Coaching

WE NEED NEW COACHES

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/16
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Rants, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ASIDE from possibly getting a Wide Receivers coach who can actually coach Wide Receivers, this team won’t be much different from last season. In fact, it’s basically the same team it’s been since 2016. And that’s sort of a problem.

Atlanta Falcons v Philadelphia Eagles

Regardless of who is named our Offensive Coordinator, what we run on Offense will still be built on Head Coach Doug Pederson’s TE-based West Coast concept. What we run on Defense will still be Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz’s Wide 9/Single-High concept.

In failing to move on from Schwartz, we missed an opportunity to level the playing field, by wiping the board clean of all of our tendencies, keys and “tells”. We also missed an opportunity to stabilize the Defense. Honestly, even the most ardent Schwartz supporter, would have to admit that the week to week product of this unit is anything but consistent.

And it’s been that way for years.

While on one hand it’s great to have a solid identity, we’re in a division where every one of our rivals will be brand new in 2020. We are the only known quantity in the division, and the only team which has plenty of film on what we run, how we run it, and how we want to run it.

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Are we seeing the body language here? Someone is happy that he doesn’t have to compete for daddy’s love anymore.

Though it’s true that Dallas and Washington’s coaches have highly trackable histories, radically different personnel will change how thee coaches implement their favorite concepts. Those conditions put us at a MASSIVE disadvantage in terms of initial intelligence gathering.

joe judge

Nothing communicates power and dominance, like lower-case letters.

New York’s head coach comes with no trackable history whatsoever. However, if they sign Jason Garrett to be their offensive coordinator, there will be a definite power shift in the middle of the division, since he has a deep working knowledge of every roster in our division. New York goes from third place, to threatening for first.

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Garrett also has an intimate familiarity with every weakness and mental flaw possessed by each of the Cowboys key players, as well as knowledge of how Dallas likes to cover or hide those flaws. It would then be a matter of the rest of us watching NY vs Dallas, to learn how to take the Cowboys apart.

Understand, if New York can pull off signing Garrett, it will be seismic for the division, and the aftershocks will not be survivable for Dallas in particular.

Our saving grace may be the preseason. Since these new coaches need to make sure players understand the concepts and their own roles, smarter coaches will run some of their concepts. Thereby tipping their hand. and giving us a sneak peek. Idiot coaches will decide not use the practice games for practice, and likely get off to slow (sputtering) starts.

All this basically reduces the importance of our assistant search, to near nil. That is, unless the Eagles promote from within. (HEY DOUG! PROMOTE DUCE STALEY!! IS THIS TOO SUBTLE!!!? AM I DOING IT AGAIN!? BEING TOO SUBTLE, I MEAN?)

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There’s a ton of chatter about the Eagles needing a new voice in the room, but a new voice doesn’t necessarily mean a trusted voice during high pressure moments. Getting a person to listen against what their instincts tell them, is no easy sale. It’s harder when they don’t implicitly trust you.

While yes, Staley is part of this old regime, his elevation would allow him to put a more definitive stamp on Doug’s system. Play design, play install, package assignments, formations, and rotational patterns, are all things that would subtly impact a system that was only the same, on the surface. Regardless of who calls the plays.

As of today, the Eagles are behind the curve in terms of intel and element of surprise. Without any new wrinkles added, the story of 2020 will be of how the rest of the NFC East has caught up to/caught onto us.

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I am genuinely concerned about the Redskins.

 

CH-CH-CHANGES.

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/10
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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FIRING Offensive Coordinator Mike Groh and Wide Receivers coach Carson Walch seems to have caught everyone off-guard.

Everyone except me, that is.

I know, I know. At the joint press conference with General Manager Howie Roseman, Head Coach Doug Pederson outright said that the two would be back. And you believed him. This is why everyone was confused.

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Well, that was PARTLY what had everyone confused…

I have to say, when Doug said that both would return in 2020, THAT is what left me confused. It would have meant Doug spending a second straight offseason defending the job Groh has done, had Groh stayed. Had Walch stayed, it would mean keeping a position coach who A) failed miserably to develop young players, and B) couldn’t help any player (young or established) once they started to struggle.

ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen, said on December 2nd “Barring a run in the playoffs, I would say that there is going to be some significant changes on the Philadelphia staff“. Local scribe Rueben Frank echoed those thoughts on THE SAME DAY. 

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Two reporters, from two different agencies, with one story? Folks, that’s what we sportswriters call “a done deal”. I think many people (both fans and media) either ignored them, or forgot that they said it. I did neither. So for me, these firings were natural. They were the final result, of sustained poor results.

I’m in that large pool of people who thinks that the OC job should go to Assistant Head Coach/Running Back Coach/Run Game Coordinator Duce Staley. I hate the idea of losing him as a position coach, because we’ve generally gotten great results out of his pupils. However, it’s time that Staley got a chance to see if he has higher level coaching chops.

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Snubbing him a second time… If the Eagles do that, he should leave. He’s done nothing but succeed for this team, both as a player and as a coach. He’s earned it. More than earned it.

If we don’t give him a bigger nibble, we are officially an obstacle to any higher aspirations that he may have. If we don’t offer him the spot, a serious question has to be raised as to (and I can’t believe it’s me raising this issue), why Duce keeps being passed over, for lesser qualified White candidates. (It’s a non-issue of he gets the nod this time.)

At Wide Receivers Coach, I’d like to see us bring in someone like former WR Cris Carter. He’d bring Immediate Hall Of Fame credibility, high standards, and would make Philly a more attractive destination for free agents, who want to work with coaches who understand what they go through.

I also like Ricky Proehl, but I doubt he could be coaxed up here, from his life in North Carolina. Carter on the other hand, may be (ahem) looking for a next move. Making the move here, could be just the doctor ordered for a man with a much knowledge as he has. Especially, given that it could finally grace him with the Super Bowl ring that has eluded him.

In any case folks, I hardly think we’re done with this overhaul. And just so we’re clear, my 6th sense is telling me that Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz won’t be here in 2020. Regardless of whether or not Cleveland hires him as their new head coach. .

 

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WILD CARD ROUND – SEAHAWKS

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/06
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

NOBODY quit. No matter how bad it got. No matter who was hurt, no matter what the situation was when they got injured. The fight never left this team.

I feel pride and anger for this bunch. Obviously, I’m proud of what they accomplished in winning the division. I’m angry because they deserved a better ending than the one they got. It’s funny. I wasn’t angry during or immediately after the game. But now? As I sit here and do the autopsy, I see the scars, and the wounds, and the sacrifices laid bare before me. This isn’t anger. This isn’t anger at all. It’s sadness.

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EAGLES 9 – Seahawks 17

We lost QB Carson Wentz (1/4 – 25.0% – 3 – 0 – 0) nine minutes into the game, to a helmet-to-helmet hit, where the defender then dropped all of his weight onto Carson, driving his head into the turf. That means there were two penalties on a play that could have resulted in an ejection. No one so much as reached for a flag.

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Enter QB Josh McCown (18/24 – 75.0% – 174 – 0 – 0 / 5 – 23 – 4.6 – 0 – 0), playing in the first playoff game of his career. Given the situation and the lack of weapons at his disposal, he acquitted himself well. He showed more poise than leadership, and a great deal of plucky gamesmanship.

It bears mentioning that TE Zach Ertz (2 – 44 – 22.0 – 0) played through a broken rib and lacerated kidney. He wasn’t just a decoy as he was targeted 4 times in this game.

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The Defense played as well as they did during the season, but with no offensive support, you can’t expect miracles. DT Fletcher Cox (3 – 0 – 0 – 0) played a far more dominant game than his stat sheet reveals. He spent all day running over, through and past Seattle’s interior linemen. If we understood the concept of contain, the defense could have won this game singlehandedly.

