The Detroit Lions had not scored twenty points in the game, and their last four contests won't. That was not an issue today, as Matthew Stafford through not one, not two, not three, foot five touchdown passes in a forty five to fourteenth victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Hello everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to y'all out there. I'm Chris McPherson and this is the postgame show presented by Rico here in
Philadelphi Eagles Com. I'm joined alongside former Eagles linebacker ike reas I the Eagles lose forty five to fourteen on Thanksgiving. We'll go back in time a little bit. Since that first quarter against Miami, when the Eagles raced out to a sixteen to three lead, the Eagles have been outscored one hundred and seven to thirty four since that point. I'm a loss for words. The Eagles allowed all six possessions that the Lions had in the red zone to
result in a touchdown. Offense didn't get much going on their end. The fourteen points came. The last touchdown was a Jordan Matthews score in the fourth quarter, when the game was already well at hand. At one point. This was a seven seven ballgame. What in your cutimation, what in your estimation has happened specifically to this Eagles defense. It's hard to figure out, you know, what's going on
with this team right now. You know they've been able to hang their head on their defensive performances pretty much throughout the year to the defense has pretty much kept them and just about every game, but these last two games, given up ninety points to the Buccaneers and now to the Jroity Lions on Thanksgiving afternoon. It's really disheartening. It's really not a brand of football that we've become accustomed
to watching in these parts, particularly in midnight Green. To go out there and have an effort like today where it's forty five to fourteen final score, it's just real disappointing. It's for a season that had so much promise and had so much hope coming into it. These last couple of weeks have been hard to swallow it as an Eagle fan, no question about. The Eagles have now lost
three straight there four and seven on the season. After this very disappointing and I don't even know what disappointing at this point would be. The right word to describe it. Certainly, you thought that the Eagles defense would come out and put on a much better performance after allowing five touchdowns a week ago to the rookie number one overall pick and Jamie's wins. But of course it's not just the fact that the Eagles gave up so many points, but
there are injuries that impacted the outcome. Nolan Carroll suffered a broken right ankle during the contest. In the second quarter. He was rolled up on during a joy bell run by the Lions and he had to be carved off the field. X rays determined that it was a break and second round pick Eric Rowe had to go in there, and he was not given much help going against one of the all time greats in Calvin Johnson, who had three of the five touchdown passes on the day from
Matthew Stafford. I actually can't blame the second round pick in some of these instances. You had good coverage at times, but it was more of an instance of just simply how great Calvin Johnson is and the arm town of quarterback Matthew Stafford. Well, no doubt about it. Number eighty one. I mean, listen, he has a spot and can't know how you're waiting for him five years after his career
is Overwitt and Calvin Megan, Tron Johnson. But you knew with this Detroit Lions allfense, it could be dangerous if he can get clicking. The skill position players are there. You know Matthew Stafford, He's thrown for over five thousand yards in this league. He's thrown for over forty touchdowns in this league. You know what he and Calvin Johnson can do when they get hot. And today the Eagles
secondary was the remedy for the Lions offensive wolves. They had won their last two games, but they won those games by putting up only eighteen points. They went through an offensive explosion this afternoon going up against this Eagle secondary. You know what, when I look at the Lions offense in the way that it performed today, I see what I would hope the Eagles offense would be. A dominant
wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, a great slinger at quarterback. There a gun slinger there in Matthew Stafford, and then those skill position players in addition to Calvin Johnson theoretic. You knew coming into this game that he led all running backs in terms of receptions in the entire NFL. Well, he was someone that the Eagles had to worry about and contend with throughout the course of the game and
Golden tape look. He maybe the number two receiver in this offense, but very good in his own right and someone who was able to be a chess piece in this Lions off and someone who could be moved around the formation. And to make matters worse, this was a rushing attack that was dead last coming into the league
