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Eagles News: Darren Sproles feels like he can suit up and give Philly “a great playoff run”

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 11/19/22.

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Dallas Cowboys v Philadelphia Eagles Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

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[BLG Note: Not actually the worst idea ever. The Eagles could sign Sproles to their practice squad and temporarily elevate him for three games in the postseason. Even though he’s been out of the league since 2019, he still might be a better option at punt returner than Britain Covey is.]

Eagles Defense All-22 Film Review: Takeaways from the loss to the Commanders - BGN
Let’s start with the basic EPA numbers. The Eagles run defense was not bad at all in this game, especially on early downs. This is a common theme I will get back to throughout the article, this does not mean the Eagles defense was good against the run as the Commanders still had some good runs but overall it was the pass defense that was a bigger issue.

Eagles-Colts preview + Ndamukong Suh reaction - BGN Radio
Brandon Lee Gowton and Jimmy Kempski discuss the latest news (Dallas Goedert to IR, Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh signings), preview the Eagles vs. Colts game, make their weekly NFL picks against the spread, and more.

Mailbag: Projecting the Eagles’ (and Saints’) win-loss records the rest of the 2022 season - PhillyVoice
On Sunday, as we noted in our five matchups to watch, the Colts are starting Bernhard Raimann at LT. Raimann has not logged many hours over his life as an offensive lineman, so that is a matchup that an old, wily vet should be able to take advantage of. If the Eagles get the Colts into long downs and distances and Quinn fails to produce against Raimann, then that will be a really bad sign for the value of that trade.

Inside the Ndamukong Suh deal - PFT
He gets another $125,000 for each playoff win, if he participates in 30 percent or more of the regular-season snaps. If he doesn’t participate in 30 percent or more of the regular-season snaps, he gets $125,000 for each postseason win in which he participates in 30 percent of more of that game’s snaps. It’s a deal with a base value of $1.25 million, with a maximum payout of $2.5 million. On one hand, Suh was able to wait for the true contenders to emerge. On the other hand, he could have made a lot more by, for example, returning to the Buccaneers.

NFL Week 11 bold predictions: Jets finally beat Pats! Jeff Saturday’s Colts hand Eagles 2nd straight loss - NFL.com
Maurice Jones-Drew: This feels a little too bold, but I’ll still go with it: The Colts keep things rolling under Jeff Saturday as they execute another late comeback effort to defeat the Eagles, who inherently lose their vice grip on the NFC East.

NFL Week 11 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, stats, fantasy tips - ESPN
Bold prediction: Jonathan Taylor will be held under 100 yards rushing. The Eagles have allowed 320 yards and two touchdowns on the ground the past two weeks against the Texans and Commanders. It has the team’s attention. The front office signed defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh this week, and stopping the run has been a focal point of the coaches coming off Monday’s loss to the Commanders. Expect them to load up the box more against Indy.

Eagles-Colts preview: Ndamukong Suh analysis, storylines and game predictions - The Athletic
I want to see the Eagles impose their will in the running game against a good run defense. Indianapolis comes in ranked fifth in defensive rushing DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average), allowing just 3.8 yards per carry, the second-best mark in the league. Because of the game script, the Eagles got away from their running game against Washington and it would stand to reason they’d like to avoid doing that again. Remember, last year’s trip to Las Vegas was supposed to be the switch flipped for when the Eagles became run-heavy, but it had to wait a week because that game got away from them. That was a Bradley defense, which it will be again. If the Eagles are dared to maintain long drives down the field, I think they can handle that challenge. They have taken pride in running the ball on highly ranked run defenses before, and with Brown and Smith both carrying minor injuries, this might be a game to ride Miles Sanders and Hurts’ legs. I’ve sort of changed my mind about this game as the week went on. Earlier, I thought the Eagles would bounce back with an easy victory as Sirianni would use his spite over the Frank Reich firing to really push the envelope. This is the team’s first real test at handling adversity, which I think they’ll ace from an intensity standpoint. There are just enough moving parts that I think it’ll be a little more difficult than they’d like. It’s a slog of a game and the Colts get the ball at the end with a chance to tie it before Williams, the forgotten man in the suddenly star-heavy defensive line room, comes up with a strip-sack to ice the victory.

All-32: Chiefs Focus on Austin Ekeler - Football Outsiders
That said, the Eagles defense is far from perfect. They can’t stop the run without Jordan Davis, who won’t be ready for this game. The Eagles rank 28th in run defense DVOA this season, a figure that would surely be worse if you removed Davis’ snaps. Just last week, the Commanders hammered the Eagles between the tackles, slowly but surely bleeding the Birds out of the game while a couple of fortunate turnovers sealed the deal for them. Granted, not many teams have had success committing to and executing on that plan for four quarters, but it’s at least possible to do. Moreover, the Eagles aren’t any good at rallying to tackle against the screen game. Versus passes at or behind the line of scrimmage, the Eagles have given up the second-most EPA per play in the league, faring better than only the Las Vegas Raiders. That, plus their struggles in run defense, track with their alarming amount of missed tackles. Per Pro Football reference, the Eagles have missed 55 tackles, tied for fourth in the NFL. All we have is a one-game sample for this new Colts offense, but what they did last week fits perfectly against the Eagles’ weaknesses. The Colts committed to Jonathan Taylor in the run game, as well as a number of RPOs and screens, to get the ball out of Matt Ryan’s hands in an instant. It’s entirely possible, if not likely, that the Eagles score enough early to force the Colts to throw the ball down the field, but if the Colts get to hang around in this one, it will be because they ran the ball effectively and attacked the Eagles’ inconsistent tackling skills underneath.

