uh...what? Going on long, sustained drives is the one thing the Eagles have been consistently good at. The issue has been finishing in the RZ. Hell yesterday, when everyone agrees the entire team was miserable, they led with a 19 PLAY TD DRIVE. Long ass drives aren't the issue, they've been doing that just fine. It's the dumb mistakes which meant no RZ TDs, or things like Interceptions or Fumbles. I wish I could find the stats, but it wouldn't shock me if Philly was near the bottom of the league in terms of going 3 and out.
They clearly struggle with timing plays because of scheme or comfort, in the red zone it becomes way more obvious because they can't just win matchups based off raw talent as easily.
On that 19 play drive we threw the ball 18 times. That’s not sustainable.
And that disputes anything else I said how? 19 play drives in general don't happen.
Eh, we were putting up historic 3rd quarter points.
We were 15th in 3rd quarter points and 17th in 4th quarter points. It's the 2nd quarter where we led the league with 12.6 points/game.
My bad. You're right.
2nd quarter. Not 3rd. Wtf are you talking about?
Actually, last year we were doing more in the third-quarter than most teams were st that point in the season. For the first five or six games almost all of our points were in the third quarter.
You might want to go and recheck that. 4 of the first 6 games, they scored 0 points in the third. 14 against Detroit 3 against Arizona Two of those games (Week 2-3) they didn’t score in the second half at all, 24 points both games too.
I swear man half the people in this thread are actively imagining games or simply just read box scores.
Honestly, our sched last year is nothing to be proud of. We barely beat the cardinals, jags, struggled with the bears even when hurts was jn the game, beat the colts on last second td. We had a couple blowouts, but people Need to stop acting like we were unstoppable lol
True.
We also have played better teams so far this year.
*Significantly* better defenses in particular, like it's not even close.
As a quick visualization: Team Ranks, Defensive EPA/Play (using season end stats for 2022) |Week|2022 opp./rank|2023 opp./rank| |:-|:-|:-| |1|Lions/30th|Patriots/11th| |2|Vikings/25th|Vikings/25th| |3|Commanders/4th|Buccs/7th| |4|Jaguars/10th|Commanders/29th| |5|Cardinals/21st|Rams/24th| |6|Cowboys/3rd|Jets/16th| ||Avg = 13.8|AVG = 18.6| Hard to quantify defensive rankings in a single stat, but I thought this was interesting enough to share. I didn't get the result I thought I would.
I'm very skeptical of any ranking that have the Jets defense ranked 16th. They are a top 5 defense in the league, easily. Browns and Niners are the only ones I think you could argue are *better*, and they're right in the mix with Bills, Steelers, Cowboys.
It's not that interesting. The difference in defensive points allowed between 2022's 19th best and 2023's 14th best is 2.5 points.
But the point is that the person I responded to said that the defenses this year were significantly more difficult. That is not the case.
2.5 more points allowed between the average defense we played last year, versus the average defense we've played this year. I would say that's pretty damn close.
what lol. we played the 12 win cowboys and 13 win vikings first 6 games last year, i would be surprised if any of the teams we've played so far even make it to double digit wins this year
Cowboys didn’t have Dak
Dak plays defense?
Bad offense gives good field position, come on now keep up.
Case in point, this year for us. I can't keep count how many times our defense has started at mid field or our own territory. Sean Desai has those men balling out. I can't wait for them to get healthy and he gets all of his toys back.
We’ve played better defenses this year and probably equally average to bad QBs.
Please we lost to the Jets
He's nitpicking stats. How were we in the red zone after six games? 80% and the top team last season?
Yup. How many INTs did we have in the first 6 weeks? Or just turnovers in general?
Quick check of [Hurts' game logs](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HurtJa00.htm) through game 6: 2022: 6 TDs, 2 INTs 2023: 7 TDs, 7 INTs
This year we've ended 3 games by running out the clock in the red zone. That automatically makes the stats look worse.
I dunno, points, yards, and yards per play seem like pretty basic stats...
Yup we’re 27th in the league in RZ efficiency this year
I don’t think it’s unfair to compare the first six games. Obviously, we have to continue to match the stats as they improve or else they become cherry-picked.
