Eagles Were Schooled By Veteran Seahawks
Experience counts for quite a bit in the NFL.
Last Sunday night, the veteran, battle-tested team took the up-and-coming Eagles to task, and out played them in a disappointing 24-10 showing.
This was a loss where everyone really had a hand in it.
Doug Pederson didn’t manage the game very well. He really botched the challenge situations in the second half. Challenging Torrey Smith’s spot on what would have been fourth and short wasn’t a good decision. Spot challenges are so difficult to win, and in a situation where you’re down on the road in the second half, you can’t afford to waste a timeout like that, especially when it led to a fourth and one where the team was just going to go for it anyway. Pederson compounded that mistake by failing to challenge the Wilson lateral/forward pass later in the half. I don’t think that play would have necessarily been overturned, but that was the type of play to gamble with a challenge on, not the Torrey Smith play.
Carson Wentz’s fumble on the goalline on the team’s opening drive in the third quarter is the play that really lost the Eagles this game. That’s such a huge momentum shift, even though the Eagles were still only down 7 at the time, right when that play happened you knew it was going to be incredibly difficult for them to rally this time.
Jim Schwartz’s defensive gameplan was poor. Russell Wilson is a guy that is going to burn teams on broken plays when defenders lose contain. The gameplan for a guy like Wilson is similar to the blueprint that the great Jim Johnson had for Michael Vick in the NFC Championship Game in 2004. Contain the mobile quarterback, force him to beat you from the pocket, don’t get greedy and overpursue, or he’ll beat you with his legs all day. Wilson is a much better pocket passer than Michael Vick ever was, but the Eagles’ defenders constantly lost contain in this one, leading to the broken plays and drives that were extended by penalties.
Quick Thoughts
Offense
- Halapoulivaati Vaitai had one of those games. One of those frightfully bad games that a young offensive tackle has, that makes you wonder why in the world the coaching staff doesn’t get him some kind of help. This was a game where the team really missed Jason Peters.
- The Eagles’ ground game never really got into a real rhythm in this one, but Jay Ajayi had a couple of nice runs. Hopefully an uptick in usage is coming for him soon.
- Ridiculous that Alshon Jeffery and Zach Ertz were not involved at all in the first half. This isn’t the Legion of Boom secondary. This was a depleted Seattle group without Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman.
- Breakout game for Nelson Agholor, who caught seven passes for 141 yards and a touchdown.
- This wasn’t Carson Wentz’s best game, but he still had a couple of special moments when he hit Agholor downfield twice to give the Eagles a little life in the second half.
Defense
- Russell Wilson just overwhelmed the Eagles’ defense. The defensive line was able to generate pressure on the Seattle quarterback, but his speed and pure playmaking ability was too much to handle.
- I’ve never seen a quarterback run backwards for 15-20 yards as often as Wilson did against the Eagles and still manage to make so many plays. This is what makes the Seahawks such a dangerous team, and its what separates Wilson from the rest of the league’s quarterbacks.
- Not a great game for Mychal Kendricks, who really got exposed in coverage.
- In the second half, the Eagles had a bad series where they just couldn’t get off the field on third downs. Twice in the same drive, they extended the Seahawks’ possession with dumb penalties. These mistakes have to be cleaned up moving forward.
Final Thoughts
All things considered, this was a disappointing effort from the Eagles.
This was this team’s chance to really assert their dominance over the NFC, and it was one of the few times this year that the team came out flat and wasn’t ready to play.
But at the end of the day, the things that went wrong here are pretty forgivable, given the level of play we’ve seen from this roster in the other 11 weeks.
Doug Pederson has been very good about learning from his mistakes during his short career as head coach, and I would expect this group to come back much stronger against the Rams this weekend.
This loss could ultimately be a positive thing if the team responds well to it.
One thing about Russel Wilson is that he’s 1000 times better then Michael Vick.
Eagles defense go pressure. We made him deliver throws, only problem is that we have never seen a player that can scramble backwards and bye time on a consistent basis like that.
Doug should have challenged that lateral
Carson has to hang onto the ball.
Those are the two plays that lost the game.
Forget the fact wentz missed some open targets.
This game was on the Qb mainly, secondary coach.
