Eagles News: More love for Philadelphia’s offensive line

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

NFL Week 16 Team of the Week and Player Awards – PFF
Offensive Line of the Week: Philadelphia Eagles. Philadelphia’s offensive line shined on Sunday, whether they were pass blocking, making holes for the ground game or receiving downfield. Lane Johnson was the standout, as he not only came down with a touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, but he also pitched a shutout with zero total pass-block losses. Most of the other Eagles’ front five had as much success as Johnson did on the pass-protection front, too, as four of the five starters didn’t allow a single pressure and combined for one pass-block loss. In total, the Philly OL allowed just three pressures, all of which were from right guard Nate Herbig, and they finished the game with the best PFF pass-blocking grade of the week. [BLG Note: Lane Johnson, T.J. Edwards, and Darius Slay all made PFF’s Team of the Week.]

Eagles vs. Giants: 19 winners, 5 losers, 3 IDKs – BGN
Johnson kicked ass as a blocker; he finished the game as Pro Football Focus’s top graded offensive lineman. But it was his first career touchdown reception that was the highlight of the day. The Eagles got the ball to their starting right tackle on a play named after where Johnson is from: East Texas. Alexis wrote a really good story about Johnson’s score and how happy his teammates were for him, you should check it out. Really cool to see Lane get a score after what he’s been through this year. From going from “living in hell for a long time” to having a stadium full of fans cheering for his accomplishment, well, that must have felt nice. Well deserved moment.

At the Podium: Sirianni, Hurts, Smith, Singleton and Scott on Week 16 win against Giants – BGN Radio
Following the Eagles’ Week 16 win against the Giants, Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, Alex Singleton and Boston spoke with the Philly media about the teams performance.

DeVonta Smith is a toe tap machine, with gifs and stuff – PhillyVoice
In the Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the New York Giants on Sunday, DeVonta Smith had an incredible toe drag reception for a touchdown. With his back facing the sideline, Smith had one toe in bounds, and without allowing his heel to come down out of bounds, he was able to touch his other set of toes in bounds for the score. Smith said of his catch, “I kind of felt like Michael Jackson.” It’s the type of field awareness and body control that one might expect of a star veteran receiver, not a rookie. And really, it was just one of many that Smith has had throughout his rookie season.

The day after: Eagles dare to find out just how far their O-line can carry them – The Athletic
But this was an ugly game for Hurts. In the first half, he looked more jittery in the pocket than he has been in some time. He nearly threw an interception on the game’s opening third down when he forced an attempt to Dallas Goedert that was picked off then overturned upon review. Later, he fumbled when sacked from behind while inexcusably taking too long to maneuver within the pocket. Perhaps most concerning was the absence of Hurts’ running ability Sunday. He ran just two times for 7 yards (as Zach pointed out, the last time Hurts started a game and ran only twice was when he was a sophomore in college). It’s easy to connect the dots between Hurts’ lack of running and the ankle injury that cost him a game earlier this month. “That’s just kind of how the game went,” Hurts said. The Eagles’ best chance of making noise in the playoffs is likely to involve Hurts’ ability as a rusher serving as a force multiplier to their running game. All the more reason why securing a postseason berth next week, thereby giving Hurts an extra week of rest, is so tantalizing.

The Seven Questions That Will Decide the NFL Playoff Race – The Ringer
There isn’t one wild-card team that should scare the Cowboys if Dak Prescott is completely healthy, as Dallas has a highly adaptable offense and an active defense that matches up well with virtually any opponent. It may not want to play the Eagles just days after seeing them in Week 18, though; that could factor into the Cowboys’ decision-making process about potentially resting their starters in Philly.

How Many NFL Coach Jobs Will Come Open Before the Season Ends? – MAQB
During my talk on Sunday with Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, we hit on his team’s start to the season—Philly was 2–5 after seven games, and 3–6 after nine. He mentioned talking to rookies DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson around then about it. Those two were coming from an environment, at Alabama, where a single loss is a sky-is-falling-level event, and so the idea of enduring losses in bunches might’ve seemed foreign to them. And Sirianni could speak genuinely on it, because he was once in there spot, having gone 66–2 in his five years as a college player at Div. III Mount Union. “Green Bay has the best record right now, and they’ve lost three games,” Sirianni said. “So the best teams lose games, and they lose more games than you would ever think about in college. It’s the same thing I had to learn when I first got in the league. Playing at Mount Union, we didn’t lose a lot of games either. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, we just lost seven games. This would be tragedy there.’ And so it’s just the guys that we have on this team, and being able to handle the adversity that happens in the season and being prepared for it. I’m grateful for our guys that they know how to work through tough times.”

