(edit – I can’t believe I have to write this here, but the headline is SATIRE)

Well, that was enjoyable. Truly. We didn’t have high expectations for this game earlier in the week, but we saw Gardner Minshew at quarterback, tearing up a crappy Jets team.

Do we have a QUARTERBACK CONTROVERSY on hand? Should they bench Jalen Hurts and go with MINSHEW for the rest of the year? I’m sure we’ll hear about it on sports talk radio all week long, and even into next week because the Eagles are on a bye. We’ll hear from Eagles Shirley and Kenny from the Dirty 30. We’ll hear from Ingy and O.G. Wade. We’ll hear from Chuck from Mt. Airy, who calls at the same god damn time every single day. We’ll hear from Angry Al and Herb from the Northeast and all of the geniuses who check in on a daily basis. It will be a banner couple of weeks for Sports Radio 94 WIP and 97.5 the Fanatic.

For now, let’s just talk about a win.

1) Minshew Mania

Listen, I don’t know if Gardner Minshew is winning anybody a Super Bowl, but he didn’t do much wrong overall and was close to flawless in the first half. He went 14 of 15 for 188 yards and two touchdowns, with the Eagles scoring on every single one of those first four drives.

It’s been almost a full year since we’ve seen a pro-style quarterback under center for the Eagles, so some of the things he does well create a harsh juxtaposition after watching Hurts play the first 11 games. Obviously Minshew is more accurate, and he hangs in the pocket and scans downfield, whereas Hurts is vacating early. On the flip side, Jalen is scrambling and using his feet and gashing teams on the ground. As a macro-level observation, I didn’t see a lot of throws out there that Hurts COULDN’T HAVE MADE; I just think Minshew has the better pocket presence and awareness.

I go back to the same thing as last week. It’s a philosophical debate at this point. It’s less about Minshew vs. Hurts specifically, and more about whether Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie want a “running” quarterback or a “throwing” quarterback. I know we laugh about the “controversy” thing and do the satirical take on sports radio, but there are valid questions to ask after watching the backup QB compile this chart:

2) Tweaks in the play calling

We were curious to see how Nick Sirianni would call a game for Minshew vs. Hurts, so I logged all of the run/pass decisions prior to the final possession, when the game was over.

Here’s what I came up with:

  • drive one: broken play, tight end screen, under center run, RPO, under center run, under center play action pass (TOUCHDOWN)
  • drive two: tight end screen, run out of shotgun, run out of shotgun (sweep), five wide throw out of shotgun, under center play action pass, under center run, shotgun RB screen, shotgun pass (TOUCHDOWN)
  • drive three: under center run, shotgun throw, RPO, shotgun throw (nice checkdown to Gainwell), shotgun throw, under center play action throw, under center run, under center play action pass, shotgun run (TOUCHDOWN)
  • drive four: shotgun run, shotgun run, screen, shotgun run, shotgun run, shotgun throw, shotgun run, shotgun run, screen, shotgun pass (FIELD GOAL)
  • drive five: under center run, shotgun run, under center run, under center run, shotgun run, under center play action pass, shotgun pass (rolled him right), shotgun pass, shotgun run, shotgun throw, shotgun throw, under center run, shotgun run, shotgun pass (FIELD GOAL)
  • drive six: shotgun run, shotgun pass, under center run, shotgun pass, shotgun pass, shotgun double reverse attempted screen, shotgun pass, shotgun pass, QB sneak, shotgun run, shotgun run, shotgun run (FIELD GOAL)
  • drive seven: shotgun run, shotgun run, shotgun run, shotgun pass (FIELD GOAL)
  • (game basically over at this point, 33-18 with 5:23 on the clock)

A good mix. Some of the heavy shotgun stuff is the result of Jordan Howard being out. They’re more inclined to run Miles Sanders out of the shotgun vs. going under center with Howard, but there was a nice blend early on. They had a lot of success on those early screens, and set up play action for the first Dallas Goedert touchdown. No zone read plays for obvious reason, though I counted a couple of RPOs in there. When you look it over, it makes sense, the batch of play calls they went with, and it ended up nicely balanced out in a box score showing 41 carries and 25 runs. 24 carries for Miles Sanders was a season-high.

3) Still some defensive issues

The defense got it together in the second half, but they allowed touchdowns on the first three drives and just seemed to be showing a lot of what we saw early this year. Soft shell coverage, blown assignments, a lack of aggression, etc.

The most egregious sequence was on the 3rd and 4th down at the goal line where they blew their coverage two plays in a row, first with New York failing to connect on an easy pitch and catch. On the second play, Alex Singleton and Anthony Harris went with the same guy and let a tight end slip into the end zone:

Seems like that was Singleton’s fault. Jonathan Gannon will probably be asked about it at his midweek press conference. They got their act together eventually but you shouldn’t be giving up three straight scores to the New York Jets to open the game.