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

1) Keep them in their base: This happened, but I’m not sure if we triggered it, or their injury issues helped them play into our plans. In any case, they stayed in a defense that we had a legitimate chances against, all game long. (DONE)

2) Keep contain: HA!!! This, even more than Wentz’s injury, is what cost us the game. Their QB is at his best, when he can get outside of play design, because free-form offense breaks down defenses. Our DE’s were far too inconsistent with their rush depth and rush angles, which allowed Seattle to convert long third downs all game long. (NOT DONE)

3) Be the aggressor: That went up in smoke when the playbook had to be simplified to accommodate McCown. We leaned heavy on a handful of plays, where the only times it seemed the ball was in the air for more than 8 yards, was on a few passes to TE Dallas Goedert (7 – 73 – 10.4 – 0). Everything else was dink and Dak. (Sorry, force of habit.) (NOT DONE)

4) Cover more, don’t blitz: Don’t use the Safeties to blitz. Our only sack was from SS Malcolm Jenkins (7 – 1.0 – 0 – 0), who was sent after their QB a few times. Usually resulting in a big play. (NOT DONE)

This game’s Four Things score is 1 of 4. Thus players clean out their lockers tomorrow. Some for the last time.

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On The Whole:

If we were blown out after losing Wentz, it would be understandable. But we weren’t. If we lost to a far superior team, it would be understandable. But we didn’t. (I mean, you can’t look at the score, and think that if Wentz were in, it ends the same way.)

With the Eagles it’s a number of small things. And we saw them made manifest on the field in this game. Things like a lack of contain, receivers schemed to run free in our Secondary, the lack WR help in a passing league. There are a number of things that need to get cleaned up on this team.

Not going to get into that yet. Instead, I’m going to put out a LONG overdue Rivals Report this week. Then I’ll take a couple weeks off, to start formulating my offseason outlook, and do some general site maintenance.

 

FOUR THINGS – WILD CARD ROUND – EAGLES – SEAHAWKS

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/02
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WC-SEA

THIS is the week. Over the years the Seahawks have had the Eagles number, but that comes to an end this weekend. Not because I wish it, an Eagles fan. Not because I’m trying to put out a hopeful vibe. Both of those are true, but this is more than that.

I can’t see beyond this week. I’m not even trying to look beyond this week. It’s weird, but I’m not even envisioning “what-if” match-ups yet. (Yet.) All of my focus is on how THIS WEEK, the Eagles feel like a team of destiny. I saw it weeks ago, after we lost to Seattle. Remember after we lost, in Four Things Reviewed, I said this:

This game had a lot to do with not having weapons, but there are also a few things that need to be tidied up, if we’re going to make any noise in the playoffs.

WHHHHHA??? Did I just predict this loss, and still say playoffs? challenge_accepted

Yes. I did. Stay tuned. Stay dialed in. See you back here, soon.

 Who besides me was saying that, back then? Where are we now?

This almost feels like we’re viewing the story of ‘How the Eagles Got There’. Like history has chosen to run alongside us fans, so that we can turn our heads, and see history looking right at us. Meeting our eyes. To be gifted with a view of it, and do what most people never get to do: To understand history as it unfolds before us, in real-time.

The Eagles come into this game missing a number of key pieces, but we’re talented enough, driven enough, mentally tough enough, and experienced enough with this very problem, to handle it. Also QB Carson Wentz has shone brighter and brighter, as the stakes have gotten higher and higher.

The Seahawks are also missing a few key players. However, unlike us, they’re missing players who help underpin the principles of their physical identity. (This is why they went out and signed a player who symbolizes what they’ve lost.)

They aren’t missing their heart, but they’re walking into a fistfight with busted-up knuckles, and sprained wrists. They can and will punch, but it remains to be seen who their punching will hurt more, them or us.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the Seahawks:

1) Keep them in their base: Seattle is wounded, small, and under-experienced at LB. So those are just the players we need to keep out on the field. Luckily, due to injuries we still have to run a lot of 12, 21, and 22 personnel packages. So this one should be easy to do.

