“They Won Before The Snap”

The Eagles suddenly have new life after their first home win and an easy schedule down the stretch. Could they make the playoffs?

On the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan gave their sourced tape review from the Eagles’40-29 win against the Saints and provide the latest injury updates.

Jonathan Gannon came with blitzes vs. the Saints

Eagles Offense

Geoff Mosher: “I don’t think the Saints are bad. I think the Eagles just did a great job of mixing things up and, as we said on Monday’s podcast, the added element this week … that made it so different is now you’re starting to work the quarterback run off of your conventional running game, and that’s very Ravens-like. And not just running to the edges. The one where Jalen Hurts ran a zone read I believe where they read the tackle, not the edge defender, and then he took off up the middle when the tackle got upfield. It left a hole there and that’s a lot of what Lamar Jackson does with the Ravens or I should say [Ravens offensive coordinator] Greg Roman does and has Lamar operate.”

Miles Sanders

Adam Caplan: “Yes, the ball security is majorly disappointing, but that 25 yard run, I saw it on coaching tape but you could also see it on TV, I saw both. Watch [Sanders] wait, and he did it for an eighth of a second. If he doesn’t wait he doesn’t get 25 yards, it would have been for 5-to-7 yards. That’s his maturity as a runner, his vision. He does a slight hesitation and he hits the left hole and he stops his feet and waits just for a second and then he hits it … Now the ball security is a problem. It wasn’t a problem at Penn State very much, but it sure as hell is here.”

Jonathan Gannon

Caplan: “The blitz packages were diverse. [Trevor] Siemian really struggled picking up some of it. And then what would happen is, [Jonathan] Gannon knew that they were playing with three backup offensive linemen and there’s no way these guys would have figured it out. They couldn’t, they’re not experienced enough, some of the offensive linemen that were playing. So they won before the snap, they won before the game.”

Darius Slay

Mosher: “Pray for Slay. I’m not convinced Gannon will be aggressive if he doesn’t have Darius Slay. The evidence says that when Darius Slay is out of the game, he coaches differently and I think that he’s the type of guy that looks at the Giants and thinks, ‘You know what, they do have weapons. They got Kadarius Toney, they’ve got [Kenny] Golladay, they’ve got [Evan] Engram. They got speed, they got [Saquon] Barkley.’ Just remember his core philosophy will never change, right? Him and [Nick] Sirianni. They want to get explosive plays and limit explosive plays. So he’s come out of his comfort zone. He’s blitzed when the guys’ names are Trevor Simeon, or when it’s Teddy Bridgewater behind the makeshift offensive line that’s missing three starters. He, I don’t think, will look at the Giants and say, ‘I’m gonna dial up as many crazy, radical blitzes without Darius Slay.’”

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

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