Post-Game Show: Eagles Lose 23-21

be coming in not having one since opening week. They'd revenge on their minds for the NFC Championship game last year, but none of us expected the game to unfold the way it did, with the Vikings racing out to a seventeen to three halftime lead, extending it to twenty to three, and the Eagles making way to make mistakes on offense having no answers on defense, found a way to climb back into the ball game made it twenty to fourteen.

Nigel Brawn recovered a fumble, Eagles had the ball in Minnesota territory but not able to get any point on that drive in the fourth quarter, and then Dan Bailey, whom is two easy field goals early in the game put it away with of course a fifty two yarder, so ike again. The Eagles sitting here below five hundred for the first time since twenty sixteen. They never fell below five hundred at all during the run to the Super Bowl, and a team that still found a way

to make it close in the end. But it's just not the same en Sync team that we saw really from the jump in twenty seventeen. Yeah, they really have struggled to find their footing, Chris. I mean, you look at this team and the yet to put together a complete four quarters sixty minute football game on both sides of the ball, or i should say, in all three phases of the game. And that's really been the story of this young twenty eighteen season for the Eagles, is

that it's been difficult. Even when they found the way to scrap out wins, they've just been difficult to come by. And you're looking at a team that has yet to find their true identity as a team and really aren't playing very fundamentally sound football right now, and they find themselves in these dog fights week in and week out with these teams and in this league, you know, it's a flippable coin as to which way these ball games

can go. The Eagles have found themselves in five close, really one score football games, and they've come out on the wrong end three times compared to winning just two of them. It's a tough way to make a living in this league. And I know every game is going to be close, that's just how the league is made up. But you make it more difficult on yourself when you basically have self inflicted wounds throughout the course of the game.

You know it's already difficult enough to beat your opponent, but when you're beating yourself along with your opponent having success against you, that's really not the formula for success. There's so much again to hear, so much the unpackage

here on the postgame show for anybody, Rico. We are going to hear from the head coach Dug Pearson himself as well as quarterback Carson Wentz, and we're going to send it in a little bit over to the link to hear from Eagles insider Davi Spadaro and our reporter Amy Campbell, who are on this scene. But as we just get into what happened here, and I think you touch on an amazing point there, Ike with the self

inflicted wounds. For me, when I look at this Eagles team, I'm not surprised that we saw the up and down nature that inconsistent play in the first quarter of the season through the month of September because you're working so many guys in and out of the lineup. You're getting Carson back, Wentz back in week three, so you figure right there, it's gonna take some time for him and the offensive gel to try to get themselves on track. When you figured the defense pretty much coming back intact,

would be able to hold down the form. So today I thought today could be the launching pad, the start point really for the twenty eighteen season, where if you looked at September as an extended pre season of sorts, you know one that you know, good teams that typically have these deep playoff runs uilize it because you're a little more worn down in the off season. I figure the Eagles would settle into that mold and all of a sudden start to take flight here in the second

quarter of this season. But today it was a day where I thought would happen and it just didn't. And as Minnesota Vikings team. It could have been had a little kirk Cousins was dealing. They were not able to get really to him. They were able to get pressure on but he did a great job of escaping it. I think his mobility has been a little bit underrated. Was pretty much flat out accurate throughout the course of

the game. But really the dagger might have been when kirk Cousins was backed up in his own end zone after the JGI fumble and he throws a ball deep down the right side off his back foot and am Feeland finds a way to come up with it, beating Jail and Mills down the sideline. And you just said at that point, you know, what can this defense do

to get a big play. So, speaking of the Insider day Spender and Amy Campbell, let's send it over to them as they are going to provide us with their insights from the game, and think, first and foremost, start with the reaction seeing how the game unfolded there Dave late in the fourth quarter, and just your takeaways from a team that has just been so inconsistent and not

able to find good footing here early in twenty eighteen. Yeah, I mean, I think the game is really kind of encapsule by the turnover, the takeaway Nigel Bradham, Eagles in Vikings territory and then absolutely unable to do anything with it, a intentional grounding, a you know, just mistakes of a false start. So then they punted Amy first and tend for the Vikings at the eleven yard line. Eagles defense

can't get off the field. Yeah, I think to me it was perfectly well said by you that the mistakes, the turnovers, the penalties at critical times, right, sometimes it costs more than it does those mistakes, those penalties in this game at the wrong time, you know, you talk about JGI, you know, nearly on the goal line there with the turnover, and just unable to kind of capitalize on the opportunities that they had there. And interesting, you know,

going for it on fourth down in certain situations. And then what we saw here kind of at the end of the game, you know, a chance to a chance to to you know, get it within reach there and it's unable to capitalize on that as well. So our storylines here, Mine was red zone efficiency, Eagles one of four in the red zone, Vikings three of four in the red zone, and yours was the matchup Eagles secondary against the Vikings receivers. They battled for the most part,

but again not able to keep Adam feeling down. Big plays from Kirk Cousins who throws the ball to spots and the receivers go make plays well. And I was looking at the sacks on both sides, and of course I was a wrong. Kirk Cousins only sacked one time. Carson Wentz sacked three times, running for his life for a lot of this game. I don't think that's what

you want to see. And if it was really any other quarterback, Carson so dynamic and so mobile, but any other quarterback would have been sacked a lot more in this game with the pressure that the Vikings were able to get up front. And there were some key plays Amy that I wrote down third and one, Eagles first possession.

Usually that's a quarterback sneak. Instead they pitched to Josh Adams, Vikings snifted out Windale Smallwood in the red zone, drops pass when he's wide open on the sidelines, an interception that Carson Wentz through under pressure returned for a touchdown. Eagles in the red zone. Again, false start on Jason Peters, another fall start later, the Agie fumble, a sack when Carson Wentz in the red zone. So these are things, look that just can't happen. And it's beyond just being inconsistent.

There's a lack of focus, there's a lack of execution, and something's got to give here. The Eagles need a spark of consistency offensively. You can't go through another first half with just ninety one yards of offense and expect to come back again and again and again. Yeah, like you said, that first half was ugly. The numbers not great for the Eagles in time of possession and first downs, and like you said, the offensive yards absolutely dominated by

the Vikings in that first half. And it seemed like they had some things going in the second half, but like you said, just not enough to get over the hump, especially with those costly mistakes at those times. Yeah. In an era of guys where the league is seeing points scored at a record race, the Eagles are scoring twenty one points a game and this is really a shocking development.

The offensive line not playing to the level it did last year, the receivers, the red zone, it all adds up to a two and three record here one week in two and three wore see here for the Eagles. Short week for the Eagles, so they bounced back and get ready for the Giants on Thursday night. Amy, great job. Back to Chris and I get an overcare complex. All right, Dave and Amy, thank you very much. Dave Spandario's gonna be in the locker room and he have a complete

coverage and is on the inside common. You can also download the Eagles Live podcast subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts, as he'll get reaction from the players as well, so a lot to touch on their ike. So why don't we get into your three big takeaways from this game and we'll kind of both point those and go through those more thoroughly. Well, when I look at this team, it's a lot of the same things that this team has struggled with all year. Let's start

with the penalties. The Eagles are one of the most penalized teams in the NFL. That is a mark of not being disciplined, to my fundamentals, Doug harps on these things. And yet still every week they come out and they still have crucial penalties at the wrong time. And I'm talking about presnap penalties, times where you're not lined up correctly, illegal procedures, things of that nature. You just can't have

those when you're struggling to move the football. Far too often they found themselves first and fifteen, first and twenty, second and fifteen. You just can't have that. Indeed, so get on the penalties there. You have so many situations where it's all of a sudden the Eagles because the bathing comeing in this game was the Eagles had to get better situations on third down. Okay, everyone says, how

did the Eagles went on third down? And fran Duffy and the Eagles game plan crew, obviously you're a part of that, like they broke it down and the Eagles average third and ten last week against the tight third and ten. You are not gonna win in the NFL if you have that situation. So everyone says, well, jeft to execute there on third down. No, you gotta win on first and second down to get yourself in bare third down situations there, and the Eagles did a bare

job of that early on in this game. They would get to second and four, second and two. But as you met illegal formation palats, and you say all right, if that happens once toot the course of a game, it's one thing three times. I can't I believe there were legal formation penalties. It too often that all of a sudden you went from a second to two to

a third and twelve situation. Yeah, and you're not gonna get the first down and you're gonna give the ball right back to the Vikings that situation and in the one instance I'm thinking of, maybe you're thinking they're the same one it's second and two. They get eight yards on the carry on the first down, then you get illegal procedure and then you get false start or Jason Peters.

