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Eagles News: Nate Sudfeld is “turning heads” in practice

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 12/20/17.

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Q. What are Nate Sudfeld’s strengths when you look at him in practice?
FRANK REICH: I think he's an accurate passer. I think he's really good fundamentally. He has really good mechanics. I think he's accurate. I think he's a good decision maker. I think he had his best week of practice last week, running scout team. He ran more scout team reps last week than he has obviously all year, because Nick was taking the first-team reps. To be honest, Nate was turning heads in practice. Ask anybody what kind of practice Nate Sudfeld had last week. They'll tell you he was turning heads.

Eagles work out 6 free agents, including a former 4th round draft pick - BGN
Carey, who is 25 years old and measures in at 5-10, 210 pounds, is the most noteworthy name from this group. The Bears originally selected him with the No. 117 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Carey made one start in 36 games played for Chicago. He rushed 111 times for 443 yards (4.0 average) and two touchdowns. He also had 13 receptions for 131 yards and one receiving score. Carey only fumbled once on all of his NFL touches. Carey was on the roster bubble this summer following the Bears’ addition of Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard over the past two drafts. Then he suffered a wrist injury, which didn’t help his case. The Bears waived him off injured reserve in September.

Afternoon QB w/BLG: Not Giving Up on the Eagles' Defense - BGNRadio.com
BLG gives his Eagles-Giants thoughts, talks about why he expects the Eagles defense to bounce back, goes over three over/unders for the Raiders game, and more.

Eagles vs. Raiders: Five matchups to watch - PhillyVoice
In Week 16, the Raiders will present a similar challenge. On the season, Derek Carr has gotten the ball out of his hands, on average, in 2.44 seconds. That is the second-lowest amount of time from snap to throw in the NFL. As a result, the Raiders have only allowed 21 sacks this season. It is going to be on the secondary again this week to defend the short passing game and make good tackles when they give up completions, which is something they have not done very well over the last three games. In the Raiders, they'll be facing an opponent with three talented receiving options in Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, and tight end Jared Cook.

Fixable Problems - Iggles Blitz
After re-watching the game, listening to Jim Schwartz and checking the numbers, I feel better about the defense than I did on Sunday. As you watched the game live, the struggles seemed overwhelming. The big takeaway for me is that the problems seemed fixable. When you lack talent and simply aren’t good enough, all you can do is hope for some luck to get you through the rest of the season. Let’s go back to Sunday. The Eagles let the Giants drive downfield. On 3rd and 7, Vinny Curry storms in for a sack. Drive over. You give up a FG, but that’s no big deal. Unfortunately Jalen Mills was called for holding. Giants get a new set of downs and score a TD. Mills was sloppy with his hands and too aggressive. That’s a four-point swing.

Eagle Eye: Why Didn't The Defense Play More Press Coverage? - PE.com
Naturally, the big question that fans want to be answered is, ‘Why didn’t they play press coverage?’ The answer to that question is that they did actually play a good amount of reps up at the line of scrimmage. The Eagles mixed up their looks on Sunday, and they had some success in press for sure. They also gave up a big play against receiver Tavarres King as well (which, as you can see above, came against a downright filthy release off the line of scrimmage against Darby). Press coverage can be advantageous for a number of reasons, but if you get beat early in the down it can be tough to recover. That’s why good defenses almost always mix things up from a coverage standpoint.

Philadelphia Eagles' Carson Wentz returns to team facility, QB room - PennLive
The second-year quarterback and MVP candidate was at the team facility participating in a position group meeting Tuesday, less than a week after he underwent surgery for a season-ending ACL tear, offensive coordinator Frank Reich said. Wentz was in the quarterback room Tuesday, along with his replacement, Nick Foles, and new backup Nate Sudfeld, according to Reich. "He was back in the building, in the quarterback room, just being himself," Reich said. "First and foremost, it's about his rehab, but that's a tight-knit room, now. These rooms, the players are close. The three of those guys are really close. So his first and foremost is take care of rehab. Second, support Nick and Nate."