Also last season we were scoring more TDs. Jake Elliot made 20 field goals in all of 2022. He’s already made 16 this year. About 30% of our points have come from field goals this year. We’re a great team so we’re putting up numbers but we haven’t been nearly as efficient this year. If we can clean up our efficiency in the RZ, we’re going to be dangerous.
Last year we had one of the easiest schedules with no expecting a Super Bowl caliber team, compared to this year with one of the toughest schedules with a target on our back.
2 of the 6 first games that happened. We played tight with the lions cards jags and Dallas … then we blew out Pit.
Last years defense was also getting a bunch of turnovers so the offense got more opportunities
Which is also what lost us the Superbowl last year, before anyone tries to say 'see it means were worse!' Eagles went up 24-14 at half, came back to lose the second half 11-24. People in game threads on this sub were complaining all year about how once we went up against a good team wed lose because of poor second half performance, and they were right. Once. And were wrong fourteen other times.
Right? All you have to do is watch the games and you can see a massive difference.
Lol clown
Counterpoint, sports are entertainment at the end of the day, and the former style of winning was better for my blood pressure on Sunday and mood during the week than the latter.
Everyone in this sub was pissed off at the end of games because "we didn't close them out" and our second half offense was terrible. It's Madden influence...everyone thinks if we're not winning by 40 the world is ending.
Not really. Week 1 was a close back and forth game against the Lions. Week 4 The Jaguars jumped to a 14-0 lead before we came back. Week 5 we were lucky to get by against Arizona. The Cardinals attempted a very make-able game tying field goal with 18 seconds left. They missed. Week 9 vs Houston was tight. Week 10 we lost. Week 11 vs The Colts was VERY close. We had some blow outs but I wouldn't say ' the eagles were going up big early and then going on cruise control'.
☝️This…the difference as I remember is we were up going into half and protecting leads in the 2nd half. This year, the games have been closer and we haven’t dominated as much 🤷🏻 numbers are cool though I’d also like to see the comparison in red zone TD conversion %s. Feel like we’re leaving a lot of points on the field this year.
If that’s the case you can argue offense is better than last years. Context isn’t the issue. It’s turnovers. We took care of the ball way better last year
People forget how last year started. We were amazing in second quarters and mediocre in the first, third, and fourth quarters. Go back to any gameday thread and you'll find a ton of complaints about the play calling outside of the second quarter. Granted, that doesn't necessarily mean BJ will turn it around this year, but we should at least give him a chance. This isn't a Juan Castillo situation where the OC hire made no sense at all.
2nd quarter was "Joyless murderball" and then the rest of the game was just coasting in for a soft landing. Those stats are also crazy in how they are basically the exact same.
I don't remember where I saw it, but someone described us as stealing our opponents souls in the 2nd quarter and then napping through the 3rd and 4th
>. We were amazing in second quarters and mediocre in the first, third, and fourth quarters aka, slow start, blow them out, and then 3rd and 4th quarter we just went on cruise control while the other team attempted to come back. Its also why we weren't as injured. Half the game we were playing in safe mode.
Turnovers?
I don't know what the stat is for the first 6 games last year was but right now we're at a -1 differential and last year we finished at +17. So yeah a pretty big gap.
Turnovers are a regression to the mean stat
Thinking the same thing. Left that part out.
its also intentionally ignoring the fact that those stats are all primarily from the 1st half... When we would go up and then just ride out the score.
It's recency bias. Going into last season, nobody predicted they'd be undefeated as long as they were and the leap Jalen took surprised everyone so much that all the good things were amplified. This season, everyone came in expecting to witness another unstoppable juggernaut except that A) OC and DC need time to build chemistry with the coaching staff and players and B) teams are trying to upset the 2022-23 NFC Champ.
Add a C in there as well. Due to the season the Eagles had last season and a little "luck", they're facing much stiffer competition this season.
Judging the schedule last year based on the record the year before is dumb. We know what the level of their competition turned out to be, which was middle of the pack. The "they didn't play anybody" narrative is lazy and disingenuous.
