(upbeat music) Hello everybody and welcome to the PHLY Eagles podcast presented by Bet365 download the Bet365 app and use code PHLY365 when you sign up, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary. And Bet365, Bow Wolf, Fran Duffy here in studio, in a little bit, we're gonna hear from Zach Berman from the NovaCare Complex, he is on his way to the locker room right now. He spoke to Nick Sirianni earlier, so we'll get all of his thoughts there. And then at the end of the show, we're gonna bring back an old friend. We're gonna have a little super forecasting, Fran's first foray for the newcomers. You'll get to find out what that means. But Fran, the bulk of the show today, talking about this Falcons team, what you have seen from them on tape. How you doing? - Doing great. I'm excited to preview another game. Last week was fun getting ready for the Packers, and it was still so much projection. Now we have something to chew on from week one, but as you and I were discussing before the show, really this is about trying to decipher what's real and what's not based off of week one, what is actionable moving forward? - Right, week one is so interesting because you don't have any tendencies yet. So you don't have anything to break. You can sort of, you can build up your team one way so that you can break it the next week, right? And keep teams on their toes. So we're gonna talk about what was a very bizarre week one game for the Falcons, and whether that is what the Eagles will expect. And obviously, Fran, that starts with the Melvin. - Yes. - And that is Kirk Cousins. And I think long-time listeners know how we feel about Kirk Cousins. Jamie, who did a great job of him and Rich yesterday on the show, I called him mid, and I think that that's fair. I would call him the barometer for the Eagles. Fran, now, the Eagles have played Kirk Cousins as a starting quarterback 11 times. What do you think Kirk Cousins' record is against the Eagles? - You said it was 11 times? - 11 times as a starter. - I'm gonna go three and eight. - Kirk Cousins is six and five against the Eagles. - Wow, I guess winning over the course of this career. - Fran, now, I think the Eagles are getting him at a good time. I didn't know this on his pro football page. One of his nicknames is Kirk Tober. The idea that he's very good in October. And he is four and one against the Eagles in October, two and oh against the Eagles in December, but oh and four against the Eagles in September. This game, obviously in September, as he is hampered by this Achilles injury, but here's why I'm calling Kirk Cousins the Eagles barometer. I'm gonna take you through these games. 2014, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 37-34. 2015, two matchups, the Eagles lose both games to Kirk Cousins. 2016, the Eagles lose both games to Kirk Cousins. - Rough times. - 2017, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 30-17 and 34-24. 2018, the Eagles lose to Kirk Cousins 23-21. 2019, Kirk Cousins spanks the Eagles 38-20. 2022, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 24-7. And then last year, the Eagles beat Kirk Cousins 34-28. Those 11 games, the six losses, all seasons in which the Eagles won no more than nine games. The two games in which they only eked out a one-square victory over Kirk Cousins, both six lost seasons that ended in disappointment. The three times in their 11 meetings in which the Eagles have beat Kirk Cousins by double digits all seasons in which they went on to the Super Bowl. I think Kirk Cousins is the Eagles barometer. If they can beat Kirk Cousins by double digits on Monday night, book your tickets to New Orleans because this team could be for real. - I feel like too, he is right in that area of quarterback tier where he is like the barometer of how are you against good quarterbacks versus how do you perform against bad quarterbacks? So this is right in line with that. He's also the first quarterback in over 20 years, Bo, to play the same team, non-division opponent. - Okay. - Same team, same week, same location for three straight years. - Oh. - Last time was Dan Marino back in the 90s. - Interesting. And thank you to Mark for the Super Chatters. As he loves the show, we love you just as much, Mark. All right, so let's talk about this Falcons offense in week one. - Yes. - Now, obviously they lost that game, upset loss to the Steelers. And it's a bit of a big topic around the league, just how hampered they looked on offense. And so I'm gonna ask you to start with a couple of the things that really stood out and whether those were, in your opinion, functions of like this is who they are now because of Kirk Cousins' limitations or are these things that could change this week? So let's start with the disparity of where their snaps came from. Kirk Cousins known for being effective at under center play action. - Yep. - They took two snaps from under center, this game, I leave both spikes. - Both spikes, I believe, yes. - They took 22 snaps from shotgun. All 22 of those were dropbacks. - Yes, no runs. - They took 21 snaps from pistol, or sorry, 26 snaps from pistol, 21 of those were runs and only five of those were dropbacks. Do you think that that is as simple as that? This is who they are? - I think it's probably who they have to be right now. - Okay. - And then the question then becomes, how long do they think they have to be that? Now the one caveat to that is, it's a new offensive coordinator in Zach Robinson who comes from the Rams, Sean McVay. So I think everyone had an anticipation of what this offense was going to look like. And even in the preseason, it kind of fit what that image was, what that projection was. They went completely against that here this week and it was a lot of heavy personnel, which that's not what they did. In the preseason, they were like 97% 11 personnel. That's what they were with the Rams. Heavy 11 personnel. - Were they doing under center stuff in the preseason? - I have to go back and look at the numbers on that, but from my recollection, 'cause I did buzz through a little bit. Yeah, they were doing some under center. Cousins did not play. And Michael Panex Jr. only played in the first preseason game. So they didn't really play their starters, their key players on offense much at all in the preseason. I think personally, you look at Cousins, you watch the ball come out of his hand last Sunday and it was not pretty. He was not a power thrower to begin with. And he very clearly just did not have the velocity that he normally would have in a given week. Now, remember, he's coming off the Tornikilies and the Tornikilies was in his right foot. If you're a right-handed quarterback and you're trying to drive off of your right foot and put some mustard on the football, it's gonna be tough to do. Especially if you don't have the physical ability to do it and then be trying to get that faith back and your ability to do that, it looked like he was trying to push everything he had into those throws where he had to drive it. And it just, it did not look good from the beginning through the middle, through the end of that game. It was, it was tough sledding that way. - Is there any reason why the, the bat ankle would lead to those, like the shotgun is a pass pistol is a run thing. - So. - Like it doesn't want to turn around and hand the ball, or he doesn't want to go side to side and hand the ball off. - Yeah, they turn the, turn the part of it could be because of the footwork involved with the shotgun run game. You know, especially when you're dealing in a new system with a new running back, who you didn't get a ton of work with in the summer, and you might say, hey, you know what? Like we don't want to have any kind of an altercation where those guys can get tripped up on each other. That's why there was nothing under center because if the, if Drew Dalman who's a, a smaller center, if he gets pushed back as he is slowly trying to get out from underneath the center and he steps on that ankle like, all right, the season could be over. Same kind of deal if they, if him and Bijon or him and Tyler Algier have any kind of, you know, a collision in the backfield, that could lead to some complication there medically. So I think that that's ultimately why you're not seeing, you're seeing it more siloed offensively from a play call standpoint. - And then part of the result of that was they didn't attempt a single pass in this game, at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage on the team of the league that did that. Does it feel like that is who they are right now? - Yes, I think that is who they are right now. And they need to correct that because you and Zack and Shiel in the past have turned to these kind of offensive, the bog offense. This is the baggiest bog that ever bogged. Was that what we saw this past week? I mean, everything was super condensed. And I talked to how last week, talking about the Kellen Moore offense and the Eagles offense of years past where it was too widespread and you needed to condense, bring everybody in so you can utilize that space outside. They were bringing everybody in and they weren't utilizing the space outside. It was like, we are going to play in this third middle, this middle third of the field within 15 yards. And Pittsburgh saw it and they were teeing off on it very early in this football game. The first interception, the safety is just jumping the quick in-breaking route and taking the football away. If that is the way that they're going to play offensively, it's going to be very, very difficult. They're going to need to lean on Bijon Robinson, the run game to try and create some of those explosives because in the past game, they don't have the guys, yards after catch-wise to do that. Drake London is not a yak guy. Ray Ray McLeod, not a yak guy. They run down more, he has been in the past, but he's out for the year. He had an interesting training. He's yelling at his phone right now, Kyle Pitts. What about Kyle Pitts? Yeah, like in theory, he can be. So you want to be able to get him and honestly, he was that guy for them in this game. He had a couple where he was able to create some explosives with the ball in his hands. They had the one shallow cross where they were able to get him in the open field and let him create down the sideline. Another one came back from a penalty. So all right, so you're hoping that he can be that guy. But if that's what you're hoping for, is that your tight end, is that explosive dimension from a catch and run standpoint, that's not a lot of dimensions that you can count on to create those big plays in your past game. Now, Kirk Cousins in this game got rid of the ball very quickly. Still was pressured a good amount and escaped the tackle box one time on the only touchdown to Kyle Pitts. He looked to me, Fran, like I think you should leave. I don't even, I don't want to be here anymore. Yeah, that's what he looked like playing