September 15, 2023 • 22 mins
In a room with two heroes - Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler recap the Thursday night football clash between the Eagles and the Vikings. We break down how the Eagles turned to Swift and take a look at the big numbers Kirk Cousins put up.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Second in goal. Are they gonna push him in? They're
lined up to do that. Yeah. In there touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Week two, we've seen a forced fumble on the punt,
the sixty one yard plunking field goal.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Cousins loses the ball and it's picked up and down
of the seventy yard line. Go the Eagles. Fletcher Cocks,
you have to win, Envy sexy.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What can I tell you?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
To the outside and then to the inside touchdown Swift.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
That about sums it up. Abut push touchdown, a fumble
by the Vikings. There were a lot of those, and
a DeAndre Swift touchdown to cap it off a wild
one on Thursday Night Football, thirty four to twenty eight,
Eagles O the Vikings. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in
(01:04):
the Virtual Heroes room with Mark Sessler.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dan sitting this one out.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We're gonna have a rotation on Thursday Night, and that
just gives us more to talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mark, there was there was a lot of weird stuff
in this game.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I just you know, I think there's been this
theme to the early season where some of these high
powered offenses and offenses in general have been kind of
finding themselves to some degree, and it's like both of
these quarterbacks at haveltime and were struggling to some point,
and like, I but what I love about what the
Eagles did was I thought they kind of finessed and
(01:37):
pushed and worked their way out of a corner and
they were like, we're just gonna run the ball, and like,
you know what kind of football I like, Greg, And
like when I see what came out of this game
where they ran the ball forty eight times for two
hundred and fifty nine yards, that to me is just
like we're gonna do what works. And like, I you know,
I think, like on the flip side of this is
(01:59):
that Brian Flores has this Vikings defense. I think we
expected there to be an uptick. They gave Jalen Hurts
and the Eagles some problems early, and I think they
kind of took away the deep pass and they kind
of forced them to do something different.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
The Eagles responded.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And then of course we've got the situation with the
fact that if you're the Vikings and you're coming off
a season where you were eleven to zero one score games,
you can't be turning the ball over four times like
they really had a chance they should have won this game.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
They flat out should have.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Won it because they've got the they have enough talent
on offense. They had some big plays down the stretch,
but those the turnovers and especially the Justin Jefferson won
the fumble through the end zone, it just handled the
game away to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, we'll get to all of it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It is like so much happened, it's sort of dizzying
to even know where to start. But you I feel
like we'll start with Swift, who had twenty eight carries
for one hundred and seventy five yards and a touchdown.
And you mentioned the total rushing aards it was a
two fifty nine. They ended up with thirty nine minutes
(03:04):
time of possession. And that's why I went back and
forth thinking on some level, you're right, Mark as someone
who locked up the Eagles and was watching this and
just seeing like how many chances of the Vikings have,
was like, man, should the Eagles even be winning this game?
But then you do look at the final numbers, and
when you have the ball for forty minutes and you
can run the ball, that just purposefully after they basically
(03:27):
realized this was gonna be their cheat code for the night.
Then I think you got to say, Okay, I guess
they do deserve to win because the Vikings could not
stop them in key parts. I thought of you, Mark
when DeAndre Swift. I thought of two things during this
drive at the end of the first half. I think
you know what I'm talking about, that that's really where
the game changed. And I was thinking of Dan Campbell
and the Lions coaching staff if they happen to be
(03:48):
watching this game somewhere, and all the frustrations they had
with DeAndre Swift back when he was lying in training
camp and in that hard knocks and.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Thinking, man, where was this guy?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Because he was just putting his foot in the and
going north south like tough running throughout the game. It
was really amazing. After he only had a couple carries
in the first game.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, he had the first nine carries of
the game. And there's no Kenneth Gainwell tonight, so it
was like he was their chosen one. And there's this
drive that you're talking about. It's sixteen plays with thirteen rushes,
and to me, it's just like the Eagles saying we're
gonna take everything we can. It was eight plus minutes.
They I also think as an asterisk that we saw one.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Of the weirder drives that we'll ever see. Later in
the game.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
They had a fifteen play forty nine yard drive that
took up nine minutes and wound up in an Eagle's punt.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So there's a strange night. But when you done.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
But like most of the plays in both of those
drives were just it felt like the same play over
and over to Swift and he was always finding room
and just hitting that gap.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Absolutely, and I think that they you know, I think
that we're still waiting for Jalen Hurts to kind of
find his way, but he did hook up down the
aj Brown pass the DeVante Smith early on.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
There we stall a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
But like I do think this Eagles offense compared to
the electric nature of what they were right out of
the gate last year, it's like they are trying to
figure out who they are. But when if you can
do this on the ground, I think you can win
most matchups. I mean, their defensive line dominated, their offensive
line dominated, and yes, the Vikings do what the Vikings do,
but like, like I'm just watching Jalen Carter, I'm like
(05:28):
this front office just keeps adding massive pieces, and like,
I trust them. They're two and zero when they've not
played very well.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Right, that's the thing where if you just look at
the box score, you see the score, it's thirty four
to twenty eight. I don't think you'd really have the
same feeling that the Eagles passing game is so disjointed
and their pass defense, at least in the secondary, has
been giving up some big plays. I mean, Kirk Kirk
Cousins ended up throwing for three sixty four in this game.