Playing in Cali is way better then Seattle. Philly already went there earlier in the season so hopefully
We get another home game
What was gained from a loss,as this one,was less tangible than anything to do with x and Os .The measure of overconfidence, and being punched young coaches in the mouth,will humble any athlete,whos helmet wont fit his swollen head.Media and 24/7 coverage, and talking heads,crowned this bunch in November. The finish line is at the 1/4 pole,and now this team is 1 and 2 vs.other teams vying for the ultimate prize. Amidst cali beach babes a wounded bunch and a neophyte coach are trying hopefully to refocus and get the train back on track..both young qbs this week ,as well as young coaches ,will be in a “must win”
What I’ll be looking for Sunday ..more involvement from Clement ..less from Blount (based upon situational ) goal line,or short yardage..Agholor is playing in front of his peeps..I expect his performance to once again ,open eyes as the reclamation project ,repeats..Wentz is a unique ,athlete ,and I think we’ve seen a stoked fire ,after not protecting the ball on the goal line .The youth of Goff and an embarrassed defense may contrast eachother ..I’m watching this game,as a true measure of wether this 2017 team ,is truly elite ,or just a product of a weak schedule ..I don’t truly feel ,it’s the latter ..
I place this loss on Wentz. In the first quarter he overthrew a wiiiide open Nelson Agholor that would have been a TD.
Wentz then under threw Nelson Agholor as he was wide open again, it would have gone for a huge gain if not another TD.
Wentz then fumbled the ball at the goal line which cost the Eagles points and Seattle capitalized off of the mistake scoring a TD..that’s a 14 point swing.
Wentz has to clean that up, if we score on those plays ..our chances of winning that game goes up exponentially.
The defense did what it could against Russell Wilson, he’s just an alien. If the offense scores like it could have and has long drives the ball is not in Wilson’s hands.
Doug needs to use Jay Ajayi more, he’s the most explosive back we have. I look to see more Ajayi against the Rams.
Wentz has to play a lot cleaner, efficient and effective game this week…he has to bounce back.
Need this win on Sunday, the NFC can still go through Philadelphia, if we do not get the win over the Rams, then it’s going to be extremely difficult getting home filed with the way the Vikings are playing. I will be rooting hard for Cam Newton and the Panthers this Sunday.
GO EAGLES!!!!
#5 resurfaced giving Tom Brady the MVP over Wentz, LOL. Pittsburgh went though a similar bizarre passive aggressive shitting on the Steelers by Terry Bradshaw that McNabb has been doing with the Eagles.
Loser of the Ram/ Eagle game probably has to play wildcard weekend.
The game was a tough one….My concerns for the squad came true…that being Eagles Offense having a tough go at moving that football. The first half was tough to watch. The defense kept us in the game. The non challenge and the fumble were back breakers… Win the challenge and its a 10 to 17 game, Eagles ball. The defense had some slip ups as well…although I do feel that the defense is the most consistent part of this football team. But the penalties on the secondary smh….
Im not panicking, a game like this was bound to happen, Eagles just weren’t sharp and I don’t think it was anything special that Seattle did…Sometimes you are you worst enemy, and I think that’s what happened on Sunday…One game doesn’t really mean much right now, but one game is HUGE come playoff time.
A loss brings people back to the site..
Unreal says: Offense having a tough go at moving that football.
however they had 425 yards for the game– it was a normal tough fought game- if you turn it over in an away game chances are you lose- nothing to see here— they weren’t going 15-1 and I doubt they will go 14-2- nothing is free.
HaveNoBrain….still see you are the same loud mouth…nothing changes when it comes to idiots. Once an idiot always and idiot, I guess…
The problem is 400+ yards of offense means nothing if you don’t score points…
hence, the reason for my statement of the first half of that game…
CLIFF tell your son to decline!!!
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports the Browns have “eyes on” former Chiefs GM John Dorsey.
Surprisingly fired by the Chiefs in June, Dorsey has already been linked with the Giants and now the Browns. Rapoport reports Cleveland has been “privately” vetting general manager candidates over the last few weeks, so it is possible they will move quickly if they have decided Dorsey is their guy. Owner Jimmy Haslam has already said Hue Jackson will remain the coach in 2018, so the incoming general manager will have to be comfortable with Jackson.
Related: Browns
Source: Ian Rapoport on Twitter
Dec 7 – 11:11 AM
No predictions on the final score but at 946 Thursday night the process is taking a beating
Process looses twohom games to terrible teams… losing breeds loosing. Fucking awful
Sixers totally blew the game against the Lakers. They were sloppy and Ben Simmons was a turnover machine. I don’t know if the Sixers were taking the Lakers lightly or what. Coaching was not good either, some of the mistakes the Sixers make are purely coaching.