24 Hours With ... Julie and Zach Ertz - Sports Illustrated
The MMQB spent an NFL game day with a top American sports power couple: Julie Ertz, a World Cup winner and standout for the U.S. women’s national team, and her husband, Zach, the rising-star tight end of the Eagles. On Sundays in the fall, it’s about faith, football and, sometimes, breakfast for dinner

‘Where are our fans?’ Giants’ home got completely taken over - New York Daily News
The Giants were hurt Sunday by crowd noise, which is quite remarkable, considering they played at home, at MetLife Stadium. “You don’t think having that [at home], but I guess when you’ve only won two games, there’s a lot of Eagles fans and they were loud,’’ Eli Manning said. It was a surreal setting, with thousands of Eagles fans filling the seats, making this sound like a game at Lincoln Financial Field. When the Giants had the ball, loud chants of “De-fense … de-fense’’ cascaded down to the field. “It was pretty loud,’’ Sterling Shepard said. “Where are our fans?’’

NFL MVP poll: Gurley (and everyone else) chasing Brady - ESPN
The case for Wentz: Even after missing last week's game with his season-ending knee injury, Wentz leads the NFL with 33 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions. He ranks second in Total QBR this season behind only Deshaun Watson -- what might have been, right? -- and is obviously a massive part of the reason the Eagles have the best record in the NFL.

No 1,000-yard runner or receiver means Doug Pederson's done his job - NBC Sports Philadelphia
Doug was asked Monday what the biggest challenges of this 2017 season have been, and he first mentioned all the injuries the Eagles have dealt with and the second thing he brought up — on his own — was how tricky it is making sure all the skill guys stayed focused on team goals while getting limited reps and putting up what some may perceive as subpar stats. The Eagles won't have a 1,000-yard rusher or a 1,000-yard receiver. When the Pro Bowl teams are announced Tuesday night, Carson Wentz (and probably Zach Ertz) will be the only offensive skill players on the list. But here the Eagles are on pace for the 20th-most points in NFL history. Pederson has found a way to keep veterans like LeGarrette Blount and Alshon Jeffery, who are used to being THE MAN, focused on team goals while their individual numbers suffer, and that wasn't easy.

Carson Wentz: Bringing the Eagles wins and a hopeful future - The Athletic
Every Friday, DeFilippo hands his quarterbacks a test that also serves as a tip sheet. It’s 20 to 30 pages and about 55 questions with photos and text containing information about the upcoming opponent. If the defense is showing a certain look pre-snap, how should they adjust the protection? If Wentz reads zone coverage on a specific passing concept, where should he go with the ball? If a cornerback is playing a specific leverage, how is the receiver supposed to adjust his route? The quarterbacks fill out the test — which always ends with five random trivia questions — individually and then go over it on Saturday nights before games. The preparation has helped Wentz accelerate his mastery of situational football. With him at quarterback, the Eagles averaged 5.42 points per red zone trip (first in the NFL), and 49.2 percent of Wentz’s third-down throws resulted in a first down (also tops in the league).

Jim Schwartz hopes Eagles' defense is learning from urgent, urgent emergencies - Daily News
“What really got us out of it was nothing to do with [switching coverages or blitzing]. What got us out of it was the urgency and the feeling of giving up three straight touchdowns,” Schwartz said. After stopping the TD rampage, the Eagles went five straight series without giving up a touchdown, and might have gone the rest of the game had Najee Goode not been ruled offside on a Giants’ fourth-and-4 punt, keeping the home team’s only subsequent TD drive alive. “It shouldn’t take that. It shouldn’t take giving up three straight touchdowns to get that urgency,” Schwartz said. “We need to come out with more fire. If we’re disappointed in anything, let’s be disappointed in that.”

Entire NFC playoff field can be settled this weekend - PFT
There will still be drama going into Week 17, but the majority of the playoff field and the entire NFC could be sewn up this weekend if one peculiar combination of results happen. The league has issued the entire playoff-clinching scenarios for the 11 teams in play this weekend, with five teams having already qualified (Patriots, Steelers, Jaguars, Eagles, Vikings).

Inside the Washington Redhawks internet hoax, and the latest fight to eliminate a racial slur - SB Nation
An internet hoax fooled the internet into believing the Washington football team had changed its racist name. Now that the movement has your attention, it has a lot to say.

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