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Today we are going to talk about Week 2 of 2019 where the Eagles traveled to Atlanta to face an 0-1 Falcons team.
Oh GOD-ert No
After week 1 the Eagles escaped the Redskins to be 1-0 tied with the Cowboys in the lead of the NFC East who beat the Giants relatively easy in Week 1, who rode the back of Dak Prescott.
As a result of week 1 the Eagles lost Malik Jackson for the season. But Signed Akeem Spence to replace him. They also activated Craig James for the Sunday night game against Atlanta. When the Birds play on Sunday nights the nerves are even higher than normal.
Fan's all across the Philadelphia area (and London which is where I was for this game) watch the rest of league play the 1 and 4 o'clock games anxiously "waiting all day for Sunday Night". They did their honey-do list with the games that don't matter on in the background
Then they sit down kick back and are likely 5-10 yuenglings deep and angry they're losing in their fantasy match-ups for this week. They start watching Sunday Night Pregame and the anticipation peaks when the report comes in that Goedert is going back to the locker room during warm ups with an Injury. Its a slight turn south to not have TE2 going into this game, especially after week 1 when the offense didn't quite live up to expectations.
The Eagles come into this game as #5 in the power rankings and Atlanta is #19. The Eagles started off real slow the week prior and need to find a way to beat an opponent on the road only favored by 1 point. The week before the Eagles were favored by 10.5 and barely beat a Washington team, who isn't a great team. What are they going to do against Matt Ryan and Julio Jones and Sanu and Ridley and Devonta Freeman?
It will be alright, because we got #10 DJax right?
No Receivers, No Rushing
Falcons got the ball first in week 2 as Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth explained to the country the Vikings walloped the Faclons to a 28-0 deficit in week 1. Matt Ryan didn't seem to have the normal ice in his veins and threw 2 out of character interceptions. Dalvin Cook was able to run all over the falcons d and easily captured the victory.
By the time they were done explaining this the Eagles secondary missed anywhere for 2 to 10 tackles. Falcons showed in their first drive they're going to approach the Eagles defense with balanced play calling. Making a couple runs and short passes the Falcons easily cross mid field. Brandon Graham saves this with a big play to tackle Freeman for a loss and then the sticks defense works for the first time but the Eagles still go down 3-0 with a long FG by the Falcons. Eagles first two drives ended with a punt and interception that was virtually a Punt since it was 3rd and long anyway. But Wentz was extremely careless with the ball throwing it up to JJ Arcega-Whiteside as if he was Randy Moss. The first two drives Alshon and DeSean were barely on the field and the offense clearly can't function without a premier receiver on the field. The defense allowed more long plays to Ridley and Julio which also featured an awful coverage play by Nate Gerry running the opposite direction of Ito Smith allowing him to catch a big pass out of the backfield. But Josh Sweat made a couple nice plays, including a near strip sack. By the end of the first the eagles only have 33 yard and are down by 3 points. The defense had only given up 65 yards though which is improvement from the Washington game where they gave up 160. The Eagles start the 2nd quarter with great field position and Wentz scrambles on this drive diving head first, as usual. They wind up getting in the red-zone and Agholor makes a play at the 12 yard line but they can't finish and settle for the 3 points to tie it.
The Falcons end up making plays as Darby, and Sidney Jones miss some more tackles on Julio and Ridley to allow big gains. The Eagles end up holding them and blocking the field goal, the momentum is changing.
Then the offense featuring Mack Hollins and JJ Arcega-Whiteside immediately turns it over.
On a play where Wentz calls an audible at the line and then Mack looks confused. When Wentz throws him the ball he flops his body around looking for the ball and fell to the ground as the ball came at him. Trufant made his 2nd interception. It is clear Hollins does not belong on the field.
From a Fan's Perspective its awful when your top two receivers aren't playing, but its the life of an Eagles fan when your back ups aren't even serviceable. And Falcons capitalize with Ridley again and score a TD. In the second quarter he already has 79 yards and a Touchdown not quite matching McLaurin with 104 in the first half, but another young receiver tearing up the secondary.
