In their Divisional Round win over the Los Angeles Rams, the Philadelphia Eagles played 63 snaps on offense and 71 on defense. Let’s just get right to the snap counts, and some notes.
Quarterback
• 63 snaps: Jalen Hurts
Notes: Hurts is playing some pretty crappy quarterback as a passer right now. He dropped back to pass 27 times and the Eagles had 65 net passing yards. That’s 2.4 yards per dropback. It’s extremely hard to win in the NFL with that kind of passing inefficiency, but the Eagles have survived and advanced because Saquon Barkley is a superhero and the defense has produced six turnovers so far in the playoffs.
Hurts is holding onto the ball for an eternity, he’s not making quick decisions under pressure like throwing the ball away, and his timing with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith just seems to be way off at the moment (even before the snow), which shouldn’t be happening in the 19th game of the season.
Like, we can all acknowledge what we’re seeing, right?
That said, the Eagles still pretty badly need Hurts. In the Eagles’ loss to the Commanders Week 16, after Hurts got knocked out of the game the Commanders quickly realized, “Oh hey, we don’t have to pay any attention to Kenny Pickett on these zone reads,” and they completely shut down Saquon Barkley thereafter.
The Eagles need a healthy, able-to-run Hurts next weekend. It is crucial for the run game for Hurts to be able to occupy a defender even when just handing off, and give Barkley more favorable numbers against opposing defensive fronts. If Hurts can’t run, or the Commanders identify that he is hobbled, that could be devastating for the Eagles’ offense.
Running back
• 57 snaps: Saquon Barkley
• 6 snaps: Kenny Gainwell
• 1 snap (victory formation): Reed Blankenship
Notes: Most rushing yards, single season, regular season plus the playoffs:
Year Player Rushing yards 1998 Terrell Davis, Broncos 2476 1997 Terrell Davis, Broncos 2331 2024 Saquon Barkley, Eagles 2329 1984 Eric Dickerson, Rams 2212 2012 Adrian Peterson, Vikings 2196
I’ll do the math for you. Barkley needs 148 rushing yards to pass Davis’ record of 2476 rushing yards. He had 146 rushing yards against the Commanders Week 11, and 150 against them Week 16.
Wide receiver
• 61 snaps: A.J. Brown
• 57 snaps: DeVonta Smith
• 39 snaps: Jahan Dotson
• 8 snaps: Johnny Wilson
Notes: Brown has three catches on 10 targets for 24 yards so far in the playoffs. He had two drops against the Rams. It’s maybe worth noting that Brown had seven catches for 50 yards in the Eagles’ first two playoff games in 2022, before making a big impact in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Brown, he is at the mercy of the Eagles’ struggling passing attack.
Smith has caught all eight of his playoff targets so far, but he only has 76 yards.
Dotson was WIDE OPEN deep down the field on one play, and Hurts was looking at his side of the field, but the ball didn’t go Dotson’s way. Dotson was so wide open that there was an audible OOOOOH from the crowd while Hurts was rolling to Dotson’s side of the field.
If Dotson is just out there to run cardio, opposing defenses can and will (already do) just ignore him and pay more attention to Brown and Smith. But also, if a guy is that wide open, even if the play design might not be to him, improvise.
Side note: I posted this clip on Twitter — and I shouldn’t be surprised because people will argue anything— but some were trying to say that the Rams’ safety had this covered, lol. My friends, unless that safety can teleport, he has zero chance of making a play on the football with a semi-accurate throw that leads Dotson to the sideline.
Tight end
• 60 snaps: Dallas Goedert
• 22 snaps: Grant Calcaterra
• 3 snaps: E.J. Jenkins
Notes: Goedert had four catches on four targets for 56 yards. He’d have had five catches for 75 yards if a 19-yarder hadn’t been called back on an illegal man downfield penalty.
Goedert has come off of his injury and been very good so far. He should probably be a bigger focus of the passing attack.
Offensive line
• 63 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, and Mekhi Becton
• 62 snaps: Lane Johnson
• 2 snaps: Fred Johnson
Notes: The Eagles gave up seven sacks. I cut those up and timed them from snap to first contact from a defender.
- 4.01
- 3.36
- 1.88
- 5.31
- 3.71
- 3.27
- 3.86
The offensive line certainly isn’t blameless. Jurgens got beaten on the safety, Becton seemed to miss an assignment on a blitz on the one quick sack, etc. But it’s also true that the ball isn’t coming out.
Hurts often makes plays with his legs when he doesn’t like what he sees downfield, and on some of these sacks he’s trying to do that. You don’t want to lose that part of his game, but there are also some times where it’s better to just chuck it at someone’s feet and live to fight another day.
Edge defenders
• 62 snaps: Josh Sweat
• 58 snaps: Nolan Smith
• 17 snaps: Jalyx Hunt
Notes: Smith had a huge sack/fumble. He now has three sacks in the playoffs.
When asked about the one snap Bryce Huff got last week, Vic Fangio said, “We had a good three-man rotation with the other guys, and we just stuck with it.”
Huff has no role at all right now. As a result, Sweat is playing a whole lot of snaps, which also isn’t ideal.
Interior defensive line
• 69 snaps: Jalen Carter
• 44 snaps: Milton Williams
• 19 snaps: Moro Ojomo
• 17 snaps: Jordan Davis
Notes: There were fair concerns whether Carter would be in good enough shape to play a high number snaps, but he made the two plays of the night on his 68th and 69th snaps in the 19th game of the season.
Ojomo got his first NFL sack, and has been playing very well of late.
Linebacker
• 71 snaps: Zack Baun
• 68 snaps: Oren Burks
Notes: Fangio sure made it seem like Jeremiah Trotter was going to play in this game, but his contributions were limited to special teams.
Cornerback and safety
• 71 snaps: Darius Slay, Reed Blankenship, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson
• 68 snaps: Cooper DeJean
• 57 snaps: Isaiah Rodgers
• 9 snaps each: Quinyon Mitchell and Kelee Ringo
Notes: We’ll learn throughout the week how quickly Mitchell can return from his shoulder injury. Early reporting suggests that he has a chance to play in the NFC Champioship Game against the Commanders.
Three stars 🤩
I’ve always liked the hockey tradition of awarding “stars” to each of the three best players in a game, so let’s apply that to Eagles games.⭐⭐⭐: DT Jalen Carter🌟🌟: RB Saquon Barkley
✨: EDGE Nolan Smith
Eagles game ball 🏈
🏈: DT Jalen Carter: He saved the day.
Season game balls
- Week 1, vs. Packers: Saquon Barkley
- Week 2, at Falcons: Nobody
- Week 3, at Saints: Vic Fangio
- Week 4, at Buccaneers: Saquon Barkley
- Week 5: BYE
- Week 6, vs. Browns: Brandon Graham
- Week 7, at Giants: Saquon Barkley
- Week 8, at Bengals: Fred Johnson
- Week 9, vs. Jaguars: Nakobe Dean
- Week 10, at Cowboys: Nick Sirianni
- Week 11, vs. Commanders: Jalen Carter
- Week 12, at Rams: Brandon Graham
- Week 13, at Ravens: Vic Fangio
- Week 14, vs. Panthers: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson
- Week 15, vs. Steelers: Nick Sirianni
- Week 16, at Commanders: A.J. Brown
- Week 17, vs. Cowboys: Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ offensive line
- Week 18, vs. Giants: Jeffrey Lurie
- Wild Card Round, vs. Packers: Nolan Smith
- Divisional Round, vs. Rams: Jalen Carter
MORE: 10 awards from Eagles-Rams
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