With Nick Sirianni, the Eagles’ present is promising and the future bright – PE.com
“When you’ve got great leadership, you can make it through rocky times. There are going to be rocky times in the NFL,” Sirianni said. “It’s no secret that we’ve got great leadership and they’ve been a big part of this.” Safety Rodney McLeod spoke to the team before the Washington game. Center Jason Kelce spoke on Saturday night. Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox will have the honors for the Saturday ahead. Sirianni had delivered the night-before message for 12 games and “the players heard enough from me and my message over and over and over again – different ways of saying it – but over and over and over again” and is turning the mic over to his leadership. “It’s great hearing the captains talk and delivering their message,” Sirianni said.

Washington Roster Moves: Brandon Scherff and Cole Holcomb activated from Reserve/COVID-19 list; Tyler Larsen to IR – Hogs Haven
Washington activated 3 of the 5 players who were still on the Reserve/COVID-19 today. Cole Holcomb and Brandon Scherff will rejoin the team as they prepare for the Philadelphia Eagles this week. Backup center Tyler Larsen was also activated, but was the placed on IR for the Achilles injury he suffered two weeks ago against the Cowboys. Washington is down to two players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, practice squad guard Zack Bailey and DE Nate Orchard. The team didn’t place Jamin Davis on the list. He was inactive yesterday after showing symptoms before the game. The team said there wasn’t enough to get test results so he was deactivated.

Giants vs. Eagles ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ review: Maybe Daniel Jones is actually good – Big Blue View
Jake Fromm was awful. He looked overmatched and out of his league in his first NFL start. He finished 6 of 17 for 25 yards, an interception and a 19.5 passer rating. Fromm didn’t get any help, but the moment was clearly too big for him. Mike Glennon is awful. He is just not a quality backup quarterback. Glennon completed 17 of 27, but most of those were dump offs as he passed for just 93 yards. “I would say it’s not ideal,” said Fromm, who issued an honest assessment of his play. “I wish I would have played better. It’s frustrating for myself. It’s not the way I wanted to have represented myself, my family, or, of course, this organization. It’s tough, but I’m going to learn from it. I don’t think it gets much worse than that. I said this Sunday night in my ‘things I think’ but you have to wonder if these two guys are proving that Daniel Jones might actually be good.

Cowboys vs. Football Team: The good, the bad, and the ugly from Week 16 – Blogging The Boys
How fun and exciting has it been watching the Dallas Cowboys defense dominate opposing offenses the past several weeks? Dan Quinn has his defensive unit playing at an extremely confident level right now and it couldn’t be better timing with the playoffs just around the corner. If they can remain consistent with their play they might be one of the most feared defenses in the postseason. With players like Trevon Diggs, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Randy Gregory playing their best ball, the sky is the limit of what they can accomplish moving forward. After all, it is said defenses win championships.

Jimmy Garoppolo suffered a chipped bone and torn ligament in his right thumb – Niners Nation
Per Ian Rapoport, Jimmy G suffered a chipped bone and torn ligament in his right thumb:. [BLG Note: It remains to be seen if Trey Lance is an upgrade on Jimmy G as the 49ers push for a playoff spot. Scenario worth watching for the Eagles’ sake. San Fran beating the Texans in Week 17 would help towards Philly clinching as soon as this Sunday.]

3 winners and 5 losers from Week 16 in the NFL – SB Nation
Loser: Washington … woof Losing? Bad. Losing to the Cowboys? Bad. Fighting because of them? Really bad. Destroying your playoff chances in the process? Welp. It’s been a terrible, horrible, no-good few weeks since Washington looked ready to make a playoff push. That all culminated on Sunday with a backbreaking loss.

Monday Football Monday #68: Sunday belonged to Joe Burrow, Rams got it done, Wilson outperformed Lawrence – The SB Nation NFL Show
RJ Ochoa and Pete Sweeney recap all of the Week 16 Sunday football action including Joe Burrow who announced himself in the Bengals impressive win against the Ravens, the Rams who defeated the Vikings and Zach Wilson who outperformed Trevor Lawrence.

Welcome to Covid-19’s “junior year.” It’s not pretty. – Vox
After a brief reprieve from surging cases in the fall, omicron, the newest and most transmissible Covid-19 variant yet, is tearing its way across the nation, causing a nearly 30 percent spike nationally in cases in a matter of days. As communities roll out eerily familiar safety measures, for some, it’s feeling like 2020 again: In the past few weeks, California and New York reinstated indoor mask mandates, restaurants from Philadelphia to Houston to Los Angeles are temporarily closing amid outbreaks, at-home rapid tests are sold out from coast to coast, and some universities are sending students back online. Welcome to the pandemic’s “junior year,” to adopt the darkly comic term that went viral on Twitter this fall. It looks like 2022 is destined to be the third year in a row that’s marked by fear and confusion, positive tests and near misses — and a resounding feeling of failure.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply