Eagles 2024-2025 Season

[Philsmania]

Taylor Swift grew up an Eagles fan. Traitor.

[bkeich]

I hate the idea of playing Andy Reid when he has 2 weeks to figure out the offense. There is a reason he always used to win the game coming out of the bye.

Our defense is going to be EXTREMELY tested. We have the best defense in the league, but it isn’t a historically strong one, just very good.

The offense must put up 30 to have a chance. That is going to be tough against Spagnola.

[zambonir]

The offense must put up 30 to have a chance. That is going to be tough against Spagnola.

There is reason to think they could put up 35

[EastFallowfield]

So the Eagles have trailed in the playoffs for about 5 1/2 minutes total, that one point deficit to the Rams because of the missed PAT in the first quarter. Largest deficit was the 3 points yesterday that held up for one offensive snap.

But of course if you read the comments elsewhere on the internet during the games you'd never know it!

[bkeich]

In the last two games Jalen Hurtd is 27-29 when throwing at someone other than AJ Brown.

He is 8-15 to Brown, do not that bad since many of them were deep or in crucial situations.

[zambonir]

It honestly made sense, and I kind of wish we'd gotten to see it.

Little-known NFL rule nearly awards Eagles free touchdown in NFC Championship...

[phillychuck]

They should change the rule for penalties near the goal line since the defense is essentially losing nothing if they commit a penalty. I'd suggest any penalty with the ball inside the 1/2 yard line on the defense is an automatic touchdown, and two consecutive penalties with the ball inside the 2 yard line is a TD. Defensive guys are trying to guess the snap count and it doesn't matter if they get it wrong, and offensive guys have to take the impact, which risks injury and also risks the ref getting it wrong and calling an imaginary false start.

[bkeich]

They should change the rule for penalties near the goal line since the defense is essentially losing nothing if they commit a penalty. I'd suggest any penalty with the ball inside the 1/2 yard line on the defense is an automatic touchdown, and two consecutive penalties with the ball inside the 2 yard line is a TD. Defensive guys are trying to guess the snap count and it doesn't matter if they get it wrong, and offensive guys have to take the impact, which risks injury and also risks the reef getting it wrong and calling an imaginary false start.

Make it that the penalty can be taken on or AFTER the kickoff and they will stop doing this. What Washington was doing wasn’t intentional or an attempt to injure, but it was still crazy dangerous and should have resulted in Luvu being ejected. He could have seriously, possibly life threatening injury to Hurts if he hadn’t stepped out like he did.

Make it so the offensive team can defer the penalty until when the other team has the ball (making it first and 15) and you will never see that again.

[phillychuck]

One way or another they have to make the defense pay for committing penalties close to their own end zone, it's dangerous and unfair. I would say that if the Eagles did it, too.

[zambonir]

I can't say I've ever seen anything like that before, but it seems fairly specific to the Tush Push - a play some owners still would like to ban - too. If you just made it illegal for anyone to launch themselves into the air over their own defensive line that would take care of the injury risk. It's not like you see it that often. I'm sure the Lavar Leap (which was a 4th and short but not near the goal line) could have ended with a bad injury too. Difference is he was not actually offsides. But you could ban making yourself into an airborne tackling projectile for the same reasons hits to the head are banned.

I think the rule that already exists is probably sufficient, but it should be an automatic TD after just the second time, and it shouldn't be specific to one player (had Luvu committed the third penalty that would have already done it this time).

Also Luvu had been told he was going to receive an unsportsmanlike the next time, which would have been assessed after the touchdown.

[bkeich]

Team Record / Games

Philadelphia will become only the 2nd team to play 21 games in a season (KC last year). Their 18 wins will also tie the record I believe. (Oddly enough this year KC team has already tied that record, but of course they will not be able to get another win)

[zambonir]

Well, this is only the fifth season where just one team gets a bye, and only the fourth with 17 games. Tampa won it as a wild card in 2020 but only played 20 games since the schedule was still 16.

Rams played 21 games in 2021, as did Bengals, neither of them were top seed. Eagles and Chiefs both were in 2022 of course.

[rpmcmurphy]

The Chiefs are a great team, but their record reminds me a little of the Eagles’ record last year when they were 10-1: a number of close/lucky wins against inferior opponents. The Eagles have simply played better football this year. The two things that concern me the most are Jake Elliot and the officiating.

[zambonir]

Why is there two weeks between the championship and Super Bowl at this point anyway? I mean, hype and rest/prep are presumably the answers and I guess both teams have to travel and establish a practice facility (instead of just leaving on Saturday) but I wonder if it's actually necessary/makes for a better game. Used to be this was Pro Bowl weekend (for a while).

[bkeich]

I think they changed it to “up” the for the Super Bowl, but for the vast majority of football fans I think this actually makes it less exciting by having a week off.

I also think they wanted to re-vitalize the Pro Bowl by sticking it in between, but of course what happened was it turned it a skills game and flag football game. You can tell how well that worked by the sheer number of posts on this site about the Pro Bowl extravaganza (zero). Players used to like the free trip to Hawaii, but that was when they couldn’t just easily pay for it themselves.

It seems like a time to revisit the whole move, move the Super Bowl back up to the week after and eliminate the Pro Bowl completely and just name the team.

[andyb]

TV likes the Super Bowl in February. Some time in the past 30 years the extra week pushed it into February sweeps when local TV ratings were really meaningful. The 18-game schedule is likely to push it to President's Day weekend so people can have a holiday after the game. That 18-game schedule probably comes with a 2nd bye week so we'll add Labor Day weekend on the front end (which the NFL has let college football have for now, thinking they'd get better week 1 ratings in a non holiday weekend).

Players will say yes to this because it is more money. Probably a few more jobs because roster limits will have to grow a bit with even more in season injuries.

[Docs]

The week off and the extra long halftime show are both bad for the football, good for the ratings. Of course this year, I'm glad dickerson, gainwell, graham, Jurgens and Brown have extra time to heal.

[xogfog]

It's not just the injured players that have time to improve but every player is dealing with soreness and fatigue after a 17 game season, plus 2 or 3 playoff games. It probably makes a better game when all the players are playing as close to as healthy as they can be.

[andyb]

I think there is also the reality that the league wants things like media to happen along with several days of media events in Super Bowl week. Teams are getting there today. On a normal schedule they would probably not get there until Thursday or Friday before the game.

None of that is necessary, but revenue from this week makes up a pretty big share of league revenue.

[allentown]

The extra week helps the Eagles. They need to get key players healthier. The longer half-time likely hurts them as their standard approach of tiring the opposing defensive line for a second-half rally will take a ding with increased physical recovery time between halves. A good first half will be important. I think it comes down to Jurgens' and Dickerson's health and finding a way to contain Mahomes on runs as well as passes. Brown seemed healthier for the conference title game, which is a big plus for the offense. On offense, it would also be a plus if Hurts throws to Dotson a little. He is the forgotten, and often open, man with Hurts at the helm.