Next thing you know, it's third and twelve. This Vikings defense, I know they haven't been playing well to this point in the season, but the personnel is still the same over there, and when you get in third and twelve, it's gonna be hard to convert that. I don't care who you're playing against in this league, and that's what the Eagles have found themselves far to Alton, I thought Dave hit on some other key things. I mean, you're talking about third and four in the red zone when

there Smallwood, you got the matchup, you want. You got the Vikings confused. They don't even cover him out there in the flats and he just drops the ball, has the first down. Now you catch that ball, it's first and goal from the five yard line. So instead of getting three the first three points of the game, maybe you have seven there. And another thing they touched on this league is begging for offenses to put points on the board week in and week out. Around the league.

They're making it easy for you to score in this league nowadays. And yet the Eagles offense can't get more than twenty three points. They're averaging twenty one right now. It's been a struggle all year for this offense to put points on the board, and I just can't figure it out what it is, other than they have when they have opportunities, they usually hurt themselves. Two for five in the red zone. Can't have that. You need more touchdowns. Looked at this team last year as this was the

number one team in red zone efficiency. They scored touchdowns last year when they got down there. This year, far too many field goals. I think it really comes down it's third down the red zone. Carson Wentz was the best quarterback in the gaming both of those situations, situational football, both of those items. He was the best last year. And it's not certainly all on him. It's this offense is not the biggest thing. And I think you hit

like the red zone. Theles have been able to move the ball, they've gotten themselves in scoring position, they've just not been able to finish drives whatsoever. So number one, there you went with penalties where you're number two item there You're big takeaway from the games, the self inflicted wounds. Yeah, I mean, and that's that. I mean you can add that to the penalties. You can. I mean, whether it's

a fumble by Carson. I mean, this Minnesota Vikings team, while they moved the ball a couple of times in the first half, the defense was able to hold him the field goal attempts. They missed the field goals, and you get a three three ball game in the second quarter and Carson fumbles the ball. You know, another sack there that leads to the Viking scoring seven points right there. You talk about the Vikings being backed up late, I mean in the third quarter that passed to Adam Thaling.

You can't have that. You got the coverage there. You have to make the play on the ball. It's just far too often. Bad call on Michael Bennett, you know the rough and the quarterback penalty. I thought he was being blocked into into him. But still you got an opportunity to get off the field. You get a big sack there, possibly hold the Vikings to three points and getting still you get the penalty call. They get seven before they go in before half to push that lead

to seventeen verse thirteen three. Huge difference and maybe with the way Bailey was kicking, maybe he misses that and it's only ten three, and again you got the ball to start their second half. Then you move the ball to start to say have you have an impressive drive? And then Jhi, it was about to be my next point. Then you come out of the locker room ready to go, fired up, ready to get yourself back in this game. Seventeen to three is nothing in this league. The game

was nowhere near over. So you're getting the ball out coming out of a half, move the ball down to feel great. You get down there, man, you gotta protect the ball. You have to protect the ball. Sometimes when there's nothing there, you have to just go down. But if if nothing else you have to secure the football. There's an opportunity at worst to put three points on the board right there, and maybe it's seventeen to six.

At least you get points with your first drive. It's deflating to move the ball all the way down the field like that and then have yourself where you fumble the ball really where it shouldn't have happened. I mean, that's he's a veteran running back. He knows that when you're in a crowd like that, you gotta put both hands on the ball trying to run sideways to make something happen. It's just begging for trouble. And then immediately following that, you get the big play to Adam Thieling

to get the Minnesota Vikings out of that hole. Thankfully, the Eagles defense was able to hold them the three points there, but still you flip the field position, that's three more points you gave up. You took three off your and put three on their end. So you know, when you look at the final numbers, there's twenty three.

Twenty one is the final score of Vikings win. But the Eagles, much like last week, much like last week, they're gonna be tossing and turning over this game because they know they had multiple opportunities to pull this game out. The thing is last weekie, figure with the way they lost in a situation where they led by fourteen in the second half, to give up that lead to overtime, office gives you a lead and then you have three chances to get off the field and fourth down and

we all know how the game ended. So you figure, Okay, that was the learning lesson right there. Okay, you had that really bad experience. You want to get that taste out of your mouth. You want to get back at home where the Eagles have dominated, and unfortunately the defense came out flat. And that's the most disappointing thing for me coming out of this was this is where no

one could score. You have to go back to Week nine of last year when the Eagles routed the Denver Broncos by the score of fifty one to twenty three. That's the last time this defense allowed more than seventeen points at home, and the Eagles had or the Vikings had seventeen points going into halftime. That's just how much

different of a ball game this was. Today. You figure the Eagles were invincible at home, but they lost that momentum, They lost that part of the edge today and that's what's so discerning moving forward, because the fact there's the Eagles, there are two and three, But the slow starts are the things that are really really disappointing because come into this game, the Eagles were outscored by thirteen points in

the first quarterball games this season. Okay, the Vikings were worse than that, being outscored by fourteen points in the first quarter of games this season. So neither team this year has been able to get off to a good start. And the Vikings kind of fumbled around. They had the couple missed by Bailey. The Eagles were still right there in the ball game, but Dave touched On this point, we can get into some more. The offensive line just is not blocked in pass protection. And that was the

other bugboo from last week. Okay, what was the turning point of last week's game? Up in the second half, it was Harold Landry beats Lane Johnson off the edge, gets the sack and then all of a sudden, Mario

was able to lead a drive for a touchdown. Okay, today it's Lane Johnson gives up the sack to Stephen Weatherly and Lynville Joseph goes marching down the field, picks up the fumble, rumbles his way down for the touchdown, and the Vikings are up ten to three, and that's where he started to feel like this could be trouble

for the offense. So the fact that the offensive line as a whole, it's not just on Lane Johnson, but overall not protecting Wentz as well this year as opposed to last season, is something that the Eagles really have to take a look at moving forward to try to fix this offense because it all starts up front. You know, this offensive line was flat dominating teams last season, both in the run and the pass game. That's why it was named the league's best offensive line. That just has

not been the case here in twenty eighteen. And you're looking to those big name guys. Many people will say Lane Johnson is the best tackle in football, or at least he was in twenty seventeen, but that hasn't been the case here. You know, in Steven Wisanowski, he was bench for Isaac Say a mile today. So the Eagles are trying to make the changed up front trying to

get something going there. You saw a Hollapool Evody Vty coming in as an extra offensive line and to add a little more beef up front there, but still just not enough to get the job done. And Wentz finds himself trying to evade pressure, having it work some magic in the pocket, you know, and to his credit, he's able to a lot of times make something out of nothing. But still you're asking for way too much of the

quarterback as this offense overall is struggling. So when you look at the things that are going wrong, and I think really ikes takeaways from this game are kind of a microcosm of the Eagles through the first five games. It's way too many penalties and a second two may self inflicted wounds, mainly the turnovers. That's the biggest thing there is when you look at what's going wrong and why the Eagles are at two and three, is they're

giving up the ball way too often. They're committ way too many self inflicted wounds, and they're just not scoring even though they're moving the ball at a decent rate. They're just not able to get the job done. And the last takeaway for your ike from this game kind of touched on already. Is the defense with those explosive players. Yeah, defensively, I mean we're giving up way too many eggs plays. And I know Jim Schwartz likes the hard point its

all the time. They don't like giving up explosive plays, plays of twenty plus yards and this has been a bugaboo for this defense. They haven't struggled in many areas. I mean, they still will keep points off the board. They you know, the Vikings were just one of four

