Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 2/11/23.
Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …
49ers players are still complaining about losing to the Eagles – PhillyVoice
Know what they all have in common? They’ll be watching the Super Bowl from their house on Sunday. This is so embarrassing. Have some pride. I would be disgusted with myself if I was from San Francisco. These guys are worse than Minnesota Vikings fans in 2018 because it’s not just crybaby fans, these are the actual players. You are the ones who ran your mouths, came up short and are now pulling out every spin zone possible. Shut up. Just shut up.
Eagles vs. Chiefs Super Bowl Game Preview: 7 questions and answers with the enemy – BGN
5 – What is the best matchup in the Chiefs’ favor in this game? I don’t think this is necessarily the best matchup for the Chiefs — far from it — but I am really intrigued by how the Chiefs’ young corners match up against the two studs the Eagles have at receiver. When L’Jarius Sneed left the game early against the Bengals, I feared the worst. I had visions of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins tearing apart a cornerback group full of rookies. Luckily, it never materialized that way and our bunch of rookies more than held their own. Fluke, talent or gameplan? I didn’t really care. Now, I’m not suggesting for one second that I think the Chiefs will be able to lock up DeVonta Smith and the freak that is AJ Brown — but if they do keep them quieter than normal then the Chiefs will be hoisting the Lombardi on Sunday.
EAGLES-CHIEFS SUPER BOWL PREVIEW AND FINAL PREDICTIONS! – BGN Radio
Brandon Lee Gowton and Jimmy Kempski preview the Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl! The guys talk about the top matchups to watch on each side of the ball and make their specific predictions for how the big game will end. Interact with us on Twitter: @BrandonGowton, @JimmyKempski, @BGN_Radio, @BleedingGreen. Use discount code BGN15 at RighteousFelon.com for 15% off your order!
The path to victory for both the Eagles and Chiefs in the Super Bowl – SB Nation
In the passing game, Philadelphia has benefitted a lot from the development of Jalen Hurts as a passer, and the presence of WR AJ Brown. While Hurts has developed quite a lot in his deep passing and passing over the middle, the offense still is predicated on short and intermediate passes to the outside areas of the field (chart via Pro Football Focus). In addition, Football Outsiders tracks 199 and 185 of his passes going to the left and right sides of the field, around 40% each way. However, his DVOA on those passes to the middle of the field is in the top ten, as well as his deep passing. That’s where the biggest improvement has come.
Super Bowl LVII – The SB Nation NFL Show
RJ Ochoa, Brandon Lee Gowton, and Stephen Serda preview Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL Super Bowl Sunday Best Bets: Odds, Predictions to Consider on DraftKings Sportsbook – DraftKings Nation
The Eagles haven’t played in a close game with Jalen Hurts on the field since before Christmas — a narrow win over the Bears in the game he was injured during. While a fantastic front running team, I’m just not sure what to expect from Philly in what should be a hard fought game that’s close entering the fourth quarter. Hurts has big game experience at Alabama and Oklahoma, so I don’t think he folds, but we just haven’t seen him deal with anything like this in the NFL at this stage. From the Kansas City side, I feel like I do know what to expect. Playmaking from Mahomes, with the ability to make a comeback if needed. Plenty of experience on this roster, and a coaching edge to Andy Reid in my mind. Give me a contrarian Mahomes in an underdog role.
16 Philly Sports Bars Where You Can Catch the Big Game – Eater
Philly has no shortage of sports bars that are perfect for taking in the Big Game. What is the Big Game? Obviously it includes the Eagles’ shot at Super Bowl LVII on February 12, but it can also be any Phils, Sixers, Flyers, or Union game that gets your heart rate up — a championship or preseason game, home or away, night or day. It’s the kind of game that you want to watch out at your favorite bar, beer clutched tightly in one hand and french fry hanging with anticipation from the other. Thankfully, there are more than enough local hangouts where you can do just that. Whether you like to watch at a sports bar that has 40 TVs and even more beers on draft, or a quiet bar with one forgotten TV in the corner, these 16 local watering holes are great places to post up, drink up, and cheer on Philly’s favorite teams.
