Eagles 360: September 26

on his feet at the thirty. The twenty, cuts back at the ten, the five, he is in. Terrence roll, Terrence rolls, Ronthless Purger again looks he is head and footballers fumbled the Eagles haven't and his worth covered by Brandon Graham. Brandon Graham's on the football. Brandon Graham has been outstanding in the first two games of this season and once again causing a lot of problems for this offensive line. It's so sweet when you walk off the

field when you gave everything you got. Great job, team win tonight, family, little three. What we cannot do it justice, but we're going to try hello everyone, and welcome the Eagles. Three sixty. Eagles insider Dave Spanaro, along with the Hall of Famer Brian Westbrook gets the day after the Eagles whip up on the Pittsburgh Steelers thirty four to three. And where do you begin, Brian? I mean, it's been three games of just glowing about this football team, and

it's at heights we haven't seen in a long long time. Yeah, But you know, sometimes you win games, and sometimes you win games that you know you win by a narrow margin. Sometimes you win games that you're not supposed to win. But then just like yesterday, sometimes you just dominate people. Sometimes you hold a team that has a good running attack to twenty nine yards rushing. That's domination. Sometimes you score twenty one points unanswered, that's domination. Yesterday, the Eagles

dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's what you want to see in a young football team and against and the Pittsburgh teams are a good football team. They're a team that many people said will be the representative for the AFC in the Super Bowl. This Eagles football team dominated them yesterday on their home field. It's so sweet. And now it's the bye week. Can we take a look at the NFC East standings and what do we see the

Philadelphia Eagles all alone at three and old. A week to rest, a week to calm down, to kind of bask in that victory, and then get back to work and get ready for the Detroit Lions. Brian, you've been on teams that started three and oh two thousand and four. What is the feeling in the locker room to the team believe that it's a playoff bound team. Well, I think this team does believe that. And I think when you talk about teams winning, it's about building that offendense.

It's about making sure that the ball continues to roll downhill, and I think this team was doing a pretty good job of handling it the right way. Doug Peterson a young coach. He's been around the NFL, he's been around teams to have one early in the season, and he also understands they have thirteen games left to play, and so he's not going to allow these guys to get

the big headed mentality. He's going to make sure that these guys continue to stay focused on their keys, the small things that got them to being three and though they have to continue to do those things, and I think Doug Peterson is the right coach tould be able to do that. Speaking of Doug Peterson, he met the media on this Monday and updated the Eagles situation as the players leave town and get some rest and relaxation during this bye week. We've got you updated here our

Eagles three sixty update with Alex Smith. Hi. Everyone, I'm Alex Smith and this is your three sixty update. The Eagles are coming off of a dominating thirty four to three win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday as they head into the bye week. But before they go, we heard from head coach Doug Peterson today and he was asked about how he expects this team to handle being in more of the national spotlight after Sunday's dominating win. You know, we just have to approach it the same,

one day at a time. You know, it's the way this business goes. I mean, you're you're you're on top of the world one minute and you could be at the bottom of the heap the next, and you just got to keep things even keeled and can't get too high. I can't get too low and approach approach it the same. Again, like I mentioned earlier, you can't substitute for hard work, and that pays off on Sundays. So you know, we just have to stay the course and again, long long,

a lot of football left. One of the biggest surprises in Sunday's game for the Eagles was the performance a rookie fifth round pick Wendell Smallwood, who played very nicely after Ryan Matthews left the game dealing with ankle stiffness. Coach Peterson today talked about what he's seen both on the practice field and on the game field from Smallwood to this point. I just think he's another one. He's much like Parson and how he prepares during the week.

And you know, uh, you know, we've been we've been fortunate with our with our young players, even Jalen Mills. I mean, we've been we've been fortunate with these guys and how they work and how they handle themselves on and off the football field. And you know, he's done a great job in practice and he's put himself in a position to help us, and and uh, it was great to see him. You know, we we saw it

early in the spring. We saw it a little bit in training camp before the injury, and it's it's it's good to have that kind of depth at that position with as many touches collectively as a group they're going to get each game and the wear and tear on that position, it's it's great to get that many guys in the game. And now the Eagles have a chance to rest, recharge, and refocus as they head into their

bye week before heading out to Detroit in the following week. Today, Coach Peterson shared his bye week message for his players. The messages just get away, get away from football, kind of free your mind a little bit. It's been a long hard training a number one right into the regular season. They've had three physical football games already. Get healthy, rejuvenate, rest and and come back ready to go because you know, we got thirteen straight weeks and it's one at a time.

