Eagles 360: September 20

goes over the middle and it's intercepted. It's intercepted by Branham. Branham takes it inside the five on his fleet all the way downs at the two wins choires He's got Burton. Touchdown Frey Burner, this time a hand off as the lane Burton. He humbles the football and the Eagles have it again. Turnovers bumble by a light Burnon. This defense now is only given up two touchdowns and seven plus

quarters of football. I think that's pretty impressive. He's talk again, He's talks to run, He's hit, he fumbles the the Eagles have it. The final score the Eagles never Eagle Bearers twenty nine. The fourth team Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Eagles. Three sixty names for Naro Eagles insider Brian Westbrook, Eagles Hall of Famer, and we're two happy guys on this Tuesday, the Eagles two and oh after the Monday they went in Chicago. We're gonna talk about

it right here. We're gonna hear from Doug Peterson. First, Brian, I want to hear some thoughts up. Impressive performance all around. Everybody's talking about Carson Wentz. But there's more to it than number eleven. Well, I think it starts with your head, coach. I mean, he continues to put Carson Wentz in good positions. You love the things that he's doing. He starts the game in the empty set. We have a rookie quarterback. You try to protect them, you try to run the football.

You don't do some of the things that Doug Peterson is doing. But he starts a game in an empty set. He allows his quarterback to see the blitz is coming from the lets, the lap in the right. I love what Doug Peterson's doing. He's protecting his quarterback is just in a different way. And this kid is so unflappable. But what you really recognize is he has all the physical ability to make every throw, but it's the mental thing, Brian. The Eagles have not turned the football over in two games.

They've been highly efficient on third down and in the red zone, and Carson Wentz really has been on point going to the right spots. Had a couple of drops on Monday night didn't phase him at all. Up and down. That's one of the things that rookie struggled with their consistency. There's too many roller coasters the up and down. We're not seeing that. We're Carson Wentz. We're seeing a quarterback that's good every single week. He's making the right decisions,

going to the right guy under pressure. That's what you want to see from a young quarterback. As a result, the Eagles two and oh, we'll talk about the offense and the defense as well as a really kind of a shaky special team's performance on Monday and all of that combined on this short week as the Eagles get ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And with that we get you ready. It's our Eagles three sixty updates with Alex Smith Doug Peterson meeting the media on this Tuesday. Hi, everyone,

I'm Alex Smith here with your three sixty update. The Eagles players had the day off today on Tuesday after Monday Night's big twenty nine to fourteen win over the Chicago Bears, but we did hear from Eagles head coach Doug Peterson as he met with the media inside the auditorium, and the first order of business for coach Peterson was to offer an injury update as he updated the statusus of zach Ertz, Leois McKelvin, and also added Michael Kendricks to the injury report. As you know was zach Ertz

and leotis obviously no change with them. Michael Kendricks knows fracture quad continue. Um, he'll be fine again day to day, but he should be uh, he should be okay for for this for this Weekend's game against Pittsburgh Monday night was another masterful performance from rookie Carson Wentz in his second NFL start and his first ever road game. He threw for one touchdown to go along with one hundred and ninety passing yards, despite the fact that his receivers

had a couple of costly drops. But coach Peterson said today that he and the coaching staff remained very confident in the Eagles receivers. You know, they they just continue to work every day and and uh, um, you know sometimes sometimes things like that happened. They know, I mean, they understand it. They're their professionals, and they they pride themselves obviously catching the football. And you could tell last night that they were, um, they were mad at themselves.

I mean, those are those are You're right, those are big plays. And you know, we'll continue to you know, I'm not going to stop calling plays to them because I know they're they're they're explosive guys for us, and and we just we just got to continue to work. Meanwhile, reports did surface early on Tuesday morning that right tackle Lane Johnson will indeed be handed a ten game suspension for a performance enhancing drug violation. Coach Peterson addressed that

report earlier today. Until I hear from the league office, lane's my starting right tackle. Well, if if that's the case, then we go back to what we did in train account and and we but until that time, you know, we're full go. Until then. You can catch all of Coach Peterson's press conference from earlier today right here on Philadelphia Eagles dot com and be sure to stay with us throughout the week as we get you set for Sunday's showdown with the two and oh Pittsburgh Steelers, which

