A.J. Brown RULED OUT vs. Giants 🚨 ‘Massive loss for the Eagles’ – Dan Orlovsky | NFL Live

A.J. Brown RULED OUT vs. Giants 🚨 ‘Massive loss for the Eagles’ – Dan Orlovsky | NFL Live

as we say hey to Mina Khan Xanovski and Marcus Spears. Let’s get right to it and it has to do with the Eagles and the Giants game. And this guy seems to find his way into the news one way or another. But AJ Brown has been ruled out for that game on Sunday per Adam Sheper. Remember he had 121 yards receiving and two touchdowns last week, but he did suffer a hamstring injury. Hasn’t practiced all week. Dan the man. What does that mean for this game? Yeah, it’s Saquon Barkley in the run game. Time to step up. This is an enormous loss for the Philadelphia Eagles. Everybody knows that in crunch time and go-to moments or got to have it moments, third downs, you know, the game winner or game sealer of last week. AJ’s the guy that they kind of build their past game around. No, AJ. Dvonte is still plenty capable and a player like Dallas still plenty capable. But if there was ever a week up until this point, eight weeks into the season, that the Eagles just desperately needed to get their run game going, to have their offensive line play significantly better, to have their star tail black take over game, it’s this one. This is a massive loss for the Eagles offense. Yeah, you know, all week we’ve been talking about how the Eagles finally leaned into that underenter playaction passing attack last week. I would argue that this injury makes it even more important to lean into that because you don’t want to just count on AJ Brown to win on one-on-one outside the way they so often do in the passing game. And by the way, Devonte Smith was on the receiving end of two of the biggest shot plays off of play action. He is phenomenal against zone coverage. I also think, and Marcus, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this, that if that under center play action game gets going, it’ll open things up in the run game because the linebackers will be more cognizant of getting beat down the field. And suddenly, you see how play action pass, it’s not only the run helping the pass. The pass can help the run, which as Dan said needs to be very improved in this game. I agree with both of you all on that point. And that is the point MK is to give them enough signature change at the line of scrimmage to make sure you’re creating space for Saquon before the ball is snapped. The other thing is this too, y’all remember this. Seaquin can be used as a pass catcher. First thing that came to my mind when AJ Brown wasn’t playing was do you get to some of the screen game? Do you create some of the slight of hand between Jaylen Herz and Saquon Barkley to make up potentially for some explosive plays? And we talked about this in the weeks previous. find ways to get Saquon the ball in open space, which is one thing that I I I think has been missing as well, more than him just coming out of the back field. This is a opportunity for Patulo to figure out ways to use Saquon Barkley to either dictate the way the defense is going to play everybody else or vice versa, use everybody else to find space for Saquon. We just watched the San Francisco 49ers use Christian McCaffrey in that way to become a really prominent pass catcher in a win that they needed to have. I’m looking forward to see if Philly has any opportunity to do that with Saquon Barkley to either dictate coverage or make him a big part of the passing game as well. Yeah, I agree with you, fella. I just don’t think that’s going to be who they are in such a short period of time as well. I know AJ didn’t practice at all this week, but I really are they really going to kind of change their stripes? I just want to see with Kevin Patula. I think your point of bringing his name up is huge. Will they move Devonte around just a little bit? I’m not saying you have to become the the San Francisco 49ers or the Los Angeles Rams in that regard, but will they move him around just a little bit? I think there’s two things that also I’d look for. Will they utilize Jaylen’s legs just a little bit more? And then will they utilize more RPOS’s just to get some cheap yards? I totally agree with Mina. This is the perfect time as well to go back under center, continue to create that part of your identity or whatnot and see if you I know Jordan Malada talked about it this week how much it easy how much easier it is for them and their offensive lineman and the angles that they get to play with. Continue to lean on your play action because it helps lesser receivers get open. So that that’s the challenge. Will he do more of that? Kevin Bulo Dio, I agree with you on on maybe not changing their stripes, but do you think there will be and this is a question for you. Do you think that having Saquon line up somewhere pre- snap-wise and then move him back into an original position could change the pitcher and the look? Cuz I know if I was playing defense, it would with a player of that caliber, us potentially not knowing where his alignment would be pre- snap most of the time. Yeah. And I would do more of that to your point this week because if you’re the Giants, I think this would play change your defensive plan some as well. You’d be way more willing to play a little bit more man coverage. you’d be way more willing to try and come after Jaylen Herz because man coverage and blitz, he looks to AJ Brown. And so the if you’re the the Eagles, just trying to gather some information defensively, specifically early in this game of how the Giants are actually going to play you in those