Those analyzing last week’s Philadelphia Eagles game vs. the Green Bay Packers walked away conflicted about how good or bad this team is. All agreed on one thing. After pouring over the rushing and passing stats, something stood out, and it was obvious. They have to be better in third-down scenarios. They only converted two of their 11 attempts.
It doesn't take a math wiz to figure out that's a conversion rate of 18.1 percent which is less than half of the 41.7 percent the Eagles averaged throughout the season. The Pack, on the other hand, converted seven of 13 attempts. It isn't difficult to see why they hung around.
One positive about last Sunday's Wild Card Round game was seeing Philly take care of the football. Jalen Hurts isn't turning the ball over. He has thrown one interception since Philly returned from its bye week.
Some state he's been so careful that he has gotten gun-shy. That can probably be adjusted, but in the meantime, we'll live with the turnover-free football.
Also read: Stats can lie
Braden Mann has been excellent for the Eagles, but we're seeing him far too often.
Punts certainly aren't turnovers, but if you're like us, they certainly can feel like they are. When they say 'end every drive with a kick', this isn't what they meant. We'd rather see extra points and successful field-goal attempts.
The Eagles uncharacteristically punted the ball away five times vs. the Packers. Green Bay was only forced into a punting situation once, It isn't difficult to see why The Pack hung around.
Braden Mann has been excellent this season, but we'd like to see him less often. Two of Philly's third down and long plays resulted in give-up/play-it-safe calls.
They needed 12 yards to convert in one scenario and 18 yards in another. They elected to hand the ball off to Saquon Barkley who, despite noble efforts, came up short on both calls.
The Eagles have three premier receiving options on their roster: A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. We'd like to see them be more aggressive by trying to get the ball to those guys. This is the postseason. It's do or die. Barkley is a monster. We get the idea of not putting the ball in harm's way but draw plays on third-and-long aren't going to cut it.
The Eagles look to fix their third-down woes vs. a Rams team struggling with the same metric.
The Eagles' opponent this week, the Los Angeles Rams, didn’t fare much better on third down in their convincing 27-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings. They found themselves in that scenario ten different times. They only converted two (20%) and were forced to punt five times.
This has been L.A.'s issue for a while. They converted less than 37% of their third-down attempts during the regular season. Keep an eye on both offensive units this week. The team that extends drives more often and wins the time-of-possession battle will likely advance to the NFC Championship Game.