are three sixty update. I'm Alex Smith. Thanks so much, Alex. We've got a lot to get to on this Eagles three sixtieth bit. Later on Brian and I we'll talk about our breakthrough performers from the Monday night win. But up next we're gonna talk about the offense and of course Carson Wentz leading the way the Eagles a balanced offense yet again some good things, not so good things. We'll talk about it next here on Eagles three sixty. Their legend is legendary. They've seen the end zone more

often than any other duo in history. They are professional football player watchers become a pro fan only with Exfinity X one caller click today. We simply right checking from Santon their bank. Just make one deposit, with draw, transfer or payment each month to wait the monthly fee and there's no minimum balance. You're all right, It's simply right checking from Santon their bank. You say crazy, I say crafty, You say savage. I say practiced, crazy, crafted, savage practiced.

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They are professional football player watchers. Become a pro fan only with Xfinity H one caller click today, we welcome you back to Eagles three sixty Dave Spidero, Brian Westbrook. The Eagles coming off another win on the road in Chicago twenty nine to fourteen. So let's talk about some of the things we saw on the offense. And let's begin Brian with Carson Wentz, who came out six of six on the first drive, the Eagles showing so much confidence in him, and after a little bit of a lull,

he picked it back up in the second half. When you talk about a young quarterback, you talk about the consistency, you talk about the accuracy. He's throwing the ball to the receivers in great position. So many times you hear a quarterbacks. They're doing back shoulder throws, which sometimes gonna be good, but that doesn't give the receiver an opportunity to catch the ball and run. Carson Wentz is putting it in the perfect position for these receivers so they

can catch the ball and run. That's all. They're gonna make more confidence in the receiver in their quarterback. That's a great thing to have with between the receivers in the quarterback. We've also seen him really handle the blitz. We've seen him hanging in the pocket. Takes some hits. If he's your teammate, if he's your quarterback, what does it mean to you that he's standing staring down the barrel of the gun and throwing bullets. That's what you love to see. You want to see a young guy

standing in the pocket. Now, there's some hits that I just do not want Carson Wentz to be taking. He's getting outside of the pocket scrambling and I want him to get out of bounce on some of those plays. But when you have a quarterback that's willing to stand in the face of a blitz and complete the ball accurately down the field, that's what you're looking for. In a young guy. He almost has it all. There's a couple of little things that he needs to change, but

he's doing a great job. It's quarterback in this team so far, and he and the coaching staff really in sync. Brian. Let's talk about some of the things that you've seen from the design of the offense. The Eagles lose zachert for the game, they put in Trey Burton. He catches a touchdown pass on a really kind of a cool screen to the tight end in goal line situations, and I haven't seen a lot of that. You never see those types of things, and I think that's the imprint

that Doug Peterson has on his football team. He's calling some plays and doing some things that you never really see and from a rookie coach as well as a rookie quarterback. But just for you, as you mentioned that played to Trey Burton, you don't run that play on the gold line. That's because things are so closed in on the gold line. But Doug Peterson runs it, Trey Burton walks into the end zone. There's a couple of other situations we talked about. You're starting a Monday night

football game. One of your first away games for your rookie quarterback and you have them in the empty set. They're gonna blitz them, They're gonna try to get after them. But you have him in an empty set. That's only because you know your quarterback can handle it. You know that he can see the blitz coming. That's a great thing to have from the communication standpoint from your head coach to your quarterback. So let's break that down. An empty set is generally a sign for the defense to

go after the quarterback. That's an automatic right. Well, yeah, this is the thing. When you have a rookie quarterback, you're saying, hey, let's protect them. Let's use max protection. Get eight guys in the backfield so we can make sure that our quarterback is not getting hidden because we don't want them to get beat up, and we want to we don't want to ruin his confidence. But what Doug Peterson said is that we're going to empty the backfield. The only person we have back there is Carson Wentz.

We understand that he can see the blitz coming and he can get the ball out. One of the major things that rookie quarterbacks do they hold onto the ball a little bit too long, We're not seeing that from our quarterback. I think we're also seeing the wide receivers come alive a bit here now. There were a couple of drops. Jordan Matthews had the big drop down the sideline. Nelson Agiloor didn't come up with some of the tough catches in the end zone. If there is life, there's

no question about it. They seem revitalized with Carson went throwing him the football. You know, last year we were kind of down on nesson Aguilar, But what we are seeing now is a kid that has an explosion. We're seeing that explosion that we saw at USC. He's getting off the football, he's exploding up the field and he has the ability to make those big plays. We've been

waiting for that all season long. I think just having that confidence with the quarterback, the offensive coordinator as well as the head coach has brought him a long way. Making the big play last week definitely has helped him. The run game still not where the Eagles wanted to be. What are you seeing from that? They're getting a little penetration, and you know when you have a big guy right over top of your center, Jason Kelsey, who is not as big as some of the other centers in the league.

