Speaker 1: You have a chance to get everybody reset as Rogers
Speaker 1: keeps Paul's out and recovered by Philadelphia and Brandon Graham.
Speaker 1: Big play was made by Derek Barnett. Rogers flushed out
Speaker 1: to his right end zone incomplete for Graham and the
Speaker 1: Eagles will take over. With nine minutes left and the
Speaker 1: ball sitting at their one, I'm second down in the
Speaker 1: air and picked off by Pradham. Philadelphia will take over
Speaker 1: as Malcolm Jenkins and Craig James just into the ball
Speaker 1: game combined to knock it up into the air and
Speaker 1: Bradham gets the interception to essence in this night, you
Speaker 1: never know who's gonna make the game winning play. That
Speaker 1: was Eagles defensive back Craig James. Elevated off the practice squad,
Speaker 1: he tips the ball to Nigel Bradham and they somehow
Speaker 1: stopped the locomotive that was Aaron Rodgers. On Thursday Night
Speaker 1: Football thirty four to twenty seven, the Eagles get a
Speaker 1: circle of the wagons win to right the ship at
Speaker 1: two and two. Aliston Jefferies hopping around Sean Jackson's out
Speaker 1: of this game. They lose a couple of defensive backs
Speaker 1: and they find a way to get it done despite
Speaker 1: trailing tend nothing early. What a massive victory for the
Speaker 1: Eagles and what a disappointment for how it ended with
Speaker 1: the Packers. I thought this was the full football experience
Speaker 1: in America. You had big plays. You had one quarterback
Speaker 1: transcending injuries and lack of talent around him. You had
Speaker 1: a defense overcoming their own injuries and staying in the game.
Speaker 1: We're losing our minds over stupid rules and penalties. You're
Speaker 1: losing your mind. I was fine, we'll get into that later.
Speaker 1: Guys carted off the field. Uh, tension released throughout the game,
Speaker 1: and then a big play to end it and seal
Speaker 1: it for the Eagles. Yeah, a little anti climactic, as
Speaker 1: is me telling the listeners right now that we're at
Speaker 1: West Manor and my name is Greg Rosenthal and I'm
Speaker 1: with Chris Wesley. It's just the two of us tonight,
Speaker 1: although we we do have the paramore in the house,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Graham's biggest fan just sitting right next to us. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know she's a real fan when she's still a
Speaker 1: fan after that performance, And you know, uh, I'm not
Speaker 1: a real fan when i'm you know, or a real
Speaker 1: host at least when I'm introducing the game this late.
Speaker 1: There's so many ways we can go in this game.
Speaker 1: It was fascinating. It was kind of the Thursday Night
Speaker 1: classic we're we're waiting for. You know, these Fox games
Speaker 1: they give them, they give Fox the great matchups and
Speaker 1: and this one delivered. But Matt Lafleur didn't deliver. I
Speaker 1: don't think with his play calling. I'm hesitant to kill
Speaker 1: the guy. On a night where they did put up
Speaker 1: fo yards the offense was better. But I thought his
Speaker 1: decision to run on first and second down very often
Speaker 1: early in the game, especially in the red zone when
Speaker 1: they were up ten to seven, really gave the Eagles
Speaker 1: a break. And then all these established the run teams,
Speaker 1: they get near the goal line and they just loved
Speaker 1: passing the ball. You have four chances on the goal
Speaker 1: line on an earlier fourth down drive, you end up
Speaker 1: having six plays in two different drives in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter inside the five. They did not give Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: the ball on any of them. And I think Lafleur
Speaker 1: is gonna get a lot of questions about that. I
Speaker 1: think he should get questions about it because he was
Speaker 1: in his own head. I thought he he kept calling
Speaker 1: first down runs they went nowhere earlier in the game.
Speaker 1: Even in the second half when they were trying to
Speaker 1: come back, he was still doing first down runs. They
Speaker 1: weren't working. When everything Rogers and Davante Adams were was
Speaker 1: every time they went at at Madox it was working.
Speaker 1: So I thought he got in his own head, especially
Speaker 1: in light of Aaron Jones. Three times in the last
Speaker 1: two games he succeeded in that situation, including earlier in
Speaker 1: the game. He's really shown well as a goal line back.
