In Roob’s Eagles Observations: The worst part of Nick Sirianni stepping on Kellen Moore’s toes originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
What was the worst part of Nick Sirianni stepping on Kellen Moore’s toes? What ever happened to Josh Sweat? Are the Eagles giving Saquon Barkley too many touches?
We take a look at those questions and many others in this week’s edition of Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations.
Observe on!
1. Imagine you’re Kellen Moore. You have the No. 5 offense in the NFL after two weeks and you’ve just called plays on a drive that started at your own 7-yard-line with 3:55 to go in the first half, and 15 plays later has your team in position for a game-tying field goal. And then the head coach who supposedly gave you autonomy to run the offense over-rules you and calls an ill-advised 4th-down play that fails miserably? That’s the part of what happened Sunday that really bothers me. Not even the play call or the play execution as much as the fact that Nick Sirianni picked that spot to do what he swore he would never do and snagged play-call duties from his 1st-year playcaller. Moore by any measure has done a terrific job running the offense. The Eagles are now No. 2 in the NFL in yards per game and that’s without A.J. Brown for two games and without a bunch of other key guys in the second half Sunday in New Orleans. And without scoring before halftime Sunday because Sirianni meddled where he can’t meddle. If this unusual approach is going to work – with Sirianni as a CEO coach and Moore having autonomy over the offense – Sirianni has to stay out of Moore’s way. Not 99 percent of the time but all the time. Moore handled questions about all this Tuesday the way you’d expect, talking about the value of collaboration and how all the offensive coaches contribute ideas blah blah blah. He said all the right things. But if you’re Moore, how would you like to be out there calling plays at a high level and then at a crucial moment in a three-point game get over-ruled by the guy who promised you full control of the offense? Sirianni really does have some important strengths. He’s very good at communicating and getting players to understand their roles, at getting backups to approach their job like starters (which paid off Sunday with all the injuries), at developing a team-first culture, at making everyone on the roster feel important. You don’t go 36-18 as a head coach by accident. But when he pulls stuff like he did Sunday? He’s not helping. It’s got to stop.
2. The Eagles had two 60-yard scrimmage plays in the fourth quarter in New Orleans Sunday. They had two 60-yard scrimmage plays in the fourth quarter of their previous 146 games. This was the first time they’ve had two plays from scrimmage in the same fourth quarter going back to 1970, which is as far back as I can search without spending an insane amount of time on it. But at least 55 years.
3. Reid Blankenship has the Eagles’ last three interceptions – off Tyrod Taylor on the last day of last season, Jordan Love on opening day in São Paulo and Sunday in New Orleans of Derek Carr. He’s the first player in 39 years to record three consecutive interceptions without any other Eagles picking off a pass. In Week 8 of 1985, Wes Hopkins had two INTs off Gary Hogeboom in the Eagles’ 16-14 win over the Cowboys at the Vet, one in the first quarter and one in the second, and a week later he had the Eagles’ first of two Eagles INTs off Vince Ferragamo of the Bills – including a 24-yard pick-6 – in a 21-17 win over the Bills, also at the Vet. Evan Cooper ended Sir Wesley’s streak when he also picked off Ferragamo. The Eagles’ last INT that wasn’t by Blankenship was by James Bradberry in Week 12 last year off Josh Allen in the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ overtime win over the Bills. So they’ve played 10 straight games without an INT by anybody other than Blankenship.
4. Dallas Goedert’s 170 yards in New Orleans Sunday made him the 12th player in Eagles history drafted by the Eagles with 170 yards in a game, the first since Jeremy Maclin had 187 on 12 catches with two touchdowns in a loss in Arizona in 2014. The most yards by an Eagles draft pick for the Eagles is Tommy McDonald’s 237 against the Giants in 1961, with DeSean Jackson (210 at Dallas in 2010) and Bud Grant (203 vs. the Texans in 1952) also over 200 yards. It got us wondering what Eagles draft pick had the most yards in a game for a different team. The answer is the great Art Powell, who caught 10 passes for a still-standing Raiders franchise-record 247 yards in a wild 52-49 win over the Oilers at Frank Youell Field in Oakland in 1963. Powell was the Eagles’ 11th-round pick in 1959 and played defensive back as a rookie, picking off three passes and also averaging 27.1 yards on kick returns, 2nd-best in the NFL. The Eagles had no idea what they had in Powell and released him after the 1959 season. He signed with the AFL New York Titans, who converted him to wide receiver. He made 1st-team all-pro in 1960 when he caught 14 touchdown passes, and he led the AFL in receiving yards in 1962 and 1963 and made four straight Pro Bowls from 1963 through 1966. Powell caught 81 touchdown passes from 1960 through 1966. Since the NFL absorbed the AFL’s stats, Powell is one of only five WRs in history with 8,000 receiving yards, 80 touchdowns and at least a 16.5 per-catch average.
5. The Eagles have played 14 consecutive games without winning a game by more than one possession. Their last win by more than eight points was 31-17 over the Dolphins at the Linc in Week 7 last year. Since then they’re 7-7, with the wins coming by 7, 5, 4, 3, 8, 5 and 3 points (and the losses by 23, 20, 3, 4, 17, 23 and 1 point.). This is the Eagles’ longest streak of one-possession wins since 1997 through 1999, when all 10 of their wins during a 40-game stretch were by seven or fewer points (3, 1, 3, 2, 5, 1, 3, 3, 4, 7).