That's going to ruin your run game right there. I think Doug has to do a better job of protecting Jason, especially when you have a nose guard that's three thirty plus right over top of them. If they can do that, and I think Ryan Matthews can get going. We know that Ryan Matthews is a physical running back. If you give him a small hole, he can get right through there and use his speed to deliver a big run.

We just need to be more consistent in it, and I think the offensive line playing together will go a long way with that. And once again, four running backs used in the ground game. The Eagles three of five in the red zone, so still a lot of production for them inside opponent's twenty yard line. So it was an uneven performance, but you look at it, Brian and the Eagles two plays away from scoring forty points. You

love to see that. The big drops, you hate to see those types of things, But the Eagles are scoring points in places where you really didn't think they were gonna score those types of points. I'm so happy about this offense, and this is just the beginning. They still have some ways to go. They still can get better in the run game, They still can get better in their drops. If Carson Wentz continues to get better, I'm not sure how good he's going to be. It's amazing,

it's very exciting, kind of scary. Yeah, it really is in a good way. Yes, right, So let's our talk about the offense. When we return to the Eagles three sixty, we're gonna talk defense again. A dominating performance for the Eagles who understand that the bigger challenges are directly ahead. This portion of Eagles three sixty was presented by Apple Vacations joined Philadelphia Eagles players and alumni on Apple Vacations

beach Blitz in Mexico in twenty seventeen. Like on to Apple vacations dot com slash beach blitz for more details. Are you here buy the tickets? Hey, buddy, you here for the tickets? Yeah? Dude, what's the password? Man? Oh? Coach, shit, what are you thinking? We're doing like a CD ticket deal instead of going to NFL ticket Exchange. NFL ticket Exchange Verified. I'll tickets from one fan to the other. We'll see it at the games, all right, yes, sir,

all right? Appreciate it. No, I can't care taste to see ling with simply right checking from santon Deir Bank. Just make one deposit payment withdraw or transfer each month to wave the monthly fee and there's no minimum balance. You're all right, it's simply right checking from Santan Deir Bank. We're back at Eagles three sixty Dave Spadaro, Brian Westbrook. Player's day off on Tuesday. They get back to the

practice field on Wednesday. You know what it's like, right, You get back from Chicago at three thirty in the morning, and you'd like to sleep in. You like to sleep in, but you're right back at it because you know you have a big test coming up in the next week. But it's always great when you come back home after a win. That's the most important part. Now we're talking defense here, Brian, and talking about a big test. This doesn't get any bigger than the Pittsburgh Steelers. So what

do we know about the Eagles defense? After two games Monday night again, three more sacks, takeaways, pressures in the backfield, a quarterback knocked out of the game. How do you feel about this defense? Two games in? You know you have to start again with your defensive coordinator. I love what Jim Sports is doing. He's putting it his defense in an aggressive position. He's saying telling my defense is is get up the field, get some pressure on the quarterback.

Fletcher Cox, Benny Logan, get up the field, get some pressure on the quarterback. Now, I canna let my secondary just play free because they know the quarterback is not going to have a lot of time in the pocket to throw the football. I love what Jim Sports is doing. They're getting the turnovers. Anytime that you're defense can get the ball back to your offense, that's a plus. They're doing those small things, so upfront they're doing the job.

There's a good fit with the linebackers. And then on Monday night, the cornerbacks really challenged here without starter Leodis McKelvin, the Eagles starting Ron Brooks outside, sliding it into the slot on the nickel and bringing in the rookie seventh round draft picked Jalen Mills. Now, the Eagles got burned once down the field Austan Jeffrey forty nine yards. Otherwise, not bad. They weren't very bad at all. I think

on that play with to Al Sean. They just didn't get the pressure that they needed to every now and then Jay Cutler escaped the pocket. But Jim Sports adjusted the defense. Now he had the defensive ends making sure they stay it outside, make sure Jay Cutler stays in the pockets have to throw the football, and they adjusted. That's the big thing. You're going to get beat from time to time. But can you make those adjustments and stop those big time plays now on special teams, we

