‘They Don’t Have The Right Personnel’

(ITB photo: Eagles CB Darius Slay said time’s running down to fix the defense’s issues)

Despite another loss at home to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, the Eagles offense — specifically Jalen Hurts — showed some nice moments.

On the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discussed Nick Sirianni’s game plan, and what went wrong for Jonathan Gannon’s defense.

Jalen Hurts

Adam Caplan: “If you compare the way [Carson] Wentz turned the ball over where he just crushed the [Eagles], that is a very big plus. [Hurts] is far from perfect. Does he leave throws on the field? Yes, he did in this game but [last week against] Dallas was way worse, no question. He also made a lot of good throws. So I’m encouraged but you’d rather not have the variance of the highs and the lows, OK, but he’s only made his eighth start, nobody’s perfect. You’ve got to understand where he was when they got him and where he is now. He has a new staff, he’s learned yet another offense, it’s not gonna happen overnight, but you have to be encouraged with the way he played.”

Geoff Mosher: “As you’re saying with Carson Wentz, I’m gonna say God bless Jalen Hurts for understanding when to throw the football out of bounds. That’s the biggest thing. He’s good at that, he does not take unnecessary sacks.”

Running Backs

Caplan: “Their identity is passing the ball […] because we have the tape, we have the numbers to show us this. But I still think they have to figure out with [Miles] Sanders what he is in this offense. [Kenneth] Gainwell, we knew how much they liked him. We said this after the draft, the coaches pushed for him. But we’re still not seeing verticals with him, although you mentioned he did a lot at the X position, which [Greg] Cosell told us that when we had him after the draft that he did notice that at Boundary X. He’s explosive, I want to see him get in space more.”

Andre Dillard

Caplan: “So the thing about Dillard is, and I don’t think I’ve ever said this about Dillard because it’s hard to know this. You’ve got to watch the tape and you have to have studied this guy. This is the first game, just talking to different people watching the tape, that he looked like he was playing not only with better technique but with a lot of confidence. [Jeff] Stoutland … teaches a different technique than most teams do. The hands are lower. His hands were really good in this game, very few pressures he gave up. Footwork was really good […] He just was really good at this game, he’s clearly starting to get it.”

Jonathan Gannon

Mosher: “I’m not going to absolve Jonathan Gannon, but the reality is this: They’ve come forward and said this, he and Nick Sirianni have the right concept in mind. That is Cover 2 and 2-deep coverages keep things in front of you, and they limit explosive plays, and they’ve got two big criteria to win games and one of them is winning the explosive play battle. I say all this to say that the theory is correct — they don’t mind if you run the ball on them a little bit as long as they play really good red-zone defense […] the problem is they are trying to do this and play these 2-deep safeties when they don’t have the right personnel.”

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

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