‘Hard Plays Look Easy, Easy Plays Look Hard’

Issues continued to plague the Philadelphia Eagles offense despite another strong defensive peformance.

On the Week 14 edition of “Inside The Birds Postgame,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher discussed the highs and lows from the Philadelphia Eagles’ 22-19 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

GETTY IMAGES: Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts struggled with five turnovers in Week 14.

Defensive Line

Adam Caplan: “Jalyx Hunt had a great game: 2.5 sacks. They had seven sacks, the pressure rate was ridiculous. B.G. [Brandon Graham] played the most snaps this season by far. They had him playing inside. He has his legs back…For whatever happened against Chicago, they got the message. I’m sure the coaches got after them a little bit in the classroom, they brought the energy and were phenomenal.”

Cooper DeJean

Geoff Mosher: “[Justin Herbert] could not get the ball to (Ladd) McConkey. Cooper DeJean might be the silent MVP of the backend because he seemed to be all over him.”

Nakobe Dean

Mosher: “Dean to me was amazing, he was unblockable again. He blew up Omarian Hampton like that guy is a small dude just in the way and I think Nakobe might be smaller than Hampton.”

Caplan: “He had the incredible strip sack, he also had the one where he looked frustrated because he had Herbert. He had him…it’s just a shame that Herbert had those backbreaking scrambles.”

Offensive Line

Caplan: “I’m not sure what is wrong with Jordan Mailata. He’s obviously not having a great year, he’s not hurt. (Landon) Dickerson left the game briefly for 12 snaps, (Cam) Jurgens had some snaps he’d like to have back, (Tyler) Steen has had an inconsistent year. Quite frankly, it was an inconsistent offensive line performance.”

Run Game

Mosher: “That was not a functional run game. I don’t care what the 122 rushing yards say, 52 came on a gadget play, it was a fake…If you took away that play, [Saquon Barkley] had 70 yards on 19 carries.”

Caplan: “The only thing they did well was run off-tackle…He had a bunch where inside they crushed him.”

Jalen Hurts

Caplan: “He had a thumbs down game, not just because of the picks. It’s indecisiveness…He was not in any kind of total rhythm, overthrowing, holding onto the ball.”

Mosher: “He makes the hard plays look easy like that beautiful pass to DeVonta Smith…but he makes the easy plays look hard. It’s so confounding because you know how much talent he has, enough to make some really difficult ones routine.”

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