The Kellen Moore experiment’s interesting week 1
Aug 9, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore looks on as quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) throws before a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Kellen Moore was replacing Brian Johnson. AKA, no matter what he did it would be a massive improvement.
The offense was by no means perfect in Brazil, but they also played their best game since Super Bowl 57. There’s a lot to go over in terms of good and bad so let’s not waste any more time.
Up and down start for Jalen Hurts
I strongly believe that a lot of Jalen Hurts’ decline last season falls on the shoulders of Brian Johnson. Hurts was inevitably going to have some regression from his ridiculous season beforehand and was paired with one of the, if not the, worst OC in NFL history. Friday night there was some good and some bad.
The good was that he, to me, looked a lot more comfortable and confident. Despite the unique setting in South America, Jalen handled it very well. The bad was he had Carson Wentz levels of hero ball. Specifically, his cross-body, red-zone interception was just unacceptable.
I didn’t have many gripes with Kellen Moore’s playcalling other than 1 thing. The middle of the field on the pass chart is concerningly similar to the Bucs wildcard game. 3 attempts down the middle, 1-3 with a pick. Take a look at some of the other passing charts from teams around the league and notice the difference.
This Barkley guy is pretty good, right?
The Giants paying Daniel Jones over Saquon is going to have a hilarious ripple effect for years to come and Friday was patient zero. While Saquon had a 3 TD day to the delight of fantasy owners around America, Sam Darnold was running laps around Daniel Jones and the Montreal Canad- excuse me, New York Giants seriously though those uniforms are awful.
Getting back on track Saquon made Moore’s job really easy. Brian Johnson towards the end of the season, simply just stopped using D’Andre Swift as much as he probably should have and never used Rashad Penny who has since retired. Kellen Moore just made the easy decision. Pound the football. It’s what this team has been known under Nick Sirianni and that isn’t going to change any time soon.
The post-Kelce era is off to a rough start
I like Cam Jurgens, but he was bad on Friday. Really bad. Obviously we never expected him to be at the level of 62, but he wasn’t even serviceable. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say this. For one he hasn’t started at Center in the pros yet. It’s a very different position from guard so there was obviously gonna be a learning curve. Along with it being such an obscure game in Brazil, he was thrown into the fire.
Worst comes to worst a Center, Landon Dickerson will take it over and Jurgens will most likely take over LG. Dickerson played Center at Alabama, and was the original replacement plan for Jason Kelce, but essentially played himself out of it by being so good.
Overall I think the offense played very well given the odd start to the season. The whole team still has a lot left to improve upon, but for the first time in almost 2 years, it’s progress. And we’ll take progress on the offensive side of the ball.
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