Our run game needs to attack the edges as well as the inside. If do that, we could get another big game from TE Dallas Goedert, and make life easier for the entire Offense. In fact, with the return of RB Jordan Howard, we could run some Wishbone in 23 personnel.

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Imagine pre-snap motion to shift a TE left, get RB Miles Sanders lined up wide right, and RB Boston Scott standing next to him in the Slot. Can you envision how scary that one side of the formation would be? Probably forgot all about Howard back there, with two blockers on the backside of the formation. This would be a wrinkle that Seattle hasn’t prepared for, because we’ve never done it. Just throwing it out there.

2) Keep contain: We sacked QB Russell Wilson 6 times a few weeks ago, and it was great. The problem was, we dedicated too much effort to chasing him, and it opened up opportunities. Like that trick play on Wilson’s lone TD pass. Proper lane discipline by DE Derek Barnett would have prevented that, and might have even turned it into a sack.

3) Be the aggressor: Last time we met, we did a pretty good job of employing play-action early, but we were timid with our route selection. Despite Wentz completing 73% of his passes, we didn’t really threaten the Seahawks, and it bogged our Offense down throughout the game. Especially at key points.

This time, if we’re using play-action, we need the ball in the air and downfield, for 8 yards or better. This would be a great time for WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside to give us that red zone threat we drafted. We’re at home. We’re the 4th seed. We have to be aggressive about tossing these bums out of our house.

4) Cover more, don’t blitz: Earlier I mentioned that we sacked Wilson 6 times a few weeks ago. What I didn’t mention, was that three of those sacks came from our Safeties. Only an idiot or a novice, wouldn’t realize the Seahawks want to exploit that this time. So don’t give it to them. By all means please, use the Safeties to fake some blitzes. But this week, always back out of it, or bring that blitz with some other player. No Safeties. Force Wilson to hold that ball a little longer, and give the rush time to get him.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

The Eagles will play to stop the run first. DC Jim Schwartz will not stomach being beaten by a guy was on his couch, just a couple of weeks ago. That means that the Seahawks are going to have to rely on their passing game.

Fun fact: In our last meeting, no Seahawk player had more than 38 yards receiving. The Seahawks don’t have a WR like a Terry McLaurin, Amari Cooper, or Darius Slayton. When we got spanked by those guys, we at least were being spanked by top-tier talent. The Seahawks have none of that.

When we last met, the Eagles were without our top receivers, and were shaky about the guys we had to throw to. Not anymore. Carson is throwing cross-body touchdown passes to third string TE’s, and throwing the ball to draw penalties now. He wun’t doin’ NONE of that back then!

The animal that Seattle last faced, has evolved quite a bit. They last faced a Charmander, and now are about to encounter a full-on Charizard.

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Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard.

To quote a guy I used to work with “Sorry ‘bout your life homie!”

PREDICTION: EAGLES 24 – Seahawks 17

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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK17 – GIANTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/30
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Reviews, Rivals, Roster, stats, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

EXCUSES

THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES ARE YOUR 2019 NFC EAST CHAMPIONS!!!

Once again, I predicted score wrong, but I was pretty on-point about the spread. (I predicted 18 points, the margin turned out to be 17.) At no point this week, did I think this game would be close. Turns out, I nailed it. 

EAGLES 34 – giants 17

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The story many will tell, will be of RB Boston Scott (19 – 54 – 2.8 – 3 – 0 / 4 – 84 – 21.0 – 0), taking over after Rookie RB Miles Sanders (9 – 52 – 5.7 – 0 – 0) went down with an ankle injury. The REAL story is of how QB Carson Wentz (23/40 – 57.5 – 289 – 1 – 0), continues to make everyone around him better, regardless of their Draft pedigree.

While Boston Scott led the Eagles in receiving yards, it was WR Greg Ward (6 – 43 – 7.1 – 0) who paced the roster in receptions, TE Dallas Goedert (4 – 65 – 16.2 – 0) who led in targets with 10, and TE Josh Perkins (4 – 50 – 12.5 – 1) who caught Wentz’s lone scoring strike. The point is, Wentz spread the ball around. Perfectly conducting the Offense, to make us more than the sum of our parts.

