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Hello, welcome back to Inside the Data on Inside the Birds.
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I'm Jeff Mosher, and of course, I got Sam Finkel
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with me, and he is going to bring us all
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the great data and analytics from another Eagles loss, third
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straight loss in London to the Jaguars in heartbreaking, gut-wrenching,
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choose your adjective, Fashion, but it did supply us with
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an ending that we can look at from a very
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interesting data and analytics standpoint, Sam, which you did. And
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I really appreciate the way you put it into both
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visuals and we'll explain it to our listeners. And also,
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as we get deeper into the show, I did think
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that there were some and listen, I'm just being honest here.
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I thought there were some encouraging things we saw offensively.
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Maybe we can talk about that. if you extrapolate to
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when they are healthier, like if they have Saquon or
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other offensive linemen, maybe that means something for a little
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bit of a, I don't want to call it a
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turnaround offensively, but just an improvement.
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Yeah. I mean, listen, I feel like I'm usually the
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optimistic one. I think we might flip roles in this episode.
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Okay. All right. So I try not to judge a team,
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and this is from 20-some-odd, 22 years of being a reporter.
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Sure.
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Because I learned, you know, the 2006 season. How old
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were you in 2006? I was eight.
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Okay.
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So you probably don't only have vague recollections of it,
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but I thought that they were done, cooked, McNabb out
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for the year. Jeff Garcia gets destroyed in his first game.
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They fall to four and seven. And then they went,
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I believe six straight and win the division of tenants
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or no tenants six, because they felt a four and six.
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There was only 16 games back then. And there were
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some other years where they, I thought they were cooked
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and not. So I'm not, I'm not saying I'm optimistic
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because this year you're talking about so many injuries, a
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new offer, like at least the 2016 was Andy Reed and,
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even with yet a success with backup quarterbacks and all,
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but I get that the, the mountain is a lot
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higher to, to climb here, but I never ever judge
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a team at its worst point and never by week five.
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Yeah, no. And that's fair. It's just at some point,
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are you prolonging the inevitable? It's something that will have
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to be later in the season.
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We'll have to discuss it, but certainly if the season
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does snowball further and you get to the trade deadline
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and you're like three games under 500 or you're, 500
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and you don't think you're that good. Like, yeah, then
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there's a discussion. Boy, you're inside the data will become
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like about trade value and all sorts of weird things
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that we'd get to. But for now, I'm just saying like,
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I'm just going to stay the course and see how
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this thing happens as they try to get healthier.
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Absolutely. And I respect that.
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I love that. There you go.
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All right.
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So let's get right into the data because again, the
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end surprised us with a or at least presented us
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with an opportunity to really hammer that whole peak win
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percentage thing that we've been talking about.
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See, I thought that was a fun stat ad. I
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think the first week I had a lot of fun
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with it was that Bills game where they won. They
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had the miraculous comeback and won the game. I will
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say it's less fun when it's reversed. Having two anomalous
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losses feels really bad. I think this chart is worse than...
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then it's probably the worst chart I've ever seen in
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the percentage because it's there. I mean, they had a,
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according to NFL next gen stats, they had a 94%
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chance of winning that game. I, I built a model
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that was a little bit higher and we'll get into
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that a little bit. Yeah. They, they had like a
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94% chance of winning and up until the last eight seconds. So.
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Wow.
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Wow.
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That's even worse than the week before against the Rams
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when it was like a 94% chance with about eight
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minutes right before the missed third and goal, right? And
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this one was just with less than 10 seconds. That's tough.
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Yeah, it really is. I think I'm shocked that we're
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seeing two back-to-back. But just the thing that is interesting
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and to bring a little bit of, you know, hope
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to the season is if the coin doesn't normally flip
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this way. If the coin, again, you have a 94%, 96%,
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whatever it was these past two games, it usually flips
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the right way. So just because these are just two
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really weird, unlikely outcomes does not mean it is the future.
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And I do think, back to what you're saying, it's
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hard to judge a team that's fighting this hard despite
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all the injuries, despite some of the other issues that
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they have. There's merit to saying that, like, they easily
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could have and should have won these last two games.
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Love it.
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Because if you're a, if you are a believer in
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the law of averages, right. And you see that the
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Eagles have lost two straight games where they had a
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95 or 90% or better chance of winning in the
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final seconds or minutes, then you know that there's probably
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going to be some times coming up forward where they
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are have a very small percentage of winning in the
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final minute or two and win that game, or they
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just hold onto it because that's how the law of
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averages works. Yeah.
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And I mean, you can think of last year as
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an example that the Rams game that they had last
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year that they won on the last second field goal block.
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I mean, that, that is also one that they probably
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should have lost. So, I mean, it does go both ways.
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Right.
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Can't get out of its own way.
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No, no, they cannot. And I think, yeah, I just, it's,
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it's just, it's, it hurts when it's back to back.
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I think that's that it hurts more. But yes, we
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have special teams definitely shout out in the negative way,
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but Hey, here we go.
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All right. So you built the model based on the return,
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the kick return that led to the game winning field goal.
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Yes.
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Let's explain. Remember people are also listening, not seeing on YouTube.
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This is a wonderful chart by the way. But let's
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just give our best explanation of what your data shows.
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Yeah. So let's just talk about the situation again. I mean,
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I'm sure that's the last thing people want right now. But, hey,
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we have to do it.
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Well, if I can just stop you for a second.
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I mean, I think it's really important because there's an argument.
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I think that it's like politics, like the people arguing
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the loudest will not accept that there is an alternative
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that might be equal or better to their own.
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Right.
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So that's why this chart's important.
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Yeah. And I think there's a very nuanced take that
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this data kind of led me to believe, and I'll
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kind of get into that. But again, the Eagles led
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17 to 16 with eight seconds left. Jacksonville had no timeouts.
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Sirianni really had two options, right? You kick for the
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touchback and leave Jacksonville all eight seconds, or you kick
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it short and try to burn the time on the return.
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But basically the trade-off is really straightforward here. It's Field
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position versus seconds on the clock. What are you willing
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to give up? And to examine that, I went through 2,159
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ordinary kickoff returns from 2025-2026 before the Jaguars game with
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landing spots between the goal line and the receiving team's 20.
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I also analyzed 238 quick pass plays, 185 from 2015
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to 2023, and then 53 from 2024 to 2026 prior
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to this game.
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Okay.
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Okay. The model considers the resulting field position and the
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time remaining. Potential quick passes, whether the clock stops and
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whether Jacksonville can attempt a field goal. It also allows
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a desperation touchdown chance. So difficult scoring situations aren't automatically
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treated as zero in this model. So if we start
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with the touchback branch of it, Jacksonville gets the ball
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at the 35 with all eight seconds remaining. Under our
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default assumptions, the model puts the Eagles win chance at
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approximately 99.08%. Okay. Now look at the returnable kick, right?
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Using historical return endpoints and the time those returns consumed,
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the Eagles modeled win chance rose to 99.34%. That's an
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advantage of about a quarter of a percent over the touchback.
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So just based on that alone, It makes sense to
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make that decision. But there is an important wrinkle that
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I think needs to be kind of understood here.
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Okay, I think I know what you're going to say,
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but go ahead.
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Using historical return endpoints, I'm sorry, those historical returns weren't
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necessarily situations where the returner needed to preserve a few
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seconds for a winning field goal. So I tested an
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alternative hypothesis. What if the returner deliberately stops earlier? So
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I estimated possible stopping points by assuming steady progress along
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the observed returns. Obviously, I don't have the tracking data.
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If I had the tracking data since it's been incorporated
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the past couple of years, that would be even better.
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But I didn't have access to that. So we kind
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of leave it at that. But in that scenario where
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a player deliberately stops upon the return using part of
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that eight seconds, the model win chance falls to 98.89%,
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making the touchback preferable by about two-tenths of a percentage point.
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So to me, the takeaway is that kicking short has
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a defensible clock management benefit, but its advantage depends on
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how the return unfolds and how intelligently the returner preserves
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that time.
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Right.
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So it's almost like if they took the kick and
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didn't kick it directly to the returner or they used
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a dirty kick or they did something else, it would
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have been preferable. It was essentially the worst case. I mean,
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it was the worst case scenario. but factoring in the
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fact that he could stop prior.
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So yeah so here's the thing and now i want
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to try to put it in like a layman's terms
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right for people The Eagles, either decision they make, they
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have an extraordinarily high opportunity to win the game, favorable
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opportunity in the 99 percentile. Even if you take your
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early stop scenario, that estimates 98.9 is close to a
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99 percentile. It's hard for the models to take into
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account who the kicker is. Certainly, this is all enabled
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by the fact that Cam Little is one of the
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few guys that can just wake up from bed and
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make a 57-yard field goal, right?
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And I did account for that. Right.
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Oh, did you? How's that? Oh, okay. I didn't realize that. Okay. Well, good.
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So I accounted for that by inputting his, Cam Little's
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historical returns on there based on each, you know, rank.
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And then I extrapolated it over a little bit more data,
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like more of a historical data. Right. So, I mean,
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his 70-yarder was in there. Right.
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So, the point is, there's only a fraction of an
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opportunity to win. And I think no matter what you choose,
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there's a crack of a window that is open for
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what happened with Jacksonville. Like, if you kick into the
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end zone, maybe they get a long pass, right? And then, well,
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they didn't have a timeout. That's the issue, right? So,
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if you kick in the end zone, they really have
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to throw a pass, spike, and kick. See, that's what
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I keep getting past. I don't even know how it's
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operationally possible if you kick it into the end zone
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for them to do it. But nonetheless, I had much
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more of an issue with them leaving time on the
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clock than the actual decision. I'm not saying I think
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the decision was the right one. What I'm just saying
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is we can't really prove, we can't go back and
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look at what would have happened if the other if
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they had kicked it into the end zone, right? We
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have no idea. So, I mean, that's what happened in
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the Dallas-Baltimore game. Everybody uses that as a comparison, but whatever.
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And I do get that. But I also will say that,
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you know, there's another aspect of it where, you know,
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they already let a touchdown return up. I know the
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penalty and Trotter was ejected. So, like, those are pretty
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big and valid things. And if Trotter was in, maybe
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it wouldn't have happened. Great.
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All fair. All very valid points. Any criticism of it
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is fair. I just think criticism in the name of
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the other way absolutely was the best choice, no question
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about it, and would have worked is a little not because, again,
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the percentages of both are so high. And you can't
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just expect something like that was going to happen. It happened.
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Yeah. And I will say I have in my notes
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for the show, that the bigger issue was the mishandling
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of time in the previous offensive possession. So I do
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agree with you there, and I think that's just situational
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awareness of the players and coaching. And it's really hard
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to combat that. But I think that this decision in particular,
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I do not blame too much.
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Okay. So in your next chart, the Eagles apparently, I
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don't know how many people know this, had a historical
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low point in this game. Why don't you tell us
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about that?
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Yeah. So according to NFL research, um, they had a
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streak of, you know, 124 games with 40 or more
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rushing yards, which is the longest streak in the NFL.
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And it broke this week. Um, so it was, it's only,
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they only had 22 yards, but it's Philadelphia's fewest since
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week two of 2015. And I think this is a
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fun point to ask you, who do you think was
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the leading rusher, um, in 2015 week two and i'll
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tell you who the opponent was okay go ahead tell
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me against the dallas cowboys.
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Dallas cowboys 2015 week two so this is two years
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this is doug peterson's first year right no no no
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this is andy reed's last year i mean chip kelly's
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last year chip kelly's last.
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Year i i believe so yes.
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Okay chip kelly's final year um I think DeMarco Murray
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is not on the team at that.
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Oh, yeah.
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No, he's still on the team.
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He is on the team.
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But I bet you he's not the leading rusher. Am
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I correct?