(05:56):
Mac Jones had found a lot of open receivers that
were open receivers.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
In this game. But the problem for Cousins is that
he gets hit so much. I mean, you mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The Eagles had ten quarterback hits in this game, and
I think it was last week the Bucks had nine.
So that's nineteen times Cousins has been hit in the
last two weeks, which I don't even.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Need to look it up.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
That would be a record setting pace if you got
hit nine to ten times every week. So that's just
like a tough way to win. They didn't have a
running game, And you mentioned the fumbles. Let's go over
the sequence actually because at the end of the first half,
because it was absolutely insane after that drive. And for
listeners who didn't watch the game. We know a lot
of UK listeners, a lot of US listers wake up,
(06:38):
they didn't see the game. They listened to this first thing.
They don't want spoilers. Even in the title. We try
to be good about that. It was seven to three
Vikings with three minutes left in the first half, Am
I right about that? Like three and a half minutes
left in the first half. Vikings get the ball back
and they almost score right back until that play you
mentioned where Justin Jefferson is reaching for the pylon on
(07:01):
what would have been a long score and he fumbles
over the pylon. Dumbest rule in sports. Eagles get the
ball back on the twenty. They actually look like they're
giving up. They start running the ball on their first
two downs, but they pick up so many yards that
they end up being in position to kick a sixty
one yard field goal for Elliott. So that's a ten
point swing. At the end of the first half, the
(07:22):
Vikings should have been ahead by a field goal. Instead
they're down by six. The Vikings get the ball back
to start the second half, immediately gets stripsacked, Eagles immediately score,
Eagles get the ball back quickly again, and immediately have
a long touchdown to DeVante Smith. So you add it
all up, and the Eagles scored twenty points in about
(07:42):
seven minutes of game time, between the defense being explosive,
between that Jefferson and between DeVante Smith just making more
and more big plays. I know I'm going on, but
it was like just so much of an avalanche at once.
So that's what kind of what the Eagles can do,
and they have done in the past, where they can
look bad for three quarters and they can just kick
(08:02):
your ass for about ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think it's the dominance on on both sides of
the line, like the Fletcher Cox uh situation right there.
I mean you I the Vikings were a little snake
bit tonight, like because they also had Brandon Powell at
a big punt return he stripped Alexander Madison, who sorry,
you're not Dalvin Cook so far out of the gate
like that. Their run game in general has been heard.
(08:24):
I also think that a big part of tonight, if
you dig down into it, is the fact that Christian
darisaw uh Udo like both gone you're on your third
left tackle with David Quisenberry, and it's just like, we've
got problems there. And it's like Cousins that some of
the contact the Cousins felt came off of that. I
think that affected the run game, you know, and they
(08:46):
still almost won. I mean that's a very Vikings thing
to do in general, but it it's I don't lean
on this thing about, you know, the regression from last
year as much, except that's exactly what's happened in two games.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But they're one score games, although this didn't quite feel
like one score game. You know, the Vikings were chasing
it and couldn't get the defensive stop in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Right, and they have seven they have seven turnovers in
two games. And it's like, if you're gonna be one
of these teams that rides the edge, you need these
things to go in your direction. And like I think
tonight they just they they had a real chance because
you caught an Eagles team that's still kind of warming
up and they got in their own way. And it's
like to me, like, I'm not sure the Vikings are
(09:25):
anything more than a B B plus.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Team, but you fought.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I think you found a B minus B version of
what the Eagles ultimately will be, except I'm saying that,
and they also ran the ball.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
For two hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I think that's we expect them to be so naturally
proficient in every aspect of offense. It's like, well, they
certainly were tonight, and they they creatively found their way
out of a tough spot. And it's like, it just
makes me trust them all the more going on.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Right, because they'll get better.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And that was kind of their way they won last
year was you weren't sure which unit would have a
dominant game, whether it was a running game, sometimes it
was a passing game. Sometimes you know, they got after
it defensively. And now with Carter and Jalen and Jordan Davis,
who we talked about on the Wednesday show, you missed it, Mark,
(10:13):
it was great.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, have you have you caught up yet?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
For anyone that listened to the previous show, Dan asked
you if you were going to listen to the Wednesday show. Uh,
it's only been what five hours since I last saw you?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Mark? Has not been that long. Have you listened to
it since?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No? Because it's like my thought was you know when
I after we get done with this and like, I
guess our version.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Of our weekend begins.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What would I do with my you know, the sweet
spot of my week, my weekend, other than to listen
back on a show that I missed and hear what
you and Dan had to say when you were well, the.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Week hadn't started, you still had this show to do
with me.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well, I'm saying, after this, that's when I that's like,
that's that you know, you know I'll find out.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
No, I won't blame you. I never listened to our shows.
And Dan, I don't know if he looks down on us.
I think you're the same. I wasn't always this way.