I believe in the red zone to day. So the Eagles defense doing a nice job holding the Vikings to three points at times, and then plus seven of that twenty three is attributed to the offense and not the def So they really did only give up what sixteen

points today as a defense. But the biggest plays to me, and they came at the wrong times, is where you're giving up big plays, whether it's too Stefan Diggs, the Adam Feeling played, you know, big plays on third down where you need to get off the field, and the Vikings are finding ways to convert those third downs. The explosive plays have been the biggest thing I think that have hurt the Eagles defense all year long, and I'm not sure we haven't had a game in five weeks

where they haven't give up explosive plays. It seems like they're giving up a couple of them every game, and that's something that needs to get fixed because this is the passing league. Teams see this stuff on film and they're going to continue to throw at your secondary weekend and week out until you prove that you can stop it. What did you think of the secondaries performance overall? Knowing coming into this game that Kirk Cousins was gonna get rid of the ball quickly, they were not going to

let them just sit there in the pocket. The Vikings have John D. Filippo, the former Eagles of Eagles backs coaches, now the offensive coordinator of the Vikings, and there were times where you were just seeing some of the plays straight out of the Eel's playbook. There run on the field tonight at the link. I agree. I thought the secondary was up and down today. I thought they tackled well when they had the opportunity to, but still balls thrown over your head at times. We're still playing soft

coverage where we're giving up stuff underneath. I thought Stefon Diggs had way too many opportunities to run after he caught the ball and was able to do something with it. All right, listening over to the Lake head coach Doug Pearson speaking now to the media, Well, penalties and turnovers, unwanted turnovers, quite honestly, and you can focus a lot of those are happening in the red zone and they're self inflicted and those are things that we have to

correct in a big time. Murray last year, when you rank QB sneaks with Carson Wentz, you had it with almost perfect success, I think, and we haven't really seen that this year, Sir, apprehension with his recovery and or maybe a reason with Kelsey or no apprehension. Um, obviously this is a new season, and it was a full one. I usually go for it in that situation if it's under one, and um it wasn't so fourth and twenty

and the fourth quarter. Why did you let the punt there as opposed to the right decision to punt the football? Um with time left and UM, it was a situation where that we we've talked about in practice, you know, try to get them to unique formation, try to get them to jump. You know, we need to take a shot or get the five yards and now we're in

a field goal range situation. It wasn't a desperation kick at the time, Um, and guys that did the right thing in a putting and down thirty five, Yes, correct, I think we're at the forty. You don't you happy? What did you say to the team? I just told him that, uh you know, UM that basically I was gonna walk in this room and just I was gonna take it for the team because the way the way we've been UM playing and performing, it starts with me, and I want to make sure that the guys understand

that we can't do these things. We can't we can't self inflict um and expect to win championship. Teams just don't do that. And we're doing that right now. So I have to self examine myself. First starts with me. And you know those guys are those guys are busting their tail. So UM, we're gonna we're gonna get it fixed. It starts with me. This week, you talked about having a sense of urgency early, but you wanted to see it, thought you saw it in practice, but one to see

it the game. First quarter was not good offensively. Did you think about Tampa in this game, because it seems like Carson gets into We just didn't have enough touches in the first quarter like we had at six, seven eighth something like that. In the first quarter, were justn't have enough enough time. You know, we just another ball h and and you know, we talked about it on the sideline, getting into a rhythm. But you go back out there and then boom, you get a spark, you

get a big pass, big play. And then a couple of times we were on the ball and next thing you know, we're in the red zone. And and then um, you know we got into our red zone offense. So we were able to do it at times. Um. But but the play either before that sprung and we got good yardage on it, or or it was a you know, a situation where it was you know, a penalty and

it backed this out on first down. That's one of the challenges and one of the fourth from one where you in front and down they turned up for hugely what happened on those two things. Um, the UM the challenge I thought I saw UM when I was at that Uh. Obviously his second foot was down, the third step was out of bounds on the white stripe, and so what I had seen was wasn't sure quite at the time and looking at you know, getting the replay

that his second step was in third step. So I wanted to challenge at that big play of the game. Um could have been a big you know, momentum swing right there at that time. So one of get that challenge in there. And then the second one you asked me the fourth and one, Yes, you guys went on the score. We got to use the timeout fourth and

one we were on we were on offense. Um, yeah, play clock is running down about hit zero, so UM, just use the time out right there to make sure we had the right call on What did you see on the Michael Bennett, what you gimation? Um? Those are hard, They're they're hard situations. I'm gonna look at the TV copy. I'll look at you know, obviously the coaches tape, you know,

briefly and and and see. But um, you know, it's it's tough, unfortunate, you know, UM rules the rule, and we got to abide by concerned about the inconsistency of the offense and the entire year, even the games one, the offense seem to kind of fence these dogs all right about. Uh well yeah, I mean that's kind of what I've been saying. Um, we're self inflicted. You know, we're we're shooting ourselves or penalties, turnovers, um that are

that are hurting our offense. You know, we're we we seem to move the ball fine out in the field. But then you know, red zone, third down or areas that um, you know, heightened awareness when we get in the red zone, ball security, all those things we talk about from day one, OTAs, Um, we're not doing. So we got to get back to that. The calculation in your mind when you're going for the two point conversion

there you'd share that works the calculation. The calculation was to go for two if I make it a touchdown wins the game, or if I don't, I know what I need to do, I gotta go touchdown two point to tie or to win. I had to tie at the end. You made the right right, right, Yeah, that's that's pretty simple calculation right there. They changed. Yeah, so you made the move at left card. Uh why did you do it? Why did you feel the need to do it? And do you think it worked out to

your satisfaction? Yeah, you know, obviously, Uh, in fairness of both Isaac and Stefan, I want to make sure that that we evaluate the film on this. And it's gonna be hard though, because you know, it's a short week, short turnaround. We're onto the Giant. So, um, I thought, you know, initially he played well, Isaac played well. Um, you know, we'll evaluate it again and make the decision moving forward. We talked about penalties after the fumble. I

believe the illegal formation there procedure penalty grounding. There's a three straight plays there. Why are are those penalties happening in such a whole veteran team. Well, um, the illegal formation one is is just uh, there's really no excuse for that. I mean, that's just a it's a mental air offensively and we can't we can't do that. Um,

intentional grounding, I understand. I mean Carson was trying to break out of the pile and I think I think Nelson was in front of him and and I'm not sure if the ball quite made it to the line of scrimmage at the time, and so obviously by rule it could be a you know, intentional grounding and and those are just those are just wounds that we can't we can't continue to make um and and we'll learn,

We'll learn, you know, guys will learn. Guys are guys are sick of their stomach, you know, and they hate this feeling. So we gotta get it fix it pretty quick. Um. I'm not gonna get into that, but we just gotta make sure we coach it better. The mental error seemed to be the glaring thing compared with last week, compared to most teams that are that are really good to what do you contribute that It starts with me. I got to do a better job of install it, you know,

installing the plays. I gotta make sure the guys are are ready to play during practice, and it starts with me. And I'm gonna, you know, make sure that they're ready to go. This week. This week a tough week too. It's hard. I mean it's hard. You're on a you're on a short week and you got a quick turnaround and you know, we're back in the building tomorrow and we're working and getting getting ready for for Thursday night. But you know, one thing that I've learned through my

experience in the NFL. Is uh, getting back on the field right away, is is kind of a good remedy, you know, for the team, for the coaches, and and then that's our focus starting to borrow. Is Carson gonna get too much for people? Um? I mean, obviously you want to eliminate as many as you can, you know,

reduce the number of hits. Uh active quarterback. You know he's gonna move and and uh you know, made some great place tonight with his legs and and found some found some holes to run and to throw out of. But you know, we just continue to talk to him and uh make sure that you know he is protecting his But he did a nice job of getting down a couple of times too. And you know, he's so aggressive,

and that's that's what I love about him. You know, he's aggressive, he can spin out, he's strong, he does some great things back there in the pocket, and um, you know, and then and then he can do some great things extending place. So yeah, there's a fine line, obviously, but uh, I want to make sure that you know