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He is not the leading rusher.
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Is it Ryan Matthews?
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He was on the team at the time. It is
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not Ryan Matthews.
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Is it the quarterback? It is the quarterback.
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Do you remember who the quarterback was?
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I would have to say in 2015, it was Sam Bradford.
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It was. Oh, my God.
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You ready for the stat line?
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00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:08.639
Yes.
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Sam Bradford, two attempts, nine yards.
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Oh, my God.
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00:15:13.490 --> 00:15:16.570
You ready for this? DeMarco Murray, 13 attempts, two yards.
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Ryan Matthews, one attempt, zero yards. Darren Sproles, one attempt,
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negative four yards.
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Oh, boy.
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Yikes.
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00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:29.679
So, folks, it could be worse. At least the Eagles
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00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:33.980
had an excuse with this one. All right, so third down.
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I have some interesting thoughts on this, but let's go
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through what the data says first.
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00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:41.750
Yeah, I mean, it was an improvement from....
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I love that dread in your voice as you have
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to acknowledge that that disaster was an improvement.
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00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.440
Yeah, I mean, listen, this is a segment I was
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really hoping to do away with because if we were
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to do away with it, it would mean good things
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for the Eagles typically.
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Or, you know, maybe not because maybe if it was
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really good, we would talk about it still. So it
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00:16:03.769 --> 00:16:07.759
would just mean a more normal... expectation and at this
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00:16:07.820 --> 00:16:11.000
point i mean i will say the eagles outperformed the
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jaguars in their third down conversions you know and not
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by much but they did uh which was good to
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00:16:17.649 --> 00:16:21.029
see um and then one other thing i'll say before
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we really get into the data is they had no
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third and short attempts this week.
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00:16:26.210 --> 00:16:29.850
So yeah very interesting um because they sort of defied
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00:16:29.909 --> 00:16:31.960
my thing that if you don't get some third and
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00:16:32.009 --> 00:16:36.149
shorts you're Well, it didn't really because, again, they were
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00:16:36.190 --> 00:16:39.149
not good offensively. But they did wind up converting better
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00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.789
on third down despite the fact that they were living
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in third and long.
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00:16:43.129 --> 00:16:43.320
Right.
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00:16:43.379 --> 00:16:44.960
At least in the first half. Because I'm going to
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00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.039
guess there's six of 15. I'm going to guess all
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00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:49.559
six were in the first half or at least five
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00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:54.779
of the six were in the first half. Right. Yeah.
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00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:57.870
I'm pretty sure that was the case. All right. So, hey,
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00:16:57.909 --> 00:17:00.610
they were better than Jacksonville at 31%. So that's good.
321
00:17:01.769 --> 00:17:04.769
That's really more of a deal breaker. Defense stat than anything.
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00:17:05.589 --> 00:17:09.359
And they were over their league average of 37%. So
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00:17:09.619 --> 00:17:13.259
that's good. Again, somewhat improvement. But where they're not improved,
324
00:17:13.299 --> 00:17:15.980
of course, is just being in third and long so,
325
00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:16.799
so much.
326
00:17:16.859 --> 00:17:17.880
So much. Yeah.
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00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:19.700
Yeah.
328
00:17:20.099 --> 00:17:22.829
I mean, at this point, they have more third and
329
00:17:22.869 --> 00:17:27.130
longs than third and short and medium combined. Before it
330
00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:30.609
was equal. Now they have definitively more third and long.
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00:17:30.950 --> 00:17:34.529
Yeah, and I think last week it was just one more,
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00:17:34.549 --> 00:17:36.230
and now it's– no, two weeks ago it was just
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00:17:36.309 --> 00:17:38.900
only one. Like, if you totaled the short and medium
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00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:41.400
and compared to the long, long was plus one. Now,
335
00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:43.619
next week it was more, and now it's even more again.
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00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.759
But I will say the defense also is keeping up
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00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:49.599
that way too. I mean, a little bit less of
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00:17:49.619 --> 00:17:53.549
a margin, but, yeah, it's still the same. Yeah.
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00:17:54.470 --> 00:17:56.309
By the way, the Eagles, as bad as they are
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00:17:56.329 --> 00:17:58.609
in third down, this is what I was going to make.
341
00:17:59.349 --> 00:18:01.289
The way we talk about their third down issues, and
342
00:18:01.309 --> 00:18:04.509
they are legit, you would think they were the worst
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00:18:04.549 --> 00:18:06.490
team on third down in the league. They're actually not.
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00:18:06.890 --> 00:18:10.089
They're 22nd, which is hard for me to believe that
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00:18:10.190 --> 00:18:12.970
nine teams are worse than the Eagles on third down.
346
00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:15.950
I'm sure they're not in it as much as the
347
00:18:16.049 --> 00:18:18.670
Eagles are, so that's probably where they can hang their
348
00:18:18.690 --> 00:18:19.019
hat on.
349
00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:21.990
Do you have who the worst is? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
350
00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:26.279
The worst is the Green Bay Packers. And by the way,
351
00:18:26.299 --> 00:18:31.289
they're far worse. They're at a 27.6 conversion rate on
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00:18:31.309 --> 00:18:35.269
third down. So they're almost 10 percentage points lower than
353
00:18:35.309 --> 00:18:39.730
the Eagles. And by the way, the defending champion Seattle
354
00:18:39.750 --> 00:18:43.180
Seahawks have the second worst third down offense at just
355
00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:43.539
under 30%.
356
00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:43.720
Wow.
357
00:18:43.779 --> 00:18:49.779
Yeah. But again, the Eagles really don't have a third
358
00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.740
down problem, Sam, as much as they have a first
359
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:54.720
and a second which is.
360
00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:56.960
Something you've said pretty consistently and that was the issue
361
00:18:56.980 --> 00:19:00.859
last year too right um that's that's very interesting i'm
362
00:19:00.900 --> 00:19:02.799
glad you brought that into it um.
363
00:19:03.579 --> 00:19:07.660
Also real quick they are converting 20 so we talk
364
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.029
about how they live in third and long and you
365
00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:12.009
know more than twice as much as short and middle
366
00:19:12.890 --> 00:19:15.289
uh oh no not yet but they'll get there um
367
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.599
They are converting 27% on third and long. And that
368
00:19:19.640 --> 00:19:23.200
sounds like a terrible number. You know, 27% is awful
369
00:19:23.349 --> 00:19:26.529
and it is awful, but that's actually not, that's one
370
00:19:26.549 --> 00:19:30.289
of the higher third and long rates in the NFL.
371
00:19:30.329 --> 00:19:33.430
I don't have the exact number of ranking, but it
372
00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:35.869
wouldn't be. And this game, by the way, probably just
373
00:19:35.910 --> 00:19:38.109
helped them out against the Jags because they had several
374
00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:40.569
third and long conversions in the first half. Like you
375
00:19:40.609 --> 00:19:43.970
just noted, they had no attempts of third and short
376
00:19:44.049 --> 00:19:47.740
in week five. Right. So I don't know why I'm
377
00:19:47.779 --> 00:19:50.380
trying to like put lipstick on this, but I, guess,
378
00:19:50.660 --> 00:19:54.200
I guess I'm just giving them credit for actually having more,
379
00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:56.460
a better percentage of third and long. If you're going
380
00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:58.000
to live there, you might as well be better at
381
00:19:58.039 --> 00:19:59.380
it than the rest of the league. And they are,
382
00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:03.240
it's just, again, the unsustainability and it really, you know,
383
00:20:03.269 --> 00:20:04.970
that's why you don't score any points, you know?
384
00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:09.799
Yeah, while we're talking, I pulled it up. Green Bay
385
00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:16.230
has 10 third and shorts, and then they have 55
386
00:20:16.230 --> 00:20:20.329
mid and long. I guess that just the long is 35.
387
00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:23.150
Gotcha. So the Eagles have more at 59.
388
00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:27.130
So they have 30 short and mid and 35 long.
389
00:20:27.910 --> 00:20:29.430
Okay.
390
00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:31.200
Just to give you an example of the worst team
391
00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:31.759
in the league.
392
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:36.180
Yeah, yeah. And yet the Green Bay Packers still have
393
00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:38.059
scored a lot more points than the Eagles. It's kind
394
00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:41.920
of crazy. Right. Let's get into the EPA and DVOA.
395
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:43.680
So what does the EPA chart show here?
396
00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:50.700
Yeah, I mean, again, the offense is trending slightly in
397
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:55.680
the right direction, but it's still significantly lower than, you know,
398
00:20:55.700 --> 00:21:00.750
where we've historically seen it. But I will say, I mean,
399
00:21:00.970 --> 00:21:04.769
minus 0.31% for as a total offense, it's just, it's
400
00:21:04.789 --> 00:21:10.640
just bad. It's just, it's not good. And that's, that's
401
00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:12.559
a big part of it. And, you know, on the
402
00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.720
season they're at minus 0.21 and the league average is
403
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:20.500
minus 0.04. And then you look at their pass and
404
00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:25.049
their rush. They just were not able to run the ball.
405
00:21:25.190 --> 00:21:27.650
And that's going to reflect in the basic statistics and
406
00:21:27.769 --> 00:21:30.490
all of the advanced statistics, all of them that you're
407
00:21:30.509 --> 00:21:32.220
going to see from here on out are, just going
408
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:34.680
to say that they really struggled to run the ball
409
00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:38.500
which is yeah i mean we saw that too um
410
00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:43.039
but yeah i mean the they're just they're they're equally
411
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:46.599
bad by epa metrics essentially at pass and run uh
412
00:21:47.460 --> 00:21:49.380
at this point in the season uh which is a
413
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:50.660
really bad place to be.
414
00:21:51.299 --> 00:21:54.599
Absolutely um epa is sensitive to turnover so it would
415
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.869
probably be worse even worse than 0.031 if the uh
416
00:22:00.170 --> 00:22:01.690
or 0.31 if the Eagles didn't do such a good
417
00:22:01.750 --> 00:22:03.130
job of not turning the ball over.
418
00:22:03.490 --> 00:22:07.130
Correct. Which is really not a great way to be. Um,
419
00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:10.809
but again, DVO is a better statistic, uh, in terms
420
00:22:10.869 --> 00:22:14.970
of just understanding where they are, uh, you know, against Jacksonville,
421
00:22:14.990 --> 00:22:18.880
they were minus 22.2%. Um, and then on the season,
422
00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:22.759
they're minus 13.9%. And this, these are normalized. So it's
423
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:28.099
basically saying they're 14% worse than the average NFL offense. Uh,
424
00:22:28.509 --> 00:22:31.960
And then if we look at passing and rushing, once again,
425
00:22:31.980 --> 00:22:35.019
these are not. So you have to look more at
426
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:38.920
the rankings, and they're 25th in both on the season. Passing,
427
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.240
they were 13th this week. And rushing, they were 29th.
428
00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:47.839
But don't be surprised by the 29th, because DVOA stats
429
00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:51.329
didn't have the Monday night game in yet. So that's
430
00:22:51.529 --> 00:22:55.250
29th out of 30th, just to be clear. So I'm
431
00:22:55.890 --> 00:22:57.349
not sure that makes much better.
432
00:22:58.269 --> 00:23:00.690
No, it's really not. I guess you can hang your
433
00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:04.630
head on a positive passing DVOA, you know, against the
434
00:23:04.650 --> 00:23:06.230
Jaguars being 13th.
435
00:23:06.529 --> 00:23:06.710
Yeah.
436
00:23:06.750 --> 00:23:09.220
Because it's hard to, again, it's hard when you have
437
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.359
no run game and you're living in this world of
438
00:23:12.460 --> 00:23:14.339
third and long and third and long to have, I
439
00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:19.559
would even think, a positive DVOA, but they were plus 20%.
