What the Eagles’ loss means now and later

The day after a loss is never a good time and the bad news for the Philadelphia Eagles continues to pour in. That said, there are still short-term and long-term questions and takeaways stemming from the wild 24-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football.

We do our best on The Kist & Solak Show #119 to provide context for what happened and give our thoughts on what it all means in the grand scheme of the 2019 NFL Season. Some major topics from the show include:

• Carson Wentz’s late game heroics and competitive/mental toughness overshadowed an abysmal first half (due to injury, maybe, who knows?), only to be overshadowed by a key drop from Nelson Agholor and Zach Ertz inexplicably cutting off his route just short of the sticks. It could have been a signature win, but football is chaos and not everything can be properly reflected in a final score.

• When I write up my analytics article for the offense there isn’t going to be many takeaways from a personnel standpoint. Losing three key contributors will do that to you. This meant no 12 personnel, which was the Eagles most effective running personnel in Week 1.
• Ronald Darby had a fun night, eh? The Falcons went after him repeatedly and despite good coverage on a Julio Jones double move, Darby conceded the catch and then proceeded to get the toaster treatment on the next few plays. On the show we also wonder out loud, “Why are the Eagles’ safeties, no matter who it is, so bad at giving deep help on posts?” Essentially we’re asking, what about the coaching leads to so many of these busts?

• Jim Schwartz got all blitz happy again, which was a double edged sword. I’m still charting the breakdown but we all have eyes and can see there were excellent designs and poor designs, including telegraphing a Cover 0 blitz that freed up Julio for a 54-yard touchdown.
• The Eagles’ tent situation got out of hand as they dealt with a seemingly endless stream of injuries, and now they’re going to be missing Timmy Jernigan. Despite all that, they yet again showed why they were the most injured team in the history of Football Outsiders’ adjusted games lost (AGL) metric to win a playoff game. It’s absolutely fair to wonder what is going on with the Eagles’ medical staff beyond horrible luck, but it’s also important to note how well this coaching staff and team is able to withstand losses that would be catastrophic for other teams.

We discuss all that and much more on The Kist & Solak Show #119! Listen on the media player below or click here if the player doesn’t load. New to podcasts?! Check out our guide on how to listen to BGN! FLY EAGLES FLY!