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Eagles

Watering and Fertilizing into the Playoffs – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 20, Washington 16

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Your Philadelphia Eagles are going to the playoffs.

How bout it? They started 2-5 and people were writing dumbass stories about Nick Sirianni being a one and done coach. Then he delivered the famous “watering and fertilizing” quote and his team won seven of nine to clinch a playoff spot, with some Sunday help from Green Bay and San Francisco.

Yeah, they beat some crap teams along the way, and the last five weeks of Jets/Giants/Washington wasn’t exactly murderer’s row, but what do you want them to do? They can only play the competition put in front of them, and they dispatched that competition. That’s why we’re going Posidelphia at Crossing Broad. No Negadelphia here. This was a transitional rebuilding season and fact-finding mission, and the Birds are going to the postseason under a first-time head coach and sophomore quarterback playing his first season as a starter.

If that doesn’t make you feel good, then return your expectations to the planet Earth. This Eagles team isn’t the 1985 Chicago Bears, but let’s celebrate the achievement and be happy they’re playing meaningful January football.

1) Slow starts

What is it with this team and stumbling out of the gates?

These are the first quarter scores from their past five games:

  • Giants 3, Eagles 0 (loss)
  • Jets 12, Eagles 7 (win)
  • Washington 10, Eagles 0 (win)
  • Giants 0, Eagles 0 (win)
  • Washington 10, Eagles 0 (win)

They’ve been outscored 35 to seven in the first quarter going back to the Saints win. That was the last time they actually started a game with some juice. It’s okay against shit teams like Warshington and the New Yorks, but they can’t get away with this in the playoffs against Tampa, LA, or Dallas. They can’t get stuck playing from behind and they need to bring some of that Peter Laviolette jam into the first quarter.

2) Hurts so good, with no turnovers

Jalen Hurts finished 17-26 for 214 yards. No touchdowns, but he did the requisite damage with his feet and made some really nice throws in this game without turning the ball over.

This was the highlight:

That was the turning point. Down two scores in the third quarter and moving the sticks with an on-the-run throw. Best scramble play in a long time, right? Probably since Carson Wentz found Miles Sanders for that crazy touchdown back in 2019.

Hurts was 9-14 on passes thrown 10 yards or more down the field, which is solid. He’s been spotty on intermediate throws at times this season, and had a proclivity to throw outside the right hash, but if you go through his week-by-week charts, there’s been improvement and more diversity in what he’s completing:

3) Big balls Nick Sirianni

Nick Sirianni looked more like Doug Pederson in this game.

“You want Philly Philly? Yeah let’s do it.”

Only it wasn’t Philly Philly, it was fourth down aggression, and he was uber-assertive on multiple scenarios en route to a 3-4 fourth down conversion rate on the afternoon:

  1. In hindsight, kicking the field goal on the opening drive would have helped, but no issue going for it there on 4th and 2. Would have preferred Jordan Howard running from under center instead of the shotgun, but oh well.
  2. On the 4th and goal on the next drive, they ran the same thing, but gave it to Boston Scott instead and just pounded it right in for a score.
  3. The first question people had about game management was the 4th and 4 at the Washington 45, right before halftime. Go for it there? Washington had the two-minute warning and all three timeouts remaining, so you could legitimately ask if it was worth trying to convert there to get points before the half, before getting the ball right back.
  4. On the opening drive of the second half, three straight red zone runs? I’m okay with that, but it seemed like Jordan Howard was a step off in this game. He didn’t seem like himself out there, so they ended up with this on the fourth down attempt:

Bananas.

They also added a QB sneak on 4th and 1 midway through the fourth, which helped pad their lead.

Sirianni hasn’t exactly been Lane Kiffin-esque with aggression this year, and he’s not as much of an analytics guy as we initially thought, but he made some impressively assertive decisions in this game, and that resulted in a W.

4) a tale of two defenses

Same story here. A soft shell in the first half, then Jonathan Gannon adjusted and mixed it up in the second half.

The clip that exemplifies this is the Josh Sweat third down sack, which linked momentum back to the offense after the opening drive score:

They got to Taylor Heinicke again with Genard Avery later in the quarter, and those stops were key in clawing back into the game.