expect more from special teams instead. On Monday Night, while Caleb Sturgis made all three of his field goals, he missed an extra point and the Eagles giving up a sixty five yard punt return for a touchdown to Eddie Royal. And I know that that is Dave Phipps Balliwick here is going to be in the meeting rooms pointing out all the mistakes, teaching point. You can't have any kind

of breakdowns with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town. Well, in this game, it didn't hurt you very much, but in a game like we have coming up in Pittsburgh, you can have to make everything count. You can't make those types of mistakes because you know the Steelers are going to score points. You know, their defenses continue to get better. We have to win the field position battle. That includes not allow allowing punts to be returned. If you're going to punt to a guy like Eddie Royal,

a guy that's explosive, pin him to the sideline. Don't kick the ball in the middle of the field. That means if you put him in the middle field, he can go right or left. It's just too much feel to defend. You have to be smarter as a punter. He goes doing a pretty good job kick returns. Win those Smallwood's got a bit of a burst, as does Josh Still went Darren Sproles to bust one. It's time he got one in the first week, got a forty

yard in the first week. But you went all the way Well, of course no, Darren does it in a whole different level better than me. But I'll tell you what, he's an explosive guy. He's one of those guys. Just like I mentioned, you don't want to allow him to kiss the ball in the middle. In the middle of the field. If I'm a punter, I'm kick into the sideline. I'm not going to allow Darren Sproles to affect the game.

That's what the smart punters would do. Every now and then you get a punter that I'll allow him to catch the ball in the middle field. That's when you see the big place from Darrens brows. And finally, the Eagles have given up two count of two touchdowns defensively these first two weeks. But of course it all gets much more difficult on Sunday with the Steelies coming to town.

We've got more to get to here on Eagles three sixty when we return, we'll talk about some breakthrough performers from Monday nights game and look ahead to the Pittsburgh Steelers two and O teams. The state of Pennsylvania's bragging rights on the lines and no doubt about it, a litmus test for this young, upstart Philadelphia Eagles football team. Googlden outside or fluffy inside, deep pockets or delicious ridges, tasty eggs or savory bacage. Experienced Duncan's new Belgian waffle,

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Introducing Duncan's new coold Brew Coffee Steve slowly in cool water for small batches with an altrue, smooth, full bodied flavor. Discovered the craft of cool brew today and Keep On America runs on Duncan Time. Now to talk about some break through performers twenty nine to fourteen win over the Chicago Bears and Brian and we all know that Carson Wentz is the storyline here and that Jordan Matthews a big game, trade Burton and bigging, But underneath the surface

a lot of players contributing to this. Who's your breakout performer? You know you mentioned my breakout performer Trey Burton. He's a guy that he didn't play in the first week, but he contributed in a little way. You talk about Zach Ertz being a security blanket for Carson Wentz to your young quarterback, you just you just input Trey Burton. You allow them to get the ball near the gold line.

Five catches for forty nine yards and a touchdown. That's a big time performance for a guy that didn't even play the first week. Okay, So for me, my breakthrough performer New Eagle linebacker Nigel Bradham. Nice interception, nice return to the two yard line. Should have scored that cuts down.

But I'm gonna say this about Nigel Bradam. He followed up a really strong performance in Week one where he was a tackling machine against the Cleveland Browns, and we saw his range and coverage on Monday night, dropping into coverage keeping his eyes on Cutler, moves into the right position, makes the interception, and then gets to the sideline for the return. Very impressed with Nigel. Just a really solid, physical, strong side linebacker that we haven't had here since Carlos.

That's exactly right. The more the more you never, This is the thing for outside linebackers. If you don't hear their name, that means they're doing the job the right way. There's not a lot of linebackers that have the ability to rest the quarterback, to stop the tight end at the line of scrimpers, and if the interception comes to you be able to catch it and return it a little bit. We saw that all from Nigel Bradham last night in the first week as well. I like what

he's doing on the defensive side of the football. All right, So that's look ahead. Pittsburgh comes to town. Who's your breakthrough performer for Sunday. Well, it's hard to go with just one guy, because I think it's gonna be a collective team that's gonna be able to beat this football team coming in from Pittsburgh. But it's gonna be the secondary. They have a big time talent. Antonio Brown is He's the truth. He's a guy that you have to stop.

