Howard Eskin, Philadelphia Eagles Radio Sideline Reporter

Howard Eskin, how you been? I've never had a bad day in my life, just another great day. It was a bad, bad moment last night for the Eagles, but you know, you can't let it just ruin your whole day, but I'm doing, I'm doing great.

What was your biggest takeaway from last night? Can't make mistakes, and you can't make mistakes in a big game, so it's compounded. You can make mistakes against bad teams, and there was a lot of teams in the NFL this year that were bad teams.

You can make mistakes and get away with it. You can't make mistakes against a good team, and Kansas City was the best team in the AFC, and you can't make mistakes against them. The fumble's a mistake. The punt return is a mistake. The big punt return, which led obviously to a score. Uh, the two blown coverages on defense were mistakes on defense, so you just can't make mistakes, and that's my takeaway from the game. Uh, you know, you're up by the Eagles are only, I think, only the second team in Super Bowl history that had a 10-point lead or more and lost the game at halftime.

The other one was the Falcons, obviously. Yeah, yeah, and then Kyle Shanahan screwed that up, and I'll never forget how he screwed that up, but nonetheless, so that's my takeaway. You can't make mistakes, and it's not just, you know, I know that the media just loves to focus on one thing, all the penalty against James Bradbury at the end or near the end of the game, but even he admitted that, you know, by the letter of the law, that's a penalty. Now, at some insignificant game, may they not call, the officials may not call that, but there's so many cameras on things.

There's so many things going on. Uh, yeah, it could have gone either way, but when, you know, when the defender admits that it was a penalty and, you know, he owned it, so, uh, but the media is great. They just love to focus on that. Well, and that doesn't mean the Eagles would have won the game, but there's players on the team, obviously, that believe they would have gotten about with about a minute and 20 left and maybe could have at least tied the game. So whatever the case may be, I'm not focusing on, on that play, uh, could have gone either way, uh, but it could have been a penalty too. So you can't say the official, uh, was wrong. So that's pretty much my takeaway. So obviously Hertz played really, really, really well.

My home is just unbelievable. Uh, he's just so, so good. Andy Reed proved again, he's the best coach in the national football league. He's bad. I don't even, it's not even a thought that he's better than bill Bellachee.

Uh, it's not even a thought that he's better than him. So, uh, and you know, you, you kind of look at a lot of different things, uh, but it's not one. And Nick Sirianni said it last night after the game, it's not just one thing. If you lose the game, it's not just one thing.

So it's multiple things. Well, Howard, let me just go to the defense here. I know that the field was not good last night and it was a, it was a joke, but a team that had 70 sacks before in the regular season to have zero last night of the big game, like that stunned me. Yeah. That's not the field. Let me tell you, they did some work.

I talked to some people there. Um, and I mentioned it on our Eagles radio broadcast last night. They worked on that field all week. Normally that field goes outside to get sun and then they roll it back in. That's the way that field at that stadium works. They kept it indoors for the last four days and they hardened it up. It wasn't as the Eagles played there earlier in the year.

Then it was a joke. It was too soft. I didn't see it was guys slipping, but I don't know what the reason for that was, but earlier you lost traction because the sand base underneath was coming up. So I'm not going to blame it on the, on the field. Here's what I'm going to tell you about the sacks and Jonathan Gannon, the defensive coordinator who interviewed today in Arizona. Uh, and I don't know who's going to get that head coaching job, uh, might be him.

It might be Mike Kafka, um, or the guy from what is it? Cincinnati. But whatever the case may be, uh, he, he's not big sacks. Don't don't move him. It's not about sacks. It's about pressures and they pressured my homes.

They pressured my homes, but he's so elusive. Even with, even with an ankle that wasn't a hundred percent, he's so good and so elusive. It doesn't make any difference. So are you going to get sacks? It's harder against that guy to get sacks much, much harder. Now I vehemently disagree with you, Howard asking just in terms of saying that Reed is, is better than, than Belichick, but I will say this last night.

I know MVP goes to the most valuable player. If I had to give it to a person, if it was most valuable person, it was Andy Reed, because as much as I like Sirianni, I thought he ran circles around the Eagles with the adjustments they made at halftime. Well, the players got to make plays too. So, uh, and, uh, he was out, there's no question that Sirianni was out coached and, but the players didn't make plays the fumble, the punt return, the two blown coverages on defense.