6. I find this fascinating:
Jalen Hurts on first and second down: 75 percent, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 103.3 passer rating.
Jalen Hurts on third down: 58 percent, 0 TDs, 3 INT, 46.8 passer rating.
Hurts has the 10th-highest passer rating in the league on 1st and 2nd down and the 2nd-lowest on third down (ahead of only Caleb Williams’ 43.2). Third down is when he starts trying to force things instead of just taking what’s there. If he can start playing on third down the way he’s playing on first and second down, he’ll be right back where he was in 2022.
7. It’s not shocking the Eagles haven’t gotten production from Nolan Smith or Bryce Huff. I’m not sure anybody had great expectations for either one. But what on Earth has happened to Josh Sweat? He’s fallen off the proverbial cliff. From Week 9 of 2019 through Week 9 of last year, Sweat had 35 sacks in 63 games. He was one of the NFL’s most feared edge rushers during that stretch, averaging more than half a sack per game, making a Pro Bowl and hitting a career-high 12 sacks in the 2022 Super Bowl season. Since then? Sweat has now gone 11 straight games without a sack, which is just about impossible to believe. He has five hurries, 10 quarterback hits and two tackles for loss in those 11 games, but his last sack was in the first Dallas game last year – Week 9. That’s the 2nd-longest streak of starts without a sack by an Eagles edge rusher since sacks became an official stat in 1982. In 1989, Al Harris (the edge, not the corner) went 12 straight games without a sack. Sweat’s now in Year 7 and he’s taken a beating playing 96 games at 260 or 265 pounds against 325-pound offensive tackles, and maybe all those reps have taken a toll on him physically because Sweat just doesn’t look like the same guy.
8. The Eagles and Saints’ combined 21 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday are the 2nd-most 4th-quarter points in NFL history in a game where the two teams combined for three or fewer points in the first three quarters. The only higher-scoring fourth quarter following a three-point first three quarters came in 2018, when the Seahawks led the Vikings 3-0 after three quarters in Seattle before outscoring Minnesota 18-7 in a 25-point fourth quarter. Just in case you were wondering.
9. Saquon Barkley’s 73 touches are not only a career high three games into a season but the most by any Eagle after three games since Ricky Watters had 73 three games into 1997. It’s the most in the league so far and most by any Eagle in any three-game span since LeSean McCoy had 75 in 2014. That’s a lot of touches. But I don’t think its too many. The way Barkley is built he can handle a heavy workload. He’s done it before – 352 touches in 16 games in both 2018 and 2022. Half the time when he has the ball in his hands he’s dishing out more punishment than he’s taking. It would be nice if every game didn’t come down to the last minute and Kenny Gainwell could finish a game and give Barkley a little breather, but so far Barkley has shown he’s fine with this many touches. Barkley won’t have 24 or 25 touches every week. But it seems like he can handle 22 or 23 the same way you knew Rickey and Shady could. Some backs are just wired for it. Kellen Moore is definitely keeping a keen eye on Barkley to look for signs of fatigue, but so far he’s proven to be one of those rare backs that gets stronger as a game goes on. That 65-yard touchdown run came on his 19th touch Sunday. No Eagle in history has ever had a touchdown run of 65 yards or longer in the fourth quarter with that many carries under his belt. How much Saquon is too much? I’m not sure there’s any hard and fast rule. Be smart and use common sense. But as long as he looks like this? Keep giving him the rock.
10. Three weeks is a decent sample size to start measure league-wide trends, and the drop in passing yards so far is wild. NFL teams are averaging just 202.1 passing yards per game, which is 16.8 yards below last year and the lowest figure the league has seen since 2003, when teams averaged 200.4 per game. And get this – passing touchdowns are down from 1.39 per team per game last year all the way to 1.22 – lowest since 1993 (1.15). The weird thing is that teams aren’t really running more – 26.9 attempts per game this year is virtually the same as last year (26.8) and fewer than 2022 (27.3). The big difference is that teams are averaging fewer plays – just 60.7 per game, a 4 percent drop from last year’s 63.1 and the lowest number of plays per game since 1992. Teams are averaging just 320.2 yards of total offense per game, lowest since 2005 (315.9), 21.1 plays per game, lowest since 2006 (20.7) and 18.6 first downs per game, lowest since 2008 (18.4). Meanwhile, interceptions are more infrequent than ever (one every 43 passes) and sacks are being recorded at a higher rate than any year since 1985 (7.9 percent of pass plays). Why? I honestly have no idea. But it’s fascinating.
11. Just a quick note that Zach Ertz, with five catches last Sunday in the Commanders’ win over the Bengals, increased his career total to 721 receptions and moved past Jimmy Graham (719) into seventh place overall among tight ends in NFL history. Greg Olsen is only 21 catches away in sixth place with 742 and then it’s a ways to Shannon Sharpe (815) in fifth place. Ertz’s 721 catches have come from 14 quarterbacks: Carson Wentz (332), Nick Foles (103), Kyler Murray (86), Sam Bradford (74), Mark Sanchez (39), Jalen Hurts (28), Joshua Dobbs (27), Colt McCoy (15), Jayden Daniels (12), Michael Vick (7), Matt Barkley (5), Chris Streveler (2), Josh McCown (1) and Nate Sudfeld (1).
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