But I can't do it. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It's just we do it. We do it enough.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Our life is inside the show. We're rarely outside the show.
It feels like at this point, right.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think people don't realize we spend six or seven
hours together today already. So like the idea that i'd
go listen to, I mean, I it's not the you know,
of course I want to.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
It's a lure and I look to it at some point.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Well, this was a long segue, or you know little
dancer around the playground to bring up that h we
did talk about Jalen Carter Jordan Davis that there's just
gonna be a problem I think together. In Jordan Davis,
it was a little quieter in week one, but he
had what was the best game of his career against
the Patriots and these two guys, and I know Carter
like his stats weren't huge tonight. Jordan Davis though, gets
(11:43):
his second sack, He makes a couple of plays you mentioned.
Fletcher Cox Josh Sweat has had two nice weeks. You
just like don't know who's gonna pop up in a
given week. But those those two young guys are very exciting.
And for the Vikings you mentioned the injuries. They're also
not good on the interior or their line. They haven't been,
and they've just got a lot of a lot of
(12:05):
papering over to do where it makes you feel like, yeah,
you have a nice passing game, but like, what's the
ceiling here. The ceiling is is just trying to fight
for this division and now you're fighting out of a hole.
You got the Chargers next week, and that's a cornered
animal game.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
No, that's I mean their schedules rough.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And the one thing I do feel hopeful about is
I just I see a different defense than last year.
I really think Brian Flores frustrated Jalen Hurts tonight and
frustrated that offense out of the gate, and it's like,
I just think you're gonna get him more creative competence
scheme week to week. The players love him. I just
(12:43):
you know, I think they're they're undermanned. I mean, Daniel Hunter, though,
three sacks night, incredible performance, it's just that you don't
have that many Daniel Hunters. You don't have that many stars,
and it's like you're working with a young secondary.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
But Flores man, he he. I just think he's a
head coach tucked away for the last couple of years
and a coordinator position.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I think it might be right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
They're starting this undrafted rookie Ivan Pace at middle linebacker,
and I don't know, I don't know if it was him,
I would have to look at it. But you know,
they they were just getting pushed around. Their defensive tackles
aren't aren't really that good on paper and not good
on the field the first two weeks and they were
just getting pushed around by a mean defensive line. Then again, like, yeah,
(13:21):
football comes down to luck. There were five fumbles in
this game, Mark, do you know who recovered how many
of each? You know how many who recovered the fumbles?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, the Eagles every time.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Five fumbles, five the ball was on the ground five times.
The Vikings did not get the ball one of those times.
And it's it's silly to like point it totally to
that because the Vikings were the ones that were coughing
it up that the Eagles forced them with good plays
four of those five times. But you want to get
a little bit of a break, and they didn't get
any of those balls, and they didn't get the ball
(13:55):
when they forced it, as you mentioned on the Eagles
kick return early in the game.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Either, well I would also, I mean part of that
is watching the way this Eagles defense plays and they've
had a coordinator switch and it you know, it seems
to be going fine. But like it's a strip by
Rashaun Evans, it is a strip by Avante Maddox. You
have the Jefferson one, which was I agree with you
that penalty is annoying. But guys like Nicholas Moreau, who
was in there for Nakobe Dean like recovered one of them.
(14:20):
It's like, this is the way the Eagles play, and
like they're aggressive, and I think that they they frustrated
the Vikings, and it's like I cannot on the reverse
side of what we saw on the ground from the Eagles.
It's like the Vikings rushed the ball for twenty eight
yards off nine carries. They had like thirty four yards
a week ago. It's like you're putting a lot of
weight on your passing game. I know that they're already
(14:43):
more pass oriented, but like there's no balance here, and
like I think that's got a correct itself because they
can't Like look at the time of possession of this,
which we didn't really talk about, I think you said
they had was it forty plus minutes? Like you can't
win games like that unless you're gonna, you know, securely
score every time. And so you can't turn the ball
over four times, have the ball for about twenty minutes,
rush for about twenty eight yards and expect to win
(15:05):
an NFL.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Game, Right, that's all fair points. Jefferson goes over one
fifty for a second straight game. I mean, if you
drafted him in a PPR league. You've gotten ten for
one to fifty each game. Despite him coming up short
of that touchdown, Addison has another long touchdown, a sixty
two yard touchdown this time. I mean he was a
(15:27):
fine Hockinson gets a couple scores. It's like they're lighting
up the numbers. It's a very Kirk Cousins start to
the season. He has over seven hundred yards, he has
six touchdowns, and they're zero and two and it hasn't
felt that good. But he is a good quarterback. Like
he's He's been more consistent than Jalen Hurts has through
(15:47):
through two weeks. But it doesn't really matter that they're
h and two.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Are you at all concerned about what we've seen from
Jalen Hurts at this point?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I think they are gonna regress a little bit, and
so the answer would be no, I'm not concerned, but
I think they're gonna have to manage their way through this.
AJ Brown was getting pretty fired up on the sidelines
at one point. I'm not sure what that was about.