So when you look at that, actually one of them was the play call on defense. You maybe can lean a little bit to the defensive coordinator, but, but regardless of all that, what is Bella cheat done since Tom Brady's left losing record? Did you, did you notice that I made the playoffs one year? Did he have, does he have a losing record since Brady left?

Sure. But what did, what is Andy Reed done before Patrick Mahomes? He had five conference championships with the Eagles. Now you didn't have Tom Brady as his quarterback.

Okay. But when he had Mahomes, he did lose to Brady and Bella check, but that's what you're talking about one game. I mean, it's just, he lost to better teams.

He lost him. He lost to Brady. He lost, he lost to Tom Brady and McNabb through tree interceptions that game too, by the way.

Uh, so she doesn't get credit for that. Well, uh, no, uh, if players make plays, Donovan McNabb did not play his best game in that Superbowl. Bill Belicheck or Bella cheat, as he should be known, uh, is not a better coach than Andy Reed. And Mahomes makes the quarterback, the team look better, but he did it. Andy Reed did it with Donovan McNabb, who's the best quarterback in Eagles history, but he's nothing close to the way Brady played in those years.

Nothing close. And they played in the worst division in football for what, 15 years. So they always had a buy. They always had home field.

They always had an advantage. Uh, and those Superbowls that Brady is credited and your boy Bella cheats credited with winning two of those. The Patriots didn't win. Seattle lost that game by Russell. The play call is stupid. And Russell Wilson making the pass was stupid.

And then, okay. But the other team lost the game. They coaches can lose games.

And I know this Howard, I love you. I don't hate, I don't hate anybody, but I don't think, I think he's a very good coach, but he's not the best in football. And without Tom Brady, he's just another coach. He's just another coach. What are the Patriots doing now?

Is he resurrecting that team? He's by the way, he's the one that makes the personnel decisions too. They drafted three tight ends.

What was it a few years ago? And every one of, every one of them are steps, every one of them. And Mac Jones, I think is a mediocre quarterback. He's the one that makes those decisions too, just to break the news to you. So, so what Andy Reed, I love Andy Reed. I think he's a phenomenal football coach, but two, three years takes away what Bella check did for the last 20. I just explained to you that easy division, Tom Brady, Bella check is, he's a really good coach. He got caught cheating and who knows how much he got away with. And that's another thing, who much they didn't, they didn't quite, they didn't catch him right away. And then, you know, and he knew about Brady, the whole team cheated, Brady cheated, Bella cheated. They all cheated. So, and he didn't get caught until the end.

So how many of those games did he win? Because he cheated. We don't know that we don't have the answer to that, but I'm just, just pointing it out, just pointing it out. It just, I'm just rolling out the fact.

I remember being in Philadelphia when one Howard Eskin was standing next to my, myself, Merrill recent, Peter King. And, and you were saying that Montana is better than Brady and Peter King and Merrill Reese were vehemently disagreeing with you. So I don't know how we're vehemently disagreeing with these. I just think there's a little, a little bias there by you.

It's okay. Well, Brady's too, because Montana never lost a super bowl. Never threw an interception in the super bowl. Would you rather have seven titles or four titles? Well, like I said, two of them, the other coach would you rather have seven or four, or would you rather go to 10 or just go to four? Well, I, well, basically Brady's 500 at super bowls. Come on Howard.

And then, then what do you do with the giant ones? Do we just say all the sudden that the giant one with Tyria Manningham, that we, that we count those as losses? No, because the giants defense and that's another issue. Eli Manning should not, Eli Manning should not have been, Eli Manning should not have been the MVP in that game that when they were undefeated, he should not have been the MVP.

Somebody on that defensive line should have been the MVP. Well, let me, let me ask you this. Just going back to the game last night, instead of dealing with your 20 years of hatred, but the Patriots, you went back 20 years.

I just said, Annie, we was the best coaching football. That's fine. Okay. So let me ask you this though, the whole thing last night, I know you touched on it. Here's my biggest problem with it. I just want consistency from the officials and they're, they were not consistent last night. Like I didn't think to me, that was egregious where it should have been. We should have been called.

Uh, there's so many cameras on it. I don't know whether it should have been called. Uh, is it a penalty to some people? Yes.

