AS A FAN not sure where to begin. This all feels oddly familiar.
But here is where fans should start.
It was week 1 on a short off-season that had many challenges. There are 15 more games, so don't go overboard with criticism.
This team that we saw play against Washington is not who they will be. It is not the team going forward.
What that means is..
Miles Sanders changes this offense, it's clear how important he is. But the Eagles need to find another RB because Miles and Boston are not enough.
The offensive line needs a make over. The fear is this means trading Zach Ertz. But the offensive line needs to have a veteran come in for the Right Guard position or we should move Matt Pryor in there. Whatever they do they cannot and will not give up 8 sacks a game going forward
Also, Lane Johnson changes things completely. So, don't just give Ertz away without seeing how this goes next week, but if there is a team with an O-Lineman, especially a younger one, and they wants Ertz, Howie shoud consider that strongly. This front office did Wentz a disservice by not fortifying this offensive line more. We got Hurts instead.. who knows when we'll see why.. but there needs to be changes here.
Week 2 hopefully can be a different story. With adding Lane and Miles back to the squad, they should be able to turn things around.
The wide receivers weren't awful, but John Hightower clearly did not belong on the field yet. Two interceptions, which were Wentz fault and we will get to him, were to the rookies. Hightower and Reagor don't get off scott-free here because they need to realize this is the N. F. L. you cannot wait for the ball to come to you, because it will never get to you then. Hightower just wasn't ready for the ball a couple times out there. The fan's concern should be more with the splits of Desean and the rest of the receivers. I expected to see a lot more DeSean and Reagor formations, but it seemed they were interchanging them instead.
9 out of 32 first downs they ran the ball, that is pathetic. In the 2nd half 3 out of 15 first downs were runs.
Overall, the run to pass breakdown was 17 to 42. That's 28% run, 72% pass. And they decided to still run Play Action. Eagles needing to have a balanced offense has been talked about on every sports blog, sports radio and hoagie shop line from Philadelphia to Sranton, so I won't beat a dead horse but BALANCE PLEASE.
Doug needs to go back to the drawing board on this offense, especially with this offensive line in the state it was in Week 1 down the stretch.
Just look at the game flow:
For those who are new to the game flows this is every play on offense and defense. Green is offense. Red is Defense. On offense above the X axis is a positive play, below is negative. Opposite on Defense, so it is representative of yards given up or yards on TFL.
It started off so well, they need to keep that up and go back to whatever was working early. Doug needs to start working the offense in favor of Wentz.
Wentz though. He was great at the beginning. And something changed. Maybe it was the end of the scripted plays; maybe it was aggressiveness changing with the lead. Regardless even though he was running for his life, AGAIN, he needs to be a whole lot smarter situationally. This week it was brought to my attention that the Carson has only thrown the ball away 13 times since 2018. THAT IS PATHETIC. He needs to understand throwing the ball away is not a failure it's avoiding one, it's showing you realize there's another play coming to start fresh without any damage. He doesn't need to hit the homerun by breaking tackles EVERY play, sure try it at times but let's be honest, most fans think highly of Wentz (which is wavering) but he's not Mahomes or Lamar Jackson with elusiveness. So, play smart, take calculated risks and let's get back to winning. Week 2 is going to be a show me something game for Wentz, is he going to step up?
The defense also needs to get better in the Red Zone. 2017 until now they were great in the redzone, each year allowing less than 55% Redzone Touchdowns. This was only 1 game but they gave up TDs on 75% of the redzone visits. The defense was awful on the short field. But they were great with a full field.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY NEXT POINT, Doug also needs to stop going for 4th downs. Fans understand you don't get to be aggressive and pick and choose to only be aggressive when it works, but game situations just don't always call for a 4th down try. At the end of the game he went for 4th when they had 3 time outs. Granted "money hands" Ertz should have caught the pass, but if you punt there Washington is pinned deep with 4:35 left, 3 timeouts for the birds and down by 7. Put the young Haskins under pressure. Instead you gave them an easy FG to take the game out of reach. We like that Doug goes for it, just not there.
But that is the end of my negativity and criticism....
The positives from this game: - Reagor's speed is real
- Goedert is here to stay and play
- Avonte Maddox can be a CB2
- Even though the Defense gave up 27 points they did relatively well on a full field, I think chemistry can come around
- The first 3 possessions were great, they need to harness that and build off it
- Luckily, the Cowboys lost so its a 3 way tie behind the WFT
Home Field Advantage
Quick note on this. An offseason episode asked what no fans will do to home field advantage. After week 1 we saw 8-8 record for home teams.
