Chargers vs Eagles Preview: Herbert’s Injury and Slowing Talented Eagles Offense

Chargers vs Eagles Preview: Herbert’s Injury and Slowing Talented Eagles Offense

[Music] Guilty is charged. Guilty is charged. A guilty is charged. Guilty is charged. That’s my guy. [Music] Hey, what is up everybody? Welcome to the Guilty Charge podcast coming to you live on a Thursday evening. My name is Stephen and I am the host. Apologies to our live audience for running a little late tonight. Uh was cooking some fried chicken and the fried chicken was not frying. So, uh here we are a little bit later than usual tonight. Uh and for what it’s worth, Tyler, I did actually have rice with our fried chicken tonight. So, was making some orange chicken and uh turned out really good. Just took a lot longer than I thought it would. So, here we are. And uh how are you doing tonight, my friend? Doing very well. I had beef and broccoli with rice, so I guess we’re kind of on that same, you know, vibe right now. So, all is good. Um, speaking of fried chicken, let’s talk about the birds. Nice job. Nice transition. Good job. Good job. Uh, yes. So, we uh interrupt your Thursday night football watching tonight. We’re going to be previewing uh the Chargers Eagles prime time matchup tonight. So, should be a lot of fun. A game that I have started, you know, each day thinking a little bit more positively about heading into this game. Uh, obviously you guys listening know I’ve I’ve kind of penciled in uh as you know kind of a loss from day one, but uh here we are. We’ll see ultimately how we decide. I’m still kind of on the on the fence right now, but uh we’ll get to it. We’ll get to it. Before we get started, of course, I have to give a quick shout out to our friends over at Prize Pix. This episode of the Guilty is Charge podcast and every episode of the Guilty is Charge podcast is brought to you by Prize Pix. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Pix, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement this football season over on Prize Pix, where it’s good to be right. Prize Pix is super simple to play. All you have to do is just pick more or less on at least two player stats. If you get your picks right, you could cash in. And Prize Pix is available in over 40 states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. So, this is one of the best ways to get some extra skin in the game of football, basketball, baseball, whatever floats your boat. Prize Pix has you covered. You can now follow other Prize Six players directly on the app and copy their lineups in one simple click. Whether it’s a friend, a celebrity partner, or just someone whose picks you like, hit the follow button and check out every lineup they create in the new feed tab over on Prize Picks. So, we cannot recommend them enough. Obviously, they are the sponsor of the show, but it truly is a great app and uh super easy to use. We’ve had a lot of fun with it over the years uh doing this as well. So, make sure you go download the Prize Pix app today and use the code guilty to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code guilty to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Okay. Uh let’s jump right in here, Tyler. We’ll do uh our full Eagles preview today. Uh any thoughts on why you chose Santa Claus this week? And you might have to be an Eagles fan or an older fan, but the Eagles fans like there’s a what’s the word? They hate Santa Claus. They threw snowballs at Santa Claus back in the Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is not because it’s December kind of thing. It’s because Eagles fans are notorious for hating Santa Claus. So, I chose Santa Claus for this one. Just a very unhappy fan base. Like yeah, the Eagles won the Super Bowl last year and you would think that they are like the worst team in the league based on how they talk about that. Yeah, nobody has it worse apparently than Eagles and Chiefs fans according to Eagles and Chiefs fans. Like it just Chiefs fans for Fire Andy Reid, win a Super Bowl, fire Andy Reid, win a Super Bowl, fire. I mean, it’s like, okay, guys, I’ll take it. Seriously. Yeah. Yeah. It’s uh Philadelphia people like cheer up a little bit, you know? So, Santa Claus is for you this time of year, I guess. Yeah. All right. Uh, how’s it going with the Philadelphia Eagles? The good, uh, they currently lead the NFC East. We’ll see about the Dallas Cowboys tonight. They’re making things a little potentially interesting. Uh, but they’ve kind of been unquestioned about the NFC NFC East so far. Um, despite the dysfunction and poor stats, AJ Brown is ESPN’s fifth ranked wide receiver in terms of open score, yak, catch, all of that stuff. Damvonte Smith is also inside the top 30 and already has 800 yards receiving, actually more yards than AJ Brown for what it’s worth. Um, Lane Johnson is probably not playing in this game, but he is only allowed seven total pressures all year, which is insane for a right tackle to put up Cory Lindseay numbers at right tackle. Pretty freaking good. Uh, Jordan Davis is top five in run stops and top 10 in run defense grade among all starting caliber uh, defensive tackles. Jaylen Carter, who uh we wrote this before we found this out, but will not play this week, uh is top 10 in pressures and top 20 in pass rush win rate. So, that is definitely a positive thing for the Chargers. Um Jaylen Phillips, who is dealing with a concussion theme for the night, I guess. Uh has 18 pressures in four games since being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, has seemingly kind of unlocked everything a little bit. Um, and they have potentially two of like the top six corners in the league. Quinon Mitchell and Cooper Deene, both inside the top 20 in coverage grades, both inside the top 20 in forcing completion percentage. So, the good is like they’re winning and the players that are extremely talented are playing like extremely talented players. But, uh, you know, I I guess there’s certain ways you could take this list and certain not take this list, but the talented players are playing like talented players and they’re winning games. Yes, they are. TBD on how that will continue and I think we’ve if you watch the last couple of weeks, which I definitely have with the time off and Thanksgiving and all that, how much longer are they leading the NFC East? How much longer are these individual individual players? Well, one, are they even healthy? But two, how long do they keep going? Do the wheels fall off? It’s in a really weird spot for the Eagles right now. We’ll get to the bad in a second, but you know, you’d think I think as maybe like a casual fan, if you’re not following the Eagles, you just assume it’s Saquon Barkley, they must have this kind of rushing attack. It’s these receivers, they must have this kind of receiving, you know, uh, numbers. It’s this offensive line and Stoutland University. Oh my god, it’s the greatest situation in the NFL. This line must be like this. The defense, all these names, it’s got to be like this, right? And I think there there’s so much of the good because of those good players and their stars, but we’ll get to the bad and when we talk about this team, it’s almost like the Steelers defense when we talked about them a few weeks ago where it’s like, okay, wow, Steelers defense and Watt and Hayward and all these guys and then you take a second to really break down at minimum just the numbers and you go, “This ain’t what I thought it was as a more casual observer because you we’re big-time Chargers fans, maybe AFC West fans, NFL fans, but not so specifically focused on one team, especially one out of the conference. Then you dive into the numbers, which we’re about to, it’s not as good as maybe the the shine on the top. Yeah, I think the players listed I think that are are very shiny, but when you kind of dive into some of the more, you know, nitty-gritty stuff of this team, uh, it is not pretty in a lot of different areas. So, um, yes, you know, we we Jaylen Carter is not going to play in this game. the the Eagles are still tremendously talented and deep along the defensive line, but that that’s a big big deal. Uh the bad the Jaylen Herz AJ Brown saga is not going away. I did not know this until last week when they’re on the Black Friday game, but apparently AJ Brown and Jayen Herz go like way back to like middle school. Like these guys are friends with each other. They were in involved in each other’s weddings. like they they are friends and you could not tell based on how they have like talked about each other all season long. It’s a it’s a bizarre situation. Um Kevin Matulo is so hated by Eagles fans that they went and egged his car, which I think is objectively crazy, but again, they’re Eagles fans. Um so Kell Moore and Shane Syikin are are not walking through that door. And the Eagles have, you know, they’ve had a lot of coaches poached throughout the years. Obviously, Kell Moore and Shane Syen are head coaches right now. Um, and they’ve not done a good enough job finding that in between, you know, when you lose a a legitimately top tier play caller to a head coaching position, it can be very difficult. The Lions are going through this, etc. So, they’re in between years of the guy to a guy are I’ve not been kind to them. Um, and you mentioned Saquon Barkley. this the numbers of their running attack shocked me and you know they were historically good last year. Sequin Barkley at this time uh you know in 2024 had over had 1500 yards it was 1499 so I round it up by a yard 1500 yards rushing at this time last year they were first in e payer rush and fifth in in rushing success rate. Right now he has 740 yards which is a good season. It’s not a bad season but it’s not historically good. Um, and they are currently 21st in EA paper rush and 20th in success rate. And the numbers that were shocking to me like that was I could not believe my eyes when I was looking at the difference between last year and this year with their rushing attack. And I think it speaks to part of the reason why there’s so many bad vibes around the offenses. Last year they could just turn the ball uh and hand the ball off to Saquon Barkley and he would just go nuclear and that’s not really happening. Again, he’s not playing poorly, but he’s not doing the things that he was doing last year, which I think is the biggest difference with this group, uh, on offense at least. Yeah, definitely. And again, you just think, well, he’s so talented in this line, it must be great. And it’s it’s solid, of course. And I’m sitting here looking at rushing yards over expected per attempt, and you go, okay, well, there’s well, there’s Jonathan Taylor, there’s James Cook, Achan, Dobbins, Hall. All right. Um, okay. Well, there’s Videll. There’s Judkins. Okay, there’s Gibbs, uh, Mungai, ETN, Woody Marx, Blake Cororum, Kenneth Walker, then Saquon Barkley as like a bottom 10 player in rushing yards expected per attempt after what he did last year, which was I mean, Madden cover curse, I guess. I I don’t know what happened to him. I I really am shocked watching him play the last couple of weeks. It just feels and it might not even really be like not an injury thing or necessarily specifically a scheme thing. It just feels like with the Eagles offense overall, they’re just kind of lifeless. They the vibes are weird like you’ve said with with Jaylen Herz and AJ Brown and the the offensive coordinators, I mean, he’s getting booed like crazy. The vandalism, all that sort of stuff. You watch Seaquin, it’s just like where’s the guy that, you know, went backwards and hurdled over a dude? I’m not expect I’m not expecting that to ever happen again. But this this guy who was like, “Oh, and here we go. 60 yards. Oh, here we go. 55 yards. Oh, 70 yards. Where did that guy go?” And you’re just watching him, it’s like it’s just not the same. The vibes aren’t there. And you flip it and you watch the Bears and Mananga, they’re just crushing people. Swift just crushing people. That was what what Sparkley was like. So strange to watch this this Eagles group. I think, you know, a lot of people picked the Eagles to win this game. I don’t blame them, but it’s they’re like 28-7 Eagles. 