Opponent scout: Both Chiefs’ and Eagles’ defensive backfields will be tested – Arrowhead Pride
The reason defenses can’t sell out and blanket Brown is because the Eagles’ second leader in targets is wide receiver DeVonta Smith, someone that wins more with decisive route running and creating separation than Brown. Smith actually finished with more catches than Brown in the regular season but had 300 fewer yards. The primary receiving duo will force the Chiefs to think through their matchups in the secondary. At times this season, cornerback L’Jarius Sneed has been assigned specifically to a bigger wide receiver (like A.J. Brown), but Sneed’s role as the slot defender — especially against a dynamic rushing attack — may force the Chiefs to trust rookie cornerback Jaylen Watson to match up on the outside. As for Smith, I believe this is a great — but fitting — challenge for Chiefs’ rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie. He’ll give Kansas City the best shot of all their cornerbacks at sticking with Smith throughout the entirety of his route.
Super Bowl LVII scouting report: Who has the edge in Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles? – NFL.com
The defense’s elite numbers are a product of the personnel along the defensive front. Not only is the Eagles’ defensive front deep — to keep pass rushers fresh late in games — it could be the most talented league-wide. The Eagles were the only unit to feature five players with at least 35 pressures against opposing quarterbacks during the regular season: Haason Reddick (62), Javon Hargrave (53), Josh Sweat (47), Brandon Graham (41) and Fletcher Cox (36). In the Chiefs’ last Super Bowl appearance, a loss to the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV, it was an elite pass rush that overwhelmed Mahomes’ pass protection. The quarterback ran for his life while under constant duress, compiling nearly 500 scramble yards on his dropbacks. The blueprint that night from then-Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was not his typical blitz-heavy scheme, but rather, two-deep safeties and pressure packages without blitzing. In fact, it was the lowest blitz rate by a Bowles-led unit on record at the time. Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon could replicate Bowles’ Super Bowl-winning game plan without having to change Philly’s defensive philosophy: getting to the quarterback with a four-man rush. This is a matchup of strengths. Any limitation to Mahomes’ mobility, however, and the advantage falls in favor of the defense. ADVANTAGE: EAGLES
SB Pick and More – Iggles Blitz
THE PICK. Eagles 27, Chiefs 24. The Eagles are too good on the line of scrimmage. Mahomes is a great QB and will make some plays, but he isn’t enough to overcome the Eagles firepower.
The Ringer’s Super Bowl Predictions – The Ringer
Sheil Kapadia. Winner: Eagles. Score: 27-25. MVP: Jalen Hurts. I have flip-flopped roughly 3,000 times over the past two weeks. There’s a scenario in which Patrick Mahomes just carves the Eagles defense up, and the Chiefs string together long drive after long drive. But the Eagles pass rush has been so good this season. They don’t need to force a bunch of three-and-outs. They just need to come up with a few negative plays in high-leverage situations. Offensively, they don’t need to rethink this. The offensive line has been the backbone of the Eagles all season and should have an advantage over the Chiefs defensive line. The Eagles string together a long drive in the fourth quarter and kick the game-winning field goal as time expires.
Four stat trends in Super Bowl 2023: Can Eagles beat Chiefs deep? – ESPN+
All that being said, there is a serious mitigating factor in favor of the Eagles. The Chiefs can’t run Cover 2 man against them, because it would allow Hurts to scramble too easily. Just 3% of Hurts’ dropbacks came against the coverage, lowest in the league. While it’s a decent portion of Kansas City’s usual game plan, making up 14% of its coverage, the third-highest rate in the league, it’ll mostly have to drop it in the Super Bowl. The two-high zone coverages (Cover 2 zone is the two-high coverage the Chiefs run the most) remain an option, however.