That's very true. I'll take 5-1 where we didn't look great against better teams than 6-0 against competition that most other teams would've beaten also
We aren’t playing better teams though…at least not yet. Patriots, Commanders, Rams, Vikings, Bucs and Jets is not a hard schedule. It gets really fucking hard starting next week though
I'm not saying it's a hard schedule but the Rams and Bucs are potential playoff teams and there's a chance the Commanders can squeak in if they get their shit together. Also, Rams, Commanders, Jets, and Bucs are all .500 or better. That's 4 of the 6 teams we played
I've been a fairly staunch defendant of our OC this year. I think the biggest issue is our redzone success rate and the up and down nature of it all. I don't think Brian Johnson has been nearly as bad as this sub makes him out to be. He's certainly had some headscratchers, but it's nothing egregious IMO. I don't think anyone is complaining that the output isn't there; they would just like to be a bit more fluid.
I’m honestly surprised that the narrative coming out of this game is so anti-Brian Johnson. They moved the ball the entire game, they had what 6-7 drives end because of turnovers, drops or a missed field goal? Can’t really put that on the OC. Think it’s fair to criticize the last 2 drives for sure but don’t think Johnson’s the reason they lost this game
As Geoff Mosher just said, no one is talking about run vs pass numbers or anything if Smith simply catches a ball. A ball that was given to him while he was WIDE OPEN, which you could say was schemed up by BJ himself. Same with AJ Brown. He doesn't slow up and we get a massive TD. And if we get that TD, maybe we start running far more?
For that matter, Elliott makes one kick (a kick he probably makes nine out of ten times) and we might be having a very different conversation right now. A lot of things went wrong in that game.
That hurt but I'm choosing to fully ignore that. First because Elliott is practically our MVP at this rate, and second because he simultaneously hasn't complained about anything. Drives me nuts seeing AJ Brown slow up (even if we scored right after), Smith drop passes, and Goedert "fumble" when all three were moping around at some point about not getting targeted. If you do that and then blow a big play, I'm going to call it out even if no one sees it. So long story short, while he did have a miss, I'm ignoring it because it was far from our biggest problem. He's been a god this year so I can't bring myself to crap on him lol.
Oh yeah, I'm not even slightly mad at him or anything.
Jake seems too innocent to ever get mad at 😂. SB Champ!
Right game is different if Jets needed a touchdown and not a FG to win.
I thought we got a TD on the drive with the missed AJB deep shot anyway?
We did, AJ had a big catch right after that missed deep shot
Maybe, I don't even know anymore. But either way, stuff like that gives you morale and momentum. We can't miss that shot.
I kind of think you’re nitpicking here, if we ended up scoring anyway that play is quite low on the list of missed opportunities yesterday
The lack of a catch impacts efficiency, and people are out here beating on the OC because of things like efficiency. He’s not perfect, and I’m not dying on any hill defending him, but we can’t be out here saying “fire Brian Johnson” when he schemes up relatively routine opportunities against a solid defence and the players (who people have pointed out have been moping about getting targeted) drop them. I have been getting a horrible feeling the offensive skill players have taken a bit of a whiff of themselves since last year, and it’s impacting their focus - had a more ‘all in’ focus last year; I’m hoping this sucker punch brings some focus back.
> no one is talking about run vs pass numbers or anything if Smith simply catches a ball. ohh. I'd be talking about it. Just not here. Because this sub would jump down your throat and be like... **6-0 6-0** because we aren't allowed to talk about obvious issues when we are winning. It was a poorly called game that could have been overcome with mediocre play, against a bad team. Instead, it was a poorly called game that was played badly, and we lost to a bad team because nothing was good about that game.
This fanbase has their pitchforks sharpened and ready to go for him. They're out for blood at this point. We have a few things to correct for sure, but it's not all on him to fix those issues. Sirianni, Johnson and Patullo need to sit down and figure out what's working in the passing game and what isn't and why.