27 or whatever Eagles. I don’t know, man. I really don’t think this Eagles group is as good as maybe the national media thinks it is. And just watching them, they just pedestrians maybe not the right word, but they just don’t have that spark. They just look lifeless. They look like the average, you know, Chargers game where it’s it’s not prime time. They just kind of come out like h, you know, we have better players. I guess eventually we’ll get it to AJ Brown and Devonte Smith and make a great catch and you know, Barkley is better than a lot of your players. So there it is. It’s just not the same as it was last year. Yeah, it feels like last year, you know, they they had already flipped the switch at this point and then, you know, they started out slow last year. Like they lost the to the commanders in week two and people were calling for Kell Moore’s job in Philadelphia. Like that that happened last year. Um, you know, and then obviously, you know, things were were better. But there’s been multiple times where like Lane Johnson or Jordan Milado or one of the the leaders on offense, AJ Brown has done this multiple times, but they’ve all talked about how like, you know, they they need they feel like they need to be more diverse on offense. They feel like they’re a little bit too predictable. And then you listen to uh, you know, the national people who are talking about this, like Dan Olowski and Alex Smith hate watching the Philadelphia Eagles offense. they they cannot stop talking about how unfun this offense is from a schematic standpoint. So hopefully that continues. Hopefully this is not like the Kevin Pulla breakout game. Um but that the vibes around the Eagles offense have not been great. I think a big part of it from a p from a personnel standpoint. Tyler Steen uh and Landon Dickerson at guard have been issues for them particularly in terms of the the pass protection. And again these numbers were were shocking to me as well. Not that I was expecting Tyler Steen to be like awesome, but you know, again, Jeff Stoutland is Jeff Stoutland for a reason. He ranks 50th out of 60 qualified guards and passing efficiency rating. And Landon Dickerson, who is like the second highest paid guard in the league, over $20 million contract, is 58th. Like, he is actively bad in pass protection this year. And he wasn’t amazing last year either. The numbers were pretty, you know, mediocre. But he he has this reputation of this amazing run blocker and you know I I’m not going to sit and pretend to like watch all the all 22 stuff, but he’s been dealing with all these different injuries. You know, he’s on the injury report one week, off it the next week. You know, he he hasn’t finished a lot of these games. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Yes, I hope so. But the numbers for Atlanta Dickerson are objectively bad. And I I think those are that’s part of the issue for the passing game is that they just are not holding up in pass protection at the same kind of level and it starts with the interior group. Um notice we are talking a lot about the offense. There’s not a lot of bad going on with the Eagles defense. Uh but there is Adori Jackson is objectively bad. Um he doesn’t play like a ton of starter snaps. They like the Chargers do about four corners. They rotate them. Um, but he is the fifth worst coverage grade among qualified corners with at least 20% of their coverage snaps. So, he is the big red dot player on the Eagles that everybody targets. And, uh, hopefully the Chargers are also aware of Adori Jackson this week. Yeah, I I hope so. They’ve done a good job against linebackers and safeties. I feel like Adori Jackson like corners. We’ll see. To the point about the the Eagles offensive line, obviously no Lane Johnson doesn’t help you. Having not Lane Johnson out there makes you worse. They were sixth in pass block win rate, you know, for ESPN last year, 19th this year. It’s just a I don’t know. It I I expect not expect I watched so much of the Eagles last year. I feel like and we all, you know, were cheering for him to beat the Chiefs and all that and do all sort of stuff. It was great. They beat the doors out the Chiefs and I loved every second of it. I know. I I almost felt bad for feeling bad for the Chiefs. and I should, but I don’t know. I I don’t know what happened this year. I suppose it really can just come down to, you know, the play calling. I think Kevin said it earlier. You know, the offensive coordinator is the straw that stirs the drink. And I guess if you have a well, him or a Greg Roman perhaps, it’s it’s a disposable paper straw. So, yeah, very surprised by this Eagles offensive line. I really just we had we had feared so much going into this year what that matchup was going to be for the Chargers because look I love you know and this defensive line and all these guys but come on that’s a giant mismatch right and in some like one-on- ones sure that’s that’s possible but it’s just not the same group it the more we talk about this game by the time we get to the end it really just feels like this the Eagles they can kind of be had right now yes I I have looked at this game as a sure of a loss as humanly possible and we we have we think Justin Herbert is going to play this week. We have no idea how much we have no idea for sure. Um but the more that I look at this Eagles team, the less intimidated I guess is the wrong word, but like you know like I I just penciled in this loss immediately because they have the best roster in football. Yeah. Um, you know, they’re defending Super Bowl champs and, you know, I expect them to be, you know, a certain level of team and the vibes around the offense are just not great. So, do I feel great about the the Chargers offense, you know, winning this game in like a shootout fashion? No. But if this is a, you know, slugfest kind of game where you’re the winner is, you know, we’re talking about 1613 or whatever, I think the Chargers can, you know, pull that out. So, we’ll get to that, you know, later. But the vibes around this Eagles team just are so so poor. And I just did not think that this would be the case. And and hopefully again that this is not the game where they eventually start to turn the switch on and and fix things on their playoff run and all that stuff. But um entering the game, man, like I I just did not think the vibes around the Eagles would be this low. No, not at all. I mean, it was, you know, Unstoppable Force meets Bradley Boseman, you know, that kind of like that was the vibe. And that player is not even granted this they have plenty of players. That player ain’t playing. These some of these guys aren’t playing. It’s just it’s a very very very different situation than I thought we’d be in. I think I I’m sure I picked the Chargers to lose this game three months ago. I probably would have picked them to lose it a month ago. Yeah. But I mean, we’ll see how things go by the end of our predictions here. But it’s just that’s the NFL, right? It’s in a very very very different spot. I we were hoping for the greatest offensive line like Alt and Slater and Lane and all these guys playing and all they’re not even playing like No, all three of the best tackles in the NFL are not playing. Yeah. Yeah. Not Not a good situation there. Nope. All right. Uh let’s get to some of our game preview. Uh wanted to do a quick playoff check-in. Um so if you can’t really read these numbers, um I apologize, but this was the best graphic I could find that showed both sides here. So, the Chargers are sitting about actually I don’t even think I can read this right now. So, I’m going to pull up NFL Network real quick and make sure I don’t mess this up. Um, here we go. Loading. All right. So, the Chargers according to NFL Network and most models are about 61 to 63% uh playoff probability. The Chargers win they are at 78% to make the playoffs. If they lose, they’re at 52%. So, not a huge swing one way or the other. um still a swing obviously, but um potentially, you know, more important games down the road here. The Eagles, they’re at currently 94%, if they lose, they’re at 90%. If they win, they’re at 98%. Again, very minimal playoff leverage for the Eagles. They’re probably locked into the three seed, assuming they can, you know, handle business against the Cowboys. So, yeah, we’ll see like really how much the Eagles have to play for down the road here. like I I don’t think this is there’s not going to be like a ton of urgency with this group. I don’t know. Like they’re they feel very locked into where they’re at right now with the three seed. Um and again, not a ton of playoff perspective there. So Chargers, that’s where they’re at. Currently the five seed. There’s going to be a ton of movement over these next few weeks in that regard. The Jaguars and the Colts play each other this week. They’re both eight and four. The Bills are currently the seven seed. So there there’s going to be a ton of movement in the AFC playoff picture. Chargers need just need to make sure that they are beating some AFC teams. That’s that’s one of the main reasons why they’re potentially going to be able to be the five seed is they have a better AFC record than these other teams. So again, important game on Monday Night Football, but this is not a must-win game for the Chargers per se. No, it’s not. Thankfully they they bought so much goodwill so far four and0 in the AFC West in particular so they can kind of afford to drop a game which prime time big game honestly if Herbert ends up sitting this game which he won’t but if he ends up sitting this game or let’s say only plays half the game I don’t know like I’m not I’m not worried if they lose this