He only had four for twenty nine. He had one
touchdown late after that that got called back by penalty,
and then another one that looked like it might have
been a touchdown, and they didn't call a penalty on
(16:22):
the Vikings when it appeared they pulled his arm down.
So I think it's gonna be tricky to keep everyone happy.
And the running game for Hurtz hasn't really been working either.
The short yardage is working, but they tried to have
him run around the edge a handful of times. He
ends up going twelve for thirty five yards. And so
that's two straight games where like some of the same
(16:43):
things aren't working, and you do wonder if teams are
taking away their bread and butter and they're gonna have
to adjust, So that'll be a challenge for.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I think that's what Flores effectively did tonight and said,
you gotta beat us a different way. I mean I do, though,
I when I look at the NFC, I love teams
like an Eagles team like this, where you've not played
even nearly at the level we think you can, you're
still to and o versus the Viking Seamer. It's like
you're you're doing some good things, but you're oh and two.
I just I hate starting out oh and two. It's
(17:12):
just a disaster. And like their schedule's rough, but like
the Eagles have been kind of a lesser sleepy version
of themselves, and here they are.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
They're undefeated.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You can just compare this to the primetime game they
had against the Vikings a year ago at this time,
where they ran rough shot over. When Dan was talking
about this game, that's one of the reasons he and
I very tepidly locked.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
This game up.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I guess I'm ashamed. I'm actually not going to do
this again. There we go double lock it up? You
mean the double sound because I jumped on I was
just like, oh, that's lockable. I guess I should do that.
That just seems too too nice. So yeah, we did it,
and I truly am ashamed. If Nick Westling is out
there listening to this after he stood up like a
(18:00):
true hero, an American hero and pick the Jets to
win this week, I will have to come with a
more courageous lock a week from now. But I'll take it, because,
like the Eagles, I haven't felt great about my picks,
but I'm two and hour, so I'll move forward.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
There's courage and there's total looniness and tom foolery, and
I'm not sure which which territory he lives in.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
But I found it to be at least you know,
he's a showman. Greg.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
He is all right, we're gonna we're gonna wrap this
up soon. But before we go, just one a couple
more very quick things, which is like, uh, Eagles fans
who are like grumbling and booing when your team is
up three nothing at the end of the first quarter,
come come back to us. Let's come down a little,
Eagles fans, Like you're you're winning in a game and
(18:47):
it's the first quarter and you're one to oh and
you had a juggernaut last year and and you're like
kind of booing ish Jalen Hurts and what was going
on that that bothered me? And then did you see
the shots of U of Raj, you know, our our
boss up in the up in the luxury box with
with Michael Vick. And I was just thinking, wow, like
if if you had seen that picture, you know, when
(19:09):
Michael Vick was in jail for dog fighting and everything
and and everything that came through that.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And I remember when.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Andy Reid, you know, welcomed it into Philadelphia, like, man,
that was a story if you covered it. And I
was back then at PFT, like it would have been
hard to imagine when all of that was happening. To
see Michael Vick up in the like owner's box with
Roger Goodell on a primetime game fifteen years later.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah, it's a strange sight.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It makes you wonder who he'll be hanging out with
fifteen years from now if he's still doing that, you know, TBD.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Wait Roger, Yeah, Well yeah, I mean, and I think
it's great.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I think Michael Vick has.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Shown a path of how to own something where you
make big mistake and has has done it the right
way the whole time, and it seems seems to have
been a great guy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I don't know. That just struck me watching that game.
Time changes all.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I mean, we're gonna be old by the time this
podcast end, or at least our podcast. I mean just today, Mark,
We've spent so much time together. I think I think
it's been enough. Are you Are you done?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah? But that dages me, so you know, I can
rely use more.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Are you Are you gonna be like aj Brown, like
yelling and screaming on the sideline you didn't get enough
PT tonight or something.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
No, I've done. I'm fine, all right, we got fine
in the end, and so will you.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Uh, it is so hot in this garage. I'm now
taping from the new home set up. I don't know
if we put these shows on YouTube, but if we do,
you can.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Check it out.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
But it's uh, it's a problem because I close the windows.
I don't want to like be too loud for the
people next door and whatnot. But it's a it's a
it's a hot, hot bath in here.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I don't know, a hot house. What do you call it?
