The Eagles are the Bad Good Team

The Eagles are the Bad Good Team

GuyWhoLikesSport

I watched the new Brad Pitt and George Clooney vehicle Wolfs the other night.

I liked it. I like Brad and George. I like hanging out with super charismatic movie stars whenever I can, particularly given I have no idea how many more times Rusty and Danny Ocean will actually share the screen together again.

But I’m under no illusions.

This was not a great film.

It might not have even been a good film.

It’s just that, with the two eminently watchable stars at the centre of it, I had a good time sitting down to watch it.

Brad and George’s floor is higher than a lot of lesser peoples’ ceilings, because of their talent and skill to elevate mediocre into watchable.

That’s the Eagles of 2024.

You look at the dudes and you see an elite roster: Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata (who is on IR).

I mean, the plays that Saquon

and Smith

had against Jacksonville felt legitimately impossible. Only absolute freak shows can make those plays.

Then let’s move to defence: Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Cooper DeJean, CJ Gardner-Johnson, Darius Slay, Bryce Huff, Quinyon Mitchell.

There are dudes everywhere. It’s like a podcasting convention.

And then you look at the co-ordinators.

You have the wunderkind Kellen Moore on the offensive side of the ball, who seems to be finding his groove a bit with his talented in some areas but limited at throwing over the middle of the field quarterback.

On the other side you have The Godfather of the two-high revolution on the defensive side of the ball, Vic Fangio.

Over the last month of the season, under the two star co-ordinators and with the star players, both units have lifted.

Since week four, the Birds are seventh in total offensive EPA/play and are clearly the best team in rushing EPA. While they’re mediocre at dropback success rate, sitting 15th, they’re 8th in dropback EPA.

That’s a team that knows its strengths is on the ground with Barkley and Hurts, but also knows they have the dudes on the outside to win and a quarterback who will chuck a go-ball.

It’s the football equivalent of putting the camera on Al Pacino’s face while Kay is telling him she got an abortion.

Don’t do too much. Just let your stars cook.

And they’re leaning more into the formula. In the Eagles win against the Jags last week, Hurts hit a career high four passes of over 20 air yards even when his best “go get it” receiver, AJ Brown, left the game at half-time.

They also attempted just four passes over the middle, where Hurts went 1/4.

They’re also coming into their own defensively after a shaky start to the year. They’re ninth best by defensive EPA/play since week four, and seventh against the pass while sitting thirteenth in rushing EPA.

That’s as Fangio as it gets. They’re fifth best at opponents yards per play and fifth best at opponent net yards per attempt while sitting seventh in total rushing yards allowed.

The Birds have also sent the season’s fifth fewest blitzes and have a poor pressure rate, sitting 24th.

The two-high defence wants to stop offences from generating explosive passing plays at the expense of showing opposing favourable offences run looks. That’s exactly what Fangio’s Birds are doing.

Ideally, Fangio wouldn’t have to blitz to get pressure because his guys can win up front. The Eagles defensive line is not currently doing that, despite having the highly drafted pair of Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter on the interior.

Outside of that, they’re doing the Fangio thing.

So, why are they the bad good team?

Who haven’t I mentioned? I’ve mentioned their star players. I’ve mentioned their co-ordinators.

I have not mentioned their head coach, Nick Sirianni.

Sirianni is the guy in Office Space who explains his job to the Bobs and they ask him “so what would you say you do here”.

Sirianni doesn’t call offensive or defensive plays.

This is also not a Belichick or Harbaugh situation where he’s intimately involved in every meeting, given Sirianni and Jalen Hurts couldn’t be in the same room as each other last season.

He seems to have done the Sean McVay in his first year, except instead of outsourcing one side of the ball to an experienced co-ordinator to focus on the other he’s farmed out both.

He’s Telstra. Outsourcing everything.

That leaves Sirianni apparently in charge of game management decisions. Those decisions are not going well.

Against the Jags, Sirianni attempted three two-point conversions all of which failed. My favourite was the first one, where the Eagles scored to make it 16-0. Then Sirianni decided, in his infinite wisdom to go for 2 to make it 18-0 instead of 17-0.

Regardless that’s still a three-score game. By not getting it, you’ve left it at a two-score game.

Sirianni also left points on the board twice, going for it on what would have been 39 and 42 yard field goals and failing both teams, then settling for a 57 yarder later in the game which also missed.

He’s the only guy in history who even next-gen stats is telling to calm down.

Generally I’m pro-aggressiveness, but it got to the point where this was stupid. Sirianni himself kept the Jags in the game, and only a freaky play from Nakobe Dean gave them a win.

Good players made up for bad coaching. Again.

That’s why the Birds are the bad good team.

They are undeniably better than the bad teams. They’re also better than the league’s ever-shrinking middle class.

I think they’d beat Arizona and the Chargers, and they have beaten the Bengals and Packers.

They might even be the second-best team in the NFC through half the season.

But when you enter games against the elite teams like the Lions, the Chiefs, or the Ravens, you have an institutional disadvantage at head coach.

They’re better than the good bad team because they have great players. But those great players aren’t enough to make up for poor decision making and an apparent fetish for leaving points on the field, making the Birds the bad good team.

 

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