Behind the Curtain

The Philadelphia Eagles stand 2-2 at the bye week with major concerns on both sides of the ball mounting.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher evaluated the performance of the coaching staff and the team through the first four games.

Remaining Schedule

Adam Caplan: “With their schedule, they have a good chance to go 11-6. If you look at their next four games, they host an awful Browns team, Daniel Jones and the Giants are 1-3, the Bengals aren’t playing good football, and the Jaguars are horrendous, so to think the Eagles can’t be a playoff team is delusional.”

Geoff Mosher: “Let’s say the Eagles go 4-2 over their next six games and are 6-4. Even those wins against Jacksonville or Cleveland or the Giants, there’s an expectation that this team is supposed to not just win, but dominate inferior opponents so that when you are in the playoffs and are a 10 or 11 win team, you aren’t worried about losing that first round game as a wild card. The expectation for this team is they are supposed to look like one of the best teams in the NFL.” 

Nick Sirianni

Mosher: “If Nick Sirianni was fired this year, you’re talking about an average head coach at four and a half years. I don’t care that you won a Super Bowl and you went to another one, it’s not good for a franchise to be on a new head coach every four and a half years. It shows that even if you are doing something good, you are then neutralizing it by doing something terrible as a franchise to have to fire guys that quickly. I just wonder what’s your faith as a fan that the next guy is going to be the guy that winds up finding some longevity?”

Caplan: “Nick’s only in his fourth year, they made the playoffs in his first three years. I’ve had my issues when I don’t think the team was prepared, like this past game was embarrassing…if what we’re seeing through four weeks is still what we see after the season’s over, they’re going to have a new staff.”

Vic Fangio

Mosher: “Vic is now the fourth defensive coordinator in the last three years. And yet, they still continuously do the same things that are bad whether it’s soft coverage, not able to defend motion, not able to defend bunch formations. They keep firing these coaches, but you keep putting a different person there and the personnel is doing the same thing. There is a strange disconnect going on.”

Caplan: “The guy has been pretty well respected, why can’t they get pressure?”

Kellen Moore

Mosher: “This is where I’ll criticize Kellen Moore a little bit: on the Eagles first four possession, on the first play of each possession, they passed the ball the first three times. I don’t know why you don’t just say I don’t care if it’s boring or predictable, I’m going to come out in 13 personnel, put my quarterback under center and turn around and have him hand the ball of to Saquon Barkley.”

Caplan: “They could not move the ball in the passing game at all…you have an incredibly gifted back.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.