Brutal. Absolutely horrendous. They had that game in the bag and choked it away. Up six with 1:39 on the clock after Saquon Barkley dropped a third down pass that would have iced the game.

That is the definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

To the takeaways:

1) Fans booed the 3rd and 9 QB draw on the opening drive. The Eagles run that play out of empty set when they know they’re going for it on fourth down. Problem being, Jalen Hurts looked like he had a bit of a hole but decided to bounce it outside, so the yardage gain wasn’t enough to justify the fourth down attempt.

2) Looked like a catchable ball on the 3rd and 4 that Bijan Robinson dropped. Eagles got off the field with an unforced error.


3) The orbit motion* and flat pass to Jahan Dotson was okay. Decent gain. There’s just something that bugs me about watching DeVonta Smith block on those plays, because it feels like the last thing a 170 pound receiver should be doing.

*orbit is when a player runs behind the deepest player before the snap, usually the QB but can be a RB depending on the formation

4) Troy Aikman on Saquon Barkley: “there’s no comparison between this line in Philadelphia and what he had to run behind the last few years there in New York”

fact check: true

5) On the second drive, with Saquon cooking, they took him out for a couple of snaps that Kenny Gainwell handled, resulting in a 3rd and 4. You could hear the cheers VERY clearly over the TV when Barkley came back in. Hurts threw incomplete on the ensuing play, the Eagles failed on a 4th and 4 attempt, and a promising drive ended in no points.

Time to dust off the flow chart:

6) Nice to see the players keep their footing and not slide all over the place. On the other hand, the Eagles’ pass rush couldn’t get close to Kirk Cousins in the first quarter, so apparently it was not the field conditions in Brazil that made the EDGE group look underwhelming. They’re just not that good.

7) Aikman had a nice Freudian slip and said “A.J. Smith.” Imagine combining the two of them into one player.

8) Delay of game for spiking the ball is obviously corny. He’s not spiking it in some dude’s face. He’s not taunting.

9) On that big 4th down run, you could see Hurts instinctively bail the pocket to his right. Only when he came back inside was able to find a hole. It happened again a few plays later and he converted on 3rd and 11. Always a mixed bag when he’s flushed and running to that side of the field.

10) When in the red zone, make sure to throw a perimeter screen for Britain Covey (sarcasm thicker than yo mama).

11) This was not an easy throw. Hurts put it slightly behind Smitty, but still, you’re sticking it between a couple of All-Pros:

12) Unnecessary roughness on Ray-Ray McCloud for punching Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. Punching a guy with a helmet on. Nice bit of shithousery there from CJGJ.

13) It took less than 75 minutes to play the first half. Minimal flags, minimal scoring, lack of timeouts until the very end. A 180 from our wonderful Sao Paulo experience.

14) Younghoe Koo turned 30 in August. Might have to start calling him Oldhoe soon.

15) Barfy:

16) On the same play that Milton Williams sacked Cousins, Bijan Robinson leveled Nolan Smith coming off the edge. Talk about a violent sequence right there.

17) When in the red zone, make sure to throw a perimeter screen for Britain Covey (they did it again!).

18) Jason Kelce did a good job in the booth but it felt like they needed to turn his mic up. And I’m sure Falcons fans probably had enough of him by the start of the fourth quarter.

19) Pretty ugly touchdown to concede to Darnell Mooney. The Birds sent the house, CJGJ sat on the short route, and Cousins just tossed it past him. The missed tackle was the cherry on top of the turd sundae:

20) Three ineligible man downfield penalties on the Eagles. They should probably just take the RPO, zone read, anything with a pull option and remove it from the playbook for the time being.

21) Smitty has the best role on the tush push:

22) The second-effort from Saquon on the two-point conversion was big. He jumped over the pile and ran into a Landon Dickerson brick wall, then snuck the ball over the line by reaching out with the right hand.

23) Thought the officials did a good job wasting little time with those reviews. Bang bang, back to play. Nice work, zebras.

24) CJGJ blowing up Bijan Robinson on 4th down was obviously massive. First big play of the night from anyone on the defense. They showed a replay a little later where you could see the helmet was indeed coming off his head before it came off entirely, so good job by the refs picking up that flag. I thought he got away with one initially.

25) Hated the 3rd and 2 swing pass to Barkley late, but he converted it. The drop at the end of the game would have iced it, but he just flubbed it. Did they have to throw it there? Run it on third and at least eat some clock? There are going to be a ton of questions about that.

26) Shout out to Braden Mann for salvaging an ultra-rare Rick Lovato bad snap on the late field goal.

27) Dallas Goedert only getting four targets in this game was criminal. Britain Covey was targeted six times, twice on those fugazi flat passes.

28) We’ll spend all week breaking down the final Atlanta drive. Seattle 2023-esque. Horrible. They walked right down the field and not a single defensive lineman got close to Cousins. This team’s pass rush group is a total black hole.