second round pick of mer Abdullah Joyce Bell. As we mentioned before, they were able to get to churn out some big plays, they were able to move the chains, and on the day, not sexy numbers, they gained over one hundred yards on the ground, but when you consider that they'd only done that twice in their first ten games of the season, certainly something to consider there. So what we're gonna do now is take our first break
here on the postgame show presented by ricco. In a little bit, we're going to hear from the head coach, Chip Kelly as well as quarterback Mark Sanchez, and we also delve into some of the All twenty two of exactly how this result transpired, so make sure you're stay tuned with us on this Thanksgiving edition of The Postgame Show presented by Rico. What if This year we went around the table and instead of saying what we're thankful for,
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presented by Rico. Here on Philadelphia Eagles dot Com, Chris mcphears alongside former Eagles linebacker Ike reecee and Ike I really just want to take a moment to apologize to the fans out there. I mean, this is as gut wrenching a loss as I think any of us have
seen or experience in quite some time. Obviously, the Miami lost a couple of weeks ago, very just a point with the way the Eagles were able to get off to a hot start last week, very demoralizing because you figured Tampa Bay a team that struggled offensively, a rookie quarterback that could have been what helped the Eagles out. Then you figure, okay, let's forget about the fact that Eagles are still in the playoff picture, that MCAS is
still up for grabs. Just go out and play for pride, Just try to summon up what's inside of you and to be able to go out there and play inspired football. You figure the best thing coming off they lost to Tampa Bay was a short turnaround, and for whatever reason, it didn't prove to help. Yeah, I mean, just real disappointing that, you know, the Eagles couldn't come out after the disappointing lost this past Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And like you said, nothing else. You want to see
that pride shown out there on the field. You want to see the effort put forward to try to win this football game today. And they may have come in with the right intentions, with the right mindset, but it wasn't very long into this game today where it looked like there was just one team that just wanted it more than the other team, and for two teams that seemingly had not a whole lot to play for, and
the Eagles had more to play for. Coming into this game against the Lions, it certainly appeared that the Lions were the team that were playing as if their season was on the line, as if they still had a chance to get into playoffs. And that's what you wanted to see from the Eagles today after that Buccaneers loss. I wanted to see what type of football team would
take the field today wearing midnight green. Will be a team that takes the field with pride, that wants to go out there and get that bad taste out of their mouth that they had this past Sunday against the Buccaneers. Or would it be a team that goes into the game and says, what do we have to play for?
It's Thanksgiving? I can't wait to get back home, And sadly to say, that's what it looked like after that first quarter, that one team was looking to get out of Detroit as soon as possible, and the other team looked like they smelled blood in the water and they just kept powling on the points and points and points. We haven't seen a performance like this from an Eagles team in some wow maybe you're a rookie season. Yeah, it was, especially when you're talking about back to back
performances like this. I mean, ninety points in two games, ten touchdown passes in two games. It's just not Eagle football. This isn't Eagle football. This isn't what we've become accustomed to watching out there on the field. And that's what's disappointing to the Eagles fan basis that this isn't a team that they can identify with because it doesn't look like what typically represents the Philadelphia Eagles now whatsoever. So coming into this season, look, the Eagles had won ten
games in back to back seasons. You figured they had made some big moves to try to get that team to turn from good to great, and some of them just haven't worked up until his point. Now, I don't know, maybe if we just over judge out that they would need some time to gel that. You have so many different pieces coming together that you know it's gonna take
time for all that to coagulate to gel together. But nonetheless, you figure at this point of the year, everyone'll be finding the right note, everyone would be on track, and things would be moving on up and you'd be making that push toward the latter half of the season, the final quarter of the season in fact. But for whatever reason,
that just hasn't been the case. The defense, which everyone has been able to rely upon in the early part of the season, especially that rushing defense, anchored by Fletcher Cox and Benny Logan upfronts. You know, their play has slipped ever since the Carolina performance, and then the secondary, which had been very good. From a takeaway standpoint, maybe they'd given up some yards, but at least they've made teams pay with the takeaways twenty one coming into this game.
You just have not seen that in the last couple of games. You go back to the Miami game, they got the safety in the first quarter and they were not able to get any turnovers outside of the safety,
even though that doesn't technically count as a safety. In the game against Tampa Bay a week ago, they actually didn't get it takeaway that came from the offense after DeMarco Murray coughed up the ball and then Zach Ertz and Brent Sulk were able to force the ball loose and be able to get it right back for the offense. So the one takeaway there came from the offense. And then today, nothing going as they were not able to dark much pressure on Matthew Stafford. Again, five touchdown passes
on the day, three of them to Megatron. Look at times there was good coverage, but again it just shows how dumb. Even though he's getting up there in age, he is thirty years old, he is still one of the best receivers, not just in a national football league now, but of all time. Like, oh, no doubt about it. I mean, and you're gonna leave single coverage on Calvin Johnson, you're gonna pay. I mean, that's that's just the quarterback and wide receiver basically salivating when they see a rookie
like Eric Row over there on Megatron. They're gonna put the ball up in eighty one's area and allow him to go up and make a catch on the ball. You see fourteen targets. It's probably the most he's been targeted in the last few games. He sees a young player over there on him, you gotta take advantage of that. And like I said, Matthew Stafford, a guy who's thrown forward five thousand yards in the sleeve forty plus touchdowns multiple times, they know how to get the ball in
the end zone. And this was sort of the defense that they had been looking for to sort of get their offense clicking. Calvin Johnson had three touchdowns coming into this game. He got three to day alone. For my money, here, I can't blame defensive Cordy build Dave for not wanting to put extra attention over there. And here's what I'll say why it is because throughout the course of the game in that first half, you saw theoretic given the linebackers lots of problems. You saw a golden tape again
being a thorn in the Eagles side. So for those two guys as well, I mean, you can't just say we're gonna double coverage or apply double coverage to Calvin Johnson each and every time. Unfortunately, you know what, one of the other guys in that offense is going to
come back to burn you. So that's why I understand why Bill Davis made that decision in certain points not to alleviate the help over there, because there are just times where, look, if you're playing inside leverage and you're as Eric Roy cornerback would do down the red zone and say, look, I'm gonna play with the boundary, I'm gonna play with the sideline and just squeeze Megatron in between there and say, hey, Stafford, make a good throw
in there. Guess what he would. So we're now going to send it to four field in Detroit head coach Chip Kelly about to address the media. Take it away. It's right at the top. I mean, I mean we didn't didn't well, didn't coach well today, didn't uh, didn't really do anything well today. So UM, it's very disappointing. Um, what you wanted not the outcome anybody's looking for. So give it up for two games and what's going on? I thought, again, we got to do a better job
at getting to the quarterback. Um, I'm at it too much time. Uh, gotta get a little credit to try to create some more pressure. Uh, Calvin. Obviously it was a very difficult matchup for US. UM, you know, when we didn't do a good job putting those guys in position to make plays that they had to make in the game. I test, is it for you to be confident of Wall team? Would you have stretched like ISRAELUS team? Especially that I guess the answer that is the there's
no there's no other option. You know, you know you got five games left here as we come up and we get back in December. Um, and that's what we gotta do. We gotta go play. You know, I don't think anybody's gonna feel sorry for US UM as a group. We gotta play and we gotta play better. Yeah. I don't think it's you know, they're trying to prove a point or anything like that. I just think we didn't we got we got out coach today and didn't do
a very good job. So, um, you we'll see. Yes, what's that have confidence and most players in the locker room because I've seen him play before and I've got a lot of confidence in those guys. I think we've got some really good guys at Damiko Ryots and Malcolm Jenkins, that Jason Kelsey's the Brent Selex that you know, there's a ton of guys in there that I think I've seen him compete and I've seen him play and I've
seen him play at a really high level. And Um, I told those guys in the locker room I have confidence in there. Now I haven't seen it. We didn't play well in the two gas. I'm not gonna make any excuses for that. Well, this this was a different week mark I think is because it was short week. So um, but we've we have trained before this week
very well. You know, we were all obviously on a limited schedule with kind of a pro glide walk through Tech Temple on Monday, because you're the day after the game, you know, and then you're into your forty eight hours before the game. But they handled that well. It's the same, really, the same schedule we use. Last year we've played UM Dallas on Thanksgiving, you know. So it's it's a you know, it's one of those where you look at it. One year it worked really well for us, and obviously this
year didn't work well for us. How much accountability, I think we all take accountability, but I speak for I'm a coach. I'm not a player, So it starts to may I'm not pointing fingers in anybody, and I don't think anybody points fingers in anybody. I think it's we all got to look inside ourselves and see what we can do to change the outcome of what's going on.
