Eagles

How ‘Bout Them Eagles? – Ten Takeaways from Philly 17, Dallas 9

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 23rd, 2019 · 8:53 AM EST

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For a while there, I thought they might not do it.

The Eagles STORMED out to a 10-0 lead on Sunday night, out-gaining the pitiful Dallas Cowboys 131 yards to 14 in the first quarter. Lincoln Financial Field was rocking. Twitter was snarking. Everybody was having fun at Jerry Jones’ expense.

Then the outrageous injuries started happening. Ronald Darby and Fletcher Cox and Zach Ertz went into the blue medical tent. Jake Elliott missed a field goal and the Birds couldn’t extend their lead before halftime. The same sense of dread that haunted the Delaware Valley for most of this season slowly washed over me, like a terrifying inevitability. I pictured that guy from Greek mythology rowing his ass up the Schuylkill River, ready to claim our souls and ferry the 2019 Eagles to Hades, mercifully putting all of us out of our misery until the NFL Draft.

And then…

I don’t know.

I don’t know what happened. The Dallas offense kept shooting itself in the foot. Dak Prescott couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. The Birds then ripped off a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to go up 17-6 and survived a late scare when Sidney Jones, of all people, closed it out with a monolithic end zone pass break-up.

Eagles win. Never a doubt.

The game was definitely nerve-wracking, but ultimately exciting and honestly enjoyable, which we haven’t been able to say very often this year. Outside of Buffalo and Green Bay, it’s been a miserable roller coaster ride, with ridiculous injuries and mistakes and assorted nonsensical argument dampening the mood, even during wins. But for one night only, it was good to watch the other team drop passes and look totally inept.

Today is December 23rd and your Eagles are now 8-7 with a chance to win the division on Sunday in New Jersey. It hasn’t been pretty this year, not by a long shot, but they enter week 17 with a chance to claim the NFC East title and host a home playoff game, and that’s a really nice turnaround for a team that was 5-7 and left for dead not long ago.

1. Carson Wentz, managing a great game

We got another “game manager” type of win from Carson Wentz, who didn’t need a fourth quarter comeback this time, but just played a steady game, protected the ball, and made some accurate and quality throws out there.

One thing I noticed was that Doug Pederson started his quarterback under center with some tempo, which I think helps Carson get his legs moving and find a rhythm early. It’s a lot better than some of those static shotgun sets, where Wentz sometimes finds himself flat footed in the pocket and starts missing easy throws. When he’s under center he’s naturally moving via three or five-step drops, and you can move him further via bootleg and pocket rolling, which then sets up play action.

He finished 31-40 for 319 yards and a touchdown, a really nice toss to Dallas Goedert in the back of the end zone that I’ll clip a bit later in the column. Overall, I thought his decision making looked better out there, with relatively quick reads and not a lot of holding on to the ball.

Mistake-wise, I’m sure he wants the high pass to Zach Ertz back, the one that almost got his tight end killed. The fumble he was able to fall on, and that came from his blindside, so it happens. I’d be more concerned if it was another one of those plays where he didn’t see it coming from the Lane Johnson/Big V side of the line. And Wentz did throw a few bad passes on the evening, as most quarterbacks do. I think those fell well within the typical margin of QB error.

But he got the job done out there, “as far as I’m concerned.” (Stephen A Smith voice). Wentz defender Dan Orlovsky is coming for the haters today:

Im coming for ya @thEMANacho @maxkellerman @willcain @GetUpESPN pic.twitter.com/GG9ZCyFMNZ

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) December 23, 2019

2. Receivers out here making plays

No Alshon Jeffery.

No DeSean Jackson.

No Nelson Agholor.

For the second straight week, the Birds rolled out a receiver group of Greg Ward Jr., J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, and Robert Davis, and those guys did their job out there, making some nice grabs and complementing a passing game that relied heavily on Goedert and Miles Sanders:

For real though, JJAW made two nice grabs in the first half.

Here’s a still frame of the tough catch over the middle on the opening drive:

Look at an Eagles’ receiver going up and attacking the ball and “high pointing” the pigskin. Haven’t seen a whole lot of that this year. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

And here’s Greg Ward planting, turning, and BURSTING for eight YAC yards on a five-yard out:

He’s a skilled guy, Ward. Been fun to watch him play the last couple of weeks.

Credit where it’s due, these guys were thrown into a high stakes situation and they’re doing an admirable job.