we're right up against that line, all right. I was head coach Doug Pears and addressing the media basically saying his message to the teammates was look to the players was I'm going to go out there and take it for the team here. He's put in the blame all on himself, and I mean that's what the head coach is supposed to do in a situation like this. Before we get into some more of the game annalysis, I wanted to give a shout out to the fans out

there because it was noted on the broadcast. I'm here in the studio in our offices here at the Novacare Complex throughout the course of the game, so you know, we see an in seating fee, we get to see the you know, we hear the Merrill mic broadcast, we see the Fox telecast, and the fans could have easily packed it in when it was twenty three, but they brought the heat there in the fourth quarter and gave you know, Kirk Cousins as much of a headache as

possible and try to rally this team so little a little love to Eagles fans because I know how difficult it is right now with the feeling that the team

is two and three. Now. One of the topics coach Pearson was addressed there was the fact that the Eagles have the short week Thursday night game, the first division game of the year, going to the New York Giants, a team you know, they're licking their own wounds because they lost on a sixty two yard field goal, you know, to the Carolina Panthers today and walk off fashion almost very similar to the way that they lost to the Eagles and Jake Elliott in Week three here last season.

So like your thoughts with the fact that coming off a second straight loss, a bitter defeat, that you only have a couple of days to get things ramped up before you're back on the field on the road on Thursday Night, I think it's a good thing for the Eagles. I mean, listen, this is a second straight difficult loss that this team has had to endure. Listen, a short week, They're not gonna have much time to harp on this game.

They may or may not watch the film on this day tomorrow, but they have to get ready for the Giants. They're gonna be leaving Wednesday, that's three days from now, so you basically have two days to get prepared, get as much film work done as you possibly can to get prepared for the Giants, Because if you think you feel bad right now at two and three at the two straight losses, imagine what you're gonna feel like if you lose three in a row in your first divisional

game and now you're looking at two and four. So they have to put this game behind them. You got twenty four hours if that, to really let this thing linger. But the Giants are up next, and the Giants or licking their wounds. They had a tough loss today where they fought to get back in that game against the Carolina Panthers and really should have won the ball game. I thought Carolina really blew that game late. But you know, is it Graham Guno? I believe it is uh sixty

three yard game winning field goal. I mean, unbelievable for the Carolina Panthers to pour that game out, But I thought the Giants played well enough and fought to get back in this game that they should have walked out of Carolina with the victory in It'll be interesting to see how they respond after that loss. You know, you're gonna get two teams facing each other Thursday night where there's some you know, some bad blood because we know

how this NFC East is. And when you talk about the Eagles and the Giants, you know there's no love lost between these two teams. I tell you what, whichever team loses the game Thursday night, it may speak. You may be thinking about twenty nineteen go down that road, but for the Giants, but it is, Yeah, that's what they're Giants are going to be thinking going into They're like, wait a second, the Super Bowl champs are coming to our house. They're looking their wounds after the loss, losing

two straight games. They're two and three word one and four. Giants might realize this ain't gonna be it for us here. We're first year coach Sherman. We're trying to get things, you know, back going in the right direction. But we can spoil the super Bowl champs defending season. We can do that sort of like how the Eagles did to the Giants coming off the Super Bowl win in the two thousand and seven season, where Giants win the Super Bowl two thousand and eight, the Giants were the ones

he'd going into the playoffs. Eagles go up to the Meadowlands in the divisional round and upset Eli Maang and the Giants and an advanced the championship game before losing to the Arizona Cardinals. So it's gonna be a fun one on Thursday night. You hopefully the Eagles will get their mind sight in the right frame for that showdown.

So Coach b has a really touched on everything that we've said early on in the show, all the big takeaways, the penalties, the turnovers, the self inflicted wounds, and the red zone performance. Something again that was a strength for the Eagles last year is just not the case here in two eighteen. So the voice of the fans none other than Merl Reice. It was outstanding in the broadcast, with once again teaming up with another Hall of Famer in Mike Quick. We bring you the highlights of the

game through the voices of Merril and Mike. In our feature Merrill cam Dan Bailey kicks hit it hits the upright and it's no good and hit the left upright. He had a chip shot. He had a chip shot. Well, that's even better. They go with the fullback again. I under now the fullback cj Hab goes in motion to the nearest side of the field under Centera's cousins who takes his drop. He steps up he's hit me sick. They've got him Brown and Braham his first sack of

the season. WinCE and the gun. He's got a giant to his right. Three receivers motion our Sean Jeffrey. That's time back goes Wins. He's looking, he is going deep and it is God. It has caught. But a great catch Dann Field by Sheldon Gibson. He took him away from the defender and I love the way he fought for that ball. They go max protection here, they bringing an extra guy and it's basically a two man route.

Carson's looking for the big one down the field and it's not the perfect thing, but what is perfect is the waste. Sheldon Gibson goes up and fights for the football. That's a big, big play. Forty eight yards. There is a thirty yard field goal attempt by Jake Elliott the tie the game. Faula spotted kick is up and the kick has gone in. It's three three. This is going to be a forty five yard attempt for Dan Bailey. Paula spotted. The kick is away and the kick is

no good. He's one for three. He missed another of them, Dan Bailey. Listen they picked in Bailey up after week two because they were having these same types of problems after two weeks of the season. So it will be fourth down and five and the field goal unit comes on. That will not be a popular decision, but it's the only decision you can make. Yeah, it's three twenty two

to go in the third quarter. You need points. If you get it up to where you've got a yard to go to go for the first down, it's completely different, but you have to try and get the points. In this situation. Eagles need points. They've shown that they can move the football. Here it is. It's twenty seven yard field goal attempts spotted, kicked up good, and finally that

three disappears and turns into the six. Thanks, as always the Sports Radio ninety four w IP for allowing us to provide our bird's eye view through Meryllcam to get a glimpse of how they are experiencing the action on the field. So let's get into our turning points of the game here as we wait for quarterback Carson Wentz. And I'm going to start things off here because as a former defensive player, I want your take on this as well. For me, it was the end of the

first half. Eagles already down ten to three, Vikings are driving and all of a sudden, Kirk Cousins dropped back. Okay, getting close to the goal line. Michael Bennett comes up with a huge sack, and you figure, great, you know, push them back, might be a field goal. Maybe with the way Dan Bailey's performing, it might miss it, and you might be able to hold it to ten three or at worst thirteen to three going into halftime. And you would say to yourself, look for all the opportunities

that the Vikings had. The Vikings flout dominated the Eagles in the first half all across the board, from time and possession, offense, defense, the whole nine. The Vikings flat out had control of the game. However, it was just a ten point game. Would have been a ten point game and the Eagles would have got in the football, but Michael Bennett was called for roughing the pastor now.

Howard Eskin from the sports radio ninety four w IP Eagles radio broadcast talked to the referees at halftime and they said that the flag was thrown because Bennett rolled on Cousin's leg. Tough one to call there, because First of all, Kyle Rudolph, the tight end, looked like he was basically blocking Bennett to the ground, so Bennett is following. Bennett started at the waiste of Cousins and took him

as gently as you could to the ground. You know, with the penalties have been called on players like Clay Matthews throughout the course of the season, you know, there have been memes and videos and jokes about how defenders have to basically pick up the quarterback and gently place the quarterback on the ground on a pillow to make sure they don't get called for a penalty. Bennett did as close as you could too in that situation and

still got the flag. You know, was it low? It was largely because Bennet again was being pushed into him, but Bennett still started at the waist before going down to pull him to the ground. So all of a sudden, you know, first down, fresh stab downs. You know, the crowd was ir rate, you can tell the defense was frustrated, and Cousins, you know, tosses a dime to amtheland in the back corner of the end zone and it's seventeen

to three going into halftime. So that was my turning point, because at that point you just felt like nothing was going right for the Eagles. You said at the beginning of the show that the Eagles were already beating themselves. They didn't need the referees to help out any further. But just as from your perspective as a former defensive player, what is a guy supposed to do in that situation when you're trying as hard as you can and you understand that the league is built on offense, and we