And um, but at the same time, you know they need to take time to be with their families, coaches the same way, and um, you know, make this make this push. Now you can catch all of Coach Peterson's press conference as well as any of our locker rooms sound from last night's win that you may have missed. You can check it all out right here on demand on Philadelphia Eagles dot Com and the official Eagles Mobile app.

Thanks so much, Alex. As we move along here on Eagles three sixty, we're going to talk about some breakthrough performers that we looked at and appreciate it on Sunday and that we anticipate coming as the season goes along. But next up on Eagles three sixty, Brian and I will talk about an Eagles offense that once again did not ring the football, over played nearly error free football, and took it to the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll be right back.

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only with Xfinity X one caller click today. Welcome back, everyone, Dave Spinnaro, Brian Westbrook, It's Eagles three sixty here on Philadelphia Eagles dot Com. Time to talk about the Eagles offense in the thirty four to three win against Pittsburgh. B West. What'd you see? Well, we saw a quarterback that again played Era three air free football. Not a rookie quarterback, not a rookieu just we just have to say quarterback. Now, we can't even say rookie quarterback. We

have to say a quarterback. He continues to play air free football. We saw again Doug Peterson completely discombobulating the deepense. At this point, you don't know what Doug Peterson is going to come out to and what he's gonna do. In that first fifteen he just does a lot of different things. It's not the no huddle, if it's not the empty backfields, I'm gonna run the football down your throat.

He continues to do things that people just are not expecting, and then you're adding your quarterback seventy four percent completion percentage. You love to see that he's accurate. He continues to get the ball in the right place world receivers. I love what Carson Wentz is doing. Fryan. The Eagles have really gotten a screen game going. And we saw it when you played, and you were the best at running the screen. What makes it work? Why is this a

good offense to run the screen? Well, one of the things that Doug is doing, and he's doing a great job of this, is making sure that now every time the Dennis Roses in the game, teams are yelling screen, screen, screen, they think it's going to be the screen, same type of thing where Barner are small with those types of things. But now what Doug is doing, what's his key is that he's faking the screen one way and then he's throwing the ball on this another screen on the other side.

He's putting two or three guys out in front of his running back or tight ends we're seeing with that are kissing these screens. These guys have every talk about seven hundred pounds of body mask in front of them being able to run the ball down the field. That's why the screen game is so successful, you know. That's what's interesting. It's the screen game to the backs. We saw the screen for a touchdown to Trey Burton in Chicago.

We've seen Josh huff ketch screen because I mean, they're really involving all of their personnel and that extends to the running game. On Sundayed, Eagles, with Ryan Matthews nursing a high ankle spring, they turned to Kenyon Barner and the rookie when Dell Smallwood. They combined for one hundred and twenty one rushing yards two touchdowns on the ground. They add some juice to this Eagles off and some quickness, some elusiveness, and they've really stepped up and shown that

they can be contributors in the NFL. What makes a good running back is first, you have to have patience to be able to get to the hole, get to the right place at the right time. You have to have speed and quickness, and you have to have explosion and to talk about Smallwood and Varner, two of the most explosive guys on this football team. They continue to show great patients finding those holes and picking those holes, and then they're able to slide, and then they're able

to make guys miss on the second level. Was that takes the running back to the next level. If you can make guys on the second and third level miss, you're taking a game of four or five yards up to a ten yard game. And these guys have done a great job that. I love the way that they're running the football. We are going to talk about this later.

The offensive line though through three games outstanding play. It's going to be impacted potentially with the loss of Lane Johnson, but we'll talk about that a little later in the show, as well as some breakthrough performers from Sunday and look Ahead. But next up here on Eagles three sixty, it's about the defense and the special teams, and oh boy, did the Eagles hand it to the Steelers again, a third straight dominating defensive performance by the philadel a few Eagles.

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. Live on to Apple vacations dot com slash beach blitz for more details. Are you here to buy the tickets? Hey, buddy, you here for the tickets? Yeah? Dude, what's the password? Man? 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. All right, phillas, Let's go out there and give him hack hack. Let's go out there and give them the one t captain, go out there. We're gonna really give him the business. Let's look into him. Yeah, fair and square, all right, Holy slopes. The old game just can't compete, especially when it comes to innovative energy solutions like the ones NRG uses to power the Eagles.