440
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:22.670
And this is the worst rushing DVOA I've seen so
441
00:23:22.710 --> 00:23:25.809
far since using the statistics. I've never seen it in
442
00:23:25.829 --> 00:23:28.150
the 50%. Minus 50%.
443
00:23:28.420 --> 00:23:29.440
That really is bad.
444
00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:30.859
All right.
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All right, we wanted to explore offensive efficiency out of
481
00:25:54.119 --> 00:26:00.470
certain personnel. We talked last week, Sam, about how they
482
00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:03.269
looked like they were running so much out of under
483
00:26:03.329 --> 00:26:06.690
center and they were patting. and they were only passing
484
00:26:06.730 --> 00:26:10.009
out a shotgun. So let's get into just the personnel
485
00:26:10.049 --> 00:26:11.670
formations and what they said about this game.
486
00:26:12.390 --> 00:26:14.809
Yeah. I mean, listen, the success rate, very bad. I mean, 32.2%
487
00:26:14.809 --> 00:26:17.349
overall success is, is just not a place you want
488
00:26:17.369 --> 00:26:19.789
to be. You look at the run success, 23.5%, very,
489
00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:21.259
very bad past success, 35.7, a little bit better, but
490
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:33.549
still not a place you want to be. I mean, Again,
491
00:26:33.569 --> 00:26:37.369
you're looking at the personnels. I mean, out of 11,
492
00:26:37.369 --> 00:26:40.759
they passed the ball 33 times. Out of 12, it
493
00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:44.880
was a little bit more balanced with six on pass
494
00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:47.680
and seven on rush. So, I mean, those were the
495
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.640
primary personnel groupings that they had when they were out there.
496
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.000
And if we compare it to the season, I mean,
497
00:26:54.039 --> 00:26:56.529
their overall success in the season in general is 41.1%,
498
00:26:56.529 --> 00:27:03.440
which is not terrible, but it's not good. Yeah. Good.
499
00:27:04.660 --> 00:27:07.759
But if you look where they've been out of 11,
500
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:14.339
they have ran the ball only 63 times and passed 155.
501
00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:19.490
And out of 12, they have run 36 and passed 21.
502
00:27:19.490 --> 00:27:23.630
And those are the primary places where, you know, their
503
00:27:23.670 --> 00:27:27.450
personnel groupings have been mostly due to injuries and other things.
504
00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:29.730
But that's kind of where they stand.
505
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:32.619
One thing I was able to chart. I don't know
506
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:33.930
if you have this, you can stop me if you do,
507
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:40.119
but they did pass the ball seven times on 18
508
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:41.420
under center formations.
509
00:27:41.460 --> 00:27:43.339
That's next. Okay. Sorry.
510
00:27:43.539 --> 00:27:43.839
My fault.
511
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:44.839
You're good.
512
00:27:45.259 --> 00:27:48.109
We'll talk about that. Is that in the season? Go ahead.
513
00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:49.069
It's the next chart.
514
00:27:49.609 --> 00:27:52.170
Oh, here we go. Season snapshot one or. Oh no, no.
515
00:27:52.190 --> 00:27:52.269
Okay.
516
00:27:52.289 --> 00:27:53.990
All right. This is still a season.
517
00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:56.890
When we go, when we go to formation, it'll be there.
518
00:27:57.069 --> 00:27:57.970
This is just personnel.
519
00:27:58.490 --> 00:28:03.000
Great. Okay. Um, Yeah. So then did we go to
520
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:04.240
the season by a snapshot?
521
00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:06.859
Basically what I, what I already said, we can move
522
00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:08.259
on to the, the, okay.
523
00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:10.259
Sorry about that. No, you're good.
524
00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:11.259
You're stealing my thunder.
525
00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:12.119
Yeah.
526
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:12.440
Yeah.
527
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.519
So here we go. You know, I'll tee you up.
528
00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:16.900
You tell me what the chart says here.
529
00:28:17.420 --> 00:28:20.240
I mean, listen, so again, we, we talked about it. You,
530
00:28:20.349 --> 00:28:22.289
you asked me to get basically on the season. So
531
00:28:22.309 --> 00:28:26.009
I'm actually going to start on the bottom chart just, just,
532
00:28:26.089 --> 00:28:27.809
and we'll go to it. But if you don't mind
533
00:28:27.869 --> 00:28:30.650
scrolling down just a little bit, that would be helpful. Um,
534
00:28:31.130 --> 00:28:34.779
So out of shotgun, they had 154 passes and 44 runs.
535
00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:36.880
That's 77% and 22%.
536
00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:39.960
Yeah, this is for the season, for the season.
537
00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:44.099
And then under center, it was 61 runs and 26 passes.
538
00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:48.660
That's 70.1% and 29% respectively. Now you look at this game,
539
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:51.789
it's a little bit better under center, but it is
540
00:28:51.849 --> 00:28:54.869
worse in shotgun. And a lot of that is because
541
00:28:55.410 --> 00:28:58.150
they had to throw the ball a lot more. Just
542
00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:00.990
to be clear, I wouldn't use that as an indicator
543
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:04.259
so much so as just to say they had to
544
00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:06.539
pass a lot more because the run game just wasn't effective.
545
00:29:07.019 --> 00:29:10.400
But if you look at that under center split, it
546
00:29:10.420 --> 00:29:12.539
was exactly what you said. It was seven passes to
547
00:29:12.539 --> 00:29:15.380
11 runs, which is significantly better than what it has
548
00:29:15.420 --> 00:29:16.130
been on the season.
549
00:29:16.609 --> 00:29:19.789
I would agree. I think under center passing at a
550
00:29:19.769 --> 00:29:25.450
60% clip compared to a 10% drop like that, to me,
551
00:29:25.650 --> 00:29:29.029
is very significant. I'm glad it happened. I would imagine
552
00:29:29.069 --> 00:29:30.599
also most of that was in the first half, as
553
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:32.119
you said, before they had to decide to go to
554
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:35.380
shotgun and try to get some passing going because they
555
00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:39.109
couldn't run it. So I'm looking forward to what the
556
00:29:40.069 --> 00:29:42.650
next week or two or three brings especially if they
557
00:29:42.670 --> 00:29:44.869
can get some healthier guys in terms of how they
558
00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:48.599
mix and match out of those two different formations right
559
00:29:50.039 --> 00:29:51.650
so I'm glad we looked on that and I'm glad
560
00:29:51.670 --> 00:29:54.339
things changed that is what I was trying to allude
561
00:29:54.380 --> 00:29:58.039
to earlier as maybe hey there's something here that once
562
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:01.599
we get healthier personnel and the team that we can
563
00:30:01.630 --> 00:30:03.319
start to look at and say, all right, they're not
564
00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:06.140
being as telltale as they were for the first four weeks.
565
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:10.779
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll see how that trend continues, especially
566
00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:13.920
as the injuries keep mounting. So it'll be really interesting
567
00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:16.799
how they diversify both the personnel and the formation.
568
00:30:16.819 --> 00:30:20.920
All right, cool. Defense now for the second straight week,
569
00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:24.039
a negative EPA, which is good for defense, as you
570
00:30:24.059 --> 00:30:24.420
always say.
571
00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.019
Definitely good. I mean, it's trending in the right direction now.
572
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:27.660
Mm-hmm.
573
00:30:28.089 --> 00:30:34.329
The season's still positive, but it's basically at zero. It's 0.01 positive.
574
00:30:34.930 --> 00:30:39.720
The average is minus 0.05. So there's still a below
575
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:45.420
average defense. They're close to average, but they're below average unit,
576
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.109
which is reflected in almost all the statistics as we'll
577
00:30:48.529 --> 00:30:54.670
eventually see. Again, their run defense has been surprisingly pretty good.
578
00:30:55.210 --> 00:30:58.430
Outside of the Rams game and the Titans game, they've
579
00:30:58.470 --> 00:31:04.119
been a negative EPA per rush. It was one of
580
00:31:04.150 --> 00:31:09.500
the best EPA per rush defenses I've seen at minus 0.27
581
00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:10.339
against Jacksonville.
582
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:14.099
Sure. So are you encouraged by that? I mean, like
583
00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:16.940
we saw Jalen Carter play well. I mean, is this
584
00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:19.599
just what you expected normally to begin with?
585
00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:25.779
Here's the thing with Fangio and success, right? The way,
586
00:31:26.380 --> 00:31:31.500
at least in my opinion, and I'm curious your opinion
587
00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:35.210
on it, is the way it's successful is if they
588
00:31:35.269 --> 00:31:38.829
have a good pass rush. And to be honest, I'm
589
00:31:38.869 --> 00:31:42.630
including run defense in that. When you have a good
590
00:31:42.990 --> 00:31:45.329
front seven, it takes care of the back end. And
591
00:31:45.349 --> 00:31:48.049
I feel like almost to be successful in the Fangio scheme,
592
00:31:48.089 --> 00:31:52.210
it's contingent on that front seven. And one thing I'm saying,
593
00:31:52.410 --> 00:31:56.859
I think they're doing really well is pretty much mitigating
594
00:31:56.900 --> 00:32:00.599
the run, but it's not converting from a pass perspective.
595
00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:04.740
So am I surprised that they're having a pretty good
596
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:08.220
run defense? No, but I'm very surprised they have a
597
00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:10.920
bad pass defense, at least in some of these advanced
598
00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:15.380
metrics and allowing 300 plus yards to Trevor Lawrence, which again,
599
00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:19.319
good quarterback, but still not what you're used to seeing. Yeah.
600
00:32:19.700 --> 00:32:23.849
And then it doesn't get better knowing that, uh, JLX
601
00:32:23.890 --> 00:32:27.109
Hunt probably not going to play against the Panthers. I mean,
602
00:32:27.349 --> 00:32:29.069
Vic said it would take a miracle to get him on,
603
00:32:29.109 --> 00:32:33.509
so that's never good. And then Grenard might play, but
604
00:32:33.529 --> 00:32:39.720
this guy has played, like, what, 37 snaps all year long. So, like,
605
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:41.920
what can you expect when he goes out there if
606
00:32:41.940 --> 00:32:44.960
he's able to go out there Sunday from a conditioning standpoint?
607
00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:47.519
You're just hoping to get a couple of productive reps
608
00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:49.299
out of him, but he's got to be, like, more
609
00:32:49.319 --> 00:32:52.019
of a starter with Hunt out or at least just
610
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:52.789
give more, you know?
611
00:32:54.190 --> 00:32:58.809
The thing is, the depth they have at edge, I
612
00:32:58.869 --> 00:33:05.140
don't feel particularly strong. I actually feel like there are
613
00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:07.660
certain players that I felt was somewhat of a liability.
614
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:09.279
Maybe it's a little unfair.
615
00:33:09.579 --> 00:33:12.380
Do you want to say that or are you alluding
616
00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:12.859
to some of them?
617
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.000
I'm talking about Epinesa.
618
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:17.319
Oh, your Penn State guy. Oh, no, Epinesa. I'm sorry.
619
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:18.079
I didn't mean the Penn State guy.
620
00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:20.589
Yeah, I think Ebikidi has been awesome. I think he's
621
00:33:20.630 --> 00:33:23.609
done a pretty good job, at least in the pressure,
622
00:33:23.630 --> 00:33:25.750
at least in the statistical standpoint.
623
00:33:25.769 --> 00:33:27.390
Yeah, I think he shows up. Like, you see that
624
00:33:27.410 --> 00:33:30.690
he's out there. I mean, he's a backup pass rusher.
625
00:33:30.710 --> 00:33:32.039
That's what he's doing, you know.
626
00:33:32.059 --> 00:33:35.960
But Epinesa, I feel like, does a pretty poor job
627
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:37.119
in run defense, too.
628
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:37.900
Mm-hmm.