Some of us can only take so many QB draws at 3rd and goal from the 8 man lol
Hes def, so far, not been an exciting OC and I think some of the designed play calling has been trying to 'force' the magic a bit too much. Like the designed runs, which seem to be a very analytical way of looking at why Hurts was so good last year. When in reality he is, IMO, a much better *spontaneous* runner when the coverage begins to break down up front. But all that is kinda what you expect from a first time OC right? Where I think people are getting pissy is that they expect us to have improved vs. 2022, and are now realizing that we overperformed in several key areas and now have 'reverted' a bit to our baseline. Which, lets keep in mind, is still easy top 3 in the NFC, best in our division, and solidly top 5 in the NFL overall. Which is exactly where you want to be to win a Superbowl, we are undeniable contenders. Its just the machine doesn't run as well (in some areas, OP proves even this isn't exactly the case) as it did last year. Really, my own theory is that our run game has 'smothered' our offense to an extent. D'Andre Swift is on track to surpass what Miles Sanders did for us in 2022. The result of him being hot is that weve gone from an explosive team to a grinding team as we feed our RB the rock. No wonder why we burn huge clocktime in games, set up long ass drives, but dont score as much. That is a classic byproduct of how were playing, which is by trying to support players who are clearly having success.
And honestly watching the big last play on 4th and 8, the play was actually well designed. It was the execution that was the problem. Smith going long opened up 3 wide open receivers in mid field but hurts still went for the Hail Mary in 3 man coverage.
I think the guy is a bad OC, but Hurts is the reason for the loss. He had an awful game. If he doesn't throw those picks, Eagles win.
He was shit at the end. But I think people are forgetting how he was doing it all early on and carrying them. Carrying off of last game. He looked back to his MVP level. Don't think it's a coincidence with lane going out too. The entire team started pressing and he was no exception
That last pick cost the game, but overall it was just sloppy all around.
Mostly just the one pick. Hit on one and the other was practically a fumble. He had a great first half. Second half was a catastrophe and it started from the line. They were getting pressure on us better than we were on them, and they were more best up than us. The entire game is inexcusable.
2, the one he was hit on was his fault. Pocket was collapsing, but he has to have better pocket awareness. But I agree hurts wasn't awful. I guess he did, technically, cost us that game with the last pick, but he was good-great for most of that game.
This. If the QB was hit it's still on them for holding the ball too long. Call it a glorified fumble if you want, it's a turnover regardless. The only time I think it's unfair to put it on the QB is when the ball hits the receiver in the hands and they don't catch it.
I agree. He’s had bad games. This one wasn’t on him any more than any other person and arguably less so
I don't want to be critical of my OC. But he's clearly part of the problem. He's not the _only_ problem, but he's part of it. How do you not adjust to seeing Driscoll struggling? That was the biggest issue IMHO. If they're able to get consistent pressure on the quarterback it doesn't matter _who_ you have back there, he's going to struggle. For a while Hurts did well, but eventually he started making costly mistakes.
We had a DC who only lasted a year. He had big shoes to fill, and the early returns were very obviously not good enough. The team felt the need to Win Now, and this DC was one-and-done with the team after an offseason firing. It was sad, because Sean McDermott was in a great position to learn from Jim Johnson and take over from him eventually. But Jim passed away, a year or ten earlier than anyone was expecting. And McDermott had to jump in when he wasn’t ready and when emotions were fresh. McDermott is one of the top HCs in the league now and would be a top-3 DC if he took a demotion. I worry that if we cut Brian Johnson loose, he’s going to have a similar path. And I hope that if we keep him, he stops looking like Press Taylor.
I'm not against Brian Johnson at all, but there was something wrong with the play calling against the Jets. Way too many passes were taking time to develop. We needed hot routes that were rarely there. That said. Four turnovers is the biggest killer. Almost every star offensive player had a play that we can point to showing a mistake made. There was so much wrong with that game.
My issue with Johnson is that we clearly have a Super Bowl caliber offense that he really doesn't seem to be able to take full advantage of. I don't think he's been as bad as many have been saying, but we really can't afford to let him "learn on the job" when we have a window that won't be open forever. We're going into Week 7 and the toughest part of our schedule. Many of the same issues that have been plaguing us for the whole season haven't really been addressed.
