5 Winners and Losers from Eagles Week 9 Win: Hurdles, Catches, and Blunders

The Philadelphia Eagles won in week 9. It was really beautiful, then it was ugly, then it was beautiful, then it was ugly, and then it was beautiful. When you play the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, you normally want it to be beautiful from thread to thread. That just wasn’t the case.

The Eagles scored in the first quarter, then punted, kicked a field goal, turned the ball over and scored a few more. Then the defense looked a little shaky in the second half, there was a very controversial scoop and score, and then the game was closer than anyone thought. Luckily, DeVonta Smith is a hero and Nakobe Dean got his first career interception to end the game.

Nothing can ever be just perfect. There were a few weeks where Nick Sirianni wasn’t given the opportunity to make stupid decisions, but this week he more than made up for it. Let’s focus on some of the positives first.

Forgotten but impactful winner: Sydney Brown

On the first drive of the game for the Eagles, they went a whopping 14 yards before punting. That means they had at least one first down, which is better than the majority of their first games this season, but the result was still the same: a punt.

Luckily, the Eagles have this hammerhead shark on their punting team named Sydney Brown. He had the second-best special teams play of the season when he crushed punt returner Austin Trammell and forced a fumble that went straight to Kelee Ringo.

That game uniquely broke the Eagles’ nine-game streak of not scoring a single point in the first quarter. It resulted in the offense getting a first-and-10 at the Jaguars’ 20-yard line, and they scored two plays later on a pass to Saquon Barkley. It was all thanks to Sydney Brown becoming a human Bullett Bill and knocking the shoes off a punt returner.

Unintentional loser: lumbar vertebrae

Saquon Barkley had the move of the year, if not the play of the year. He hit a soul-stealing spin move on Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd and then IMMEDIATELY did a backwards hurdle. No one takes a backwards hurdle.

If you do a backwards hurdle, you will end up Sports CenterIt’s not Top 10 because you take a face mask through your tailbone or eight inches up through your rectum into the sigmoid colon. You simply don’t get vertical enough to clear another human being…unless you’re Saquon Barkley.

At his post-match press conference, Sirianni said: “What I think is so cool: There will be kids all over the country and all over Philadelphia…trying to make that play, talking about that play and simulating that play while playing backyard football or peewee football. They won’t make it, because he’s the only one in the world who can…” (2:45 in the video below)

Maybe he’s right. When Odell Beckham Jr. made the catch with one hand, it was amazing and everyone tried to emulate it. If people start trying to do backward hurdles, we will see a catastrophic increase in the number of broken lumbar vertebrae.

To be fair to those people, it’s worth it. The ‘Rule of Cool’ states: ‘If you get hurt doing something sick, your insurance should not only cover it, but also give you a high five and a 12 pack of whatever beer you want. If you’re too young to drink beer, you get a 24-pack of Mountain Dew Live Wire and a lifetime supply of Bubble Tape.”

Either way, now is the time to encourage your children to become a spinal surgeon or proctologist. Business is about to boom.

Loser: contact person

The most impactful play of the game was Saquon Barkley’s fumble. The Jaguars had just driven 61 yards down the field in about four minutes, and on the Eagles’ first play of their next drive, Saquon hit the ground with his elbow, releasing the ball, and the Jaguars grabbed it for a first down. and score.

Depending on who you ask, Saquon was available by phone. 99.9% of the human population would tell you that their foot was touched, making their steps unsteady. That’s why he bumped into Landon Dickson before he hit the ground.

The only other person who would tell you otherwise is the referee, and he said Saquon tripped and apparently went down of his own accord.

The same referee who thinks Saquon is capable of tripping is the referee who saw Saquon’s hurdle earlier and thinks he’s going to fumble out of nowhere.

These are the same referees who won’t call a pass “uncatchable” because they think the superhuman athletes can all catch passes thrown in their zip code, but they still think a push from a butt is enough to overthrow and to force a fumble. the best running back in the NFL. Certainly. Whatever.

Premature Loser: The Best Catches in the NFL

On Thursday night, Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets had a miraculous touchdown catch. It sparked a conversation about which catch was better: Wilson’s one-handed catch or Odell Beckham Jr.’s.

Now OBJ’s catch was infinitely better, but it’s funny that there was an argument about the greatest catches of all time, and three days later DeVonta Smith came into the room and said, “Cool, I’m glad everyone is making highlights, but look.’

He beats Ronald Darby, makes a one-handed catch, falls down and taps with both toes. He’s just incredible.

That catch also came at the right time. AJ Brown left the game with a knee injury, and we’ve seen this offense not only sputter, but lose all explosiveness in the passing game when he’s out. Plus, the Jags had just scored twice and the momentum was shifting.

All this just so DeVonta will stick the Jags’ faces in the mud and say, “No, actually, you’re not coming back in this game.” Go back down there like the street rats you are.”

Loser: Easy points

Lane Johnson said the Eagles should have scored 40 points and he’s not wrong. The Eagles scored 28, so we’re missing 12. The Eagles had four touchdowns and only scored one extra point, so that’s 25 points, which in itself could have been 28 points. Those are three of the missing points.

The Eagles also had two turnovers on downs in the red zone, so that’s six more points than what field goals could have been. We have processed nine missing points so far. Then maybe you count Jake Elliott’s missed field goal. Those three points would equal the full twelve that would take the Eagles from 28 to 40.

The fact here is that Nick Sirianni is back in his rotten brain. He does something where he can’t manage a game, and that’s all he has to do. He performed the Brotherly Shove a few times, but it was shut down. Then, instead of kicking a field goal to make it a two-point game or continuing to run the BS, he eschewed it on a quarter-and-inch and opted to make a ridiculous play-action pass do which immediately broke down. His lack of consistency in some areas of the pitch is one thing, but his decision to consistently beat his head against a wall is another.

When you’re down 14 points, it’s one thing to go for a two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown. If you make it, you’ll be down six points, and another touchdown and an extra point will put you in the lead.

It’s completely different going for two when you’re up at sixteen and going for two. If you kick an extra point, a 17-point lead makes it a three-score game. If you go for two and make it, it’s 18-0, which is also a three-point game, but if you don’t make it, then still only 16 points and a two-point game. Nick chose madness.

You can debate whether choosing to go for it on fourth downs, making field goals, and going for two are the right decisions. There are good points on both sides: if you can go for a two-point conversion when you only have one yard instead of the full two yards, then you should. You have to be aggressive in the opponent’s red zone, but it’s different when the flow of the game says that getting points when they are available is the right idea. Choosing to change things up if your short-range play isn’t working is fine, but you have to remember that playing will work eventually.

It’s hairy, but Nick clearly doesn’t make the right decisions 100% of the time. Hell, he doesn’t even make them 60% of the time. He has one job, and he’s not elite at it. Everyone else on the team plays at or near an elite level. The weakest link is the head coach, and that’s the link you don’t really want, even if you take the weakest into account.

The Eagles won by five points, and we have to say they ‘escaped’ with a win. If Nick had made the right call even half the time, it would have been an 11-point win and everything the Jags did in the fourth quarter would have been “garbage-time yardage” instead of “Every muscle that you’re clenching your teeth’. because Trevor Lawrence might just win this game.”