629
00:33:38.730 --> 00:33:39.029
I don't know.
630
00:33:39.269 --> 00:33:41.410
That's just my opinion on it. I'm going to have
631
00:33:41.430 --> 00:33:43.849
to go back and really look at the video and
632
00:33:44.410 --> 00:33:46.349
the film and look at some of the stats together.
633
00:33:46.490 --> 00:33:49.670
But that, that was my take from watching the snaps
634
00:33:49.710 --> 00:33:53.170
he had to take in that game. So sure. All right.
635
00:33:53.230 --> 00:33:57.069
Does DVOA agree with EPA in terms of this game
636
00:33:57.109 --> 00:33:57.809
against Jacksonville?
637
00:33:58.829 --> 00:34:02.190
Yeah. I mean, again, they, one of the best, uh,
638
00:34:02.309 --> 00:34:06.099
rushing perform, uh, DVOA performances. I've seen their third at
639
00:34:06.170 --> 00:34:12.130
minus 40.3%. Uh, and then passing their 16th league average, uh,
640
00:34:12.210 --> 00:34:15.809
at six again at 3.1%. Uh, and then their DVO
641
00:34:15.829 --> 00:34:19.030
a overall was minus 14.8. So that's pretty good for
642
00:34:19.050 --> 00:34:22.570
the week. Um, and their seasons plus 0.3%. So again,
643
00:34:22.590 --> 00:34:25.869
they're an average to slightly below average defense right now.
644
00:34:26.250 --> 00:34:28.030
That's just how it's been playing at this point in
645
00:34:28.050 --> 00:34:28.409
the season.
646
00:34:29.289 --> 00:34:31.550
Kind of interesting that on the same game where they
647
00:34:31.610 --> 00:34:34.389
had one of the worst rushing off, uh, DVO ways
648
00:34:34.409 --> 00:34:37.170
you've ever seen offensively that they have one of the best, uh,
649
00:34:37.670 --> 00:34:40.670
rushing DVOA defensively than you've ever seen.
650
00:34:41.130 --> 00:34:41.610
Exactly.
651
00:34:43.030 --> 00:34:45.280
All right. So you've been making this point about pressure
652
00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:47.940
and sacks and the pressure. The Eagles have six sacks, man.
653
00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:50.760
I've seen games where they've had six sacks.
654
00:34:51.139 --> 00:34:55.739
Yeah. We're not that far from the historic season, 2022, right,
655
00:34:56.110 --> 00:34:57.389
where they had all those sacks.
656
00:34:57.889 --> 00:34:59.190
Yeah, that's right.
657
00:35:00.059 --> 00:35:03.800
They might have had a six sack game during that season,
658
00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:05.179
if I remember correctly.
659
00:35:05.199 --> 00:35:07.179
They had nine against Carson Wentz.
660
00:35:07.559 --> 00:35:09.570
Yeah, right. I do remember that.
661
00:35:10.139 --> 00:35:11.409
Yeah, for sure.
662
00:35:11.429 --> 00:35:15.250
So just saying, again, this is my biggest issue with
663
00:35:15.269 --> 00:35:20.530
the defense right now. It's just their inability. They're getting pressure.
664
00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:23.150
They're just not able to convert it to sacks, which
665
00:35:23.210 --> 00:35:26.590
is the worst part. So this was.
666
00:35:26.329 --> 00:35:32.690
The highest pressure rate. No, second highest. And third highest,
667
00:35:33.349 --> 00:35:35.489
but highest since the first two cupcake teams.
668
00:35:35.949 --> 00:35:40.340
Correct. And I recalculate the average as the season keeps going.
669
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:45.659
So again, on the season, they're at 37.5%. The NFL
670
00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:49.260
average at this point is 22%. And they had 36.6%
671
00:35:49.260 --> 00:35:53.059
against Jacksonville. So they're right about their season average is
672
00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:56.119
what you got. Mm-hmm. they actually did a pretty good
673
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:59.239
job converting them to sacks. They are at 4.9%, but
674
00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:01.969
their season average is 3.3%. And the league average is 3.7%, 3.67%.
675
00:36:01.969 --> 00:36:04.110
So it was their second best sack rate game. But
676
00:36:04.130 --> 00:36:05.769
in terms of pressure to sack, you know, again, 16.7%
677
00:36:05.769 --> 00:36:22.329
is the league average. And they're below it, right? Against Jacksonville,
678
00:36:22.349 --> 00:36:26.050
they only converted 13.3% of their pressures into sacks. And
679
00:36:26.090 --> 00:36:29.030
on the season, they're at 8.7%. They're still about half
680
00:36:29.650 --> 00:36:30.809
of the league average.
681
00:36:31.550 --> 00:36:33.829
I think Jalen Carter had the two strip sacks. That
682
00:36:33.849 --> 00:36:34.409
was it, right?
683
00:36:34.570 --> 00:36:35.719
Yeah, that was it.
684
00:36:36.159 --> 00:36:37.900
So you would have thought, and those were all in
685
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.360
the first half. So you would have thought, and this
686
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:42.780
goes back to the conversation, you're getting pressure at a
687
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:48.619
higher than league average rate by 15%. But you're getting
688
00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:51.880
sacks at a lower, way lower than the average rate.
689
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:55.239
It's confounding. And again, I think of their six sacks,
690
00:36:55.820 --> 00:36:59.130
only two have come from the edge group. So they're
691
00:36:59.150 --> 00:36:59.869
really struggling there.
692
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:04.469
I will say, if that issue fixes itself, the Eagles
693
00:37:04.489 --> 00:37:07.130
defense will maybe not be in form as they were
694
00:37:07.190 --> 00:37:08.789
last year or the year before, but they will be
695
00:37:08.829 --> 00:37:11.550
right up there with it. To me, that is the
696
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:14.780
single biggest issue on defense. It is the single biggest
697
00:37:14.820 --> 00:37:15.159
issue on defense.
698
00:37:16.610 --> 00:37:18.889
Yeah, I would agree. I mean, you're built around that.
699
00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:21.090
So obviously if you're not getting what you're built on,
700
00:37:21.190 --> 00:37:22.670
then things are going to go awry.
701
00:37:23.210 --> 00:37:23.409
Yeah.
702
00:37:24.150 --> 00:37:26.289
All right. So our four takeaways from this game.
703
00:37:26.869 --> 00:37:31.449
Yeah. Again, run game stalled 22 rushing yards minus 0.75
704
00:37:31.449 --> 00:37:34.250
rushing EPA per play versus Jacksonville. Really, really bad.
705
00:37:35.110 --> 00:37:38.409
That's that should be like almost screamed from the mountain.
706
00:37:38.610 --> 00:37:41.030
I don't know if, as you said, you're going to
707
00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:45.670
see a minus 0.75 rushing EPA. If you see that
708
00:37:45.730 --> 00:37:47.750
again in a while, I'd be shocked. Unless it was
709
00:37:47.769 --> 00:37:48.150
the Eagles.
710
00:37:48.610 --> 00:37:51.469
I'd be shocked too. And honestly, like I made this graphic,
711
00:37:51.510 --> 00:37:54.329
but I went back and looked at the number to
712
00:37:54.369 --> 00:37:55.889
make sure it was right. And it is. And it just,
713
00:37:56.210 --> 00:37:57.989
every time I look at it, I'm just like, how.
714
00:37:57.849 --> 00:37:59.449
Is that right? Right.
715
00:37:59.889 --> 00:38:02.590
But again, the formation tendencies persist. It did get better,
716
00:38:02.949 --> 00:38:07.110
but again, they're still basically running under center and passing
717
00:38:07.150 --> 00:38:10.030
out a shotgun. That's, I mean, that is what we're seeing. Yeah.
718
00:38:10.579 --> 00:38:13.599
They're limited. There's injuries. I get it. The game script
719
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:15.880
has made it so they had to pass, and usually
720
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.179
they go out of shotgun. Those things exist, but the
721
00:38:18.219 --> 00:38:22.980
tendency still persists, I would say. And then, again, this
722
00:38:23.019 --> 00:38:26.300
is my biggest takeaway for the Eagles defense. Pressure is
723
00:38:26.340 --> 00:38:31.179
not becoming sacks. They're at a 37.5 season pressure rate,
724
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:35.840
but only 8.7% of them are becoming sacks. And again,
725
00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:39.849
the NFL average 16.7. And then run defense led the way, right?
726
00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:44.849
I mean, Jacksonville, I think, was first in rush DVOA
727
00:38:45.010 --> 00:38:48.130
on defense, and Eagles were third. So just to your
728
00:38:48.190 --> 00:38:51.679
point that this was a pretty historic run defense matchup,
729
00:38:51.699 --> 00:38:56.019
at least by the advanced statistics. But yeah, those are
730
00:38:56.099 --> 00:38:57.360
the main takeaways, I would say.
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Everything in life comes down to choice, doesn't it? Whether
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and up. Good stuff as always. Sam, I really liked
761
00:40:50.739 --> 00:40:53.860
the deep dive that we took there into Nick Sirianni's decision-making,
762
00:40:53.880 --> 00:40:57.639
the continued personnel tendencies, things that we will continue to
763
00:40:57.699 --> 00:41:02.800
monitor throughout the year. And wow, some real historical data
764
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:06.079
there in terms of how bad the rushing offense has been.
765
00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:09.280
On our next episode, we'll preview the Jaguars game. I'm sorry,
766
00:41:09.300 --> 00:41:12.389
the Panthers game. They've got an explosive offense. So I'm
767
00:41:12.429 --> 00:41:14.829
sure you'll have some interesting data points on that. And
768
00:41:14.889 --> 00:41:17.909
that will do it for this episode of Inside the Data.
769
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:21.289
You've been watching Inside the Data on Inside the Birds.
770
00:41:21.710 --> 00:41:24.559
For Sam Finkel, I'm Jeff Mosher. We'll catch you all
771
00:41:24.980 --> 00:41:25.559
on the next one.
1
00:00:09.539 --> 00:00:12.779
Hello, welcome back to Inside the Data on Inside the Birds.
2
00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.589
I'm Jeff Mosher, and of course, I got Sam Finkel
3
00:00:15.609 --> 00:00:17.710
with me, and he is going to bring us all
4
00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:21.890
the great data and analytics from another Eagles loss, third
5
00:00:21.910 --> 00:00:26.980
straight loss in London to the Jaguars in heartbreaking, gut-wrenching,
6
00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:31.649
choose your adjective, Fashion, but it did supply us with
7
00:00:31.929 --> 00:00:35.090
an ending that we can look at from a very
8
00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:38.250
interesting data and analytics standpoint, Sam, which you did. And
9
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I really appreciate the way you put it into both
10
00:00:41.299 --> 00:00:45.659
visuals and we'll explain it to our listeners. And also,
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00:00:46.259 --> 00:00:49.000
as we get deeper into the show, I did think
12
00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:52.579
that there were some and listen, I'm just being honest here.
13
00:00:52.600 --> 00:00:56.219
I thought there were some encouraging things we saw offensively.
14
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Maybe we can talk about that. if you extrapolate to
15
00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.240
when they are healthier, like if they have Saquon or
16
00:01:02.659 --> 00:01:05.969
other offensive linemen, maybe that means something for a little
17
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bit of a, I don't want to call it a
18
00:01:07.689 --> 00:01:09.670
turnaround offensively, but just an improvement.
19
00:01:11.650 --> 00:01:14.299
Yeah. I mean, listen, I feel like I'm usually the
20
00:01:14.379 --> 00:01:17.719
optimistic one. I think we might flip roles in this episode.
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00:01:17.890 --> 00:01:22.049
Okay. All right. So I try not to judge a team,
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00:01:22.590 --> 00:01:25.950
and this is from 20-some-odd, 22 years of being a reporter.
23
00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:26.450
Sure.
