2022 Week 13 Game Recap: Eagles 35, Titans 10 (by Ross Jacobs)
Philly started off the game hot with a TD on their first drive and Tennessee answered right back with an amazing catch by Treylon Burks. Burks was hit in the face on the catch and knocked out of the game, the first of several injuries for the Titans. Philly's next TD was a double move by AJ Brown where he got Kristian Fulton to bite on the cut and then just ran him over. Fulton was injured on the play and lost for the game and called for pass interference but it didn't matter.
Until that play Tennessee was hanging in the game, battling with Philly. They really are a very good, very well-coached team, but losing Fulton was simply too much for the defense and they crumbled without him. Once the Titans were losing they had to go into pass only mode, abandoning Derrick Henry, and without Burks, their only real WR threat, they simply had nothing to attack Philly with and the game got completely out of hand.
This would have been a tough game for Tennessee to win either way simply because their style is a poor matchup against Philly's, but they just happened to lose the two players that were key to keeping up with the Eagles, their top receiver and their top corner. Tennessee's ground and pound, solid defense style can work in the modern NFL and win a lot of games, but when you're forced to keep up with a team like Philly that can put up points in bunches, you better be able to throw the ball and defend the throw.
A lot of people will write off Tennessee for getting destroyed here, but as usual you have to understand the context. They will be fine in the long run. Vrabel will come up with a solution because he is the best coach in the entire league. The Titans may not win the Super Bowl this year or even make a deep playoff run because they are dealing with more injuries than anyone in the league, but make no mistake, they are always a dangerous team and the most resilient in the league. They should be the favorites in 4 of their last 5 games and my best guess is they'll win about 3 of the 5 which will give them 10 wins, an easy division title, and probably the 4th seed in the AFC but possibly the 3rd depending on what happens with Baltimore and Cincinnati.
I'll be curious to see what they do at the GM position and with personnel after bizarrely firing Jon Robinson this past week. That's a very strange move right in the middle of the season and I have to imagine it was part of a power struggle with Vrabel. That's the only explanation that makes sense. If true that means Vrabel will be able to hand pick his next GM and should have a larger say on personnel moving forward. How will the team be built moving forward? Maybe Vrabel knows he needs to adapt with the times and build his team more like Philadelphia after getting destroyed by them. He has a Jalen Hurts clone in Malik Willis...that's what I would do. Or is he going to double-down on the Belichick style? Nobody else in football cares about this team like RC and I, but I see big potential for them to be built into a monster contender over the next few years. Hey Tennessee management! I'm available for hire to help advise on how to make that transition...
Philly keeps right on rolling and are destined for a showdown with Dallas. I like Philly to hang on for the division title and the #1 seed in the playoffs. I think they are the better overall team and harder to defend on offense because of Hurts. Philly will have a massive advantage if they can get that first round bye, home field advantage, and force Dallas into the #5 seed because they just so happen to be in the same division.
Fantasy Player Notes:
– Derrick Henry's last 4 games have not been pretty...75 carries for 208 yards, 2.8 ypc, 1 TD. At least they are finally using him more in the passing game. Obviously some of his struggles are because of the offensive line but some of it has been who they have played and how the games have gone. Denver and Cincy both have good run defenses and the Titans have had to try and keep up with Green Bay and Philly throwing the ball. The next 3 weeks he gets the Jags, Texans, and Chargers...much more forgiving teams and defenses to face. I bet we see a King Henry resurgence over that time frame.
– Guess who is finally the starting TE for his team? Chigoziem Okonkwo has been standing out on tape for weeks as the most explosive option this team has. It seems like he has a 40+ yard play at least once every single game and he did it again here. This passing game still sucks and there are very few TDs to be had so I don't think you can really use him as your starting TE just yet, but Chig is one to watch over the next few years.
I don't even know who the comp is for him. It's easy to say any of the smaller, move-TEs like Jonnu but Chig is more explosive and faster than that. His body type and the way he moves reminds me more of a smaller, poor man's Vernon Davis than anything. There's a lot of cool stuff an offense could do with a guy like this. I really hope they explore it next year. He's definitely a unique weapon.
– Most of the starters for both teams were pulled in the 4th quarter so we did get to see one series with Malik Willis but not much happened to draw any conclusions from. All I can say for sure is that Willis is both faster than Hurts and has a stronger arm...IF he can figure out the mental part of the game and work on his accuracy a touch, with the right team around him he could be off the charts in real life and fantasy.
– Not much to say on Philly. Last time I wrote up a game recap for them I said that when Miles Sanders had a bad day it meant that the WRs went off and whaddya know? Both Smith and Brown just trashed this secondary without Fulton. Philly the single hardest offense to stop right now because they can beat you so many different ways...Hurts running, hurts throwing, Sanders running...they have the slithery route running of Smith and the big body, physical presence of Brown, the offensive line can run block and pass block with equal elite ability...this is a machine and when they get rolling and build a lead that allows their pass rush to pin their ears back and it lets their ball-hawking secondary start jumping routes.
For anyone to beat Philly they are going to have to either get a lead or keep the game very close and there are only a handful of teams capable of it. And the key to it all is my vote for MVP, Jalen Hurts…
Snap Counts of Interest:
63 = Smith
60 = Brown
37 = Watkins
54 = Stoll
39 = Sanders
52 = Westbrook-Ikhine
51 = Woods
32 = Okonkwo
27 = Hooper
30 = Henry