We made plenty of noise on Defense as well, with DE Derek Barnett (2 – 2.0 – 0 – 0) playing this game of the other side of the line of scrimmage, as both of his tackles were for losses. The same could be said of DE Brandon Graham (3 – 1.0 – 0 – 0) who also made all of his tackles in the backfield.

There’ll be no media coverage of how the Eagles defensive interior pissed all over the line of scrimmage, and marked it as their own territory. DT Timmy Jernigan (2 – 1.0 – 0 – 0) played like a someone was holding his family hostage. He absolutely wrecked any semblance of a blocking scheme, and he seemed to always be caving in the point of attack. DT Anthony Rush (1 – 0 – 0 – 0) strong-armed his way into a TFL as well.

2019 Fletcher Cox Daniel Jones

DT Fletcher Cox (1 fumble recovery) doesn’t make much of an appearance on a stat sheet, but his 4th quarter recovery of a fumble forced by SS Malcolm Jenkins (7 – 0 – 0 – 0), put the game out of New York’s reach, for good. And Sidney Jones (3 – 0 – 1 – 0)! Did you see that step for step coverage of giants WR Darius Slayton (4 – 50 – 12.5 – 0)? Slayton fell cleanly on the play, and Jones plucked the ball out the air, driving a dagger into the face of the giants hopes. Slayton had a very different day in this game, than he did when CB Ronald Darby (IR) was playing human turnstile, in the last match-up.

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I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

2019 Wentz sees Perkins

1) Protect the QB: The Eagles did decent (not great), job of getting Wentz outside of the pocket. However, the coaching staff left most of his protection up to the clock in his head. Wentz didn’t disappoint, as he made a point of either quickly vacating the pocket or throwing the ball away.

In fact, my second favorite pass of the day was an incompletion. On the third play of the 2nd quarter, Wentz spotted pass interference, and threw to WR Robert Davis (no stats), to draw the officials attention to the penalty. That’s an Aaron Rodgers, Jim Kelly, Peyton Manning kind of tactic. It worked, and we got 13 yards out a pass that never stood a chance of being completed. Nothing protects a QB like his own saavy, and Carson Wentz’s saavy magnified his physical protection in this game. (DONE)

2) Take away Barkley: RB Saquon Barkley (17 – 92 – 5.4 – 1 – 0 / 3 – 25 – 8.3 – 0) did what he always does. He spends most of a game under wraps, and then makes noise with one big play. This week it was a 68 yard rushing touchdown. Before that he had 11 carries for 10 yards (0.9 yards per carry), then the 68 yarder, and afterwards 5 carries for 14 yards (2.8 ypc). We made him not matter. We took him away from being able to help his team, on all but one down, and made his team play around him for the rest of the game. (DONE)

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3) Vary our attack: Boy did we ever! HC Doug Pederson emptied the attic this week. Strikes to WR’s on the outside. A 28 yard laser down the middle to Dallas Goedert, 14 yards worth of toe drag swag to Goedert on a clutch 3rd and 8, a cross body throw to a third string TE for a 24 yard score… And then when Sanders went out, Scott came in and we continued to pound the rock inside. That is, when we weren’t running Jet Sweeps, and throwing 39 yard screens… We threw a little bit of everything at the giants. I’d hate to be the team that has to watch tape and figure out what, or whom they need to stop. (DONE)

4) Hold auditions: This was done, but not the way I envisioned it. Due to CB Jalen Mills being out, and Darby being just placed on IR, both Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas (3 – 0 – 0 – 0) had to start, and play the whole game. There was no way to play one off of the other. Instead of two half game auditions, we got two full game auditions, for Darby’s spot in 2020. During which both players defensed three passes each, and allowed no WR more than 68 yards (68, 50, 39, and 12). (DONE)

That brings the week to a perfect 4 of 4, and the REGULAR season total to 38 of 64 (.593), which is just about commensurate with our record of 9 – 7 (.562). To have gotten it to match exactly, our record would had to have been 9 – 6 – 1.