were talking about earlier, the league wants points. Okay, they're going to protect the quarterback at all costs, But what is the defensive player supposed to do in that situation when you're that close, when a guy who has the escapability of Kirk Cousins, who's able to make plays with his feet as well, it's difficult. It's difficult when it's traffic there. In other words, when you're being blocked by someone and you're trying to defeat that blocker and get

to the quarterback. It's difficult for a defensive player to control where he's going to hit a quarterback at. So, you know, I certainly empathize with the defensive players and I understand what the offense. I mean, what the league is trying to do when they're trying to protect these quarterback. Former teammate of mind, a guy who's Roger Goodell's right hand man, and Troy Vincent, I've had plenty of conversations with him about this whole thing and what they're trying

to get established. They want to protect quarterbacks, that's what they want to do, and these these referees, if they see anything in the gray area, they're gonna lean towards protecting the quarterback. Throwing a flag there. I don't think that's a flag. A year ago. A year ago, that's not a flag. But for whatever reason, this year, they're trying to over emphasize some of these some of these

calls in an effort to protect the quarterback. The thing that's frustrating for fans and for defensive players primarily, is that there's no consistency. It's such a it's such a judge judgment call, and it's so subjective to who's making the call. You just don't know sometimes whether or not it's a good hit. We saw Carson Wentz when he was sacked last week and fumble. He was hit right in the helmet, you know, as he was being sacked and you would think, okay, that's a blow to the head.

Why isn't that being called in favor of Carson Wentz to protect him. You know, they let that go and then you get a tikie tack play like this with Michael Bennett on the back of the legs of Kirk Cousins. It's just it's frustrating for defensive players. But I also understand that I have a quarterback, a franchise quarterback that we don't want to miss any time either. So it's kind of like a double edged sword, right. We know, when our defense or hitting guys, we want them to

get to be given the benefit of the doubt. But at the same time, I want Carson Wentz protected. But it doesn't seem like we're getting the calls that some of these other quarterbacks are getting. Speaking of Carson Wentz, let's send it over to the link where number eleven is standing by. Slow start pres to that game pinpoint.

But I can't. I can't unfortunately slow start something that we we preach all the time, talk about it every every week, that we want to start fast, and uh, you know, credit to the Vikings coming out and making some stops. Um, yeah, we just slow start Uh this, how do you get out of the way of that sack? Fum boarder? Can you feel that pressure coming? It's just happening. I mean my eyes were the other way. Um, if I was looking the other side of the field, I

probably would have avoided it and been just fine. But um, that's football covery. They have to restrict tail time too bad? Why is that happened to be better team? Yeah, it's unfortunate. You know, those are things that I mean, we gotta take a real hard look in the mirror. Um, little mistakes like that, and kind of the same thing I really echoed last week after the game. Um, these little mistakes that sometimes can go overlooked are just killing us.

And we're playing like we're a young rookie team and we're not. And so we got to really be hard on ourselves and learn from these mistakes and uh turn it around fast. Frustrating was that drive specifically to get the ball with great field position? And yeah, very frustrating. I mean we you know, we went down, scored, had momentum, got the ball back, uh in a great position, and then we just go backwards, backwards, backwards, and um yeah,

I mean it's extremely frustrating. Are you feeling more pressure, um, in certain circumstances, certain circumstances, Do you feel it when whatlitz his versus four man batches or anything that you feel like they're getting more pressure for I don't think so. Um. You know, it's just been kind of nature of the game when you know, unfortunate sacks and little things here and there that again, we got to keep cleaning up. Um. And I mean the same thing goes for the last

couple of weeks. It's it's not one guy's fault. It's not just the line, it's not just the backs, it's a lot of me. It's it's everything. And um, yeah, we got to clean it up though, Colson was Malcolm's message when you got to addressed the team in I mean, I think the beautiful thing for us right now is it's a fast turnaround. You know, we need to get the bad taste out of our mouth asked and you know, go on the road to New York Thursday night. I'll be here before we know it. So it's it's really

coming tomorrow, ready to work and get ready for New York. So, Um, like I said, just put this one behind us, learn from it. But uh yeah, we don't have to dwell on it too long. Of course, in the NFL is and enforcing a lot of rules to protect the quarterbacks. Um, I'm interesting interested in what your point of view is looking at the one against Michael Bay and what do you make of the rules and how they're enforced. I mean, honestly,

I didn't see that one. Um. I know it's I mean, I know the Revs are are in a tough spot with with some of the new rules, and um, it's unfortunate when it when it happens against you, But yeah, I didn't actually see the place. I don't have a real comment time. How do you feel just in terms of the flow of the game, getting your third game back now, where do you kind of feel like you're at? Yeah?

I mean, person, I feel fine. You know, obviously we're um kind of have some ebbs and flows as an offense. Low start, I seemed like we got some momentum, then we hurt ourselves again, and um, you know it's it seems like I kind of feel like that's where we were two years ago, you know, like we were that young team making these mistakes, kind of having those ebbs and flows last year. Uh, you didn't see a lot of that. Um, and so the veteran team that we have a lot of the guys, I mean, I'm confident

that will fix it. I'm confident that will turn it around. But um, it's frustrating right now, Jerry. Practice this week of court started. You even emphasize kind of eliminating the self inflicted wounds. What's the next step. It seems like everyone's harping on if you can't you kind of get that message. Yeah, I mean it's it's frustrating again. If we don't get that fix, we're gonna lose a lot of games. Um. But at the end of the day, I know the guys in that locker room, I know

guys are gonna play with a sense of urgency. They're gonna come tomorrow ready to work. And that's something that I haven't really feared, you know, even my my rookie year when we were technically out of the playoffs. Um, there's no quit in these guys. You know, we're not just gonna lay down three and two and three, Like we're not just gonna stop. Um, we're gonna get a fixed and we're gonna be We're gonna be all right.

But then the lake EXAs especially with you get tho turnover and you're in a churchroy and they had good to get a score and that to go, but they kind of good you did out of it. Yeah, I mean we kind of talked about it a little bit, but I mean we heard we heard ourselves, you know, we heard ourselves at some self inflicted wounds. But at the same time, hats off of them, you know, they got good players over there. Uh, seems like we both know each other pretty well at this point having played

the last couple of years. So hats after them for making plays and we just got to clean it up. They've gotten past the wind to all that went through his hand? Was that was that just you saw that no one was covering him or was that the where we're designed to go? Yeah, that was just we we both saw made eye contact and um, Harrison was just running over there quick and um yeah, it was just happening five straight games. Now, were you having superboard twenty

three points? Is this offense to enough for you guys to be a contender of you? Yeah, I mean I think we're going to be you know, I'm not hanging hanging my head and dwelling on it, you know. And we know what we're capable of. We know we have potential, we know we have the right guys. Um and one thing that we seem to always do, which does a great job putting guys in the right spots. Again, it's really the same thing. We just got to stop killing ourselves.

