Roob's Random Observations: Appreciating the greatest age in Eagles history
Roob's Random Observations: Appreciating the greatest age in Eagles history originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
An unprecedented era for the Eagles, thoughts on the morons who want to ban the tush push and the emergence of Jordan Davis as a full-time player.
The Eagles are 18-1 in their last 19 games following Roob's Random Eagles Observations, which gives us a .947 winning percentage since last year's 2-2 start.
Does anybody's Random Obs have a better winning percentage during that span? Didn't think so.
1. If you were an Eagles fan in the 1950s, you saw a team that was 13 games under .500 for the decade and never won more than seven games in a 12-game season. If you were a fan in the 1960s you got a championship in 1960 but then eight losing seasons over the next nine years. If you were a fan in the 1970s? Eight straight years without a winning record. The 1980s had a Super Bowl appearance in 1980 then no postseason wins the rest of the decade and six straight losing seasons at one point. The 1990s had a couple wild-card seasons, both followed by blowout losses in Dallas. Things went a little better in the 2000s, but it was still a decade of frustration, with eight trips to the playoffs but some ugly postseason losses and no championships. Even the first chunk of the 2010s was grim, with no playoff wins for eight years. So if you're a new Eagles fan, you might not appreciate that what this franchise is doing now is unprecedented. But if you've been along for the ride, you understand what two Super Bowl championships and three Super Bowl trips in eight years means. What 10 playoff wins in eight years means. What seven postseason trips in the last eight years means. The Eagles are now 18-1 in their last 19 games and 47-13 in their last 60 games when they play the starters. They're the only NFC team over the last 18 years to win multiple Super Bowls and it wouldn't surprise anybody if they add to that total in the next few years. They have the best owner in sports, the best GM in football and a coach with the 4th-best record in NFL history. So relish it. Cherish it. Revel in it. Appreciate every moment of it. Because it might last for a good long while but it won't last forever. This is a franchise that's been around for 93 years, and these are the glory days.
2A. Rams quarterback Matt Stafford has thrown 270 consecutive passes against the Eagles without being picked off. Nnamdi Asomugha intercepted Stafford on the first play of the second quarter in a game at the Linc that the Lions won 26-23 during the brutal 2012 season, and he hasn't thrown a pick against the Eagles since. Stafford is 4-4 all-time vs. the Eagles but he's lost his last three. The only other quarterback to start seven straight games vs. the Eagles without an interception is Kerry Collins from 1996 (with the Panthers) through 2002 with the Giants. Collins threw 225 passes vs. the Eagles and was never intercepted.
2B. Stafford has thrown 16 touchdown passes against the Eagles, or one every 16.9 passes. That's awfully good. But the highest touchdown percentage ever against the Eagles was established by Jameis Winston, who has only thrown 29 passes vs. the Eagles but five of them for touchdowns. That's a touchdown every 5.8 attempts. Winston was the Bucs' quarterback when they beat the Eagles 45-17 at the Linc in 2015. Chip Kelly was fired a few weeks later.
2C. Winston is one of only 10 quarterbacks in history to throw at least five touchdowns against the Eagles on fewer than 100 attempts. Also on that list? Current Eagles QB Sam Howell (five TDs in 93 attempts) and former Eagles QBs Joe Flacco (five in 98) and Bubby Brister (seven in 79).
3. It's so funny - and so lame - how the idiots who want to ban the tush push keep changing their reasoning. At first, it was, Oh, it's not safe." Well, nobody has ever gotten running it. So then they change their rationale to, Well, it's just not an aesthetically pleasing play." But it looks almost exactly like an old-fashioned quarterback sneak, which has been in the game for a century. What next? Now, that blabbering clod Dean Blandino says the play should be banned because it's too hard to officiate." That's one of the dumbest things I"ve ever heard. Is it any harder to officiate than defensive pass interference? If the refs can't look down the line of scrimmage and see if anyone is lining offsides or false starting, get better refs. And if that's really your reasoning, the offsides and false start stuff has nothing to do with the actual push part of the play. It's all so pathetic the lengths people will go to try and rationalize eliminating this play. The real reason people want to ban the tush push - and eventually will - is because the Eagles are really good at it and nobody else is. They're jealous. Jealous of the success the Eagles have running the play, jealous of the success the Eagles have had against their team, jealous of the success the Eagles will continue to have even after they do ban the push. Because their players and coaches are just better. And that won't change no matter what rules they come up with.
4. The Eagles have three pass completions of 10 yards through two games. Last year through two games they had 18.
5A.The Eagles' current 11-game home winning streak is their longest since a 14-game streak at Shibe Park over the 1947 through 1949 seasons. The eighth win in that streak was the 7-0 win over the Chicago Cardinals played in a blizzard in the 1948 NFL Championship Game.
5B. The winning quarterback in that 1948 NFL Championship Game, Tommy Thompson, was 2-for-12 for seven yards with no touchdowns, two interceptions and a 0.00 passer rating. Thewinningquarterback. Hey, it was snowing. But ol' Tommy is the only quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game with a passer rating of 0.00. Only three others have had a 0.00 rating in a postseason loss.
5C. Only one Eagles quarterback has had a passer rating of 0.00 in the last 50 years and that was - of course - Pat Ryan, who replaced injured Jim McMahon in a game against Washington at RFK Stadium in 1991 and proceeded to go 4-for-14 fo4 24 yards with no TDs and three interceptions. His throw to 1st-round bust Kenny Jackson while being covered in the end zone by Hall of Famer Darrell Green was maybe not the smartest decision in Eagles history. Ryan had been out of football for two years and was working construction when Rich Kotite - who had coached him with the Jets - lured him out of retirement. Also maybe not the smartest decision in Eagles history.
6. How about that Jordan Davis? All summer Davis spoke confidently about how his elevated fitness level would enable him to play more snaps and play those snaps at a higher level, and we're seeing that now in a big way. He's been fantastic. Two weeks in, Davis has been a force inside on the Eagles' defense, and it's been encouraging to see him maintain that fitness level and turn it into playmaking. Out of 85 interior linemen who've played at least 50 snaps this year, Davis's Pro Football Focus grade of 72.4 is 18th-highest, and he's playing far more than he ever has. Davis played 26 percent of the snaps as a rookie in 2022, then 45 percent in 2023 but down to 37 percent last year. He's up to 70 percent this year, so he's playing nearly twice as many snaps per game as last year, and he's handling it and looks just as effective at the end of games as the start. Last year, he ranked 62ndamong interior linemen in snaps and this year he's 21st. That's huge. There's a little bit of irony here that Davis, who was never really in great shape until late last year, is in fantastic shape while his best friend and college teammate Jalen Carter, who played the 2nd-highest percentage of snaps among interior linemen last year, is now trying to get back into shape. Once they're both good to go? This defense will be even better than it has been.
7.The Eagles and Rams lead the league in young defensive talent, which makes Sunday's matchup even more interesting. The Eagles and Rams are the only NFL teams with four defensive starters in either their first or second season. For the Eagles, it's rookies Jihaad Campbell and Drew Mukuba and 2nd-year pros Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell, and for the Rams it's 2nd-year players Braden Fiske, Kamren Kinchens, Jared Verse and Omar Speights. There will be a ton of talented young defenders on display Sunday afternoon.
8. Do you guys remember Josh Jobe? He made the Eagles as an undrafted rookie cornerback out of Alabama in 2022, barely played as a rookie but started three games and played 240 defensive snaps in 2023 and then was released with final cuts on Aug. 24, of last year. Jobe resurfaced with the Seahawks and was on and off Seattle's practice squad last year, although he did start six games late in the season. Jobe was always a tough, physical high-effort type of corner, but when he was here his lack of high-end speed hampered him, and he was too handsy and penalty-prone in coverage. But he's now in Year 4 and he's figured some things out with Seattle, where his position coach - Karl Scott - was also his position coach at Alabama. Of 88 corners who've been targeted at least four times this year, Jobe has the lowest defender passer rating at ... zero? Opposing quarterbacks - Brock Purdy and Aaron Rodgers, two pretty good ones - are 2-for-9 for eight yards when going after Jobe. He's No. 1 in the NFL in yards per target (0.9) and No. 2 in opposing completion percentage (22.7). Of 56 corners who've played at least 50 defensive snaps, Pro Football Focus ranks Jobe sixth with a 77.6 grade. Howie Roseman rarely lets talented young players go - especially corners. But you have to be happy for Jobe, who took the hardest possible route - undrafted, released by his first team, bouncing on and off a practice squad - and his years of hard work are finally paying off. The only downside of this story is that his work is paying off in something other than an Eagles uniform.
8B. Former Eagle section Part II: Zach Ertz has caught a pass in 142 straight games dating back to a 2014 Eagles win over the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium when he played just 20 snaps and was targeted just once by Mark Sanchez. Ertz's streak is 3rd-longest ever by a tight end behind Tony Gonzalez's 211-game streak from 2000 through 2013 and Travis Kelce's current 176-game streak.
9A. This is insane, but Jake Elliott is more accurate from 58 yards and out than 57 yards and in. In his nine-year career, Elliott is 6-for-7 on field goal attempts from 58 yards and beyond for 85.7 percent. He's 193-for-227 inside 58 yards for 85.0 percent.
9B. Since 2017, Elliott is 6-for-7 from 58 yards and out and every other NFL kicker combined is 69-for-151 (46 percent). So he's responsible for nearly 9 percent of all field goals of 58 yards or more over the last nine years.
10.10. There are 82 edge rushers who've played at least 50 snaps so far. Would you believe Eagles disaster Bryce Huff - now with the 49ers - has the 10th-highest PFF rating in that group at 81.3? Huff, who was so bad last year with the Eagles, actually has a higher grade than either Nolan Smith (73.5) or Jalyx Hunt (65.3). Huff's 82.6 pass rush grade is 10th-highest on PFF. In the 49ers-Saints game, the 49ers led 26-21 in the final minute and a half and had a 4th-and-1 at their own 42-yard-line when Huff sacked Spencer Rattler and forced a fumble, ending the game. Kellen Moore must have been wondering where that was last year, when they were both with the Eagles. Huff also had four tackles, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit in that game. I'll still take Smith or Hunt - or Za'Darius Smith over Huff, but it is interesting to see him doing well playing for Robert Saleh, his head coach from 2021 through 2023 with the Jets. This is a guy who had 10 sacks just two years ago. There's something there. We just never saw it.