Off Day

The Philadelphia Eagles’ undefeated start came to an end in a game marked by injuries and uncharacteristic mistakes.

On the Week 6 edition of “Inside The Birds Postgame Live,” former Eagles tight end Clay Harbor joined Adam Caplan, Geoff Mosher to break down what went wrong in the team’s 20-14 loss to the New York Jets.

The Philadelphia Eagles struggled with turnovers in their 20-14 loss to the New York Jets

Lane Johnson

Geoff Mosher: “The Eagles have great players, but their MVP is Lane Johnson for what he is able to do. You could see a difference in the complexion of the offense as soon as Johnson went out. Even with all of those injuries in the secondary, the drop off from Lane Johnson to Jack Driscoll proved to be the biggest difference because the Jets pass rush was able to come alive.”

Clay Harbor: “It shows you how important Johnson really is to this team. Having a lockdown right tackle when you are going against a stud defensive line, you don’t even have to think about that player with Lane Johnson out there. When Johnson is locking down that edge, Jalen Hurts can play so much more confidently knowing no one is going to be coming off that edge.”

Offensive Line

Adam Caplan: “There is no question with Sua Opeta at right guard and Jack Driscoll at right tackle, it was a problem. They gave up pressures, some self-inflected wounds. It is going to be a problem as we go along, we don’t know the severity of Johnson’s ankle. Their depth is being tested in a major way.”

Turnovers

Caplan: “The last pick was clearly on Hurts. Their timing was off, they did hit some big plays, but they also missed on some big plays.” 

Mosher: “The Eagles converted 50% of their third downs, the Jets converted 18%. This is the model game that shows you how devastating turnovers are. They kicked their ass in basically every other facet of that game, but they couldn’t handle the ball.”

Brian Johnson

Caplan: “You want to see more of the intermediate and over the middle pass game. They believe that verticality is the way that they win, even with all of the zone defense the Jets played. They took so many shots downfield. The red zone, even though they scored, it was a 19 play drive where they barely scored.”

Harbor: “Their last seven drives: fumble, punt, punt, interception, missed field goal, interception, turnover on downs, and the Jets are missing their top three cornerbacks. Obviously you know how big Lane is to this team, but you would think with the playmakers that they have with Jalen Hurts that they would be able to make up for that.”

Secondary

Mosher: “They played a lot less of the same coverages than normal because Mekhi Garner was an undrafted rookie getting in there. When (Reed) Blankenship went out, Garner had to play safety and then (Bradley) Roby went out so they had to get a new nickel and (Eli) Ricks was already out, so they had to go with Mario Goodrich to play the slot.”

Caplan: “They are shorthanded and have all sorts of injuries on the backend. They are going to have to do something at safety, they need to start working guys out and look at a potential trade here.”

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