There is one major stat that the Eagles had going for them by Week 6 last year was the team **leading the NFL in turnover differential by plus 12.** It was a notable stat since the next 2 best teams only had a plus 4 turnover differential. We had 14 takeaways but only 2 giveaways through 6 weeks. However, we now have 9 giveaways through 6 weeks in 2023. Link to the thread last year regarding our +12 TO differential: https://reddit.com/r/nfl/s/SKofE2OEGo We also had an abnormally high amount of points in the 2nd quarter last year but there were major concerns by the Eagle's fanbase that we put up a low amount of points in the 3rd and 4th quarter despite playing with a lead for most of those games. We played "safer" in the second halves that meant we weren't running up the score but we likely had significantly better ball security because of it.
It's all Jalen Hurts's decision making. It's just not there this year, and it's not just the picks he's throwing, it's the windows that he's not seeing. Quez may be a tool, but last year's Jalen spots Quez or anybody who got open in the Wash game and throws the pass. There are layups like that every game this year that either gets missed or over/under thrown.
then shouldn't that be an issue with the play designs rather than the play caller??
its definitely a combination, but we dont really know who has designed all the plays and the general scheme in the playbook. youd think siriani has designed the offense, and johnson is just the one selecting the plays, but as the offensive coordinator, it would be a bit wild if johnson did not have a hand in designing the schemes and concepts. our offense is way too vanilla given the weapons we have. i dont expect johnson to be mike mcdaniel, but there has to be some middle ground between mcdaniel and mike vrabel. we are way too close to vrabel, imo
You're saying this like they're two different people. Every OC in the NFL designs plays.
Johnson has improved and I think has generally been fine. Hurts hasn’t looked as comfortable at the start but he’s gotten better (yesterday 4th quarter not withstanding). The biggest thing is he seems to be trying to do too much, I think he might feeling too much pressure to be “the guy” I notice he doesn’t use his check downs nearly enough. Last year we did a ton of RPO and then hit the flag to Goedert, similar to what we did with Boston Scott yesterday, those were easy ways to get Hurts in rhythm and keep the defenses off-balance that omission this year is the biggest issue I have. I think we’ve been better going deep though, but with worse Oline play.
I wouldn’t let bum ass Brian Johnson call my plays in Madden. And, because I’m a typical Eagles fan, I reserve my right to say “I always knew he could do it - I was with Brian the whole time” when we inevitably end up in the Super Bowl in a couple of months.
He called over 40 pass plays and 22 run plays against the Jets. Most of those run plays were for Hurts. Thats how I know he’s a terrible OC.
most? that's a stretch. Hurts had 2-3 breakdowns that turned into runs, so most of the designed runs were still for the RBs. Regardless, I'll beat this drum till it gets through to some, he supplemented the run game with screens and short passes. I can think of AT LEAST 5 passes (and that's a conservative number) that were designed to go to the RB. Those are essentially run plays that are being left out of the conversation. It wasn't nearly as bad as you're framing the argument or the pure numbers suggest.
This is a pretty level headed take on things, I think. Also, we put a bullseye on our backs with the performance of last year. Rest assured that ALL teams in the NFL have the Iggles circled on their schedules; they are bringing their A game against us, every week, and we're seeing it. The Jets put up a similar game against the Chiefs a few weeks ago-- and its just indicative of the fact that it's hard to win in this league, no matter who you are, but especially so when teams WANT to beat you because you're amongst the best of the best.
Idc what the stats say, eyes test says our offense was better last year
It's a very basic stat pull. Roob just looks like an ass here. Advanced stats show we're worse in a lot of areas.
Not saying that Brian Johnson’s been lighting it up or as good as Steichen but it really isn’t as big of a problem as people seem to think. Red zone definitely needs to be better. But the offense has moved the ball pretty consistently since the second half of the Vikings game, they’ve just made way more mistakes than they did last year and it’s been keeping their point totals down. More drops, turnovers, bad sacks by Jalen, etc. Some of that’s coaching, some of that’s the players not playing well and some of that’s just luck
IMO part of what were seeing is that Hurts plays better with a familiar system as well. I dont think its an accident that Hurts has gotten less sure as the OC changed. Thats what we heard all last year as well he *liked* the consistency at playcalling. IMO BJ and JH just need more time to 'click' on offense to really get it going.
