The 700 Level - Home of the Ginger Jesus.

[Valheru]

Another tidy win.

When things weren't going to plan in the first after a pick 6 and going 14-0 down, the team adapted and returned to the run game of last season which opened up the passing game in the 2nd half. From there we were absolutely dominant on both sides of the ball for the final 3 quarters to the tune of 29-7.

 

[nick87]

Yeah it was good to see the eagles go down 14-0 and play in such conditions just to see how they responded.
And the response was exactly as you'd want. They adjusted to the conditions, to the Jags and what they were doing and then steadily climbed back into the game, took a commanding lead and held it

Need to handle business with the cardinals, and then a big game against Dallas... should be a chance to go 6-0 and establish ourselves as the clear club house leader in the NFC E and even the NFC

 

[Valheru]

The team just keeps trucking along.

That was a pretty dominant display against a good side outside of the 3rd quarter. When Lane went off, the Dallas D started to make some inroads and their offence played of the back of it but our defence and offence iced the game in the 4th when needed.

Without sounding cocky, the 1st half was exactly what I expected TBH. The narrative coming in was that we hadn't faced a D that good yet which is true. What was failed to be mentioned by the experts is that our own D is damn good playing against a back up, DAL hadn't met an OL as good as ours yet and unlike their other opponents so far this year, we can run the ball.

I'm not sure the bye comes at the greatest time for us having to play 11 games straight after it but hopefully they maximise the break. Our next 3 games look very winnable as well with PIT, @HOU and WAS coming up. We will have to keep chugging out the wins too because with the schedule our division has it will take a minimum 12 (probably 13) wins to win the division. I wouldn't be stunned to drop one of those for no other reason than this is the NFL and winning 9 straight is damn hard to do.

 

[nick87]

I like the bye coming now
The eagles are low key a little banged up

All 5 of the starting offensive line have been on injury reports/missed games/snaps/training
Darius Slay has been struggling with injury, CJGJ got banged up in this game

The wins have papered over a few cracks in the team performances too. The Eagles are pretty predictable on defence and some of their offence isnt always pretty. I think it's a good time to look critically at this opening 6 weeks, look at what has been working, what has been not and try and find the counters to the counters.

Getting Jordan Davis involved in the 4 man fronts instead of only the 5 man bear fronts is critically essential. It's a massive tell and Dallas clued in on that in the second half, which helped them move the football on a couple of drives to make that a football game.

The eagles came out of last years bye with arguably the biggest self evaulation in the league and completely changed who and what they were. So this staff has skins on the wall in terms of being able to identify things that need to change and getting it fixed.
So lets get healthy in the secondary and along the OL, lets enjoy a week off, do some self scouting. Maybe sniff around the trade market and see if we cant get a RB who can pass protect to help on early downs... and then get back into it and rattle off a 13-14 win season

I do think the eagles will drop a game soon, as you said, its just really hard to win week to week in the NFL. Something silly is going to happen and they'll drop a game. PIT and @IND are the two that loom for me as potential hiccups.
I also think a hiccup won't be a bad thing for the eagles. It'll be a timely reminder of the work needing to be done and that any given week they can get it.

 

[Haffa]

I like the bye coming now

Me too. I was able to forget the NFL existed whilst sitting "in the corner"

 

[nick87]

Robert Quinn coming to the Eagles and i have a feeling Howie isnt done yet
I think we'll also have a new RB on deck before the trade deadline passes... firmly on Kareem Hunt watch

 

[Haffa]

Kick returner would be nice. Special teams has been the one average department and at some point it’s going to cost us.

 

[Valheru]

The division is pretty wild at the moment


I winder what the history is of 6-2 teams not leading their division let alone two of them within the same division?

 

[nick87]

Really thought we'd come out of this deadline with Kareem Hunt
Bit disappointed but i should have known Howie wasnt going to spend real resources on a rental RB.

Hopefully Quinn can give the pass rush a big jolt and that can propel the team to the next level. Going to need a consistent and relentless pass rush to get through to the SB and to win one against the Bills or Chiefs

 

[Valheru]

Well that was one of those "just get the W and get out of town" games.

After two very impressive performances the fortnight prior, this seemed a bit of a trap game. They did enough to get the W though.