game. Someone said earlier in the chat like as long as they don’t get embarrassed that’s fine by me. I’m kind of in that boat. I I I’m rooting for them. Of course I want the Chargers to win. But if they don’t, and it’s it’s at the cost of losing one game to get themselves to play as best they can against the remaining AFC opponents, that’s fine by me. Yeah, I I’m on the same page. Obviously, I want them to win, and I feel better about their chances, way better about their chances than previously. But if they lose, it’s not the end of the world, whereas if we both felt like if they lost to the Jaguars and the Raiders, it was very, very poor. And obviously, they got killed by the Jaguars. Um, so I I think this is this is a game they can win, but a game that they do not have to win for the playoff percentages. I think that the coaching staff is going to, you know, rally the troops and this is a national stage and all of this stuff and, you know, it’s all about momentum and and improving week to week and stuff like that. So, I’m sure they are viewing this as a a playoff atmosphere kind of game and and they’re probably right. I don’t think I I you know, barring an injury to Herbert, you know, barring a blowout loss, I think things will be okay if they lose a close game. Yeah. I I the only thing I’ like, and this is more of a national narrative, maybe US discussion kind of thing. Dallas is the Cowboys are are kind of redot, but streaky. They’re losing I think right now by double digits. The Chiefs, I don’t think by the time the Chargers play the Chiefs in a couple of weeks, they’re just kind of a mess right now. Houston, awesome defense, TVD on their offense. Depends on the week, and then you have Denver, who I don’t know what they can make of them. This is one of those games where it it just kind of tells you that they can beat a good team, even though we I just spent 20 minutes saying that they’re they can be had. A lot of a lot of talent on this team. This is the defending Super Bowl champions, right? So, I think that them beating this team just tells me like, okay, they they can rise to that level. Um, yes, they have had great moments on prime time, but one was the Raiders, one was the Steelers, you know, one was the Vikings. So, it’s just like, you know, I I think that rising to the occasion to beat what is right now the three seed in the NFC would be huge for them. Yeah, absolutely. So, the Chargers do not obviously control their destiny for the division. They will definitely need some help uh to catch the Denver Broncos and and if that is still in play, sure, I can I can see how you would think this is a a must-win game for that. Um, but I do think, you know, they have a game against the Texans, they have a game against the Chiefs, they have they have other AFC games where they can continue to win out on tiebreakers and um, you know, if they fall down to the nine seed for this week, it’s it’s not a a huge deal breaker for them. A lot of these teams play each other, the Jaguars and Colts play each other twice. Ravens and Steelers still play each other twice, etc. So, the current AFC playoff picture is going to change a lot. Um, the the Chargers are not locked in anywhere. Like there’s going to be a ton of movement three through 10 basically in the AFC playoff picture for the next few weeks. Yep. Excuse me. Okay. Uh Andrew report and updates. Obviously Justin Herbert is the most important one here. Um the team and and Herbert have all been pretty optimistic this week that he is going to be able to play on Monday night. Um the Chargers did practice yesterday, they practiced today. I I don’t know if that means they’re going to continue practicing uh tomorrow and Saturday as usually like a Monday night football kind of schedule might, you know, uh glean towards, but um he did not participate in practice yesterday. He did the walkthrough that the Chargers had and then today he was officially limited in practice. So, Alex Inor pointed out in our Discord that he was not really featured in many of the pictures of the actual practice. Um so maybe he participated in individual drills, stuff like that, etc. Um Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman have both said that Tre Lance will take the majority of the first team reps this week. Um Herbert was asked if he does not practice fully all week, would he be comfortable still playing? And he said basically I’ve done this several times. So yes, the beginning he’s basically done this every year since his rookie season. Um and he actually did that his rookie season now that I I say that out loud. Um, so we we’ll see what happens. He was practicing with like there was a very thick wrap and almost like a wool glove around his hand that they cut the the tips off the fingers for. Um, he’s not going to be able to go under center, but I do think that just knowing what we know about Herbert and hearing how he’s talking, I I feel pretty confident that he plays. It’s just a matter of, you know, how much are we looking at in terms of like short yardage situations where he has to come out and things like that. Um, but I think Herbert ends up playing. Yeah, he I would put $100 on him playing. To me, it’s more about, you know, okay, ingame, can he finish that game sort of deal. It’s it’s more that can he avoid further injury. That that like freaks me out more than him just like will he play, will he not play? Can he protect himself? Can he protect himself? Can the can this line protect himself? Can Greg Roman protect Justin Herbert? All that sort of stuff. Whatever it takes. So, yeah, he he will definitely definitely play. He came back in the game. He They got on the podium and said they were optimistic about him playing. All the reports are about him playing. He will. He’s the kind of guy that would play. He has to like he has to endear himself to the fan base. Not that I guess he has to. I’m sorry. You follow Philip Rivers. You play. You basically get out there if you can. You get out there and play. and he will. So, I I just I He’s playing. Yeah. My My only thing on I guess more on this later is how much is Trey Lance involved if at all this week in other situations. So, um Tucker Fisk and Deshan Han did not practice today. They were the only other DNPs uh today. We’ll see how much that manifested. I mean, Deshan Han’s dealing with an illness. I I think he will ultimately end up playing. Um, but if Tucker Fist does not practice, that obviously means like Will Dissley is potentially active for the first time in a while. Um, so just such an an interesting thing. Like, you know, they trust Tyler Conklin so much more than Will Dley, but they’re like not playing Tyler Conklin at all. So, I don’t know, man. The tight end situation is is strange. Um, we did not put this on here. Um, we did not have the information yet, but Omarian Hampton was a limited participant in practice today. He was in the yellow jersey again today after wearing it last Friday. We’ll see. There were some reports that came out from CBS that they it was looking increasingly likely that Omarian Hampton would return, but him being in the yellow jersey today makes me kind of be a little bit more doubtful there. Um they still have so the window is 21 days. So essentially he has to play next week against the Chiefs or he goes on season ending injur reserve. So I am a little like a smidge nervous about this situation where he comes back to practice no you know regular jersey and then later in the week he puts the yellow non-cont jersey on and then this week it’s more yellow non contact jersey. So I’m just I’m a smidge nervous about the Omari Hampton situation right now. I’m not going to lie. Yeah. as am I. I I felt better post buy that he was going to return, but with that becoming like no jersey than having to wear the jersey, I just at most if he’s playing it’s very minimal, which is like that’s positive, but I I’m a little worried like you are that he maybe just isn’t playing in this game. Yeah, if he plays in this game even at all. Like that continues to add to me potentially feeling better about this matchup. But we’ll see. Um, Mr. Hassan Haskins had his return window open today. Excuse me. So, again, uh, 21day window has been open for Haskins. We’ll see ultimately if he is able to return. I know that there’s a lot of, you know, not super positive feelings about Hassan Haskins and the fan base, but he is one of their core four special teams players. Um, you know, I think there’s a lot of trust with Ryan Ficken and, you know, how he can perform in his role there. Um, and at the very least, I think he could help with short yardage situations. Um, he is a reliable pass protector. Not that Kamani Videl is not, but the the biggest issue in the Chargers run game right now is is their short yardage situation is not great when handing off to running backs. And I think Hassan Haskins could at least help, you know, a little bit there. It gives them some more options I think if they have a kind of bigger back out there. So um you know if they are able to activate him they would have to kind of find a cut a cut person elsewhere. Um but then you could potentially have Videl Jar Patterson and Assan Haskins active this week. And I think we I think I would feel okay about that group if Amari Hampton is not able to be active. Yeah. Especially given the matchup that they’re about to go up against with the Eagles. Did Haskins have a Wildcat snap last year? I want to say yes. I want to say it was the Patriots game. I feel like there was a snap to Haskins if not more than one. Like there was definitely short yardage stuff from him, but that is something they do have in their toolkit. Let’s say Tre Lance does have to come out there in a short yardage situation. He can throw more at them. I I don’t know. I have no idea what Craig Roman’s going to do this week. If assuming Haskins can even play, by the way, on Monday, I’m not even, you know, that’s not 100%, but he had one Wildcat QB snap in week 17. Uh, and one in week 18. Oh, so two. Who was 17? The Patriots. And then week 18 was the Raiders. So, you’re Don’t remember that one at all. Huh. I don’t remember that one at all. Well, hopefully it’s more like the week 17 one I do remember. Did he score? No, but it was like a solid few yards. Yeah, they they would do a a thing last year where they would put him and Dobbins on the field at the same time and he would be kind of like a offset fullback situation and then they would they would get to a dive kind of play with him from that formation and it worked a good amount. So, I think having Haskins out there at least gives them some more options in in short yardage situations. But again, Herbert cannot go under center. So, you know, we’ll we’ll see what happens there. Yes. Um, from an Eagle side of things, again, we mentioned this earlier, but Jaylen Carr is out. He had shoulder surgery or shoulders surgery, I think was the tweet by Adam