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Quarterback Wasn’t Good Enough – 34 Immediate Observations from Chargers 22, Eagles 19 (OT)
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Sometimes you have to take things at face value, and the quarterback wasn’t good enough on Monday night.
Four interceptions for Jalen Hurts and a credited lost fumble as well when he somehow turned the ball over twice on one play. He completed 21 of 40 passes for 240 yards and no touchdowns while running four times for eight yards.
The offensive line wasn’t great, the receivers left some plays out there, and Jake Elliott missed a field goal, but if the Super Bowl MVP doesn’t start playing better football then the Eagles aren’t going anywhere in the postseason, assuming they make it. They’re blessed with the Raiders and Commanders (2x) on the remaining schedule, which at this point is the only thing creating a path to the NFC East title and a playoff berth.
Now, to the observations.
1) Moving the Chargers to LA never made any sense. They should go back to San Diego. That crowd was 50% Eagles fans.
2) Nick Sirianni did not shave his head. Disappointing! The more he looks like Eminem, the better the Eagles play.
3) Saquon Barkley in orbit motion on the first play? That one ended up breaking down but they almost got A.J. Brown on an improvised deep shot. It’s a pass he catches more often than not, yeah? Couldn’t get the arms extended.
The first drive also featured a short sprint to Jalen Hurts’ left and a four-wide double stack / inside zone, but Hurts took a 3rd-down sack and they ended up punting after going seven yards on six plays. We saw some different wrinkles in formation, but it was largely the same crappy routes run by the receivers and the offensive line couldn’t block anything in the run game, so lipstick on a pig.
4) Kimani Vidal for 60 yards on 3rd down is pretty gross. The Eagles’ defense has given up 78 explosive plays this season, which is tied for 13th in the NFL. Last year they gave up 80 all year long, which was 32nd.
5) It was good to seen Hurts hit Dallas Goedert a could of times on third down early in the game. One was an anticipation throw against zone, the other was a simple 1v1 win against man coverage with a single-high safety.
6) That 3rd and 9 screen pass was ugly. They barely got it off before the play clock hit zero and it looked like it was hot against LA pressure. Regardless, A.J. Brown got nothing on his block and that play probably isn’t getting you more than 4-6 yards even if it is successful.
7) Hurts has been giving himself up pretty quickly on some of these scrambles and QB runs. You don’t want him taking unnecessary contact, but he’s sitting down on his butt instead of sliding or diving and you grit your teeth because it only takes one late hit or cheap hit to send him to the blue medical tent.
8) Did you see any of the Monsters Inc. broadcast? Hilarious. We had Mike Wazowski on the Birds. “Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!” –
9) Pretty funny that Ladd McConkey was determined to be “in the area” on the Justin Herbert pass that was thrown right into the ground while he was being sacked. If that’s not intentional grounding, then nothing is.
10) Eagles’ third drive: those back-to-back completions to Goedert and Brown were really smooth. It was 21 personnel on the first one (two tailbacks, one TE, two WR) and some play action before the tight end released underneath for 16 yards after a broken tackle. The second one was play action from under center with Cam Latu coming in as fake lead blocker for Saquon. Good stuff there…
11) …followed by a disaster. The interception was a horrendous pass to begin with, then Hurts had a chance to salvage a field goal by falling down with the ball and instead he fumbled it. Not sure I’ve ever seen a player charged with two turnovers on one play. Will Shipley also logged a force fumble in the box score. So technically three turnovers in one play, two on the Eagles, one on the Chargers.
12) Not sure why they’re in empty set on 3rd and 2 anyway. Just run it? Do we not believe in the tush push now?
13) WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? FIVE TURNOVERS IN 11 PLAYS?
14) Tell ya what, as bad as the 2nd Hurts interception was, that Nakobe Dean play was awesome. Holy cow. He just bulldogs running backs in pass protection. What an awesome play, especially from the back angle they showed on replay:
He almost had him again for a huge loss in the fourth quarter and just couldn’t bring Herbert down.