I don't know. I'm just rambling now.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I'm in the same boat I'm in, like a U
a seventh story the windowless room that could feels like
there's four kerosene heaters on it here.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
So I understand.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I think like your neighbors like free analysis, like I
think they might, you know, enjoy fair.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You know it's fair.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
They got the good stuff tonight. The Eagles running game
did too. They moved to two and zero. We move
on to the rest of the week too, Slate on
Sunday with the Big Time Recap Show. If you haven't
signed up for NFL Plus, you know you can get
I had a friend asked me like, how do you
get red zone now? And I was like, that get
NFL Plus. That was the answer that he just couldn't
(21:34):
figure it out. He's like, where's red zone now? He's
not a smart man. It's NFL Plus. But you could
You could also check out our Thursday taping which was
completely goofy, which should be up Thursday night on NFL
Plus until then for Mark Sessler, for Big Funk, Randy Chavez,
(21:55):
and it's Katsuki. How do you go ahead and nuh
see the call
Second in goal. Are they gonna push him in? They're
lined up to do that. Yeah. In there touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Week two, we've seen a forced fumble on the punt,
the sixty one yard plunking field goal.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Cousins loses the ball and it's picked up and down
of the seventy yard line. Go the Eagles. Fletcher Cocks,
you have to win, Envy sexy.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What can I tell you?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
To the outside and then to the inside touchdown Swift.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
That about sums it up. Abut push touchdown, a fumble
by the Vikings. There were a lot of those, and
a DeAndre Swift touchdown to cap it off a wild
one on Thursday Night Football, thirty four to twenty eight,
Eagles O the Vikings. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in
(01:04):
the Virtual Heroes room with Mark Sessler.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Dan sitting this one out.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We're gonna have a rotation on Thursday Night, and that
just gives us more to talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Mark, there was there was a lot of weird stuff
in this game.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I just you know, I think there's been this
theme to the early season where some of these high
powered offenses and offenses in general have been kind of
finding themselves to some degree, and it's like both of
these quarterbacks at haveltime and were struggling to some point,
and like, I but what I love about what the
Eagles did was I thought they kind of finessed and
(01:37):
pushed and worked their way out of a corner and
they were like, we're just gonna run the ball, and like,
you know what kind of football I like, Greg, And
like when I see what came out of this game
where they ran the ball forty eight times for two
hundred and fifty nine yards, that to me is just
like we're gonna do what works. And like, I you know,
I think, like on the flip side of this is
(01:59):
that Brian Flores has this Vikings defense. I think we
expected there to be an uptick. They gave Jalen Hurts
and the Eagles some problems early, and I think they
kind of took away the deep pass and they kind
of forced them to do something different.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
The Eagles responded.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And then of course we've got the situation with the
fact that if you're the Vikings and you're coming off
a season where you were eleven to zero one score games,
you can't be turning the ball over four times like
they really had a chance they should have won this game.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
They flat out should have.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Won it because they've got the they have enough talent
on offense. They had some big plays down the stretch,
but those the turnovers and especially the Justin Jefferson won
the fumble through the end zone, it just handled the
game away to Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, we'll get to all of it.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
It is like so much happened, it's sort of dizzying
to even know where to start. But you I feel
like we'll start with Swift, who had twenty eight carries
for one hundred and seventy five yards and a touchdown.
And you mentioned the total rushing aards it was a
two fifty nine. They ended up with thirty nine minutes
(03:04):
time of possession. And that's why I went back and
forth thinking on some level, you're right, Mark as someone
who locked up the Eagles and was watching this and
just seeing like how many chances of the Vikings have,
was like, man, should the Eagles even be winning this game?
But then you do look at the final numbers, and
when you have the ball for forty minutes and you
can run the ball, that just purposefully after they basically
(03:27):
realized this was gonna be their cheat code for the night.
Then I think you got to say, Okay, I guess
they do deserve to win because the Vikings could not
stop them in key parts. I thought of you, Mark
when DeAndre Swift. I thought of two things during this
drive at the end of the first half. I think
you know what I'm talking about, that that's really where
the game changed. And I was thinking of Dan Campbell
and the Lions coaching staff if they happen to be
(03:48):
watching this game somewhere, and all the frustrations they had
with DeAndre Swift back when he was lying in training
camp and in that hard knocks and.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Thinking, man, where was this guy?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Because he was just putting his foot in the and
going north south like tough running throughout the game. It
was really amazing. After he only had a couple carries
in the first game.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, I mean, he had the first nine carries of
the game. And there's no Kenneth Gainwell tonight, so it
was like he was their chosen one. And there's this
drive that you're talking about. It's sixteen plays with thirteen rushes,
and to me, it's just like the Eagles saying we're
gonna take everything we can. It was eight plus minutes.
They I also think as an asterisk that we saw one.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Of the weirder drives that we'll ever see. Later in
the game.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
They had a fifteen play forty nine yard drive that
took up nine minutes and wound up in an Eagle's punt.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
So there's a strange night. But when you done.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
But like most of the plays in both of those
drives were just it felt like the same play over
and over to Swift and he was always finding room
and just hitting that gap.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Absolutely, and I think that they you know, I think
that we're still waiting for Jalen Hurts to kind of
find his way, but he did hook up down the
aj Brown pass the DeVante Smith early on.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
There we stall a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
But like I do think this Eagles offense compared to
the electric nature of what they were right out of
the gate last year, it's like they are trying to
figure out who they are. But when if you can
do this on the ground, I think you can win
most matchups. I mean, their defensive line dominated, their offensive
line dominated, and yes, the Vikings do what the Vikings do,
but like, like I'm just watching Jalen Carter, I'm like
(05:28):
this front office just keeps adding massive pieces, and like,
I trust them. They're two and zero when they've not
played very well.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Right, that's the thing where if you just look at
the box score, you see the score, it's thirty four
to twenty eight. I don't think you'd really have the
same feeling that the Eagles passing game is so disjointed
and their pass defense, at least in the secondary, has
been giving up some big plays. I mean, Kirk Kirk
Cousins ended up throwing for three sixty four in this game.