Eagles give the ball right back 3 and out on terrible passes by Wentz but then Ryan gives it back throwing to Darby, our savior. McCown has to come in as Wentz is in the blue tent, the Wentz tent, injured already. McCown runs a drive that is very familiar to what we will see at the end of the year stalling in the red-zone and unable to complete it, they go into half down 10-6 The Eagles now haven't led in the first half in either of their games. They come out in the second half and immediately fumble the ball on the kick off and just like that they're down 17-6 because of a shovel pass they let go for far too many yards.
Miles is now the kick returner (WE ARE!!) and Wentz is still struggling to throw decent passes to anyone. Part receivers not getting open and in larger part of him just not settling in and rushing through his motions. They Punt again. With 10 minutes left in the 3rd the Eagles have punted twice, thrown two interceptions, fumbled once and kicked two FGs. That is a recipe to lose. Then our second savior Sidney Jones becomes a wide open Falcons receiver, INT #2 for this defense.
Their Eagles starting position this game will be the 35 yard line, this time they're on the other 27 yard line. Wentz has to escape pressure on the first 3 plays and it takes until 4th down for him to find Agholor in the back of the end zone with a perfect throw through a tiny window. His best throw of the game for sure. The drive ends with him running the ball in for 2, diving head first a la Rams touchdown where he tore his knee. He doesn't get it as his knee was down before crossing the goal line. 4:57 left in the 3rd the score is 17-12. Falcons go on a drive taking the ball down to the Eagles 4 yard line in 4:45 including a run but Ito "up the yards" Smith for 28 yards. Then Ryan throws pick #3 to savior #3 the white snake, Nate Gerry.
The Eagles have the momentum and it feels they're going to go on another one of those long drives and take the lead. Instead they go 3 and out, again.
But the Falcons returned the favor then after a big sack on a blitz by Sendejo, who know Jim Schwartz blitzes.
So, the Eagles have a chance now with 11:42 left, can they go on that long drive.
From a Fan's Perspective I am standing up off my couch and pacing back and forth anticipating each play.
Wentz drops back dodges some pressure
He finds Agholor.
Then does it again Agholor gets them to the 50.
Next Hollins makes 2 back to back plays to get them to the 30.
The drive stays alive when Wentz does a houdini impression and emerges to throw the ball to Hollins again.
Now they're on the 12 yard line with just under 6 minutes left.
Wentz gets the ball to Ertz on the 7.
Sanders to the 3.
Wentz sneaks to the 1 for a first.
Then Wentz sneaks again and scores!
They go for 2 and somehow the Eagles take the lead with 3:13 left 20-17.
It was too good to be true though, the Eagles give up a 4th down screen to Julio Jones that was thrown at the 39 yard line , he was surrounded by 2 defenders, one who did get picked by an offensive lineman illegally down field, but regardless there was another defender there that let him run right by for a 54 yard touchdown.
Wentz comes out with just over 2 minutes, fires a beautiful pass to Agholor right down the sideline and it lands right in... the grass. Agholor drops it. this is the point i'm done with him.
Then Sproles! drops it. As a fan I'm pissed. Ertz is sacrificing his body across the middle and almost comes down with it while Sproles and Agholor are dropping wide open passes.
Then Wentz finds Agholor on 4th and 14 after a sacke to the 19 yard line.
1 minute left they're in the red-zone.
Sproles gets nailed on a screen pass.
Ertz over thrown.
4th down Ertz comes up an inch short.
Game over.
The Struggle
Wentz 25 for 43, 231 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs; sacked 3 times. The team only had 49 rushing yards against a team that gave up many rushing yards the week prior. They only rushed the ball 21 times. and dropped back to pass 51 times. Awful splits. Agholor did end up with 108 yards with 3 drops, 2 that would have been touchdowns. Ertz had 72 and Hollins had a career game with 50 NFL yards.
Defense got 1 sack, gave up 320 through the air and gave up 100+ to both Julio and Ridley. They came away with 3 INTs that seemed to be more the lapse in judgement by Ryan than skill by the defense.
