The 700 Level - Home of the Ginger Jesus.

[nick87]

Big SB rematch tomorrow
Not expecting an Eagles win, if for no other reason than Andy Reid being a staggering 20-3 record coming off the bye as a HC
Dude gets his bag off a bye. It's a big test for the eagles, if they are to win the formula remains the same as it was in the SB... they've got to run the ball effectively, which they werent really able to do in the SB... they'll need to be clean on turn overs, which i think they can but we've been very unlucky at times on that front this year, and Jalen's also had some mistakes you dont expect from him... and we need to get a few key stops... big test for Sean Desai, Gannon had his shot and couldnt get it done. Boring, unimaginative defence. Desai is at least going to go down swinging and i like that.

Offensively, i actually think the Eagles are better this year. Hurts has again improved as a passer. The run game doesnt LOOK as effective as it was last year but i think thats a combination of Hurts being banged up most the year with the knee and a harder strength of schedule, getting Cam Jurgens back this week will help. Hurts is playing without the brace. Offensively i think we're ok.
Offensively the chiefs are clearly worse. Their young WRs arent making a lot of plays and Kelce has showed SOME signs of slowing down. Luckily for them our LBS still stink and cant cover their own shadow, so he should be good this week

Defensively the eagles i think again are better up front and in the booth, but i do think they are worst at LB and S position after losing White, Edwards, CJGJ and Epps. Should get Roby back which will help at slot corner and Byard has been here a month now, so time for him to start showing up.
The Chiefs are SIGNIFICANTLY better defensively. The front is good, but the back 7 are really good. They got cooooked in the SB by AJ and Smitty (and Dallas but he's out) in man coverage, i think they'll like their chances of holding up better this time around.

Chiefs win 30-27 on another late FG, expect it to be close... hoping the field is in good condition and the DL can get after it a bit more than the SB and can make a play late to sneak us home.

 

[Haffa]

LOL

 

[nick87]

Holy shit i cant believe we got out of that game with a W
Shouts to MVS, for whom without we could not have gotten the W

Offence looked like shit most of the game but got a couple of key drives, defence give and took at times but as per usual (except against Sam Howell) when it needed to make a play to close the game out, Sweat got the forced grounding call.

9-1... Bills up next followed by Niners

2-0 and the Dallas game doesnt even really matter
1-1 and it kind of does but dynasty still in our own hands even with an L to dallas
0-2 and we'll need to sweep Dallas to get back on track

One game at a time... lets get a W against the Bills

 

[Valheru]

What a win!

Very much like the SB where the better team lost IMO. First quarter we went tit for tat with them and then Mahomes and their Defence took over in the 2nd half. Man our tackling needs some work as we let that punt returner dance around all over the place and then in the lead up to the 2nd Chiefs TD Mahomes should have been tackled on the sideline at the line of scrimmage for a 2nd and 10 at the 25 but instead is allowed to run down the sideline for a first down.

When we went 3 and out to start the 2nd half I thought the game was gone but they hung in there on defence and finally got the ground game going towards the end of the 3rd quarter leading to our 2nd TD. The T Kelce fumble was a huge game turner and from there I just felt we would find a a way. That was a dime by Hurts to find Smith leading up to the game winning TD and then the tush push finished the job. Hurts may not be the greatest QB ever but he continuously delivers in the biggest moments.

It wasn't our O-line's greatest performance, not sure if the conditions played havoc but we definitely need to tighten that up going forward.

Got to give a shout out to the defence who hung in there all game. Yeah we relied on a few dropped catches, especially that one towards the end of the 4th quarter but you make your own luck and they stuck with it all game. Run defence was gashed in the first half but they seemed to fix that to an acceptable standard in the 2nd half.

The highlight of my day has to be the meltdown by Skip Bayless on twitter, the bloke was death riding us all game. I think the poor sod genuinely thought this was going to be the start of the Cowboys run to win the division lol

Ultimately the result of this is meaningless as it is a NFC/AFC match-up and the 17th game at that meaning no one else in our division plays the chiefs. It does match what Detroit did though so eliminates that as a potential tie breaker on common opponents with them.

What it does do is give us the some breathing room and the inside rail in the race for the 1 seed. we are midway through that much talked about 8 game stretch and are 4-0. if we go 2-2 or better against BUF, SF, DAL and SEA we finish with the 1 seed as we ain't losing to the NYG or ARI unless we have clinched already. This now puts SF and DAL in a situation where even one more loss in the final 7 games likely eliminates them from the 1 seed, in the case of Dallas winning out probably still sees them finish below us on tie breaker. Detroit have a little more room to move and could probably lose once and finish above us.