And that's the way it has to be. But I think once you start pointing fingers in saying it's you blame it on somebody else, then you know that then you've lost what you gotta do. I mean think everybody's got to look inside and figure out what they can do as an individual to make this team better. Just
I mean that's the that's a question. You gotta everybody wants to know, you know, you gotta look at it and look at tape, and we'll coach them better, and we'll coach them harder and put him in positions where they can make plays that I know when we all know that they can't they can't make because I've seen him make of so mean. Yeah, I mean I don't think anybody, I mean, we didn't. I didn't see this happening,
you know, I didn't. I don't feel like, you know, coming in, I wasn't going, oh my god, this is this, this thing's gonna get away from us. You know, I thought I'm gonna have a chance to commending him really compete with the good football team. Um. I think we tried to, you know, specifically at halftime, tried to come after him a little bit more. He brought a little bit more pressure on um Matt. But I thought Matt
did a good job. If you watched him, a couple of times he checked in into protections and got himself in a situation where he was picking up what was coming. Um, you know, he was he's a he's a guy that's been around for a while. Um. I think he did a really good job of handling some of the book slicks that we were giving him in terms of getting them set in the protection, in terms of being able to pick those guys up games the first two seas.
You can't do that this year now as a step back. Now, I don't look at I mean, I said before, ten wins wasn't enough. You know, if you don't finish as the number one team in the league, then it's a step back. And that's what That's what our mentality is, and that's what my mentality has always been. But I was never happy when we were ten and six, I can tell you that. And I think, UM, you're always trying to go out there and give yourself an opportunity.
It's still an opportunity for us UM to make the playoffs, and that's what this deal's all about. You got to get into the tournament and then see what happens from there. We got a lot, we've got a lot of work to do to get ourselves into that. So it's a U But I don't I've never looked at it like, hey, I won ten games. We did a good job. I mean, ten games means nothing if you don't do anything in the playoffs. We went ten and six last year and
didn't make the playoffs. It wasn't good enough your team job. Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying we're doing a better job. I can tell you that. I mean we're not. But I don't look at ten wins as a good job either. I've never looked at it like that. I believe our players played today. Yeah, I believe our players compated. Yes, I do all the players. Yes, the players, and you guys lose one of the problem with you. I don't know.
I don't have that answer. I just know. I just know. So, Yeah, we do it all the time, and it's we haven't put our partners in position to make plays in last two weeks. And that's on us. That's on That's on me as a head coach. I'll take responsibility for that. Yeah, I'm competed to seeing this film's now and I think it's two weeks. I don't know. I think the week
before was a little bit different. You know, it was on one point last for we really made a lot of week week I know that, but we weren't up sixteen three and the last two games. That's why I kind of look at the last two one of the ones that I think hurt, hurt, you know in terms of our how we how we performed and what the
fund score was. You know, I think the other game, you know, you just kind of when you watch that game, the Miami game, you go back and forth and how many times we had missed opportunities that were right there for us to take and ano in the game by a point. You know, you have a touchdown call back, you miss a field goal. You know, we have the ball bounce up in the air and no one sees it, and then we turned around and the guy catch. There's a lot of different things that happened in that game.
I think that game is a different game than these last two weeks. And my biggest concerns the last two weeks players, what did you say to them afterwards? Somehow intend to keep them off. I told him that, you know, we don't have UM and I don't think anybody has any words. Is gonna make it feel good right now?