Snap counts the line everyone played at least 99% of the snaps, except for Andre Dillard who took 1% from Jason Peters. Ertz was in on every play. Agholor 96, Jj 93, Hollins 86, Miles 46, Sproles 35 and Howard 23%. Desean and Alshon played less than 15% each, basically non factors due to injury. Maclom Bradham McLeod 100%. Darby 89, Zach Brown and Brandon Graham 76, Barnett and Cox right around there too, and Maddox outplayed Jones, and Douglas. This was a poor game by Wentz, even though he got yards he made some poor decisions. Seeing this game with this big of a regression maybe the success in Week 1 was because the Washington was the 27th ranked defense, and when they played a better defense ranked only 20 still, they couldn't keep up. Will it get worse when they play tougher defenses of Chicago, Minnesota, Dallas?
With that being said Wentz also had nothing to work with. His best receiver was Agholor who despite dropping the ball multiple times had a decent game. The Eagles needed to focus more on the run Doug saw they were losing and went away from the balanced game plan. This loss is on him just as much as Wentz. The defense isn't scott free either while the game was in reach for the offense to win it, the only reason Wentz was on a 2 minute drill is they gave up a 54 yard screen pass with poor coverage and tackling.
There are so many plays to blame. The obvious ones are the Agholor drops but lets dive into a few others.
Shovel Pass to Devonta Freeman
The shovel pass to Devonta Freeman was a perfect play call by Dan Quinn. It was the first offensive snap of the half for the Falcons after the Eagles secondary got torched in the first half.
No doubt Schwartz said back off and don't let anything over the top anymore keep it all in front of you. On this play you have a 2 back backfield which the Eagles looked prepared for they had Zach Brown, Bradham and Gerry all on the field and McLeod creeping up to the second level. Brown is taking one of the TEs on the left side, Bradham is covering the mid range on the left side, Gerry should be getting the back coming out of the back field. The ball was faked to Freeman and Bradham backs off to start trailing the second TE but kept an eye on him. In the backfield Graham very easily got to the QB which is screaming screen to the left side. Freeman creeps up behind the linemen who are now forming a blocking path, Gerry still is looking to freeman but has about 10 yards between him and the back.
Malcolm sees this and comes up to the right side right as freeman catches the ball. Gerry instead of sticking to his lane tries to over-commit and predict where Freeman is going and then gets blocked by the lead blocker and pushed into Jenkins taking out two defenders.
At this point because of Jenkins and Gerry over-committing to the right side the middle of the field is wide open to let freeman run to the 5 yard line.
This is the play where having a legitimate LB help. Gerry could not read what was coming at him. Graham also needs to recognize the line let him through and he got a soft chip from the RB and he could have easily stopped Freeman at the point of catch. But I'm not sure the LBs we draft will help with this scenario screen passes were an issue all year last year and I don't know if its the sticks defense mentality that if you keep it in front they at least won't score so thats why there is so much separation on screens. But the flaw there is, when the guy receiving the ball is faster in open field than your guys, you're not going to stop them before the damage is done.
The pass Wentz to No One
The Wentz interception to no one really hurt the flow of the game. Not only was the timing of it bad because you're tied, have great field position and just got momentum for the first time, but your defense was on the field for a full 15 minutes already and its 7:29 left in the 2nd quarter, so they need a long drive here and get a break.
Coming out for the first play of a drive it should be the easiest play to be on the same page. Unfortunately Eagles had guys in the huddle that don't belong there. At the line Wentz sees that Hollins is in single coverage (no duh) with no one over the top. Ertz is going to be covered by either a safety or TE. I am assuming with how the coverage looked Wentz audibles out of a run play, which we needed more of in this one. When he audibles Hollins looks all confused but they snap the ball anyway for Ertz and Hollins to have crossing routes down the right side and then Sanders on a wheel route to the right. Ertz takes the coverage of the Linebacker, perfect. At the cross Hollins is running just in front of the corner and he keeps running into the other safety who has come back to this side to cover over the top. At this point though the corner already backed of Hollings to go toward the ball falling to the ground a full 5 yards away from Hollins. At first you think Wentz got grabbed as he threw, but he didn't. Now, I can't for sure say who's fault it is but to me it seems either Ertz or Hollins had an option route and they read the coverage differently from Wentz and took the other option.
