Inside The Birds: Hurts ‘Had It Going On’

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After another tough loss Sunday for the Eagles, a 41-30 defeat at the Linc to Andy Reid and Kansas City Chiefs, it’s back to the drawing board for first-year head coach Nick Sirianni and his staff as his team drops to 1-3.

On the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan examine the breakdowns against Kansas City and if the Eagles can right their wrongs before Sunday’s showdown against the Panthers.

Tight Ends

Adam Caplan: “[It was] really good to see the tight ends have 13 targets and 11 catches. I really believe this: they could absolutely dominate every single game, if the head coach would call their numbers more. They physically can dominate because they need someone who’s strong and physical, [Dallas] Goedert is a beast, we know this. Zach [Ertz] looks good, he’s all the way back physically. Is he the same guy [from] four years ago? Maybe not, but he’s back as much as you could get at 30 years old.”

Jalen Hurts

Caplan: “Hurts had it going on. He wasn’t perfect, he was good-to-very good. It was cool to see the way they managed him and I got to give Sirianni credit. He called a very good game.”

Geoff Mosher: “When he gets pressured, specifically up the middle, Hurts has a tendency to backpedal, backpedal, backpedal … which is good, you’re buying that time for your 1-on-1 matchups out there you’re gonna win. But then when you throw backpedaling like that you lose torque, and he had about three or four – or five maybe even six throws – that were not complete because he was backpedaling so much and lost torque. There were a couple that should have been intercepted. He completed 32-of-48 so I’m not going to complain too much but in general I thought that against the better defenses, you’re going to struggle if you’re trying to throw backpedaling. That’s something he’ll continue to work on.”

Jonathan Gannon

Caplan: “Jonathan Gannon has got a lot of work to do. I kind of feel for him and his staff, I’m sure they’re going to be better. It’s so early, this is … the first quarter of a new defense and they’re clearly right now not getting it. There are a lot of leaks, the run defense has been terrible. Oh, and then the other thing is, it’s like, ‘OK, did you do a good job against [Travis] Kelce, they had a plan for him.’ Well, how many catches did Tyreek Hill have in the deep middle, or just in the middle? it’s just ridiculous.”

Fletcher Cox

Mosher: “It’s sort of becoming apparent to me that you’re not seeing a whole lot of plays being made by Fletcher Cox. I know he had the fumble recovery/interception against Dallas but that was Javon Hargrave who caused the pressure and the sack. He was not feeling well, I totally remember that he missed a lot of practice and lost weight and then he said he lost weight, no problem. So I got no issue with that one game. I’m looking at this now through four games. Has Fletcher Cox done anything? I don’t think he has any sacks, it just doesn’t feel like he’s doing a whole lot and maybe that’s partly playing next to Hargrave who is like lighting the world on fire.”

Caplan: “I was told Week 1 by two people that he looked pretty good. I know he didn’t get on the scoresheet but he actually did pretty good with pressures. But that was against Atlanta, where they pretty much destroyed their offense.”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

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