I hate that I have to defend Brian Johnson from other Eagles fans, especially because I don’t think he’s been incredible or anything this year but…
Holy shit some of you guys have no perspective! The Eagles, coming into this game, were scoring 28 PPG, good for third in the league. I don’t like seeing the QB draws getting stuffed at the line either but you know what I do like seeing? When it worked on third down, or how about when it worked on second and goal? That was pretty cool right?
We were getting our asses kicked and outschemed in the first half by Spags. So you know what Brian did? Tried other shit. Yeah the WR screens did not work, but the middle screens to Swift were very effective. Hurts has the freedom to check at the line, he probably checked into some QB draws, he also checked into that deep pass to Smith (confirmed by Coach Sirianni) that set up the GW TD.
The best job by a coordinator this game was easily Sean Desai tightening up the gameplan and shutting down the Chiefs in the second half (aided by clutch defensive plays and drops by Chiefs WRs), but Johnson deserves some credit for being able to find just enough to get 14 points in the second half and help win the game. Sometimes you have to try other shit when things aren’t working, and sometimes that shit also doesn’t work. But I’d rather try something else than keep doing the stuff that got us seven first half points.
I said a few weeks ago that if Jalen Hurts and the Eagles came out of this gauntlet part of their schedule with statement wins against top teams/QBs then he would win the MVP.
So far he’s beaten Tua and the Dolphins, Dakota and the Cowboys, and Mahomes and the Chiefs. He and the Eagles have Allen and the Bills next, then San Fran, then Dallas again before rounding out in Seattle.
I know passing numbers for QBs are down, and Hurts’ are down especially, but if he wins two or even three of those games and the Eagles have the best record in the league, with his total TD count, it’ll be hard to give the award to anyone else. Not to mention he has Giants, Cardinals, Giants at the end of the year to pad the stats if need be.
I know I’m biased, but he is currently the favorite to win MVP despite lower passing numbers than most, and he was runner up last year (and the favorite before he got hurt), despite also not having crazy high passing stats. McCaffrey will win OPOY, but MVP is and honestly should be a QB award.