Wentz though needs to realize, this is first down, we just got momentum, I'm potentially throwing an option route to Hollins who by the time I'm releasing the ball is already cutting to the middle of the field. Wentz is the supposed elite quarterback he needs to recognize who he is throwing to. Additionally he had Agholor relatively wide open on the left side where at worst the ball would have gotten batted down.
This is an area of Wentz game he needs to improve, he sticks to his pre snap read and doesn't look elsewhere sometimes. We're all stubborn and think we're right, but you don't want to commit to a pre-snap read too often in the NFL with the deceiving defense schemes.
Having Reagor or Marquise Goodwin running in the place of Hollins though, I would expect at least Wentz and them to be on the same page as their football IQs are similar. They can read the coverages and decided optionality in the routes better on the fly.
The screen dagger
The dagger in the 4th quarter when it's 4th down on the 45 yard line for the Falcons may have been the worst play of this game, even though there were some other bad ones. I am glad I didn't see this play live and was watching on ESPN Gamecast from my hotel room at 4 AM in London.
It's 4th and 3 so no sticks defense this time. But they have a very flat defense the deepest man is McLeod only 8ish yards from the LOS. Falcons are 5 wide. Only linemen on the line. Matt Ryan sees immediately to Julio Jones side there is no Safety over the top. So, he calls it a bubble screen. Maddox and Douglas fight over who will get Julio. Julio takes 1 step forward cuts back and now Sanu is running straight for Maddox.
The Left Tackle is 4+ yards up field and is approaching Darby to hit him right at the same time as Julio catches the ball.
At this point they're at least getting the first down. McLeod is the closest man who literally just ran from the right side of the 50 yard line straight down the paint of the 50 yard line to the left side, meaning he took an awful pursuit angle. And then Julio is in open field.
These screens need to be stopped. And to be honest, I don't know that this play was the player execution completely.
The result of a touchdown sure that was terrible tackling angles but the result of executing this screen for a first down to begin with is defensive scheme. And also a missed penalty by the refs, but thats a story for another day. First of all why is no one over the top on Julio or Sanu just doing that would have at least kept the Falcons out of the end zone and who knows maybe this audible wouldn't have even been called. Regardless who we bring in, Jim Schwartz needs to come up with a defense that can stop screens.
The Veteran Route
Now on the final play to Ertz. It's 4th and 8 with 38 seconds to go need the 8 yard line.
Eagles come out 3 wide and 1 TE and 1 RB in the shotgun. Coverage is playing off so they have some underneath area which makes sense since they need 8 yards. JJ runs to the 11 yard line and turns around. Hollins looks to be preparing to engage for some type of cut back route where he blocks for JJ. Agholor up the right seam looking to find a hole in the zone. Sanders short in the left flat. Ertz runs right to the 8 Yard line, I see who the veteran is...
But then he cuts back 1.5 yards. And a second later the ball is there and he falls forward to be a half yard short. The timing of the play was off a little Wentz probably should have had the ball to Ertz on the break but a Corner was blocking the path. If he actually would have waited a half second longer and instead looked to Agholor he might have had a shot at him and if not he could have looked back to Ertz who actually would have been more open on the second look.
Ertz also could have extended the route 1 yard further but again this is a timing route so its easy to say that in retrospect. It was a good defense on an offense that really had 1 or 2 legitimate targets in this situation. This is where Alshon is needed or a big body to throw it up at the 7 yard line and jump ball for the first down. Hopefully Justin Hightower or even grabbing Marquise Goodwin and Reagor at least open this play up a little in 2020.
