I was always told as a young student that when telling your parents about grades, let them know about the bad first and the good second. That way the last thing that you talked about was something positive. In that way of thinking, let\u2019s take a look at Sunday\u2019s season-opening 24-22 win against the Washing Commanders.<\/p>\n
So you know we have to start with the offense and the lackluster feeling it emanated all game long. Three and outs once again ruled the day, including three of the first four drives in the second half. The new offense under Sean Mannion \u2014 which is supposed to be a copycat of Kyle Shanahan\u2019s style \u2014 was, for the most part, a cure for insomniacs.<\/p>\n
Whether Jalen Hurts wasn\u2019t pulling the trigger or receivers weren\u2019t getting open will be a discussion at a later time when we are able to view the All-22 tape, but it all looked so familiar to last season \u2013 drop back, look one way, scramble around and throw the ball away. Or, in some of the good moments, Hurts used his legs for big gains, as he ran seven times for 46 yards, including a nice 22-yard gain in the game-winning TD drive: <\/p>\n
My question is this? What kind of designs are going on for the receivers? It seems like a bunch of routes that aren\u2019t designed to play off of each other. There doesn\u2019t seem to be anything going on to set up something later in the game. It just looks like three or four guys running simple routes with the hope someone will get open and maybe make a catch and break a tackle, like Dallas Goedert did on his 43-yard touchdown with six minutes to go in the game.<\/p>\n
It was a simple stop route in the middle field, about 13 yards from the line of scrimmage. Goedert collected it, then slipped past three Washington defenders for the score. More than anything, Washington was confused as to why a penalty wasn\u2019t called when the Eagles appeared to have two on the line moving early and didn\u2019t react to the ball being snapped right away. At any rate, Goedert\u2019s second TD on the day gave the Eagles a 24-16 lead: <\/p>\n
Vic Fangio\u2019s defense was everything everyone expected from them, limiting Washington for most of the day and holding it to 295 total yards. They were noticeably tired towards the end of the game, and a lot of that blame has to go to the offense\u2019s inability to stay on the field. Washington\u2019s offense held the ball for over 33 minutes on the day, and it showed. <\/p>\n
But at the same time, they didn\u2019t seem like they were running on all cylinders for their time on the field. There was limited pressure on Commanders\u2019 quarterback Jayden Daniels, as he was sacked just once for a yard loss. He also had some nifty escapes from pressure. But man, that seems to be a bit nit-picky as so much was asked of them on this day. And if the offense continues to sputter the way they did in the opener, that may be a weekly ask.<\/p>\n
The big dogs up front on the defensive line, namely Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, were beasts all day, constantly moving back Washington offensive linemen. The Commanders did a good job of staying away from Carter and Davis as much as they could on run plays, and did average 4.1 yards on their 32 carries.<\/p>\n
The defense was fine, albeit against a very stagnant Washington offense that wasn\u2019t good but may get better as the year goes on.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s some other observations:<\/p>\n
*Jalen Carter had a nice punch out on a run by Jacory Croskey-Merritt with under four minutes left in the game and Washington driving. The Commanders recovered, however, and eventually scored on a pass from Jayden Daniels to Antonio Williams with 1:05 left in the game that cut the Eagles lead to 24-22. The Commanders failed on a two-point conversion attempt on a shuffle pass to John Bates that essentially ended the game.<\/p>\n
*Zack Baun was terrific all day. Whether it was plugging gaps in the run game or out in coverage, he may have been the best player on the field all day long. He contributed 12 tackles.<\/p>\n
*Terry McLaurin, Washington\u2019s best receiver, was held to just one catch until late in the fourth quarter. Then, with 2:04 left in the game, he caught a six-yard pass from Daniels on a fourth-and-two that took Washington to the Eagles four-yard line that led to Williams\u2019 touchdown.<\/p>\n
*Jalen Carter had another blocked kick, this time on an extra-point attempt that kept the Eagles lead at 14-9: <\/p>\n
*Daniels didn\u2019t eclipse the 100-yard mark in passing until he hit Williams on a 33-yard gain with under 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Linebacker Jihaad Campbell lost Williams on the play. But Daniels did have all day to throw the ball, too. Daniels threw for 164 yards and completed 18-of-34 passes.<\/p>\n
*The Eagles\u2019 only sack of Daniels on the day came at the beginning of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
*Saquon Barkley was hit behind the line of scrimmage a lot on the day, very similar to what happened last season. There was a time that he was asking anyone who would listen to get the offense moving faster. One question about him from Sunday is if he was reading the field well? Cutbacks appeared to be there at times that he didn\u2019t make and other times a cutback was the wrong move.<\/p>\n
*Not a great day for Cooper DeJean. Two penalties, beat a couple of times on key plays early in the game and then beaten by Stefon Diggs on a 10-yard touchdown with 9:59 to go in the game that cut the Eagles lead to 17-16. Inexplicably, Diggs jumped on and grabbed a hold on the base of the uprights and was given a 15-yard penalty that didn\u2019t allow Washington to perhaps go for two: <\/p>\n
*Slow, slow, slow, slow. The offense just seems to run at a snail\u2019s pace, from their time in the huddle to the time it takes Hurts to get everyone where they are supposed to be. Just not good at all. They implored a hurry-up late in the third which led to a 36-yard field goal and a 17-9 lead towards the end of the third quarter. But man, there is just so little continuity to this offense. Granted, it\u2019s the first week under yet another new offensive coordinator, but some things look awfully familiar.<\/p>\n
*Hurts finished 14-for-25 for 203 yards and three touchdowns. Barkley ran for 83 yards on 15 carries and Goedert led the team with 77 yards on four catches, including his two touchdowns. Receiver Dontayvion Wicks had the biggest play of the day for the Eagles when he hauled in a 64-yard pass from Hurts down the right sideline. Wicks finished the day with two catches for 73 yards, including a nine-yard TD: <\/p>\n
*DeVonta Smith was targeted the most times for the Birds with six and had three catches for 53 yards.<\/p>\n
*Campbell was credited for the Eagles sack.<\/p>\n
*The Eagles had just 10 first downs on the day, half of what Washington had.<\/p>\n
*Hurts was sacked three times for 21 yards.<\/p>\n
*The Eagles were penalized five times for 40 yards.<\/p>\n
*Is it me or does it seem like Britain Covey gets absolutely smeared almost every time he returns a kick or punt?<\/p>\n
*The Eagles will play at the Tennessee Titans next Sunday at 1 p.m. The Titans lost at home, 23-10, to the New York Jets on Sunday.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was always told as a young student that when telling your parents about grades, let them know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-847001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}