Eagles versus Lions Week 1 studs and duds (and one incomplete grade)

Jonathan Gannon’s defense left much to be desired. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on his shoulders, but his unit has to make plays.

After much discussion and intrigue, the jury returned after deliberation with a verdict. Jonathan Gannon‘s new-look defense looks a lot like, well, last year’s version of Jonathan Gannon’s defense.

There was a blitz thrown in here and there (thankfully). As a unit, everyone had their moments, but Philly missed too many tackles.

They made a pedestrian quarterback, Jared Goff look like he was better than he is. They were gashed time and time again by Detroit’s running game, and If you could ask Darius Slay, he’d admit that he should have hauled in that interception and that he’d like to have that play back.

Sure, had this game resulted in a loss, the finger-pointing would have been excessive, and you could have placed the blame on several defenders. Still, in the end, Gannon is the assumed hot commodity for teams that will be looking for a head coach in 2023, so he has to take the lion’s share of the blame. Admittedly, we’re very disappointed with what we saw out of his unit in Week 1.

Philly survives. That is what’s most important, but against a better team, a game played like this will result in a loss rather than a win.

Here’s the good news. Despite there being much to work on, as stated earlier, it feels much better to make corrections following a win than a loss. Next up is the home opener on Monday Night Football versus the Minnesota Vikings. Expect a vocal home crowd at Lincoln Financial Field for that one.