(05:56):
Mac Jones had found a lot of open receivers that
were open receivers.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
In this game. But the problem for Cousins is that
he gets hit so much. I mean, you mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The Eagles had ten quarterback hits in this game, and
I think it was last week the Bucks had nine.
So that's nineteen times Cousins has been hit in the
last two weeks, which I don't even.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Need to look it up.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
That would be a record setting pace if you got
hit nine to ten times every week. So that's just
like a tough way to win. They didn't have a
running game, And you mentioned the fumbles. Let's go over
the sequence actually because at the end of the first half,
because it was absolutely insane after that drive. And for
listeners who didn't watch the game. We know a lot
of UK listeners, a lot of US listers wake up,
(06:38):
they didn't see the game. They listened to this first thing.
They don't want spoilers. Even in the title. We try
to be good about that. It was seven to three
Vikings with three minutes left in the first half, Am
I right about that? Like three and a half minutes
left in the first half. Vikings get the ball back
and they almost score right back until that play you
mentioned where Justin Jefferson is reaching for the pylon on
(07:01):
what would have been a long score and he fumbles
over the pylon. Dumbest rule in sports. Eagles get the
ball back on the twenty. They actually look like they're
giving up. They start running the ball on their first
two downs, but they pick up so many yards that
they end up being in position to kick a sixty
one yard field goal for Elliott. So that's a ten
point swing. At the end of the first half, the
(07:22):
Vikings should have been ahead by a field goal. Instead
they're down by six. The Vikings get the ball back
to start the second half, immediately gets stripsacked, Eagles immediately score,
Eagles get the ball back quickly again, and immediately have
a long touchdown to DeVante Smith. So you add it
all up, and the Eagles scored twenty points in about
(07:42):
seven minutes of game time, between the defense being explosive,
between that Jefferson and between DeVante Smith just making more
and more big plays. I know I'm going on, but
it was like just so much of an avalanche at once.
So that's what kind of what the Eagles can do,
and they have done in the past, where they can
look bad for three quarters and they can just kick
(08:02):
your ass for about ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think it's the dominance on on both sides of
the line, like the Fletcher Cox uh situation right there.
I mean you I the Vikings were a little snake
bit tonight, like because they also had Brandon Powell at
a big punt return he stripped Alexander Madison, who sorry,
you're not Dalvin Cook so far out of the gate
like that. Their run game in general has been heard.
(08:24):
I also think that a big part of tonight, if
you dig down into it, is the fact that Christian
darisaw uh Udo like both gone you're on your third
left tackle with David Quisenberry, and it's just like, we've
got problems there. And it's like Cousins that some of
the contact the Cousins felt came off of that. I
think that affected the run game, you know, and they
(08:46):
still almost won. I mean that's a very Vikings thing
to do in general, but it it's I don't lean
on this thing about, you know, the regression from last
year as much, except that's exactly what's happened in two games.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But they're one score games, although this didn't quite feel
like one score game. You know, the Vikings were chasing
it and couldn't get the defensive stop in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Right, and they have seven they have seven turnovers in
two games. And it's like, if you're gonna be one
of these teams that rides the edge, you need these
things to go in your direction. And like I think
tonight they just they they had a real chance because
you caught an Eagles team that's still kind of warming
up and they got in their own way. And it's
like to me, like, I'm not sure the Vikings are
(09:25):
anything more than a B B plus.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Team, but you fought.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I think you found a B minus B version of
what the Eagles ultimately will be, except I'm saying that,
and they also ran the ball.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
For two hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I think that's we expect them to be so naturally
proficient in every aspect of offense. It's like, well, they
certainly were tonight, and they they creatively found their way
out of a tough spot. And it's like, it just
makes me trust them all the more going on.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Right, because they'll get better.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And that was kind of their way they won last
year was you weren't sure which unit would have a
dominant game, whether it was a running game, sometimes it
was a passing game. Sometimes you know, they got after
it defensively. And now with Carter and Jalen and Jordan Davis,
who we talked about on the Wednesday show, you missed it, Mark,
(10:13):
it was great.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I mean, have you have you caught up yet?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
For anyone that listened to the previous show, Dan asked
you if you were going to listen to the Wednesday show. Uh,
it's only been what five hours since I last saw you?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Mark? Has not been that long. Have you listened to
it since?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No? Because it's like my thought was you know when
I after we get done with this and like, I
guess our version.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Of our weekend begins.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What would I do with my you know, the sweet
spot of my week, my weekend, other than to listen
back on a show that I missed and hear what
you and Dan had to say when you were well, the.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Week hadn't started, you still had this show to do
with me.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well, I'm saying, after this, that's when I that's like,
that's that you know, you know I'll find out.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
No, I won't blame you. I never listened to our shows.
And Dan, I don't know if he looks down on us.
I think you're the same. I wasn't always this way.
But I can't do it. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
It's just we do it. We do it enough.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Our life is inside the show. We're rarely outside the show.
