I think some people may have misconstrued my post-game thoughts as though I didn’t think the Eagles did anything wrong yesterday. That’s not the case. But as a fan base, we feel the need to vilify anything short of perfection when it comes to the Eagles. That’s not how football works. There were plenty of things that could’ve been better yesterday – early defense, penalties, Ryan Mathews, Carson Wentz’s throw – but I was simply reacting to the knee-jerk Twitter and post-game show reactions that someone or something must be blamed for the loss. The fact is, the Eagles came out of the gate slow and played fairly well in the second half. They lost a close game on the road to a mediocre team.

Let’s hit it!

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

 

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The roundup:

If we must choose one thing that truly impacted the score, it might be Jim Schwartz’s decision to sit Nigel Bradham in the first half. Jeff McLane writes about it, even if I disagree with his claim that there were “fingers to point” (gah, why do we do this?):

There were a number of fingers to point following the Eagles’ first loss, but Schwartz’s inexplicable decision to play Kendricks and Tulloch in the nickel – when he hadn’t done so in the first three successful games – was as culpable as Ryan Mathews’ fumble, Carson Wentz’s interception and 14 overall penalties.

Schwartz decided before the season that Bradham and Hicks were his two best linebackers in the nickel. They had played the most of the group in the first three games – Bradham 96 percent of the time and Hicks 85 percent – and they had performed at a high level.

This makes no sense unless it was a punishment.

 

Lane Johnson expects his appeal this week.

 

Giants offensive lineman Ereck Flowers pushed ESPN’s Jordan Raanan:

Here’s the entire 10-second exchange, which ended when Flowers gave Raanan a shove with his left hand that sent the reporter back a few steps.

Flowers: “Hey, get out my face man. Don’t come over here.”

When Raanan didn’t move, Flowers moved his face close to the reporter’s and asked, “You hear me?”

Raanan: “I’m just trying to do my job.”

Flowers: “Go over there.”

Raanan: “I’m just trying to do my job.”

Flowers: “Get the (expletive) out of my face, bro.

Raanan: “I’m just trying to do my job.”

Flowers then said, “Go over there, man,” as he shoved Raanan.

 

Dan Levy fact-checks Eagles post-game comments.

 

BGN breaks down Carson Wentz’s play:

For one, Wentz is asked to make a lot of throws within the structure of the offense. That structure includes a handful of screens, pop passes and drags. This is a west coast principle, because it manufactures the impact of a run game in the absence of talented running backs, while also getting quarterbacks into a rhythm and forcing defenses to want to compress the field. Once teams sell out to stop those short passes, the offense is set up to fire down the field for the big play, something Wentz has done very well through for weeks of the season.

To say that he is merely “dink and dunk” implies that he favors forcing short throws to running backs or any sub seven yard pass despite the presence of the long play and that is simply not true. He is working within the confines of an offense and doing so incredibly efficiently. The other aspect is that the Eagles, with the exception of yesterday, have mostly been playing with the lead, so the need to be aggressive on offense is superfluous in the ladder stages of the game, so the opportunities simply are not there for Wentz to open up the passing game any more.

A fair critique of Wentz would be that he can be too robotic at times in the execution of the offense, while also being too aggressive. For instance, he will tend to force passes that the offense asks him to make and has trouble moving off of his first read consistently.

It’s hard to argue with Wentz’s results thus far, but soon defenses will begin keying on the short routes and screens and the Eagles will have to start calling more conventional pass plays. Problem: their receivers aren’t good.

 

Ken Bone was the star of the debate:

 

Awful Announcing picked up our CSN story:

The Philly-centric Crossing Broad site notes that a number of CSN personalities have been let go due to cost-cutting as reporting and highlights are going by the wayside.  But as the dependence on debate and discussion increases, it also reduces other programming. Crossing Broad pointed out that CSN Philadelphia cut away from Ryan Howard’s ceremony during his final game with the Phillies and instead went to the studio for more discussion.

Whether Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia can pull off the transition to debate will be determined by the ratings and whether millennials will watch. Right now, it appears the transition is not going smoothly. The fact that cord cuttting is affecting not just CSN Philly, but other networks like ESPN, there are fears that the networks are losing traction with viewers.

I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on that post and it appears to have struck a cord with some folks in the industry. I’m not the only one who thinks CSN’s recent offerings have been largely a joke.

 

Ryan Lochte got engaged last night.

 

Philly police officer accused of jacking off in the car says he was just trying to stay awake. Awake, awake, awake, awake, realllllllllly awake. Sleeping.

 

Pro athletes respond to Trump’s “locker room” defense. Here’s the thing– guys, when together with other guys, say horrible things. Trump commenting about trying to sleep with Nancy (while itself a shitty thing to do because she was married) or remarking about his hot co-star is a bad look, but hardly a major problem. What most guys don’t say, however, is that they can do anything they want and essentially admit to harassing women. That’s not normal. Remarking about women being hot is. Boasting about grabbing their pussies is fucked up.

 

Joel Embiid is already just showing off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6M15R649qk&feature=youtu.be

 

Curt Schilling:

 

The Rangers are out of the playoffs and it’s thanks to Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish.

 

There is only one choice in November:

 

Eagles setting records:

 

I wish Philly would just decide if UberX is illegal or not so Uber can get on with ignoring the order to cease operations.

 

Podcast:

We’re joined by Eliot Shorr-Parks to talk Eagles and more:

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The Stepover Episode 10 talking about JoJo and Dario’s on-court debuts:

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