quarterback in this game. Yeah, I mean, he absolutely, he was an immobile quarterback to begin with, but he never looked more statuesque than this past week. And so as a defensive line, if you know, this is where the quarterback's going to be and you don't have a great offensive line in front of them, which I think coming in, I would have viewed the Atlanta offensive line as an above average group, not a top five group, but a solid group. They didn't play that way on Sunday against Pittsburgh. Every single lineman was charged with multiple pressures by next gen, which next gen does it from the GPS tracking, not like the, you know, it's still, it's still walking. It's still body, body's around the quarterback too often. And that's even though the ball was coming up fairly quickly, if the ball wasn't out like this, there was somebody in Kirk Cousins lap and Pittsburgh's front is a good front, but this is a good barometer for this Eagles defensive line that struggled, you know, on the playing surface down in Brazil, this is a good litmus test for them, where if they're, if they don't create pressure, then I think we're having some difficult conversations come Tuesday. - All right, I do want to get to like what this would change about VIX game plan, just watching this tape, but the last one I want to ask you about, it jumped out to me that most of their runs were going to the left for whatever reason, and then I looked it up. 15 runs to the left, only five to the right. Is there any reason for that? Is it like maybe running away from TJ Watt or I think that side of the offensive line is better run blockers? - Yeah, I mean, the left guard, Matthew Bergeron is a second year guy, he's more known as a run blocker. I like to, I like to Matthew Bergeron coming out Syracuse, but that might just be a one game, that might be a one game sample type of thing. If they were under center, and when you brought that up, that wasn't anything I noticed on film, I started thinking like mechanically like, okay, does he, does the quarterback have to push off at the right foot, but with it being from the shotgun, I think without looking at it, my guess is that's noisy, and that's probably just a one game sample. - All right, so if you're a VIX fan, Joe, you're a game plan in this week, and you can take it as truth that Kirk Cousins wants to get rid of the ball quickly. He can't drive the ball downfield or to the outside, and this offense knows that. How does that change what would be his normal preparation? What would that make him want to do game plan wise? - My guess would be that, so in this past week, he probably saw a little bit more cover three than what we just come to expect from a VIX fan, G.O.D. fancy played and cover three on over 50% of their snaps. So cover three, three players down the field, three coverage defenders deep with four underneath. My guess is that we would then see, instead of more cover three, you'd probably see more cover two or even cover six, where you've got just two defenders downfield, and you've got a cloud corner underneath, you've got, and cover two, you've got five defenders underneath. So more bodies in the short area of the field, in the middle of the field. I also think-- - Let's cover six real quick. - So cover six is where you're playing quarters to one side and cover two to the other. So you have that cloud corner, you still have three defenders deep, but you're crowding the one side of the field a little bit more. You probably see that more to Drake London side, would be my guess, 'cause then you'd give him safety help over the top. So that would be my guess, and you'd see a little bit more of that in this game, and a little bit less cover three. But I think from a coverage menu, we'll probably still see a little bit of everything. To me, the bigger one is how often will they blitz? 'Cause they were fairly aggressive against the Green Bay Packers. Now part of that might be that, hey, the rush wasn't getting home, let's blitz a little bit more. We talked about how we thought that they might send the line backers more than what we've seen from a Vic Fangio defense, but in this game, especially if the ball is going to come out fast, maybe you don't want to sell blitz guys from the second level, you want to rely on that front four to be able to get home, the only caveat I would say to that would be, if you are going to blitz the line backers, maybe they are more of the sim pressures where you're dropping guys into the hole, and doing what we saw in the interception where Zack Bond is dropping into the middle of the field to try and take away some of those throws. - Yeah, I mean, just you think about it, if you know that he's going to be trying to get the ball out quickly anyway, it's almost like you don't need to blitz, right? You hope your guys went up front and then instead you're just having your corners play up more and it's like sort of the opposite of the, you know, don't get beat deep because he can't beat you deep. - He's not beating you deep and actually you are playing in a much tighter area than what you are accustomed to in a typical game. And so I think it would probably, I would stand a reason that they are probably going to blitz less overall. I think the pressures we do see would probably be more of the sim pressure variety where, hey, if the Kobe Dean is coming, Zack Bond is coming and then you're dropping Bryce Huff or you're dropping Josh Sweatt into the short area of the field. And so that would be my assumption, but the big thing for me, like this is a defensive line game. This is one where if we don't come out of this game Monday night saying, wow, like the Eagles defensive line, Jalen Carter, Bryce Huff, Nolan Smith, all of these players impacted this game. I think, again, that's going to lead to some difficult conversations there and more volatile conversations here in the post game show. - So the one guy who they do have, who can open things up and make a big play, is Bijon Robinson. - Yes. - What does he look like on film to you? How dangerous is he? And what will be the Eagles playing against him? - He's awesome. He's really, really gifted. A guy that is that big and he's 215, 218, 218 pounds to move as well as he does. So he's got legitimate juice to create big plays, but then also the lateral jump cuts, the ability to make multiple athletic moves within one run without losing momentum. They're always staying at top speed, pass game, run game. He can create big plays. They threw three receiver screens to him in this game. They threw passes to him out of the backfield. I think I was looking at an article on their team site after the game on Sunday. He accounted for something like 51% of their yardage. He counted for nearly 50% of their touches in the game. - 23 touches for 111 yards. - 111 yards, that made up 49% of their 226 total yards in this football game. So I think when you look at Bijon Robinson, he is like number one priority. Honestly, it goes back to what we would say about the Eagles when they would go up against the Giants and say Juan Barclay like this. - He said that today. - This is the guy. Oh, there we go. Like this is the guy you've got to stop in this offense. - Drake London, they're getting sort of, you know, banged on in the Atlanta media because you only got two catches for 15 yards, three targets in this game. Do you feel like this is one where it's like a classic over correction. They're gonna try to spam him the ball. - I think you have to be alert for that in this game. - The thing is, Drake London, you look at his size, six four, just about 215 pounds. You think, okay, he should be like that big body possession receiver where he made his killing last year in that Arthur Smith offense was a lot of vertical throws, a lot of the fades, the back shoulders, the deep dig routes, the deep comebacks, like a lot of those vertical routes. Obviously that's not present right now in this offense. He ran a couple digs last week and he didn't look all that great doing it. To me, like he's gonna have to make a living on these shallow crosses and those slant routes. That's something that he did not do at a super high level a year ago. And so if you're the Eagles, if you're not worried about him working vertically and you can get up in his face and try and disrupt at the catch point, I think that will be something to watch certainly in this game. If you know where he's going to be, if you could be predictable that way, then that will play an Eagle's favor. - Personnel wise, the Eagles will not have to play nickel theoretically as much as they did last week. Falcons were in 12 personnel, 44% of the time. Last week, that was the second highest rate in the league. So they should be able to stay in base a good percentage. When they are in nickel, let's say that Isaiah Rogers is fully healthy. Would you slide Quignon Mitchell to nickel for this game? Would that be necessary? Or would you rather keep him outside and let Abante have one more chance maybe in better footing? - I personally would be good with leaving Quignon outside. I think especially in this game is for when they go to 11 personnel, that third receiver is often going to be rare in the cloud. Who is a smaller receiver. He's not a guy that's going to get on top of you. He's more of like your gadget underneath slot weapon. So, Abante Mack should be able to hold up against Ray River Cloud. So even if you do think that he's taken some steps back, he's not the player that he once was. I think you want to be able to count on that match up in this game. At times, they'll bring Cadero Hod just the third receiver and he's more of a big body. So maybe you want to, if you want to try and play in the matchup game there, but that said, when they bring Hodge on the field, it's mostly to use him as a blocker. And so, to me, I would rather leave Queenie on outside. That's obviously the long-term plan for this team. If you think that Cooper Dajean is a week or two away from being ready to be a full-time nickel, I think leave Maddox in there until he's ready. - So generally speaking, fair to say that a week ago, we were like, this is going to be an offense game. Like the Packers offense is going to move the ball on the Eagles defense. It would be disappointing if the Falcons offense was really moving the ball a lot on the Eagles defense in this game. You should feel good about the Eagles going up against this Falcons offense. - If Kirk Cousins is in there for the whole game, and the Sans rate, like I don't think he found the magic sauce. - Well, I don't think he found the magic sauce that Achilles is all of a sudden going to look a lot better from one week to the next. I think that'll be a gradual game for him. - Yeah, I would be disappointed if the pass game does not, if the pass game is able to excel the way that it didn't last week, I think that would be a big disappointment. - Do you think the possibility of a switcharoo is keeping Vic up? Like we're putting together this game plan on this offense that is very specifically designed to only be able to do like one or two things. And then they bring in Pennics who can throw the ball deep and all of a sudden like, oh man, we did not prepare for this. - That would really, really surprise me. Now, look, that could be the opening driver of the game and you don't want to wish this on anybody. They could hurt Jalen Carter, could sack her cousins and then cousins out for the game. And then they got to go to Pennics. And so you have to be ready for that possibility because I would expect, look, Pennics played, I think three drives in their first preseason game and it was bombs away. It was vertical throw, vertical throw, vertical throw. And then we didn't see them the rest of the summer. So if he goes in, that changes the construct of-- - Completely, yeah. - So you have to be ready for that from a game plan standpoint. - That's interesting. All right, well, maybe that's the Falcons doing their, putting on their sunglasses were much cooler than you think we are. 