AT HOME
Don’t be dramatic
They are all 19-23 years old. Atleast the main core is
Robert Covington is 26
Amir Johnson 30
JJ 34
Etc
But Joel. Dario. Simmons. Fultz are all babies. Even RoCo hasn’t hit his prime yet and TJ is developing
Sixers have lost on last second shots to
Washington, Houston, Sacramento, La
That’s the difference between 17-7 and 13-11.
Next year, by this time Philly is a 18-6 type team
They have a lot of issues, but generally they are losing because they get really giddy down the stretch. In the 4th, you see less passing, more isolation tries. More trying to make something happen instead of working the ball around and getting a good shot. Some of that is youth and some of that is coaching. I would like to see a lot less 3 point shooting down the stretch and a lot more taking the basket to the hole to get easy points.
What I am more concerned with is the defense on the other teams best player. Ingram has lit them up twice. Booker had a career day. Their defense on the ball has been poor. Do I want to see Embiid taking 3s, not really. Does he turn it over too much? Yes, but his game is still developing and he so is Simmons. I am also looking for more out of Reddick.
That being said what the hell were your guys expectations? Did you think that they were going compete for a title this year? I was hoping that they would be in the bottom half of the playoffs for the East which is right where they are. Simmons had a GD triple double last night. 15 assists and we are focusing on his TOs.
The last thing that I will say is that look at the starting lineup. It is basically a brand new team. Last year, no Simmons, no Reddick and Bayless played 3 games. What the heck are your expectations?
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa the sky is falling wussies out here whining like teenage girls. haaaaaaaaaa
our team is lead by a rookie and a 2nd year pro and currently have the 5th seed last i checked and we crying?>????????????
simmons was a turnover machine – 4 turnovers is a turnover machine?
haaaaaaaaa
losing breeds losing ? please explain how losing in prior years has anything to do with WL this year
simmons was +9
embiid +14
Roco -2
thats what you want to see. the rest will come together as the years go by. nobody expects a championship this year do they? just playoffs right? if yes THAN SHUT UP. these 2 losses comprise less than 3% of our season
houston rockets got 4 losses i think – guess what we beat em and lost to them by 1…
hac u the gcobb sixers version of koolbreeze
yeah I know– the stink of tanking is going to take awhile for me to get over– and for the life of me I can’t understand how a hoops savant like Simmons can’t shoot a lick! It boggles the mind!
Everyone has flaws. He has none but that and he’s impacting the game at an elite level without a jumper. It’ll come. Stop crying, you’re embarrasing yourself and when it comes to sixers u sound like Paul and or kook
Everyone knows u hated the tank and i get ur POV. But it’s over. Stop ur whining. We got elite young talent. Route
Facts henski dam Debbie downer on here hac, your Sixers talk is boring at this time
Fellas let me work my way thru the downer stage… I get it… Simmons is the most exciting player IMO in a loooong Time. I nitpick his terrible shooting more as an indictment of the terrible AAU coaching system. Guy was born and bred to be the best player in the league, guy will be a multiple MVP and he looks like a Tard when he shoots…. I am done… I am the prez of his fan club… he is an unbelievable talent, somehow the misery of the process produced him… go sixers
To all the “we don’t have enough salary cap room” whiners out there— you know who you are!!!! … Just read an article that says the eagles have more players signed through 2020 than any team in football– more players who are currently part of a nucleus that has gone 10-2… damn accountant.
Bryan Colangelo is looking like a dud as a General Manager so far. He has brought in a lot of junk. Simmons, Embiid, Saric, Covington are all Hinkie ( the core)
#1 problem with the Sixers is Ben Simmons is scared. Ever since Wizard Coach purposely fouled Simmons to take advantage of his free throw weakness Simmons has turtled up. He is avoiding contact and not getting to the free throw line anymore. He is stopping in the lane and passing out to bad shooters or floating away from the basket launching off balance shots because he doesn’t want free throw attempts. He is shook, the floor general is scared & it having a negative effect in the win column lately. Simmons was getting 6-8 free throw attempts a game and 18 points in recent games before the hack-a-ben but he turtled up and his impact is down to 12 points a game with 2 free throw attempts since the Hack a Ben.