Week 9 Winners & Losers

[thebriguy90]

Here we go again! Post your take on the winners and losers from this game.

WINNERS

The Running Backs -  Daaayyyyumm. For a defense that was 2nd overall against the run, the RB's cleaned house! They absolutely demolished this defense. Here are the numbers to back it all up.

	ATT	YDS	TD	LG
J. Ajayi	8	77	1	46T
C. Clement	12	51	2	28
L. Blount	9	37	0	10
W. Smallwood	5	25	0	26

Those are amazing numbers to see from the running game. Ajayi had a great debut. Clement was unstoppable. I am sold that next season he will be the #2 RB behind Ajayi when Blount leaves. He has done nothing but make plays this year. And speaking of Blount, he had some nice runs as well. Smallwood gets his share of credit because with the second string lineman, he made a nice cut-and-run. All said and done....these RB's took a HUGE leap forward from the past few weeks.

Trey Burton/Brent Celek - I won't lie. When I heard Ertz was out, I started thinking that we would have serious issues in this game. I was thankfully proven dead wrong. Burton and Celek combined for 5 receptions, 80 yards and 1 TD. Those are Ertz quality numbers. It's good to see them step up when called upon. Celek has been a cog for us as long as he's been here, and I expect him to retire as a Bird. Hopefully, the Eagles and Burton can work out an affordable deal to keep him here.

Carson Wentz - He had a down game last week, but bounced back with vigor this week. He was dropping dimes in the "no-fly zone" and made them look like a high-school defense. Wentz was money yesterday. As he has been all year.

The Defense - While our offense tore their defense to shreds, our defense did exactly that to their offense. Sure they don't exactly boast a threatening offense, but the fact remains that our defensive front was demolishing their line and making the most of the mistakes. Shutting down the run put the game in the hands of Osweiler, who we all know is not exactly a good QB.

Doug Pederson - He continues to improve his resume as a candidate for Coach of the Year. His game plans may not be perfect coming into the games, but he always makes the tweaks that need to happen to win the game. His decision to pull Ertz at the last second was, in my opinion, a good and responsible call. It's difficult to pull a top playmaker from such an important home game. I respect him for making that call though.

Alshon Jeffery - With Ertz being out, somebody in the receiving corp needed to step up, and Alshon got the message loud and clear. 6 receptions, 84 yds and 2 TD's on the day made it his best day as an Eagle thus far. He continues to improve week by week as he gets more rapport with Wentz. They NEED to resign him at the end of the year. Period.

LOSERS

Chris Harris - Being sour enough to call the Eagles offense a college offense? Okay, that's fine by me. Because that just means your "#1 ranked defense" got schooled by a college offense. Sucks to suck don't it?

Vance Joseph - He was out-coached in every facet of the game. Calling a timeout :30 in was just pitiful. It was nothing but downhill from there.

Brock Osweiler - How does he have a job again?

The Broncos - 51-23....on the same team that beat the Cowboys 42-17? Yea....I'm excited for Sunday Night Football in 2 weeks.

Alright folks. Comment your thoughts, opinions, takes, whatever.

[Jlash]

I missed those Chris Harris comments. Not sure how you could down play an offense that just went up and down the field on you.

[thebriguy90]

1 minute ago, Jlash said:

I missed those Chris Harris comments. Not sure how you could down play an offense that just went up and down the field on you.

Yep. He made the comments during a post game interview with Jordan Palmer. Here's the link:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/11/05/chris-harris-eagles-run-a-college-offense/

To be fair he does call it the best offensive unit they've faced, but I honestly don't get why he has to put the 'college' tag in front of it. Just comes across as demeaning.

[Phire]

3 minutes ago, Jlash said:

I missed those Chris Harris comments. Not sure how you could down play an offense that just went up and down the field on you.

TBH I don't think he meant it to be disparaging. I think he was just describing some of our concepts.

[Phire]

The run pass option for example is straight out of a Penn State offense.

[nlesthought]

Winners:

DougieP/Wentz: Using Denver's aggressiveness against them helped the Eagles offense all day. Whether it was the RPOs/play design or the hard count, they kept the Defense off balance. Something other teams will have to pay attention to. 

Ajayi/Clement: I can see these two being the focal point going forward. 

Defense: Again playing a horrible offense is like having a bye week. Now they get a physical bye week then the real test begins. The bullseye will be on their back, how do they handle this level of success? 4 of the next 5 on the road. 

Losers:

Denver: They may have to trade a key defensive piece or go full tank mode in order to get themselves a QB

Blount: He ran with some burst but didn't finish runs strong, too many times I saw he was stopping his feet before contact. Everyone knows he can't run those outside the tackle runs consistently it means he'll give up those carries to someone else. 

(sort-of)Defense: Not having being tested the last few weeks then going to Dallas could be eye opening.