It feels like at this point, right.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think people don't realize we spend six or seven
hours together today already. So like the idea that i'd
go listen to, I mean, I it's not the you know,
of course I want to.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
It's a lure and I look to it at some point.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Well, this was a long segue, or you know little
dancer around the playground to bring up that h we
did talk about Jalen Carter Jordan Davis that there's just
gonna be a problem I think together. In Jordan Davis,
it was a little quieter in week one, but he
had what was the best game of his career against
the Patriots and these two guys, and I know Carter
like his stats weren't huge tonight. Jordan Davis though, gets
(11:43):
his second sack, He makes a couple of plays you mentioned.
Fletcher Cox Josh Sweat has had two nice weeks. You
just like don't know who's gonna pop up in a
given week. But those those two young guys are very exciting.
And for the Vikings you mentioned the injuries. They're also
not good on the interior or their line. They haven't been,
and they've just got a lot of a lot of
(12:05):
papering over to do where it makes you feel like, yeah,
you have a nice passing game, but like, what's the
ceiling here. The ceiling is is just trying to fight
for this division and now you're fighting out of a hole.
You got the Chargers next week, and that's a cornered
animal game.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
No, that's I mean their schedules rough.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And the one thing I do feel hopeful about is
I just I see a different defense than last year.
I really think Brian Flores frustrated Jalen Hurts tonight and
frustrated that offense out of the gate, and it's like,
I just think you're gonna get him more creative competence
scheme week to week. The players love him. I just
(12:43):
you know, I think they're they're undermanned. I mean, Daniel Hunter, though,
three sacks night, incredible performance, it's just that you don't
have that many Daniel Hunters. You don't have that many stars,
and it's like you're working with a young secondary.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
But Flores man, he he. I just think he's a
head coach tucked away for the last couple of years
and a coordinator position.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I think it might be right.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
They're starting this undrafted rookie Ivan Pace at middle linebacker,
and I don't know, I don't know if it was him,
I would have to look at it. But you know,
they they were just getting pushed around. Their defensive tackles
aren't aren't really that good on paper and not good
on the field the first two weeks and they were
just getting pushed around by a mean defensive line. Then again, like, yeah,
(13:21):
football comes down to luck. There were five fumbles in
this game, Mark, do you know who recovered how many
of each? You know how many who recovered the fumbles?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, the Eagles every time.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Five fumbles, five the ball was on the ground five times.
The Vikings did not get the ball one of those times.
And it's it's silly to like point it totally to
that because the Vikings were the ones that were coughing
it up that the Eagles forced them with good plays
four of those five times. But you want to get
a little bit of a break, and they didn't get
any of those balls, and they didn't get the ball
(13:55):
when they forced it, as you mentioned on the Eagles
kick return early in the game.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Either, well I would also, I mean part of that
is watching the way this Eagles defense plays and they've
had a coordinator switch and it you know, it seems
to be going fine. But like it's a strip by
Rashaun Evans, it is a strip by Avante Maddox. You
have the Jefferson one, which was I agree with you
that penalty is annoying. But guys like Nicholas Moreau, who
was in there for Nakobe Dean like recovered one of them.
(14:20):
It's like, this is the way the Eagles play, and
like they're aggressive, and I think that they they frustrated
the Vikings, and it's like I cannot on the reverse
side of what we saw on the ground from the Eagles.
It's like the Vikings rushed the ball for twenty eight
yards off nine carries. They had like thirty four yards
a week ago. It's like you're putting a lot of
weight on your passing game. I know that they're already
(14:43):
more pass oriented, but like there's no balance here, and
like I think that's got a correct itself because they
can't Like look at the time of possession of this,
which we didn't really talk about, I think you said
they had was it forty plus minutes? Like you can't
win games like that unless you're gonna, you know, securely
score every time. And so you can't turn the ball
over four times, have the ball for about twenty minutes,
rush for about twenty eight yards and expect to win
(15:05):
an NFL.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Game, Right, that's all fair points. Jefferson goes over one
fifty for a second straight game. I mean, if you
drafted him in a PPR league. You've gotten ten for
one to fifty each game. Despite him coming up short
of that touchdown, Addison has another long touchdown, a sixty
two yard touchdown this time. I mean he was a
(15:27):
fine Hockinson gets a couple scores. It's like they're lighting
up the numbers. It's a very Kirk Cousins start to
the season. He has over seven hundred yards, he has
six touchdowns, and they're zero and two and it hasn't
felt that good. But he is a good quarterback. Like
he's He's been more consistent than Jalen Hurts has through
(15:47):
through two weeks. But it doesn't really matter that they're
h and two.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Are you at all concerned about what we've seen from
Jalen Hurts at this point?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
I think they are gonna regress a little bit, and
so the answer would be no, I'm not concerned, but
I think they're gonna have to manage their way through this.
AJ Brown was getting pretty fired up on the sidelines
at one point. I'm not sure what that was about.
He only had four for twenty nine. He had one
touchdown late after that that got called back by penalty,
and then another one that looked like it might have
been a touchdown, and they didn't call a penalty on
(16:22):
the Vikings when it appeared they pulled his arm down.