Super Bowl same-game parlay picks: Take the Chiefs to abandon the run game, attack through the air – PFF
Story: Philadelphia Eagles rely on Jalen Hurts legs in close game script. Kansas City has allowed the fifth-most quarterback scrambles and the fifth-most yards to scrambling quarterbacks this season, which plays right into the strength of Jalen Hurts, who has a terrific 83.0 PFF rush grade. And while Hurts has been a great rusher and is always a threat for a big game on the ground, what makes this play intriguing is that big rushing volume days for Hurts correspond to close games or ones in which the Eagles trail early. While books are pricing in this prop following Hurts’ median projection, against the Chiefs — who figure to, at the very least, keep this game close — Hurts should have one of his spiked rushing volume days. Combined with the Chiefs’ tendency to allow quarterback scrambles, this game script should leave Hurts with plenty of volume to go way over his rushing prop and to get in the end zone as a primary red-zone threat.
All-32: Jalen Hurts, Haason Reddick Will Decide Super Bowl – Football Outsiders
QB Jalen Hurts and KC Secondary. The Eagles have crafted a passing offense that is as fierce as any. They don’t run the most complex arrangement of concepts, but they have an offensive line that rarely falters and a pair of wide receivers that can stack up with any other duo in the league. In addition to the raw talent on the roster, head coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen have tailored the offense perfectly to Jalen Hurts’ strengths as a passer. Hurts excels throwing outside the numbers and down the field, so the Eagles staff went all in on making that the core of the passing offense. It’s almost like a funhouse mirror version of Tua Tagovailoa’s offense in Miami. There are any number of concepts you could pull to make this point, but this Smash variation is a good one. The slot receiver runs a corner route, while the outside receiver cuts underneath on a “fin” (5-and-in) route. On paper, the idea is to either have the vertical stem from the corner route clear out space underneath for the fin route, or have the fin route take coverage away from the sideline to give the corner route room. Hurts either gets to throw an out-breaker, which he loves, or a quick underneath throw—a nice, simple concept that leans into where he wins.
Roob’s Observations: The absurdity of Eric Allen’s Hall of Fame snub – NBCSP
6. Got a hunch DeVonta Smith is going to have a huge game. He’s been as good as almost anybody in the league the second half of the season, and you can just see him growing more and more confident by the week. The first 10 games of the season, Smith averaged 56 yards and had three TDs. Not bad. But the last seven games of the regular season, he was up to 91 yards per game with four TDs, and only Justin Jefferson and A.J. Brown had more yards. The most yards by Eagles the last seven games of a season: Brown 711 this year, Smith 637 this year, Mike Quick 633 in 1984. Assuming L’Jarius Sneed travels with Brown, Smith could find himself working against rookie seventh-round pick Jaylen Watson, and that’s a potential huge mismatch for the Eagles.
NFL coaches pick Super Bowl winner: Eagles or Chiefs? – The Athletic
OFFENSIVE COACH: ‘Hurts has really taken a jump’. I don’t know that Kansas City can do any junk-it-up pressures on first and second down because they may get torched by the quarterback. Jalen Hurts has gotten better this year. Usually, it’s get these run-around guys to third down and let’s go get him, but I think Hurts has really taken a jump forward. Philly has enough linemen to block 95 (Chris Jones) wherever they line him up. But Mahomes is Mahomes. If Kansas City can get (Isiah) Pacheco running a little bit and take just enough pressure off Mahomes, they got a shot. Philly is not a big blitz team, but they play the nickel 4-2 front, standard, and they’ll play that solid front. So there are not a lot of looks. If Kansas City can get some designed runs going with that Pacheco kid, who is fast, that might really help take some heat off the quarterback. I’m going Philly because everything is set up form them to win. It is a whole team thing. It’s not who has the best quarterback to me. I just think Philly’s ability to run and pass and extend the play is big, and Philly’s defense is better than Kansas City’s defense.
