Clock Control – 27 Immediate Takeaways from Eagles 23, Rams 14

That’s a good W. Any time you can go to the opposite coast and win by two scores, you’ll take it.

Sure, the Birds weren’t great in the red zone, left some points on the board, and probably could have put this one away earlier than they did. But they fell behind in the first half and then pitched a second half shutout, controlling the clock and chewing up the Rams in the process. By the time Matt Stafford got the ball back in the fourth quarter, he was down two scores with a little more than four minutes on the clock.

That’s one of those ancillary things that adds up over the course of the game. The Eagles owned time of possession with about 37 pre-garbage time minutes, converted 72% of their third downs, and committed just three penalties before the final two-minute warning. They allowed only one sack and generally stayed on schedule offensively. That’s enough to erase a -1 turnover margin and give you the opportunity to put enough points on the board, which is exactly what they did in a 23-14 win.

The observations:

 

1) You could hear Eagles fans really well on television. Most of the contingent was positioned behind the Birds bench, and the pops for big Eagle gains were more than audible. The best crowd shot honestly didn’t come until the very end, when Haason Reddick sacked Matt Stafford to put it to bed.

2) For all the talk of Kelly Green this year, the all-whites are great uniforms. The all-whites don’t get enough love.

3) Sua Opeta does the thing where he looks over his shoulder and then sets right before the ball is snapped. Makes you wonder if defensive players can exploit something there and get a sniff of the cadence. Guess not.

4) Dallas Goedert caught four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown on the opening drive. Even if he hadn’t caught another pass the rest of the game, he would have finished with a season high right there. Final line: 8 for 117 and a score.

5) First Rams drive was gross. Mario Goodrich, Nicholas Morrow, Eli Ricks – nobody had anything for Cooper Kupp. LA basically just dinked and dunked and pitched and caught their way down the field with 5 yard ins and outs and the Eagles secondary couldn’t get a sniff. Shades of Jim Schwartz playing the boys 10 yards off.

6) Jalen Hurts looked so much better on the feet. He had a solid run on the first drive and then converted a wild 3rd down on the second drive. He converted again on a 5-wide and did it later again halfway through the third quarter. He had a couple of huge, manly runs to move the chains throughout this game.

7) Hurts threw for 303 and a TD and a pick, though he did sail one for Quez Watkins that would have moved the sticks. One of few misses on the day.

8) That 3rd down conversion from Kenny Gainwell was pretty sick. He vacated the backfield to provide an option, then broke a tackle to just barely get the ball across the line.

9) It looks as though the national media has adopted the “Brotherly Shove” nickname. Works for us.

10) Absolutely hated the fucking 3rd and 2 bubble screen for Quez, but he’s got a lane there to turn upfield and get the first down:

Absolutely brutal. Look at that hole! pic.twitter.com/a4qoFWbYJN

— Pat Gallen (@PatGallenCBS3) October 8, 2023

11) Pretty good coverage by James Bradberry on the touchdown right before halftime. Just a great throw and catch.

12) Obviously the A.J. Brown one-handed grab and horse collar tackle was a massive sequence. Changed the game, didn’t t? It set up the tush push touchdown right before half, when LA was set to start the 3rd quarter with the ball. Interestingly, the Rams decided to get up to the line there and play press man on 3rd and 1, which may have been the correct decision. They just got burned by a great play, but if they got off the field there, we would have been crediting their aggression, and probably asking the Eagles to play the same way if the situation was flipped. The alternative was giving up a super soft cushion and letting the other team work their way into field goal range.

13) Two straight plays where Brown had words for a DB after a play. Both times there were penalties committed against him, so he’s got a right to be aggrieved, but he just has to be careful coming off the taunting penalty flagged against him last weekend.

14) The score right before halftime? That was the best tush push of them all, probably because they could have kicked an easy field goal but decided to ram it down LA throats instead, from more than a yard off the goal line. The most emphatic way to cap off that drive:

A little Brotherly Shove on the last play of the half @JalenHurts

: #PHIvsLAR on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/LxW25sxPWA pic.twitter.com/Xj91T45K9a

— NFL (@NFL) October 8, 2023

15) Louis Riddick deleted this tweet:

Wrong side of history. Would expect nothing less from a Pitt guy. It’s weird though, because the last time the Pitt Panthers were relevant was the leather helmet era, so you’d think Riddick would appreciate old school, smash mouth football.

16) The refs with a bad facemask call on a 3rd and 26 running play. Terrible, barfy miss. Credit to the defense for recovering from that, getting the stop, and forcing the punt.

17) Jalen Carter’s second sack was great, just totally rag dolled Matt Stafford and threw him to the ground. I watched that one a couple of times in a row.

18) Brown definitely had Witherspoon beat on that Hurts interception. Not sure if Hurts was expecting Brown to attack the pylon, and threw that pass to the back shoulder. Didn’t seem like they were on the same page there, unless it was a gross underthrow, which seems unlikely.

19) Everybody wanted to make a big deal about the Sirianni and Hurts argument after the pick, but I’m more focused on Brian Johnson popping up here in the background and making this face:

Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts having intense conversation after #JalenHurts INT pic.twitter.com/vsQu4czImB

— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) October 8, 2023

lol

20) Get Nicholas Morrow Freddie Mitchell’s hands.

21) I thought D’Andre Swift had some great moments of shiftiness and tenacity that resulted in extra yards. Not just the huge 3rd down in the fourth quarter, but multiple plays before that where he was able to scratch out an extra 2-3.

22) Hurts had not one, but two guys open on that 3rd down that he threw to a covered DeVonta Smith. The broadcast showed Watkins open in the end zone, but Gainwell was also there for a dump off that would have probably gone for a score.

23) LA’s punter is awesome We need a guy like that.

24) Aaron Donald did two things in this game – jack and shit. O line did a great job.

25) Really clean game from the Birds. Just three penalties before Lane Johnson got popped for holding when the game was in the bag. It got a little janky with some procedural stuff in the 4th, but no bozo plays that put them behind the sticks. Nothing stupid.

26) Missed opportunities from LA’s standpoint. Stafford missed a deep post that would have gone for a touchdown, then overthrew Cooper Kupp a couple of plays later. They also started their final drive with an mmmmmmm.. drop. Could have been a different story if they were more on point in the passing game.

27) Sorry if this column wasn’t as good as the others. I wrote it while watching a toddler. Go Birds, go Phillies.

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