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All right, the funny, was it the fumble in the backfield or the motion man? So, they're trying to bring somebody in motion from left to right. Kirk Cousins is trying to stop the guy. He's like, no, don't come. They stay where you're at. The guy didn't listen or didn't hear him runs and the snap goes and hits the guy in the backfield. - 100%. - I think that's one of the funniest plays in football. I mean, to have a motion coming across the snap and then the motion guy gets hit with the ball, that's hilarious. - Well, that's great stuff. - That's the motion for motion sake that makes it all work out. - Yeah, exactly. You can't be risking that. - No, you don't want that to happen. - Yeah, that was great. - The cool play. - Cool play. Focus defense. - Focus defense. Is it Grady Jarrett? - No. - Okay. What do you got? - Nate Landman. - Okay. - Come with flying over and stops the fourth down sink. Like he does the full polemole who jumps over the guy and tackles fields right in the backfield. That was very cool. - Yeah. - Not a very good player, I don't think, but very cool. - No, he's a guy that I think you could target if he's on the field from a pass game standpoint. - All right. What can you tell us about this Falcons defense? - So, brand new defensive scheme. Raheem Morris was the defensive coordinator with the Rams. He comes over and now is the head coach. They bring Jimmy Lake with them. Jimmy Lake was an assistant there with the Rams. I believe he was actually working on the offensive side, but he's a defensive coach by trade. It was long time with first Boise State then with the University of Washington under Chris Peterson. He was the defensive coordinator and then eventually the head coach. A lot of college ideas has a DV background. Now, in his first defense with the NFL, the big thing that he wants to pride on the disguise, we want to make things simple for our guys and then confusing for the opponent. That's kind of one of the things that they try and preach there. - That's just like everybody wants to do that. - Everybody wants to accomplish that. - I will say, one thing that stood out, they do mix things up from a front standpoint. So, it's a base three, four, much like the Eagles. So, you'll see, you know, you've got your nose tackle with two more defensive tackles flanking him, two dressers on the outside with your two middle linebackers there. So, that's what they are in base. And then they go into their nickel and you have the four down and two linebackers, but they will also morph into a more of a 5-1 look from a nickel standpoint. So, they've got those versatile players up front that can, you know, you could take Nate Landman or Troy Anderson, you can move him down close to the line of scrimmage and then allow Kate and Ellis to be that rangey player as the lone linebacker. And what that can do is kind of change the math from a run game standpoint and who's blocking who, especially if you shift to it late. This is something that New England has been very good at under Bill Belichick for a long time. So, you get into some of that positionless football up front. That's where they do a pretty good job or at least did a pretty good job in week one of that against Pittsburgh. - No surprise, Fran, that I thought Kate and Ellis was pretty good in that game. Kate and Ellis, of course, the brother, the other brother of Christian, Jonah. - And he's been a good player for a long time. - He's a good player. - Yeah, I've liked Kate and Ellis going back to his days at the Saints. Honestly, like him and Christian are very similar. I think Kate and has just done it at a higher level, but long, he's rangey, he's explosive, really good blitzer, he'll play in coverage. He can make plays in a lot of different ways. They gave him a lot of money a couple years ago and he has come through with them. He's been a nice player. - Now, this is one where if you're killing more, putting together this offensive game plan, it's hard to know how much you can really take away from that week one film, right? Because that Steelers offense, it's so different than what the Eagles are gonna be trying to do. So, you don't really know what kind of answers the Falcons might have for the kinds of things that you're gonna be trying to do. - Yes, so with Atlanta, they were heavy, heavy, heavy zone coverage. It was almost entirely zone coverage from that standpoint. The Pittsburgh Steelers did not attack the middle of field at all. When you look at the pass game chart with Justin Fields, now Arthur Smith said a little bit before we went to air, actually, that that was by design. He wanted to stay, now Arthur Smith, familiar with that defensive personnel. He said, I didn't want to go anywhere near Jesse Bates. I wasn't gonna let him take the ball away from us. So, everything was by design. We're gonna roll the pocket, get fields outside and work the perimeter. I think the Eagles will work the middle to field a little bit more than what the Steelers did. I don't expect it all be all over the middle, obviously, as we've discussed. But I do think the plan of attack is gonna be a little bit different. A lot more 11 personnel. The Steelers, they're gonna be heavy personnel, multiple tight end sets, run game focus. That is gonna be the opposite of the way the Eagles are likely to play on Sunday. - Yeah, there were a few snaps where it looked like the Falcons defense was not matching 11 personnel from the Steelers. - No. - I would imagine that probably won't be the case in this game because they're gonna respect the, you know, you can't let Troy Anderson be covering Devonta Smith. - Yes, I would imagine that you're gonna see a lot more from that standpoint where they're gonna be reactive to how the Eagles are gonna line up. And so, I think that when you look at, and that's one of the things, honestly, like opening drive, Kellen Moore's going to test that. We're gonna build all these things into the opening script just to see how Atlanta reacts. And if they react this way, all right, two drives from now, we're gonna come back. We've got a plan for that. That's what good offensive coordinators do, is try and push those buttons early, see how the defense reacts, and then here's our counter punch to that. - So personnel-wise, I mean, this is a, they've got a bunch of guys who were like Pro Bowlers three years ago, or maybe on the downside-ish of their career, but still effective. Who is the, you know, there's nobody who's necessarily the beige on Robinson, this is our guy, but who are the Eagles circling on the game plan? - So, up front, the two names would be Grady Jarrett and Matthew Judon. Now, Judon just got there. It was a late trade in the summer from New England. He was holding out, so he didn't do much all summer, and then shows up, he immediately becomes a starter off the edge. He has been, he's like a crafty, like high-side rusher. He's a little bit undersized, but he's gonna win trying to win the edge and turn the corner. Now, he'll get most of his reps, my guess, would be against Jordan Milada. That is the kind of body type bow that Jordan has struggled with at times in straight pass protection down. So, that would be a matchup certainly to watch, would be Judon against Milada. The other guy is Grady Jarrett. Now, Jarrett missed most of last season with an injury. I kind of thought already he's a little bit older, he's coming off the injury. He might be a guy on the downside. He looked awesome in week one. He still has Jews. The short area burst is there. Disruptive against the run. Disruptive against the pass. So, I think Grady Jarrett on the inside, he's gonna be a tough matchup from Akai Bechton. He's built low to the ground, and he's also a really crafty player in terms of how he uses his hands. And so, for Cam Jurgens, a young player, relatively inexperienced player, a good test and good litmus test for Cam Jurgens. And so, those are the two players up front that you have to have circle on the line. - And then, in the secondary, you already mentioned Jesse Bates. They've got AJ Terrell on the outside, and also Justin Simmons, who's the biggest concern there. Bates. - Bates, I think for sure. This is a guy that had six picks a year ago. He's one of the range year ball hawks in the safety position in the NFL. But he's not just a coverage piece, 'cause he'll come down and fly down against the run. I really like the way that Jesse Bates plays. He's changed a lot. I mean, he came out as a third year Redshirt sophomore. - Go deep. - I'll wake Forrest. Yeah, go deeps. He came out out of Wake Forrest. And we're a one-dimensional post-safety player. He only played one year as a starter. I remember right. - He's really smart, extremely handsome. - Of course. And the colors were able to help him there. But I think when you look at the way that he has developed, he's turned into one of the best safeties in football. And so, to me, Jalen Hertz, he can't make the decisions he made a week ago against the Green Bay Packers, because you've got Jesse Bates. AJ Terrell could take the ball away. Justin Simmons, even though he's older, has been a proven guy that can take the ball away as well. You can't be as careless with the football against this secondary as you were a week ago, 'cause they will make you pay. - I was thinking about Jalen watching this game in particular with Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields for all of the decision-making stuff that we ragged on Jalen for last week, which was not good. - One thing I will say is Jalen is very rarely inaccurate. - Yes. - He's throwing the ball where it's supposed to go based on where he thinks it's supposed to go, whereas both Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields in this game were just like scatter shots sometimes, just totally missing guys. We don't see