Visit pick NRG dot com today 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 Santon deir Bank, Dave Spinnarrow, Brian Westbrook. It's Eagles three sixty, our only show of this bye week for the Philadelphia Eagles, will be back next Tuesday here on Philadelphia Eagles dot Com. In this segment, we're talking

about special teams and defense. Let's gives some credit to the special team's first. Benny Logan gets the big paw up in the air and blocks the field goal to stimy the Steelers on their first offensive drive, and it really kind of sets the tone. Listen, if you want to stop a team's momentum, they've driven the field a little bit. On our defense, if you want to stop their momentum, you've blocked the field goal. And that's what Benny Logan did. It's a great job of just slowing

things down. That makes that offense start to wonder a little bit. Maybe field goals with not being an option, maybe we have to score touchdowns. That means J Todd Haley has to take more chances offensively. It kind of plays right into the gym sports his hands. I love to see a very active field goal block team for our defense. That's what you need to see. Those small

plays make a big, big difference in games like this. Indeed, it's the first block for the Eagles of a field goal since the opener against Jacksonville two and fourteen, and it's set up the Eagles to dominate the rest of the day defensively. Brian, where's this coming from? I mean, we knew the Eagles had a good front. We had questions about the linebackers, we had questions about the cornerbacks. Rodney mcclouds comes in at safety clearly has made a

huge difference back there. Well, I think it starts at the top Jim Sports, and I've said before it I think he's the MVP of this team. And you can argued Carson Wentz, you can argue Doug Peterson, but I think Jim Sports is right up there with the rest of him. He's brought a mindset, He's brought a thought process, a nasty, aggressive, punishing mindset to this defense. They continue to put guys out of the game, But that's what you want to see. You expect that from guys like

Fletcher Cox. Did you expect it from Brandon Graham. He's having the best season of his career. He continues to go out there and do things that I just didn't see before I said this, and I really believe it. The Eagles defensive line is so good that Fletcher Cox is the second best player on the d line because

Brandon Graham. He's playing time. I was on the field watching that play of the first play of the game, and he got chipped by D'Angelo Williams and got his clock clean and just came back for more, played more physical football, was quick off the ball, got into the backfield, played the run grade. Brandy Graham's playing at a pro Bowl level through three games, and we see what a difference off the edge makes for the guys in the middle. Because Fletcher and Benny are also playing really well well.

Benny Logan continues to get that pushed right into the quarterback space. You have to double team Fletcher Cots at all time. It's guys that are still playing very good. Like Benny Carey. He doesn't give me get his name called, but he continues to push the pocket. Colonel Barring haven't heard his name very much. He could tinues to make plays as well. That's how good this defensive line is playing.

But a true mark of how good a defensive line is playing is does your defensive coordinator needs to blitz? Does he need to add guys to it? And Jim Sworth just doesn't they be Ben Roethlisberger yesterday was under siege. He couldn't get his feet set. He was a little jittery in the pocket, and that doesn't happen to Big Ben very often. But that's due to the fact that this defensive line continues to get pressure. I love the

way that they're playing. And on the back end, the Eagles all over the football on Sunday, big interception in the end zone from Rodney McCloud. I think Becom Jenkins had three or four pass breakups, great tackles. We've seen the rookie Jalen Mills really step up his game. And although Antonio Brown had his big game, ye all kind of nonsense fantasy football name. Antonio Brown is the best

receiver in the game. And there were some throws that Ben Roethlisberger through to him that no quarterback in the in the in the NFL has confidence enough to throw to the receiver I'm talking about. He's throwing ball to him. Antonio Brown isn't even looking. No one's thinking that he's going to catch the football. No one's thinking that Ben Roethlisberger, he's even gonna throw that ball. These are some amazing throws. It goes to one of the best receivers in the game.

And so I think Jalen Mills had a pretty good game considering who he was facing. So the Eagles inside the thirty, when they're on defense inside their own thirty yard line, they are holding quarterbacks to a passer rating of eight point two with one interception, two sacks, four or thirteen completion sixteen yards. That is a formula for winning games, Dave. This Steelers team, I don't think people understand. This Steeler team was scoring thirty one points a game.

They were literally going thirty one points a game, fourth best in the NFL. They were held to three point three points. That's how good this defense is. Yeah, so they get a break. Now they get Leodis Mcalvin back healthy for the Detroit Lions. Another piece for Jim Schwartz to use. They come back fresh. Great great, great, great

start for an Eagles defense. And speaking of performances, when we return to Eagles three sixty, we're gonna talk about some of the breakthrough performances from the first three games of this season, and then we'll take a look ahead and make some predictions on who comes up Big four the Eagles starting in Detroit in two weeks. Remarkable things

