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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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Throw the Damn Towel! Ten Takeaways from Eagles 51, Broncos 23

We’re at a point where broadcasters are bailing on the Eagles because they’re beating teams so badly.

Yesterday CBS cut to the Ravens/Titans matchup in non-local markets to show a “more competitive game.” Even the local production crew ran out of things to talk about and decided to spend five minutes shouting out their camera operators on live TV.

Ian Eagle: “There’s Bob. And Chris is steady, very steady. Is that camera 1?”

Dan Fouts: “That was camera 1.”

Ian Eagle: “And there’s Janice, who is with us every single week.”

Dan Fouts: “That’s camera 3.”

This is where we’re at. Broadcasters are bored with the 8-1 Eagles, a team sending Nick Foles out for victory formation while winning by three touchdowns.

Look, you can’t run out C.J. Beathard and Brock Osweiler and expect to be competitive against this team. The Birds’ top-ranked rushing D again made an opponent one-dimensional, limiting Denver to just 226 total yards and some garbage time points. Doug Pederson’s offense looked more like the ’99 Rams while putting up 419 yards and 51 points without its best receiver and Pro Bowl left tackle.

1) Next man up!

The non-availability of Zach Ertz was a late storyline coming into this game, but the Birds didn’t miss a beat. Trey Burton and Brent Celek were targeted eight times for 5 catches, 80 yards, and a touchdown.

They did the damage early, too, no fourth quarter stat padding or shady context here. Burton had a big 3rd and 9 catch on the first drive and Celek snagged two of his three receptions on the first two series. Burton trapped the ball between his legs on a 27-yard touchdown pass to put the Birds up 24-6 with 9:15 still remaining in the second quarter.

Looks like the Birds are fine at the backup tight end spots. Burton is free agent this summer, so this was a big game for him.

2) Bigger V

Speaking of next man up, did you hear Halipoulivaati Vaitai’s name called?

I think I heard it once, when the Eagles were driving in the second quarter.

Big V was solid yesterday in both run and pass blocking. On this play, a 3rd and 3, he does a nice job to take the safety Will Parks, a smaller and faster guy, and not only engage him quickly but move him sideways to create a lane for LeGarrette Blount:

There really should be enough there for Blount to get through that hole and pick up the first down, but Brandon Marshall does a really nice job of shedding Jason Kelce’s block and making the stop right at the line of gain. Kelce was frustrated with himself after the Eagles failed to convert this:

Vaitai also had a quality block on Jay Ajayi’s touchdown run, taking Shane Ray out of the play to bookend a hole you could drive a truck through:

You can fit six Jay Ajayi in that hole http://pic.twitter.com/Yop4jbBfCl

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 5, 2017

Is Ajayi the plural of Ajayi? Looks right to me.

Anyway, Vaitai was good on the day. The Birds’ game plan made his possible liabilities a non-factor, with quick releases and early pocket movement from Carson Wentz.

3) All aboard the Jay Train

Jay Ajayi’s first involvement was on a couple of run/pass options, one going to Celek and the other to Alshon Jeffery for a score. He got his first carry later in the half, taking it up the gut for six yards.

One of criticisms Ajayi received from Adam Gase in Miami was that he was trying too hard to hit the “home run” instead of just taking what was in front of him and picking up the yardage.

On the big touchdown run, the only thing in front of him was 46 yards and the end zone, so he took it. Slash that run from the stat sheet, and Ajayi still finished with a respectable 31 yards on 7 other carries, good for a 4.4 YPC average on his Eagles debut. Only twice had he hit that number or gone above it this season.

Crazy what happens when you run behind a decent line.

Jay Ajayi this season, by team:

DOLPHINS 138 carries, 0 TD (most in NFL without scoring)

EAGLES 46-yard TD on 5th carry

¯_(ツ)_/¯

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 5, 2017

4) Nice Touch

Carson Wentz finished 15/27 for 199 yards and 4 touchdowns.

I don’t know what else there is to say at this point. He’s playing at an MVP level.

One thing that stood out to me was the finesse and footwork he showed on a couple of opening drive passes. We’ve talked in the past about his lack of touch in the short and intermediate passing game, but he really used his feet to roll and release quickly on Sunday.

This one I thought was harder than it looked:

That’s a run/pass option with Celek peeling off the linebacker into space. Even though the ball is tipped, I feel like Wentz timed that release well and put enough oomph on it to make that deflection somewhat irrelevant on the play. Wentz has to wait for Celek to turn his head before he can get rid of it.

The second was on the opening score, another RPO look with a dime over the top:

Alshon Jeffery 32 yard TD http://pic.twitter.com/4BGkQwgb7T

— ⓂarcusD (@_MarcusD2_) November 5, 2017

Good footwork, nice touch over the top. I thought he did the same on the screen pass touchdown as well.

So not only have we seen improvement with Carson’s deep ball this year, but he continues to get better with his footwork and release on those types of plays.

