Agreed. I like Pop and he was great in the SB 2 years ago. But since he's come back from injury this year, he hasn't looked quite the same.
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Smith had a big play with no DB anywhere near him. Brown had a big play when McDuffie lost the ball in the lights.

That’s like 90 of Hurts’s 300 yards. Then factor in Goedert’s tough catches too.

Hurts had a great game, but people tend to overrate his passing performance a bit.
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Yeah, that long pass to Smith was Sneed blowing his assignment, if I remember right. It actually was not an awesome throw - took him to the sideline and kept him from getting into the end zone.
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I mean...Chris Jones only had 5.

Surely we know the folly of using sacks as a dispositive metric of impact. Jalen Carter isn't Chris Jones, but he's REALLY damn good.

And again, I think with Davis (or Ojomo in pass rush situations) at the nose and Milton Williams at the other 3-tech, y'all are sleeping on that front. Williams especially -- he's been a very good player for them this year. And I think that's largely because it's not the same as what we do, IMO. It's a 3-4 hybrid sort of front but we're looking at these guys using an even front sort of lens.

But that's not how they role.

You just really can't make a comparison between their players and ours, or their players and the 2022 team. It's a COMPLETELY different system.

But they do create some headaches with it. When they get pressure with Carter/Williams/Ojomo/Davis -- that's a pretty strong bonus when they also have Smith and Sweat coming off the edge.

I'm just disinclined to hand-waive that Eagles pass rush, especially when combined with a deep and talented secondary.

I don't think they're better than Houston, but I do think they're better than Buffalo and by a pretty fair bit.

We put up 23 vs. Houston and 32 vs. Buffalo -- split the gap and that's how I get to around 27. I think that's a pretty makeable and reasonable target mark.
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Yup.

I remember thinking at the time "Man, that is the one thing we just could NOT do..." and sho 'nuff, it's exactly what happened.

Just completely biffed the assignment and gave Smith a free run into the secondary. We were lucky it didn't get housed.
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It's not about the yards. They threw the ball a whopping 38 times and he completed 27 passes. If they force this Eagles team to throw 38 times, the Eagles won't win.
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I don’t disagree.

I’m just pointing out that nearly 1/3 of their passing production came on 2 plays, which were likely more about being bad plays by the DBs.

Then, about 1/6 or so of their production came on tough catches by Goedert.

Maybe those same things happen again, but I doubt it.

Throw, Jalen, throw. That’s what we want. Take our chances with those plays.
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I mean, if they want to send 5 every time and let Mahomes work with the quick spaces underneath, i don't think we should complain too much.
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They ended up scoring one play later anyway, but maybe the end of that game gets a little tighter if the Eagles have an extra 30 seconds to work with.
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The Eagles blitz less… Much less… Than most teams.
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Also, the Eagles have not faced a QB like Mahomes all season. The best QBs they've faced are Baker, Love, Stafford, Jayden, and Lamar...
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This is Vic Fangio you aren't gonna see anything like they were doing under Gannon 2 years ago. This is gonna be a bunch of rush 4, soft shell bullshit.
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Yeah I think a young Chris Jones is a good place to put Carter. He was tied for 4th in the NFL in pressures for IDL with 53 total per PFF. Chris Jones was obviously much better with 74, but Carter has had a very good postseason with 20 pressures in 2 games. Donald had 23 as his high and Chris Jones had 20 as his high in 2022.

All of this to say that our biggest weakness on the whole damn roster is Caliendo, who would be facing him. I almost want DJ to start to Thuney can erase that guy. And man the Eagles just do not have anywhere near the talent at DE. Nolan Smith is a speed rusher. He has little power. Josh Sweat is good not great. These guys aren’t in the same league as Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.

Kid is only 23 and he’s a monster in the making. He’ll be Chris Jones in a couple years IMO
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Offensive line is better. LT has improved and was highest grade in nfl at his position this year. RT has not seem to regress. At guard, Becton is an upgrade over Seumalo, and Jurgens made the pro bowl.

The only position in which 2024 is not better than 2022 would be DE. And even that’s arguable as their young DE Nolan Smith has gotten better and better as the years gone on.
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If you actually look at the turnovers, most were the result of a huge hit or a peanut punch… The only luck involved was that they did seem to recover a very high percentage of them.
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