Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 10/17/23.

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

The Eagles might be frauds and it’s time we admit it - SB Nation
Is there a good reason other than roster talent to believe in the Philadelphia Eagles right now? Seriously, if you have a good answer I’d like to see your work — because despite dropping their first game of the season to the Jets there’s nothing about this team that shows they deserve being 5-1 right now. We saw this one year ago with another 5-1 team who consistently played down to their competition and squeezed out wins by a single score: The Minnesota Vikings. All season long we heard from Vikings fans that it didn’t matter, wins are wins, and labored justifications for their inconsistent results. Then the 13-4 teams got bounced in the Wild Card round by the Giants — by a single score. If you’re mapping out the best teams in the NFL after the first third of the season it feels like the Eagles are simply being included by default. Nobody has really stopped to think about whether they actually are one the best teams in the league, or drafting off the expectation that they’d be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl once more.

Eagles overreactions: The sky is falling - BGN
It’s been over eight months since I’ve experienced an Eagles loss. Watching Sunday’s game I felt frustrated, disgusted, bored and depressed. This was an insanely winnable game. I laughed at the 49ers losing to Cleveland and their backup QB. I thought, “Those cocky jerks! They were too busy talking shit to Dallas and buying into their own hype that they looked past Cleveland. And now the Eagles will be a game up on those suckers for the one seed!” And then the Eagles were terrible on Sunday. And yet I still thought they would win it until the very end. I would’ve felt gross inside but at least they’d still be undefeated. The Chiefs win so many ugly games they deserve to lose, why can’t we? And then we lost. And I got smacked in the face with the reality of this team. I tend to overreact when the Eagles are doing well. I also tend to overreact when they lose. Here are some of my knee-jerk reactions after their first loss EVER to the Jets.

BGN Draft #24: Top Eagles CFB prospects to watch Week 8 + Game of the Week breakdown - BGN Radio
Shane Haff, Mark Henry Jr. and Chris Deibler recap their player of the week predictions from Week 7 and then each make their case for Eagles targets of the week to watch this upcoming week. Later in the show, the guys discuss the game of the week for Week 8.

NFC Hierarchy/Obituary: Week 7 edition - PhillyVoice
He said he told Nick Sirianni to give up play calling to Shane Steichen in 2021, which was another lie. Basically, he proved to be a lying weirdo all offseason. In their first two games, the Cardinals had fourth quarter leads that turned into losses, but at least they kept those games close. In Week 3, they had one of the bigger upsets of the season so far when they beat the Cowboys. In some ways the 2023 Cardinals exceeded expectations just on those three games, which just goes to show how pathetically low their bar for achievement was this season. Their 1-2 start prompted some morons to spike the football prematurely and proclaim the Cardinals’ hiring of Gannon a good one because “hE hAs tHEm pLAyiNg hArD.” But the Cardinals have since settled in as the wholly unthreatening team we expected to see this season, as they have lost each of their last three games by at least 14 points. And, well, now they’re just boring and I’ve lost interest in following their season.

Playing With Fire - Iggles Blitz
A lot of people are down on Brian Johnson. I don’t really get this. The offense was hardly an efficient machine, but the biggest issues were the turnovers and drops. That might cost the Eagles anywhere from 9 to 21 points. And there was a missed FG. That’s another 3 points. The turnovers and drops were more about poor execution than play-calling.

Spadaro: Turning the page, with injuries to consider - PE.com
The safety group, in particular, has been hit hard all season and Sirianni said, “when it rains, it pours,” understanding that injuries are part of the NFL experience. The approach this week after the team’s six-game regular-season win streak ended is to keep things the same: Consistency is king, Sirianni said. “I think that what happens is that you set a standard of what you want a week to look like and we don’t try to make them guess, like this week’s more important,” he said. “It’s business as usual. We’ve had some hard conversations today as coaches; we had some hard conversations together as a team to make sure that we got better from this game, and then when Wednesday comes in, we’ll be 100 percent focused on Miami. They’re a good football team and we’ve got to be ready to go.”

The Hot Read, Week 6: The Undefeateds Have Fallen - The Ringer
The Eagles’ loss, in some ways, feels even more fluky than the 49ers’—but there is also more to learn from it. The Eagles lost the turnover battle 4-0, and three of their turnovers were very silly. Jalen Hurts threw one pick when his arm was hit, and another pick hot-potatoed out of Dallas Goedert’s arms into Quinnen Williams’s lap. The Jets’ lone fumble recovery looked like this. That’s goofy stuff, but it accumulates. There are 797 games with at least a 4-0 turnover differential in the Stathead database, and the turnover-happy team is 34-760-3. That’s a win percentage of 4.5 percent. Of course, even with a 3-0 turnover differential, the Eagles were in a spot to win the game. Up by two in the fourth quarter, Hurts made perhaps the single worst play of his young and famously coolheaded career.