I am wary of a potential down week against Buffalo next after what must have been a big occasion for the team but I also think it is only a matter of time before we blow out an opponent too.

 

[Valheru]

Let's not sleep on Dallas losing one of their next 2 to WAS or SEA either.

Both are at home but Dallas has yet to be at a team .500 or above.

To reiterate the difference in schedule Dallas total opponent record so far is 39-64 and the records of the opponents they have beaten is 21-51. In comparisons our total opponent record so far is 49-54 and the record of the teams we have beaten is 45-48

I'm far from convinced by Dallas.

 

[nick87]

This is the NFL, teams lose games
I dont expect Dallas, SF or Detroit to go the rest of the year unbeaten, each will at least drop a game. Probably 2... and i expect the same for us.

2 wins in the next 4 weeks sets up at 11-3 and a final 3 weeks of NYG, ARI, @NYG
Assuming we handle our business there, that's a 14-3 season.

SF and Dallas already have 3 loses and i expect at least 1 more loss for each team.
Detroit have 2 loses and as long as they take an L somewhere in the division, we'll hold the tie breakers over them

Personally i think the Lions have 2 more loses in them and come seasons end:
#1 Eagles 14-3
#2 Detroit 13-3,
#3 Niners 12-4
#5 Dallas 12-4

#4, 6 and 7 are also rans and not contenders.

 

[Valheru]

That seems like it's heading for a PHI/DAL divisional round match up unless Dallas shit the bed against the NFC south or SEA/MIN pull off an upset like the giants did last season.

 

[nick87]

That seems like it's heading for a PHI/DAL divisional round match up unless Dallas shit the bed against the NFC south or SEA/MIN pull off an upset like the giants did last season.

Was thinking about that last night
There isnt a fraudulent Vikings team that you can bank on to lose as a #2 seed
So yeah i think the divisional round is pretty much set pending the #1 seed

#1 Eagles - it'll be PHI/DAL and SF/DET
#1 Lions - it'll be DET/DAL and SF/PHI

 

[nick87]

Right one cue
The lions drop a game
Eagles now only need to go 14-3 for the #1 seed

that means 2-2 over the next 4 and finishing 3-0

 

[Haffa]

LOL

Again haha

Jalen refuses to lose.

 

[Haffa]

Romo was insufferable. I turned the sound off

 

[nick87]

Romo was insufferable. I turned the sound off

It was soooo f**king clear he was begging for us to lose that game for his Cowboys
I was very annoyed by the call

The offence really needs to get it together, we're not going to be able to hang with SF or DAL playing first half offence like we have the last 2 weeks.
Hurts in the 4th qtr and OT was absolutely awesome. Real MVP shit to take over that game and get a win.

10-1, and if we can find a way to get it done against the niners next week i think that's the #1 seed firmly in our grasp

 

[Valheru]

Romo was insufferable. I turned the sound off

If you want some entertainment check out Skip Bayless' meltdown, he has an unhealthy obsession with us

It must suck hoping every week the eagles lose whilst the cowboys beat up on shit teams, The poor bloke has had to sit through dem boyz beating up on the giants, panthers and commanders whilst only making up half a game on us when we have played chiefs and bills and that was only due to the bye

 

[Valheru]

It was soooo f**king clear he was begging for us to lose that game for his Cowboys
I was very annoyed by the call

The offence really needs to get it together, we're not going to be able to hang with SF or DAL playing first half offence like we have the last 2 weeks.
Hurts in the 4th qtr and OT was absolutely awesome. Real MVP shit to take over that game and get a win.

10-1, and if we can find a way to get it done against the niners next week i think that's the #1 seed firmly in our grasp

If we beat 9ers we finish above them. We would have a 3 game lead on them in that case and own the tie breaker meaning they would need to win 4 more than us in the last 5 games. No way we lose 4 out of 5 to DAL, SEA, NYG (2) and ARI

If we lose it tightens up as we effectively have a 0.5 game lead over them as they would own the tie breaker and we would possibly need to run the table at that point as the only other potential loss I see for them is against the ravens.

Dallas I am still not convinced on. It might just be blind hatred but they haven't beaten a team with more than 4 wins all season. The meat of their schedule starts next week.

