Eagles vs Packers Thursday Night Recap

air and picked off by Pradham. Philadelphia will take over as Malcolm Jenkins and Craig James just into the ball game combined to knock it up into the air and Bradham gets the interception to essence in this night, you never know who's gonna make the game winning play. That was Eagles defensive back Craig James. Elevated off the practice squad, he tips the ball to Nigel Bradham and they somehow

stopped the locomotive that was Aaron Rodgers. On Thursday Night Football thirty four to twenty seven, the Eagles get a circle of the wagons win to right the ship at two and two. Aliston Jefferies hopping around Sean Jackson's out of this game. They lose a couple of defensive backs and they find a way to get it done despite trailing tend nothing early. What a massive victory for the Eagles and what a disappointment for how it ended with

the Packers. I thought this was the full football experience in America. You had big plays. You had one quarterback transcending injuries and lack of talent around him. You had a defense overcoming their own injuries and staying in the game. We're losing our minds over stupid rules and penalties. You're losing your mind. I was fine, we'll get into that later. Guys carted off the field. Uh, tension released throughout the game, and then a big play to end it and seal

it for the Eagles. Yeah, a little anti climactic, as is me telling the listeners right now that we're at West Manor and my name is Greg Rosenthal and I'm with Chris Wesley. It's just the two of us tonight, although we we do have the paramore in the house,

Jimmy Graham's biggest fan just sitting right next to us. Uh, you know she's a real fan when she's still a fan after that performance, And you know, uh, I'm not a real fan when i'm you know, or a real host at least when I'm introducing the game this late. There's so many ways we can go in this game. It was fascinating. It was kind of the Thursday Night classic we're we're waiting for. You know, these Fox games they give them, they give Fox the great matchups and

and this one delivered. But Matt Lafleur didn't deliver. I don't think with his play calling. I'm hesitant to kill the guy. On a night where they did put up fo yards the offense was better. But I thought his decision to run on first and second down very often early in the game, especially in the red zone when they were up ten to seven, really gave the Eagles a break. And then all these established the run teams, they get near the goal line and they just loved

passing the ball. You have four chances on the goal line on an earlier fourth down drive, you end up having six plays in two different drives in the fourth quarter inside the five. They did not give Aaron Jones the ball on any of them. And I think Lafleur is gonna get a lot of questions about that. I think he should get questions about it because he was in his own head. I thought he he kept calling first down runs they went nowhere earlier in the game.

Even in the second half when they were trying to come back, he was still doing first down runs. They weren't working. When everything Rogers and Davante Adams were was every time they went at at Madox it was working. So I thought he got in his own head, especially in light of Aaron Jones. Three times in the last two games he succeeded in that situation, including earlier in the game. He's really shown well as a goal line back.

Just as problematic in that sequence to me is just the lack of Jimmy Graham's ability to make a play with multiple chances to do it. You gotta do that to him. This happened all year last year, and we went into the off season many of us believing this team needs help in the receiving corps, and the Packers told us what they thought of that opinion by not

bringing anybody in. And I think, you know, as much as they're still getting used to their offense, still getting cohesive, still, how seeing how things fit together, it's fair to wander if they overrated their own players. Yeah, it's it's not a crushing loss. There at three and one, and Eagles fans, we will get to all the good things about your team in a minute, but we were just talking Packers

for now. Two of the big problem areas they had coming into this game, where their run defense they gave up behind in seventies six yards tonight. You know, credit to the Eagles and their offensive line. There are a lot to deal with in Jordan Howard, I think makes sense on this team as as a role player. He's not gonna be there every down back. I think Miles Sanders, who also was very good tonight, uh is ultimately more important, but Howard fills a nice niche for them, and he

ran really hard. That rush defense is an issue. And then a lack of depth, as he mentioned, they didn't really have anyone going into this game other than Valdis Scantling and Adams that head over seventy yards on the season, which is outrageous. And they played your boy Robert Sanian more than Jimmy Graham last week or very similar They played Marcedes Louis even more, and so they're gonna have

to figure like who other than those two guys. You would think Geroni Moe Alison would be it or who knows, get a little crazy with this trade trade deadline these days, Like this is a team I think could use a little, a little pick me up at the receiver position they do with with Aaron Rodgers, it's so hard for him to get that rapport with these guys that he trusts.

