Eagles news: Sirianni hot seat, Dallas week injury report and Saquon Barkley on fire

It’s Dallas Week. Don’t let the fact that the trade deadline was a couple of days ago and that Dak Prescott won’t be playing distract you from the fact that the Cowboys suck and the Philadelphia Eagles are absolutely cooking right now.

That being said, the week keeps rolling and the news keeps coming. Here’s what’s been going on with the Eagles this week

Eagles News: NFC Offensive Player of the Week … again

Saquon Barkley made a jump cut, a spin move, and then a backward hurdle all in the span of two seconds. It was definitely the coolest play of the season, possibly the coolest play of the decade, and it rivals Tony Hawk’s 900 for the coolest thing any human being has ever done, ever.

That was just one piece of his 159 rushing yards in Week 9, he also got touchdowns on a sweet wheel route and a running back draw on a third and 17. 

All of this added to Saquon being crowned the NFC Offensive Player of the Week (assumingly unanimously) for the third time this season. 

That's a pretty prestigious company to be in. In 2010, Michael Vick was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week after Week 9 (218 passing yards and a touchdown, 74 rushing yards and a touchdown), Week 10 (333 passing yards and four touchdowns, 80 rushing yards and two touchdowns), and Week 15 (242 passing yards and two touchdowns, and 130 rushing yards and one touchdown).

Saquon’s awards this season have come from Week 1 (109 rushing yards and two touchdowns, 23 receiving yards and a touchdown), Week 7 (176 rushing yards and a touchdown), and this past week. 

It’s only Week 10. In the Eagles’ final nine games, they play six teams that are truly abysmal at stopping the run. In Weeks 9 and 17 they played the Cowboys who have allowed the 11th most rushing yards. In Weeks 10 and 16 they play the Commanders who have allowed the third most rushing yards. In Week 14 they play the Panthers who have allowed the most rushing yards. In Week 18 they play the Giants who have allowed the fourth most rushing yards.

Now, those numbers are what those teams HAVE done, not what they WILL do. Saquon wrecks games, so even in the other three games against the Rams, Ravens, and Steelers, Saquon should still be able to do all the running he wants to do. It’s just that those six games against bottom-tier run defenses are opportunities for him to win more NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. It feels weird to say that he could only win one more. It feels realistic to say that he could win two or three.

The dude is everything that was advertised and more. Can you imagine living a life where Saquon wasn’t wearing Midnight or Kelly Green? No, you can’t—that’s preposterous.

Eagles News: Mid-week injury reports

The Week 9 win over the Jaguars took its toll injury-wise. Most notably with A.J. Brown leaving the game with a hurt knee. It’s scary because this is the second leg injury that A.J. has had this season and we’re already past the bye week. If he ends up missing more time, it’ll be actual games that he’s missing against higher-caliber or divisional teams. That’s not good.

Fortunately, he and Dallas Goedert both practiced on Wednesday, so that’s pretty sweet. Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of other names that are on the injury report.

DeVonta’s hamstring is tough to see and it’s definitely something to keep an eye on. Nolan Smith has been playing well so it stinks to see him miss a practice with an injury, especially with a groin injury. Ben VanSumeren has been the fullback and you definitely don’t want a fullback to have a concussion. You want a fullback to block with a Devil May Care level of reckless abandon. 

You also don’t like to see Fred Johnson on the injury report. He’s already the backup left tackle while Jordan Mailata is out. To top that off, Mekhi Becton was also limited with an ankle. If either of those guys end up not playing or leaving the game at some point, the offensive line depth is going to get tested in a big way. Tyler Steen would be the immediate backup at either of those positions, but you don’t really want to see who’s up after him, especially if Micah Parsons ends up playing for the Cowboys.

The big takeaway here is that there is just an absolute butt load of players that are on the injury report who missed time without a rest designation. The Eagles will need to come out strong on offense and put this game away early, that way starters can rest for at least a quarter. That’s a real possibility because the Cowboys are just a really really terrible football team, to their core.

Eagles News: Sirianni’s possibly warm-ish seat

Stress acne is real. If you’re looking to avoid breakouts, you need to come to terms with the fact that Nick Sirianni is going to make boneheaded in-game decisions and those decisions are either going to lose games, or they’re going to make games much closer than they need to be. He’s also not going to get fired in-season.

You need to accept that. You don’t have to be happy about it, and you absolutely should boo him and complain about it, but you need to accept it. It’s going to make life a whole lot easier.

Despite all of the terrible decisions he’s made this year, Sirianni’s players have brought the team to a 6-2 record going into the halfway point of the season. He’s not a good head coach from a scheme, game management, and play-calling standpoint, but his players like playing for him. That’s reality.

Nora Princiotti from The Ringer made a tier list of head coaches’ hot seats. Sirianni was listed as “Standing Quietly in the Corner Hoping No One Notices Them.”That feels very close to being right; that feels like that’s where we want Sirianni to be, but he’s doing his best to not be there.

It’s been a minute since we’ve seen a press conference when Nick has gone out of his way to say that he made a very important and unsuccessful play call, but that doesn’t mean he’s not doing it. 

Against the Jaguars, it was fourth and inches at the end of the third quarter, and instead of running the Brotherly Shove, the Eagles did some kind of play-action thing that was wholly unsuccessful. We’ll probably never get confirmation on it, but that decision SCREAMED Nick Sirianni. 

It would be great if Nick decided to stand in the corner and let everyone else do what they do best, but that’s just not the case. He has meddled, he is meddling, and he will continue to meddle. 

… but he shaved his head and now the Eagles are 6-2. It’s hard to argue with results, but it’s easy (and justifiable) to complain about the process.