Shifter, so I don’t really know what that is. Um, Lane Johnson will not play. He’s dealing with a foot injury. And then you mentioned Jaylen Phillips limited with a concussion. Um, there were some other injuries. Um, Zack Bond was limited today with a hand issue. Jan Dodson with a toe. Marcus Eps uh is making his way back and could potentially start. So, the Eagles are very much a healthier team than the Los Angeles Chargers right now, but they are starting to deal with some injuries. Yeah, they’re limited participants. I feel like they’ll probably trend towards playing. Phillips being limited, but with a concussion makes things, you know, a little trickier. Yeah. Yeah. Carter Johnson being out. I I said on Twitter, I’m I ain’t saying nothing because we did this before the Titans game and Sebastian Joseph Day looked like you name it. I don’t anybody that wasn’t the guy I’m used to seeing. So, we’ll see. Maybe Moro Jomo just gives the Bradley Boseman plenty of trouble or MAC plenty of trouble. But they are I mean they are so dependent on Jaylen Carter and his snaps and and obviously he’s a great player. No surprise. But this defense without him, I don’t know who I can compare it to. It’s not Herbert, but Lad Makoni last year on offense is what it feels like. They are exclusively almost solely reliant on that player doing so much for them that without it, I’m not really sure what their plan is. Yeah. You know, I was me I was talking with some Chargers fans on Twitter and they were like, “Oh, like the Eagles defense elsewhere is still really good.” And like, yes, absolutely. They have a ton of talent. They still have their top two corners. They still have, you know, if Jaylen Phillips plays, like you have Jaylen Phillips, Nolan Smith, etc. Um, the defense overall is really good. You have, uh, Zack Bond, you have I I think Nikobe Dean is healthy if I’m not mistaken. Um, so you have a good linebacker group, you have, you know, a pretty good, you know, safety group. Obviously, Andrew Makuba, I think, is on injur reserve. So either way, the defense is, you know, still extremely talented. you still have Vic Fangio, but when you take out a blue chip player, like regardless of what position that is, as we’ve all experienced at offensive tackle this year or running back or receiver or whoever, you take out a blue chip player who the opposing teams have to spend a ton of time and energy game planning for, it changes everything, man. like it changes how you call games as a defensive coordinator where now like previously you know when you know the the the Eagles get to three edge rusher looks a lot and they use Jaylen Carter as like their their one defensive tackle because he can still you know take on that kind of attention that he still gives up you know uh one-on-one situations across the board and now that is that do you have that same kind of trust with Moro JO do you have that same kind of trust in Jordan Davis etc So there’s just kind of a trickle down effect. And then Jaylen Carter is, you know, he’s he’s one of the best pass rushing defensive tackles in the league. And he’s still really really good as a run defender, is Mororrow JO that much, you know, you know, is he able to create the advantages in the run defense that Jaylen Carter does? So even if you have a high quality backup like OMO behind him, it just changes things. And then your your fourth defensive tackle is now your third defensive tackle, etc. So losing Jaylen Carter, there’s just kind of a trickle down effect as as we all know watching games when like Khalil Mack missed, you know, the first few games of the season. Like what did that do to DRI and Caleb Murphy, etc. Um obviously Moro is probably a better player than than Bud Dri, but that the point is you take out the blue chip player, everything changes after that. Yes, it does. And I’m thankful for it. Yes. And I don’t want to hear anything about Eagles players. Cheese stands. They’re playing like potentially like one game without their two starting tackles and the sky is falling. Like please must be nice. Yeah. Uh let me know when you’re on your your sixth. Yeah. All right. Uh our audio audience is going to take a quick break and then we’re going to be right back with more Chargers Eagles preview after this. All right. So, let’s talk about coaching storylines. We do this every single week. Um I I think there’s some obvious ones here. Um obviously how they adjust with Herbert and things like that. Um but we both are kind of on the same page with other offensive adjustments and you wanted to highlight the offensive line here a little bit. Yeah. So clearly unless Tre Lancers is jumping into this game and when he does great do whatever you want but the offensive line landmarks are so obvious I guess or more obvious in this game because Herbert’s in shotgun. Herbert’s in shotgun. If it’s a run play, it’s probably from shotgun. If it’s a passing play, it’s from shotgun. And so, a lot of the landmarks are what you’re going to have to it makes you more predictable on offense. In addition to the fact that because it’s going to be an Eagles takeover, unfortunately, they’ve kind of done this anyway, maybe even more than I think they need to. They’ll do that silent count snap. And that’s just there’s a lot of giveaways in this one. So you’re you’re li what the defense sees is there’s less you know clutter less motion less whatever it ends up being less um I don’t know it’s it’s not as different right there’s only so much the offense can do because it’s going to start from like the same starting point so that the defense just kind of has a jump on everything whether it’s in the run game whether it’s in the pass rush and I just I’m wondering I don’t think it’ll happen but I’m wondering and hoping that Greg Roman finds a way to mix things up so it’s not so obvious for the defense somewhere where they’re going. Thankfully, there’s no Jaylen Carter in this game, but Jordan Davis is an absolute freak show and whatever you’re trying to do in the run game, he’s going to get there before Bradley Boseman, who actually did look pretty good um on Sunday. But I’m hoping there’s a my long way of a short way of saying it is I hope there’s a way to get these guys on defense guessing more because you’re going to be as obvious in what you’re doing as you’ve been all year. Yeah, I think they did a a pretty good job of like highlighting some Yak concepts and things like that and they got to some toss runs and they did a good they did as good of a job as you can midame to, you know, take out all the under center stuff and adjust to that on the fly. But I didn’t feel like this past Sunday was loud enough for them to just go pure silent count and that’s what they did. I feel like they planned for it and then Raiders fans didn’t show up nearly as much. Um, but when you’re doing the silent count, like you, the silent count is fine. You just have to have some change ups off of it. Like whether that’s going from the situation where Mchaveekton will tap Boseman and then or they’ll do like the arm in front of Boseman kind of situation to Boseman will kind of like peek under himself and then do it. You have to have some kind of mixup from the silent count or a fake silent count, a dummy silent count because we saw last week Crosby had timed it up perfectly like three or four times. And luckily there were a couple when Kamani or the tight end or whatever were still able to chip on him. Um but the the silent count this week is going to be a thing. Like it’s going to be much louder this week than last week. Um, so I’m glad that you highlighted this is a really underrated aspect of this that JJ Watt was talking about this where, you know, if you’re going up against a guy like a Philip Rivers who was great at at the the verbal counts, it can just mess with your head way more often as a pass rusher and it’s never really been something that Herbert’s been like great at. It’s like probably my only real complaint about him is he’s never really tried to push that boundary. And again, you know, there’s a lot of takeover games and stuff like that, but um you can still do that same kind of thing with the silent count. You just have to kind of mix things up a little bit more. Yeah. So, hopefully they do. I’m excited to see how they do it. Um can they will they? I don’t know. Yeah. Um we talked a lot about the outside run game for the Chargers. I think this week in particular, it it even without Jaylen Carter, but with Jaylen Carter, it it was like the biggest thing for me. Um because the Eagles on outside runs are allowing a positive EPA per play, but when teams go inside, they were the best run defense in the league. Again, Jordan Davis and and Jaylen Carter are outstanding defensive tackles. It was like, you know, teams going up to the edges were about, I think from what I saw uh from this graphic, it was like the 10th best rushing defense, which is still really good, but when the teams go up the middle against them, they’re like one of the best ever run defenses. So, obviously the Chargers cannot just spam outside runs, especially without, you know, being able to go under center here. Um, but the PFF guys were talking about this where the Chargers run blocking unit in terms of PFF grades is the worst run blocking unit in the league, but their rushing grade overall as a team is still like second or third in the league. It’s because when they go outside, they’re almost always hitting an explosive run. They’re effectively successful on every single attempt. I think they’re averaging 5.1 yards per carry outside of the tackles, which is objectively great. And then they’re 11th in explosive run rate when they go outside. So, if Kamani Midell and Amari Hampton are both playing, this should definitely be a thing. I think this is also a situation where you involve the receivers. You know, they did the pop pass with Trey Harris. You know, we haven’t really seen a ton of like Darius Davis jet sweeps, stuff like that. Um, so you ha, again, you have to get creative this week. You know, we saw a few weeks ago against um the Pittsburgh Steelers, I want to say, or you there was like that one game where it was there was just like a ton of inside runs and we’re like, “What are you doing with this offense right now?” So, just lean into what works. I know you have to like set things up and you have to window dress things and all that. They actually did a lot of outside runs this past week out of 11 personnel, which was different as opposed to doing it with the big tight ends packages and all that stuff. Um, so lean into what works, which is the outside run game. Make the the Eagles, you know, cover every single blade of grass, you know, in terms of the run defense. And I think that’s your method to success this week. If you try and, you know, establish the the inside run game against this group like with Jordan Davis still in there, I don’t think it’s going to work. They