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00:01:26.489 --> 00:01:29.629
Because I learned, you know, the 2006 season. How old
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00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:31.510
were you in 2006? I was eight.
26
00:01:31.989 --> 00:01:32.329
Okay.
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00:01:32.469 --> 00:01:34.730
So you probably don't only have vague recollections of it,
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but I thought that they were done, cooked, McNabb out
29
00:01:37.549 --> 00:01:40.769
for the year. Jeff Garcia gets destroyed in his first game.
30
00:01:40.790 --> 00:01:43.519
They fall to four and seven. And then they went,
31
00:01:43.540 --> 00:01:46.219
I believe six straight and win the division of tenants
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00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:48.819
or no tenants six, because they felt a four and six.
33
00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.780
There was only 16 games back then. And there were
34
00:01:51.799 --> 00:01:54.739
some other years where they, I thought they were cooked
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00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:57.329
and not. So I'm not, I'm not saying I'm optimistic
36
00:01:57.370 --> 00:02:00.430
because this year you're talking about so many injuries, a
37
00:02:00.489 --> 00:02:02.500
new offer, like at least the 2016 was Andy Reed and,
38
00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:06.890
even with yet a success with backup quarterbacks and all,
39
00:02:06.969 --> 00:02:09.050
but I get that the, the mountain is a lot
40
00:02:09.069 --> 00:02:11.930
higher to, to climb here, but I never ever judge
41
00:02:11.990 --> 00:02:14.990
a team at its worst point and never by week five.
42
00:02:15.509 --> 00:02:18.389
Yeah, no. And that's fair. It's just at some point,
43
00:02:18.550 --> 00:02:22.659
are you prolonging the inevitable? It's something that will have
44
00:02:22.689 --> 00:02:24.259
to be later in the season.
45
00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:27.560
We'll have to discuss it, but certainly if the season
46
00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:30.300
does snowball further and you get to the trade deadline
47
00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:33.949
and you're like three games under 500 or you're, 500
48
00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:35.889
and you don't think you're that good. Like, yeah, then
49
00:02:35.909 --> 00:02:39.009
there's a discussion. Boy, you're inside the data will become
50
00:02:39.050 --> 00:02:41.610
like about trade value and all sorts of weird things
51
00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:44.189
that we'd get to. But for now, I'm just saying like,
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00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:48.280
I'm just going to stay the course and see how
53
00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:50.379
this thing happens as they try to get healthier.
54
00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:52.719
Absolutely. And I respect that.
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00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:54.460
I love that. There you go.
56
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All right.
57
00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.379
So let's get right into the data because again, the
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00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:01.729
end surprised us with a or at least presented us
59
00:03:01.750 --> 00:03:04.840
with an opportunity to really hammer that whole peak win
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00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.500
percentage thing that we've been talking about.
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00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.539
See, I thought that was a fun stat ad. I
62
00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:13.000
think the first week I had a lot of fun
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00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:15.560
with it was that Bills game where they won. They
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00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:20.129
had the miraculous comeback and won the game. I will
65
00:03:20.169 --> 00:03:24.710
say it's less fun when it's reversed. Having two anomalous
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00:03:24.990 --> 00:03:29.569
losses feels really bad. I think this chart is worse than...
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00:03:30.469 --> 00:03:33.289
then it's probably the worst chart I've ever seen in
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00:03:33.710 --> 00:03:37.240
the percentage because it's there. I mean, they had a,
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00:03:37.979 --> 00:03:41.020
according to NFL next gen stats, they had a 94%
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00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:44.199
chance of winning that game. I, I built a model
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00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:46.060
that was a little bit higher and we'll get into
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00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:48.849
that a little bit. Yeah. They, they had like a
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00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:52.449
94% chance of winning and up until the last eight seconds. So.
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Wow.
75
00:03:53.669 --> 00:03:53.830
Wow.
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00:03:54.229 --> 00:03:56.909
That's even worse than the week before against the Rams
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00:03:56.949 --> 00:03:59.530
when it was like a 94% chance with about eight
78
00:03:59.610 --> 00:04:03.330
minutes right before the missed third and goal, right? And
79
00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:07.060
this one was just with less than 10 seconds. That's tough.
80
00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:11.699
Yeah, it really is. I think I'm shocked that we're
81
00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:15.659
seeing two back-to-back. But just the thing that is interesting
82
00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:17.819
and to bring a little bit of, you know, hope
83
00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:21.980
to the season is if the coin doesn't normally flip
84
00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:26.930
this way. If the coin, again, you have a 94%, 96%,
85
00:04:26.930 --> 00:04:30.629
whatever it was these past two games, it usually flips
86
00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:33.879
the right way. So just because these are just two
87
00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:38.860
really weird, unlikely outcomes does not mean it is the future.
88
00:04:38.899 --> 00:04:41.060
And I do think, back to what you're saying, it's
89
00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:44.379
hard to judge a team that's fighting this hard despite
90
00:04:44.550 --> 00:04:47.769
all the injuries, despite some of the other issues that
91
00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:52.689
they have. There's merit to saying that, like, they easily
92
00:04:52.970 --> 00:04:55.189
could have and should have won these last two games.
93
00:04:55.779 --> 00:04:56.100
Love it.
94
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.579
Because if you're a, if you are a believer in
95
00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:01.319
the law of averages, right. And you see that the
96
00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.819
Eagles have lost two straight games where they had a
97
00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:07.680
95 or 90% or better chance of winning in the
98
00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:11.339
final seconds or minutes, then you know that there's probably
99
00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:13.720
going to be some times coming up forward where they
100
00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:17.860
are have a very small percentage of winning in the
101
00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:20.639
final minute or two and win that game, or they
102
00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:22.529
just hold onto it because that's how the law of
103
00:05:22.610 --> 00:05:23.879
averages works. Yeah.
104
00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:26.230
And I mean, you can think of last year as
105
00:05:26.269 --> 00:05:28.550
an example that the Rams game that they had last
106
00:05:28.589 --> 00:05:33.050
year that they won on the last second field goal block.
107
00:05:33.649 --> 00:05:36.490
I mean, that, that is also one that they probably
108
00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:40.029
should have lost. So, I mean, it does go both ways.
109
00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:40.629
Right.
110
00:05:40.970 --> 00:05:42.550
Can't get out of its own way.
111
00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:47.329
No, no, they cannot. And I think, yeah, I just, it's,
112
00:05:47.629 --> 00:05:50.329
it's just, it's, it hurts when it's back to back.
113
00:05:50.509 --> 00:05:53.689
I think that's that it hurts more. But yes, we
114
00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:56.629
have special teams definitely shout out in the negative way,
115
00:05:56.709 --> 00:05:57.889
but Hey, here we go.
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00:05:58.790 --> 00:06:02.439
All right. So you built the model based on the return,
117
00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:05.000
the kick return that led to the game winning field goal.
118
00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:06.160
Yes.
119
00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:10.800
Let's explain. Remember people are also listening, not seeing on YouTube.
120
00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:13.269
This is a wonderful chart by the way. But let's
121
00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:16.850
just give our best explanation of what your data shows.
122
00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:20.290
Yeah. So let's just talk about the situation again. I mean,
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00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:23.449
I'm sure that's the last thing people want right now. But, hey,
124
00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:24.660
we have to do it.
125
00:06:25.610 --> 00:06:27.230
Well, if I can just stop you for a second.
126
00:06:27.290 --> 00:06:30.810
I mean, I think it's really important because there's an argument.
127
00:06:31.910 --> 00:06:34.529
I think that it's like politics, like the people arguing
128
00:06:34.589 --> 00:06:37.389
the loudest will not accept that there is an alternative
129
00:06:37.529 --> 00:06:39.509
that might be equal or better to their own.
130
00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:40.069
Right.
131
00:06:40.180 --> 00:06:41.560
So that's why this chart's important.
132
00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:44.860
Yeah. And I think there's a very nuanced take that
133
00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.300
this data kind of led me to believe, and I'll
134
00:06:47.379 --> 00:06:51.000
kind of get into that. But again, the Eagles led
135
00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.860
17 to 16 with eight seconds left. Jacksonville had no timeouts.
136
00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.399
Sirianni really had two options, right? You kick for the
137
00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:03.240
touchback and leave Jacksonville all eight seconds, or you kick
138
00:07:03.300 --> 00:07:05.160
it short and try to burn the time on the return.
139
00:07:05.860 --> 00:07:09.029
But basically the trade-off is really straightforward here. It's Field
140
00:07:09.069 --> 00:07:12.129
position versus seconds on the clock. What are you willing
141
00:07:12.170 --> 00:07:17.550
to give up? And to examine that, I went through 2,159
142
00:07:17.550 --> 00:07:22.850
ordinary kickoff returns from 2025-2026 before the Jaguars game with
143
00:07:22.889 --> 00:07:26.550
landing spots between the goal line and the receiving team's 20.
144
00:07:26.529 --> 00:07:28.589
I also analyzed 238 quick pass plays, 185 from 2015
145
00:07:28.589 --> 00:07:29.470
to 2023, and then 53 from 2024 to 2026 prior
146
00:07:29.810 --> 00:07:30.250
to this game.
147
00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:30.449
Okay.
148
00:07:30.470 --> 00:07:41.319
Okay. The model considers the resulting field position and the
149
00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.420
time remaining. Potential quick passes, whether the clock stops and
150
00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.970
whether Jacksonville can attempt a field goal. It also allows
151
00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:53.550
a desperation touchdown chance. So difficult scoring situations aren't automatically
152
00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:56.889
treated as zero in this model. So if we start
153
00:07:56.930 --> 00:08:00.370
with the touchback branch of it, Jacksonville gets the ball
154
00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:04.139
at the 35 with all eight seconds remaining. Under our
155
00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:07.620
default assumptions, the model puts the Eagles win chance at
156
00:08:07.670 --> 00:08:14.970
approximately 99.08%. Okay. Now look at the returnable kick, right?
157
00:08:15.170 --> 00:08:19.029
Using historical return endpoints and the time those returns consumed,
158
00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:24.949
the Eagles modeled win chance rose to 99.34%. That's an
159
00:08:24.990 --> 00:08:28.990
advantage of about a quarter of a percent over the touchback.
160
00:08:29.709 --> 00:08:33.330
So just based on that alone, It makes sense to
161
00:08:33.370 --> 00:08:36.210
make that decision. But there is an important wrinkle that
162
00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:38.080
I think needs to be kind of understood here.
163
00:08:38.750 --> 00:08:39.960
Okay, I think I know what you're going to say,
164
00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:40.340
but go ahead.
165
00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:45.480
Using historical return endpoints, I'm sorry, those historical returns weren't
166
00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.740
necessarily situations where the returner needed to preserve a few
167
00:08:48.779 --> 00:08:51.860
seconds for a winning field goal. So I tested an
168
00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:57.059
alternative hypothesis. What if the returner deliberately stops earlier? So
169
00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:01.080
I estimated possible stopping points by assuming steady progress along
170
00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:04.470
the observed returns. Obviously, I don't have the tracking data.
171
00:09:04.610 --> 00:09:07.710
If I had the tracking data since it's been incorporated
172
00:09:07.730 --> 00:09:10.049
the past couple of years, that would be even better.
173
00:09:10.190 --> 00:09:13.480
But I didn't have access to that. So we kind
174
00:09:13.529 --> 00:09:16.759
of leave it at that. But in that scenario where
175
00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:21.059
a player deliberately stops upon the return using part of
176
00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:27.190
that eight seconds, the model win chance falls to 98.89%,
177
00:09:27.190 --> 00:09:30.710
making the touchback preferable by about two-tenths of a percentage point.