3. Eliminating the run game

Jim Schwartz, Kellen Moore, and Jason Garrett did a fantastic job in limiting Zeke Elliott to 47 yards on just 13 carries. He caught 7 passes for 37 yards, so that’s 20 touches, but it’s still a relatively small number for him. Only twice this season has he ran the ball fewer than 13 times.

There was even a point in this game, right before halftime actually, where Elliott had -1 rushing yards, which was a telling stat.

Consider, for a moment, the five other games Elliott has played against the Eagles in his career:

• October 20th, 2019: 22 carries for 111 yards and a touchdown, six receptions for 36 yards
• December 9th, 2018: 28 carries for 113 yards, 12 receptions for 79 yards
• November 11th, 2018: 19 carries for 151 yards and a touchdown, six receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown
• December 31st, 2017: 27 carries for 103 yards, three receptions for 38 yards
• October 30th, 2016: 22 carries for 96 yards, four receptions for 52 yards

This was the worst game he’s had against the Eagles. He was not a big factor at all.

4. Stringing momentum together

One of things we’ve talked about a lot this season is the inability for the offense and defense to link momentum together, and you saw that on display last week when the Redskins were able to score multiple times after Eagle touchdowns.

This time around, both units did a much better job of feeding off each other, which manifested itself in the following defensive possessions following each Eagles score:

• drive 1, field goal: defense forces three and out (3-0 Birds)
• drive 2, touchdown: defense forces three and out (10-0 Birds)
• drive 8, touchdown: defense again forced three and out (17-6 Birds)

Following each offensive score, the defense held, which was monstrous. And they did a really nice job after the missed Jake Elliott field goals as well, allowing Dallas field goals on both of those, a pair of Cowboy drives that amounted to only 13 plays for 67 yards and six total points.

That was the story for me, regarding the defense. They were able to carry momentum and then stifle it when necessary. And on the final drive, before the Jones PBU, I felt like the two minute warning really helped give them a breather, because they came out on the next possession and were able to get to Prescott for a sack, resulting in 3rd and 8 and 4th and 8 on the final two plays.

5. 12 personnel

I thought this was gonna be the Eagles’ biggest strength in 2019, going with two tight ends in the red zone.

We saw it on the first touchdown pass, and I really liked the design, which saw pre-snap motion and a fake quick hit/tunnel screen, then Wentz came back to his right, where both tight ends ran their routes from an unbalanced formation. Here’s the sequence:

Eagles outgaining Cowboys 125-14 yards after first 2 drives

Carson Wentz is 9-11, 107 yards

🎥 @Eagles
pic.twitter.com/Jj22P9apFE

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) December 22, 2019

I thought Dallas actually did a nice job of defending this, but better job by Wentz to place that ball high where only his guy can get it.

Said Carson:

“That was the read to look front side quick and come back to Dallas. Dallas played big and when you’ve got a body like he does that can jump out of the building the way he can, I just had to put it up in a tall spot for him to go get it over those guys and he made a great play.”

Here’s the still frame where Ward tries to sell the fake  and then Wentz turns to his right and tries to get the linebackers in recovery mode:

Sean Lee is assigned to Sanders coming out of the backfield there, so they’re trying to suck him in a little bit to make room for Goedert. Good defense, better pass.

But yeah, 12 personnel, great to see it in the red zone.

6. Mistakes and breaks

The Dallas list is longer than the Philly list:

Mistakes:

• Jason Peters with yet another false start
• Peters block in the back on big screen play gain (honestly looked like the defender just turned his body, which was lame)
• Elliott missed field goal from 53
• Elliott missed field goal from 55

Jake Elliott is 6/10 on field goals since signing his new contract. Go figure.

Breaks:

• Dak Prescott being totally inaccurate on the day (he said his shoulder was fine, but I don’t believe him)
• a weird lack of Dallas blitzing through three quarters
• Jason Witten 2nd down drop
• questionable late hit call on Jeff Heath, who I guess led with his helmet, which is why the flag was thrown
• Amari Cooper 3rd and 4 drop
• Tony Pollard third down fumble
• Dak missing a wide open Amari Cooper on third down
• Randall Cobb big drop
• Dak missing Tavon Austin in the fourth quarter
• Michael Gallup 4th quarter drop

The Cowboys really just did not look like they had the juice for this game. Can’t imagine Jason Garrett survives the season. Even if the Eagles stumble next week I can’t see Dallas doing anything in the playoffs.