Speaker 1: Just as problematic in that sequence to me is just
Speaker 1: the lack of Jimmy Graham's ability to make a play
Speaker 1: with multiple chances to do it. You gotta do that
Speaker 1: to him. This happened all year last year, and we
Speaker 1: went into the off season many of us believing this
Speaker 1: team needs help in the receiving corps, and the Packers
Speaker 1: told us what they thought of that opinion by not
Speaker 1: bringing anybody in. And I think, you know, as much
Speaker 1: as they're still getting used to their offense, still getting cohesive, still,
Speaker 1: how seeing how things fit together, it's fair to wander
Speaker 1: if they overrated their own players. Yeah, it's it's not
Speaker 1: a crushing loss. There at three and one, and Eagles fans,
Speaker 1: we will get to all the good things about your
Speaker 1: team in a minute, but we were just talking Packers
Speaker 1: for now. Two of the big problem areas they had
Speaker 1: coming into this game, where their run defense they gave
Speaker 1: up behind in seventies six yards tonight. You know, credit
Speaker 1: to the Eagles and their offensive line. There are a
Speaker 1: lot to deal with in Jordan Howard, I think makes
Speaker 1: sense on this team as as a role player. He's
Speaker 1: not gonna be there every down back. I think Miles Sanders,
Speaker 1: who also was very good tonight, uh is ultimately more important,
Speaker 1: but Howard fills a nice niche for them, and he
Speaker 1: ran really hard. That rush defense is an issue. And
Speaker 1: then a lack of depth, as he mentioned, they didn't
Speaker 1: really have anyone going into this game other than Valdis
Speaker 1: Scantling and Adams that head over seventy yards on the season,
Speaker 1: which is outrageous. And they played your boy Robert Sanian
Speaker 1: more than Jimmy Graham last week or very similar They
Speaker 1: played Marcedes Louis even more, and so they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to figure like who other than those two guys. You
Speaker 1: would think Geroni Moe Alison would be it or who knows,
Speaker 1: get a little crazy with this trade trade deadline these days,
Speaker 1: Like this is a team I think could use a little,
Speaker 1: a little pick me up at the receiver position they
Speaker 1: do with with Aaron Rodgers, it's so hard for him
Speaker 1: to get that rapport with these guys that he trusts.
Speaker 1: I thought Alison looked great on those back to back plays,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously late in the second quarter to move
Speaker 1: the sticks and then score the run or score the touchdown.
Speaker 1: But this offense, I agree with you, they need to
Speaker 1: do something at trade deadline. They don't have what it takes.
Speaker 1: So I wrote down the words push and pull on
Speaker 1: my notes. I couldn't figure it out. I embarrassingly stopped
Speaker 1: down on our first try of taping because I thought
Speaker 1: I remembered what it was, and then I couldn't. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make Eddie spaghetti back in the studio, you know,
Speaker 1: have to fix fix it up because that But I've
Speaker 1: got it. You know what it is. I've been waiting
Speaker 1: a while for this. Let's hear it. It's the push
Speaker 1: and pull of like what the packer's office used to be,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Rodgers kind of making his own plays by
Speaker 1: improvising and what Matt Lafleur wants to do. And you
Speaker 1: almost could feel during this game Matt Lafleur just had
Speaker 1: to recognize the obvious of let's get in shotgun a
Speaker 1: little more, which is what Aaron Rodgers likes to do.
Speaker 1: I think the Packers are second in the league in
Speaker 1: snaps under center this year. Uh, let's quit it with
Speaker 1: these early own runs and the running game that we'd
Speaker 1: like to have, because it's not happening, and let's let
Speaker 1: Rodgers do what he does. Because this game was a
Speaker 1: carbon copy for the Packers in that their scripted plays
Speaker 1: early were great. They went up and down the field,
Speaker 1: the Flour's and Rogers have really been on the same
Speaker 1: page with that and been dynamite. And then they failed
Speaker 1: to score after that. But when Rodgers was moving the
Speaker 1: ball and he had one of the prettiest touchdown drives
Speaker 1: you ever want to see in the third quarter, that
Speaker 1: was mostly Rogers kind of just making place. You know
Speaker 1: that he was evading pressure and he was doing his
Speaker 1: thing and he had his boy Davante Adams to do it.