And rightly? So, I mean, we got beat today, UM, And what we have to do is that we have to come together as a group and we're gonna figure out we got five games left in December, and actually four games in December and one in January, that first week of January, that will determine where we are as a football team. So we need to get our head straight here in the next couple of days because they're off, and then when we come back on Tuesday, we get
ready to go go play in New England Patriots. I'm not happy with how we play. Sam's not clear cleared to go full fold right now. His head is cleared to shoulders, but he's not clear to go full right now. What are some of the issues with the offense minus nine yards offense in the second quart of for yeah, I think specifically in this game, we struggled with their rush. You know, they're only rush and four um and they generated a lot of pressure um on market times, you know.
So we didn't we didn't do a we didn't do a good job from a protection standpoint. Okay, all right, there's head coach Chip Kelly addressing the media following the Eagles forty five to fourteen loss at the hands of the Detroit Lions. We will hear from quarterback Mark Sanchez in a little bit, but first we're gonna take a quick commercial break Here. On the postgame show presented by Rico, we'll hear from Sanchez break down some of the tape
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save twenty, select Nike and are double points. Hurry in for great deals and all the best brands only at Sports authority Love. The Eagles play the new instant game from the Pennsylvania Lottery. Players must be eighteen or older. Please play Responsibility. Welcome back to the postgame show, presented by Rico here on Philadelphia Eagles dot com Chris McPherson alongside former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese. Ike, we just heard from the head coach. We'll hear from quarterback Marks Stanchez
and just a little bit. But what can a coach say to the players at this point in time that will get them riled up, that would really be able to reach them. I'm not sure as much he can say. I mean, listen, we are professionals, or these guys are professionals, and there has to be some self pride, you know, at some point it can't be about the coach giving you a motivational speech trying to light a spark on you. At some point you got to look in the mirror
and say, I expect more of myself. And that's each individual player. Now, you can accept the results of a game knowing that you put forth the effort and the preparation going into that game that would give you the best chance to have success. And if it doesn't happen
you can sleep easy at night. I'm not so sure many of these players can honestly look themselves in the mirror over the last two games and say that they've done everything they could to give themselves the best opportunity to have success out there on the field, whether it be preparation prior to the game, the right mindset going into the game, and even being in the game and handling adversity and trying to fight through it. There's only so much a coach can do. There's only so much
a coach can do. These are grown men. They get paid a handsome salary. This is the National Football League. Have some self pride, look yourselves in the mirror and say this is unacceptable. And that's really what it boils down to. It's only so much that chip can do. As far as verbally trying to get a team ready to go, his job is to get you ready to go, X and os, why have you prepared going into a game? And then he may occasionally give you words that may
inspire you. But the last two weeks, to me, this isn't about the coach coming up with the right words to get his players motivated to play. This is about the players and whether or not they have enough self pride to not put the direct that they put out on the field for the past two games. That's what it boils down to me. That's why for me, it's good to have Chip Kelly take the one week at a time approach that he has because at this point
you have to eliminate the outside noise. You can't look at the previous week's results, you can't look at the record or the standings. Throw all of that out the window at this point and just focus on a task at hand. The Eagles have a couple of days off to kind of regroup, get away to whatever they need
to do. You know, some players like Jason Peters, Jason Kelsey, guys who are battling some injuries, they can get a little bit healthier and then come back on Tuesdays and an overcare complex, watch the film, figure out what rent wrong and move on from there. So the biggest thing there is going to be can they just maintain that, you know, tunnel vision approach or to speak to not think big picture, not worry about all the little things going on, all the chit chats that's gonna begin to
surround the novercare complex. Just focus on everyone's individual jobs and just stay focused on the task at hand in terms of preparing for the next game and treating that game as if it's the biggest game on the schedule, the only game on the schedule at that point there, right, Yeah, you got a few days to get ready before you had a head up to New England in ten days.
