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Today we’re going to talk about the first week of the 2019 season, fans were looking forward to this game since the 2018 playoff loss to New Orleans when Nick Foles' luck ran out. Lets start with the expectations leading up to the first game.
2019 Expectations
DeSean Jackson was the excitement on the streets of Philadelphia, he's back in green and ready to take this offense to the next level.
The offensive line was just featured in the ESPN Body magazine in some interesting and bold poses, and touted by some experts as the top offensive line in the league.
Andre Dillard was the first pick of the draft, but after training camp everyone knew the rookie with an immediate future was Miles Sanders, even with the Jordan Howard signing in the off-season.
Speaking of signings, the Eagles spent the most money in the off-season at 372 Million with 225 of that guaranteed. This included Jordan Howard, Zach Brown, Darren Sproles, Scandrick, Kelce, Brandom Graham, Seumalo, Vinny Curry, Malik and DeSean Jackson, and the big money to Carson Wentz.
With Malik Jackson and Vinny Curry adding to the D-Line they appeared to be pretty stout.
On August 4th an open practice was held and it was apparent to me the Eagles had a running back problem. With Howard, Sanders, Sproles, Clement, Smallwood and a guy by the name of a Philadelphia nemesis, Boston Scott. Who were they going to cut.
The glaring problem was Linebacker, Zach Brown was added, Bradham returned but Kamu was injured.
Nate Gerry was drafted a couple years prior and appeared to be a starter on the LB corps.
The Eagles opted to sit most of their starters in the preseason so we didn’t get much out of it expectation wise.
By the end of the preseason though some head lines were reading:
“Eagles are an elite offense”
“Best NFL O-Line: Eagles”
“NFL Power rankings: Eagles are 5th”
“Super Bowl Odds: Eagles are 6th”
“Eagles Receivers among the best in the league”
You get the idea they were expected to be great.
Week 1: Washington Redskins
Now for September 8th.
The Birds were expected to breeze by Washington and were favored with a 10.5 point spread.
That all faded faster than the Mike Scott tailgate brawl spread on twitter.
As we know the Eagles win this game 32-27. BUT... what did the Birds do that the Redskins had the lead for almost 3 full quarters?
The Redskins offense had their way on their first 3 drives. In which the Eagles secondary made Case Keenum look like Tom Brady. Vernon Davis look like his 24 year old self. McLaurin look like a polished veteran WR in his first NFL quarter. The Eagles defense proved why the Vikings moved on from Sendejo. And continued to lack tackling skills, especially the corner backs, Darby looked like he didn’t even know he was playing in a live game. The defensive line couldn’t get any pressure and were getting pushed back by the Washington offensive line.
The Eagles offense made the Redskins defense look like the Steel Curtain defense totaling only 57 yards on their first 3 possessions. Howard hardly was in the back field. The TEs had barely any presence. Wentz looked uncomfortable. Jackson made a few plays but nothing spectacular happened. The longest play through the first 3 drives was 11 yards. And the Eagles left 3 points on the field because Pederson elected to go for it on 4th down from the 29 yard line when they were only trailing by 10.
From a fan’s perspective the first 20 minutes of this game was troublesome. Down 17-0 and the offense wasn’t clicking yet. Then finally thanks to a holding penalty the Eagles defense had their first 3 and out. But even in this drive the line couldn’t stop Guice from running through them.
Then finally, the Eagles had life. After a couple misses and drops by Agholor and Goedert, the first Wentz to Jackson touchdown opened things up with a 51 yard bomb to humble the Washington team.
From a fan’s perspective this is what we were waiting for all off-season. Scoring quick and never being out of a game.
The Eagles D was able to get another 3 and out but the offense stalled again with the Washington defense getting a lot of pressure on Wentz. The half ended with the defense getting torched again but Timmy Jernigan did get the first sack of the season. But it wasn’t enough to stop a FG to be down 20-7 at half and the boo’s came out for the second year in a row in the home opener.
Going into the third quarter the Eagles needed big changes. They started out on the right foot with a run heavy drive, that didn’t feature Howard at all. It resulted in Sanders first big run that setup a TD pass to Jeffrey who had a mismatch on a LB in the end zone. The redskins stalled on their next drive.