situational football moments, trying to gather that information utilizing Saquon could be very big. He missed four games last season. They went two and two. And when you take a look at our picks and obviously this all happened before as we have an early gong. Uh listen Eagles we all think are going to avenge their loss to the Giants from a couple of weeks ago. Mina any thought or any of you about changing with this news? Maybe going with the Giants. I’m not changing it. And a big part of the reason why is Jaylen Carter and Quinn Mitchell playing in this game. Their absence the last time these teams played was massive. allowed them to pick on the Chiefs secondary quarterbacks. Jaylen Carter is the most important player on the defense. So, I think the defense will put up a much better fight this time around. Everybody good? Sticking with the Eagles. You’re good. We’re all good. All right. Kick off your week 8 NFL Sunday at 10 a.m. Eastern with Countdown. The entire crew on ESPN and the allnew ESPN app. All the early breaking stories, the injury updates, previews of each and every game right up until kickoff. Recap of some of the top stories. This is what you need to know going into the weekend. Lamar Jackson was a full participant in practice, but he is still listed as questionable for Sunday’s game when they host the Red Hot Bears. By the way, Snoop Huntley is the backup there. Also, the Falcons could be without Michael Penn Jr. with a knee injury as they host the Dolphins. AJ Brown not practicing for the third day in a row. He has been ruled out for Sunday’s game with the Giants. The Jets winless and without Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner against the Bengals and no Jeffrey Simmons or Calvin Ridley for Tennessee against the Colts and Andy Dalton starts in place of Bryce Young as the Panthers host the Bills which now brings us to locks and keys where we tell you something that we guarantee that’ll happen that’ll be a lock and something that will play a big role in determining the outcome which is called a key. So we’re going to start with the Bills at the Panthers Swagoo. What’s your lock in this one, buddy? Look, I know the Panthers have really done a good job against the run. The pass game is where they struggled at times, but James Cook has to go over 100 yards, y’all. Like the the rushing needs to reaclimate itself for the Buffalo Bills. Some explosive plays out of the back field. I still worry when Josh gets high volume throwing down field. It still lends itself to me sometimes with throwing the ball to the other team. But ultimately, this team balance and the way that they were able to run the football with James Cook out of the back field and create explosives made it a great offense and made them Super Bowl contenders. I think they get back to that against the Panthers. So Dan, what’s the key? The key is this Buffalo defense versus Rico Dow. Now, one coming off the buy, Buffalo’s played a little bit less nickel five defensive backs this season than they have in the past. Is that going to be the case? But here’s where this run defense is. They’re the second best defense in the NFL when it comes to like getting penetration, hitting the running back behind the line scrimmage. They’re also the worst defense in the NFL in yards after contact, giving up almost five yards to guys after contact. So, in this bye, have they figured that out to not only treat that penetration, but find ways to get that back on the ground and tackle better to a man? Well, here’s the thing. Uh Sean McDermott, he’s 8 and0 after by weeks, and we are all cut. Woo. I think that’s only our second dong of the show, though. Yeah, we’re all on the Bills. Never fear because we think differently. I know, right? This next game, Niners at Texans. Uh Dan, what’s your lock for this one? Whoever wins the battle on the edge is going to win this game. Hall of Famer Trent Williams, who I know Andrew worked with, said could go down as the greatest left tackle ever versus Denil Hunter. That that is an elite premier matchup. And Denil Hunter is has been outstanding this season when it comes to rushing the passer. And Trent Williams somehow is continuing to beat Trent Williams. That is going to determine how well San Francisco can play or how well Houston defensively can keep them in this football game. That elite matchup one-on-one. Mina, what is the key in this one? I think for San Francisco, it’s taking that pass rush out of the game by winning on early downs and running the football the way they did Atlanta. This run game has been underwhelming this year, but finally got back on track. We talked earlier this week about their power run game with McCaffrey and all the guards pulling. If they can do that against a Texans defense that’s better against the pass than the run, then they’ll be in third and short, third and manageable, and the quarterback won’t be a sitting duck back there versus this pass rush. So, I think that run game on early downs and who wins in that regard is going to go a long way towards determining this. Okay, so looking at our picks and once again, I’m saving y’all from the gong. Okay, I got to go. Oh, thank you. I got to go the Texans at home. All right, there you go. All their losses have been by one score, Mina. Okay. All right. So, we’ll see. You buy You buy your You buy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On NFL Live, Dan Orlovsky, Mina Kimes and Marcus Spears react to Eagles WR A.J. Brown being ruled out for Philadelphia’s matchup with the New York Giants on Sunday.

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