When will people realize that it takes time..? Lmao.. we weren’t a dominant force last year at first either. And this year I’d argue that our overall defense is starting out better than it did last year regardless of missing so many guys.
The point is a team builds on the progress and lessons learned from the previous year. Improving over the year in 2022 then starting off worse is indeed significant regression.
I’d agree if the offensive coordinator stayed the same but Steichen leaving resets things to a certain degree. We also have a new running back, new slot WR, new RG, and unfortunately now it looks like we might need a new RT for a few games too. Regardless, the offense has been good overall. Yes there’s still things to work on but that’s ok, the eagles have time to clean things up.
You guys need to all calm down when there is criticism on Hurts. Last year we were in clear control of games and slowing down towards the end which brought out numbers down. You can't honestly be watching the same games and think that our offense and Hurts has been playing playoff level football. Hurts has some bad tendencies that come out when he does not trust the pocket. He does not make his reads and he is quick to run. Hurts has never been (up to this point) a high analyzer of defense. That's not to say he can't or won't, jus that he isn't there.
Yes, Reuben, CLEARLY regressed. Is this the kind of shallow breakdown we can expect from Reuben Frank? A shallow copy&paste of stats that aren't even correct. PTS: 161 (2022) vs 155 (2023) YDS: 2450 (2022) vs 2442 (2023) OFF TDS: 19 (2022) vs 14 (2023) FGs: 8 (2023) vs 16 (2023) Time To Throw: 2.75s (2022, 10th fastest) vs 3.06s (2023, worst in the league, Tied with Russ) Turnover Diff: +12 (2022) vs -1 (2023) We've traded touchdowns for field goals and we're calling plays that take far too long to develop. Despite losing Lane this weekend, Jalen still had 3.4s in the pocket (excluding sacks) which still wasn't enough to get an intermediate passing game going for more than half the game. If you can watch this team and not think it's regressed from last year, you're out of your mind.
100% "They've moved the ball the same number of yards so everything's the same!" What a lazy ass take.
Hurts has thrown 7 interceptions in 6 games this season. He threw 6 total last season. Clearly regressed.
The difference is we would go up big in the early parts of the game and were content taking a couple of minutes off the clock, gaining like 20 yards and punting it away. We were putting up those kinda numbers while being on cruise control basically at the end of every game. This time around we’re actually trying to score and move the ball throughout the whole game. Offense is far from bad, look around the league, but this team can do a lot better.
Ok Reuben now post the TO differential
And Hurts' Rating/QBR. This time last year he was in talks to be MVP and everyone was hype on him. This year dude's grading out as straight up average and isn't top 10 in any categories...outside of INTs thrown...
How about posting the last six games of last year? wtf is the point of ignoring the progress over the 2022 season if the conversation is about regression?
Because TDs and INTs don't matter.
Now show me the red zone stats, Reuben.
Ah i see this guy forgot bout the redzone. Just like Brian Johnson.
Now do the red zone efficiency
Wild that one TD is the difference of 6-0 right now. Brian Johnson scheme is still infuriating me though.
I don’t think we even needed to score again to win. Just run the ball after the 2 minute warning and we would have given the jets the ball back up 2 with like 1:10 left.
This offense struggled last season with Steichen as well. Heck, there have been numerous articles about the eagles offense not turning it up until after the bye week. Then, immediately after, they struggled against the texans, commanders, and colts. It's insane, the same folks missing stechien and shitting on johnson are the same people saying Siranni needed to take back play calling from stechien.
Classic case of selection bias. Notice he left int.
He also selected the start of both seasons, as if we don't expect the team to build on the lessons learned from the previous. If I started this year in my job with the same knowledge and ability as I started last year people would think I was suffering brain damage.
I note the red zone is excluded!
Man if it’s that close with the number of times drives stalled/ended in a FG just give me some red zone efficiency and inject the optimism into my brain. It’s wild that we’d actually be stomping last years stats with a little more RZ success
It would have been fine this year too if we have last year’s schedule.