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I slept to Philly. I sept the Philly the bus, the trolley, the train, Jefferson Station, Airport line, sixty nine Street, broad Street to the game, Payol, the Sheron Hill, Chestnut Hill Regional Rail. I sept to Philly the Broad Street line. On game days, I Lovedega, to the movies, to my Parkway Spring Garden, late night, West Philly, South Philly. All right, Phillis,

let's go out there and give him pack. Heck, let's go out there and give them the one to tell Captain were out there, we're gonna really give them the business. Oh my god, let's sock it to him. Yeah, fair and square, all right, Holy smokes. The old game just can't compete, especially when it comes to innovative energy solutions

like the ones NRG uses to power the Eagles. Visit pick NRG dot com today, Welcome back at the Eagles three sixty Dave Spidero, Brian Westbrook and the Eagles have shocked the NFL world with a three and old record in September. Who has stood out in terms of a breakthrough performance in this undefeated start? Brian, I'll let you go first. Well, we've talked about the defensive line and the guy that kind of has outshine Fletcher Cock, which is very hard to do because Fletchercox is a dominant

force inside is Brandon Graham. He's averaging one sack of game, but the way that he's doing is pretty pretty pretty unique. He's running through offensive tackles, he's running around offensive tackles, he's making plays in the run game. He's dominating this football front in a way that I haven't seen him play brought his entire career. We talked about the three four it does he fit it? Does he not fit. He definitely fits the four three defensive end position. He's

doing a great job for this football team. On the other side of the football, how about the Eagles offensive playmakers. In the summer, we all wondered where would the Eagles get their big plays from. Would they have enough playmakers to score points? How about those wide receivers. Now, they haven't been all pro level, but certainly Jordan Matthews has been extremely productive. Nelson Aglore has stepped up and has looked as explosive as the Eagles hoped he would be

coming out of UCLA. And then Dorio Greenbeckham has come in and fit a role. Had a chance to make a touchdown catch on Sunday, couldn't hold it as he went into the end zone. But you're seeing the Eagles wide receiving corps give Carson Wentz some windows through which to throw, and I think that's really important, creating a bit of separation, playing very productive football at the wide receiver position, and even Josh Huff catching the short passes,

the shallow crosses, catch and run opportunities. Coaching staff really using these players. Well, what I love about our receiving corps. You talk about Dgping. You're also talking with Jordan Matthews Agulare too. They're big bodies, these guys, even if they don't get as much separation as you would like, because they're big bodies, they can shield the defender all and make room for Carson Wents to throw the football. You love to see that from a receiving corps. You make

it a lot easier for your young quarterback. Alright, So breakthrough performances on the weeks ahead. I'm going to begin here and I'm gonna talk about a tight end who we alfo would probably catch ninety passes in twenty and sixteen. And his name is zach Ertz. And zach Ertz hasn't played the last two games because of that displaced rib. He is going to be healthy for the Detroit Lions,

at least that's the expectation. And when you bring zach Ertz into the lineup and you can use three true tight ends, imagine the direction of this Eagles offense and the creativity with Ertz, Burton and Brent Selleck. I think zach Ertz will prove to be a really key contributor to the Eagles in these final thirteen games. Of the season, and the Eagles have done really, really well without one of their primary pass catchers. They've done a great job

with Doll zach Ertz. What's his heart to say? Because you never really knew who was going to make up that that that lack of catches that zach Ertz, that you miss without zach Ertz. But the one thing that you have is creativity. You said it from Doug Peterson going down. They've done a great job of being creative with the offense. When you add another weapon in there like zach Ertz, I think the creativity level continues to rise. I think that the young quarterback will love to the

addition of zach Ertz to this offense. And who's as you look ahead here, Brian, who steps up? When I'm thinking about a pair of running backs, I'm talking about Windlle Smallwood and ken yarn Barner. They did a great job in this last game twenty five carries for over one hundred and twenty yards, two touchdowns. They continue to bring a presence in speed and explosiveness to this offense that you need. And when you're talking about pairing it with the offensive line that done that has done a

great job of blocking creating holes. These guys are slippery enough, similar to myself. They're able to hide behind this big offensive line and find the holes and find increases in the defense, and then if they're in the open, they have the speed enough to make you pay for allowing them to give them that opening. So I love what

they're doing. I'm expecting some big things from these guys in the second half of the season and the Eagles, if you used to all of the running backs in each game, I mean, they've really gone deep into the roster and really made everybody feel like they're part of this three and old start, that they've got ownership and that they've got a role. And I think that's important for team chemistry. Well, if you're talking about getting involved in the game, there's been games where if TiO didn't

cast the ball earlier, he's not blocking me. He has an attitude the same thing with the show. But Doug has done a great job of spreading the ball around. Everyone's invested, everyone's involved in the offense and making sure that they make this thing work. That's how you get that chemistry to pull back together. You get a pass, you get a pass, you get a catch, you get a catch, I'm going to run the ball with all these running backs. Everyone is invested. That's a good thing