And um, I know, I know we'll get this thing right back on turs. You didn't put a Frank Breich and John d Philippo. I mean, obviously we missed those guys. You know, they were great, But I mean coach crow press Taylor, Um, you know, I think we talked about a little bit this week and in the press conference, but I mean it's been extremely smooth process with those guys. I love working with those guys every day. And um, I don't think that's any issue in our slow, slow

start here. Every quarterback sneak last season one third and one in the first half. Was there any conversation? Is there? Is your health one of the reasons why they didn't go to there? Yeah, I'm really not sure, you know, other than um, we saw that that playoff film, thought it, thought it would be a good one. Thought we could not just get you know, a couple of feet, but thought we could get a big play out of it. And um, their defensive end made a great play. And Carson,

you got a deep all to Sheldon. What is he to the offense? Just the build, just strutch things. Yeah, I mean you said it. He's got the ability to take the top off the defense. Um, and uh, you know we see him in practice kind of every week. Just keep getting better and keep building his confidence and um, you know, we put him in there in a position to make plays and do it he's good at and he made a great play to night this season. Um, obviously we haven't hit you know, many many deep balls

and everything, and it's hard to say. Obviously we'd love to get those, and we had a handful of those last year. But at the same time, a lot of it is what the defense is doing to us. You know, there's not a ton of opportunities. A lot of teams are playing soft zone against us, making us earn it. Um, so we just got pick and choose wisely. And you know, I mean it was good to see Shelton make that one tonight and uh yeah, hopefully they'll be more of

that in the future. What's your actual level of concern at this point. I mean it's not early in the year anymore, right, I mean frustrated, yes, concerned No. I mean I think we have again kind of just sacking what I said. I mean, we have veteran guys on this team, guys that have been through at all, that know how to win, and I think we're gonna get

this thing going right away, all right. Quarterback Carson Wentz saying that at times we're playing like a young rookie team, but he remains confident that they're going to get things turned around, and he embraces the fact that the next game comes so quickly off the heels of this loss on Thursday night against the New York Giants, basically also saying that the mindset of the guys in the locker

room there's no quit is a veteran leading team. Is the right group of guys that you want to go through this type of hell is situation because you're gonna find out what you have on the other side, and this is a time when you know, fingers can start to be pointed and things can start to unravel. It is gonna be key for coach Peers and the leaders to keep things intact as a get ready for a

tough divisional matchup on Thursday night with the Giants. So I offer my turning point right before we heard from Carson Wentz for you yours. I came in the second half as the Eagles we're making a comeback and in fact making things very interesting there late in the game. Yeah, I mean, just when you thought all the momentum was starting to switch to the Eagle side of the football. You know, it was a great turn over. There was

the lateral pass from Kirk Cousins. Great job by the Eagles defenders jumping on that ball, and then you get you're in scoring position just from the recovery as far as getting three points. But we go backwards. We go backwards, we wind up having an in the grasp penalty, which is like one of the worst penalties to have because you get the yardage loss and the downs lost. So now they're out of field goal range. It's third and twenty.

Carson hits Outshon Jeffrey with a great throw on third and twenty, would have had the first down from the neck and eye. But at worst, if he holds onto that ball, it's fourth and one. Now you got a decision either kick the field goal or go for it right there when the score is twenty to fourteen and we wind up with no points out of that turnover, I just off that was critical. I thought it was deflating.

That was the opportunity for the Eagles to really seize on the momentum that they had gained and really had

the Minnesota Vikings start to question themselves. See when your team has lost all sorts of ways like the Vikings have through this early portion of the season, that was a situation right there where if you get points out of the drive at a minimum three nine, the Vikings are saying to themselves, here we go, Here we go, because that's what bad teams do when they see a game slipping away, and that game was slipping away from

the Vikings late. The Eagles got the ball, they got a great opportunity there, but they didn't capitalize on it, getting no points there. I thought it was a killer. I mean, I just thought it was a killer because then the Vikings get the ball back and they go down and kick a field goal. They go down and kick a field goal there. Now it's a nine point lead, it's a two score game. There, more than willing to give up a touchdown as long as you eat up

the clock on the score. That's exactly what happened. I thought when the Eagles recovered that fumble there, I said to myself, this is where we take the game. I truly believe that the Eagles were going to go down and score a touchdown momentum, and I thought al Sean was starting to cook. I thought he and Carson were starting to hook up. And we went backwards version early in the game. So it wasn't like he hadn't come up with clutch plays already in this game. It was

just you haven't seen that from him. Usually when they go to him in a big situation, he comes up with it. For whatever reason, just wasn't able to do it. And you gotta get a Viking defended. There a lot of credit. It's good to hit by Harrison Smith. It's one of those plays where as a receiver he caught the ball, but before he can land and really secure the ball. It was an impact right there, jarred the ball loose. You can tell he kind of called al

Sean by surprise with the hit. But that's a big guy. You gotta be able to protect the football and yourself knowing that if you're going in in the middle of the field versus a zone, somebody's gonna be there to hit you, all right. So one of our favorite parts of this postgame show is we get a one on one exclusive with the head coach Doug Peterson and Mike Quick. You know, goes from the radio broadcast booth too down outside the locker room. He always has some fascinating questions

for Coach Peerson. I think Coach Peterson provides some excellent insight that he might not give to the reporters. So here's this one on one interview Eagles Hall of Fame wide receiver Mike Quick and head coach Doug Peterson. Coach, looking at the offense, you only scored seven points in the first quarter in five games. How do you really

get to fixing that portion of your offense? That is something that's uh, you know, something that we're very aware of and something that we try to emphasize even in practice. By how we start in practice. I want to make sure that you know we're doing everything at the beginning of practice that allows us to start fasting, meaning we got to execute better. We gotta be right on point. And and you know it starts there, um and and quite frankly, you know we're doing We're doing things well

to get down there. We're coming away with either a field goal or in this case tonight, a turnover. You know, some penalties and just things that have really kept us from scoring a couple of touchdowns. How frustrating is it when you have the presnappers and what do you do about that? All the precap stuff. Yeah, those are things that, um, it just flat out can't happen. Um, you know those things we talk about going back to OTAs and the spraying and training camp and you know, um, you know

it starts with me. I gotta make sure when we I get a meeting that that you know I'm on point. I'm reiterating the fact that, hey guys, we you know, these are the things and show the players, show them exactly, whether we agree with the call or not, whatever it might be, to show the players and show the show

the mistakes so that we can learn from them. You trouble winning on third down again to the only two of done and third down for that project, A lot of times it comes from our first and second down execution. We're we're keeping ourselves in third and you know seven, eight, nine pluses and those are those are tough. When teams just come out and flat out pin their ears back and rush the passer and give you exotic blitz looks,

it's it's hard. And so we're putting ourselves in in hard situations that we shouldn't be in and and we should be. You know, we try to be in more of the third and two to threes and fours and fives where you can you can, you can. The throw is a little bit faster, ball out and coming out of Carson's hand a little bit faster, and you have the ability to run the football. So we're gonna look at that and uh, you know, we gotta we gotta

get better. We got a short week this week, and how do you prepare and plan to get ready for the New York games on such a short Yeah, you know, the biggest thing for for coaches and players in the National Football League is one, Um, you know, we're back to work tomorrow on another opponent, so we can flush this loss pretty quickly and get back out on the practice field and get ready for another one on a

short week. But you know, I have a lot of confidence in my staff, a lot of confidence in these code, these players, and UM, you know we're gonna get We're gonna get this thing fixed and that and that's starts with me. I'm gonna make sure I do everything I can to help this football team and and and be successful that way. And um, I'll look forward to get

back out on the field tomorrow. Thanks loving Thursday, Nrning, Thank you all right, great stuff as always from Mike Quick and special thanks to coach Peterson for doing that right after a difficult loss. So Coach Pearson touched on something and we've talked a baleray on the show, and just the third down conversions two of nine. Didn't realize that was the toll. They're two of nine on third down.

So I was actually trying to go through the game book to see what were those third down situations because as we mentioned earlier, it was an average of third and ten last week against the Titans, So obviously you got to do better on first and second down. The disappointing thing is a couple of these third down situations in the first half, third and one you're not converting. That's where they go for the toss play to win Nel Smallwood that doesn't succeed, and then a third in

three which they don't convert. So they were doing a better job of getting themselves into those third and managable opportunities,

but they're just not converting. And then in the second half when you basically have no option but to convert at that point because you're behind so far by so much in the ballgame, that you're getting into third and twelve, third and twenty situations and the odds are you're just not going to make those on a consistent basis, especially when the defense can just back up and say we can allow you to get the yards as long as you don't get in the end zone. That's perfectly fine

with us. So we have more analysis coming up here on the postgame show presented by Rico. We're gonna have our Rico review with Fran Duffie and Grey Cosell on the other side. However, if you are following us on Facebook or Twitter, you need to come on over to Philadelphia Eagles dot com or the app to watch the rest of the show much more here as we dissect the Eagle's latest loss to the hands of the Minnesota Vikings by a score of twenty three to twenty one.

