December 19, 2017
Are power rankings completely dumb and meaningless? Yes. Yes, they are. However, personally speaking, whenever I see them, I click. And now that I've promised many power rankings, you'll read it and like it.
Here's where people around the country have the Birds ranked after their win over the New York Giants.
Before Carson Wentz went down, Peters was the Eagles' big loss of the season. The nine-time Pro Bowler was injured in Week 7 and missed the second-most games in a season of his career after missing all of 2012.
#JimmySays: ESPN does some weird theme every week with their blurbs, so they'll be the only media outlet this week that isn't pointing out that Nick Foles was good, but the defense was bad.
So, uh, Nick Foles is not a problem ... or the problem. Couldn't have agreed more with what Chris Spielman was driving home during the broadcast Sunday: In a nutshell, while the football world focuses on Carson Wentz's caddy, the defense was out there allowing the Giants to move up and down the field. Had it not been for Foles and a special teams unit that blocked everything, Philadelphia would have gone down to one of the worst offenses in football. Giving up 35 points to the Rams' high-octane offense is one thing, but surrendering 29 to a team that felt compelled to turn to Geno Smith a couple of weeks ago is quite another.
#JimmySays: And there's the first shot at the Philly defense. More coming...
Let’s give them a pass for that defensive performance at the Giants. I don’t know what happened, but it was out of the norm. Then look at the positive: Nick Foles looked very good. If he’ll play at that level the rest of the way, the Eagles are still in good shape to make a Super Bowl (as we talked about here last week).
#JimmySays: I think the concern isn't so much that they looked bad against the Giants. It's because it's their third straight week of looking shaky.
Though focus is currently on substitute QB Nick Foles, what's up with the substitute defense, which has allowed 29.3 points per in last three games.
#JimmySays: USA Today had the Eagles as the 7th team in the NFC a week ago, which was beyond dumb. This week they're fifth, which isn't quite as bad, but still dumb.
Nick Foles kept the offense rolling, but some of the old concerns about the Eagles' pass defense popped up against the Giants. Philly will look to finish strong with two straight at home.
#JimmySays: I'm not so sure the Eagles will look to finish strong to close the season. It felt a lot to me like Doug Pederson is leaning toward resting his starters, if given the opportunity.
What happened to the defense against the Giants? The secondary was carved up by Eli Manning and the pass rush was nonexistent. The good news was the play of fill-in QB Nick Foles, who took over for the injured Carson Wentz and threw four TD passes. But the Eagles did not look like a Super Bowl team Sunday, and it had nothing to do with Foles.
#JimmySays: I'll disagree that the pass rush was non-existent. It's impossible to get pressure when the quarterback getting the ball out of his hands in less than 1.5 seconds all day. That mess was on the secondary.
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