178
00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:34.799
So to me, the takeaway is that kicking short has
179
00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:38.720
a defensible clock management benefit, but its advantage depends on
180
00:09:38.759 --> 00:09:42.279
how the return unfolds and how intelligently the returner preserves
181
00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:42.720
that time.
182
00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:43.440
Right.
183
00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.509
So it's almost like if they took the kick and
184
00:09:48.570 --> 00:09:52.570
didn't kick it directly to the returner or they used
185
00:09:52.649 --> 00:09:55.850
a dirty kick or they did something else, it would
186
00:09:55.889 --> 00:09:58.830
have been preferable. It was essentially the worst case. I mean,
187
00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:02.769
it was the worst case scenario. but factoring in the
188
00:10:02.789 --> 00:10:04.840
fact that he could stop prior.
189
00:10:08.259 --> 00:10:13.480
So yeah so here's the thing and now i want
190
00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:15.399
to try to put it in like a layman's terms
191
00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:21.309
right for people The Eagles, either decision they make, they
192
00:10:21.350 --> 00:10:24.850
have an extraordinarily high opportunity to win the game, favorable
193
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opportunity in the 99 percentile. Even if you take your
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early stop scenario, that estimates 98.9 is close to a
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99 percentile. It's hard for the models to take into
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account who the kicker is. Certainly, this is all enabled
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by the fact that Cam Little is one of the
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few guys that can just wake up from bed and
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make a 57-yard field goal, right?
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And I did account for that. Right.
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Oh, did you? How's that? Oh, okay. I didn't realize that. Okay. Well, good.
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So I accounted for that by inputting his, Cam Little's
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historical returns on there based on each, you know, rank.
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And then I extrapolated it over a little bit more data,
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like more of a historical data. Right. So, I mean,
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his 70-yarder was in there. Right.
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So, the point is, there's only a fraction of an
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opportunity to win. And I think no matter what you choose,
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there's a crack of a window that is open for
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what happened with Jacksonville. Like, if you kick into the
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end zone, maybe they get a long pass, right? And then, well,
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they didn't have a timeout. That's the issue, right? So,
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if you kick in the end zone, they really have
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to throw a pass, spike, and kick. See, that's what
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I keep getting past. I don't even know how it's
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operationally possible if you kick it into the end zone
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for them to do it. But nonetheless, I had much
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more of an issue with them leaving time on the
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clock than the actual decision. I'm not saying I think
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the decision was the right one. What I'm just saying
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is we can't really prove, we can't go back and
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look at what would have happened if the other if
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they had kicked it into the end zone, right? We
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have no idea. So, I mean, that's what happened in
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the Dallas-Baltimore game. Everybody uses that as a comparison, but whatever.
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And I do get that. But I also will say that,
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you know, there's another aspect of it where, you know,
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they already let a touchdown return up. I know the
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penalty and Trotter was ejected. So, like, those are pretty
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big and valid things. And if Trotter was in, maybe
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it wouldn't have happened. Great.
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All fair. All very valid points. Any criticism of it
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is fair. I just think criticism in the name of
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the other way absolutely was the best choice, no question
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about it, and would have worked is a little not because, again,
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the percentages of both are so high. And you can't
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just expect something like that was going to happen. It happened.
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Yeah. And I will say I have in my notes
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for the show, that the bigger issue was the mishandling
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of time in the previous offensive possession. So I do
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agree with you there, and I think that's just situational
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awareness of the players and coaching. And it's really hard
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to combat that. But I think that this decision in particular,
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I do not blame too much.
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Okay. So in your next chart, the Eagles apparently, I
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don't know how many people know this, had a historical
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low point in this game. Why don't you tell us
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about that?
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Yeah. So according to NFL research, um, they had a
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streak of, you know, 124 games with 40 or more
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rushing yards, which is the longest streak in the NFL.
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And it broke this week. Um, so it was, it's only,
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they only had 22 yards, but it's Philadelphia's fewest since
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week two of 2015. And I think this is a
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fun point to ask you, who do you think was
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the leading rusher, um, in 2015 week two and i'll
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tell you who the opponent was okay go ahead tell
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me against the dallas cowboys.
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Dallas cowboys 2015 week two so this is two years
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this is doug peterson's first year right no no no
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this is andy reed's last year i mean chip kelly's
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last year chip kelly's last.
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Year i i believe so yes.
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Okay chip kelly's final year um I think DeMarco Murray
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is not on the team at that.
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Oh, yeah.
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No, he's still on the team.
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He is on the team.
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But I bet you he's not the leading rusher. Am
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I correct?
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He is not the leading rusher.
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Is it Ryan Matthews?
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He was on the team at the time. It is
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not Ryan Matthews.
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Is it the quarterback? It is the quarterback.
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Do you remember who the quarterback was?
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I would have to say in 2015, it was Sam Bradford.
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It was. Oh, my God.
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You ready for the stat line?
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Yes.
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Sam Bradford, two attempts, nine yards.
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Oh, my God.
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You ready for this? DeMarco Murray, 13 attempts, two yards.
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Ryan Matthews, one attempt, zero yards. Darren Sproles, one attempt,
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negative four yards.
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Oh, boy.
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Yikes.
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So, folks, it could be worse. At least the Eagles
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had an excuse with this one. All right, so third down.
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I have some interesting thoughts on this, but let's go
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through what the data says first.
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Yeah, I mean, it was an improvement from....
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I love that dread in your voice as you have
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to acknowledge that that disaster was an improvement.
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Yeah, I mean, listen, this is a segment I was
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really hoping to do away with because if we were
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to do away with it, it would mean good things
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for the Eagles typically.
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Or, you know, maybe not because maybe if it was
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really good, we would talk about it still. So it
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would just mean a more normal... expectation and at this
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point i mean i will say the eagles outperformed the
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jaguars in their third down conversions you know and not
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by much but they did uh which was good to
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see um and then one other thing i'll say before
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we really get into the data is they had no
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third and short attempts this week.
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So yeah very interesting um because they sort of defied
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my thing that if you don't get some third and
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shorts you're Well, it didn't really because, again, they were
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not good offensively. But they did wind up converting better
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on third down despite the fact that they were living
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in third and long.
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Right.
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At least in the first half. Because I'm going to
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guess there's six of 15. I'm going to guess all
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six were in the first half or at least five
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of the six were in the first half. Right. Yeah.
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I'm pretty sure that was the case. All right. So, hey,
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they were better than Jacksonville at 31%. So that's good.
321
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That's really more of a deal breaker. Defense stat than anything.
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And they were over their league average of 37%. So
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that's good. Again, somewhat improvement. But where they're not improved,
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of course, is just being in third and long so,
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so much.
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So much. Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I mean, at this point, they have more third and
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longs than third and short and medium combined. Before it
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was equal. Now they have definitively more third and long.
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Yeah, and I think last week it was just one more,
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and now it's– no, two weeks ago it was just
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only one. Like, if you totaled the short and medium
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and compared to the long, long was plus one. Now,
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next week it was more, and now it's even more again.
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But I will say the defense also is keeping up
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that way too. I mean, a little bit less of
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a margin, but, yeah, it's still the same. Yeah.
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By the way, the Eagles, as bad as they are
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in third down, this is what I was going to make.
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The way we talk about their third down issues, and
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they are legit, you would think they were the worst
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team on third down in the league. They're actually not.
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They're 22nd, which is hard for me to believe that
345
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nine teams are worse than the Eagles on third down.
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I'm sure they're not in it as much as the
347
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Eagles are, so that's probably where they can hang their
348
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hat on.
349
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Do you have who the worst is? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
350
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The worst is the Green Bay Packers. And by the way,
351
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they're far worse. They're at a 27.6 conversion rate on
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third down. So they're almost 10 percentage points lower than
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the Eagles. And by the way, the defending champion Seattle
354
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Seahawks have the second worst third down offense at just
355
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under 30%.
356
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Wow.
357
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Yeah. But again, the Eagles really don't have a third
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down problem, Sam, as much as they have a first
359
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and a second which is.
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Something you've said pretty consistently and that was the issue
361
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last year too right um that's that's very interesting i'm
362
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glad you brought that into it um.
363
00:19:03.579 --> 00:19:07.660
Also real quick they are converting 20 so we talk
364
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about how they live in third and long and you
365
00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:12.009
know more than twice as much as short and middle
366
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uh oh no not yet but they'll get there um
367
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They are converting 27% on third and long. And that
368
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sounds like a terrible number. You know, 27% is awful
369
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and it is awful, but that's actually not, that's one
370
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of the higher third and long rates in the NFL.
371
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I don't have the exact number of ranking, but it
372
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wouldn't be. And this game, by the way, probably just
373
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helped them out against the Jags because they had several
374
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third and long conversions in the first half. Like you
375
00:19:40.609 --> 00:19:43.970
just noted, they had no attempts of third and short
376
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in week five. Right. So I don't know why I'm
377
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trying to like put lipstick on this, but I, guess,
378
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I guess I'm just giving them credit for actually having more,
379
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a better percentage of third and long. If you're going
380
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to live there, you might as well be better at
381
00:19:58.039 --> 00:19:59.380
it than the rest of the league. And they are,
382
00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:03.240
it's just, again, the unsustainability and it really, you know,
383
00:20:03.269 --> 00:20:04.970
that's why you don't score any points, you know?
384
00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:09.799
Yeah, while we're talking, I pulled it up. Green Bay
385
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has 10 third and shorts, and then they have 55
386
00:20:16.230 --> 00:20:20.329
mid and long. I guess that just the long is 35.
387
00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:23.150
Gotcha. So the Eagles have more at 59.
388
00:20:23.150 --> 00:20:27.130
So they have 30 short and mid and 35 long.
389
00:20:27.910 --> 00:20:29.430
Okay.
390
00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:31.200
Just to give you an example of the worst team
391
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in the league.
392
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:36.180
Yeah, yeah. And yet the Green Bay Packers still have
393
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scored a lot more points than the Eagles. It's kind
394
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of crazy. Right. Let's get into the EPA and DVOA.
395
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:43.680
So what does the EPA chart show here?
396
00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:50.700
Yeah, I mean, again, the offense is trending slightly in
397
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:55.680
the right direction, but it's still significantly lower than, you know,
398
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where we've historically seen it. But I will say, I mean,
399
00:21:00.970 --> 00:21:04.769
minus 0.31% for as a total offense, it's just, it's
400
00:21:04.789 --> 00:21:10.640
just bad. It's just, it's not good. And that's, that's
401
00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:12.559
a big part of it. And, you know, on the
402
00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.720
season they're at minus 0.21 and the league average is
403
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:20.500
minus 0.04. And then you look at their pass and
404
00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:25.049
their rush. They just were not able to run the ball.
405
00:21:25.190 --> 00:21:27.650
And that's going to reflect in the basic statistics and
406
00:21:27.769 --> 00:21:30.490
all of the advanced statistics, all of them that you're
407
00:21:30.509 --> 00:21:32.220
going to see from here on out are, just going
408
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:34.680
to say that they really struggled to run the ball
409
00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:38.500
which is yeah i mean we saw that too um
410
00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:43.039
but yeah i mean the they're just they're they're equally
411
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:46.599
bad by epa metrics essentially at pass and run uh
412
00:21:47.460 --> 00:21:49.380
at this point in the season uh which is a
413
00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:50.660
really bad place to be.
414
00:21:51.299 --> 00:21:54.599
Absolutely um epa is sensitive to turnover so it would
415
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.869
probably be worse even worse than 0.031 if the uh
416
00:22:00.170 --> 00:22:01.690
or 0.31 if the Eagles didn't do such a good
417
00:22:01.750 --> 00:22:03.130
job of not turning the ball over.
