Well, that sucked. Writing about a loss once again is not particularly fun. Let’s get into it. Offense The Eagles’ offense was working perfectly fine early on. I thought the game plan was spot on. The Seahawks played two deep safeties and dared the Eagles to run and throw it short. So that’s what the Eagles did. And it worked! I thought Jalen Hurts looked healthy and strong as a runner, and the Eagles had a lot of success with the QB run game because they had the numbers advantage in the box. it was all going well. Eagles Offense All22 thread vs. Seahawks. 1) It all started so well. The Seahawks had 2 deep safeties and they were non-factors in the run game. The Eagles went back to basics and the shotgun run game was very effective. Hurts had a good day as a runner. pic.twitter.com/erswUBz4ss— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 Seriously, look at these run fits by the Seahawks. It was like they didn’t care about the Eagles running game. They just left Jason Kelce uncovered, played two deep safeties, and frequently left themselves outnumbered in the box. It felt too easy early on, and the Eagles did a good job staying patient and just taking what the defense gave them. 2) I mean look at the deep safeties. They were basically daring the Eagles to run, and they actually did it! The Seahawks left Kelce uncovered a lot and he took advantage by constantly pulling and creating huge rushing lanes. The run game was effective overall. The Eagles… pic.twitter.com/SCsgKCwGgs— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 The Eagles run a fair number of RPOs, but I thought this one was a little different. It was almost like a short dropback with a run-blocking offensive line. I liked it, and I think it summed up the Eagles’ offense early on. They were very efficient and Hurts looked good as a runner. 3) This is a really interesting call. It looks like an RPO with Kelce pulling. Hurts has the option to throw it to Swift or take it himself. I thought he moved really well and I’d guess that his knee isn’t bothering him too much anymore. Hurts beat the Seahawks LBs to the edge… pic.twitter.com/vceidFrY0Q— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 I had quite a few issues with some of the Eagles’ spacing in this game. They did not do a good enough job stretching the defense horizontally or vertically. I was happy the Eagles called a lot of short throws, and it was the right decision based on the Seahawks’ defense, but some of these plays are bad and make it harder on the quarterback. The second one below is a great example of that. Hurts throws the ball above AJ Brown’s head on the comeback, and it’s easy to blame the quarterback for a bad throw. But when you see the all22, you can see that the running back drags a defender into the throwing window, which means Hurts has to throw it high. It just makes a simple read more complicated than it needs to be. This is a shame because I thought the Eagles’ offense played well up until the 2nd touchdown. 4) I had issues with the Eagles spacing in this game. There were too many contested plays where the Eagles route distribution didn’t threaten the Seahawks vertically or horizontally enough, which creates really small throwing windows. These plays are back-to-back 2nd/3rd and 10,… pic.twitter.com/TVrN4GAlea— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 I see people going mad about these screens every week. But let’s be clear. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this play call. When you run a lot of RPOs and your QB keeps the ball a lot, your offense should have a lot of these bubble screens built into the offense just in case the defense tries to add another defender to the box post-snap. This play should give the Eagles 5-6 yards at least every single time they run it. The problem is that they suck it at. The coaches need to sort this out because it really shouldn’t be this hard to get a few yards on these plays. They can’t keep failing on these bubble screens where they have the numbers advantage. It’s what this offense is all about! 5) If you are going to run a lot of RPOs, you simply HAVE to be able to take advantage of 3v2 on the outside and run the odd bubble screen. The Eagles absolutely suck at this. It’s a massive coaching issue, and it’s so frustrating because these plays should be easy 5-8 yard… pic.twitter.com/9e1AqSiA4M— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 I don’t want to pick on individuals too much… but this clear-out route by Quez Watkins is a joke. It’s bad. Not to be that guy who picks on individuals but… What the hell is Quez Watkins doing here on this clear out route? I hope the coaches get on him for this. This is awful effort and it could have resulted in DeVonta Smith taking a huge hit. This stuff frustrates me a lot. pic.twitter.com/zZipaE8utL— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 If we ignore Quez Watkins on this play, I like the play call. And it’s a really good throw and catch by Hurts and DeVonta Smith. This is the type of play that Smith didn’t make last week, so it’s great to see him make a tough catch like this. I’m always in favor of plays that get Hurts moving to his right by design, and the Eagles don’t do it enough in my opinion. 6) I really like this call. It’s a shame Quez Watkins runs a lazy clear out, but this play puts a lot of stress on the defense horizontally. Having Hurts, Brown & Smith all running the opposite way to Swift is tough on a defense. This is a great play, and a great throw and catch pic.twitter.com/hgoSfI6Mq3— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 I haven’t posted much about the running game this week, but I thought the Eagles’ running game was good and it was successful because the defense was concerned about the threat of Hurts’ running. We saw a lot of plays like this one last year, but we haven’t seen it that often this year. Hopefully, this is a sign that Hurts is now healthy and he can keep running the ball effectively because this offense needs Hurts to be a good runner for this offense to be at its best. 7) The best takeaway from this game was that Hurts as a running threat was well and truly back. Look at how both Seahawks linebackers are frozen here because they are worried about Hurts keeping it. We haven’t seen this much this year, but it happened every week last season! pic.twitter.com/YaUFCAi85r— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 Both of these things can be true: I don’t like some of the designs of specific plays, but Jalen Hurts has to play better. I still think the spacing is poor and that the Eagles’ coaching staff could make this easier on Hurts by creating bigger throwing windows and spreading the defense out, but Hurts still has to make this throw. I think this game sadly sums up Hurts of late. I think he is getting greedy, and isn’t just taking the easy throw. The Seahawks were focused on preventing the big play in this game and Hurts needed to stay patient and just take the easy throws throughout the game. Sadly, Hurts did the opposite of that, as he wanted to create more explosive plays. 8) The Eagles ran a lot of short curls early on and they worked. Once again, I don’t like the spacing here. It’s too congested. But, Hurts has to throw this to Goedert. It looks like he’s reading the Hi-Lo and he needs to release it. I think Hurts gets greedy at times and almost… pic.twitter.com/64XYouZTzi— Jonny Page (@JonnyPage9) December 19, 2023 I have so much to say about this play. You can moan about Hurts all you want, but if the coaching staff is telling him to take the shot to AJ Brown when he is one-on-one, then he makes the right decision. I think he should eliminate AJ Brown from…