 

[nick87]

i am VERY interested to see how Dallas handle
SEA, PHI, @BUF, @MIA, DET

They finish with the Commies but ill wager they drop at least 1 of those games.
I dont think it will be Philly, because i think the eagles will beat the Niners and i think they'll have drop the Dallas game. But one of those teams is going to beat them imo... and maybe 2. Buffalo play like they did today and they'll beat Dallas


Buffalo and either Detroit/Miami beating them in a mid-off would be delightful

 

[Valheru]

Some comments on the game now that I have had a 2nd viewing

At the risk of stating the obvious it was a tale of two halves. The offence was poor in the first half to say the least. I don't know if Jalen got spooked by Johnson being a late withdrawal but he was bad in the first half flushing himself out of the pocket way too soon. The play calling was atrocious, in driving rain they were too pass heavy and didn't make any discernible attempt to establish the run game and open up the backfield despite our best plays in that half being runs. This disaster all culminated with the two turnovers from a pass that shouldn't have been thrown and a bad decision by Jalen to try and give the running back the ball after initially pulling it from him.

The 2nd half was MUCH better as Hurts the MVP came out to play and the play calling drastically improved. The offence made every play it needed to down the stretch. it established the run game via Swift which gave more room for Brown and Smith to make plays and they even managed to get Stoll involved to set up a touchdown. That pass to Zaccheus was a phenomenal play and then of course the game tying field goal by Elliot was as clutch as it gets. You won't see a better kick given the scenario and the conditions.

Defensively, in a game where we conceded 34 points I give them a pass mark. I thought they hung in there as best they could in the first half when the offence was producing nothing. Both the touchdowns they did concede came off the back of short fields from the turnovers. It would be nice to restrict them to a FG but you give Allen chances like that and he is going to execute. Other than that they conceded 2 other touchdowns int he 2nd half when Allen was balling and over regulation time forced 3 FG attempts (2 misses) and 4 punts. The secondary leaked yards but they are what they are at this point and if you said the defence would be responsible for 17 points in regulation against the bills I would take it every time. They came up big in OT losing the toss with that shit rule that a TD wins without the other team getting a chance. Some may say it was lucky as Allen had that receiver open but listening to Allen himself he said the route was an option and he had to guess due to the pressure.

 

[nick87]

I rewatched the game last night on the game in 40 as well
And i have to say the first half offence wasnt AS BAD as i thought it was live... it was bad, but there was a nice sustained TD drive and some really bad drives... i mean the wrs screens that never work need to get right the f**k out of the play book... but the first half offence was hampered by the turn overs 2-3 drives that were ugly.
They did move the ball a bit more than it felt

The stats look ugly defensively but man Josh Allen was coooooooooking. So many plays where we've got them dead to rights and he escapes the pocket, extends the play and either runs for it or makes a great throw on a scramble drill. Add in the 14 points off turn overs and yeah, there is pretty easy things to point to and say the defence wasnt as bad as the stats say. All i want from the Bills now is for THAT Josh Allen to show up in a few weeks when they play the Cowboys. Because i think the Bills beat the Cowboys if they play like that.

Re the option route... remember a week ago when Hurts throws an INT to Sneed... its also an option route of sorts, Brown has the option if he wins the route clean to take it up field. He won clean and took it up field, Hurts had pressure and threw the Dig route... INT. It happens man. So i dont buy that being a luck thing, that's a football thing

In both cases if there is no pressure, the QB gets the extra second to see where the route is being broken off to and it's a easy TD... but the pressure is there. That's football

 

[nick87]

Big game tomorrow. I think the eagles are coming off a hellish run and they've already done what i needed them to do what analytics called the toughest 8 week schedule in modern NFL history. 6-0 so far. I wanted 5-3 at worst and ideally 6-2 or better.

MIA, DAL, KC, BUF and now SF... thats a SB level run of opposition right there.
Get through that 7-0 would be insane. This is SF's super bowl. They've been crying about the NFCCG for a while now. I think the eagles could go 0-2 in the next two games and i still like their chances to win the #1 seed. Niners and Dallas need to run to table to get over us, think both will drop at least 1 game, but if our birds can win one of these next two... i think its done.

Head says the Eagles have had a SAVAGE run and they've done what they needed to do, this is the Niners SB and they're UP for this, coming off extra rest and circumstances just lend themselves to this being a loss.
Heart says Go Birds, no f**king way Sirianni doesnt have this team up for this game given all the bulletin board material they've supplied.