Speaker 1: And that to me is the old Packers offense, and
Speaker 1: that's the push and pull Chris Westlane between who's in
Speaker 1: control of this group? Whose offense is it really gonna be? Tonight?
Speaker 1: It was Aaron Rodgers offense and it was ultimately better. Well,
Speaker 1: nothing I've seen from Matt as Mark would say the
Speaker 1: flower so far would lead me to believe that they're
Speaker 1: in better hands with with his offense than Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: He he overcame Alex Light who came in for Brian Balaga,
Speaker 1: and it was an immediate clear downgrade. And I thought
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers started looking at his right tackle on every
Speaker 1: play after that, wondering where the pressure was coming from,
Speaker 1: and for him to escape and keep making plays on
Speaker 1: the run his own legs and then throwing the ball
Speaker 1: on the run. It was one of those vintage Rogers
Speaker 1: uh as I said on Twitter, just the rising tide
Speaker 1: lifting all boats in that game, not just on his team,
Speaker 1: but the referees. A'll river run in New York the
Speaker 1: other team. I mean, Kisha put it well. I mean
Speaker 1: she was saying how much she enjoyed talking to air
Speaker 1: like watching Aaron rod just like that. He made it
Speaker 1: look so easy. He said, I wish I had that arm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: CASA doesn't have a microphone I'm doing a bad job
Speaker 1: not leaning over, but just he makes it look so easy,
Speaker 1: and it is fun to have this Aaron Rodgers back
Speaker 1: in her life. So I hope they do open it
Speaker 1: up a little more. But let's let's get to what
Speaker 1: I think was a gutsy performance by the Eagles, because
Speaker 1: if you really look at it, Alisha and Jeffreys on
Speaker 1: one leg, Kevin King shut him down. Nine targets, three
Speaker 1: catch a thirty eight yards not the same Dallas Goddard's
Speaker 1: banged up two for sixteen. Nelson Agilare, I think he's
Speaker 1: he hung out with the with the uh unlike Aglar
Speaker 1: guy back in Philadelphia. I don't know if he made
Speaker 1: the trip he had to one target in this game.
Speaker 1: Mc collins didn't do it. Your number one receivers, you're
Speaker 1: tight end zach Ertz uh You know, Carson Wentz made
Speaker 1: a lot of big plays, had had one or two misses,
Speaker 1: but for the most part was was really good. And
Speaker 1: you find a way through special teams with Miles Sanders
Speaker 1: making a big play, you find a way with red
Speaker 1: zone defense, just enough pressure and a really good running game.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, I think old Dougie Peterson in the
Speaker 1: end offense wins. I know, I know, I said it again,
Speaker 1: but Doug Peterson had had his way with Mike Petton.
Speaker 1: I think they had a plan going into this that
Speaker 1: they saw some things in the way that the Packers
Speaker 1: defense gets so complex. I don't even really know what
Speaker 1: it is. But they were confident I think going into
Speaker 1: this game that they could make some plays and they
Speaker 1: did offensively. And I still trust this coach staff ultimately,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised between these two organizations in a game.
Speaker 1: The Eagles just kind of had to win that they
Speaker 1: just found a way because that's that's what they've done
Speaker 1: the last few years. Well, you left out the offensive line,
Speaker 1: and that first series, Preston Smith was given Jason Peters
Speaker 1: all he could handle, and it looked like it might
Speaker 1: be a long day for the Eagles offensive line against
Speaker 1: the Packers pass rush. That was kind of one of
Speaker 1: the stories of the league for the first three weeks
Speaker 1: that the Packers pass rush was reinvigorated, rejuvenated and they
Speaker 1: were for real and they got shut down in this game,
Speaker 1: and instead you had a Packers defense that just left
Speaker 1: Jordan Howard opened out of the backfield to be a
Speaker 1: pass catcher and didn't really cover their tight ends well
Speaker 1: at all. So a different Packers defense than we saw
Speaker 1: the first Yeah, they were they still for forced you know,
Speaker 1: four or five points. They didn't have the big play.