That is now our best start in franchise history which is an amazing performance.

With Dallas losing we are now 3 games clear with 3 to go. Anyone see a reason we should not rest at least some of our starters next week to give Dallas nothing before a potential playoff meeting? It seems very unlikely they run the table and we lose our last 2 which is what would be required for us to not win the division. If the 1 seed is the issue, we are 2 games up on Vikings and own the tiebreaker so again, to not finish 1 they would have to run the table and us not win again.

For me the regular season job is done now and all focus should be on getting to the playoffs in the best possible shape.

 

[nick87]

Think the cold conditions played a major part in that game for Hurts and the Eagles
All the talk out of the locker room was about how cold it was there. Definitely happy to just bank that W and get out of town

I'd love to go and just give it to Dallas but this will be a kitchen sink game for them and we'd dont really need it, so i think they'll win... The eagles just have to handle their business against the Saints and giants or it wont matter


Ideally we win against Dallas. Assuming they don't, then just go and stack that W against the saints, lower that first round pick and then you can rest starters or do whatever to get rested and healthy against the Giants

 

[Valheru]

Looks like Hurts has a minor shoulder sprain anyways so surely he won't play this week.

I like it, either the cowboys win and we show them nothing from the playbook for the playoffs or we beat them with the run game and minshew and let the hilarity begin.

 

[nick87]

Looks like Hurts has a minor shoulder sprain anyways so surely he won't play this week.

I like it, either the cowboys win and we show them nothing from the playbook for the playoffs or we beat them with the run game and minshew and let the hilarity begin.

Yeah I thought they’d punt this week anyways
Good chance we’ll see Dallas in the play offs, I’d rather not show them anything with hurts

Focus on saints and giants games. Get the 1 seed, get healthy and see where that takes us

 

[Valheru]

Yeah I thought they’d punt this week anyways
Good chance we’ll see Dallas in the play offs, I’d rather not show them anything with hurts

Focus on saints and giants games. Get the 1 seed, get healthy and see where that takes us

I'm not so sure we will see them actually.

The obvious route is via the division round but that would mean both 9ers and Vikings winning in the WC round and I just don't trust the Vikings at all. I have a hard time believing the cowboys can beat the 9ers defence on the road and force a conference championship against us.

I also don't think it is impossible that Tom Brady does Tom Brady things and beats them in the wild card round.

 

[nick87]

Yeah look, i've toyed with some fun ideas of:

7. Lions @ 2. Vikings
6. Seahawks @ 3. Niners
5. Cowboys @ 4. Bucs

in which case i think the Lions WOULD win, and go to Philly and then setting up the Cowboys road being through Brady and then the Niners. And i dont think they come out of that.

But it could very easily be

7. Lions @ 2. Niners
6. Seahawks @ 3. Vikings
5. Cowboys @ 4. Bucs

In which case if Brady doesnt get it done, dem Boys are coming to town

 

[nick87]

Fly Eagles, Fly
It wasnt pretty but they managed to get out of that game without any injuries and got the #1 seed

I cant see any upsets in the wildcard weekend so i think it's highly likely the Cowboys are coming into the Linc for Divisional Weekend, and the Vikings-Niners will square off on the other side

 

[Haffa]

That was a very vanilla offence so I'm not reading too much into the performance.

The week off is going to be the biggest blessing.

 

[Valheru]

Fly Eagles, Fly
It wasnt pretty but they managed to get out of that game without any injuries and got the #1 seed

I cant see any upsets in the wildcard weekend so i think it's highly likely the Cowboys are coming into the Linc for Divisional Weekend, and the Vikings-Niners will square off on the other side

Yep it was just one of those get the job done games. Hurts clearly wasn't 100% but they protected him and got out of there with the W

On wild card week.. You can't see the giants beating the Vikings? I absolutely can. They went to OT not long ago in Minnesota. The vikings are a disaster waiting to happen.

I also see a TB ambush of Dallas as a real possibility.

 

[Haffa]

I also see a TB ambush of Dallas as a real possibility.

Oh please let this happen!

 

[Valheru]

Oh please let this happen!

Dallas is 0-7 all time against Tom Brady