No excuses from DeVonta Smith: ‘I just f— dropped them’ - NBCSP
As A.J. Brown spoke to a group of reporters crowded around his locker at MetLife Stadium, DeVonta Smith sat at the stall next door, enveloped by the mass. There’s no doubt Smith heard what Brown said when asked about him. “Not worried about him at all,” Brown said. “Not worried about him at all. He’s going to bounce back like he always do. A confidence issue, that’s not an issue. He’s going to be just fine. He’s going to be fine. Simple. That ain’t even a thought.” It was a rough game for Smith that featured two uncharacteristic drops. Smith is known for making acrobatic catches with his incredible body control in traffic or toe-tapping on the sideline. But in Sunday’s 20-14 loss to the Jets, Smith dropped two routine passes that hit him right in the hands. The second huge drop came in the second half and it would have been a huge play in the game.

Through 6 games, Tua Tagovailoa leads the league in yards gained, yards per game, yards per pass attempt, and tied for first in touchdowns with Kirk Cousins. Tyreek Hill leads the league in yards gained, yards per game, touchdowns, and yards per reception among qualifiers. Christian Watson has more yards per reception but only has 5 catches compared to Tyreek’s 42. All in all, it’s safe to say that the duo of Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill is the best in the NFL this year and are both on pace to break records.

Robert Saleh: Poor choice of words to say we’ve embarrassed other quarterbacks - PFT
“The word ‘embarrassed’ was probably not the right choice of words for me at that time, but there’s a lot of faith in our defense and [defensive coordinator] Jeff Ulbrich and how good a job he and the defensive staff do in terms of preparing guys every week and just doing everything we can to make quarterbacks’ lives hell,” Saleh said. Saleh probably did go a bit too far right after the win over the Eagles, but he has every reason to be happy with the way his defense has played over the last few weeks and he has every reason to think they’ll be able to build on a 3-3 start with a less daunting schedule waiting for them after this week’s bye.

10 thoughts on the Cowboys 20-17 Monday night madness win over the Chargers - Blogging The Boys
7. MCCARTHY’S COLD FEET. Oddly enough, the influx of penalties wasn’t the most erroneous sign of bad coaching on Monday night. The earth stopped moving for a moment when Mike McCarthy decided to refuse his last timeout and let the clock run down to three seconds late in the first half so his kicker could attempt a field goal. Nothing about that decision made any sense. The Cowboys had the ball at the 14-yard line with eight seconds left, plenty of time for one shot at the end zone. But McCarthy opted to play it safe and just go right to the field goal. This was one of the most cowardly coaching decisions I can remember seeing in a Cowboys game. It doesn’t make any sense that he wouldn’t at least try to score a touchdown.

Washington Commanders Vs. Atlanta Falcons - Studs and Duds - Hogs Haven
Studs: Casey Toohill - Toohill had two sacks, a tackle for a loss, and a big pressure that forced an intentional grounding call on the afternoon in reserve action. [BLG Note: Shame that the Eagles moved on from Toohill too quickly in 2020.]

QBs Matt Barkley, Ian Book work out for New York Giants - Big Blue VIew
The New York Giants, apparently looking to protect themselves in the event Daniel Jones misses more time with his neck injured, worked out quarterbacks Matt Barkley and Ian Book on Monday. Barkley, a fourth-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013, has not played in an NFL game since 2020. He has played in 19 career games with seven starts. Barkley and Giants head coach Brian Daboll are familiar with each other. Barkley was in Buffalo with Daboll as a backup for the Bills from 2018-2020.

NFL trade deadline: An executive’s guide to player transactions - NFL.com
How do trade talks start in the NFL? In short, they can start anywhere people are talking about roster changes. In my experience, those conversations commonly take place between general managers, head coaches and agents. The only way a suitor can confirm a player is available is to check with the team that has the rights to the player. That team must give consent to engage in discussions by league rule and set the boundaries of those discussions. The most important language included in almost every contract is that the player being traded must report and pass the new club’s physical in order for the transaction to be complete.

For Goodness Snake: Phillies 5, D-Backs 3 - The Good Phight
Credit to the Diamondbacks bullpen as they limited the Phils bats and kept it close through eight. Onto the ninth where Craig Kimbrel took over. The closer continued to mow down hitters in the Postseason, keeping his perfect career Postseason save record alive, now at 10/10. Phils win 5-3 and take a 1-0 series lead in the NLCS. [BLG Note: Seven more to go!]

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