To other people? No, it could have, there's no question. It could, it could have gone either way.

Hey, listen, I wanted to see the Eagles win. You know, it's better for everybody here in Philadelphia, but, uh, it could have gone, it could have gone either way, but the officiating this year has not been that good. It's been at best. Yeah.

Average at best. So what are you going to do? I mean, it's just, uh, I don't know what you can do and you can't challenge those calls, but he did grab, it was, it was a small, it was a small penalty, but he did grab his Jersey. And on that situation, the officials got to react. I, again, it could have gone either way. And if it went either way, there'd still be people, uh, complaining whatever way it went, there would have been people complaining. So, uh, but the officials this season, I don't know what the NFL can do about it. Uh, I don't know when you're looking at a lot of sports, I don't know what a lot of sports can do.

The officiating has been as good as ever. So they're not going to do anything about it. Well, what's he going to say? It's terrible. There's a difference.

It's the best he's ever seen. That's a little bit too much. I think we could all know when you're saying something just to say something like that was a little bit too over the top at that, at that, uh, press conference. How many, how many coaches tell us the truth during their news conferences? None.

Uh, pretty much a few, a few, very few. Yeah. Okay. That's the way it is.

That's that, that's what it is. Cause the media blows, blows things up, but whatever he says, he says, because I mean, he's the commissioner of the league. He's just protecting the league. He doesn't, he doesn't want that to be the issue of that game.

And in reality, it shouldn't be the issue. Good call or bad call. The Eagles made too many mistakes and you can't blame it on one play. Did you think the play calling in the second half got too conservative for Philadelphia?

No, I just don't think they may. Well, Kansas city just kept on scoring. So I, you know, I didn't notice it and I didn't look back at the plays.

I didn't notice it got too conservative. They did some things. They threw the ball. Hey, they threw deep alive.

Uh, Joe and hurts too deep alive. Uh, so I don't know that it got, uh, too conservative. Uh, again, they're just, they didn't run the ball as well as they had. I think miles Sanders was, it wasn't his kind of game.

It wasn't carry 60. Like that, that to me, Howard, I think is a big takeaway from the game. Like Hertz was phenomenal.

He was wonderful. We saw what he did on the ground through the air. Gainville, 21 yards, Sanders, 16 Boston, Scott eight, like that to me, we talked the two stunning parts that the Eagles didn't get a sack.

And then the, the three running backs, no one really had a good game out of the three. Well, Sanders went to the locker room in the first half and they never reported an injury and it wasn't serious enough to report it. But my understanding was he had a hand injury and I saw him flexing his handy on the sidelines a few times. He's grabbing a football and, and gripping it hard to secure the football, just to work on his hand. I don't think it's a severe injury.

Otherwise you probably wouldn't be able to play. I didn't see any tape on it. That doesn't mean anything, but he did. There's no reason that he would have only gotten seven carries if everything was right. I didn't think Boston Scott was going to be a big part of the offense running because gain well has really played well over the last, the last, the last part of the season. He's really done a good job, both catching the ball and running the football. So, um, uh, I'm not surprised at Sanders. Uh, I'm a little surprised they didn't run it as well, uh, as they have been running it.

So, uh, there's a lot of different things, but I'm not shocked at no sacks, uh, because my homes is just so unbelievable. This game, different outcome, obviously, cause the Eagles lost, but it reminded me a lot like super bowl 52, minus the ending. You know, super bowl 52 was just, but the whole game had offense. This is you see 35, 38 and 35, and that was 41 33, but it was just back and forth this game. I, I, I didn't look at it the same way, maybe because the Eagles were surprised to win, uh, in super bowl 52 and everybody in Philadelphia expected in the win this game. Uh, the offense at times, like Kansas city didn't really do well. That was 22 to 12 that first half back at super bowl 52.

Uh, yes, but, um, what was it? Uh, but, but this super bowl, seven of those points, so those 14 points were scored on a fumble, uh, defensive touchdown. So by the way, if somebody bet that that would have been, I would have won a lot of money.

I just thought about that. That was a big price on the defensive touchdown for the score. It was a big price, but it just, you know, anybody that bet is just taking a shot. Cause he's betting 25 prop bets. Uh, it is kind of crazy.

What goes on with that stuff. Howard, we appreciate it. Thanks so much. All right. Take care of that.