But ill flag it now. But the #1 seed is very important and definitely the goal. But IF the eagles are not able to win the #1 seed, because they lose tomorrow and the Niners and they run the table... getting the #2 and not the #5 is going to be SOOO important
Looking at the NFC play off outlook in those circumstnaces and i think it'll go pretty chalk in week 1

#2 (PHI or DAL) will beat #7 (who cares)
#3 (DET) will beat #6 (SEA)
#5 (DAL or PHI) will beat #4 (NFC S)

Which means #1 and 5 are on a collision course in the divisional round. In such a scenario, it would be #1 SF vs #5 DAL and #2 PHI vs #3 DET
Ill take my chances with that in the event we cant secure the #1 seed

 

[nick87]

Welp. We got our arses kicked
Niners have now kicked the shit out of both the other major NFC contenders and should be considered the favourites.

Eagles didnt play well on either side of the ball. Coming out of that run 7-0 would have been remarkable.
Pressure now shifts to the Dallas game.

 

[Valheru]

Big game tomorrow. I think the eagles are coming off a hellish run and they've already done what i needed them to do what analytics called the toughest 8 week schedule in modern NFL history. 6-0 so far. I wanted 5-3 at worst and ideally 6-2 or better.

MIA, DAL, KC, BUF and now SF... thats a SB level run of opposition right there.
Get through that 7-0 would be insane. This is SF's super bowl. They've been crying about the NFCCG for a while now. I think the eagles could go 0-2 in the next two games and i still like their chances to win the #1 seed. Niners and Dallas need to run to table to get over us, think both will drop at least 1 game, but if our birds can win one of these next two... i think its done.

Head says the Eagles have had a SAVAGE run and they've done what they needed to do, this is the Niners SB and they're UP for this, coming off extra rest and circumstances just lend themselves to this being a loss.
Heart says Go Birds, no f**king way Sirianni doesnt have this team up for this game given all the bulletin board material they've supplied.

But ill flag it now. But the #1 seed is very important and definitely the goal. But IF the eagles are not able to win the #1 seed, because they lose tomorrow and the Niners and they run the table... getting the #2 and not the #5 is going to be SOOO important
Looking at the NFC play off outlook in those circumstnaces and i think it'll go pretty chalk in week 1

#2 (PHI or DAL) will beat #7 (who cares)
#3 (DET) will beat #6 (SEA)
#5 (DAL or PHI) will beat #4 (NFC S)

Which means #1 and 5 are on a collision course in the divisional round. In such a scenario, it would be #1 SF vs #5 DAL and #2 PHI vs #3 DET
Ill take my chances with that in the event we cant secure the #1 seed

Yep it played out exactly how you thought in the end. It was a tough day at the office but this was definitely the 9ers with a chip on their shoulder. I get the fans carrying on for near on 12 months to some extent but the way their players have sooked and moaned is next level. I had this penciled in as a loss a long time ago due to this fact.

On the actual game, I thought the offence was fine enough. We scored 4 times and had more points in us if the game was tighter IMO. We really needed one of the redzone visits in the first half to be a TD but other than that I thought they were decent against an elite defence.

Defence was terrible. They looked good the first 2 series but after that conceded 6 TD drives in a row which was only broken up by the last drive to run the clock down. That is in no way close to good enough regardless of who the opponent is and that needs to be fixed sooner than later. This is a bend don't break defence but they have to get off the field on at least 2 of those drives to give the offence a chance.

Scoreboard looks ugly but at the end of the day we are 10-2 and nothing can change that, everything is still in front of us. It is now us with the chip on the shoulder and something to prove when we meet them again which is the only game that matters. No one can be happy with the manner in which we lost but I do think a loss was necessary in the run home. Every team needs them to reset and this is our moment.

Dallas next and I think we will win to seal the division. You don't get beat like we did today and not come out firing the week after. Even if we lose the schedule really softens for us thereafter whilst Dallas have to go on the road to Miami and buffalo as well as a game against Detroit.

RE: playoffs scenarios, yeah the 2 seed could provide an easier path to the NFCCG due to how good the 5 seed is likely to be this season. Still, the week off as the 1 seed matters and I still don't discount the 6 or 7 seed beating Detroit.

In terms of winning the division, even with a loss next week it is going to be very difficult for Dallas to overtake us. Tie breakers per below in the case they beat us next week:

* head to head - Would be tied
* Divison record - Reasonable to assume that both finish 5-1
* Common Games - Non division common games are Jets, Cardinals, Pats, 9ers, Rams, Seattle, Bills, Dolphins. Currently we are 4-2 in those games with Seattle and Cardinals to come and Dallas are also 4-2 with games against Bills and Dolphins. Even if we were to lose to Seattle, I don't see Dallas going 2-0 in their games
* Conference Record - We are 6-1 and they are 6-3 currently so they would need us to lose to seattle to get parity
* Then it goes to the strength stuff which we easily own.