for this offense. Right, So the Eagles off too well, an undefeated start here in two thousand and sixteen, we've got one more segment to go. We're gonna take a little look ahead and talk about the offensive line. We know that it is potentially out there. Lane Johnson hoping to get his appeal heard next week. Will he be there for the Lions game in two sundays. We'll talk about it next on Eagles three sixty. This portion of Eagles three sixty send to buy Santon Dair. Do you

have what it takes to win big? Convert a field goal from the twenty yard line and you could win ten thousand dollars for you at ten thousand dollars for the school of your choice. Learn more at Philadelphia Eagles dot com slash Santan Dair. We're simply right checking from Santon Dair Bank. Just take one deposit, withdraw, 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. Remarkable things are happening at your local ACME. We're making changes and we're getting better every day, Cleaner, friendlier, pressure like fresher meat and seafood, and pressure produce and hundreds of organics. To top it off, we're luring thousands of prices throughout the store. So come on in and see for yourself why ACNE is just better. Lower prices, great quality, and friendlier service. ACME the official supermarket of

the Philadelphia Eagles. You here to buy the tickets? Hey, buddy, you here for the tickets? Yeah, dude, what's the password? Man? Oh, what'll you think we're doing like a CD ticket deal instead of going to NFL Ticket Exchange. NFL ticket Exchange, verified authentic tickets from one fan to the other. We'll see it at the game, all right, yes, sir, all right, appreciate the bye week is here. So what does that mean. Let's take a look at our amrossos on the menu

peak for you. We've got Doug Peterson in studio head coach. We've also got defensive line coach Chris Wilson in studio, and that's pretty much it. As the players have taken off and so are we. So this is the only three sixty of the week. That's your amerosos on the menu. Look, Amrosso's the reason Philly sandwiches are so famous. All right, right, let's talk a little bit about this offensive line. They've done a great job for three games. Lane Johnson's potential

suspension is out there. If he is suspended, how does that shake things up? This would be a real test for depth and coaching. Yeah, one of the things that you want with your offensive line is continuity. You're talking about these guys playing together for an extended period of time, and I think we've seen over the first three weeks of the season that these guys started a little slow and they continue to get better as the season goes on.

That's because of continuity. So when you lose a big piece, probably you're all your best offensive lineman. And Lane Johnson, if he is, in fact it's suspended, I think it's going to be a little bit of a test for these guys. But this is a good thing. You have all of the bye week to try to figure this out. You have all of that time to make sure that you're prepared the mindset as well as physically to go

out there and play. And so I think Doug Peterson, his coaching staff, who's done a great job so far this season and making sure guys are prepared game in and game out. I think they'll do a great job of making sure this offensive line is prepared for any

any lass. If it comes down to Lane Johnson being suspended and Alan Barber in theory would go to right tackle, Stephanos Newski would play left guard, and then some of the younger linemen would really have to get their learning curve learned and get ready for actions should they be called upon. But so far, the offensive line has been terrific and really has keyed this offensive resurgence with rookie quarterback Carson Wentz. You know you're ready to take a

deep breath. Let's relax man. Listen, this is important thing after the buye It's not about the other team now, it's about ken the Philadelphia Eagles. It's about us. Can we make sure that we're taking care of our business. If they can do that, then this team has a good shot to win. How much did you relax one

by weeks? Well, it's tough, especially early by. We like this you're talking about you have thirteen games left after the bye week and so you don't really get as much time to relax only because you're still conditioning yourself. You're still making sure that you're in tip top game shape. And I think that's the problem with having the game the bye week so early. You're just getting into game shape, and so you have to continue that conditioning. Your mindset has to be that I have so much more of

this season left. I have to make sure that I'm prepared mentally as well as physically for no island getaways for you now, now it's too early. If now we're talking about week eight, I just need to get away for a little bit. Yeah, I'll go to the islands for a little bit and just can see the beach and get a little sand between my toes. But at this point in the week four of the season, just a little bit too early for that. Well, we've got

a week off we're gonna enjoy. The Eagles are in first place, Greade three and O start with thirteen regular season games to go in a season that has gone in a probably the most unpredictable direction that any one of us could have imagined. We're happy about it, or we're very happy. You know, good stuff. You're Brian Westbrook, Dave Spendero, thanks for joining us here on Eagles three sixty.

We're back next Tuesday. In the meantime, have a great Eagles bye week everybody, the Land and the Facon with the lad