On this play in particular, they aren’t bringing added pressure. It’s just four guys coming, but they disguise the coverage and drop a linebacker while sending another one instead:

Only three linemen on the field here, but they put two linebackers at the LOS and make the offense guess. Fletcher Cox is in at defensive end, which they’ve done a bit of in recent games. They’ll mix and match try to confuse the offense, and in this case Josh Sweat beat his guy 1v1 for the sack.

Again, good second half performance from the defense.

5) Bench Warz

Remember how Dallas brought their own heated benches to Washington? And then Washington brought their own benches to Philly?

Alas:

What’s going on here? Is this pettiness? Divisional trolling? What’s wrong with the benches that are already there? Stop this madness. The NFL needs to institute a universal bench rule for 2022. Get on it, Mr. Goodell.

6) Mistakes and breaks

This was a quick game, without a lot of replay and flags to slow it down. Here’s what I wrote down:

Mistakes:

  • first drive, that 3rd and 6, not a great route from Quez Watkins and Hurts needed to get that ball out sooner
  • illegal contact penalty wiping out a Heinicke interception
  • Fletcher Cox offside
  • Watkins dropping a flat pass
  • Lane Johnson 3rd and 9 false start
  • Landon Dickerson holding to wipe out big Jordan Howard gain
  • Lane Johnson 3rd and 8 false start
  • crap PI call on Avonte Maddox

Breaks:

  • noodle arm Heinicke with the ole’ four-yard toss on 4th and 5
  • Washington missing Antonio Gibson and a bunch of guys on the line, etc

Believe it or not, they flagged Washington for just one penalty. One! So the Eagles defeated Washington AND the zebras at the same time. That’s what Angelo will say on the WIP morning show.

7) Ancillary wins and losses

Mostly good stuff across the board:

  • won time of possession 32:09 to 29:51
  • +1 turnover margin
  • 4-12 on third down (38%)
  • 3-4 on fourth down (75%)
  • Washington 9-15 on third down (60%)
  • lost two yards on one sack
  • 2-2 success rate in the red zone
  • 6 penalties for 42 yards
  • 18 first downs, 24 for WFT
  • ran 61 total plays, 61 for WFT

Fourth down conversion was the story of the game. Philly 3-4 on the day, Washington 0-1, on that midfield play where Heinicke threw short of the sticks. Eagles fans would be going ballistic if Hurts was the one making that throw. You gotta give the home fans in that shit hole stadium something better than that play.

8) Nick’s best call?

I liked the Texas route for Boston Scott on the second drive, for a big gain. They’ve run this before. He’s so shifty out of the back field and that’s the perfect play for him to run:

They also ran the Darius Slay orbit motion play again, and got a gain of five yards out of it by going to the other side of the field.

Overall, Sirianni’s best stuff wasn’t individual play calls, it was his macro-level aggressiveness and fourth down decision making. He’s come a long way in a short amount of time.

9) Nick’s worst call?

Dunno about the first drive reverse for Jalen Reagor. That was a two-yard loss and set up 2nd and 12 on a drive where the Eagles were moving the ball just fine. It feels like Sirianni is in this mindset where he wants to get Reagor going, and that’s understandable, but the guy just isn’t very good. It is what it is.

We also have to give Sirianni an assist on the Washington field goal right before halftime, with that 3rd and 1 timeout. Not really inspiring confidence on that drive, but he and Jonathan Gannon got it turned around

10) Excellence in broadcasting

We were blessed by the trio of Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth, and Shannon Spake for this one. It’s one of the better groupings on the FOX broadcasts, which isn’t saying much, though Schlereth had a nice flub when he called Jordan Mailata “Muh-la-tee,” like he was combining mulatto with latte or something along those lines. It’s a new cocktail drink, the “Muhlattee.”

The broadcast itself was just okay. I don’t mean to be an asshole, but it feels like the quality of NFL broadcasting is down across the board this year. You agree or disagree? Tony Romo is awesome, but every Eagles game this season feels like we’re getting somewhat uninspired color commentary or a lack of replay, botched names, etc. Wish I could point to something specific, but the product just feels inferior to what we got a few years ago.

As an aside, FOX should fire the producer that played us out to commercial with Imagine Dragons. Turrible band, as Charles Barkley would say.

And finally, there was this:

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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