Sirianni hotseat, injury report from Dallas week and Saquon Barkley on fire

It’s Dallas week. Don’t let the fact that the trade deadline was a few days ago and Dak Prescott won’t play distract you from the fact that the Cowboys are bad and the Philadelphia Eagles are absolutely cooking right now.

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

Saquon Barkley hit a jump cut, a spin move, and then a back 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 has ever done.

That was just one share 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 led to Saquon being crowned NFC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season (presumably unanimously).

That’s a pretty prestigious company to work in. In 2010, Michael Vick was named 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 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 last week.

It’s only week 10. In the Eagles’ last nine games, they play six teams that are truly terrible at stopping the streak. 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.

These numbers are what those teams have done, not what they WILL do. Saquon is destroying 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. It’s just that those six games against bottom-tier defenses are opportunities for him to win more NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. It feels strange to say he could only win one more. It feels realistic to say he could win two or three.

The guy is everything advertised and more. Can you imagine living a life where Saquon wasn’t wearing Midnight or Kelly Green? No, that’s not possible. That’s ridiculous.

The win over the Jaguars in Week 9 took its toll in terms of injuries. Particularly when AJ Brown left the game with an injured knee. It’s scary because this is the second leg injury AJ has had this season and we’re already past the bye week. If he ends up missing more time, it will be actual games he misses against higher caliber or divisional teams. That’s not good.

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

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

You don’t like to see Fred Johnson on the injury report either. He’s already the backup at left tackle while Jordan Mailata is out. To top it all off, Mekhi Becton was also limited with an ankle. If at any point one of these guys doesn’t play or leaves the game, the depth of the offensive line will be tested in a big way. Tyler Steen would be the immediate backup at one of these positions, but you don’t really want to see who is behind him, especially if Micah Parsons ends up playing for the Cowboys.

The big takeaway here is that there is only an absolute amount of players on the injury report who missed time with no rest designation. The Eagles will have to come out strong on offense and stop this game early so the starters can rest for at least a quarter. That’s a real possibility, because the Cowboys are basically just a really terrible football team.

Stress acne is real. If you want to avoid breakouts, you have to come to terms with the fact that Nick Sirianni is going to make stupid decisions in the game and those decisions will either lose games or make games much closer. than necessary. He also won’t be fired during the season.

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

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

Nora Princiotti of The Ringer made one list of head coaches hot seats. Sirianni was mentioned as ‘Standing quietly in the corner hoping no one notices them’. That seems very close to being right; that feels like we want Sirianni there, but he’s doing his best not to be there.

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

Against the Jaguars, it was fourth-and-inches late in the third quarter, and instead of executing the Brotherly Shove, the Eagles ran some sort of play-action that was completely unsuccessful. We’ll probably never get confirmation of 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 interfered, he interferes, and he will continue to interfere.

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