So I think it's gonna be tricky to keep everyone happy.
And the running game for Hurtz hasn't really been working either.
The short yardage is working, but they tried to have
him run around the edge a handful of times. He
ends up going twelve for thirty five yards. And so
that's two straight games where like some of the same
(16:43):
things aren't working, and you do wonder if teams are
taking away their bread and butter and they're gonna have
to adjust, So that'll be a challenge for.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I think that's what Flores effectively did tonight and said,
you gotta beat us a different way. I mean I do, though,
I when I look at the NFC, I love teams
like an Eagles team like this, where you've not played
even nearly at the level we think you can, you're
still to and o versus the Viking Seamer. It's like
you're you're doing some good things, but you're oh and two.
I just I hate starting out oh and two. It's
(17:12):
just a disaster. And like their schedule's rough, but like
the Eagles have been kind of a lesser sleepy version
of themselves, and here they are.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
They're undefeated.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You can just compare this to the primetime game they
had against the Vikings a year ago at this time,
where they ran rough shot over. When Dan was talking
about this game, that's one of the reasons he and
I very tepidly locked.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
This game up.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I guess I'm ashamed. I'm actually not going to do
this again. There we go double lock it up? You
mean the double sound because I jumped on I was
just like, oh, that's lockable. I guess I should do that.
That just seems too too nice. So yeah, we did it,
and I truly am ashamed. If Nick Westling is out
there listening to this after he stood up like a
(18:00):
true hero, an American hero and pick the Jets to
win this week, I will have to come with a
more courageous lock a week from now. But I'll take it, because,
like the Eagles, I haven't felt great about my picks,
but I'm two and hour, so I'll move forward.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
There's courage and there's total looniness and tom foolery, and
I'm not sure which which territory he lives in.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
But I found it to be at least you know,
he's a showman. Greg.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
He is all right, we're gonna we're gonna wrap this
up soon. But before we go, just one a couple
more very quick things, which is like, uh, Eagles fans
who are like grumbling and booing when your team is
up three nothing at the end of the first quarter,
come come back to us. Let's come down a little,
Eagles fans, Like you're you're winning in a game and
(18:47):
it's the first quarter and you're one to oh and
you had a juggernaut last year and and you're like
kind of booing ish Jalen Hurts and what was going
on that that bothered me? And then did you see
the shots of U of Raj, you know, our our
boss up in the up in the luxury box with
with Michael Vick. And I was just thinking, wow, like
if if you had seen that picture, you know, when
(19:09):
Michael Vick was in jail for dog fighting and everything
and and everything that came through that.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And I remember when.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Andy Reid, you know, welcomed it into Philadelphia, like, man,
that was a story if you covered it. And I
was back then at PFT, like it would have been
hard to imagine when all of that was happening. To
see Michael Vick up in the like owner's box with
Roger Goodell on a primetime game fifteen years later.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah, it's a strange sight.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It makes you wonder who he'll be hanging out with
fifteen years from now if he's still doing that, you know, TBD.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Wait Roger, Yeah, Well yeah, I mean, and I think
it's great.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I think Michael Vick has.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Shown a path of how to own something where you
make big mistake and has has done it the right
way the whole time, and it seems seems to have
been a great guy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I don't know. That just struck me watching that game.
Time changes all.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I mean, we're gonna be old by the time this
podcast end, or at least our podcast. I mean just today, Mark,
We've spent so much time together. I think I think
it's been enough. Are you Are you done?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah? But that dages me, so you know, I can
rely use more.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Are you Are you gonna be like aj Brown, like
yelling and screaming on the sideline you didn't get enough
PT tonight or something.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
No, I've done. I'm fine, all right, we got fine
in the end, and so will you.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I'm excited.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Uh, it is so hot in this garage. I'm now
taping from the new home set up. I don't know
if we put these shows on YouTube, but if we do,
you can.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Check it out.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
But it's uh, it's a problem because I close the windows.
I don't want to like be too loud for the
people next door and whatnot. But it's a it's a
it's a hot, hot bath in here.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I don't know, a hot house. What do you call it?
I don't know. I'm just rambling now.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I'm in the same boat I'm in, like a U
a seventh story the windowless room that could feels like
there's four kerosene heaters on it here.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
So I understand.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I think like your neighbors like free analysis, like I
think they might, you know, enjoy fair.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
You know it's fair.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
They got the good stuff tonight. The Eagles running game
did too. They moved to two and zero. We move
on to the rest of the week too, Slate on
Sunday with the Big Time Recap Show. If you haven't
signed up for NFL Plus, you know you can get
I had a friend asked me like, how do you
get red zone now? And I was like, that get
NFL Plus. That was the answer that he just couldn't
(21:34):
figure it out. He's like, where's red zone now? He's
not a smart man. It's NFL Plus. But you could
You could also check out our Thursday taping which was
completely goofy, which should be up Thursday night on NFL
Plus until then for Mark Sessler, for Big Funk, Randy Chavez,
(21:55):
and it's Katsuki. How do you go ahead and nuh
see the call
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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