that from Jalen. - No, we don't. - To his credit. - And we also typically from Jalen, don't see the bad decisions with the football that way, too. Like he doesn't typically put the ball in harm's way that way. - No, no, I think he does sometimes. - No, I think that for the most part, I think Jalen kind of stays away from making those kind of bad decisions. Now, he turns down throws, like he does that at the high, that's the decision-making that can come back to bite him sometimes, but he rarely like makes those throws and like, man, I don't know what you were thinking to throw in that football. The big thing with, and this goes back to Cousins, it's almost like one of the golf video games where it's like, all right, you like are pulling all the way back. You want to put everything into his throw and he's just like going like, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. So if you're Kirk Cousins, you're trying to put everything into a throw, that's when he becomes more scatter shot than what we were used to seeing with him. If you have to put everything, he's like, oh, that extra little bit of energy. - That's a good description. - You saw, you see the scatter shot kind of show up with Cousins in that way. - The first throw of the game he made was so bad. - Yeah, and like the interception was bad. - And even the touchdown comes after he gets, he fumbles on a sack, like they didn't even, like that could have gone the other way. - Yes. - Could have scored no touchdowns. - No question. - Yeah, it was ugly. You know, there was one guy who I kind of liked who I, and then you know, you send your notes for the guys and you don't seem to be too high on them. I don't think he can cover Davante Smith, but I thought D Alfred's kind of a fun little player. - Yeah, yeah, he didn't do it. He didn't do it for him. - He didn't do it for him. - No, he didn't do it for him. - He didn't do it for him, yeah. - I do like a Mike Hughes, the other corner. Mike Hughes is the other starting corner former first round pick out of UCF. - No, your cues, not our cues. - Mike Hughes, when you're looking at Mike Hughes smaller body, but he's like one of those like every fan base is going to be annoyed with Mike Hughes after every game. Like, oh, I can't stand this guy. That's the way that he plays. AJ Terrell on the other side is a really good corner. I think it is interesting though, that the way that they played AJ Terrell last week. So George Pickens is kind of like he's the only pass game guy. We're going to move AJ Terrell to his side of the field every single time. Even though, as we talk about, they didn't play any man coverage, Terrell always played two pick inside, but they also always rolled a safety over the top of pick inside. So you were constantly playing AJ Terrell with safety help, playing cover two technique. If he's supposed to be like one of the top corners in football, you shouldn't need to do that. So I thought that was a little curious from that standpoint why they would feel the need to do that. I'll be interested to see how they handle AJ Brown Devontay Smith. Now Brown is the guy that's mostly been playing on the outside. Will they shadow him only to AJ Brown's side? Will they feel fine with Mike Hughes matching up against Devontay Smith? That's going to be fun. And do you think that Jimmy Lake will be willing to send more than zero, zero blitzes against Jaylen Hertz in this game? Probably. Yeah, that would be my guess. Now they didn't blitz a ton last week. So, you know, but I do think that they, if you're, if you're Atlanta, like you have to be able to say like we're going to push this button. Now, again, Rahimaris comes from the Rams. They played against the Eagles last year. Jaylen was awesome in that game against the Rams from memory serving. So I actually probably should have gone back and re-watched that game for this game's purpose. We all do that in the next couple of days. But yeah, all right. But I do think when you, when you look at Jimmy Lake and Rahimaris, our game plan, like you, you have to include a big blitz at some point. Is it Jimmy Lake or Lake Jimmy? I think it's Jimmy Ocean. That's good. Yeah. I feel like, like Jimmy Crick, Jimmy Kemsky should draw himself a bath and then call it Lake Jimmy. He's going for a dip in Lake Jimmy. Yeah. Maybe Zach will sell that one. There was a very funny moment on yesterday's show with, with Rich and Jamie where they were talking about Deshawn Watson and the terrible contract. Yep. And Rich said something like, you know, Kevin Safancy, I think, is a, is a good coach. And I, what I heard was Kevin Spacey, I think, is a good comp. And I thought, you know, that's a really good point, Rich. That is a good comfort, John Watson. Yeah. There's so much there. I don't even want to even get close to it. Any more ways than one? Happy anniversary to, yes. A PHOI. This is the one year anniversary of our very first episode. So, come, we've come a long way. We've got you next to us now, Fran. All right. Let's talk about our friends at bed 365. Of course, our presenting sponsors, you know all about them. And you know that they're never ordinary. BET365 has 90 million users worldwide. They also live stream over 780,000 events each year with early payout offers across the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. BET365 pioneered live in game betting. Today, BET365 offers the widest range of games and markets available for live in game betting across 78 sports. And if you want to open an account up now, we've got a nice little deal for you right now. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. Use the code PHly365 to sign up, deposit $10 and place a bet for $5 to get $200 in bonus bets. Bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals, player props, futures, and more. What do you got in the Dolphins Bills game tonight, Fran? I like the Bills. I'll double down on my, on my schedule. You guys are trying to fly. I guess I like the Dolphins in this game, but I don't feel strongly about it. Probably not enough to lay a wager on this one. But you know, maybe I'll change my mind the closer we get to game time. I personally would stay away from the Thursday night games totally, but that's me personally. So much goes in this Thursday night. Yeah, but. Division game two. Division game two, but early game. So you never know. Yes. It's never ordinary at BET365. See for yourself with our Thursday night touchdown offer. Place qualifying parlay bets totaling $20 or more on tonight's game and get bonus bets for every touchdown. Terms and conditions apply, download the app and use code PHly365 when you sign up. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at BET365. Download the BET365 app, use code PHly365 when you sign up to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet $5 whatever the moment. It's never ordinary at BET365. It must be 21 or older and physically located in Pennsylvania. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help call or text 1-800-CAMBER. So, well, let's talk about Ace Hardware Home Services. Let's talk about it. And we know Ace Hardware is having the best jingle in the land. And you know, if you've heard Ace Hardware, Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks. Well, Ace is much more than just the helpful hardware folks. They also have the home services. If you've got a leaky pipe at Ace Hardware Home Services, they are around the block with everything you need to fix it, including the person to do the fixing. You have a leaky AC. You've got an issue there. They've got a person for that. If you've got a faucet that you said you were going to fix last fall, I am always guilty of these things as my wife can attest to. They've got someone for that as well because now Ace Hardware is not just about the helpful hardware folks. They're also about the helpful home service and repair folks. From plumbing to heating and cooling. You've got the trusted pros to keep your home humming all year long. Ace Hardware Home Services, we're bringing helpful home. The helpful you love from the store now to your front door. Visit Ace Hardware Home Services online at www.acehardwarehomeservices.com to get you started on your next project. All right. We're going to be joined in just a moment by our main man, Zach Berman. Then around three o'clock, that's when we're going to bust open the swooper. We look forward to that. Your first one, are you nervous? You're not nervous. We already did it. I was not. I was excited. It's been one of my favorite things as all the sickos. I think would agree with me. One of my favorite games on this show is history. Very excited to take part. Anything else left over wise from the Falcons tape that you want to get to? Let's take a look here. I mean, to me, I'm excited to see. Can Tavia Street made a play? I saw that. Yes. Can Tavia Street, former Eagles, great. He's a nice rotational piece. I actually really like their defensive interior. I thought their starters played really well and I thought their backups came in and gave them good snaps. But to me, just going to the other side of the line. Jalen Carter against Chris Lindstrom, the right guard for the Falcons. Lindstrom is one of the highest paid guards in football. And he is a guy that they are leaning on to be one of those linchpins up front. He gave up six pressures this past week, according to next-gen stats. The worst game of his career in past protection from a pressure percentage standpoint. And so they need more from him in this game. You go up against Jalen Carter. He had three pressures last week. Obviously, he was not able to get home for a sack. We talked about the playing surface stuff. Let's throw that all out the window. You go into the next week against the Falcons at the link. You need Jalen Carter to come out like this could be a statement type of game on a national audience and island game for the Eagles. That's a match up on the watch. Jason Kelsey popping him up on Countdown. Yeah, absolutely. To me, that is a match up that I am most excited to see in this game. Anybody else that is particularly of interest to you? Where do you fall on this Bryce Hup discussion right now? Yeah, I mean, I was -- I love the fan-geo press conference. Because he just -- he gives you so much to be able to chew on. You know with it, he's being honest. And he said, yeah, he's going to have to play. Essentially, he's going to have to play better. He's going to have to earn those snaps. Yeah, I mean, he's going to get the opportunity in this game going up against the Falcons. They're going to want to run the football. They need to run the football. Caleb McGarry, not that good. He's better in the run game than he is the past game. Okay. And that's the thing is if the Eagles can stop the run, you get them behind the sticks. It's third and seven. Bryce Hups get off. Should be able to beat Caleb McGarry. McGarry was credited with one sack against against TJ Watt. Two other ones got taken off the board due to penalties. So that could have been like a disastrous game for Caleb McGarry in this game. Against Pittsburgh. You go ahead and look at Brandon Graham, Bryce Huff, Nolan Smith. It's third and long. Like all systems go here going up against Caleb McGarry at Ray Tackle. And it is Caleb McGarry and not Gary McKaleb. Yes, correct. And don't you dare change the song on the iTunes for Caleb McGarry. Oh, if you remember that from when he was coming out. No. There's a whole story. Yeah. Well, I'll let you know. No, tell us this story. It was a whole big day. Apparently he like started a. This is all reports, you know, off of me. Obviously, but there was like an argument in the weight room where he like changed the music. He's the one who changed the music. He's the one who changed the music. Or he had it and someone changed the music on him and it turned into a big thing. But yeah, it was that was a big story. Like he was he the one doing the punching or he was the one that was getting punched. If memory serves, he was on the. He was the aggressor. But don't quote me. Don't quote that as foul to go back. I figured you were aware of the story. This seems like right up your alley. Yeah, but I'm probably just too old to remember things. Yeah, come on. You know what? Shield will tell you. You got to up your arm and didn't take. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's true. I had a nice interaction the other day walking to pick up Jane from music class. There was a guy in the neighborhood running by and he stopped. I think I believe his name was Kyle. And he said, oh, but like, you know, big fan of show. That's great. Love, love somebody to say that. And he told me a thing that like, what a better compliment I could never receive. He said, you will probably not remember this. Okay. And he was right. But this is like an inside joke with him and his friends in their group chat. There's an episode from 2018 when I did the entire episode in a British accent. Yeah. Which I do remember because the Eagles are going to play London and that was a lot of fun. That was painful. And he said there's a specific line that they just text back and forth. Bruce Hector and Trayvon Hester. And for whatever reason. And I thought that's great. I don't remember that at all. But if that's my legacy, just like one little thing for like six guys to text it out. What more could you ask for? That's as good as it gets. I do feel like your British accent was much better. You just sounded like Shrek just now. I ran into a viewer listener this weekend as well. Matt. Give a shout out to Matt. I don't give free advertising in place. Hit some golf balls. You were playing with him. We were in a big party together. So we were in different areas. I always run good to run every day listener for what I understand. So they'll see you at two o'clock on Monday. I want to say goodbye. There we go. That's great. Except you were not on Monday. I know. Are you an active listener, Matt? Come on. Everyone's getting used to the new routine though. Oh, I have a note here from Mike Garifolo. A manual for undergo surgery tomorrow to repair a torn UCL in his thumb. Tough. It's always big for a corner. That's something. Yeah, that's fun. All right. Zach is, you know what? You did tell him 240. He's letting us down is the truth. I mean, I don't know. It's going to hurt him. Still in the locker room. But, you know, you got a time. You're supposed to be there on time. When time is important, when time matters, what's the saying? What's the confluent time thing? Not only that, but you said he initially said 235. Yeah. And then you said, you know what? We're going to do the ads. Come to 240. We finished the ads. I checked by a checked clock at 240 on the dot. I mean, are we trying to have a professional show or what? Impeccable. Unbelievable. Now, he said the walkthrough went late. But, I mean, you know, he better be coming with some big breaking news from this from this locker. We've got Swooper to get to. We've got Swooper to get to. I mean, he's going to be disappointed because he's not going to have as much time to talk as he wanted. We had all this football talk in the beginning. All this football talk. All of this football talk. That was hard hitting stuff. All right. So let me ask you this question. One thing we were talking about, I said, we'll save it for the show. I want to pull up Dana's tweet. I thought it would be a good idea to reflect back on the spread your eggs and fly. That's the draft, right? What was the one from last week? The team over under the seat. The team over under. Yeah. So a week one over reaction. If you had one team that you could say, all right, I want to double down. All right, I got it. And say, yeah, I feel extra confident about this team, about this prediction. And another one that you could just erase from the record completely. Which teams would they be? All right. Let me pull it up here. I'm going to go to Dana's. You're going to go to the media. I'm trying to tell you the same thing. There we go. I think we got it. Nope, that's the 2023 version. You thought that I would have. Okay, got it. All right. I'll go quickly for your mind. Green Bay over nine and a half. Don't feel great about that because of the injury. Seattle over seven and a half. Feel good about that. Okay. San Francisco under eleven and a half. Don't feel great about that. They looked very good. Even without McCaffrey. Still high. Yep. I feel very good about Baltimore. Yeah, that was a good call. You feel like you were on the right side of that. That might be in Houston over nine and a half. Those might be the two where I feel the strongest right now. Saints under seven and a half. I don't. Yeah, I don't feel great about that. I mean, obviously they had a great game. But as you were saying out in the green room, the Panthers look awful. Julia, you're Julia's Panthers. Not looking very good. Are they over five and a half for Julia's English? Yeah, that's tough. New Orleans. Tampa over seven and a half. I feel still good about that. New England over four and a half. I mean, already got one. Yeah, I got to feel good about that. So there's a low number. Dallas over ten and a half. I still I feel pretty good about that. LA's the Chargers over eight and a half. I feel good about that too. And then my flags were on the Falcons under nine and a half. I feel great about that after that week one game. And then the Jets under nine and a half. I'm feeling pretty good. So nothing you'd pull away. No, I would pull away the Packers over nine and a half because of the love injury. Yeah, sure. How about one that you would double down on? I think if I could only double down on one. I mean, maybe Atlanta under nine and a half. Yeah. You know, maybe right on that one. For me, although Penn X comes in week, you know, that's something they could change like that. Yeah. Well, if I was doubling down, I would I would double down on an under because an over could still like, you know, I feel good about C.J. Stroud and the Texans getting 10 wins, but if he goes down, whereas it's harder for a bad team to get better. Agree. So that's why I think I would go with the Falcons. All right. So really quickly for me, Minnesota over six and a half. No change for me there. I feel pretty good about that one still. Detroit over 10 and a half. I feel good there. Buffalo over 10 and a half. I still feel good there. You guys made fun of me on the on my lack of unders. I actually feel really good about my my loan under Vegas under six and a half. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably my double down if we're being honest. Falcons over nine and a half. That might be the one I strike from the record. The Colts over eight and a half. Rams over eight and a half. Denver over five and a half. Miami over nine and a half. Chicago over eight and a half. Pittsburgh over eight and a half. I did take a lot of overs, didn't I? I would say I would double down on the Raiders on my on the under. And if I had to remove one under, I mean, the Rams with those injuries over eight and a half. It's a little scary. You're kicking. It might be the Falcons. Yeah. I think it would be Atlanta on the over over nine and a half. I do think my guess is, is that cousins injury, they said that well, he's got to play. He's got to. We can't start him on the bench. And they're hoping that within within a month, he's up to full speed that they're like, hey, you know, and he's not a hundred percent yet. But if he's 80 percent, they're hoping for a Tyler Steen situation. They're hoping for he has some other minor injury that they can put them on our force so they can try out Penn X and if it doesn't go well, then then cousins is a little bit more recovered. And he can come back later. Yes. I would say that's probably fair. All right. All right. We have the man. Oh, Zach Berman. You know, not on cough one time, but here nonetheless, Zach, how you doing? Catch my breath. They're still speaking in the locker room, but I departed early to make sure that I got on the show. As I'm learning quickly this season, you can't be two places at once, right? But I'm trying to kind of says by both the man's in terms of being in the locker room and being here, but to answer your questions succinctly, I'm catching my breath because I sprinted out of that locker room. I almost knock Keeley Ringo over, but I did not. Yeah. I was bolting. Oh, let's knock you over. I think I give me a little more credit there. I had the acceleration going that he was standing still. So you know, I think he would have knocked him over. I don't know. Was it blind? Did he see you coming? Oh, no, no, no, no, yeah, no, yeah, and then there was a few team officials around the doorway. I'm going to knock them over. Did not. But I'm here now. So I was like playing slalom in the hallway. This is like one of those sitcom episodes where you've got two dates at once at the restaurant on your like going back and forth. You're trying to do too much. That's precisely what it is because, you know, folks can tell the audience that I very seldom get in a bad mood. I got in a bad mood when the schedule comes out and I see the locker room is literally during the two o'clock hour. You know, there's 23 hours in the day when I would love to be in that locker room. And one hour in the day when I wanted to set this schedule based on what the locker room time was last year. Yeah. Yeah. But I digress. I'm here now. And yeah, you know, not a big news week per se, the Kobe Dean had a bunch of, you know, the Kobe Dean was the big story there, Zach Vaughn was the big story there. I was catching up with some long time Eagles veterans about their favorite Nick Foles memories. You know, people have seven guys on the team who played with Nick Foles. And so I got, I got some good anecdotes, I have a few more guys, I need to get tomorrow, but that's, that's going