Eagles

This Team is Going to the Playoffs – Ten Takeaways from Eagles 24, Redskins 0

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 31st, 2018 · 9:17 AM EST

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Well slap my ass and call me Sally!

The Eagles are going to the playoffs.

Not sure about you, but I’m gobsmacked by this turn of events. Floored, even.

I’m floored because this is the same team that fell to 6-7 just three weeks ago after losing in Dallas. They were left for dead. Done. Kaput. The buzzards were circling and we were in the process of sticking the fork in them.

Then Nick Foles came in to pull out that fork. He breathed life into a lifeless squad, like Jesus leaving the tomb after that big rock had been rolled out of the way. He started releasing the ball early and getting Alshon Jeffery involved. The banged-up defense began “flying around” and Doug Pederson miraculously started calling better plays. Everything seemed to click once the Eagles found themselves in the familiar position of feeling disrespected and counted out. They were once again the underdogs, which is obviously the only effective motivator for this team, even in a title defense season.

It’s really been a bizarre ride, hasn’t it? This doesn’t look anything like the team that lost in abhorrent fashion to the Panthers, Vikings, Cowboys, Cowboys, and Titans. They look like the grizzled and savvy team that understands how to get the job done, and here they are with 9 wins and 7 losses, now heading to Chicago to play a Bears squad that has playoff experience ranging anywhere from “little” to “none at all.”

As Jim Fassel once said, “This team is going to the playoffs.” 

Giddy up!

1) Time of possession

The Eagles controlled the clock for a little more than 43 minutes in this game and will finish as the NFL’s second-best time of possession team with a 32:54 average number through 16 games. Baltimore finished first and Chicago finished third on the strength of a +12 turnover margin. Should be a good battle in this department this weekend.

In two games this season, the Eagles won the time of possession battle against the Redskins by a margin of 82 to 38 minutes, and that’s what happens when you play against Mark Sanchez, Colt Mccoy, and Josh Johnson. The only games in which the Eagles really struggled in this department were against Dallas, when they had issues containing Zeke Elliott, and obviously in the Saints game, when they just got run off the field entirely.

In addition to finishing as a top-half third down team this season, and one of the best 4th down squads in football (which kept the Eagles offense on the field), another key reason why they crushed teams in TOP this season was because of:

2) Run defense

The thing that really made the Birds what they were in 2017 was the defense’s ability to shut down the run and force teams to become one-dimensional.

Last night Adrian Peterson ran the ball four times for zero yards. Chris Thompson carried it twice for 10 yards and Samaje Perrine ran the ball three times for seven yards. Throw in four yards from Josh Johnson and Washington was only able to muster 21 yards on 12 carries, good for a whopping 1.8 average.

In the Houston game, second stringer Alfred Blue ran it four times for 14 yards and D’Onta Foreman somehow carried the ball seven times for -1 yard. Houston finished with 19 carries for 62 yards on the strength of Deshaun Watson’s eight runs for 49 yards and two scores, but the running backs did less than diddly poo.

Even in the Rams game, Todd Gurley only went 48 yards on 12 carries for a pair of touchdowns as the Eagles built a lead and forced the Rams to throw the ball instead. LA finished with 18 carries for 82 yards total.

That’s three wins and three great performances against the run. It’s not a coincidence. You limit the run, force teams to throw, get your defense off the field, and keep them rested. It’s the same formula that carried the Birds to the #1 seed in the NFC en route to the Super Bowl, and this year they finished 7th in run defense by allowing just 96.9 ground yards per game:

3) Pressure up the middle

The thing that really surprises me about the Eagles’ turnaround is how the defense improved over the last three weeks. Say what you will about Foles, but the Birds were a top-five time of possession team with Carson Wentz on the field, yet the defense looked nothing like it does now.

In addition to shutting down the run, the defensive line is really generating a ton of pressure out of their base four man rush. Sunday night, specifically, they really did a nice job of flushing Josh Johnson from the pocket by bringing pressure up the middle. 

Johnson really could not climb the pocket and instead had to run for his life horizontally, which resulted in some yardage losses and a couple of noodle-arm deep efforts, which are really tough for a quarterback to put in the right spot when you’re throwing on the run.

Here’s an example:

The pocket disappears so quickly there that Johnson has no choice but to run for his life. This is the same scenario that resulted in the Rasul Douglas interception on the first play of the game.

I’m not sure what else you can say about Fletcher Cox and Michael Bennett, who have just been monstrous over the past few weeks. 10.5 sacks is a career high for Cox and Bennett’s nine sacks are the most he’s had since the 2015 Seattle season.

4) Another one for the record books

Nick Foles tied an NFL record when he completed 25 straight passes in this game.

On the 26th effort, he threw behind Nelson Agholor on the goal line and the receiver just couldn’t haul it in with one hand. Bummer, because he had him wide open. The Eagles went to the same exact play on the very next snap and scored a touchdown on it, so go figure.

The only other quarterbacks to complete 25 passes in a row are Ryan Tannehill (three years ago) and Philip Rivers (November). Per Eagles, PR, Rivers accomplished the feat in a single game while Tannehill hit the mark over the course of two games.

The Eagles’ previous record was 24 in a row from Donovan McNabb, which required two games. Donovan’s single-game record was 18 in a row, achieved in 2007 against the Detroit Lions.

One of the little wrinkles regarding this stat is that the jet sweep the Eagles ran with Agholor last night actually counts as a completed pass, even though it’s just an underhanded flip to an in-motion receiver. If you go back and watch some college games, some quarterback stats can become bloated when a receiver takes these kinds of plays for 15 or 20 yards. Geno Smith and Tavon Austin used to connect on this play on almost every game, and they’d get credit for the completion and passing yards, even though the “air distance” of the pass was something like 18 inches.

