Brian Baldinger breaks down NFL games every weekend, and because he’s an ex-Bird we usually get a decent amount of Eagle-specific clips.

Not today. Baldy might be getting tired of watching the Eagles, just like the rest of us. Here’s what he was able to muster after Sunday’s debacle in Las Vegas:

“Before this got ugly, it started off good”

It really did. They came out running the ball. Put Jalen Hurts under center. Ran Miles Sanders between the tackles, and then set up some play action off of those runs.

The touchdown was nice. 13 personnel on that play, which means they had three tight ends on the field. Then they run the outside/inside Texas route after two tight ends clear out on the left side and the third tight end clears out with the single receiver on the weak side:

For the first few minutes, the Birds looked like a pretty good football team.

“there are so many things that drive me nuts about this Eagles offense”

Baldy is high on Quez Watkins. He’s spoken glowingly about him this year, and for good reason. He runs good routes, catches everything, and seems like a difference maker in space. I didn’t even realize that he was absent until this play. Watkins finished with two catches on four targets and logged 37 yards, which was his third-lowest total this season.

“I hate this play; it’s so college it’s ridiculous”

Baldy is right about this being a low-percentage play. Even if Hurts gets that ball past Yannick Ngakoue, he has to hope Jordan Mailata can get downfield and make the non-blocking worth it, because Vegas has suitable numbers there. It’s 3v3 in space, and so the receiver has to make somebody miss.

I’m not sure what it is with Nick Sirianni and these receiver/flat screens, but they aren’t totally suited for the NFL. The reason college teams ran them so frequently is because they had big talent advantages, and so Oregon, for example, would put a playmaker in space and then stress myriad defensive guys who weren’t as good. You don’t get that advantage in the NFL.