And if you think these last two weeks were embarrassing, well, if they don't come back with the right mindset to go up there and play Tom Brady and Build Belichick in Foxborough, it can get even worse. So these players, I mean, I don't know what you're gonna do during this time off, a few days that you have take a dare to enjoy it with your family, But you have to realize, do you want to be a field that egle? Do you know what it means to be a Philadelphia Eagle? Do you want to be a part
of this team, because that's what I'm looking for. You know, you're trying to get a win if they're coming up. But I'm looking at this team and I'm looking for who's putting out the effort. You know, if I'm on the inside, of this building. I'm looking to see who's doing what they need to do to prepare each and every week, who's taking shortcuts. That's what I want to know. I want to know who's in the foxhole with me right now. Because I can lose with bad players. I
can lose with bad players. What I can't lose with is guys that's posing as if they care, and they don't care because they're infesting my locker. So these guys need to figure out what they want to do as far as what type of legacy you want to leave here as a Philadelphia Eagle, What does it mean to
you as an NFL player? The type of performance they put out there in the past two weeks, Every guy in that locker room should be embarrassed that they're in the National Football League because you don't give up forty five points back to back weeks in the National Football League. This isn't college football. This doesn't happen in the NFL unless players are putting on a performances if they don't care.
And that's what I'm concerned with is the last two weeks, I've seen guys out there not putting out the performance that we've become accustomed to wanting to see on the football field and seeing on the football field, and that's what they need to get clear over these next few days. And you come back in here next week, you would better be prepared to go up to Foxborough, because if you think these last two games were embarrassing, you don't
go up there ready to play. It can be forty five or fifty more points put on you can we bring you into the auditorium to address the team. I think every player needs to hear that exact sentiment because over the next couple of weeks, everyone is going to be looked at, scrutinized, evaluated to see exactly, as you said, not just your performance on the field, but behind the scenes. What kind of player? What kind of person are you inside this overcare complex? Are you someone who's going to
help this team moving forward? Now? One of the players that hurt the Eagles early on was a big run by rookie running back a Mere Abdullah. To look exactly how it came to fruition, let's bring an NFL Film senior producer Greg Cosell to analyze the All twenty two. This was the Lion's first offensive series of the game. It was a twenty three yard run by a mere Abdullah. Now it's a counter run, and by counter we mean that the guard from the backside is going to pull
and lead up. But the key and looking at a counter run is the steps by the back He's going to take a step or two this way and then come back here. Now Malcolm Jenkins is right here. He's a filling safety on this run. He has to come up and he has to fill right here. Basically, that's his second level gap. He's got to be there and he will be there. Let's clear the screen. Let's watch this play run. You see the pulling action by the guard,
you see the counter steps. Freeze it right here. There's Abdullah, there's Malcolm Jenkins. Now, you may remember last week Malcolm Jenkins on the Doug Martin long run was also in good position to make a tackle. Malcolm Jenkins has to make this tackle. Let's clear the screen. The tackle is not made. Abdullah runs for twenty three yards. Unfortunately, it's been symptomatic of the Eagles run defense the last couple of weeks. Thank you very much, Greg, and that just
symbolizes what's going on with this football team. It's not just one person, it's every play there's something else going wrong. If there was one thing the coach that could scheme around it, try to fix it. But when that type of stuff happens, especially from one of your leaders and Malcolm Jenkins, what are you gonna do? Yeah, And that's the thing you know, people get on or they want to get on the coach is about whether or not that putting the players in the right position. Well, that's
a clear example right there. That should have been a five yard run that a mirror Abdullah earned, but because the tackle isn't made by Malcolm Jenkins, it turns into a twenty three yard run. And that's typically what we've seen over the last couple of games. Guys have been in place to make a play, they just don't make the play. It's not to pick up Malcolm Jenkins. There's probably examples for each and every person on an Eagles defense. Today, we're gonna take a quick break here on the postgame
