Bleeding Green Nation
Previewing Philadelphia’s Week 9 matchup.
The Philadelphia Eagles are back at Lincoln Financial Field this weekend to take on Doug Pederson’s Jacksonville Jaguars. It’ll be the Birds’ first home game since October 13.
In order to preview this Week 9 tilt, I reached out to our enemies over at Big Cat Country. The generous Gus Logue kindly took the time to answer my questions about this upcoming battle. Let’s take a look at the answers. [For my answers about the Eagles, check out BCC.]
Well, offensive coordinator Press Taylor certainly shoulders some of the blame — which is a whole other story, as Philadelphia knows — but anyone on the Jaguars could have the finger pointed at them at this point. There’s inaccurate passes, blown blocks, wrong routes, missed tackles, busted coverages, pre-snap penalties… the list does not end.
The question in Duval County is this: are the Jags bad because players aren’t executing, or because coaches aren’t putting them in the best positions to succeed? As Pederson said Monday, “Is it the scheme? Is it the execution by the players? I would say it’s a little of both right now.”
While the roster may have been overrated entering this season, the bulk of blame falls on Pederson and his coaching staff. There’s no excuse for a Trevor Lawrence-led offense to be below-average. Jacksonville had a fun 2022 season but the team hasn’t been able to keep pushing in the right direction since then.
Chrisitan Kirk broke his collarbone last Sunday and will be out for the season. On one hand, Jacksonville’s offense took a nosedive last year after Kirk had a season-ending core injury in Week 13; on the other, he hasn’t been as vital this year and Parker Washington appears ready to assume his slot role.
Truthfully, the injuries to Brian Thomas Jr. (chest) and Gabe Davis (shoulder) are more worrisome injuries, even if they are short-term. Since they’re by far the most versatile wideouts on the roster, losing either of them would put backups in tough spots to succeed and allow defenses to hone in on tendencies. The good news for Jacksonville is that they each got in limited practices on Wednesday and Thursday, suggesting they’re closer to playing on Sunday than not.
For the rest of the season, I’m not overly concerned since Washington is a solid replacement for Kirk — but the injuries to Thomas Jr. and Davis do worry me for this week in a must-win game that will require a lot of points scored by Jacksonville.