I thought Alison looked great on those back to back plays, you know, obviously late in the second quarter to move the sticks and then score the run or score the touchdown. But this offense, I agree with you, they need to do something at trade deadline. They don't have what it takes. So I wrote down the words push and pull on my notes. I couldn't figure it out. I embarrassingly stopped down on our first try of taping because I thought

I remembered what it was, and then I couldn't. And I'm gonna make Eddie spaghetti back in the studio, you know, have to fix fix it up because that But I've got it. You know what it is. I've been waiting a while for this. Let's hear it. It's the push and pull of like what the packer's office used to be, and Aaron Rodgers kind of making his own plays by

improvising and what Matt Lafleur wants to do. And you almost could feel during this game Matt Lafleur just had to recognize the obvious of let's get in shotgun a little more, which is what Aaron Rodgers likes to do. I think the Packers are second in the league in snaps under center this year. Uh, let's quit it with these early own runs and the running game that we'd like to have, because it's not happening, and let's let

Rodgers do what he does. Because this game was a carbon copy for the Packers in that their scripted plays early were great. They went up and down the field, the Flour's and Rogers have really been on the same page with that and been dynamite. And then they failed to score after that. But when Rodgers was moving the ball and he had one of the prettiest touchdown drives you ever want to see in the third quarter, that

was mostly Rogers kind of just making place. You know that he was evading pressure and he was doing his thing and he had his boy Davante Adams to do it. And that to me is the old Packers offense, and that's the push and pull Chris Westlane between who's in control of this group? Whose offense is it really gonna be? Tonight?

It was Aaron Rodgers offense and it was ultimately better. Well, nothing I've seen from Matt as Mark would say the flower so far would lead me to believe that they're in better hands with with his offense than Aaron Rodgers. He he overcame Alex Light who came in for Brian Balaga,

and it was an immediate clear downgrade. And I thought Aaron Rodgers started looking at his right tackle on every play after that, wondering where the pressure was coming from, and for him to escape and keep making plays on the run his own legs and then throwing the ball on the run. It was one of those vintage Rogers uh as I said on Twitter, just the rising tide lifting all boats in that game, not just on his team, but the referees. A'll river run in New York the

other team. I mean, Kisha put it well. I mean she was saying how much she enjoyed talking to air like watching Aaron rod just like that. He made it look so easy. He said, I wish I had that arm. Yeah, CASA doesn't have a microphone I'm doing a bad job not leaning over, but just he makes it look so easy, and it is fun to have this Aaron Rodgers back in her life. So I hope they do open it

up a little more. But let's let's get to what I think was a gutsy performance by the Eagles, because if you really look at it, Alisha and Jeffreys on one leg, Kevin King shut him down. Nine targets, three catch a thirty eight yards not the same Dallas Goddard's banged up two for sixteen. Nelson Agilare, I think he's he hung out with the with the uh unlike Aglar guy back in Philadelphia. I don't know if he made the trip he had to one target in this game.

Mc collins didn't do it. Your number one receivers, you're tight end zach Ertz uh You know, Carson Wentz made a lot of big plays, had had one or two misses, but for the most part was was really good. And you find a way through special teams with Miles Sanders making a big play, you find a way with red zone defense, just enough pressure and a really good running game. And most importantly, I think old Dougie Peterson in the

end offense wins. I know, I know, I said it again, but Doug Peterson had had his way with Mike Petton. I think they had a plan going into this that they saw some things in the way that the Packers defense gets so complex. I don't even really know what it is. But they were confident I think going into this game that they could make some plays and they did offensively. And I still trust this coach staff ultimately, I'm not surprised between these two organizations in a game.

The Eagles just kind of had to win that they just found a way because that's that's what they've done the last few years. Well, you left out the offensive line, and that first series, Preston Smith was given Jason Peters all he could handle, and it looked like it might be a long day for the Eagles offensive line against

the Packers pass rush. That was kind of one of the stories of the league for the first three weeks that the Packers pass rush was reinvigorated, rejuvenated and they were for real and they got shut down in this game, and instead you had a Packers defense that just left Jordan Howard opened out of the backfield to be a pass catcher and didn't really cover their tight ends well at all. So a different Packers defense than we saw the first Yeah, they were they still for forced you know,

four or five points. They didn't have the big play. They were really put on short fields. You know, the three touchdowns by the Eagles in the in the first half in a row where all forty five yards are on a total I think of eighty yards on those three touchdown drives. So they were putting a bad spot in in Philadelphia capitalized and they got a little lucky.

Let's be honest, um, Nick Barnett could have been thrown out, probably should have been thrown out of this game for a helmet to helmet hit that knocked him all Williams out. That certainly hurt what the Packers want to do. Williams had played well last week and they want to run

the ball, so that's a huge break. Barnett ends up getting a strip sack on Rogers, which they convert into a touchdown, and they got uh fortunate not to have a big pass interference call turned against them on third and long that would have kept the Packers going in the first half when they just seemed like they were going to score every drive and you were losing your mind, Chris, I mean it was um. I just gotta say, you know, I don't think since Antonio Brown, we haven't seen you

as worked up as this. Well, this role is exactly it's being played out exactly how I thought it was gonna be played out. It's like the old catch rule. You cannot have a rule that asked the viewer not to believe what his eyes are telling him. M hm. And everyone who watched that play said, that's clear and obvious that the defender is hindering the receiver from making