Eagles came out with only 3 offenses plays because there was a 53 yard touchdown to none other than DeSean. The eagles finally took control and didn’t look back.
Another Punt by redskins followed by another touchdown drive by the eagles which featured a deep pass to both DeSean and Ertz and ended with a Rushing TD to Jeffrey.
Redskins went 3 and out again and then the eagles had the best drive of the day running nearly 9 minutes off ending with a FG. The line was in control, the receivers were getting open, the backs were breaking tackles. And Nelson was dropping passes. And Sander’s first career Touchdown was called back due to JJ’s penalty.
The game is over but the redskins drive down the field again and score with 6 seconds left. Eagles win 32-27.
Here is a visual of the flow of the game (Click here for Full screen)
Offensively the snap counts were interesting for Running Back Miles Sanders led with 49%. Sproles had 30% and Howard had only 23.
But Howard did have the most production per carry with 6 carries and 44 yds. He also had 2 catches for 11 yards. Outside of the 2 bombs to DeSean, and 26 yard pass to Ertz, the longest plays were by the running game, each back had a rush for 17+ yards.
In the first half 18:14 was the pass:rush ratio, 21 pass to 24 rush in the second half. The running game was clearly essential to the success.
Defensively Bradham, Jenkins and McLeod played every down. Avonte and Rasul played nearly 90% of the snaps other than that Darby and Sidney played 50%. Linebacker Bradham played every snap and Sendejo played 55% most of which was at a linebacker position. Zach brown only played 44%.
In the first half Redskins had 21 passing plays in the second half only 9. The Eagles rush defense clearly was stronger than passing and the Redskins just stopped throwing. The linebackers and corners were definitely the weaknesses and Jenkins covered up some of it.
Carson Wentz 12/13 on third down 197 and 3 Tds. With a 121 passer rating overall.
Combined 21 pressures by the D Line. Doug Pederson was still undefeated in home openers said he challenged the team during halftime and they stepped up greatly.
This game is a microcosm of how the season will go unfortunately. Lots of anticipation. Began with disappointment but ends with a victory that no one knows where it came from. It had poor tackling, bad DB coverage. Safeties over compensating. Linebackers not stopping the run. Wide Receiver drops. Quarterback over throws. 1 or 2 questionable coaching decisions. But its all pushed to the side until next week because they got the win.. All is well in Philadelphia after week 1 right?
Did the Off-Season Help?
When we look at the Washington game there was a lot that went wrong and some that went right.
At the beginning of the game the Eagles offense couldn’t get anything going other than a couple runs.
In the second quarter the success was clear, unless they could get open down field they weren’t going to win. DeSean Jackson was able to do this and break through the coverage. Once that happened the run game can opened up because the secondary backed off. Big runs came from each running back.
If you look at the off-season moves specifically the draft they have made moves to improve the success rate of getting streaking WRs open. The Redskins did a great job of covering the mid range routes so Goedert and Ertz weren’t effective along with Agholor and Jeffrey. With the addition of Jalen Reagor especially and Marquise Goodwin, they will be able to take some of the attention away from Desean or get Reagor or Goodwin open. Alshon is still a question mark at this point the off-season and I think that’s okay, because of guys like John Hightower and Quez Watkins, while they’ll have some development to become an every down WR they will still be able to run routes across the middle and go up and get the ball. John Hightower specifically did this often at Boise State.
Marquise Goodwin is also a great compliment to Desean as they’re both in the late parts of their career. They can take snaps from each other to reduce the wear and tear, and keep both of them healthy for a longer period of time to make a play off run.
Against a team like Washington I don’t see them being able to stop Jackson, Goodwin, Reagor, and Hightower, with or without Alshon. Not to mention throwing in the TEs.
Now, the most talked about pick ever in Philadelphia until next year’s surprise pick. Jalen Hurts. There was a ton of sticker shock with this pick. While I love the player and am happy to have his talent in Philadelphia I thought they could have picked a better impact player at #53 while picking Hurts up at #103. But they didn’t. And I don’t think they picked him to replace Wentz, it still could happen though but it won’t be intentional in the sense that they put Hurts in to replace Wentz, it would be more of a situation of Hurts being replaced by Tua.