15) Eagles move the ball all the way down to the Chargers’ two, then:
- 0-yard run
- Jordan Mailata holding wipes out a touchdown
- incomplete
- incomplete (fumble overturned)
- field goal
Terrible, but we’ve seen it all season long. They put together a nice drive and then it falls apart in 2 seconds with a combination of penalties and negative or no-gain plays.
16) But wait, there’s more! Chargers cough it up again and Jake Elliott misses a 48-yard field goal inside a dome. They turned two LA turnovers on two consecutive possessions into a whopping three points. Elliott has now missed a field goal or XP in three straight games.
17) FYI –
18) Marcus Epps and Adoree’ Jackson made some plays. Can’t say anything bad about how those guys played in the secondary.
19) 4th and 2 penalty on a field goal really is inexcusable. Moro Ojomo should buy everyone on the defense (besides himself) a steak for holding on the ensuing set of downs.
20) We know Cam Jurgens is playing injured, but there’s at least one snap every game when he gets nothing on a run block and the Eagles lose 3 or 4 yards. Drive killer type of stuff. It doesn’t help that they keep running the play clock down to the final second, which allows the D linemen to tee off.
21) The defense rules. No Jalen Carter and you’ve got guys like Byron Young stepping up. They bring it every week. Can’t say enough about Vic Fangio’s unit, which is the only thing keeping this season from turning into 2023.
22) SAQUON BARKLEY HOUSE CALL LET’S FUCKING GO.
Seriously, great play call. Little wrinkle on the tush push, got up to the line of scrimmage quickly and some great blocks from Darius Cooper, Dallas Goedert, and A.J. Brown.
23) Joe Buck was so disappointed that Mailata wasn’t called for holding on the TD. Dunno how much was really there. If anything, a no-call there made up for the holding call that wiped out the first Eagles TD.
24) The third interception for sure is on A.J. Brown. Just a little high, but no doubt he heard the footsteps and rushed it. Normally he snags that out of the air and then takes the hit no problem.
25) Covey played his butt off. Lost the fumble on the one return and got back on it, but otherwise three punt returns for 54 yards and four kick returns for 103 yards.
26) A.J. made up for the drop with the broken tackle and 15-yard gain. That was a heart-in-your-throat type of sequence there. Then the 19-yard pickup two plays later. Big boy football in the big moments. Almost caught the dagger too, but there was just enough from the DB to pull his arm down and keep him from squeezing that ball.
27) 3rd and 11 on the last drive – DeVonta Smith is the hot receiver against the blitz but he just dropped it before he could do anything 1v1 in the open field. Really quiet game from him before the huge 3rd and 16 catch later on.
28) Joe Buck had 0 juice for the game. Was it an instant classic? No. But if you didn’t know otherwise you’d think he had a 7 a.m. tee time on Tuesday morning.
29) COOOOOOOOOOOOOOP! We talk about Quinyonomo Bay, but he had Ladd McConkey in Coopatraz, or something like that. Let’s think of a “Revis Island” for DeJean. McConkey had one catch for 12 yards on three targets.
30) Honestly thought DeJean should have crushed Herbert near the end there. It would have been totally legal since he had the sideline and was in front of him.
31) The Herbert keeper and run was a great call to get into field goal range in the 4th. Smart stuff to move that kick way up. They did it again to start OT and it went for 10+.
32) No issue with defending first in overtime. As bad as the offense had been for most of the game, put your best unit out there first and see what happens. You just wonder if they needed a breather after being on the field for the final possession of regulation, but after a few rough plays early, they held for a 54-yard field goal attempt. Hard to ask for much more than that.
33) 4th and 4 in overtime… that’s a tough decision man. If you kick a super-long field goal there, you still need to get a defensive stop just to play for a tie, and a tie doesn’t really do you much in the standings anyway. They were bailed out like no one has been bailed out before with that neutral zone infraction. Absolutely insane stuff.
34) Not gonna win many games when you throw four interceptions, or 3 if you want to put the one on A.J. instead. Regardless, story of the game is that the QB wasn’t good enough. You got out there and score one touchdown? NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
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