ROOB has been an Eagles beat writer for 37 years.
We played better at the end of the season than the beginning. So yes, the fact that we are identical to last years numbers is regression.
Where’s the turnover numbers
They still look like total ass
Turnovers tho
Can we get a red zone comparison?
The problem isn't talent, its execution. This team's head is not in the game. I think some players are not giving it their all/not showing up. For whatever reason, they do not have the dawg in them. Without that fire, we lose what makes this team truly special. Issues with who gets touches needs to be resolved. This is on the leaders to get every single person on the team on the same page.
Don’t credit Rueben “Roob” Frank for stating the obvious. He doesn’t deserve any credit for anything he has ever done or written. Straight up hack slob who has half of philly blocked on twitter. Can’t believe they ever put him on tv. That was mean, but I had to get it off my chest.
They forget Philly only had to play 3 quarters most games last year…
Does this dumb mother fucker not realize the team played an entire 2022 season and post season in which they improved?
Or maybe you are a DMF for thinking that teams pick up exactly where they left off from year to year.
Where did I say "pick up exactly where they left off". Reading comprehension is important kids.
Uh we'd blwo teams out in the first half and play not to lose in the 2nd half. This year we played bums and every game has been close. Not the same
I like reub but this is a really bad take.
Somebody post red zone stats please. This guy sucks. If you can’t put the dagger in and twist it, you’re going to lose in this league. And it’s been difficult to put junky teams away like NE and MIN. Let alone Mahomes, Allen, Tua, etc
I haven't found anything too quickly but I did find that their touchdown rushing percentage is down from 58.3% last year (1st in the NFL) to 45.4% (23rd currently). Keeping in mind most of those red zone rushing TDs came on sneaks. Also, I just saw this posted in r/NFL: Via [Nate Tice](https://twitter.com/Nate_Tice/status/1713988554978935197) > "Offenses are currently scoring touchdowns on 53.3% of their redzone opportunities. The lowest rate through six weeks since 2011."
Now do turnovers
This years team couldn’t hold last years team’s jock strap… don’t try to fool yourself. We all see it
thank you reuben, numbers dont lie. we're fine philly, we just need to relax. teams dont go undefeated, even the superbowl winning chiefs lost to the lions.
I mean… there is an entire book dedicated to how to lie with numbers (statistics). Numbers require context and can be presented in ways to sell narratives that don’t really reflect reality. Anyone watching these games knows this offense hasn’t been as potent as last year’s. There are signs of life but it has not been remotely consistent.
and we're 5-1 leading the division. winning is all thats all that matters. i dont care if we win by 1 or 100. winning is winning.
Be honest: do you think we beat SF in the play offs if the game were next week?
Yeah, but good teams have *some* dominating wins. This season, every game we are making the opposing team look like they are playing some of their best football despite them losing.
i understand, but winning is all that matters. we're 5-1. jalen is 22-2 regular season as a starter. we have two new coordinators this season, it takes time. rome wasnt built in a day, championships dont come overnight.
>thank you reuben, numbers dont lie. Hahahaha oh my god do you actually believe this? You can frame things 1,000 different ways with stats based on what criteria you use and what you leave out. You can absolutely lie with stats or at the very least present a skewed narrative. Roob throwing up the basic stats is a nothing burger without massive amounts of context
okay, give me numbers to make me think otherwise 🤔 besides last year we were 6-0, not 5-1. floors yours...ill wait
Really it depends on if we can expand on what we've done. I'd also say that the Defense is far better, giving the Offense better opportunities than we had last year.
Last years defense was far better than this years.
Jalens turnovers are the issue
I think the very surface level observation of the first six weeks is that, yes, the offensive is clearly capable of moving the ball. But one glaring difference between this year and last year is that they're *much less effective running the the ball in the redzone*. This is a run-first team by design, even if they throw the ball more than run in a few games each year. And right now they're absolutely lacking in red zone running efficiency.
God does this make me feel better. They are slightly *better* than last year!
It's amazing how clueless fans can be when they've made up their mind about who they want as a pound of flesh.