Expectations Shattered
The Eagles through two weeks showed that they need to depend on Alshon and Jackson, without them this offense is nothing. The hope is that they added enough offensive talent to mitigate the dependency of those two but I'm not confident especially after watching through the Falcons game.
It is clear Alshon is needed on this team. Before rewatching this game I was okay with Alshon getting traded away even for a pick but I'm not so sure of that now. If we're going to take a 15 million hit for him I need him on the team to at least give us a chance, the only way I'm willing to trade him now is if we get a receiver or other area of need in return.
2020 Season?
The 2020 schedule did come out and not much to recap for Week 1 the Eagles will face off against the Redskins on the Road. My prediction of covering a 10.5 point spread last week was a little tongue in cheek but I do think even against an improved Redskins defense the Eagles offense and their improved defense can stop the Redskins even on the road. In week 1 I predict the Eagles will win 24-14. Week 2 the Eagles will be facing the Rams at home for a 1 oclock game. An early season travel to the East coast for the Rams will be tough in itself. They went Defensive heavy in the draft but did pick up a RB and WR in the second and 3rd round.
Cam Akers will have to try to replace Todd Gurley, who actually didn't have all that great of a year last season. Van Jefferson will just be another targer for Goff to hopefully get the ball to and will be trying to fill the role of Brandin Cooks. The Rams in 2019 were the 7th ranked offense getting the yards mostly through the air. They lost Gurley's 800 some yards with him leaving. A large reason their team had a ton of points is they were often in games that were high scoring or where they fell behind quickly and were throwing the ball to make a comeback. They still went 9-7 and did miss the playoffs which was a better record than the 2019 Eagles.
Their season could have been a hangover from the super bowl so I don't think this is going to be the easiest match-up. Last year they did also beat Carolina in week 1 on the road in a 1 o'clock game, so the East coast may not be as big of a factor in fact they won both of their 1 o'clock east coast games and lost to the Steelers in a 4 o'clock game.
Losing Brandin Cooks isn't going to be as big of a deal as losing Gurley, but with how much the Rams have been passing anyway 632 passes vs 401 rushes it makes sense that they're focusing more on the passing game. I think in week 2 this is going to be a battle and a testament to how well the Eagles built depth in the offseason.. This is going to be a 27-24 or 24-20 type of game but I have the Eagles winning, because Doug doesn't lose his first game at home.
This Week's From a Fan's Perspective
Jadeveon Clowney is rumored to be on his way out of Seattle. Anyone who is saying they don't want him because he hurt Carson Wentz, stop. Don't do that.
Carson is not your child, you don't need to protect him and Carson is not the only person this team needs for success. Jadeveon Clowney, Fletcher Cox, Jason Hargrave, Derek Barnett, Brandon Graham, Malik Jackson and Hassan Ridgeway. Are you kidding me? You wouldn't want that. Then we have people saying Jadeveon Clowney is going to cost too much, well the market is what the market is. That's Howie's job to figure out the salary cap an retain talent. Now, I'm not saying we should go pay him for multiple years he's 27. If the Eagles can sign him to a 1-2 year contract and add him to this line, it immediately takes this defense to the next level. The biggest issue I see is the season he has the most success is when he has over 80% of the snaps. I don't see him being added to this defensive line and getting 80% of the snaps on the line. It will be similar to Seattle where he shares time. But he also can play LB and maybe fill those holes where Nate Gerry doesn't know what he's doing and could be the exact remedy to the screen pass problem. From a Fan's perspective the name Clowney hurts a little still because the last play we saw of Carson last year was Clowney impaling the back of his helmet. But we aren't Saints fans, lets move on from that and look at the bigger picture. This man is a beast on the defensive side, and sure he has some controversial sides but he is a guy that will help our team in every way. I'm not even asking you to forget what he did to Carson, but the reason he made that play wasn't in a malicious manner, it was aggressive but that is because he has football instinct. This aggression will be on every single one of his plays and put another guy on our front to be afraid of. And Wentz no longer will have to run from him.
Like they say, if you can't beat 'em; pay 'em to join your team.
Thanks for reading and as always, GO BIRDS!
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