December 05, 2023
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Nicholas Morrow has his sights set on a missed tackle against the Niners on Sunday.
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 sucked you in with promises of many power rankings, you'll read it and like it.
Here's where people around the country have the Eagles ranked after Week 13. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.
The secret is out. The Eagles' short-handed linebacker group was exposed in Sunday's blowout loss to San Francisco, both in coverage and via the 49ers' run game. The tackling was bad; 115 of Deebo Samuel's 116 receiving yards came after the catch. Truthfully, this has been an issue for a few weeks, but Philadelphia made critical stops against Dallas, Kansas City and Buffalo. That just did not happen against San Francisco. The Niners punted twice in their first two possessions ... then scored six straight touchdowns. It was a stunning sight in such a big game at the Linc, even if the Eagles are allowed to lose one every now and then. But it's the first time in a few years where they've really been outclassed. You can't blame Jalen Hurts missing time because it was a 28-13 game when he left and 35-13 when he returned -- likely the same score it would have been had he not missed a play. Monday's addition of veteran LB Shaq Leonard is intriguing, especially considering Philly beat out Dallas to sign him, but did the playoff-hungry Colts cut a player who can truly reverse the Eagles' recent defensive swoon?
#JimmySays: I don't think it was a secret that the Eagles have a very tenuous situation at linebacker. The 49ers are just a team that is lab-designed to destroy bad linebackers, and they happened to be excessively bad on Sunday. I do agree that the defense has looked shaky for a while now, but it's probably also worth noting that in the three games before this blowout loss, they faced Josh Allen on his A game, Patrick Mahomes, and a hot Dak Prescott.
It's funny that Hurts missing time is mentioned here, because I just so happened to tweet the following immediately after Hurts left the game. I thought it was as obvious a sarcastic tweet as it gets, poking fun at Niners coaches, front office folks, players, and fans who claimed the 49ers only lost last season because Brock Purdy got hurt.
The Eagles lost this game because Jalen Hurts got hurt.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) December 3, 2023
The hardcore fans who followed the Niners' 10 months of crying in the wake of the NFC Championship Game mostly got it, but the rest... not so much lol.
Pleasant surprise: ST coach Michael Clay
The Eagles' special teams group turned from a weakness in 2022 to a strength this season. Philadelphia entered Week 13 with the No. 1 special teams ranking in the NFL, per ESPN's Football Power Index. Britain Covey is third in punt return average (14 yards per return), Jake Elliott is 6-of-7 on field goal attempts of 50-plus yards, and the coverage units have been sound.
#JimmySays: The Eagles have the No. 1 ranked special teams DVOA.
Philadelphia is third in the league in rushing EPA this season, according to TruMedia, but when its run game falters, it usually isn’t pretty. The Eagles have been held to a total of 126 rushing yards and 3.2 yards per carry in their two losses. The results were a loss to the Jets and Sunday’s drubbing by the 49ers.
#JimmySays: They only ran it nine times with their running backs, which I believe is fair to criticize. Once they got down big, however, obviously they weren't going to try to establish the run.
The Jets were missing Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed when the Eagles faced them, so on some level it made sense to attack them through the air, but only running it 14 times with their backs wasn't very defensible when they had a lead for almost the entirety of that game.
So they head to Dallas, where they've lost five in a row, to face scalding QB Dak Prescott while hindered by the league's fourth-worst pass defense. Sounds like a good recipe to fall from the NFC's No. 1 seed to its fifth by next Monday … unless Philly's newly signed linebacker can make a heckuva instant difference here.
#JimmySays: If the Cowboys beat the Eagles Week 14, then in the current moment, sure, the Cowboys would be placed at the top of the standings in the NFC East, since the two teams will have split the head-to-head series and the Cowboys would temporarily have the better divisional record (4-1) than the Eagles (3-1). But the Eagles would still control their own fate in the NFC East. If they win out thereafter, they will clinch the division.
Even if they don't win out and end up having the same record as the Cowboys after Week 18, then they will win the division in most scenarios, as shown here by the great Deniz Selman:
Updated relevant #Eagles tiebreaker scenarios at the end of Week 13.
— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) December 4, 2023
The Eagles still have margin for error to win the NFC East: they win the tiebreaker w/DAL if both teams finish 14-3.
The margin for error for the number 1 seed, however, was used up today. #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/H16mPX3GtR
Also, spoiler, Shaq Leonard will not make a "heckuva instant difference." The outcome of the game won't solely teeter on whether he does or not. The Cowboys will likely try to find ways to take advantage of the Eagles' linebackers, just as they already did successfully at times Week 9. But their offensive strengths are not the same as San Francisco's.
The Eagles can't allow the 49ers loss to linger. The Cowboys are up next. The Eagles are still OK in the NFC East race even if they lose, due to tiebreakers, but they can't afford to lose their grip on the No. 1 seed. If the game against the 49ers was that lopsided in Philadelphia, what would a playoff rematch in San Francisco look like?
#JimmySays: I can't imagine it would be any worse than what we saw on Sunday.
They have defensive issues that show up week in and week out. The corners have major problems. Now they get to face the Cowboys' high-flying offense again.
#JimmySays: CBS with the fire🔥 analysis as always.
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