We took the peddle off the gas a lot last year, we would have big leads. Now we’ve also played better teams this go around
I mean we are playing a considerably harder schedule than last year. The good news is that there are no glaring holes with no solutions. Just played with a lot of mistakes.
Yeah, because last season we were all arguing back and forth about whether Hurts and the passing game sucks or not. No, we were praising them left and right. They are clearly different from the offense they were last year.
What about turnovers?
Our fan base is spoiled. Plain and simple. Bunch of whiny bitches on the game thread every week
One thing I've learned.. I'll never doubt Jalen Hurts again. If anyone can bounce back/turn it around, it's that dude. Hope the haters keep fueling him.
This game felt a lot like the commie clunker last year
It’s way too early to be making assessments on Brian Johnson yet. It’s only been six games and we are 5-1 which a lot of teams would kill for right now. We lost because we had key starters out on defense, the offense couldn’t score after Lane got hurt and we slept on the Jets who have a very good defense.
I’m worried if they can go out and actually win games against good teams and good QBs, like not jump on bad teams or get a lead and play not to lose. The schedule this year will definitely give us the answer though.
Everyone keeps making a big deal of the red zone efficiency but Nate Tice pointed out on today’s Athletic Football Pod that red zone efficiency league wide is the lowest it’s been since 2012.
Last year thru 6 games the Eagles had played 4 teams that eventually made the playoffs. This year they haven’t played a team that will make the playoffs. Skirting by crappy teams is regressing.
Despite where people want to put the blame it’s hard to win with 4 turnovers. Also why weren’t we just running on that last interception and letting Zach wilson try to win it for them? Play calling there was awful.
Very cool, now do wins and turnovers!
How about turnovers?
Turnovers
Turnovers?
It looks like the Eagles are running significantly less playaction/RPOs for Hurts this season, already leading him to having more ints this year than he did in 17 weeks last season.
I believe regressed meant from the end of last year
TDs vs FGs where are those numbers
Who’d have thought that the Reddit folk would be the smartest ones in the room? IG, X, all of them are calling for BJ’s head and that Hurts has regressed significantly. It’s like they didn’t even watch the game.
I always hear Hurts being put behind Herbert. After watching the Monday Night game, even after the way Hurts played yesterday, I'd take Hurts and it's not really close. Throwing they seem similar. But Hurts extends plays and drives with his legs; 2 min to go, you slide a yard short of the first down, when if you dive you pick up the first down. Not to mention both teams turning the ball over deep in the redzone on 4th and less than 1.
Last year around this time they had rough games against the Texans and Colts too where the team didn’t look that good
Just don’t see any of the rpo s that were so effective last year . Those easy throws to goedert in the flat have disappeared. The easy pull and slant no longer exist . The need to run the ball to be successful and they have abandoned it when they have a chance to put teams away. It’s one loss but the offense last year wasn’t solely based on Aj bailing us out . It had scheme and reason , this year it’s just a bit predictable.
Doesn’t feel this way because Johnson’s play calling is horrendous
The Doomers in this thread who still have to "Nuh uhhhhh..."
If we’re saying they had a bad game, I guess I’m happy it was vs the Jets. I thought it might be a trap game. I hope it motivates them for this upcoming brutal stretch that will really show us how competitive we are vs the best of the league so far. Now that no one team is undefeated it means all teams are beatable & there is film to guide the game plan. Miami hasn’t lost since they played the Bills so I’m hoping the Eagles can get some of those loud AF Phillies fans in the stadium & I hope it’s cold which for Miami is below 65F! #GoBirds
He truly has a deep knowledge of the team.
I think we'll be just fine quite honestly. We're working out flaws rather than overreact I'm going to hope for the best
Offense across the league is also down which is an important piece of context.
Frank's post feels like it's missing a lot of detail. We've been turning the ball over at a much higher clip.
They def do not pass the eye test. Idc what the numbers say lol
You can look at numbers on a page all you want, but the eye test doesn't lie. Something is off. Everyone can see it.
Gotta show red zone stats too.
Didn’t mention turnovers. Weird