4 Eagles lessons we learned from Week 1: Don't get cute with the kickoff

The Philadelphia Eagles played their first football game in eight months and we saw a whole lot of changes. There’s a new defensive scheme, a new offensive scheme, an offensive line without Jason Kelce, young defensive tackles, rookies, and a healthy Jalen Hurts.

It’s hard to tell what will stick from a Week 1 performance, but it helps that the Eagles played a good team in the Green Bay Packers. They’re a team with a potentially high-powered offense and a defense that might be above average. That’s helpful.

A good test in Week 1 taught us a few things about the Eagles

The Minnesota Vikings played the New York Giants in Week 1. The Giants stink and they made Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold look like a world-beater, which could not be any further from the truth. Someone somewhere in Minnesota watched that game and is very excited about what Darnold can do with that offense. They've been lied to.

This is to say, the test that the Eagles had was a worthy one, even if the Packers (and specifically Jordan Love) didn’t necessarily have a good game. Aside from the part where the offense had to knock six inches of rush off, a good test means that both we and the team learned some things.

Jalen Hurts loves big motion

When the Eagles hired Kellen Moore to be their new offensive coordinator, the main thought was that his offense would use more motion than what we were used to seeing. That motion was going to open everything up and make the offense look easy to operate. 

Then a bunch of big-time analytical people and self-proclaimed football nerds poo-pooed the thought, saying that motion doesn’t solve everything. Those people are currently breaking their legs so they can put both of their feet in their mouths. Turns out motion, even in the most general sense, solved a lot.

Who would’ve thought that just sending Britain Covey in motion would be one of the keys to unlocking more of Jalen’s potential? 

Now, this whole thing is a little convoluted because the sample size of plays is decent, but the sample size of games is literally one. Regardless, it’s something the Eagles can and will continue to incorporate into their offense at a high rate. 

It’s just nice for us mouth-breathing rock brains to be smarter than the nerds every once in a while.

Just kick the ball into the end zone

One huge takeaway from Week 1 in the NFL as a whole, is that the new kickoff rule is disappointingly kind of bunk. Clearly, there is an opportunity for big plays, and we saw that when DeeJay Dallas returned a kick for a touchdown for the Cardinals. 

It can probably be tempting to risk it, but that’s a bad idea. At one point during the Eagles game, Green Bay did some weird squib-adjacent kick that took a weird bounce and caused Kenneth Gainwell to muff it.

Yeah, that seems like it might be a good idea and it would be cool if Braden Mann (not Jake Elliott) did that, but there are so many unnecessary things that can go wrong.

The Eagles were smart for each of their six kickoffs and it wasn’t just neutral, it actually benefitted them. On the last one, Mann kicked it into the endzone and Keisean Nixon returned it from eight yards deep. He didn’t make it to the 30 and the Packers had to start their final drive on the 24-yard line. When it comes to a drive where a team is probably going to have to chuck up a hail mary, those six yards can mean a lot. 

Just put the ball in the end zone and let the receiving team get the ball at the 30-yard line until the NFL makes the penalty more severe. There’s a life lesson in this: keep breaking the rules until the punishment isn’t worth it to you.

Cooper DeJean needs to be brought up to speed ASAP

There was a time, not all that long ago when Avonte Maddox was a threat. That time has unfortunately passed us by. When he was in the game, compared to the other defensive backs, he was a liability.

Cooper DeJean missed a whole lot of training camp because of some kind of weird hamstring injury. When he came back, the Eagles started to give him work. In the third preseason game, he was on the field a whole bunch, so it’s clear that they are trying to get him comfortable with the defense.

They even gave him a very limited number of reps in Week 1. According to Next Gen Stats, he was on the field for five defensive plays, four of which were on long third downs. Maddox had 52 snaps and was targeted five times. He allowed two catches, but if Jordan Love hadn't been so wildly inaccurate, all five of them should have been catches for some mondo yards.

It’s not really just about the numbers though. Cooper DeJean can wear a lot of hats when he’s on the field and that kind of player can be really helpful in a Vic Fangio defense. If and when he gets comfortable with the defense, he can line up anywhere off the ball and be effective. Maddox just doesn’t have the same versatility.

It’s going to be one of ‘those’ years on defense

For immediate clarification, a ‘bend but don’t break’ defense is good … but it is just super frustrating. As fans, it’s emotionally exhausting to watch the other team march down the field while we say things that would make Satan himself give us the side-eye, only for the defense to turn into tackling demons when the ball gets into the red zone. 

That seems like that might be the case this year. When the Packers had short fields at the beginning of the game and end of the game, they were lights out. As a matter of fact, they only allowed one touchdown on the Packers’ four red zone trips which is objectively good. Jason Kelce, who is now one of us, is on the same page. 

They just need to limit the explosive plays, and they should be able to. That’s exactly what Fangio’s defense is built to do. Hopefully, the reason it wasn’t able to in Week 1 was because of the newness of it. Hopefully…

Next Monday night we’ll see a whole new game plan against a very different team, and we’ll learn a whole bunch of new stuff about the Eagles. Just cross your fingers that there’s no ‘ ‘Oh no. Turns out the clock struck midnight early and ______ turned into a pumpkin.’