Speaker 1: They were really put on short fields. You know, the
Speaker 1: three touchdowns by the Eagles in the in the first
Speaker 1: half in a row where all forty five yards are
Speaker 1: on a total I think of eighty yards on those
Speaker 1: three touchdown drives. So they were putting a bad spot
Speaker 1: in in Philadelphia capitalized and they got a little lucky.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, um, Nick Barnett could have been thrown out,
Speaker 1: probably should have been thrown out of this game for
Speaker 1: a helmet to helmet hit that knocked him all Williams out.
Speaker 1: That certainly hurt what the Packers want to do. Williams
Speaker 1: had played well last week and they want to run
Speaker 1: the ball, so that's a huge break. Barnett ends up
Speaker 1: getting a strip sack on Rogers, which they convert into
Speaker 1: a touchdown, and they got uh fortunate not to have
Speaker 1: a big pass interference call turned against them on third
Speaker 1: and long that would have kept the Packers going in
Speaker 1: the first half when they just seemed like they were
Speaker 1: going to score every drive and you were losing your mind, Chris,
Speaker 1: I mean it was um. I just gotta say, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't think since Antonio Brown, we haven't seen you
Speaker 1: as worked up as this. Well, this role is exactly
Speaker 1: it's being played out exactly how I thought it was
Speaker 1: gonna be played out. It's like the old catch rule.
Speaker 1: You cannot have a rule that asked the viewer not
Speaker 1: to believe what his eyes are telling him. M hm.
Speaker 1: And everyone who watched that play said, that's clear and
Speaker 1: obvious that the defender is hindering the receiver from making
Speaker 1: a catch. And Al Riveron goes on Twitter and says
Speaker 1: it did not meet the qualification for being clear and
Speaker 1: obvious that the receiver was hindered for making the catch.
Speaker 1: That's my eyes tell me different, and I think most
Speaker 1: people who are watching their eyes tell them different. It's
Speaker 1: a force of a rule. It's only gonna last one year.
Speaker 1: And there was some like Haywire kind of exorcism where
Speaker 1: if our Riveron cast out of my mind, the willing
Speaker 1: suspension of disbelief necessary to buy into grown men chasing
Speaker 1: a bag of wind around the park. After that play,
Speaker 1: I just the rest of the game didn't matter as
Speaker 1: much to me after that. Listening out there with this
Speaker 1: extra podcast is goddamn poetry. He's just ripping this off
Speaker 1: off the top of the set. He's like, uh, he's
Speaker 1: like that. He's like a beat poet in nine right now,
Speaker 1: he's flying. Chris Wesley, we should have a beat poet
Speaker 1: on the competition committee to add a little common sense.
Speaker 1: It was a tough I always try to, you know,
Speaker 1: not overreact to these things. Don't send the tweet if
Speaker 1: you're not going to really provide any clarity that you know,
Speaker 1: that didn't provide any clarity what river Run said if
Speaker 1: I was going to try to interpret what's happening here.
Speaker 1: I think they see the plays as bang bang in
Speaker 1: real life, as a judgment call in real life, and
Speaker 1: that when you start slowing it down like crazy, that
Speaker 1: they're still almost using this is such guess work. I
Speaker 1: guess it's crazy. It makes us press. They're still using
Speaker 1: the thought that, hey, this isn't clear and obvious, you
Speaker 1: know when it's when it's live and and in a way,
Speaker 1: I think we're not quite at the total disaster that
Speaker 1: you predicted in the off season, and and it's definitely
Speaker 1: not going well for the NFL either. I think it's
Speaker 1: somewhere in between and much closer to the you know,
Speaker 1: initial prediction that you had. What I would say is
Speaker 1: the coaches are being discouraged into challenging any of these
Speaker 1: calls unless it's the most obvious. That would be one thing.
Speaker 1: And they're consistent, but they're not comply. I've seen I've
Speaker 1: seen much less overturned, and I've watched every single game.
Speaker 1: Much less has been overturned than what happened on that play,
Speaker 1: and frankly, the one that happened to the Eagles receiver
Speaker 1: al Shan Jeffrey should have been a DP. I talk
Speaker 1: to you. You cannot show these replays two people at
Speaker 1: home and then waste their time by showing them something
Speaker 1: that they know is a penalty and then not overturning.