they like they cannot. I know. And I’m I’m dreading it because it is the every other week for Kamani and it’s it’s always every other week like the intention changes. Maybe it’s by opponent. I don’t know. It’s it’s a coincidence. I have no idea. But it’s like let’s spam outside. Wow, what a day. Now let’s run up the middle. Oh, what a bad day. Now let’s run outside. And of course you have to run up the middle. You can’t just not run up the middle. And yes, like duh outside the tackles is always like the EP I believe it’s generally EPA across the board. the efficiency is generally higher, but it’s so much higher with the Chargers this year because that’s just what works for their players. When you’re using Zion, when you’re using Trey Harris, hell, even Bradley Boseman a couple moves, uh Jamari Ser had a couple good ones. Hell, get Mai Beckton out there. Whatever it is, it just works well for them. If this is the week they go, let’s run Kamani Videll at Jordan Davis. I I mean, we’ve picked several weeks to talk about firing Greg Roman, but that’s that’s practically fireable in all of itself. Why would that be your decision? I have no idea. So hopefully that is not the case this week, but I’m very concerned because it is the every other week. Yeah. So last week, uh, Kamani Videll had eight carries that went outside of the left tackle. Uh, which is a lot. That’s that’s great. Love it. It was eight carries for 74 yards. Against the Jaguars, he had exactly one carry that went outside the tackle box. Again, he only he did not have a ton of carries that game. It was only like six or seven. Uh but only one outside run. Um against the Steelers, uh it was six outside to the left and two outside to the right. So eight. That’s great. Sounds like eight is like the magic number. Um week nine against the Titans, one outside run. One single outside run against the Tennessee Titans. Makes no sense to me. Against the Minnesota Vikings, it was six outside runs, 117 yards. like you mentioned every other week it’s the Kamani Vo game. Maybe it’s Greg Roman is like not leaning to what works in. So, um I just think this is the game where you you need to continue to lean into it. If you try and pound your head against the the Eagles defensive line, even without Jaylen Carter, it’s just it’s not going to go well. No, hopefully not. Yeah. All right. Uh most excited to see here. I I had a tough one to come up with this one, but we talked a little bit about the UNS of this team on Tuesday and we did mention Khil Mack. Um, but he had six pressures on like 14 pass rush reps against the Raiders this past week according to NextGen stats. PF was a little stricter. They only gave him five, so they knocked him on one. I thought his run defense again looking at some of the tape back was was great. I this feels like a game like where Khalil Mack who’s been healthier and healthier, you know, he is playing his best football of the season right now coming off of that game. Um you’re playing against a backup right tackle, a a good backup right tackle, Fred Johnson, but he’s still a backup right tackle. Jordan Milada actually has allowed way more pressures than you know he has done so through week 13 previously. Um, his pass blocking efficiency ratings in the 97s, which he’s usually in the 98s. He’s a very good left tackle. I don’t know if he’s dealing with an injury or what. Um, but this feels like a game where Khil Mack just comes out and tries to kind of set the tone early. Again, Monday Night Football, not a must-win by our standards, but maybe by their standards, they’re like, “Hey, man, like we got to rally and win this game.” Um, you know, they’re playing against Saquon Markley, who is again not as dominant as last year, but it just feels like a game where Kumac can kind of turn back the clock a little bit. Um, show people on a national stage that he still has it, that he could still be a dominant player. Um, and I think this is a a good setup for him to do that. Um, I could put Tuli in this. We’ve talked a lot about Tuli. I think overall this feels like a game where the Chargers edge rushers, they’re kind of, you know, Kevin talked about the offensive coordinator, the straw that stirs a drink. Khalil and Tulie are the star are the straws that stir this drink, I think, on on the Chargers defense, and they need to show up big in this game. Set the tone early for this defense to have a positive chance uh this week on Monday Night Football. Yeah, Khil Mack didn’t get as many counting stats as as I really thought, but watching the game, watching the film, he’s the guy that just drives the right tackle back into Gino Smith that allows Tuli to make that sack or whatever the end plays end up being. Like, he was so good. The power was still there. Yeah, it was the Raiders. He just does that, but this is another very good opportunity for him. It’s really just the whole defense in general that it’s prime time. It’s it’s a not fresh off the buy, but they’re still pretty fresh off the buy after beating a Raiders team that didn’t give much of a fight, unless they were cheaping. And thank you for all the views, Raiders fans on our short. Uh, they were not happy at that one. No, of course they weren’t happy, but whatever. What else can they do? Misery loves company. Uh, yes, Kak going off in this game. I I’m excited to see that the defense in general. I think a lot of us are feeling that the offense will do hopefully what it needs to do or at least stay on par, you know, with what they need to do. We all kind of feel like it’s the defense that has to be the one that rises to the occasion that changes everything for the Chargers in this one. Just like they’re relying on their defense for this one. And that for me is kind of where I’m going with what I’m most excited to see. Last time I did this was it was against the Eagles and sort of didn’t matter what Jefferson or Addison were doing because Carson Wentz was just getting destroyed by the Chargers front. Like it there was nothing for him. I don’t remember what the numbers were in that game. They probably had under 50 yards combined. I want to say in that particular game and this one it’s no different. AJ Brown, Devonte Smith on the boundary. Yes, they can do more than just the boundary but those two on the boundary versus your Dante Jackson, Cam Hart, Tarib Still, Benjamin St. used. You can’t throw on the boundary at Dante Jackson this year. It is not happening. I mean, you can. It just gets picked off or deflected into Tony Jefferson or whatever. And Jaylen Herz, you know, only about 9% of his completions this year are above, excuse me, over 10 yards and in between the numbers. So, this is this is generally speaking a guy that is going to throw to the boundary. Throw to the boundary. I could have also included the cover zero stuff here that mentor mentor said it was week to week. What did I expect him to say? Yes, we’re going to break covers here against the Eagles, but I I think there’s like mentor still has to I think prove it against the really really great offensive coordinators, particularly in the run game. But it feels like when he knows that offensive coordinator ain’t it and especially with the way the Eagles line is playing and without Lane Johnson and they he knows that Jaylen Herz has been struggling to throw in general. I feel like Mard is is is really really good at smelling blood in the water and getting after these guys. I’m very excited to see what he dials up this week. I feel like it’ll be a continuation of last week. Um and there’s no Brock Bowers. No offense to that Goddard, but like he ain’t Brock Bowers. Um, but they do have better receivers. So, I’m I’m excited to see these way these corners battle because there’s all this discussion on always like you got to get it to AJ Brown. You got to get to Smith. Why aren’t you getting it to AJ Brown? And they’ve gotten it to AJ Brown more and more the last couple of weeks. I mean, if he’s not in the Pro Bowl conversation because he’s no one votes for him, but if Dante Jackson does it again this week, I he’s playing effing good football and hopefully he can do it again this week. Yeah, Dante Jackson it feels like any out route he’s just like on it. Um and Cam Hart did get beat a little bit um by Thornton this past week, but that’s that’s a very different kind of receiver who runs like a 4-3 is not really like a you know a physical receiver. You know, Cam likes to get his hands on on receivers quick and that’s kind of his way to do that. So, um, you know, one of the biggest things that people have talked about with the Eagles is like how do you create, you know, uh, positive plays versus zone. Like that’s been the one of the main things that Dan Rosowski has been talking about this season. Um, is they’re just they they cannot pass the football effectively against zone coverages and the Chargers do that a ton. Will they do a lot more man this week than they have been? I think so because that was what they tapped into over the bye-week. think that’s here to stay a little bit. Um, but with the way that they match routes, like if you’re not running a lot of like deep play action crossers, if you’re not trying to the weak point of the Chargers defense is behind the linebackers, as we’ve talked about throughout the season, the Eagles don’t really target the middle of the field. As you pointed out, 20 completions between the numbers over 10 yards, that’s got to be some of the lowest numbers in the league. like they he wants to throw the boundary as much as possible. So, it’s a lot of 50/50 plays and Dante Jackson, you know, created a very positive 50-50 play this past week. Cam Hart had some struggles in 50/50 plays. Is this a week where, you know, they can create multiple turnovers? Is this a week where they create, you know, uh some instances, some pass breakups, force some punts, etc. I think these corners should be up for the challenge. Again, we highlighted them on Tuesday. I think they’re all playing really well. Obviously AJ Brown is a different beast, you know, with his physicality and Dvonte Smith is so physical and almost always seems to come down with these 50-50 balls, but they’re going to be tested this week. And I I I think the Chargers corners will be up for the task this week. I can’t believe that’s even something I feel mildly comfortable with, too. Like I think they’ll lose some because it’s AJ Brown and Montre Smith, but and there’s going to be way more 50-50 chances than other teams have thrown at them. Yes, definitely. Like they almost have to force it. like they that’s just what they do. So, they’re gonna have to see if it works and and I’m excited to watch it. Yeah, I think so, too. All right, Tyler, what is keeping you up at night about this game? It’s just the uncertainty post Jaylen Carter. Like, yes, losing Jaylen Carter for the week, that’s great. So, what are you going to do? The Eagles are are bottom 10 in blitz rate. They are 23rd or whatever it is, and they’ve just been dependent on Jaylen Carter to do the thing for them. Now that you don’t have that and you’ve you’ve been so dependent on him and Jordan Davis in in the run game, but what do you do? What do you do to heat up Justin Herbert? Because this is a guy who I mean, it’s gross to kind of say it, but you you almost kind of want to take him out of the game in in the most legal but physical way possible. You want to hit Justin Herbert and get him uncomfortable because he has to protect his hand and he knows he has to protect his hand. So, what do you do? How do you heat him up? Um, I think that there’s a variety of ways they can do it. Clearly, we’ve seen Jaylen Phillips, you know, go against Bradley Boseman before and that’s worked. Nolan Smith has been kind of quiet, but he came back the last couple of weeks um and has been like playing a little bit better. So, we’ll see what is their plan. They don’t blitz a ton. They’ve relied so much on Jaylen Carter. What’s keeping me up at night is just what what is their response? they they’ve lost, you know, the trickle down effect, as you mentioned, you know, affects everybody on defense in the rest of the way. So, with all those different parts, losing your greatest player on defense, what’s the plan? And that just that just keeps me up at night because we don’t know what that is going to be. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of uncertainty with how they do that. Um, how do they create is Jaylen Phillips more involved as like a looper or things like that I think are very, you know, interesting to watch. So, just going back through some of the numbers of like the Vic Vanio era, um he’s split in at like an 18% rate this year, which is insanely low um for for who they have. Obviously, when they were when he was with the Broncos, he was about 25% uh in 2021 and in 2020 was about 26%. So, he he has in the past been a a coach who will blitz more frequently. Um, but it is definitely not like his, you know, main pitch, so to speak. But it it’s I think the Chargers have been this for a long time, they were the first, they were the highest blitz team in the league. Um, because teams don’t think the Chargers can protect in those looks. The last couple of weeks, they have not been blitzed a ton. Uh, the Jaguars and the Raiders have did not blitz them a ton. So, maybe it’s potentially swinging back the other way. Um, we’ll see kind of what the Eagles approach is, but I do think in general like Vic Vangio versus Greg Roman, I think is is a bit of a coaching mismatch. And I know we’re not like the biggest Greg Roman fans, but Vic Evangio has is one of the best coaches in NFL history at scheming together a NFL game plan in the middle of the week that exposes your weaknesses. And we saw that time and time again when he was with the Broncos. obviously when he was with the Bears, you know, he had a very strong reputation for that. Um, so I think the Chargers are going to have to be ready for a different kind of schematic defense than we’ve seen just because like you mentioned, what does this look like without Jaylen Carter? I can’t imagine Vic is going to be like, “Yeah, Moro Jama is going to do the same exact stuff.” Yeah. Like I think he is going to change things up and I think this is the right framing of mind to to start that game. I know Jiad Campbell didn’t play a ton of snaps the last game. I don’t recall. I know there there was discussion of him and I don’t remember what it was. He played 11 snaps last game, 21 the week before. Has not been the, you know, 50 snap guy previously, but maybe that’s pass rush this week. I don’t know. Yeah, Vic is very much an old coach who does not like rookies. So, that doesn’t surprise me that, you know, with Nico being healthier that he’s playing less. But, um, you know, I think he could be a bit of an X-factor this week there as well. Yep. Um, I think yours is the right one. General Vic Vanjo versus Greg Roman. But I I think one of the things we’ve been talking about is just kind of the Chargers ability to rise to the occasion versus good teams or, you know, not rise to the occasion versus bad teams. We don’t really know what kind of team we’re going to get from the Chargers each week. Um, is this a game where the Chargers, you know, rise up against the the Chiefs or they rise up against the Broncos or they rise up against the Vikings and the Steelers and stuff like that? Is prime time Herbert still really on the table with this hand injury, stuff like that? Um, what version of the Chargers do we get today or on not today on Monday I should say or is this the team that the Eagles flipped their switch on? Like, yeah, I I know that we talked all about the bad vibes and I’m kind of talking myself into the pick net win right now, but the Eagles still just have a gear that few teams can get to because their roster is just so good across the board. Even without Jaylen Carter, even without Lane Johnson, we’re still talking about like six allpro players on this team that can just say, you know what, [ __ ] you guys. I’m going to take this game over. So that part kind of terrifies me a little bit. The Chargers just do not have that kind of power firepower right now with all the injuries where if the Eagles just turn it on, man, like this could get ugly quickly. Um, and again, I I I don’t know how much stock I’m putting into if they lose this game. Um, but overall, just like the outcome where the Eagles just decide, hey, yeah, we’re kind of done with playing with our food. Like, let’s just go out on Monday Night Football and just destroy these guys. That possibility is totally out there on on Monday night. If if you’re an Eagles fan, let’s say you do this exact same podcast, but it’s guilty as Eagles. I don’t [ __ ] know. Whatever the Eagles equivalent of that is, you somebody find that. Yeah, exactly. Um, fly eagles guilty. No, doesn’t work. Fly Eagles Guilty has a awful abbreviation. Really good job, Stephen. I didn’t even think about that. Oh, man. Anyway, moving on. We Sorry. Uh, what was the word I was trying to talk to? Oh, um, wow. What was I saying? Oh, if I’m an Eagles podcast and I made up some fake Eagles podcast. Uh, I would say, “Wow, hey, this is our get right game. Herbert’s hurt. Their line sucks. They can’t defend the run. Here comes Saquon Barks.” Like, boy, if you want to figure out how to run again and get that run game going again, here you go. Who’s Dante Jackson? No idea. AJ Brown, get right game. You know, uh, we’re trying to get this, this, and that going great. Like, we have our offensive line struggling, but it’s, you know, third round pick and it’s a [ __ ] hand. Like, these players are me. You even look at the numbers of those players, you go, me. So, there’s a world like we are, I’m approaching this more positively. I feel like um as a Chargers fan, I guess that’s natural, but there’s a world where the Eagles go this team, this group, you know, and if if honestly if not for their offensive coordinator and some of the injuries. Yeah, I think the Chargers do get stomped in this game. There’s also a world, you know, of course, where Herbert is unable to finish this game or that injury is so bad or that surgery and all that recovery and all that sort of stuff is just so limiting and nags him and it’s just like one hit. Yeah. Hey, pressure from Mai Beckton’s side, you throw it. Oh, no. It’s just not his throwing hand. But let’s say for whatever reason something hits him. Okay. Well, then the next three and a half quarters are him even worse. Maybe pulled halfway through back to the locker room. So there’s there’s a whole world where the Chargers just get steamrolled by the Eagles. So it it is very nerve-wracking to have any confidence in this game because it is it is so easy for you and I or anyone in the chat to say and this is why the Chargers lose by 20. Yeah. And there’s again the vibes for the Eagles have not been good. We covered that. But there’s just a like AJ Brown is one of two or three players that can just go completely nuclear at wide receiver and just put up a 250 yard game. like it it’s it’s in his capabilities. Damonte Smith, great player. Saquon Barkley, not historically good like last year, but still very good. Um, you know, Jaylen Phillips, Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis, these are all great players. Uh, Zack Bond was first team allpro last year. So, Quinon Mitchell, Cooper Deene, great players at corner. So, it’s just what version of either of these teams we get, I think, is is very up in the air this week. And I think that makes for a lot more uncertainty than I am comfortable with picking this game. Um, but I guess it there’s uncertainty whereas a couple weeks ago I was like this is a loss for the Chargers. So yeah, you know, I guess the Eagles uncertainty has definitely, you know, swung things a little bit back the other way, right? I mean, shoot, all Nolan Smith goes off and goes, “Hi, Jamari. I remember you. Um, let’s uh I’m going to beat you this.” Had a lot of practices against each other for sure. Yes. Which So you never know. Yeah. Yeah. These two teams I’ve it’s there’s really hard to figure out. Um X factors this week. I I think you have to talk about Trey Lance this week. Um I think at minimum for the Chargers, he needs to be brought into the game for some short yardage situations. The Chargers in general are not great in short yardage situation, but the the one saving grace has been the power surge. Like they’re so good at it. They’re almost their their success rate is better than anybody not named the Eagles in terms of the the quoteunquote tush push. Um so that’s been the saving grace. You can’t do that with Justin Herbert out there. Um we have seen so many instances where your X factor just gets completely beat to his spot and the short yardage run game just does not look good. It’s really really difficult to get to the edges in shortarded situations like we we’ve we talked about earlier that that should be like the key emphasis. So I I think that Trey Lance coming into some shortage situations, you know, doing a zone read where he could potentially keep it. Can he be the sneak guy? I I think we could see a world where Tre Lance is out there, you know, four to eight times and potentially offers the Chargers uh a a swing play or two on fourth down or on third and short, etc. Um just because Herbert can’t do the under center stuff. And I think you can get away against you can get away with no under the center stuff against the Raiders who their defense is not very good against the Eagles. You need to diversify your game plan as much as you possibly can. And so Trey Lance coming in, you know, four or five plays, I think makes that a more viable overall game plan, just keeping the the Eagles defense honest. Um the other side of this, which I I talked a little bit about, Trey Harris and the Yak opportunities last week, there were