Of course, Big Ben can throw the ball to anyone, but if you can sometime some way slow down to Antonio Brown, then you have a big chance of beating this football team. So it's gonna be a collective effort from the entire secondary. We're talking about corners, say these slobbies. We're gonna everyone has to play a part in this. Get a little chip on him, into the line of scrimmers, and be physical down the field. I think we have

a good shot in doing that. Boy he's tough, more than one hundred catches on his way to a huge season, and he's quick. He gets off the ball very very well. You have to sometime some way slow him down. What a well rounded offense coming to town on Sunday. I'm going to focus on the offensive side of the ball for the Eagles for my breakthrough performer, and that's Nelson agil Or, Eagles wide receiver who has shown more life in these first two weeks of the regular season. I

think his confidence has been built up. I think he's ready to play his best ball. He's got a lot of faith in Carson Wentzon. I just think that Nelson Aguiler believes in himself after the first week touchdown, after some nice catches on Monday Night, Now it's a matter of making the difficult catches and securing the football. He had a couple of opportunities to do so on Monday night. At some point you have to get rid of the drops. But you love his ability to now get off the

line of scrimmage. One of the things that I was concerned in as far as the preseason was that he wasn't explosive. But in the first week he was very explosive against Joe Hayden and just building that confidence off of beating up a Pro Bowl caliber cornerback. That means something to a young kid in his confidence. I think he built on that and we saw a different guy yesterday. He looked like a different type of receiver. Hopefully that that ball continues to roll down the hill and gets

better and better every single week. And the one early chance he had down the field, he actually had a step and a half on a cornerback ball was underthrown from Carson, but you saw the separation that we did not see in his rookie season. That's why I think he have a big game against the Steelers on Sunday. One more segment to go here on Eagles three sixty, Brian and I will talk about what's ahead for the Eagles a short week as they get ready for the

Pittsburgh Steelers. This portion of Eagles three sixty was presented by McDonald's Mix and Match Any two for just two dollars and fifty cents on McDonald's mcpick two menu. Choose from a mcdoubell, MC chicken sandwich, six piece chicken, McNuggets, four small fries. I'm loving it with simply right checking from sun time their bank. Just take one deposit with daw transfer or payment each month to wait the month feet and there's no minimum balance. You're all right, We're

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we're gonna tell you. Welcome back to Eagles three sixty David Brian Here time for our amor Rosso's on the menu. Look at what's going on tomorrow here on Philadelphia Eagles dot Com and Eagles three sixty. We'll take our first look at the Pittsburgh Steelers two and oh after wins over Washington and Cincinnati head coach Doug Peterson in studio. We'll talk to him about well, we'll talk about Carson Wentz why not? Why not? Who also meets the media

on Wednesday, and we'll deliver an unflappable performance. I'm sure have you ever seen it? Brian? A kid? This unflappable. I've never seen a young guy put in the situation that Doug has put him in play so well. So that is our amrosos on the menu. Look at what's ahead, amor rosso. The Philly sandwiches are famous. So, Bryan, some final thoughts. Here is Eagles getting ready for Pittsburgh. This is the game. They go into the bye week after this game. How big is it? Well, it's gonna be

It's gonna be huge. I mean, you want to go into the bye week on a strong note, even though you're playing a super Bowl contender in the Pittsburgh Steelers. You want to make sure that you go out there and show your best, because what you don't want to do is going to the bye week thinking we should have did this, we could have did that, We need to do things better. They have to come out there and perform. One thing that would go a long way into this team getting to win this week is a

front four. Can you get around Big Ben? Not only just the round him? Can you bring him down? Ben Roethlisberger has made a living in the NFL with extending plays and then finding receivers downfield. Just because he's so big, he's able to elude the rush. Make sure you not only get your arms around him, but you bring him to the ground. If you're able to do that, then you have a much better chance of winning this football game. For two weeks, Eagles have controlled the football, they've controlled

the line of scrimmage, they've controlled the scoreboard. And now comes the first really huge test of the two thousand sixteen season, the Pittsburgh Steelers. So we'll talk about that all week as we get closer to Sunday. Brian Westbrook, thanks so much for joining you. Good stuff Eagles two and oh Dave Spidero here, we thank you for joining us on Eagles three to sixty. Everybody, have yourselves a great Eagles Day.