to be a story that comes out of the weekend. In addition to I have a full notebook coming out tomorrow with a bunch of notes that kind of compiled over the past two weeks. So anyways, but yeah, in the locker room today, the Kobe Dean was the big story. Zach Vaughn. And then obviously Saquon Barkley, who was presented with slime because I believe he was the Nickelodeon player of the week, if that sounds correct. I feel like it's kind of, you can't be just presented with slime. You got to be slimed. Well, maybe that there was a box with the slime and they didn't put the slime on him, but they, there was, there was a box that was presented to him. I imagine with the slime in there. So maybe he's getting slimed outside and I, in the, in the locker room, I mean, I, I know how, you know, the, the, the custodian staff, they, they work really hard in there. You don't want to add to the mess, but slime, you do it outside. You know, I'm speculating here, but that's probably a better place to do it. But a few of the players saw the slime and we're like, already, we got a slime guy, right? So, uh, Saquon's one performance. You're giggling about something. I'm a physical scenario where Zach Vaughn gets slimed in the locker room. Zach is trying to sprint out of the locker room to get here to show slides on the slime and then keep it right for the year after sliding on the, on the next one. Or it's like what, it's right when I'm leaving and I roll into Jown Hurts and Jown Hurts gets knocked out. Yeah. Yeah. How about Nick Sirianni earlier today, Nick, what were your, I mean, uh, Zach, what were your takeaways? Different. Slit there, right? Yeah. Um, you know, it's funny because they, uh, just as, as, as a quick aside, I, I brought up Nick to a play, you know, to a player in the locker room. Nick thought I was talking about Sirianni, right? Not falls, which was my mistake, you said, Nick falls. Yeah. Exactly. You know, X guys who played with Nick and they're like, played with Nick, I played for Nick and I'm like, yeah, yeah, no, it's, you know what I mean. Um, honestly, with Sirianni today, the, the big message that he presented to the team was about details was about fundamentalcy, it was a stat that Nick had handy, which was the Eagles were the only team that won last week with a negative turnover differential. And, uh, as, as Bell remembers during training can, Nick knew the exact Eagles exact record when they won the turnover battle, right? And so this was a, a point that he reinforced to the team today that, uh, that, that, you know, they, it's not a sustainable way to play the turn the ball over like they did. And obviously not have the takeaways that they did and then, and then go on and, and win. Uh, that was a big message from him. Uh, he regarding the linebacker, I don't even want to say linebacker change, but because this happened during training camp in front of our eyes, as, as far as nakobi D, uh, becoming the starter, he beat Devin White out. Next point was that Devin White, the Eagles might eat him this year. Uh, so that's the kind of the conversation that they had with Devin White. Um, you know, Nick kind of, he, he talked about how he's allocating his time now and, and, uh, time when he, he would have spent maybe looking at like 12 personnel in the game, he, he, he, he can allocate elsewhere, uh, during the prep week and, and he, you know, there were some players, uh, specific things. Here's, here's, here's one anecdote before I get to the players specific things in the meeting today. He showed the schedule for the season and he blurred out the game before the Packers game and then the next 15 games and this was to reinforce the point that the only game that matters is the next game, right? It's the Falcons game. So this is an old coaching, a coaching cliche, but that adds a little color to what he did in the locker room. Kind of like, you know, when he gave the example of the play of the, uh, roots being planted. Uh, and then, uh, you know, Bijon Robinson, who is obviously a big time opponent for the Eagles this, this weekend, someone who was a source of intrigue among Eagles fans a year ago, he said that he brought up Bijon in the meeting today, showed Bijon's first touchdown last year against Carolina, which was on like the seventh play of the game or thereabouts and said he found himself talking about Bijon the same way he used to talk about Saquon with the Giants and actually Saquon, I was asking Saquon today about Bijon and like interrupted my question being like, uh, I love that guy just, just talking about like the career that Bijon has. He was watching Bijon's YouTube, um, uh, clips this summer and texted Bijon just, just how impressed that he was with him. So Bijon has a lot of, uh, respect among the running backs in the league for sure and certainly from the Eagles defense going into this week. Hey, Zach, when you talk to Saquon, does he, uh, do you say anything about your story? Did you get to read it? I don't know if Saquon read it, um, yeah, I know for, yeah, I know for a factible round Saquon read it, um, but, um, but no, uh, I don't know he hasn't commented me on it. Uh, a cool anecdote though, I, I mentioned that, um, I mentioned on the show Monday that Saquon was at the youth football game, uh, in the Lehigh Valley, Saucon Valley, on the day after that. So they flew 10 hours, they landed, he, he drew, he drove out there. He told me when I met with him over the summer that it takes him 45 minutes to get there. I think I said this on the show the other day. I don't know how it takes him 45 minutes. He must go really fast. I mean, I don't go that fast, but it took me 57 minutes. Um, so he, he made up a lot of time in there, in any event, uh, he looked at the eagle schedule and this was the only time this was the only day he was able to go watch that game, which is where his, it's his, it's his, uh, nephew and how many touchdowns do you think his nephew scored? Four. No, he did not have the poker. He had the hat trick, his, his nephew had three touchdowns as well. Nice. So a little, a little, uh, uh, family symmetry there, but yeah, that's, that's why he went out there. All right. Anything else from, uh, locker room or news wise that you feel like we need to get, get in before the, uh, three o'clock hour strikes? No, you know, uh, I'll be on the practice field soon. So we'll see if there's any update regarding injuries, uh, certainly Isaiah Rogers, Devin White are the, you know, two guys, the monitor players who, who, who might have, who might have come off the field. I'm curious to see what St. Paul and Barkley's, uh, practice habits are if, if they, uh, have come on, you know, like a Wednesday rest day, uh, we're about to, well, today's Thursday, uh, rest day, but, but, but no hard news. You'll have more in, I'm going to have this weekly Friday notebook where I put a bunch of notes from the week. You'll see that on all PHLY.com tomorrow, uh, and make sure I will have a video update as well on all our social accounts and our, in our YouTube. I, uh, I, I don't, I'm not saying this to make you feel bad, Zach. I'm just reporting for the audience. Uh, Jeff McClain did say that, uh, Isaiah Rogers in the locker room said that he broke his hand, his right hand in the last practice of training camp and needed surgery, uh, but he is hoping to be able to play on Monday night. Gotcha. Okay. I mean, Isaiah is probably talking right now as I'm talking to you guys. As I said, we can't be two places at once, um, as we learned with Jack Frisco last week, uh, although that was my fault. That's cause I came home before we flew out. Not your fault. You know, you're right decision. Ten hour flight to get, um, but yeah, this one, I don't feel that bad cause I, I wanted to get on the show with you guys, but, um, yeah, I credit the, what was all over the Isaiah Rogers injury before anyone else. It's very true. God damn right. A student observer practicing games. You're goddamn. Yeah. Nobody has sure. No one, no one watches the sideline. I like Boa. He actually did a great story a few years ago on, uh, Carson Wentz, every move he made during the game was against Washington. Real good piece. Think of our foreign piece season that much I was to write about. Yes. If, uh, you know, I, I, I, I know we have to get to a much anticipated thing more than this, this, this anecdote, but you'll appreciate this, both of you. Um, Lane Johnson, his, his, uh, his most vivid memory of Nick Foles. What do you think it is? Or like what he associates Nick Foles with, excuse me. You over the door. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I guess I set myself up for that. I didn't, I, I was, he said Nick Foles was all about the, for two years was all about the bullproof coffee guy. Um, you got Lane Johnson into it. But yeah, when he thinks of Nick, he thinks of the bullproof coffee among other things that I'll get to in, uh, in this story. Um, also got some cool, uh, Jordan, I'll say, I'll say something on, on here. Jordan, my lot of, um, when he thinks of Nick Foles, Jordan was like the scout team court, who was, well, so Nick was the scout team quarterback that year. And Jordan was the, uh, was the scout team left tackle, right? And you're, or maybe right tackle, but he was the tackle and Jordan said he gave up so many sacks, uh, in the beginning of, of that year. He just has Foles in his, in his ear, like telling him like, you're going to get better, you're going to get better. And he's like his, his association with Nick Foles is, is that you, how like right Nick was about his, his, uh, progression. So I, I thought, I thought that was a cool piece. Yeah. There's, there's a, there's a few other things. So that will, you know, I need to catch up with kick y'all yet and Rick Lovato and, um, a few other guys in the locker room, but you'll find that on all PHLI.com this weekend. Thank you very much, Zach. And, uh, if you want to read those stories, you can become a die hard and also make sure that you're hitting that subscribe button. Okay. Let's get to the main event for the sickos. You have waited long enough, uh, before Zach went to the locker room, just about two hours ago, we finally jumped back in to Lake Swooper. So let's, uh, let's take it to that now and that, that's going to close out the show. So thank you, Zach, for making the effort, uh, thank you, Fran, thank you, Julia. And for the rest of you sickos, enjoy the return of Swooper, forecasting. In the, it's not quite a full homage to, to James Earl Jones. If you build it, he will come. But if you ask for it enough as a sicko, we will bring it back. And so we are here now for the first PHLI edition of Swooper, forecasting, but Wolf, and Duffy, Zach Berman, over at the Nova care complex, we're recording this ahead of the show today because it is that important. Deagle's different schedule today because of the Monday night game. We're making it happen anyway. So let's get to the