5) Don’t sleep on me

Last week Tim Reilly wrote a story called, “While You’re Dreaming About Jay Ajayi, Don’t Sleep on Corey Clement.”

Give that man a raise!

With all the Ajayi talk coming into this one, Clement probably had the best game for a Birds running back, handling it 12 times for 51 yards and two touchdowns while adding a 15 yard screen pass score. While it’s true that he took six of those hand offs in the 4th quarter, his early contributions were huge, similar to what you saw from Celek and Burton in the passing game.

I thought the most interesting thing regarding Clement was the design on his second TD run, where the Birds ran an option out of the pistol. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time we’ve seen the pistol this season:

Optionality. #FlyEaglesFly http://pic.twitter.com/HIqbEjQr7s

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 5, 2017

6) To catch, or not to catch

What is a catch?

I thought for sure that Emmanuel Sanders had possession of this ball and took two steps before going to ground and losing control, but this was ruled an incompletion:

Sanders doesn't complete the process of the catch on 3rd-and-2 and Denver settles for a FG http://pic.twitter.com/mG2Bfb64uZ

— The Bitter Birds (@AdrianFedkiw) November 5, 2017

Denver should have challenged that, or at least tried to convert on 4th and 2 from the opponent’s 35 yard line while losing 17-3. I thought it was a weird decision to kick the field goal there.

7) Ref, you don’t suck

Denver finished with 14 penalties for 105 yards.

The Birds had 5 for 35.

Savor the moment, because it ain’t gonna happen in Dallas.

The calls were lopsided in the Eagles’ favor for once, but I don’t know if every flag was correct. I mentioned the Sanders catch above. Wentz got away with a pass that looked like intentional grounding while also being dragged down for an unsportsmanlike conduct at the same time.

On the Ajayi touchdown, did he get the ball over the pylon? I don’t think there was conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the field. That goes both ways. If they ruled it out at the one yard line, that call probably would have held as well.

Also, on the 4th quarter strip sack and touchdown, was Von Miller offside here?

Offsides? #DENvsPHI #FlyEaglesFly http://pic.twitter.com/ZomKlaE4IG

— Nick Piccone (@nickpiccone) November 5, 2017

Either way, this crew was 10x better than a Pete Morelli or Ed Hochuli unit. Maybe 15x. Maybe 100x better.

8) Doug’s worst call?

Every week I write this recap, this Doug Pederson entry becomes more and more pointless.

I guess we’re nitpicking now, but they really showed some poor clock management on that final drive before halftime. Huge lead or not, there was a chance to put some points on the board.

Outside of that, I think Foles could have been in the game sooner. Also, don’t let him throw the ball, just run it every single time. Give Wendell Smallwood and Kenjon Barner the rock and let ’em run out the clock.

Hindsight, folks. It’s always 20/20.

9) Doug’s best call?

Everything?

I liked the game plan. The quick throws, rollouts, and chip blocking kept Denver’s defense off-balance and neutralized a very good D-line.

Pederson elaborated on the RPO after the game, explaining the mechanics behind Jeffery’s 32-yard touchdown reception:

Q. Take us through that play. I know that QB Carson Wentz throws the ball real well on the move and he just dropped in there. COACH PEDERSON: Refresh my memory.

Q. The RPO — COACH PEDERSON: Oh, the read. It just a play. It’s a read option, read the defensive end. It just so happened we were on the right hash. I think [Broncos OLB] Von [Miller] was over there and we knew their D-end was closed a little bit. It’s just something that we build into that play. It’s something that we’ve — it’s a Day-One-training-camp, Day-One-OTA play. And it’s just a one-step hitch-and-go, and we got 21 to bite on the play. Did a great job throwing the ball on the run and Alshon getting in the end zone.

This is what he’s talking about:

Cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said the he felt like the Eagles knew everything the Broncos were going to do on defense. Part of that is definitely some carryover from Pederson working in Kansas City and seeing Denver’s personnel twice a year.

Harris offered another bit on the RPO stuff:

“They run this college offense. They run kind of what the Chiefs do. They got an option to run, an option to pass. They run the read option, the real option. (Wentz) is checking to a lot of things. It’s a college offense and he’s just executing it very good.”

10) Putting a “50 burger” on the board

Shout out to CBS for going to Tony Luke’s for the obligatory cheesesteak bump shot and shirking Passyunk Ave.

The “Rocky” mention came around 8:09 in the 4th quarter, with a couple of goofy looking hipsters on the Art Museum steps.

Anyway, I thought Eagle and Fouts did a pretty good job before becoming thoroughly bored in the third quarter, like Ed Rendell on the local post game show:

When you're 8-1, have MVP, coach of year candidates and can't control your emotions! #FlyEaglesFly http://pic.twitter.com/tNHooqy3n0

— Tony Bruno (@TonyBrunoShow) November 5, 2017

Throw the Damn Towel! Ten Takeaways from Eagles 51, Broncos 23 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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