4) painful on the eyes

Can we talk for a minute about the uniforms that were worn on Sunday?

The Jets wore their green helmets with black shirts and black pants. The Birds wore their darker share of green helmet with white jerseys and black pants. Aesthetically it was very bland and even borderline offensive.

Look at this:

Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s two different combinations of black/green/white. Ugly, dull, and redundant. I hereby propose that each NFL team must be wearing different colored pants AND jerseys, i.e. only the helmets can match in base color.

Thank you.

5) Zebra watch

Well golly, I’m stunned the refs didn’t flag the Eagles for an illegal pick play on the second Goedert touchdown.

Look at Boston Scott here:

He actually sold that nicely. Maybe we were just expecting a flag since the laundry hit the field multiple times for that same infraction earlier in the season.

The worst call actually went against the Jets, when they got flagged for pass interference on a 3rd and 10 that certainly was not pass interference. Even all of the Eagles people on Twitter were in agreement that it was a fugazi call.

The other big officiating calls in this game were the Jason Kelce non-false start that resulted in a Jet encroachment, which seemed like the right decision. And on the review of Minshew’s quarterback sneak, it looks like they also got that one correct.

6) Mistakes and breaks

Better this week because they didn’t fucking turn the ball over four times.

Mistakes:

  • neutral zone infraction on 2nd and 3
  • Jalen Reagor watching a ball bounce over his head and land on the one yard line
  • REAGOR dropping a punt (and then somehow turning it into a big return)
  • holding on first half two-minute drill
  • Nate Herbig snapping the ball to Manhattan

Jalen Reagor man. I don’t know what to think anymore.

Breaks:

  • Jets new kicker missing an extra point
  • Jets new kicked missing a SECOND extra point
  • Elijah Moore dropping a touchdown pass
  • illegal hands to the face for an automatic first down (final drive before half)
  • Jets DPI on 3rd and 10 (iffy call in my mind)
  • Tevin Coleman with a 1st down drop
  • Jets having to burn a timeout on a 3rd quarter 3rd down
  • Jets ridiculous ENCROACHMENT on a 4th down
  • Corey Davis 4th quarter drop
  • Elijah Moore 4th quarter drop
  • Zach Wilson sailing one for an interception

The Jets.. good God they stink. I know it’s been a rough couple of years since the Super Bowl for the Eagles, but the Jets haven’t been to the playoffs since Obama’s first term. Kim Jong Un was still running North Korea. Katy Perry had JUST released the Teenage Dream album.

7) Ancillary wins and losses

Back to winning ways here:

  • won time of possession 35:36 to 24:24
  • +1  turnover margin
  • 6-13 on third down (46.1%)
  • 1-1 on fourth down
  • NY went 3-9 on third down (33%)
  • lost nine yards on two sacks
  • 1-3 success rate in the red zone
  • New York 3-3 in red zone
  • 3 penalties for 20 yards
  • 26 first downs, 21 for Jets
  • ran 68 total plays, Jets 57

They’ve really cleaned up the penalties, which is nice to see. It’s been key in sustaining drives and helping them establish this balanced offensive approach. Also, it’s two games in a row now that Derek Barnett hasn’t committed a dumbass penalty.

8) Nick’s best call?

Pulling Jalen Reagor off kick return duty to open the second half. Great call!

Obviously throwing the challenge flag on the failed QB sneak was the right decision. Good job from the booth on that as well. A total team effort. Rah rah!

9) Nick’s worst call?

Didn’t like the two minute drill at the end of the first half. The shotgun run on 2nd and 20 left a lot to be desired. They got bailed out with a 3rd and 19 conversion when a Jets defender slipped. They tried a screen later in the drive, which was okay just for the fact that they had been having screen success earlier on the day, but then Kenneth Gainwell went out of bounds for some reason on a 3rd and 12 completion. Seemed like they could have engineered a better drive there to come away with more than three.

You wonder about the timeout called before that 4th down attempt at the end of the third. Shouldn’t have had to burn that TO if you were just gonna sneak it anyway. Had to throw a challenge flag there.

Overall though, good Sirianni game.

10) Excellence in broadcasting

Andrew Catalon with James Lofton and Amanda Balionis on the sidelines. Could be wrong, but I’m 99% sure this was the first time they’ve done an Eagles game, and they did a respectable job. Lofton is a decorated former pro, and so he’s got more than enough credibility there. Catalon called a straightforward game until mistakenly identifying Quez Watkins as Jalen Reagor. You knew it was a mistake because Reagor would never have caught that pass. Also, Lofton referred to Jordan Mailata as 6’5″, when he’s really 6’8″. If we’re adding three inches, I’m now magically 6’4″. I’m Dejounte Murray in height/weight. Huzzah!

Last word goes to Pat Egan: