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Have to give them their due, they showed up and played an outstanding game. Offense was lights out in the first half and pretty much put the game away by halftime. Defense was opportunistic and did what they had to do. Now 10-3, and while we don't exactly control our destiny I think it's a safe bet that the Eagles will lose once, if not twice more.
1) Leading off the with the kicker! We've had some quality kickers over the years, but nothing like this soccer player from college. He just keeps on drilling kicks, and his performance last night was one for ages. He hot two kicks that both might have been good from 65 or even close to 70. He also drilled the crossbar on two kickoffs. He's an automatic touchback on kickoffs. He's a huge weapon and in the postseason where close games are typically the norm, he could be a tremendous X Factor for us. What a find by the scouts and Fassel.
2) Mr Prescott continues his career season. We'll continue to say "yeah but what about January" but there's no denying that he looks like a completely different QB now. He is making throws with the kind of accuracy that he rarely displayed in previous years. We all laughed when he guaranteed before the season that he wouldn't have more than 10 picks, and he very well could end up nailing that prediction. He dropped several "dime" throws in there last night, again. I know we all agree we want to see postseason success from him, but it definitely appears dropping Moore for McCarthy as the playcaller and system designed was a HUGE win for us, Prescott and the team.
3) We have a Michael Gallup sighting again. Solid game last night, and one of those vintage Gallup catches on the deep ball in 2nd half. Our WR and TE group is really strong right now and they all are getting chances. Love the way we spread it around, but there's no doubting Lamb's status as a premier #1. Teams just dont seem to be able to slow him down, even though they know the passing game is going to run through him. I guess there was reports that Lamb met with McCarthy and Prescott after the Niners loss, and whatever they all discussed, worked. And Jake Ferguson is fastly developing into one of the best young TE's in the league. I don't think any scouting reports on him coming out last year thought he was anywhere near as athletic as he has shown. Turning into a real weapon downfield and after the catch both.
4) We had 3 OL holding calls last night alone. Philly has 4 for the entire season. This is fucking impossible to argue the legitimacy of, especially when all season virtually every pass rush metric they can measure says we have an elite pass rush. They also threw a flag for "clipping" on Biadasz that wasnt even remotely close to clipping. It also seems that virtually every one of these calls negates a substantial play we make on offense. The first hold on Steele wiped out an 18 yd run by Pollard. The next one (same drive) wiped out a 15 yd scramble by Prescott where we'd have had a 1st and 10 at Eagles 17. Biadasz was called for a bogus clipping and then a hold on the same drive in the 2nd half. Last night, just like the last time we played Philly their OL got away with total fucking murder on our DL's. Refs see everything on one side only. This is NOT explainable as "oh well they just missed it". This is 100% bogus bullshit. 13 games, and arguable the league's best pass rusher Micah Parsons has drawn a paltry 2 holding calls and not one hands to the face, despite the fact we see NUMEROUS examples of it every game.
5) Might be missing Jonathan Hankins for a few games, if not the rest of the regular season. Time for Mazi Smith to really grow up and become a solid contributor now, we really need him. Also might see us call up Carl Davis from the PS, and this is another very large human. Hopefully he can help out on the run defense side.
6) Areas that still make me worry a little. We ran for 138 yds last night, but both Pollard and Dowdle averaged less than 4.0 yds per carry. Would like to see us be a little more productive there, although we arn't seeing quite as many negative/zero yd runs now either. We arnt getting enough of the "chunk" play runs though. Our pass rush doesn't get the QB down on the ground enough. No sacks v Seattle and only 1 last night. We also arn't making many plays on the ball in the air. We're a good team, but still some things they can clean up or improve on.
7) It took well over a decade, but that massive stadium Jerruh built is finally a real home field advantage for us. They keep doing awesome stuff there. Long overall home win streak and now 6 of 7 home wins this yr by 20+ points. It would be awesome to get at least one home game if not HFA throughout, because I think we have the best advantage in the league now. I think we could go 3-1 and maybe win the division, but if we run the table I think we'll definitely win the division. To get HFA will be more difficult. But San Fran has to play a good Ravens team on Christmas night and the ends the season with the Rams, and the Rams might have to win that game to make the playoffs. They gave the Ravens a helluva game yesterday and is clearly better than people thought they'd be. It's not beyond the realm of imagination to see SF losing one of those. If that happens and we run the table, we'd have HFA (assuming we win the East)
8) Our route to the division title is tough but not entirely impossible. Philly is reeling and has to play at Seattle, has Cards at home and two games vs NYG. Seattle nearly beat us and hung pretty tough with San Fran even w/o Geno Smith yesterday. Cards won at Stealers a week+ ago. Giants are really giving Packers all they can handle tonight and don't seem like they've quit, in spite of an atrocious season. I think it's likely that Philly will lose one, if not two of those games.
I think any of us would have gladly taken 10-3 at this point before the season. I don't think ANY of us saw Prescott playing the way he had. I doubt any of us thought we could lose 3 or 4 defensive starters and still hold a team like Philly without an offensive TD. I think San Fran is still better than us across the board (save for special teams) but there's still 4 games left in the regular season and anything can happen. HFA could potentially even some things out, but it will be hard to get it. Even if we win the division and get the 2nd seed, we're guaranteed of the first two potential playoff games being at home, which could be huge.
1) Leading off the with the kicker! We've had some quality kickers over the years, but nothing like this soccer player from college. He just keeps on drilling kicks, and his performance last night was one for ages. He hot two kicks that both might have been good from 65 or even close to 70. He also drilled the crossbar on two kickoffs. He's an automatic touchback on kickoffs. He's a huge weapon and in the postseason where close games are typically the norm, he could be a tremendous X Factor for us. What a find by the scouts and Fassel.
2) Mr Prescott continues his career season. We'll continue to say "yeah but what about January" but there's no denying that he looks like a completely different QB now. He is making throws with the kind of accuracy that he rarely displayed in previous years. We all laughed when he guaranteed before the season that he wouldn't have more than 10 picks, and he very well could end up nailing that prediction. He dropped several "dime" throws in there last night, again. I know we all agree we want to see postseason success from him, but it definitely appears dropping Moore for McCarthy as the playcaller and system designed was a HUGE win for us, Prescott and the team.
3) We have a Michael Gallup sighting again. Solid game last night, and one of those vintage Gallup catches on the deep ball in 2nd half. Our WR and TE group is really strong right now and they all are getting chances. Love the way we spread it around, but there's no doubting Lamb's status as a premier #1. Teams just dont seem to be able to slow him down, even though they know the passing game is going to run through him. I guess there was reports that Lamb met with McCarthy and Prescott after the Niners loss, and whatever they all discussed, worked. And Jake Ferguson is fastly developing into one of the best young TE's in the league. I don't think any scouting reports on him coming out last year thought he was anywhere near as athletic as he has shown. Turning into a real weapon downfield and after the catch both.
4) We had 3 OL holding calls last night alone. Philly has 4 for the entire season. This is fucking impossible to argue the legitimacy of, especially when all season virtually every pass rush metric they can measure says we have an elite pass rush. They also threw a flag for "clipping" on Biadasz that wasnt even remotely close to clipping. It also seems that virtually every one of these calls negates a substantial play we make on offense. The first hold on Steele wiped out an 18 yd run by Pollard. The next one (same drive) wiped out a 15 yd scramble by Prescott where we'd have had a 1st and 10 at Eagles 17. Biadasz was called for a bogus clipping and then a hold on the same drive in the 2nd half. Last night, just like the last time we played Philly their OL got away with total fucking murder on our DL's. Refs see everything on one side only. This is NOT explainable as "oh well they just missed it". This is 100% bogus bullshit. 13 games, and arguable the league's best pass rusher Micah Parsons has drawn a paltry 2 holding calls and not one hands to the face, despite the fact we see NUMEROUS examples of it every game.
5) Might be missing Jonathan Hankins for a few games, if not the rest of the regular season. Time for Mazi Smith to really grow up and become a solid contributor now, we really need him. Also might see us call up Carl Davis from the PS, and this is another very large human. Hopefully he can help out on the run defense side.
6) Areas that still make me worry a little. We ran for 138 yds last night, but both Pollard and Dowdle averaged less than 4.0 yds per carry. Would like to see us be a little more productive there, although we arn't seeing quite as many negative/zero yd runs now either. We arnt getting enough of the "chunk" play runs though. Our pass rush doesn't get the QB down on the ground enough. No sacks v Seattle and only 1 last night. We also arn't making many plays on the ball in the air. We're a good team, but still some things they can clean up or improve on.
7) It took well over a decade, but that massive stadium Jerruh built is finally a real home field advantage for us. They keep doing awesome stuff there. Long overall home win streak and now 6 of 7 home wins this yr by 20+ points. It would be awesome to get at least one home game if not HFA throughout, because I think we have the best advantage in the league now. I think we could go 3-1 and maybe win the division, but if we run the table I think we'll definitely win the division. To get HFA will be more difficult. But San Fran has to play a good Ravens team on Christmas night and the ends the season with the Rams, and the Rams might have to win that game to make the playoffs. They gave the Ravens a helluva game yesterday and is clearly better than people thought they'd be. It's not beyond the realm of imagination to see SF losing one of those. If that happens and we run the table, we'd have HFA (assuming we win the East)
8) Our route to the division title is tough but not entirely impossible. Philly is reeling and has to play at Seattle, has Cards at home and two games vs NYG. Seattle nearly beat us and hung pretty tough with San Fran even w/o Geno Smith yesterday. Cards won at Stealers a week+ ago. Giants are really giving Packers all they can handle tonight and don't seem like they've quit, in spite of an atrocious season. I think it's likely that Philly will lose one, if not two of those games.
I think any of us would have gladly taken 10-3 at this point before the season. I don't think ANY of us saw Prescott playing the way he had. I doubt any of us thought we could lose 3 or 4 defensive starters and still hold a team like Philly without an offensive TD. I think San Fran is still better than us across the board (save for special teams) but there's still 4 games left in the regular season and anything can happen. HFA could potentially even some things out, but it will be hard to get it. Even if we win the division and get the 2nd seed, we're guaranteed of the first two potential playoff games being at home, which could be huge.