In a game like the week 1 Washington game when the team needs a spark I have no doubt Doug would put Jalen Hurts on the field to make an impact trick play. I have even seen some interesting scenarios of having Carson, Hurts and Ward on the field at the same time, 3 quarterbacks who can all throw to an open receiver. Now, thats not going to be the scheme every play so its interesting to get him at #53. But I think Jalen will be a great addition and challenge Wentz in areas of his game that need improvement.
Jack Driscoll and Prince from Auburn both are offensive line additions that will help fill the holes Jason Peters made and the uncertainty at times of Lane Johnson especially as he is getting later in his career. So, I have no concerns at this point with the offensive line. Overall, after this off-season even not knowing what will happen with Alshon, this offense would be a team that can’t be stopped by the Washington Team from week 1 of 2019.
On the defensive side of the ball the team really struggled to stop the deep routes to Washington's speedy receivers and even stop Derrius Guice from eating up yardage. The biggest issues were the secondary both Linebackers and Corners. Jatavis Brown, Will Park and Darius Slay were signed to help with this.
Davion Taylor and K’Von Wallace were drafted along with a local college player in Shaun Bradley and a late round addition of Casey Toohill round out the defensive secondary moves. Malcom left during the off-season and from the start of the game against Washington last year he was in or nearly in every tackle. He played unconventional which I think Davion Taylor will help replace.
He is listed as LB but will be more like an edge rusher to help the line and a quicker, larger man to cover TEs or larger slot receivers. K’Von is my favorite pick both on twitter and on the field. Between Taylor and K’von Malcolm is more than replaced, even though it was nice having Malcom filling that hole with one player. That just proves how great of a player Malcolm was that he needs two to replace him.
Will Parks and Darius Slay along with Nickell Robey-Coleman are great improvements from Darby and Sidney Jones who could not keep up with Paul Richardson or Terry McLaurin. If today the Eagles defense went against the Washington offense I believe the long play balls will be mitigated with the off-season additions.
Derrius Guice and Adrian Peterson are still the bigger risks to this team because of the neglect of drafting a true LB, even though Shaun Bradley and Casey Toohill will be big guys to fill the gaps they will need to be developed into every down players to stop players like Guice and Peterson.
The biggest additions for Washington this off-season are Ron Rivera and Chase Young. Chase scares me to play twice a year, but our line is mostly unchanged with the exception of Jason Peters, who still might be back. Chase will terrorize the NFC East not just the Eagles but overall they’ll be able to get rid of the ball quicker this year with their offensive moves.
Ron Rivera is a great coach but Doug seems to have his way with him, it may have been Cam or just being in Carolina but Doug seemed to outsmart him when they faced off. Both take risks, and it always seems to be Ron’s never pay off. Hopefully that continues in Washington.
I think if they played this game today the Eagles would easily cover the 10.5 spread not only in the first half but again in the second half.
This is the part that I would normally look to this year and discuss my prediction for this team in Week 1, we don’t yet know the schedule so we’ll skip that for now.
But I want to end with this..
My Fan's Perspective for Today
Any one who is worried about Jalen Hurts don’t be.
He is going to help improve this team, take them to the next level. While he was a surprise pick he is not here to ruin things. He is here to help the quarterback room.
We can’t change the pick now, but it was a stretch in my opinion.
But imagine if the script was flipped and he went to Dallas, or Washington, or New England. Would we be happy he was our opponent? Because he will definitely been the starter in those cities in the next couple of years.
Jalen is here and he’s a talent that will be used to help catapult the offense into some creativity. He has a work ethic that fits wit Wentz and the Super Bowl mindset from 2017. He isn't the problem of this off-season, he could very well be the missing piece. As many have pointed out the Eagles have needed their back up quarterback and most seasons since 1991.
So, he's a great insurance policy and I don't want to even call him that, he's a great investment because he could turn into trade value later. If Howie was able to trade Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez, I have to belive he will be able to send real talent away for assets. But Jalen isn't a pick to undermine Wentz, its not a pick that is meant to change fan's perspective on him. Let's see this play out we're assuming a lot just based off a selection of a talented guy.
And I may be wrong, who knows maybe he does become Wentz’s replacement, but wouldn’t you rather early on find the guy to replace him than start searching when its too late.
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