Spadaro: 6 storylines to follow Sunday vs. Colts - PE.com
1. Big Suh Is Here. He is wearing jersey number 74, so that’s bit unusual in and of itself. Ndamukong Suh landed in Philadelphia at 11 PM on Thursday night, reached the NovaCare Complex on Friday morning, and was on the practice field in the afternoon? Will he play on Sunday in Indianapolis? “That’s all up to the coaches,” Suh said after practice. “I’m going to study my hardest. I just got in here late last night, went through physicals, and just got through with my coach (Defensive Line Coach Tracy Rocker). I will get back to the books tonight after I run through some stuff from there.” The scheme is nothing “technically new to me,” said Suh, who has played in “every single scheme in the NFL. It’s going to be more about terminology. Everybody has different terminology.” What keeps him going? “Championships, that’s what keeps me going,” he said. “I have an opportunity to play for one. This team has done an amazing job thus far and I feel I can come and help, but first I have to get acclimated and then go from there.”

Matchups to Watch Week 11 vs. Eagles: Battle of the Trenches - Stampede Blue
Colts’ OL vs. Eagles’ front. The Eagles’ defensive front will be the most talented the Colts have faced this entire season, as they have plenty of productive players and can generate pressure from any area. Javon Hargrave, Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, Robert Quinn... the list goes on, and they also recently added defensive tackle Linval Joseph. After having a sort of “tune-up game” against the Raiders’ line, the Colts offensive line will now be put to a much tougher test to see wether the turnaround was for real or if it was just a mirage.

Ron Rivera disciplines multiple players for drinking alcohol on plane ride home from Philadelphia - Hogs Haven
The Washington Commanders pulled off an amazing upset over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football and they had plenty of reason to celebrate. You could hear the music(Meek Mill because Philly) blasting from the locker room. Ron Rivera actually said he would talk to them about that celebration to remind them to act like theyve been there before. Then came the plane ride home from Philly. The team was still fired up, posting their celebration on social media. Players loaded Taylor Heinicke up with their chains as he sat there just wanting to drink the Busch Lights he had started in a trash can full of ice. This is a big no-no in the NFL world. Heinicke was on the Pat McAfee show on Tuesday, and McAfee was very careful not to say that Heinicke was drinking alcohol on a team flight. After the interview he said he was told it was against the rules and he didn’t want Heinicke to get in trouble by talking about it.

The next 10 days could significantly change this Dallas Cowboys season and the landscape in the NFC - Blogging The Boys
Entering Week 11 the NFC East is on all sorts of fire while the Minnesota Vikings are the number two seed in the conference trailing the East leader in the Philadelphia Eagles. That makes things a bit sticky here. Either Dallas or Minnesota are going to win on Sunday which means that Eagles fans are in a bind. Do they root for the Cowboys to win and give themselves more breathing room for the top seed in the conference? Or do they trust themselves to keep pace and root for the Vikings to push the Cowboys further out of contention for the division?

50 carries! Brian Daboll says he would give the ball to Saquon Barkley that many times if he had to - Big Blue View
So much for the idea of easing off on the workload being carried by New York Giants’ star running back Saquon Barkley. A week ago, Barkley carried a career-most 35 times for 152 yards as the Giants defeated the Houston Texans. Barkley is averaging a career-high 25.2 touches per game. He has carried the ball 20 or more times in five of the last six games. Barkley leads the NFL in touches with 227, and is on pace for 429. That would blow away his career-high of 352 touches in 2018. He leads the league in rushing yards with 931, and rushing yards per game (103.4). None of that concerns Giants head coach Brian Daboll. What concerns him is winning.

What we got wrong about the 2022 NFL season - SB Nation
As writers who cover the NFL, we pride ourselves on diving deep into the teams, the players, and the schemes, and putting together analysis that is accurate, and adds value to the wider NFL discourse. We spend hours upon hours of watching film, crunching numbers, and more, to figure out exactly what is happening week-in, and week-out, to provide readers clear insight into the league. Then summer ends, the season begins, and we realize just how much we got wrong. The 2022 NFL season is perhaps the best example yet. After a spring, and summer, spent imagining just how this season would play out, the games got underway and most of those projections and predictions crumbled under the weight of the games themselves. So, it is time to confront some hard truths. Here is what we got absolutely, positively, and completely wrong about the 2022 NFL season.

Titans at Packers, Pick 3, & Week 11 Preview - The SB Nation NFL Show
Rob “Stats” Guerrera, RJ Ochoa, and Brandon Lee Gowton discuss the Titans’ Thursday night win over the Green Bay Packers. We also have our locks of the week–and preview every Week 11 game across the league.

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