show presented by Rico. The Eagles going down forty five to fourteen to the Detroit lines on this Thanksgiving holiday, we're going to delve into some of the offensive numbers. What's happened to the rushing attack. We'll discuss after this break. Brooke Montgomery. I never go anywhere without my baba Peck John Hill, no baba Peting. I got tickets, Metro tickets. You need a Metro ticket? Talk to me, please, I don't even know these tickets. Just doesn't touch it. I
know the leg this leather legit. I mean, how do we really know? It looks good? Right? No, I'm paying myself. I gotta make Does the baby need a Metro ticket? I'll give her one on me. These tickets they're not stealing your soul. You can look at them. May nobody wants to buy tickets. I got on the street. I don't understand. I sept to Philly. I sept the Philly. You'll step the Philly, the bus, the trolley, the train
route one twenty four, root twenty three. I sept to Philly the seventeen to training, jenkintown, to her house, his house, to bed Sea's house, city Hall, f CC, delco media, to work, to school, to the ball, Broad Street, to the game. I scept to Philly anywhere at Sports Authority. Black Friddie Doorbusters started six pm Thursday with hundreds of deals online an in store save twenty five percent, Select Nike and earned double points. Hurry end for great deals
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dot com and enter the keyword Eagles. Welcome back to the postgame show presented by Rico here on Philadelphia Eagles dot com Chris McPherson alongside former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese. We are not going to hear from quarterback Mark Sanchez. In fact, we will have his comments later on in the evening here on Philadelphia Eagles dot com for you
to check out on demand. But what we do have for you right now is some more All twenty two, we mentioned that Matthew Stafford had five touchdowns in the game, three of them to Megatron Calvin Johnson. Let's bring back great co Sell to break down one of those three touchdown passes. Seventeen seconds left in the first half. This was the touchdown that made a twenty four to seven at halftime. Now let's break this down piece by piece.
Here is the matchup that Matthew Stafford wanted. He has Alvin Johnson against Eric Row right here, and Johnson is what we call ex iso. He's the single receiver to the boundary side of the field, very common in the NFL. But that's the matchup that Matthew Stafford wanted. He knew he was getting that matchup the entire final drive by the Lions. Let's clear this and now let's look at
this from Matthew Stafford's perspective. He trusts that Calvin Johnson will win on the outside against the rookie Eric Row. Here is the player that Matthew Stafford has to control. The safety over the top, that's Walter Thurman. Now, as I said, he trusts Stafford trust that Johnson will win on the outside. He has to make sure that Thurman does not get over here to impact the throw. This is on Matthew Stafford. The safety is his responsibility. So
let's clear the screen. Run this play. You'll see that Stafford's right in the middle of the field. That keeps Thurman where he is. It gives him just enough room to make this throw. And by the way, this was not bad coverage by Eric row. This was a big time throw by Matthew Stafford and a big time catch. That's what happens when you're six five, two hundred and
thirty five pounds and wide receiver. Thank you very much, Greg, And quite honestly, it didn't look any better the second time seeing it there unfold The issue for me here is it feels like that everything has to go perfectly right for the Eagles at this point. Here. You look at the first drive of the game. The offense took the field early on and look, they moved the ball down the field, converted a couple of third downs. Things
were looking pretty good. Then Lane Johnson, who had a step in a left tackle for the injured Jason Peters Pierce came out with an ankle injury on that first drive, got called for a face mass penalty that took the team back, and then Mark Santez was sacked. Caleb Sturgis goes to an attempt a fifty or field goal, It goes off the upright and all of a sudden and you felt like the Eagles were once again, after a promising opening drive, we're behind the eight ball once again.
And then from there on out the rushing attack, what has happened to it? Obviously no Ryan Matthews in the game, and you understand the juice that he brings to the outside, but it still seems like that even with the Marco Murray and Darren sproles, Kenyon Barnary getting some reps in there, they're just not able to sustain anything on the ground and it's obvious that they really need that rushing attack to be able to get this offense on track. Yeah.