three of them. One of them kind of got delayed from uh a penalty. You know, they were going to throw him a screen. He had the pop pass and then he had the slant. you know, three in that kind of game plan where they were running the football a ton is is kind of a lot. I think this week where maybe this is a game where it’s a little bit more positive game script for the Eagles or neutral game script for the Chargers. Let’s get Trey Harris the football, you know, four or five times in Yak concepts. I don’t know that would make you very happy, but it is it is something that he’s really good at. Like he is able to make people miss. He has a really nice feel for those jet sweep areas and like he is a taller guy, but he is he is a little bit more shifty than someone like a Quentyn Johnson or even somebody like a Darius Davis. So, he just kind of fits in that role. And I think again just giving the Eagles some extra eye candy, some different plays helps the offense overall stay a little bit more on positive game script on, you know, stay ahead of the chains. And so whether it’s Trey Lance or Trey Harris, I think both of them could potentially offer, you know, two or three plays in this game that could be a very positive momentum builder for the Chargers on offense. Yeah, I I think you have to involve Trey Lance in some way this game. I’m sure we’ll see him, let’s call it, three snaps in this game and hopefully no more, but let’s say there’s three design things for him this game. And then with Trey Harris, the they have struggled mightily with a jet sweep or anything. Not a pop pass necessarily. Maybe they haven’t done that a whole lot, but it’s only been the one to Keenan and one to Trey. So, yeah. And then with the with the jet sweep stuff going back to last year, it’s like here goes Darius Davis running at a mile a minute, but it’s like nothing, you know? I feel like it never really goes anywhere. With Trey Harris, not that he’s very fast, but he he’ll have no problem picking up that extra yard. If it’s third and it’s third and two, he’ll drop his shoulder. Like, he has zero problem being physical in those situations. Love that. if you have to go heavy RPO in this game and you know maybe they’re sending people I don’t know and you got to have someone win quick win on a slant I mean okay yeah there Kenan there’s ladi I get that but Trey Harris is a great option for you to have as well so I don’t mind that at all I really am curious in what I’m assuming is going to be a more pass required game and quick pass required game how much they get Trey Harris involved are we going to see a I don’t know what the snap counts ended up being but are we going to see some sort of switch to Johnson have maybe less of a role or Keenan Allen having less of a role. I know Keenan Allen snaps had gone down, but I don’t know, man. I’m just I’m ready for Trey Harris to have those games and get targeted with intention more frequently. And so, yeah, I I love both these guys as an X-factor. I mean, Tre Lance being the ultimate X-actor because he could play 50 snaps in this game for all we know. So, we’ll see. Uh, real quickly before you get to yours on the snap counts this past week, Chargers had 67 total plays on offense. Lad Manki had 51 plays, Quentyn Johnson 45, Keenan Allen 40, Trey Harris 34. So pretty even outside of after Lad. Um, in week 11 for what it’s worth, 48 total plays. Um, Quentyn Johnson had 43, Keenan Allen 36, Lad McConi 30 that week, and then Trey Harris 25. So that I don’t know what happened with Lad that week, but 30 is a little strange there. Um, if you want week 10 against the Steelers, 73 plays, Quentyn 60, Lad 52, Keenan 37, Trey 32. So out outside of the Jaguars game, it’s been Lad and Quentyn have been kind of like the two main guys and then Keenan and Trey Harris have been kind of even around, you know, 25 to 35. Yeah. So get him out. Get him out there. that he does he does so much on the field. Like if if you thought Trey Harris was just a blocker, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t, you know, I’d be fine with that because he looks like it. As someone watching film or as a casual fan, like this guy just has what, 150 yards and he blocks like crazy. There’s so much that he does as a blocker where it’s just you can build so much from that because you have to respect that he could spring a run for 57 yards or catch a pass or whatever it I mean, they tried. Oh my gosh, I forget who it was. Not Broncos Commanders. No, there was one play they had for him where they finally had a motion. They Oh, could have gone up the field untouched. 60 yards. Dang. I forget which game that was, but it was there. Oh, I think it I think it was the Commander game like early in the Commander game. Yeah, because they had they had him I mean over and over again. Motion block, motion block, motion or go to the flat. They had him finally get up the field and it was it was there. This is possible that that happens in this game. I hope so. Yeah. Um, you have Mcketchin as an X factor, which is a good selection, but it’s been so bad the last few weeks. X Factor of all X factors, right? I feel like I try to pick Xactor as something that is positive and has a sneaky advantage. To me, it’s just, dude, you’re playing your former team. Bring something this week, man. You know, it would look so good. But even you look at the numbers for week one, I think he was like their highest rated player on offense. I mean, Mai Beckton the first 2.2 games of the season. I’m going, “Hell yeah, what a value.” And then since then, the only reason he’s not, you know, in the bottom 10 in pass blocking efficiency among guards the last 12 weeks is because two of his teammates are. Otherwise, he would have been, but Foster Serill and I can’t remember the other person. Oh, actually, it was Jamari, I think. um not so great in the PBE department. Dude, bring something against your former team. I I really really want Mai Beckton to do well in this game. I did write this before Jaylen Carter was taken out of the game, but that’s that would have been a hell of a mismatch anyway. Just give me something. Be positive. You know, get to your landmarks. Again, the landmarks of this team that just you’ve cut half of them off. So, boy, you got to beat players to their spots. You got to make sure you get out in front. Whatever you got to do, I just please have a good game. Yeah. Yeah. So, he allowed uh five, you know, let me make sure I get this. Five pressures in his first six games and then in the last five games, that number is 16. So, that’s not full games. Yeah, they’re not full games. Um, his run blocking grade last year in Philadelphia was 70. We we talked a little bit about this after he expressed his frustrations, but his run blocking grade last year for Philadelphia was 70. Right now it’s 40 for the Chargers. And again, it’s not like the end all beall, but the the the run blocking win rate on ESPN is very very low. So yeah, the Chargers like he just has to not be horrible. Like that’s really all I’m asking for for the final five games is don’t just like you’re he’s been a detriment to the team in run blocking. The pass protection the last few weeks has only been like I think it’s three pressures the last three games. There was a seven pressure game and a five pressure game which is really really bad. Um they just need him to kind of be somewhere in the middle with where he was to start the season and now. Um there’s so many times a game where, you know, him and Pipkins will will try and wash down the side on a double team and he comes off the double team way too early or way too late. You know, there are times where he’s trying to pick up a stunt with Bradley Boseman and he’ll come off the block to try and go help Pipkins and then Boseman ends up getting beat. Like it it’s the cohesion is just not it’s not in a positive spot right now. The timing has been bad. He’s not getting off the ball at the same kind of rate that he was in Philadelphia. So, it’s it’s not been very good. If he can give them, you know, midlevel Mai Beckton for the final five games and just not be a detriment to the team, it would be great because, you know, Zion’s playing well. M Bradley Boseman quietly has had two games in a row that have been pretty good um for Bradley Boseman standards. So, just don’t be actively bad and the Chargers can be okay on on the offensive line and I think hopefully a revenge game can kind of kick him back into high gear. Mid-level Mai, that’s that’s our standard we’re at. I mean, his contract is a mid-level contract, too. Yeah. All right. Should we get into our predictions? Yeah, let’s do it. Um, got this. I’ll go first. Yeah, folks. [ __ ] them. The Chargers are kicking the [ __ ] out of the Eagles this week. I I I just think a combination of prime time faking. Wow. Everyone’s picking the Chargers to lose this one. F them. You know what? Someone on our I just I just looked at Apple podcast and someone said we say the f word too much. [ __ ] the Eagles. [ __ ] beat them. [ __ ] them in 30 to 17. [ __ ] them. Sorry, mom. Sorry to actually not sorry to Philadelphia. Uh, did the Eagles say the f- word like the most per capita of any%. And you know what? I need Joe Burr. Joe Burr. What? Bill Burr had a hell of a rant in front of a Philly audience that was booing him. That’s how I feel about this game. My sorry grandpa. Sorry relatives. Love the East Coast. [ __ ] him. Chargers are winning 30 to 17. The return game returns. Dicker’s amazing. Herbert’s amazing. They run like crazy. They beat the [ __ ] out of him at the line of scrimmage. [ __ ] him. Adam rank, love you. You picked the Chargers to win. Everybody else there, your turn. The chat loves this right now. Uh, this is fantastic. I was not expecting this. I did not look at this slide until we hop on, so I didn’t know. Uh, the mighty Cook. I’m going to get clipped out so [ __ ] bad if they lose this game. By the way, I again, I did not expect this kind of energy from Ty right now. 30-7. Yep. Wow, dude. I’m stunning, brother. It’s prime time, man. What else does this team do on prime time this year? That’s true. Um, I’m a little bit more conflicted than Tyler. fair, but I’ve been I’ve been so on this train of like I think it’s a a loss, but dude, you got me fired up, man. I I think the the negative vibes around the Eagles and Tyler’s rant right here is is going to make me pick a win. I’m not going to do 30 to 17. I think in my head, I picture this as the Eagles continue to struggle on offense and they’re not a great matchup for the Chargers defense. The Jesse Mentor has a really good plan. I think the Chargers defense will continue to struggle, Herbert’s injury, etc. I I kind of I’m with Kevin in the chat. I think like 20 to 14 is kind of how I’m feeling right now. Um, and that would be huge for the Chargers, man. A 20 to 14 win, if they can get to 17, I feel pretty good about their chances uh of winning this