Here’s the one that Nick and “Nelly” ran last night, which Washington sniffed out:

Completed pass. Counts just the same as a 50-yard bomb down the field.

5) Next man up

This isn’t a specific takeaway from this game, but I thought it would make sense to take a step back and write down all of the dudes who are currently out of commission, or were out of commission at some point this season:

1. Rodney McLeod – injured reserve
2. Jay Ajayi – injured reserve
3. Derek Barnett – injured reserve
4. Ronald Darby – injured reserve
5. Josh Perkins – injured reserve
6. Mack Hollins – injured reserve
7. Paul Worrilow – injured reserve
8. Chris Maragos – injured reserve
9. Jordan Mailata – injured reserve
10. Josh Sweat – injured reserve
11. Corey Clement – injured reserve
12. Jalen Mills – injured reserve
13. Carson Wentz – ACL recovery/back issue
14. Mike Wallace – just came off IR
15. Richard Rodgers – came off IR
16. Sidney Jones – out with hamstring injury
17. Isaac Seumalo – out with pectoral injury
18. Tim Jernigan – whatever he currently has
19. Jordan Hicks – calf issue
20. Jason Peters – in and out of lineup all year long
21. Darren Sproles – hamstring kept him out for entire middle part of year

That’s 21 guys off the top of my head. There were other injuries to non-starters and special teams players as well. Alshon Jeffery didn’t start the season healthy. Lane Johnson had the ankle thing. Bennett is dealing with a foot injury, though you wouldn’t be able to tell. It’s really insane how much they’ve dealt with this year to scrape back to a 9-7 record.

6) Ref, you suck

Actually, they didn’t suck yesterday, I just thought this would be a clever title for entry number six.

Four things jumped out to me in this game:

1. The Alshon Jeffery sideline catch: if you watch it again, the ball slides a bit when he hits the ground, but I think under the new catch rules it would have stood after review. The Eagles did a nice job of getting up to the line and running a play before Washington could challenge.
2. I’m not sure why the booth review was necessary on the Josh Johnson non-fumble. Clearly his arm was making a noticeable forward motion and the ball ended up going 10+ yards down the field.
3. There was a play early in the third quarter when Zach Ertz was whistled down on a catch near the first down marker, where I felt like his feet were still moving. In a close game, maybe that gets some complaints.
4. The Nelson Agholor touchdown catch at the end of the third: two feet down and a “football move” (reaching over the goal line) rendered what otherwise would be an incomplete pass as a touchdown instead.

Here’s the Ertz catch, which actually was a really nice design, complete with pre-snap motion and a drag back to his original starting position with a natural screen on the middle linebacker:

Early whistle.

Anyway, pretty clean stuff overall. The Eagles had two false starts, a neutral zone infraction, defensive offsides, and a delay of game, but no bogus pass interference or helmet contact or unnecessary roughness.

Nada.

7) Winning these battles

Utter domination here:

• won time of possession, 43 to 17 minutes
• 0 turnover margin (each team with an interception)
• 8-14 on third down (57.1%)
• 1-1 on fourth down
• Redskins went 0-9 on third down (0%)
• lost 12 yards on 3 sacks
• 2-3 success rate in red zone
• 5 penalties for 25 yards

That’s as good as it gets for the Eagles, who limited the Redskins to eight first downs and ran 27 more plays. Washington finished with 89 total yards on the entire evening, which is absurdly bad.

8) Doug’s best call?

You want a QB sneak on 4th and 1?

Yeah let’s do it.

Good choice by Doug to just make the most obvious play call right there. I also loved the timing of the Andy Reid shovel pass, which almost resulted in a touchdown.

He also showed a nice mix with his running looks – some under center, some shotgun looks, a 12/11/7 split for Wendell Smallwood, Josh Adams, and Darren Sproles.

Another good Doug game. He’ll have his work cut out for him next week against the NFL’s best defense.

9) Doug’s worst call?

I can’t think of one.

Probably the only thing that should bother anybody about that game is the Washington fake punt, but otherwise, that’s about as complete of a performance as one can put together.

10) Mediocrity in broadcasting

We got Chris Myers, Daryl Johnston, and Laura Okmin, who I think are fine as a team.

My problems with the broadcast were two-fold:

1. We didn’t get NEARLY enough Bears/Vikings cutaways or even single-clip video footage in this game. Myers and Johnson kept talking about the playoff scenario and how the other game affected the Eagles, but it felt the producer and director did a poor job of building up excitement by giving us nothing but scraps from Minneapolis.
2. Myers and Johnston didn’t even seem super excited to be calling a week 17 game with playoff implications. It sounded like they were calling Buffalo/Miami instead. Most broadcast teams get shitty and pointless week 17 games, so you’d think they would have been thrilled to get this game, even if the Eagles are beating down a lame duck Redskins team.

I think point #2 kind of reflects my recurring complaint about the broadcasts we watched this year. It felt like a lot of the guys in the booth were just sort of going through the motions. I know it’s just a job for them, and work is a grind, but you have to at least make it seem exciting or feign people into believing that you actually give a shit. That comes with the territory.

There was also this:

They didn’t know anything about the ski masks either. Don’t they have producers?

— John Carr (@UtleyYATM) December 31, 2018

My only other broadcast gripe is that the reversal on the Agholor touchdown came during a commercial break. You have to be live for those kinds of important in-game moments.

Anyway, this team is going to the playoffs: