Pete Amato pondered the team’s Jekyll and Hyde situation. Bill Gelman illuminated a couple of magic numbers. Yours truly questioned the play calling.
These are some of the key points emerging from Why Eagles Why, the weekly combination of blood-pressure pill/couch/fan cave experience contained in a weekly channel. The three of us host the show.
Week 3 Eagles vs Cowboys
Before the 1-1 Philadelphia Eagles visit the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football, the program explored the team’s up-and-down start. Up, as in a 32-6 season-opening win over the Atlanta Falcons. Down, because of the 17-11 setback to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2.
Excerpts from Pete:
“Why do Philadelphia teams continually fool us into thinking they are something they are not?” Pete inquired, adding that he saw two different Eagles teams and two different coaching efforts between Weeks 1 and 2.
Bill made a unique graphic illustration of the number 3. That’s how many points the Eagles scored in the first half of a game they dominated. He mentioned another number, 0, the number of touchdowns they got in the first half after dominating the game.
There was plenty of second-guessing to feed on. That starts with a Jaelen Reagor touchdown called back because he had stepped out of bounds and come back in to catch the pass. It includes the horrific first-and-goal from the San Francisco 1-yard line situation that produced no points.
And nothing even close to a touchdown.
The fourth-down call was the most painful for Eagles fans. They tried a pass play from receiver Greg Ward to quarterback Jalen Hurts. And it fizzled. The play tried to re-create an historic Eagles moment, but failed.
The show could have gotten its name from the Eagles tease-and-not-please first half alone.
Expectations were raised, and then quashed.
Bill analyzed the goal-line fizzle out.
Eagles fans, did you have similar conversations that sounded like this?
“They were clearly overthinking it,” he said of the play calling. “How do you get zero points.? Just stack the line, go over the top, cross the goal line. And why are you bringing in Greg Ward to throw a touchdown pass? It’s one yard. This isn’t the Philly Special. It happened in the Super Bowl; it’s not going to happen again.”
All of us agreed the game changed permanently at that point. The Eagles soon lost their 3-0 lead and the game.
Regarding the Cowboys game, Pete made his case about the rushing attacks for both teams deciding the outcome. When I talked about the Cowboys defense keying a Week 2 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, Bill had a timely statistic about the team’s improvement.
(For bettors, the line has stayed in the Dallas -3.5 to -4 range. To get a comprehensive look at Eagles-Cowboys betting options, check out the piece I have authored for Iggles.com.)
Eagles Cowboys Rivalry
Why Eagles Why, episode 3, contains our favorite moments from the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry. They are unique, and in some cases, personal. Pete and Bill had some excellent recollections to share about games they attended in the rivalry. I took a look at a play that changed the way NFL teams try to reach victory formation.
The show looks ahead to some games we each like this week. Mine is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Los Angeles Rams contest. Pete had observations about the San Francisco 49ers-Green Bay Packers.
Bill maintained his theme for low numbers with the show. Not only the Eagles’ 3 first-half points and zero touchdowns but the matchup between the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons. They have zero wins.
Bill expects a lot of mistakes in this game.
And he will probably be right.
Why Eagles Why covers an Eagles preview of the upcoming game, a sometimes-painful rehashing of the most recent one, and interesting games on the NFL schedule.
We will also monitor the NFC East throughout the season.
We invite you to check it out.