game. So, you’re hyped. I’m a little bit conflicted, but I’m gonna nervously pick a Chargers win as well. Um, just the vibes are not great in Philadelphia. You know, obviously I would love for if Herbert were fully healthy in this game, I’d be right there with you with the [ __ ] energy, but that part I think is is just like my big hiccup, but I I do think that they can get to 17 to 20 points and Jesse Mentor just might have a masterclass game this week and I think that that should be enough. So, I’m on Monday I was probably going to pick 307 Eagles. Today, I’m going to say 2014 Chargers. I I I just am a little prepared for Mincy to do some some nasty stuff. I I just think after the buy they went, “All right, let’s try this.” And I know it was the Raiders. I get it. The Eagles almost look as sad on offense. They got better players, but they almost looked as sad watching them the last couple of weeks. I don’t know, man. I just think the Chargers have pulled this one out pretty big. Yeah. Attakus pointing out if Herbert were healthy, it totally feels like this is like a big scramble moment for him. Um, but we we will see. Maybe this is a big Trey Lance run game. I don’t know. Uh, shall we give the predictions if Herbert does not play? Uh, if Herbert doesn’t play, I will say the Chargers lose 23-13. just just because I think Trey can run enough where it’s it’s a thing where they could at least move the football a little bit. Yeah. Um but obviously Herbert playing it’s like the prime time Herbert is a huge factor here. Yeah. And there there’s just something about the comparisons between quarterbacks. I know Herbert isn’t like open about any of this when it comes to like always played well against Miami. Joe Burrow. Yep. You know, there’s just there’s just something Herbert seems to do in these situations where it’s like, yeah, you know, he won the Super Bowl and he was the MVP. Yeah. You know, all this and that, but like let me show you some real quarterbacking with one hand. Yeah. With one hand. Yeah. Um Yeah. I think the the class the games against the 2020 group, Herbert has always played very well. Um he’s only played the Eagles once, right? that uh 2021 in Philly was the last time. Is that it? I guess that is it. Huh? Or was that 2022? Uh it was I think it was 2021. 2021. Good Joe Lombardi year. Yeah, there was a uh that was one of the games where Herbert rolled right and hit Mike Williams on one of those like awesome like roll out deep overs that they did all the time. And the Eagles were they were not they were not quite the this version this era of the Eagles, right? Like that 2021 team I want to say made it to the playoffs, but then Todd Bulls like just completely put Jaylen Herz in a blender that year. So there was like some talk about the Eagles going after Lamar and Deshawn Watson after the 2021 season. So that that Eagles team was not not great. Imagine if they had gone after Deshun Watson. Man, that would be crazy. Um, yeah. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Tyler. Uh, any other uh thoughts on this game before we get to some some super chats? I apologize for the f-words. We don’t even say it that much. It’s like it’s a small handful of times in comparison to a lot of other podcasts out there. Yes. Uh I this today on Apple podcast it was they said the f-word and another one was one star for putting radical ads in our videos or in our in our podcasts. Radical ads. Okay. I don’t know what a what a dumb thing to get mad about, but it is what it is. All right. Uh, let’s get to some super chats here. Um, basically Dutch getting us started here said, “Did I claim top listener according to rap?” Someone asked if we can check that. I don’t know how to check that. I don’t have Spotify, so I I do not know if we can check that. There was a YouTube one. Yeah, some of the YouTube ones will say like top x percent. I’ve seen those. Yeah, I have not seen whoever the top YouTube watcher is, but you know, I would have to look for those asking. We only do the one price picks ad that Stephen says. So, unless that is radicalizing sleeper, you know, agents like the Winter Soldier, then Yeah. So, we have obviously our deal with Blue Wire, they do the ads for us. Um, and so we put the ad placements in. Yeah. When I say we’re taking a break, so there’s there’s uh pre-show ads, post post ads, and then the midroll ads are what they’re called. We don’t really control those. Like if there’s a read, then I do a read. Like there’s uh one of the reads they had us do recently was for like a mattress. So whatever, an actual sleeper cell. I I strongly strongly doubt and I have listened like the ads are not radical at all. Like that’s that’s a ridiculous thing to say. Can you imagine it’s like we’re going to take a break and audio audience be right back and then just cuts to like Adolf Hitler and then just like in the middle of our podcast. Yeah. Yeah. I I don’t know, man. But uh anyways, basically Dutch, anybody who has tagged us in their wrap-ups, I love it. um you know there was one that was like we’ve listened to uh or we watched 300 videos of of you this year and I was like it’s just crazy to look at it in that kind of you know quantity and and we’re not even a podcast that puts out daily content. So um basically Dutch anybody else who has tagged us in those we really really appreciate it. Um there a bunch of people in our Discord sent theirs and there were like 20 messages in there of of the wrapup. So I love seeing those. It’s It’s just good for the vibes, good for our spirit. So, we appreciate that. Anybody who has sent us stuff, uh, thank you for that. Thank you for basically Dutch for jumping in here and getting that started. Thank you for pardon my take for and it was fake, but they made up a little one and put us on it and it was it was nice. It was nice. Shout out to Zach on part of my take. Uh, it’s just it’s even if it was joke, man, I will I will absolutely take it. But part of my take has a million followers on Twitter. So, the fact that our logo popped up on their page is is still really cool. Yes. Yes, that is pretty cool. Uh, Aar next in here gives his his annual bull prediction. Uh, says Chargers defense rises up to keep the birds in the cage. Love that. Five sacks, three turnovers, holds them under 20 points. Win 27 to13. Let’s go. Chiefs also lose, he says. So, I think we we both are having them under 20 points. So, I I think that part is good. Three turnovers would be huge. Um, five sacks. That to me is probably the boldest one of a predictions here. But, um, I think we’re all on the same page. Chargers defense we are hoping thinking shows up in a very positive way. I can’t believe I picked a bigger win than Aier. Yeah. Didn’t know that was possible. No. Uh, but I’m feeling it, guys. I’m feeling it. Yeah. Yeah, you were. Uh, the with another one says, “One last time, give me the Ravens in Baltimore.” Uh, who are they playing? Yeah. Oh, for the play like for the playoffs. Yeah. I don’t know. We all wanted Houston last year and that did not go well. I flew there with confidence. I I flew in a red eye. Yeah, man. Yeah. If Yeah. I I don’t know if I’m going to do the Yeah, I want this team in the playoffs again after after last year. Yeah. Um the the worst possible situation for the Chargers, I think, would have to be going to Denver two weeks in a row. I do not like that option at all. If they have to play at New England, I kind of feel given their history, but I still am a little skeptical about the Patriots overall. Me, too. Um, the Bills defense is horrible. They’re not going to win their division. I think they’re too far behind the Patriots at this point, but the Steelers very beatable. So, Ravens are not the usual Ravens, but again, you know, five weeks left. We’ll see how that changes. So the the one situation I’m absolutely trying to avoid is playing at Denver two weeks in a row. Yeah. Go in at Denver. Okay. Not do it again when they want to win. Yes. Like Yes. No thank you. Yeah. No thank you. Do not want that at all. Uh basically Dutch says that he is stoked to live in California and see Charger fans in town. Uh where did you move from and where are you now? Because I I I don’t know if that’s been mentioned before. Uh he’s uh I don’t know. He’s Dutch. He’s foreign. There was Okay. Uh Alex Bridgefor says, “Glad to make it live. My son’s 11, 9, seven, and five years old. Love it. Sorry for the effort for your sons.” Oh yeah. [ __ ] yeah. I love it for your kids. [ __ ] [ __ ] 11 [ __ ] n [ __ ] seven [ __ ] five. Happy happy. Uh man, you guys you guys are good planners. That’s two years every single every single time. That’s that’s good planning right there. That that is pretty good. Uh start letting him play center. Herbert’s going to need it about 10 years in 10 minutes. About was good on Sunday. I will give him credit for for being good on Yes, we are saying that. And I’m glad we’ve said that out loud so we’re not complete haters. Yeah. be good again this week and you will get way more credit from from us. Yeah. Uh Farman420 says, “Love you guys. BTF you.” We love you too, Fartman. Thank you, Fartman 420. This is a great name. I love it so much. Um Athe says his X factor is lad over 120 yards and two touchdowns. Let’s go. I’m very curious how we didn’t talk a ton about this, but the Eagles do let Quinon Mitchell shadow like he it’s it’s kind of hit or miss depending on if teams have like a true X receiver, but he does shadow. He has gone into the slot somewhat. Cooper Deene is a little bit flexible slot versus outside. So, I am very curious if Quinon Mitchell shadows lad this week and what does that look like for the Chargers or does he shadow Quentyn? Does he, you know, those would be the two, you know, that they play. Does Cooper go Cooper Deene go against Keenan Allen? Like just very curious about Quinnon and how much he is shadowing one person or another or is it just kind of like you play that what side Cooper plays that side kind of thing. Um but Quinnon Mitchell is awesome. Like he’s he’s a great player. Yeah, he is. All right. Uh okay, I think that is about it. Okay, so basically Dutch says he moved from Charleston to Fresno. Yeah, shout out Fresno. Woo. And shout out Charleston. Yeah, seems like a cool place. I’ve never, you know, only seen pictures, but that’s a big move. Charleston to Fresno. That is a big move. Happy you’re here. Yeah, happy you’re here, also. All right, Tyler. Uh, any other thoughts before we head out? No final effing thoughts. Good job. Good job. All right, you guys. Uh, thanks so much for, uh, tuning in tonight. Hopefully, we are, uh, back with you on Monday night after a Chargers win. Hopefully, you enjoyed tonight’s show as well. Um, and we appreciate the heck out of you guys for for supporting the show so much. Uh, this has been another episode of the Guilty Ess. We’ll see you next time. As always, bolt up.

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