We'll see you all in a few Well, I'm trying to get hold, but it feels like another line. Yeah, I'm trying to stay strong. Sometimes I realize that further wrong the more that I know that, I won't go home. When you and your money are treated with respect, your prosper and at fontand Der Bank, respect adds up. Come

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That's why we treat you and your money with respect. To learn more about how respect adds up at Santon Dair by visiting Santandair Bank dot Com. All right, welcome back to the postgame show presented by Rico. One. Injury concern for the Eagles early on in the season has been at running back, where again no Darren Sprowles, and while Corey Clement was active, I don't know if he played on offense. I think he was basically an emergency

reserve to fill if needed. Jayagi had to miss a little bit of time, banged up his knee during the course of the game, and of course he's battling that back injury. So top to bottom, you know, not a lot going on here with the running back position from a health standpoint, but good to see Wendell small would step up once again in a much more expanded role, showing tough running in between the tackles and also helped

catching the ball. Of course, he had that one drop early on in the game which was costly in the red zone, but came through later on Ike in a big way. Yeah, and you know, I don't think anyone should be disappointed in what Wendelle small One has brought to the table this year, considering what the backfield has

looked like. He's been one of the few guys that have been healthy for all five games, and I think the opportunities that he's that he's been able to get through the first five weeks of the season, he's made the most of most of them. But you can't have the plays like you had in the first quarter where you drop a ball at the four yard line where it's an easy first down four year and it could be first and goal. Great catch later on in the game,

had some tough running yards in between the tackle. He certainly deserves to be a part of this offense, and you like what he can't contribute, but it's hard for coaches to have full trust in you when there's fear of that one or two plays where it's gonna be like, oh man, he didn't take care of that. But I thought when Dale had a good game to day, and I'm pretty sure he'll he'll be thinking about the play in the first half more than he will anything else

he did today. But I thought it was a nice way to bounce back after that play after that disappointing drop. Early really made a tough catch, but a touchdown late in the game. That's not an easy catch to make over your shoulder, and I thought they made the correct call couple steps in the end zone, knee down. If it had been last year, that would not have been a touchdown. That would not have been a touchdown last year.

But I thought it was the correct call. All right, speaking of that touchdown, how did that play come to life? Let's send it over to Fran Duffy and Great Corsell who break it down in Arica review. All right, Greg, let's look at the play that really got the Eagles back in this football game. Late, they're down twenty to six, they're in the red zone. They haven't had much success in that area of the field really at all this season. They get a touchdown catch to Wendell Small would really

draw this playoff for us. Here. It's a really well designed play. You see this formation all throughout the NFL and the red zone where you have trips to the field, three receivers to the field, and then on the boundary side you have an ex receiver the single receiver to the boundary. Here it's Alshon Jeffrey and you have the back Wendell Small would offset to the same side to the boundary, so you have two receivers in the boundary. Now, what this normally means is that the defense, the corner

has to match up to the wide receiver. Whether it's a manned concept or a zone concept, that corner must match up to the wide receiver. And that's exactly what happens here now. Because of that, again, there's only one player who can now play Windell Smallwood, and that's a linebacker inside and here it's Eric Kendricks. So what you're essentially setting up with the wheel route by Windelle Smallwood is you're essentially setting up a one on one matchup

with your back on the linebacker. And that's exactly what happens here because Jeffrey runs his route and removes the corner. So let's play this and you'll see exactly how this works. You see Jeffrey run vertically, you see the wheel route, you get the matchup, you want the one on one, and you get the touchdown. A well designed, well executed play, yeah, certainly. And you saw a nice job there from Parson Wentz as well, making sure that safety state in the middle

of the field. Great throw, great catch, good execution there from the Eagles in the red zone. Just not enough of that here today. McDonald's proud partner of the Philadelphia Eagles great stuff as always from Fran and Gregg, and you can check out the entire reco review tomorrow morning here on Philadelphia Eagles dot com and make sure to read frans Eagle Eye in the Sky column, which will break down exactly what went wrong for the Eagles in

today's loss to the Minnesota Vikings. And it'd be great to see if they can conjure up some more plays like that ike in the red zone to try to get that on track. It's I know that Coach Peterson and Carson Wentz were asked about the influence of John d. Philippo, who obviously left in the offseason to join the Vikings coaching staff. But to me, the coach, you have the right coaches here, okay, And this is still Doug Peterson's

offense at the end of the day. But it is shocking to see how much of a drop off there's been in the red zone performance from last year to now here, or at least the early portion of twenty eighteen. And it hasn't been the sole reason for the drop off, but it's certainly been part of the reason for the drop off. I go back to the self inflicted penalties.

I mean, you're having mishaps down there in the red zone where you're pushing yourself away from the red zone as opposed to getting closer to the goal line and getting in the end zone. And I just thought today they had too many of those chances. I mean, whether it's whether it's a drop pass by when Dell, or whether it's an illegal formation, a holding call, whatever it may be, they found themselves really moving away from the

goal line as opposed to moving closer. I don't think it has anything to do with who's here as the red zone coordinator. You mentioned it. We had the same players, primarily, zach Ertz is a great red zone threat. Getting al Shone back for the second week, that's another guy that's a red zone threat. Running backs coming out of the backfield catching the ball like when Dale did today. That's also going to be an option for them moving forward.

But you gotta stay ahead of the chains. You can't go from first and ten at the twenty to first and fifteen at the twenty five, or first and twenty at the thirty because you got a holding call. And that's happened far too often to this team down there in the red zone. I don't think we have very

many turnovers in the red zone this year. You know, I don't think they're turning the ball over down there, but it's either drop balls or penalties things of that nature that have hurt them their opportunities to put touchdowns on the board instead of field goals. Well, the turnovers have become because of pressure in the pocket and Carson

Wentz loses the ball. That's the reason. That's the only turnovers you've really had, you know, with Carson Wentz coming back and reassuming the rains at the quarterback, since they've all been the same turns, sack, fumble, that's what's been right there. So when you look at the box score there, it's just amazing that if we had the halftime box score, the final game box score, Minnesota just dominated across the board,

from time of possession the total yards. Eagles could not get anything going on offense in the first half and to pretty much finish with almost the same numbers in every category really is a testament how they were able to fight back in the second half. However, it showcases the struggles are having in the first thirty minutes of games of not being able to contend again mentioned the stat earlier in the show. The Eagles were one of the worst teams in the league in first quarter differential.

You know, they were outscored twenty to seven in the first quarter of games coming into this contest. Minnesota was actually worse. But Minnesota, even despite the Dan Bailey field goal miss, was still able to jump on the board first in this game here, and they raced out to an eventual seventeen to three halftime lead. Yet the Eagles got into a one possession game, had the ball in Vikings territory, could have scored, but did so. Once again,

the Eagles are left to wonder what if. But at least they'll be a short week before they could possibly take care of those bad feelings. All Right, we're gonna take our final break here on the postgame show presented by Rico. We're gonna look ahead to what's going on from a scheduled standpoint for the Eagles and offer our Toyota Player of the Game nominees right after these messages. No matter when you retire, your income doesn't have to see how Lincoln can help ensure you still have income

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new Toyota. So to lead off the nominees, we're gonna start with the man who, even though it seems like at times that the numbers aren't flashy, it's he's been so good at accumulating stats throughout the course of a game that once again, just look at the stat line. Another one hundred yard outing, eleven targets, but ten receptions on those eleven targets and it gets this. I couldn't

believe his first touchdown of the season. Zach Ertz starting us off with this is now his third double digit reception game of the season, and I believe seventh in franchise history. Yeah, I mean he listen. He is a reception king man. And obviously quarterbacks love going to their tight ends. It's their security blanket. And you had a guy like zach ertzt that pretty much catches everything you throw to him. You know, I throw it to him as well. It's great to see him get in the

end zone finally. Last year I thought he got over that hurdle of having a lot of catches and yards but not having many touchdowns. Last year he had eight touchdowns. It's good to see him get his first one, albeit in the fourth game of the season. Well, maybe that breaks the seal on him getting into the end zone. Now we can open up the floodgates and Zach can

start turning some of those receptions into touchdown receptions. I also like the fact that when he has ten catches that he goes for over one hundred yards, that he's averaging a first down per reception. Also, if he's getting ten catches for eighty yards. It's kind of like, all right, obviously he's the checkdown guy. He's not really moving the ball down a field, but he's being reliable and coming

with big players for the offense. Our second nominee. We've talked about him a short time ago in our reco review. And there's wen Delle Smallwood, who again had the drop early on, but came back with that fourth quarter touchdown and followed that with a nice two point conversion run where he dove into the end zone to be able

to get those extra points. Yeah, nice job. You know, he's talking about a mash unit at the running back position and win Dell not getting getting a ton of touches when you look at the Russian attempt sending the receptions. But the good thing is seems like whenever he has the ball in his hands, he's making the most of it. And so nothing but positivity from Wendelle Smallwood in his fourth year, starting to show why the Eagles have really

kept him around. And with the way the backfield is up and down with who's healthy and who's not, it's great to have at least one guy who you seemingly can depend on every week, and that's when Dell. He's been healthy every week, which is ironic because that was the knock on his first couple of season. You showed, he showed promise, showed talent, but just couldn't translate it to the field because he was always on the sideline.