rules for those of you who are unfamiliar with the greatest game ever invented. Swooper, Swooper, this is a, this is a bidding game, a prediction game. Okay. So over the course of this game, there are going to be 12 items up for bid. I have picked three, Zach has picked three, Fran has picked three, and Daniz has submitted three ahead of time to Julia. Now these are all items that could or could not happen in the game, the next Eagles game, which of course is Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons. Each contestant has 24 turkeys with which to bid every week. And if you don't use your turkeys, they carry over. Of course, people familiar with Zach strategy will know that very well. Whoever owns the most items that end up coming correct in the game, you get a point for every item that becomes true. And whoever has the most items that comes true wins the week, and you get a full point. If there's a tie, you get, you know, we'll disseminate two half points. If it's a three way tie, everybody gets a third of the point. And on and on we go, whoever finishes with the most points at the end of the season wins the game. And we should say ahead of time in the playoffs, the points rise every week of the playoffs adds another point to how many points are at stake. Is that familiar to you, Fran, do you understand the rules for your first time playing? I do. I, as I told you guys before, I watched every episode of the show. I listened to every episode of the show I should say. So I was familiar with the game. I do, I misremember one part, I thought if there was a tie that the next week becomes a two point week, was that changing? We changed that. I think we did that one year and we turned it into a skins game. I think it turned out, I think that's what we did for the last generation, but we're going back to basics this year. We're not, we're not making it a skins game. I will say I went back and, you know, as I, as I did, I did some films. Wow. I watched probably seven or eight super, really, more than yes. Why the only thing uglier than that was watching Bryce Young this week than watching some of those, some of those episodes, it was, it was rough. And by the way, into the weeds a little bit, you have to have at least one turkey. You have to nominate a thing. So when, when Zach is going to go first, he's going to say this is the item, he's going to nominate it for at least one turkey. So if you don't have any turkeys left in the last round, when you're nominating, you can borrow one from next week's allotment, but only one. You cannot bid any further than one. Does that make sense? Zach, I did not realize that was a rule, but that was a little bit put into place towards the end. Yeah. To keep things moving a little bit. A lot's happened in this past year. Yes. Are you, are you, do you feel confident that you remember how to play this game? I feel confident knowing that if I keep turkeys in my pocket, they're still good next week, and they're still good in a month, and they're still good in three months. So I feel confident knowing that the longest view in the room is a beneficial view to take. Well, that's an important reminder, Zach, before we get going, you know, a lot has changed since we last played Swooper. I think we need to take at least one moment of silence in honor of Charlie Munger. Alright, I didn't know we were doing a full graphic. I should not have laughed at that. He's a brilliant man. I think the graphic, the graphic made me laugh. All right, Zach, you get to kick us off. The first item of the 2024 Swooper season is five. The Falcons score equal or fewer points than the 2018 season opener, which was also, well, which was also against the Falcons, the Falcons against Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. That was 12 points, the Falcons scored. So equal or fewer? Okay, so the Falcons and this stationary offense scored 12 or fewer points against the Eagles in this game. You are opening the bidding at one. I'm opening the bidding at one. I'll say two, go three. Now Julia, we actually didn't talk about this. It's on you to be the auctioneer here, so a going once, a going twice sold as the proceedings continue. Okay. And if there's a tie in terms of who does the bidding, you have to be a barber in that situation in terms of who came in first. Oh, no. Yeah. I'm going to say four. I will go four here. And for context, of course, as Fran has, I imagine outlined in this point in his review of the Falcons, they scored 10 points last week. So four, four going once, going twice. Twice. All right, I'll take off four, Falcons, 12 or fewer points. And I'm down to 20 turkeys. All right. My first item up for submission. At least one of the following things happens on the Falcons opening possession. So we're betting here on a little bit of a pullback from last week for the Falcons. Kirk Cousins takes at least one snap of under center play action. Drake London is targeted three or more times, or Kirk Cousins completes a pass of 30 yards or more. Any of those things happens on the opening Falcons possession. I open the bidding at one, three, I'll go four, going once, going twice. Oh, Zach on the five. You can have a sack. I'm out. You got that, Zach. I love a sweeper that has multiple outcomes that could go, you know, that there's, there's multiple options there. I feel like it's a good bet to make spending a little much early. Don't love that. Surprise surprising. Surprising movie. Yeah. Big spender over here. I think Drake London to be, I'm expecting that to be the over correction where he and Morris came out publicly and said they need to get on the ball. So that's one of those things where boom, it's like the Devontae Smith game week two of the 2022 season. Sure. But if they go three and out, yeah, three targets in the opening drive, that was, that seemed a lot for me. Sure. All right. Over to you, friend. All right. So my first one, let's go to the Eagle. Your first super ever. One and one. Big boys. All grown up. This is why you sat down here. Yes. Exactly. This is why I'm here. Markley runs for at least 100 yards. He hits three triple digits for the second straight week. We'll set the bidding at one Turkey. Two turkeys. I'm about three. I'm surprised. X, not not. They don't miss that. Five. Yeah. He's done for the week. He can't. He cannot possibly afford anymore. Three turkeys. I'll go four. Oh. Oh, five. Oh. Five turkeys. The run defense was very good for Atlanta last week. They're one of the top win defenses by number coming out of week one. But an offense that was obviously run heavy heading in so they knew that. Less. More to worry about this week. They were able to stay in base a lot last week. You're at five. I'm at five. Oh. I have turkeys going once. Going twice. Ah. No. You got it. Ah. I'll take it for five. That's a good one. Sake one a hundred. This is where Zach gets in trouble. Yeah. Here we go. I'm here. Maybe I should study the tape as well, friend. You did audit that class. Going back and rewatching the old episode, Zach, the day news submissions and it was rough sledding for you. For context, the new listeners, we used to do it like fresh off the I would rush home on a Friday. It would be a thousand things we were working on and although it would be the hour 30 mark of a Friday show, this is like my only night free of the week. And then Professor Shelton comes in with a grad level game theory problem. I wasn't adequately prepared for it. Excuses are the other bricks that built the house of failure. One of my favorite quotes is don't ask for lighter bird and ask for broader shoulders. So I will ask for broader shoulders here. Okay. All right, Julia. What do we have from the madman? Okay. Is item number four and he said in parentheses, this is a normal auction. Okay. Normal auction. Normal auction. It goes to the Dutch auction. Yeah. I don't know what it means. Yeah. Complete a pass using under center play action. They were over one last week and they look bad. Yeah. Those under center snaps. I'll go one. I'll go to get to go three to to cheap to not to not go one more. I'll go for four. Mmm. Going once, going twice. It's a Danish summation back there. Yeah. I'll take it for four. All right. So the four. Eagles under center play action. Completion. Completion. Down to 15. All right. All right, Zach, you're up. All right. This is one. These are some that I like to use, which are combo platters, if you will. Zae Kwan Barkley and Drake London have more total yards, total yards than Bijon Robinson and AJ Brown. And I'll start depending on one. Two. I don't want to let you have this at three or for two. I'm expecting a big Bijon game here as we'll get to on Friday and Monday show. But yeah, that is a cheap price here. The classic Zach move of doing a submission that he has no interest in many people work. Yeah. That's an interesting option strategy is nominating players that I don't I don't intend to have on my team. They get other people to spend their money. Yeah. But I'll go. I got two to go. I'll go. All right. Oh, three for Zach. Go three. Three is Zach. Zae Kwan in London against Brown and Bijon. Three to Zach. Three. I'll go for four, oh, four to bow. Can Zach go five or two and two different submissions. Forte Bowe. Go in one. I keep going twice. All right. Forte Bowe. Forte Bowe. Zae Kwan and London. And London over AJ and Bijon. Over AJ and Bijon. Okay. 16. Yes. All right. My next one. Zach's connection is spotty during the post game show when he calls in after the game for one. And Julia is the the arbiter here. Yeah. Yeah. What the time is this? Julia. If if we have to try more than more than one time to connect, I think that's I think that's too high of a while. Okay. All right. We're just buffering to the point where it's that we lose it for a second. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So this is the link. The game's the link. Now. Over there. Nice. Wait. Where did you point? Wait. There? Wrong. Way wrong. You guys have a problem. The two of you. I'm new, all right? I told you. It's because the shades are like a bourbon. I don't know. It's because the shades are closed. That's why. Yeah. Mm hmm. I think we should get that as a clip. The brand you feel like a bourbon and every time that every time Fran does exactly put it on the soundboard. Yeah. Well, there are good things that I do to a Fran. Like it's it's it's not all not all of that. Yeah. All right. Anybody anybody going more than one on the on the spotty connection? I certainly hope not. All right. Going once going twice. Yep. So, okay. Down to 15. That's like betting on a player getting injures, right? I mean, after last week and you've you know what my mood was following that Brazil game. If this connection is spotty, then I don't know what's going on. Why are you watching from your laptop for the post game show on on Monday? Watch out cookies of the Philadelphia area. All right. So it's my my second one here. Let's go to the Eagles offense. The Eagles Eagles hit an explosive pass so defined by Nick Siriani as 16 plus yards. So at least 16 yards out of an empty set. So no one in the backfield except for the quarterback. Do they do this last week? They did not do this last week. But I think they could this week. The Atlanta Falcons face three reps of empty. No explosives allowed out of empty. But I think that there's some some meat on the bone there for the Eagles offense. We'll start the bidding at one. Two. Two. Who got that? I'll go. Those got to. I'll go three. Three to a friend going once going twice. Wow. I'll take it for three. Yeah, that's a cheap buy. Yeah, I'll take it for three. conservative bidding here, huh? No one knows the day the day the day news submissions here though. We got I'm sure we have. Oh, he's throwing his turkeys around here. You give both 24 turkeys. He's like, you know, he he doesn't want to bring any. He's want to bring any of those timeouts the next week, right? All right. What we have from Dennis. Okay. Item number eight. This is again, a normal auction. Oh, another normal auction. Wow. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. does not play a single snap on either punt or punt or punt or two. Trotter Jr. does not play a single snap on either punt or punt return, just like he surprisingly did not last week. He only played on kickoffs and field goal block. Wow. I'll start this at one one trying to think if there's anything that would have that would change. Why would that change? Well, even if if he I'll go to yeah, I'll go three and three to Fran. Four four. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I think you said it first though, but thank you. Oh, that's very clearly. Yeah. Five. Oh, five to Zach and I doesn't want to bet on guys getting injured, but he wants to bet on guys riding the pine. I'm betting on there's there are no new injuries. So unless they're making a change, I'm going to turn. Yeah, he could also just be an active. Yep. Five to Zach, five to Zach going once, going twice, no, go six, oh, six to bow. Joey, I feel like I feel like that was a very prolonged. All right. Six to bow. Going twice. I feel like there's a home cooking going on there and sound awfully familiar to another national conversation this week. All right. Six to bow. Six to bow. All right. I'll take it. Yep. Six. All right. No, trotter, punter, punt return snaps. Two basic auctions from Dane is that's the upside of the week. Yeah. All right, Zach, give us your last one. I am up here. Kyle Pitts. Just, you know, I have nine turkeys left. Fran is 12. Wow, Kyle Pitts is making his homecoming here. First time he's returning Philadelphia as an NFL player in a game. Kyle Pitts has more receiving yards than the combined mileage of Edmonton High School and Archbishop Wood to the link. So that is 53. So he needs to have at least 54 receiving yards here and I will start the bidding at two. Oh, spicy starts at that too. Just for giggles. I'll do three. Three to Fran. Four. Or is Zach? No, I mean, I feel like Zach and you could get all his turkeys on this one. Yeah, I'll do five here. 54 is not a town. He led the team in receiving last week. He was the highest fantasy producing tight end of the entire NFL a week ago, even though it was like the worst fantasy week for tight ends in history last week. All right. Five different. I think it's one said I told you so. Okay. Oh, you're counting your chest over that performance. I will go with six. The guy that took over, Jamar, Chase, you got to put your turkeys where your mouth is. Six is back. I have Kyle Pitts prediction. Six is back. All right. Well, after this, after this one goes, I'll tell you my prediction. Six is back going once. I'll let him take it for six. And twice. Six sold. Just act. All right. It's 34. Wow. It's come on down. Here's my here's my Kyle Pitts prediction. Mark it down right now. The Eagles trade for Kyle Pitts in the off season. Oh, that'd be yeah, I was actually thinking that he's going to have another, he's going to have another disappointing year. The Eagles are going to need to replace Dallas Goddard and they're going to say, Oh, there's a shiny, a former first round pick. This guy. Look, imagine this guy in this offense. They didn't know what to do with him. Bring him here is going to be a monster and they're going to trade like a second round pick for him or something down. Yeah, you're really like anti for like, see, you had this argument about Sake on Barclay and I had less about Sake on Barclay. I had it more about Kenny Pickett and McKai backed into be fair and there's between Kenny Pickett and Devin White and then Kyle Pitts. I mean, there's really not that much of a difference between Devin White and Kyle Pitts. We don't need to do this now. What's trading a two versus signing a guy for the one year deal? There's a little bit of a difference there. Yes. Thank you, Fran. I would take Dallas Goddard over Kyle Pitts any day though. Right now, personally, or a 30 year old Dallas Goddard over a 24 year old outpits. I have not seen much from Pitts in the last 13 months to get me all that excited personally, but maybe that changes someday if he has 55 yards. Yeah, that barometer of greatness, 55 yards. It's usually a four in the Appleton combination. Right? All right. My last one. The classic for the sickos, a one that I've never used before, but I think they'll enjoy. The score at the end of any quarter in this game features a larger number perfectly divisible by the lower number and ties do not count. So if we have a 14, seven or even a, even a 20 to two, those will all count, but ties do not count. I will start the bidding at two. Oh, I'll go for three. Sure. Three different four, where does that? Wow. I got four, I got four quarters here. I was right. Yeah, I was hoping I was going to get this one for cheap. Yeah. I don't know if I'm willing to go for five on it. Four to Zach. I'll go five. Oh. Five to Fran. I got a couple left. Five to Fran going once. Not just four quarters. Lots of numbers. Six here. Six. Oh, six. Six to Zach. Wow. A lot of having for six. Six to Zach going once, going twice. Sold to Zach for six. All right. Two visible quarters. Zach, you don't know what the data is, I don't know what the data is here, but I like the fact that I have, you know, four different courses. Okay. You have seven left. I have nine left. Fran has 12 left. Two items left. All right. So my final one, obviously Monday night, Nick Foles, big retirements are, any play is run from the nine yard line to be either nine yard line, either nine yard line, either nine yard line from either team. Any play is run from the nine yard line. We'll start debating at two. Three. I should have messed around with the visible one. I like this one better. Three to bow. Four for me. Four to Fran. I'll go five. Five to bow. I'll go six. I like six to Fran. I like this one. This is a fun one. Six to Fran. Hack only to what one turkey's left for doing is six to Fran going once. Going twice. Go. There you go. Zach's out. So different. All right. All right. So we got one friend. All right. You got six left. I got nine left. Zach's got seven left. Final one. Last one. Dana's. This is better than actually a normal one. Okay. This is not a normal one. This is I don't know what this means. Perfect. All pay sealed bid option. Okay. All players submit sealed bids. The highest bidder wins the item, but all bidders pay their own bid. Players can borrow turkeys from next week to bid if there is a tie for the highest bid. Nobody wins the item, but everyone still pays. All right. If you can translate that for me, that would be good. Did you get that, Zach? Do you have to bid? I did just listen to the one the episode yesterday where you all had to bid in the low bid. It was something about like as long as the low bid was okay and he went super low. He had to pay so many turkeys and you were so upset. You're more upset than the the doctor's go news last week. It was tough. Listen. Well, you're wasting money. It's not real money, I hope you understand that. Okay. There it is. You ready? Yep. Oh, the Eagles win the game. You'll win the game. Wow. Joy, I am messaging you, mine. Yeah. I'll slack your mind too. I don't know what to think of Fran. It's an agent of chaos here. I know what Zach's gonna do. Fran's bid is in. I'm in. No matter what they're spent. Yes, all right, did you send it? Oh, I'm just gonna reveal it. Okay. All right. Everybody ready? I'm ready. All right. Zach, what'd you say? I get zero. I'm not messing around. I don't want to lose any turkeys. Fran? I see. So I had six left this week. Are you borrowing? I borrowed an additional six. I went with 12. Wow. I just feel like the Eagles win this game. So I felt really good about it. I already had four bids submitted. I wanted to cement the victory. It was mine. All right. Well, you're gonna make me pay seven unnecessary turkeys. That's right. I didn't know if you were gonna be willing to borrow. So you have sapped me of turkeys. I have two turkeys to carry over. You were gonna be down six turkeys next week. But you have Eagles win the game. Could be a nice gambit to take down the initial week of Super. Just to recap, Zach, you have those three things that could happen on the Falcons opening drive. The Drake London targets, the Kirk Cousins play action under center or a 30 yard pass. You have Kyle Pitts, cements his future status in Canton with 54 yards receiving. And one of the score is at the end of a quarter is divisible by the other. I have the and the and the turkeys left over. Don't forget that. Seven turkeys to carry over. Yeah. That's part of the equation for this week. Okay. The Falcons score 12 or fewer points. Seguan and Drake London have more yards from scrimmage than AJ Brown and be John Robinson. Zach has a spotty connection at some point during the postgame and Jeremiah Tryner does not play a snap on punt or punt return. And I have two turkeys to carry over. Don't forget that. Fran has a Seguan tops a hundred yards rushing. The Eagles complete a pass on under center play action. They have an explosive play, 16 yards or more out of empty. A play is run from a nine yard line and the Eagles win the game and he will be starting next week with only 18 turkeys. What a ride. We're back. We're back. You're back. I'm in for the first time. All right, Zach. Good luck reviewing the tape on this bad boy. Hope you sleep well. And that'll do it for this episode of the PHOY Eagles podcast. We are back tomorrow at two o'clock with Dana's himself. Maybe we'll have some thoughts on how things went today. And then after that, back on Monday at two o'clock before the pregame show, the halftime show and the post game show Monday night. Thanks everybody for watching. Welcome back to Swooper. Thanks to Julia for making it happen. And as always, we love you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