4 favorites lost at home and 3 underdogs won at home.
The jury is still out on this homefield advantage with no fans, but we'll keep an eye on it.
Week 2 Preview
The Eagles will be facing off against the Rams, who will be coming in at 1-0 off a victory over the Cowboys.
These guys are going to be trouble after seeing them perform against the Cowboys.
Aaron Donald is going to eat Carson for Lunch and his afternoon snack if the o-line plays this way again.
With the sounds of it though at least Lane Johnson will be back. Thank the lord.
We all saw the stats going around of the record under Doug w/ Lane and without.
From a Fan Pod will cover more of that on Sunday during our live show on Instagram/Facebook which will be posted later on Spotify, so be sure to subscribe on social to get the live alert. The Eagles started out favored by 1, the line has since moved in the Rams favor by 1 point.
The rest of the NFL we will see:
The first boring Thursday Night Football game of the year, it will feature Baker Mayfield and Joe Burrow. If Baker did better to this point it would be a very interesting grab, but Joe Burrow should have no problem with Cleveland.
Other games around the league are Falcons vs. Cowboys, which can see the Cowboys going down to 0-2, but it will be at Jerry World so that is unlikely, still a tough week 2 opponent after losing Vander Esche and Jarwin.
Washington vs. Arizona will be interesting, against Kyler Murray will the Washington Defense succeed like they did against the Eagles.
Ravens vs. Texans will be a high powered game, even though Houston faltered in the 2nd half against the Chiefs they still impressed and Lamar is always a show.
Chiefs and Chargers will be interesting, can Tyrod Taylor keep it up for the Chargers against Mahomes?
Bears will be on the bye this week playing the New York Giants, the G-men's o-line was the only one that may have been worse than the Eagles
So, now for From a Fan's locks of the week, which last week resulted in a record of 2-1..
Cincinnati vs. Cleveland
Line: Cleveland -6 | Moneyline: Cleveland -250; Cincinnati +215
Pick: CINCINNATI OUTRIGHT!, take that moneyline
Absolutely hate picking Thursday Night games, but here we are in week 2, let's get wild.
Overall, talent wins out in the NFL. Joe Burrow is a better quarterback than Baker Mayfield and this will be showcased for the world this Thursday. This may be the beginning of the end of the fraud of Baker Mayfield.
That's all there is to say about that.
Jacksonville vs. Tennessee
Line: Tennessee -9 | Moneyline: Tennessee -375; Jacksonville +310
Pick: Jacksonville +9
This is an easy one. Tennessee may win this game, but Gardner Minschew is not a joke or meme anymore.
Whatever they have going on in Jacksonville they seem to have found a secret. It may be the mustache, it may be not having 1 stand out guy and being a complete team, but it's going to work this year. They'll end up losing but not by nearly 2 possessions.
Chicago vs. New York Giants
Line: Chicago -5.5 | Moneyline: Chicago -235 | New York +200
Pick: Chicago -5.5
While Mitch Trubisky is not my top pick for a QB, Matt Nagy is a great coach. And his coaching is going to keep Chicago moving forward. New York just looked awful in that first game and doubt they'll turn it around this week.
Survivor Pick: Tampa Bay
TB12 is not going to lose 2 weeks in a row. While it was a rocky start, no way they come out flat again.
NOTE: My wife confirmed this pick, I asked her between Tampa Bay or Tennessee and she said "TB but thats coming from someone who knows nothing about football, I just think Brady isn't losing two weeks in a row" Sounds like she might be picking a thing or two up though.
Other strong picks would be Tennessee, and Pittsburgh. Buffalo is the stretch pick.
Straight Up Picks
Last week we went 8-8.
Daily Fantasy Line Up
Didn't do so well last week but we'll try again (did win $.75 with my lineup lol)
Total Salary = $50,000
Quarterback: Ryan Tannehill $5,900 Runningback: Nyheim Hines - $5,300
Runningback: Alvin Kamara $7,800
Wide Receiver: Adam Theilen $7,200
Wide Receiver: Amari Cooper $6,300
Wide Receiver: Sammy Watkins $4,800 Tight End: Jonnu Smith $4,200 Flex: Robby Anderson $5,200 DST: Cincinnati $2,700
Surplus: $600
Comentários