418
00:22:03.490 --> 00:22:07.130
Correct. Which is really not a great way to be. Um,
419
00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:10.809
but again, DVO is a better statistic, uh, in terms
420
00:22:10.869 --> 00:22:14.970
of just understanding where they are, uh, you know, against Jacksonville,
421
00:22:14.990 --> 00:22:18.880
they were minus 22.2%. Um, and then on the season,
422
00:22:18.900 --> 00:22:22.759
they're minus 13.9%. And this, these are normalized. So it's
423
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:28.099
basically saying they're 14% worse than the average NFL offense. Uh,
424
00:22:28.509 --> 00:22:31.960
And then if we look at passing and rushing, once again,
425
00:22:31.980 --> 00:22:35.019
these are not. So you have to look more at
426
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:38.920
the rankings, and they're 25th in both on the season. Passing,
427
00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.240
they were 13th this week. And rushing, they were 29th.
428
00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:47.839
But don't be surprised by the 29th, because DVOA stats
429
00:22:47.960 --> 00:22:51.329
didn't have the Monday night game in yet. So that's
430
00:22:51.529 --> 00:22:55.250
29th out of 30th, just to be clear. So I'm
431
00:22:55.890 --> 00:22:57.349
not sure that makes much better.
432
00:22:58.269 --> 00:23:00.690
No, it's really not. I guess you can hang your
433
00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:04.630
head on a positive passing DVOA, you know, against the
434
00:23:04.650 --> 00:23:06.230
Jaguars being 13th.
435
00:23:06.529 --> 00:23:06.710
Yeah.
436
00:23:06.750 --> 00:23:09.220
Because it's hard to, again, it's hard when you have
437
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.359
no run game and you're living in this world of
438
00:23:12.460 --> 00:23:14.339
third and long and third and long to have, I
439
00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:19.559
would even think, a positive DVOA, but they were plus 20%.
440
00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:22.670
And this is the worst rushing DVOA I've seen so
441
00:23:22.710 --> 00:23:25.809
far since using the statistics. I've never seen it in
442
00:23:25.829 --> 00:23:28.150
the 50%. Minus 50%.
443
00:23:28.420 --> 00:23:29.440
That really is bad.
444
00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:30.859
All right.
445
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All right, we wanted to explore offensive efficiency out of
481
00:25:54.119 --> 00:26:00.470
certain personnel. We talked last week, Sam, about how they
482
00:26:00.509 --> 00:26:03.269
looked like they were running so much out of under
483
00:26:03.329 --> 00:26:06.690
center and they were patting. and they were only passing
484
00:26:06.730 --> 00:26:10.009
out a shotgun. So let's get into just the personnel
485
00:26:10.049 --> 00:26:11.670
formations and what they said about this game.
486
00:26:12.390 --> 00:26:14.809
Yeah. I mean, listen, the success rate, very bad. I mean, 32.2%
487
00:26:14.809 --> 00:26:17.349
overall success is, is just not a place you want
488
00:26:17.369 --> 00:26:19.789
to be. You look at the run success, 23.5%, very,
489
00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:21.259
very bad past success, 35.7, a little bit better, but
490
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:33.549
still not a place you want to be. I mean, Again,
491
00:26:33.569 --> 00:26:37.369
you're looking at the personnels. I mean, out of 11,
492
00:26:37.369 --> 00:26:40.759
they passed the ball 33 times. Out of 12, it
493
00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:44.880
was a little bit more balanced with six on pass
494
00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:47.680
and seven on rush. So, I mean, those were the
495
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.640
primary personnel groupings that they had when they were out there.
496
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:54.000
And if we compare it to the season, I mean,
497
00:26:54.039 --> 00:26:56.529
their overall success in the season in general is 41.1%,
498
00:26:56.529 --> 00:27:03.440
which is not terrible, but it's not good. Yeah. Good.
499
00:27:04.660 --> 00:27:07.759
But if you look where they've been out of 11,
500
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:14.339
they have ran the ball only 63 times and passed 155.
501
00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:19.490
And out of 12, they have run 36 and passed 21.
502
00:27:19.490 --> 00:27:23.630
And those are the primary places where, you know, their
503
00:27:23.670 --> 00:27:27.450
personnel groupings have been mostly due to injuries and other things.
504
00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:29.730
But that's kind of where they stand.
505
00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:32.619
One thing I was able to chart. I don't know
506
00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:33.930
if you have this, you can stop me if you do,
507
00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:40.119
but they did pass the ball seven times on 18
508
00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:41.420
under center formations.
509
00:27:41.460 --> 00:27:43.339
That's next. Okay. Sorry.
510
00:27:43.539 --> 00:27:43.839
My fault.
511
00:27:44.440 --> 00:27:44.839
You're good.
512
00:27:45.259 --> 00:27:48.109
We'll talk about that. Is that in the season? Go ahead.
513
00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:49.069
It's the next chart.
514
00:27:49.609 --> 00:27:52.170
Oh, here we go. Season snapshot one or. Oh no, no.
515
00:27:52.190 --> 00:27:52.269
Okay.
516
00:27:52.289 --> 00:27:53.990
All right. This is still a season.
517
00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:56.890
When we go, when we go to formation, it'll be there.
518
00:27:57.069 --> 00:27:57.970
This is just personnel.
519
00:27:58.490 --> 00:28:03.000
Great. Okay. Um, Yeah. So then did we go to
520
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:04.240
the season by a snapshot?
521
00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:06.859
Basically what I, what I already said, we can move
522
00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:08.259
on to the, the, okay.
523
00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:10.259
Sorry about that. No, you're good.
524
00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:11.259
You're stealing my thunder.
525
00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:12.119
Yeah.
526
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:12.440
Yeah.
527
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.519
So here we go. You know, I'll tee you up.
528
00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:16.900
You tell me what the chart says here.
529
00:28:17.420 --> 00:28:20.240
I mean, listen, so again, we, we talked about it. You,
530
00:28:20.349 --> 00:28:22.289
you asked me to get basically on the season. So
531
00:28:22.309 --> 00:28:26.009
I'm actually going to start on the bottom chart just, just,
532
00:28:26.089 --> 00:28:27.809
and we'll go to it. But if you don't mind
533
00:28:27.869 --> 00:28:30.650
scrolling down just a little bit, that would be helpful. Um,
534
00:28:31.130 --> 00:28:34.779
So out of shotgun, they had 154 passes and 44 runs.
535
00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:36.880
That's 77% and 22%.
536
00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:39.960
Yeah, this is for the season, for the season.
537
00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:44.099
And then under center, it was 61 runs and 26 passes.
538
00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:48.660
That's 70.1% and 29% respectively. Now you look at this game,
539
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:51.789
it's a little bit better under center, but it is
540
00:28:51.849 --> 00:28:54.869
worse in shotgun. And a lot of that is because
541
00:28:55.410 --> 00:28:58.150
they had to throw the ball a lot more. Just
542
00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:00.990
to be clear, I wouldn't use that as an indicator
543
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:04.259
so much so as just to say they had to
544
00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:06.539
pass a lot more because the run game just wasn't effective.
545
00:29:07.019 --> 00:29:10.400
But if you look at that under center split, it
546
00:29:10.420 --> 00:29:12.539
was exactly what you said. It was seven passes to
547
00:29:12.539 --> 00:29:15.380
11 runs, which is significantly better than what it has
548
00:29:15.420 --> 00:29:16.130
been on the season.
549
00:29:16.609 --> 00:29:19.789
I would agree. I think under center passing at a
550
00:29:19.769 --> 00:29:25.450
60% clip compared to a 10% drop like that, to me,
551
00:29:25.650 --> 00:29:29.029
is very significant. I'm glad it happened. I would imagine
552
00:29:29.069 --> 00:29:30.599
also most of that was in the first half, as
553
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:32.119
you said, before they had to decide to go to
554
00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:35.380
shotgun and try to get some passing going because they
555
00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:39.109
couldn't run it. So I'm looking forward to what the
556
00:29:40.069 --> 00:29:42.650
next week or two or three brings especially if they
557
00:29:42.670 --> 00:29:44.869
can get some healthier guys in terms of how they
558
00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:48.599
mix and match out of those two different formations right
559
00:29:50.039 --> 00:29:51.650
so I'm glad we looked on that and I'm glad
560
00:29:51.670 --> 00:29:54.339
things changed that is what I was trying to allude
561
00:29:54.380 --> 00:29:58.039
to earlier as maybe hey there's something here that once
562
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:01.599
we get healthier personnel and the team that we can
563
00:30:01.630 --> 00:30:03.319
start to look at and say, all right, they're not
564
00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:06.140
being as telltale as they were for the first four weeks.
565
00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:10.779
Yeah, absolutely. And we'll see how that trend continues, especially
566
00:30:10.839 --> 00:30:13.920
as the injuries keep mounting. So it'll be really interesting
567
00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:16.799
how they diversify both the personnel and the formation.
568
00:30:16.819 --> 00:30:20.920
All right, cool. Defense now for the second straight week,
569
00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:24.039
a negative EPA, which is good for defense, as you
570
00:30:24.059 --> 00:30:24.420
always say.
571
00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:27.019
Definitely good. I mean, it's trending in the right direction now.
572
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:27.660
Mm-hmm.
573
00:30:28.089 --> 00:30:34.329
The season's still positive, but it's basically at zero. It's 0.01 positive.
574
00:30:34.930 --> 00:30:39.720
The average is minus 0.05. So there's still a below
575
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:45.420
average defense. They're close to average, but they're below average unit,
576
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.109
which is reflected in almost all the statistics as we'll
577
00:30:48.529 --> 00:30:54.670
eventually see. Again, their run defense has been surprisingly pretty good.
578
00:30:55.210 --> 00:30:58.430
Outside of the Rams game and the Titans game, they've
579
00:30:58.470 --> 00:31:04.119
been a negative EPA per rush. It was one of
580
00:31:04.150 --> 00:31:09.500
the best EPA per rush defenses I've seen at minus 0.27
581
00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:10.339
against Jacksonville.
582
00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:14.099
Sure. So are you encouraged by that? I mean, like
583
00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:16.940
we saw Jalen Carter play well. I mean, is this
584
00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:19.599
just what you expected normally to begin with?
585
00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:25.779
Here's the thing with Fangio and success, right? The way,
586
00:31:26.380 --> 00:31:31.500
at least in my opinion, and I'm curious your opinion
587
00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:35.210
on it, is the way it's successful is if they
588
00:31:35.269 --> 00:31:38.829
have a good pass rush. And to be honest, I'm
589
00:31:38.869 --> 00:31:42.630
including run defense in that. When you have a good
590
00:31:42.990 --> 00:31:45.329
front seven, it takes care of the back end. And
591
00:31:45.349 --> 00:31:48.049
I feel like almost to be successful in the Fangio scheme,
592
00:31:48.089 --> 00:31:52.210
it's contingent on that front seven. And one thing I'm saying,
593
00:31:52.410 --> 00:31:56.859
I think they're doing really well is pretty much mitigating
594
00:31:56.900 --> 00:32:00.599
the run, but it's not converting from a pass perspective.
595
00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:04.740
So am I surprised that they're having a pretty good
596
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:08.220
run defense? No, but I'm very surprised they have a
597
00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:10.920
bad pass defense, at least in some of these advanced
598
00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:15.380
metrics and allowing 300 plus yards to Trevor Lawrence, which again,
599
00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:19.319
good quarterback, but still not what you're used to seeing. Yeah.
600
00:32:19.700 --> 00:32:23.849
And then it doesn't get better knowing that, uh, JLX
601
00:32:23.890 --> 00:32:27.109
Hunt probably not going to play against the Panthers. I mean,
602
00:32:27.349 --> 00:32:29.069
Vic said it would take a miracle to get him on,
603
00:32:29.109 --> 00:32:33.509
so that's never good. And then Grenard might play, but
604
00:32:33.529 --> 00:32:39.720
this guy has played, like, what, 37 snaps all year long. So, like,
605
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:41.920
what can you expect when he goes out there if
606
00:32:41.940 --> 00:32:44.960
he's able to go out there Sunday from a conditioning standpoint?