As for the officiating, the kick catch interference no-call seemed questionable. 99 times out of 100 that’s a flag that will stand, and it would have resulted in better field position. And thank God they got the Pollard fumble call correct. Not sure this fan base could survive another “no clear recovery” situation. I would have immediately logged off of Twitter, then had a heart attack.

7. Ancillary wins and losses

They played a very clean game on both sides of the ball:

• won time of possession 36:12 to 23:48
• +1 turnover margin
• 6-14 on third down (43%)
• 0-1 on fourth down
• allowed Dallas to go 3-14 on third down (21%)
• lost 6 yards on one sacks
• 2-3 success rate in the red zone
• 4 penalties for 30 yards
• 23 first downs, 16 for Cowboys
• ran 71 total plays, Cowboys 62

Dallas came into this game converting 48% of their third downs, which was #1 in the NFL. Guess who was number two? Your Philadelphia Eagles, at 47%. The Birds finished just below that mark while Dallas was way down, converting just three third downs on the entire evening. They really were flat offensively. They stunk it up out there.

8. Doug’s best call?

Again, thought it was a good idea to start Wentz under center and try to establish him that way. I do feel like that helps him get into an early rhythm.

I also like the Greg Ward quarterback snap, which seemed inevitable, like we were gonna see something like that some point, considering his Houston background. I think next week, or in the playoffs, you put the throwing wrinkle into that wildcat formation and let him chuck it instead of running.

Honestly, I also thought the zone reads worked really well; they just gave me horrible flashbacks to 2017 in Los Angeles, when Wentz injured his knee. But when the stakes are high and the playoffs are on the line, sometimes you gotta throw caution to the wind and let your quarterback just go for it. Carson looked good running the ball by design and also via scramble on Sunday night.

9. Doug’s worst call?

I initially wondered why Doug didn’t sneak Wentz on 3rd and 1 during the third drive. Troy Aikman made the point, however, that Pederson might have done that on fourth down if not for the loss of yardage. Either way, seemed like a non-Doug type of move to run it instead of sneak it there, especially since Wentz used his feet previously on that drive and looked good doing it.

Case in point, they did what I thought they’d do on the very next drive, which is try to pass on 3rd and 1, then go for it on 4th anyway, but for some reason they threw AGAIN, and the pass fell incomplete. Not sure what Doug was thinking there, and those couple of drives that ended with wonky 3rd and 4th down decisions made this game closer than it had to be.

Here’s the 3rd and 4th down on that fourth drive, didn’t like these calls:

Another play I didn’t like was the Boston Scott bubble screen, which admittedly was not a great Wentz throw. But again, Doug wants that play to come off for some reason, like shoving the square peg into the round hole. They’ve done a nice job in recent weeks throwing screen and swing passes and getting lateral motion in other ways, so I think we just need to rip out the portion of the playbook where the bubble screen is located.

Finally, the decision to kick the 55 yard field goal… I dunno. You had Dallas on their heels. Go for it on 4th or even just pooch punt there and pin ’em back, which admittedly is really not part of the Eagles’ DNA, but still. Help yourself.

10. The broadcast and a fan ejection

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman with Erin Andrews on the sideline.

Gotta say, that ‘Dallas sucks’ chant came over loud and clear on television, so nice job by everybody who was down at the game. You sounded fantastic on the tube, really noticeable throughout.

I also appreciated Buck explaining that “the officials were not ready to officiate” on the punt that had to be reset and replayed. Another thing that was appreciated was the “aerial coverage” graphic shown over the blimp shot, just in case we were unaware that we were looking down at Lincoln Financial Field from the sky.

One thing I didn’t need to see was Chris Christie’s slovenly, Cowboy-loving ass inside Jerry Jones’ luxury box. We need to get Anthony Gargano out here and have The Cuz put Christie in the bagster, where he belongs.

And the funniest part of the night actually did not happen during the FOX broadcast but during NBC Sports Philadelphia’s airing of the post game press conference, when a drunk fan got booted from the media room when he tried to ask Doug about Eli Manning next weekend:

Some dude was just booted from Doug Pederson's post game press conference: pic.twitter.com/0jhReH30Ob

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) December 23, 2019

Pederson: “Who is this? Is he credentialed?”

Howard Eskin: “Can I finish the question here?”

Pederson: “Timeout.”

Great stuff!