‘Gotta win Super Bowls’: On Andy Reid, Nick Sirianni, and Jeffrey Lurie’s ability to look into the hearts of Eagles coaches – Inquirer
Few predicted the Boston native heir who originally struck out as a Hollywood producer would someday become quite possibly the best owner in Philly sports history. When he made a brief cameo in the 1996 film, Jerry Maguire, some locals made fun of his one line: “We gotta win Super Bowls” as the drought continued.“They used to have some award for the owner of the year — it meant nothing, but I was named owner of the year,” Lurie said, when asked to explain how the line ended up in the movie. “I said, ‘That doesn’t interest me in the slightest. I just want to win Super Bowls.’” Standing in his way to No. 2 is Reid. The coach may be near-perfect coming off byes, but two of his four losses with an extra week have come in the Super Bowl. Sirianni, meanwhile, is 3-0, including the playoffs, after his conversation with Reid.“He was very gracious,” said Sirianni, who went back to New York City with his wife during October’s bye week. “Now did he tell me everything? I don’t know.”
Nick Sirianni: I don’t apologize for having fun, I do this because I love it – PFT
“I don’t apologize for having fun,” Sirianni said, via the Washington Post. “This is too hard not to have fun, and I do this because I love it. I chose this profession because I love it. It is a little bit blown out of proportion with all of those things. I loved playing football, and I love coaching it. I’m not going to hide my emotions at any point.”
What will Shane Steichen cook up against the Chiefs? – PE.com
The pieces are in place, as they’ve been all season. Big, strong dominating offensive line. Game-changing wide receivers. A difference-making tight end, and depth to help in both the passing game and running game. A stable of running backs who do a lot of everything very well. A quarterback who is a dual-threat nightmare for defensive coordinators. This is the Eagles’ offense, circa 2022 NFL season, and Offensive Coordinator Shane Steichen and Head Coach Nick Sirianni and the offensive coaching staff have pushed the right buttons and drawn up great game plans throughout the year. One more game. Pick your poison. “Week in and week out, we try to do a good job of putting our guys in position and those guys do a heck of a job going out and executing,” Steichen said. “I think it’s special that we run it when we need to run it and throw it when we need to throw it. It’s awesome and that dictates how the game is going and how it’s going to play out. The credit goes to the guys for the work they’ve put in every day this season.
Stefon Diggs seems open to the idea of joining his brother Trevon Diggs with the Dallas Cowboys – Blogging The Boys
Given the fact that Stefon signed an extension with the Bills less than a year ago this whole idea seems a bit improbable, but more improbable things have certainly happened. [BLG Note: Cowboys fans are down so bad, man. Eagles playing for their second Super Bowl title and they’re pining for a highly unlikely scenario.]
Report: Josh Harris has toured Washington Commanders headquarters as he explores purchasing the team – Hogs Haven
One name that has been linked to the potential sale since the beginning of the process is Josh Harris, who already owns the New Jersey Devils (NHL) the Philadelphia Sixers (NBA) and Crystal Palace FC (Premier League). There was a report last month that, while billionaire Todd Boehly was out of the bidding process, Harris could be the new favorite to buy the team. He was among the bidders for the Denver Broncos last year, but pulled out near the end when it became clear that the Walton group was willing to outbid everyone.
Giants’ DC Wink Martindale won’t be Indianapolis Colts’ head coach – Big Blue View
Wink Martindale’s misfortune is great news for the New York Giants. Martindale has reportedly been informed that he will not become head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts have not yet hired a head coach, but have told the veteran defensive coordinator he is no longer under consideration. Martindale had two interviews with Indianapolis for the job. Martindale will thus return to the Giants for a second season as the team’s defensive coordinator. Martindale, 59, has been an NFL assistant coach since 2004. Since coming to the Giants last season he has made no secret of his hope to get a head-coaching opportunity. The Colts were the only one of the five teams who had an opening to interview him during this hiring cycle.
…
Social Media Information:
BGN Facebook Page: Click here to like our page
BGN Twitter: Follow @BleedingGreen
BGN Instagram: Follow @BleedingGreenInsta
BGN Manager: Brandon Lee Gowton: Follow @BrandonGowton
BGN Radio Twitter: Follow @BGN_Radio
You must be logged in to post a comment Login