a catch. And Al Riveron goes on Twitter and says it did not meet the qualification for being clear and obvious that the receiver was hindered for making the catch. That's my eyes tell me different, and I think most people who are watching their eyes tell them different. It's a force of a rule. It's only gonna last one year. And there was some like Haywire kind of exorcism where if our Riveron cast out of my mind, the willing suspension of disbelief necessary to buy into grown men chasing

a bag of wind around the park. After that play, I just the rest of the game didn't matter as much to me after that. Listening out there with this extra podcast is goddamn poetry. He's just ripping this off off the top of the set. He's like, uh, he's like that. He's like a beat poet in nine right now, he's flying. Chris Wesley, we should have a beat poet on the competition committee to add a little common sense. It was a tough I always try to, you know,

not overreact to these things. Don't send the tweet if you're not going to really provide any clarity that you know, that didn't provide any clarity what river Run said if I was going to try to interpret what's happening here. I think they see the plays as bang bang in real life, as a judgment call in real life, and that when you start slowing it down like crazy, that they're still almost using this is such guess work. I

guess it's crazy. It makes us press. They're still using the thought that, hey, this isn't clear and obvious, you know when it's when it's live and and in a way, I think we're not quite at the total disaster that you predicted in the off season, and and it's definitely not going well for the NFL either. I think it's somewhere in between and much closer to the you know, initial prediction that you had. What I would say is the coaches are being discouraged into challenging any of these

calls unless it's the most obvious. That would be one thing. And they're consistent, but they're not comply. I've seen I've seen much less overturned, and I've watched every single game. Much less has been overturned than what happened on that play, and frankly, the one that happened to the Eagles receiver al Shan Jeffrey should have been a DP. I talk

to you. You cannot show these replays two people at home and then waste their time by showing them something that they know is a penalty and then not overturning. You're just wasting everyone's time. I can't argue. And uh, it's supported to say one more thing about this. I mean, it's your podcast, it's just the two of us. No one's gonna stop you. It never made any sense to me that some one judgment call is reviewable but others aren't.

So you watch a game and you see a judgment call, get overturned, which we've seen in the first few weeks, and then other judgment calls ruined the game, for instance the Ronco's Bears game on the on the roughing the passer call. Why are you allowing some judgment calls to ruin the game but not others. It's a fair point. And I think your theory that it might only last a year in part because the officials don't seem to like it, and our river Ran I think, doesn't seem

to like it. And if you're a common sense hates it, and if you are a conspiracy theorist, you'd almost think that river n is burying the rule by never overturning things because ultimately they want I would prefer that. Then the inconsistency that we've seen so far, Yeah, it's tough.

I mean it. It also slows down the game. This was like a you mentioned this was the total football experience, and it really was because you had, you know, great quarterback play, you had controversial play calls that you could question, and then you have the you know, these brain injuries to start and end the game, and it's just like, this is football. And I think if you're if we still loved watching it. But I can take myself outside of uh an avid like over zealous fan and understand

if I'm just being introduced to this game. And and when it's at its peak with one minute left in the game, andrewson Day who comes in here like a flying missile and has friendly fire against his own teammate, and you have to watch a guy get a serious brain injury and the game stops and he's stretching, and there's two guys being stretchered out in the game, including one you know, right one, and then you pick rack bite right back up like that is football. Unfortunately, that

is jarring experience, and and it's and it sucks. It's jarring. And you mentioned if you were a new watcher, I think any new watcher will be blown away by how fast it is. And just in the time since we started following football for me in the nineteen eighties till now, how much faster the game is remarkable. Well, I think ultimately, uh, they put on a show you can't ask you can't ask for more. And it was a big game in

the NFC. I mean the Cowboys. I know it's a but they might have had a chance to go run away with this NFC East and uh, the NFC North certainly likes seeing the Packers getting early loss. I think the Eagles they do have the pieces. If they can get healthy, get a couple players back to Sean Jackson, Timmy Journ again, they can get things together and it'll be a lot easier to do out of a two and two hole if you don't have anything else, Chris west I don't know. You know we were here at

you know west manner. I don't know if you have anything else planned here tonight. I thought you put a nice bow on it. Oh, I appreciate that. You know we're you know, we're not Mark and Dan. We're We're Weston and Greg. We're we're gonna have our own feel to this little what do we call it, minipod extra free freaking content in your ear? Eat it, I mean, love it, extra podcast every week. We're gonna be doing

it on Thursday nights. Will we will be back on Sunday night, of course for the flagship program where we recap all the week four games. I can't wait for it. And uh, until then, it's been it's been a pleasure. Chris Westling spending this night with you anytime every Thursday. You're all welcome here at west Man. I mean we had we ordered some nice fah we lakisha and you know this is this was the spot today again. Eagles thirty four seven, still talking. We will catch you, ye