Let's chat about the National Football League. This week's schedule (all times Eastern):
Thu 2024-12-05 8:15PM Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM Atlanta Falcons @ Minnesota Vikings
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM Carolina Panthers @ Philadelphia Eagles
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM Jacksonville Jaguars @ Tennessee Titans
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM New Orleans Saints @ New York Giants
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM New York Jets @ Miami Dolphins
Sun 2024-12-08 1:00PM Las Vegas Raiders @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sun 2024-12-08 4:05PM Seattle Seahawks @ Arizona Cardinals
Sun 2024-12-08 4:25PM Buffalo Bills @ Los Angeles Rams
Sun 2024-12-08 4:25PM Chicago Bears @ San Francisco 49ers
Sun 2024-12-08 8:20PM Los Angeles Chargers @ Kansas City Chiefs
Mon 2024-12-09 8:15PM Cincinnati Bengals @ Dallas Cowboys
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Notes -
Saying it again, louder, for @Rov_Scam and those in the back
YOU CANNOT STOP SAQUON BARKLEY YOU CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN HIM
Eagles beat the Ravens. Fans can nitpick and argue the details about whether it was close or not. Tucker missed two field goals and an extra point, which if made ceteris paribus erases the Eagles lead. There were some interesting officiating choices. There was a garbage time touchdown.
But the reality is that the Eagles went to Baltimore and won by far the hardest game remaining on the schedule. Pittsburgh will still be a challenge, and the Redskins and Cowboys will play tougher than we think, and even Carolina could be a trap game. But we can be fairly confident that the next real away game the Eagles play will be in either Detroit or New Orleans, inshallah.
The game started off iffy for the iggles, my mother went all the way from saying "Saquon doesn't have it and the Eagles are going to lose, might as well bench him to protect him for the rest of the season, no injuries" in the first quarter to "They need to keep giving Saquon the ball to dunk on Henry" in the fourth. Saquon had a tremendous game, and massively improved his MVP odds, against a tough Ravens D. He outgained Henry by 40 yards to take a commanding OPOY lead. He gets stronger as the game goes on. Early in the game he tends to get stuffed a few times, or run for a couple yards. But in the second half, he'll crack off a massive TD run, and suddenly the numbers for the game look fantastic. I don't know if every Saquon run play is a fair dice roll and eventually he gets one, because he has had explosives in the first quarter, or if it's the causal explanation forwarded on Eagles twitter that the big physical O-Line beats down the opposing team over time and wears them out. But it happens over and over.
Jalen Hurts isn't doing a ton, but it's been enough so far. He's looked increasingly limited when it comes to targeting players other than AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert, and even Goedert will probably be gone soon from accumulating injuries or simply signing somewhere else for more production. I'd love to see him find their 3-5 WRs more often, but hey, as long as he doesn't turn the ball over with this D and this run game not much to complain about.
The Eagles D had a tremendous game. Lamar did Lamar things a few times, but they ultimately held them under 20, which is a great game. The pass rush, lacking Brandon Graham for the first time in a decade, played Baltimore hard. The People's Governor dominated this game, whatever you say about the boxscore he was in the backfield or eating double teams virtually every play, and he played every snap! Carter is just such a violent freak he brings up the play around him. Milton Williams, Nolan Smith, and rookie Jalyx Hunt all made great plays facilitated by Carter disrupting O-Line plans in the last few weeks. I'm pleasantly surprised by the performance, hopefully it is sustainable. Though one can't help but think: what if they had resigned Haason Reddick instead of swapping him out for Bryce Huff? Last year's Reddick turns this defense into a dominant unit.
Going forward, hopefully the Eagles take care of business against the Panthers at home, then they have the Steelers and the Redskins, before finishing up with the struggling Cowboys and Giants at home, who will have nothing to play for but pride at that point. Micah Parsons will still play hard, the rest of the team will fall apart.
I'm not sure what the semantic difference is between "stop" and "contain", but whatever. Anyway, I'm not too worried about the Steelers' ability to "contain" him. Derrick Henry isn't quite as good as Barkley, but they were able to limit his effectiveness while still having to deal with Lamar Jackson and one of the best passing offenses in the league. If they sell out to contain Barkley and force Hurts to pass, it could be a long day for the Eagles offense. That being said, I don't see the Steelers scoring a ton of points against the Eagles' defense, so I expect this game to be a slugfest that could go ether way.
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ROFL, clearly your mother is a dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore Eagles fan!
My mother has been an Eagles fan for decades, but the combination of Jason Kelce maturing into an appropriate old-lady-lust-object and Saquon Barkley, who she's loved since Penn State, have brought her to fever pitch in the last few years. Which has made me much more of a football fan. Funny how these things happen.
Good for her and I totally get the Kelce angle, those boys lucked out in the genetics department. I've been a big fan of Saquon myself, my big concern was whether or not he would stay healthy followed by, "are we actually gonna commit to running the damn ball this year?!?" And, wow, I guess when I think about it, I've been a fan for decades myself, hence the recalcitrant pessimism that can only come from decades of being so close only to taste disappointment, which to be fair is something that is a staple of long-term fans of the Birds. "They lost a game, the season is over!!"
I'm old enough to remember fans chanting both "TO, TO TO TOOOOOO" for Terrell Owens, and when he came back with the Cowboys after ODing on sleeping pills chanting "OD, OD, OD, ODDDDDD."
Not that I'm old or anything, but the first Eagles memories I have are my brother and my father singing a song about a Dick Vermeil Super Bowl team set to the twelve days of Christmas. Separately, I can remember being annoyed at another time because the game was on and I wanted to play something on the Atari. But since I was talking about the deep-seated pessimism that can only exist from being so close so frequently only to taste disappointment, TO's first year was the next time I saw the Birds make it to the Super Bowl over 20 years later. Making it twice in the last decade is really a welcome improvement given that the next best thing was eternally losing the NFC championship and Big Red going off to Hawaii to coach the Pro Bowl.
Again.
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You seem to be sleeping on the Steelers. They too beat the Ravens. Philly is obviously a good team but so are the Steelers and maybe the Ravens are slightly overrated (I certainly think Lamar Jackson is the most overrated QB in a long time).
Why do you think Jackson is overrated? He either leads the league or is close to leading the league in pretty much every relevant statistical category.
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Steelers will be underdogs at the Linc, but every Steelers' game is essentially a pick 'em at worst, so it's not so much that I'm sleeping on them as that it doesn't really matter unless we're talking about the one seed race with Detroit.
I'd bet Eagles over Steelers if I got odds on the Eagles over +150, but I won't get those odds so I won't bet against the Steelers.
The Eagles will be favorites in every remaining game save maybe Redskins away, but they'll probably drop 1 or 2. If they lose 2 against Pittsburgh and Washington they have a decent chance of losing 3 when they roll out Kenny Pickett and the Replacements against the Giants with nothing to play for.
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