Our last nominee. Look, Carson Wentz. I'm telling you look at the completion percentage sixty nine percent, almost seventy percent over three hundred yards, two touchdowns, no interception, a one fifteen quarterback rating. You know, outside of the pressure that he's dealing with, he's been outstanding. You know, it's and without looking at the tape, it's hard to see is he missing guys or guys open things in that nature. But overall, though he's making smart decisions with the football,

the velocity has increased, the accuracy is there. You know, we saw a little bit more of him taking off and running today as opposed to recent weeks. So overall, I just love what I'm seeing with Carson Wentz. You just hope that they can put it together in the red zone so that it adds to more becomes more points and they come out with winds instead of these

tough losses. Yeah, that's a prized possession right there. When you look at the quarterback of this team, he is the franchise, and I think he's gotten better every week. There's three straight weeks that I've been impressed with Carson Wentz's performance. When you look at the dress that he's under, when you're talking about pressure coming from his laugh, coming from his right, he rarely gets an opportunity to step up in the pocket because teams are now starting to

bring pressure through those A gaps. Every once in a while he'll hold onto the ball. But you got to take the good with the bad as far as that goes with Carson Wentz, because he's always looking to make a play down the field, and I think as the season goes along, he's going to get more and more comfortable with the speed of the game. I still don't

think he's necessarily had his A game yet. He's given us a bunch of B plus A minus performances, but we know that he has one of those three hundred yard, four touchdown, five touchdown games in his arm. The thing is is that guys have to get open. You got to catch the ball when he throws it. To you because he's doing everything that he can to keep you in the game. I thought today it was gonna be the day. Yeah, I actually sold it. I said on the Kickoff show we do Bowl prediction. I said the

number to watch was three sixty four. That was his career high in passing yards. I thought he was gonna surpass it, and I thought he would lead. I thought we were going to see MVP Carson Wentz. I thought he was going to carry this team on his back today. And look, the numbers were outstanding. He did run the offense efficiently, just could not get the ball in the end zone. That really was the difference at the end of the day. So let's take a look at the

upcoming schedule. Of course, the Giants the Eagles are traveling up to MetLife on Thursday night, short week. That game will be eight twenty pm Fox and NFL Network at Amazon Prime. But what's amazing about this schedule so far is five games Eagles are two and three. The combined differential if these games is twenty one points five games

twenty one points, one game going overtime. The biggest margin victory, you know, was the Week one against the Falcons in the following week against the Buccaneer six points, all one possession games. That's how thin the margin is between being an the league team and being an average team in the NFL. Just too many small things that need to be cleaned up for this Eagles team. And you look at those scores, you look at the schedule movement forward.

I mean, the Eagles they can turn this thing around. They really can. They just have to stop all of the little small things that hurt themselves. And you just play a clean football game. You're gonna look up at the end of the game and realize you have more points than the other team. Because this is a good football team. It really is. And I'm not here to make excuses for this team. They've had as many issues or adversity to overcome, just like other teams around this league.

So this isn't an excuse league. You got to get the job done with whom you have to go out the field the battle with every week. And I think the Eagles for the most part, with the exception of the Tampa Bay game, they've had enough at their disposal to go win football games. And so this is a team that if they don't beat themselves easily sitting at four and one right now. But like Bill par Sales once said, you are what your record says you are. It's a two and three team. Two and three says

inconsistent play. That's what that says. And when they look back on the first five games of this season, they're gonna know that they've contributed to the three losses as much as the other team did to beat them. I mean, the Eagles have really put themselves behind the eight ball at times, and they got to clean this stuff up so that they can be playing their best football come in November and December. Indeed, you know three great tests had first and foremost, the Giants come up on Thursday

night to division matchup here. You know, the Eels are two and three, Okay. Two of the losses are within the conference, one to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that has fallen off after its hot start. And then the other one you know, coming here to you to the Vikings, a team that you know is probably going

to be in the mix as well. Okay, MC North, you know, hotly contested with Detroit, come up with a big win today over Green Bay in Chicago, off to its great start, but overall in Minnesota is going to be in the picture here, So the Eagles need to focus on the nc East. It's wide open. Okay. The Giants losing today, you know, they don't have a ton

to play for. It probably doesn't it's not gonna be in the cards for them in twenty eighteen, but they can play spoiler to the Eagles, and they Nobody wants to see the Eagles go to two and four in the month of October. Okay, So it's one thing to say we're gonna play our best football in the second half of the season, but you need September and October to stack wins to put yourself in position so that when you are playing your best football that you are

gonna win the division. You're gonna get a good seat in the playoffs, and then you could possibly have home field advantage. So you look here at the NFC East. Look, the Eagles are gonna be right there in the mix, and they just need to start things off with a big win on Thursday against the Giant Tyke and they can wake up Tuesday and look and be looking at a two and two d Scans team. They have to

go to New Orleans tomorrow night. That's gonna be a tough game for the rad Scans coming out the bye week, going to play the Saints and the Cowboys tonight are playing the Houston Texas in Houston, so you know that that can be a tough game as well. So a lot of football still left to be played. Hes just need to clean up their own backyard so that the rest of this division is looking up at them the

way it should be. Indeed, Dallas winning early six to nothing in that ball game on Sunday Night football, So Houston needs to turn up a little bit. Marks and Reese tomorrow afternoon on Sports Radio ninety four, w IP what do you think the big topic is gonna be. Obviously it's gonna be the Eels lost, But what do you think the fans are gonna be calling the most.

What's gonna be the primary storyline? Well, the first question they'll probably throw out there is I thought you said this was a lock, You said this was a guaranteed win, you know, And that's what I told them all last week. No, in all seriousness, Um, they're gonna be some some angry fans and get it out of the system tomorrow. We gotta get ready for the Giants on Thursday night. A lot of football left to be played. But you know how the passion runs deep for this this this football team,

through these fans in this city. So it'll be a lot of yelling and screaming tonight. I'm pretty sure my co workers and Angelo Katoldy, he'll he'll get them rolled up. Tomorrow. We'll have some things to talk about, just transitioning. We listen, we'll talk it out, we'll talk it out. We'll have our Eagles community and I'll do my best to make sure no one is jumping off the ship. We got a lot of football still left to be played. And you know this team has championship DNA, A lot of

football left to be played. Man, a lot of football left to be played. They just need to clean some stuff up and get back to playing Eagles football. So some therapy on Sports Radio ninety four w IP and then before the game you get a little bit of the excellent os and how the Eagles can beat the Giants on Eagles Game Plans, So make sure to check out that. Check that out later on in the week. So that's gonna do it for us here on the postgame show, presented by a Rico for Rykereason. Everyone here

at the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm Chris McPherson signing off the Eagles fall twenty three to twenty one to the Vikings. Will be back tomorrow as head coach Doug Pearson addresses the media at noon. Until then, have a Greagles and everyone mm hm