I think earlier in the season we got away with, you know, having our three hitted monster in there as the running bag trio and without having that deep threat to sort of create space for us. You know, Ryan Matthews was sort of a change up, sort of a guy that you could run in there and it catch
teams off balanced a little bit. But these last couple of weeks, these last two games, I feel like the defense is sort of constricted the field and they made it, you know, you know, tight for the Eagles offense to operate. I mean, they're closer to the line scream. You're getting the eighth man up in the box, and they're basically daring this Eagles offense to throw the ball over the
top and they're nuts and they're not. And so you got extra guys up there as defenders, which makes it a lot harder to be able to run the ball effectively. And when you get down like the Eagles have gotten down the last few weeks, it's hard to stick with the running game because you're trying to put points back on the board. You're trying to do as fast as
you can. For the second straight week, the Eagles had a big deficit going to halftime, and the Eagles defense went on the field to start the third quarter, and you're thinking yourself, Okay, maybe if the Eagles defense can come up with a big stop, get one of those key takeaways, maybe they'll be right back in this ball game. Have a chance. But for the second straight week, they allow a long drive down the field over seven minutes today,
allow you another touchdown. The deficit is extended, and just like that, any hopes for a comeback are pretty much evaporated. And as like as you alluded to that, you're now forcing Sanchez to pretty much be in throw only mode for the rest of the game. And it's not Santizis strength.
That's not a skill set. And now with the outside receivers pretty much being a non factor here, you know, Jordan Matthews being locked up in the middle of the field, it's just very hard for the offense to get anything going here. Yeah, and then continuity. You listen, when you're playing on a short week, you almost have to be perfect and everything that you do in order to have success. So the Eagles short rest had to travel game plan sort of constricted a little bit because you can't put
as much in. Then you started having players go down. You just limited as to what you can do. And then to get down as early as they did. It basically makes the offense, as you mentioned a second ago, one dimension. When a defense can sit back there and pin their ears back because they know you have to throw just about every down, it's basically feast or famine on the quarterback. I mean, that's really what you're gonna have.
And when we don't have that sort of downfield threat to scare defenses, it makes it harder for the offense to move the ball. All right, let's look at the defense Before we wrap things up here on the postgame show presented by Rico. You look at rookie Eric Rowe. Okay, you have the injury to know him Carol broken ankle. At this point, it looks like that he's going to be done for the season. So Eric Row goes out there to start opposite Byron Maxwell. It looks like that
he's going to be the guy they're moving forward. What does that mean in your estimation, Ike, for his development, his progress and what can he take from a tough outing like he had today going against one of the all time greats and Calvin Johnson. This was good, believe it or not for Eric Row. You're going up against one of the greatest of all time in Calvin Megatron Johnson. You're not going to see many better than Megatron. So he was baptized to day trial by Eric being out
there on the field. He's going to be able to learn from him. Take the little nuances that Calvin Johnson's was able to have success against you with, learn from them, put them in your memory brain, and know that most receivers you go up against won't be as good as Calvin Johnson. So you're trying to learn from the mistakes that you made. I don't really think he played a bad game of day tough situation. Like I said, you're going up again is one of the best ever. He's
a rookie. This is gonna bode well for him going down the stretch. In my opinion, is certainly disheartened to have Nolan Carroll basically lost for the rest of the season due to a broken ankle. But Nolan Carroll is a free agent at the end of the season. Eric Row was a second round draft pick. We hadn't seen much of him playing at that cornerback position. You're gonna get a chance to see him five straight weeks. I'm pretty sure he'll be the starter out there because they
need to find out what eric ro can do. Canny, he played corner at the NFL level. This is your potential starter for the twenty sixteen season, and Eric Row a second round draft pick, So you know it's unfortunate Nolan Carroll is gonna be out for Eric Row, a young player, This is gonna be good experience for him these last five weeks, all right, So that's gonna do
it for us. Here on the postgame Show presented by Rico will of complete coverage throughout the evening, including Great Corsell's All twenty two review coming for you on Friday morning, Eagles three to sixty comes your way. At Monday five pm, Dave Smadari will be joined by Brian Westbrook here in the studio to call kind of take a step back and rehash everything that had transpired here on this Thanksgiving holiday.
For ike reason, all of us here at Philadelphia Eagles dot com thank you very much for spending some of your Thanksgiving holiday with all of us. We are blessed, to say the very least, to have you out there as fans and please be able to join you on this evening. Unfortunately, we wish it was under better circumstances, but nonetheless that's going to do it for us here. So for everyone here, I'm Chris McPherson. You've been watching
the postgame show presented by Rico. The Eagles lose forty five to fourteen Fran