607
00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:47.519
You're just hoping to get a couple of productive reps
608
00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:49.299
out of him, but he's got to be, like, more
609
00:32:49.319 --> 00:32:52.019
of a starter with Hunt out or at least just
610
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:52.789
give more, you know?
611
00:32:54.190 --> 00:32:58.809
The thing is, the depth they have at edge, I
612
00:32:58.869 --> 00:33:05.140
don't feel particularly strong. I actually feel like there are
613
00:33:05.180 --> 00:33:07.660
certain players that I felt was somewhat of a liability.
614
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:09.279
Maybe it's a little unfair.
615
00:33:09.579 --> 00:33:12.380
Do you want to say that or are you alluding
616
00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:12.859
to some of them?
617
00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.000
I'm talking about Epinesa.
618
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:17.319
Oh, your Penn State guy. Oh, no, Epinesa. I'm sorry.
619
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:18.079
I didn't mean the Penn State guy.
620
00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:20.589
Yeah, I think Ebikidi has been awesome. I think he's
621
00:33:20.630 --> 00:33:23.609
done a pretty good job, at least in the pressure,
622
00:33:23.630 --> 00:33:25.750
at least in the statistical standpoint.
623
00:33:25.769 --> 00:33:27.390
Yeah, I think he shows up. Like, you see that
624
00:33:27.410 --> 00:33:30.690
he's out there. I mean, he's a backup pass rusher.
625
00:33:30.710 --> 00:33:32.039
That's what he's doing, you know.
626
00:33:32.059 --> 00:33:35.960
But Epinesa, I feel like, does a pretty poor job
627
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:37.119
in run defense, too.
628
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:37.900
Mm-hmm.
629
00:33:38.730 --> 00:33:39.029
I don't know.
630
00:33:39.269 --> 00:33:41.410
That's just my opinion on it. I'm going to have
631
00:33:41.430 --> 00:33:43.849
to go back and really look at the video and
632
00:33:44.410 --> 00:33:46.349
the film and look at some of the stats together.
633
00:33:46.490 --> 00:33:49.670
But that, that was my take from watching the snaps
634
00:33:49.710 --> 00:33:53.170
he had to take in that game. So sure. All right.
635
00:33:53.230 --> 00:33:57.069
Does DVOA agree with EPA in terms of this game
636
00:33:57.109 --> 00:33:57.809
against Jacksonville?
637
00:33:58.829 --> 00:34:02.190
Yeah. I mean, again, they, one of the best, uh,
638
00:34:02.309 --> 00:34:06.099
rushing perform, uh, DVOA performances. I've seen their third at
639
00:34:06.170 --> 00:34:12.130
minus 40.3%. Uh, and then passing their 16th league average, uh,
640
00:34:12.210 --> 00:34:15.809
at six again at 3.1%. Uh, and then their DVO
641
00:34:15.829 --> 00:34:19.030
a overall was minus 14.8. So that's pretty good for
642
00:34:19.050 --> 00:34:22.570
the week. Um, and their seasons plus 0.3%. So again,
643
00:34:22.590 --> 00:34:25.869
they're an average to slightly below average defense right now.
644
00:34:26.250 --> 00:34:28.030
That's just how it's been playing at this point in
645
00:34:28.050 --> 00:34:28.409
the season.
646
00:34:29.289 --> 00:34:31.550
Kind of interesting that on the same game where they
647
00:34:31.610 --> 00:34:34.389
had one of the worst rushing off, uh, DVO ways
648
00:34:34.409 --> 00:34:37.170
you've ever seen offensively that they have one of the best, uh,
649
00:34:37.670 --> 00:34:40.670
rushing DVOA defensively than you've ever seen.
650
00:34:41.130 --> 00:34:41.610
Exactly.
651
00:34:43.030 --> 00:34:45.280
All right. So you've been making this point about pressure
652
00:34:45.360 --> 00:34:47.940
and sacks and the pressure. The Eagles have six sacks, man.
653
00:34:48.480 --> 00:34:50.760
I've seen games where they've had six sacks.
654
00:34:51.139 --> 00:34:55.739
Yeah. We're not that far from the historic season, 2022, right,
655
00:34:56.110 --> 00:34:57.389
where they had all those sacks.
656
00:34:57.889 --> 00:34:59.190
Yeah, that's right.
657
00:35:00.059 --> 00:35:03.800
They might have had a six sack game during that season,
658
00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:05.179
if I remember correctly.
659
00:35:05.199 --> 00:35:07.179
They had nine against Carson Wentz.
660
00:35:07.559 --> 00:35:09.570
Yeah, right. I do remember that.
661
00:35:10.139 --> 00:35:11.409
Yeah, for sure.
662
00:35:11.429 --> 00:35:15.250
So just saying, again, this is my biggest issue with
663
00:35:15.269 --> 00:35:20.530
the defense right now. It's just their inability. They're getting pressure.
664
00:35:20.550 --> 00:35:23.150
They're just not able to convert it to sacks, which
665
00:35:23.210 --> 00:35:26.590
is the worst part. So this was.
666
00:35:26.329 --> 00:35:32.690
The highest pressure rate. No, second highest. And third highest,
667
00:35:33.349 --> 00:35:35.489
but highest since the first two cupcake teams.
668
00:35:35.949 --> 00:35:40.340
Correct. And I recalculate the average as the season keeps going.
669
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:45.659
So again, on the season, they're at 37.5%. The NFL
670
00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:49.260
average at this point is 22%. And they had 36.6%
671
00:35:49.260 --> 00:35:53.059
against Jacksonville. So they're right about their season average is
672
00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:56.119
what you got. Mm-hmm. they actually did a pretty good
673
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:59.239
job converting them to sacks. They are at 4.9%, but
674
00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:01.969
their season average is 3.3%. And the league average is 3.7%, 3.67%.
675
00:36:01.969 --> 00:36:04.110
So it was their second best sack rate game. But
676
00:36:04.130 --> 00:36:05.769
in terms of pressure to sack, you know, again, 16.7%
677
00:36:05.769 --> 00:36:22.329
is the league average. And they're below it, right? Against Jacksonville,
678
00:36:22.349 --> 00:36:26.050
they only converted 13.3% of their pressures into sacks. And
679
00:36:26.090 --> 00:36:29.030
on the season, they're at 8.7%. They're still about half
680
00:36:29.650 --> 00:36:30.809
of the league average.
681
00:36:31.550 --> 00:36:33.829
I think Jalen Carter had the two strip sacks. That
682
00:36:33.849 --> 00:36:34.409
was it, right?
683
00:36:34.570 --> 00:36:35.719
Yeah, that was it.
684
00:36:36.159 --> 00:36:37.900
So you would have thought, and those were all in
685
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.360
the first half. So you would have thought, and this
686
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:42.780
goes back to the conversation, you're getting pressure at a
687
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:48.619
higher than league average rate by 15%. But you're getting
688
00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:51.880
sacks at a lower, way lower than the average rate.
689
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:55.239
It's confounding. And again, I think of their six sacks,
690
00:36:55.820 --> 00:36:59.130
only two have come from the edge group. So they're
691
00:36:59.150 --> 00:36:59.869
really struggling there.
692
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:04.469
I will say, if that issue fixes itself, the Eagles
693
00:37:04.489 --> 00:37:07.130
defense will maybe not be in form as they were
694
00:37:07.190 --> 00:37:08.789
last year or the year before, but they will be
695
00:37:08.829 --> 00:37:11.550
right up there with it. To me, that is the
696
00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:14.780
single biggest issue on defense. It is the single biggest
697
00:37:14.820 --> 00:37:15.159
issue on defense.
698
00:37:16.610 --> 00:37:18.889
Yeah, I would agree. I mean, you're built around that.
699
00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:21.090
So obviously if you're not getting what you're built on,
700
00:37:21.190 --> 00:37:22.670
then things are going to go awry.
701
00:37:23.210 --> 00:37:23.409
Yeah.
702
00:37:24.150 --> 00:37:26.289
All right. So our four takeaways from this game.
703
00:37:26.869 --> 00:37:31.449
Yeah. Again, run game stalled 22 rushing yards minus 0.75
704
00:37:31.449 --> 00:37:34.250
rushing EPA per play versus Jacksonville. Really, really bad.
705
00:37:35.110 --> 00:37:38.409
That's that should be like almost screamed from the mountain.
706
00:37:38.610 --> 00:37:41.030
I don't know if, as you said, you're going to
707
00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:45.670
see a minus 0.75 rushing EPA. If you see that
708
00:37:45.730 --> 00:37:47.750
again in a while, I'd be shocked. Unless it was
709
00:37:47.769 --> 00:37:48.150
the Eagles.
710
00:37:48.610 --> 00:37:51.469
I'd be shocked too. And honestly, like I made this graphic,
711
00:37:51.510 --> 00:37:54.329
but I went back and looked at the number to
712
00:37:54.369 --> 00:37:55.889
make sure it was right. And it is. And it just,
713
00:37:56.210 --> 00:37:57.989
every time I look at it, I'm just like, how.
714
00:37:57.849 --> 00:37:59.449
Is that right? Right.
715
00:37:59.889 --> 00:38:02.590
But again, the formation tendencies persist. It did get better,
716
00:38:02.949 --> 00:38:07.110
but again, they're still basically running under center and passing
717
00:38:07.150 --> 00:38:10.030
out a shotgun. That's, I mean, that is what we're seeing. Yeah.
718
00:38:10.579 --> 00:38:13.599
They're limited. There's injuries. I get it. The game script
719
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:15.880
has made it so they had to pass, and usually
720
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:18.179
they go out of shotgun. Those things exist, but the
721
00:38:18.219 --> 00:38:22.980
tendency still persists, I would say. And then, again, this
722
00:38:23.019 --> 00:38:26.300
is my biggest takeaway for the Eagles defense. Pressure is
723
00:38:26.340 --> 00:38:31.179
not becoming sacks. They're at a 37.5 season pressure rate,
724
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:35.840
but only 8.7% of them are becoming sacks. And again,
725
00:38:35.880 --> 00:38:39.849
the NFL average 16.7. And then run defense led the way, right?
726
00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:44.849
I mean, Jacksonville, I think, was first in rush DVOA
727
00:38:45.010 --> 00:38:48.130
on defense, and Eagles were third. So just to your
728
00:38:48.190 --> 00:38:51.679
point that this was a pretty historic run defense matchup,
729
00:38:51.699 --> 00:38:56.019
at least by the advanced statistics. But yeah, those are
730
00:38:56.099 --> 00:38:57.360
the main takeaways, I would say.
731
00:38:57.769 --> 00:39:00.570
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and up. Good stuff as always. Sam, I really liked
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the deep dive that we took there into Nick Sirianni's decision-making,
762
00:40:53.880 --> 00:40:57.639
the continued personnel tendencies, things that we will continue to
763
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monitor throughout the year. And wow, some real historical data
764
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:06.079
there in terms of how bad the rushing offense has been.
765
00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:09.280
On our next episode, we'll preview the Jaguars game. I'm sorry,
766
00:41:09.300 --> 00:41:12.389
the Panthers game. They've got an explosive offense. So I'm
767
00:41:12.429 --> 00:41:14.829
sure you'll have some interesting data points on that. And
768
00:41:14.889 --> 00:41:17.909
that will do it for this episode of Inside the Data.
769
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:21.289
You've been watching Inside the Data on Inside the Birds.
770
00:41:21.710 --> 00:41:24.559
For Sam Finkel, I'm Jeff Mosher. We'll catch you all
771
00:41:24.980 --> 00:41:25.559
on the next one.