Speaker 1: You're just wasting everyone's time. I can't argue. And uh,
Speaker 1: it's supported to say one more thing about this. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's your podcast, it's just the two of us. No
Speaker 1: one's gonna stop you. It never made any sense to
Speaker 1: me that some one judgment call is reviewable but others aren't.
Speaker 1: So you watch a game and you see a judgment call,
Speaker 1: get overturned, which we've seen in the first few weeks,
Speaker 1: and then other judgment calls ruined the game, for instance
Speaker 1: the Ronco's Bears game on the on the roughing the
Speaker 1: passer call. Why are you allowing some judgment calls to
Speaker 1: ruin the game but not others. It's a fair point.
Speaker 1: And I think your theory that it might only last
Speaker 1: a year in part because the officials don't seem to
Speaker 1: like it, and our river Ran I think, doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to like it. And if you're a common sense hates it,
Speaker 1: and if you are a conspiracy theorist, you'd almost think
Speaker 1: that river n is burying the rule by never overturning
Speaker 1: things because ultimately they want I would prefer that. Then
Speaker 1: the inconsistency that we've seen so far, Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 1: I mean it. It also slows down the game. This
Speaker 1: was like a you mentioned this was the total football experience,
Speaker 1: and it really was because you had, you know, great
Speaker 1: quarterback play, you had controversial play calls that you could question,
Speaker 1: and then you have the you know, these brain injuries
Speaker 1: to start and end the game, and it's just like,
Speaker 1: this is football. And I think if you're if we
Speaker 1: still loved watching it. But I can take myself outside
Speaker 1: of uh an avid like over zealous fan and understand
Speaker 1: if I'm just being introduced to this game. And and
Speaker 1: when it's at its peak with one minute left in
Speaker 1: the game, andrewson Day who comes in here like a
Speaker 1: flying missile and has friendly fire against his own teammate,
Speaker 1: and you have to watch a guy get a serious
Speaker 1: brain injury and the game stops and he's stretching, and
Speaker 1: there's two guys being stretchered out in the game, including
Speaker 1: one you know, right one, and then you pick rack
Speaker 1: bite right back up like that is football. Unfortunately, that
Speaker 1: is jarring experience, and and it's and it sucks. It's jarring.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned if you were a new watcher, I
Speaker 1: think any new watcher will be blown away by how
Speaker 1: fast it is. And just in the time since we
Speaker 1: started following football for me in the nineteen eighties till now,
Speaker 1: how much faster the game is remarkable. Well, I think ultimately, uh,
Speaker 1: they put on a show you can't ask you can't
Speaker 1: ask for more. And it was a big game in
Speaker 1: the NFC. I mean the Cowboys. I know it's a
Speaker 1: but they might have had a chance to go run
Speaker 1: away with this NFC East and uh, the NFC North
Speaker 1: certainly likes seeing the Packers getting early loss. I think
Speaker 1: the Eagles they do have the pieces. If they can
Speaker 1: get healthy, get a couple players back to Sean Jackson,
Speaker 1: Timmy Journ again, they can get things together and it'll
Speaker 1: be a lot easier to do out of a two
Speaker 1: and two hole if you don't have anything else, Chris
Speaker 1: west I don't know. You know we were here at
Speaker 1: you know west manner. I don't know if you have
Speaker 1: anything else planned here tonight. I thought you put a
Speaker 1: nice bow on it. Oh, I appreciate that. You know
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're not Mark and Dan. We're We're
Speaker 1: Weston and Greg. We're we're gonna have our own feel
Speaker 1: to this little what do we call it, minipod extra
Speaker 1: free freaking content in your ear? Eat it, I mean,
Speaker 1: love it, extra podcast every week. We're gonna be doing
Speaker 1: it on Thursday nights. Will we will be back on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, of course for the flagship program where we
Speaker 1: recap all the week four games. I can't wait for it.
Speaker 1: And uh, until then, it's been it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Chris Westling spending this night with you anytime every Thursday.
Speaker 1: You're all welcome here at west Man. I mean we
Speaker 1: had we ordered some nice fah we lakisha and you
Speaker 1: know this is this was the spot today again. Eagles
Speaker 1: thirty four seven, still talking. We will catch you, ye