Given that over the last 4 weeks we’re 15 of 16 (.937) in Four Things, and are undefeated during that span, it would seem that the team is peaking at just the right time, because we’re taking care of exactly the right things.

On The Whole:

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This was an excellent victory. It was a slugfest that more or less became a blowout, on the road, in inclement weather, while still losing key players. I defy you to ask for better character building on the doorstep of the playoffs.

Now we begin our journey to the Super Bowl.

FOUR THINGS – WK 17 – EAGLES – GIANTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/27
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WK17-NYG

Disclaimer: This article contains more than my usual amount of profanity. I am so fucking JACKED for Sunday, you’d think I was playing!  I swear, this shit either needs a fucking outlet, or I’ll end up head-butting strangers on the street. This is my way of avoiding having to wear orange.

DON’T expect the Redskins to do us any favors by beating the Cowboys. In fact, expect the ‘skins to let the Cowboys win. Don’t expect the giants to chase a higher pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Expect them to try and play spoiler. In fact, expect everyone to try to be an obstacle. Expect this weekend to try to hurt us.

Our Eagles will not get help from anyone this week. There is no help coming. We are on our own. It’s US against the world. But that’s okay. Don’t matter.

WE’RE ALL WE GOT!!!!! WE’RE ALL WE NEED!!!!!

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Win and we’re in. Finishing this game with even one more point than the giants, puts us into the playoffs, there isn’t a fucking thing anyone can say or do to change that. Not anyone. We simply need to handle our business.

What about the giants? What are they playing for? What are the stakes for them? Who gives a shit? Fuck ‘em. We simply need to handle our business.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the giants:

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1) Protect the QB: Protecting QB Carson Wentz doesn’t just mean keeping him in the pocket. It also means getting him out on bootlegs, to stymie pass rush scheming. It also means using frequent play-action to make rushers look, before committing. It also means on third and long, a RB needs to stay and help RT Halapoulivaati Vaitai on rushers who step outside, and then work back inside. It also means that if we get up by 16 o more, Carson comes out of the game in the second half.

2) Take away Barkley: RB Saquon Barkley has rushed for a 301 of his 911 yards, in the last two weeks. In both of those games, he’s seen 22 or more carries. They are the only such games he’s had this season. Over that span the giants have scored 77 points. So, they will come in feeling like they have something to hang their hats on.

Take that away from them. Their last two offensive outputs have been keyed by their ability to rely on Barkley. We have to take him away, and force them back into the wilderness of no go-to player. If we can shake their confidence, with no tomorrow to play for, a good deal of their veterans will emotionally check out.

3) Vary our attack: A few weeks ago, we taught the giants that RB Boston Scott is poison to their coverage scheme. Because their pass rush comes from their OLB position, they’ll be susceptible to Screens passes all day. So, we should rely on those. Except this time, we should add a few backside Screen passes to TE Dallas Goedert.

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We should key them off of play-action to RB Jordan Howard, going away from the play. If we run that with 21 personnel, it almost can’t be countered by their 3-4 scheme.

If they bring down a Safety to play Man over the TE, we get one-on-one on at least one outside WR. If they push out to a primarily Zone look, then we get room to run the ball inside, or throw short passes to the Flat. But it all comes off of that TE Screen. Same Screen concept as last time, but with a TE added to the mix this time.

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4) Hold auditions: With CB Ronald Darby on IR, an open audition needs to be held for his spot. Give a quarter to CB Rasul Douglas, and a quarter to CB Sidney Jones, with the understanding that the guy who makes the most plays, gets the whole second half.

In our last meeting with the giants, we let WR Darius Slayton go off, on some Hercules, He-Man type bullshit.

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He was out there putting our Secondary on milk cartons and posters, at will. FS Rod McLeod was under Amber Alert. And when Darby got back to his locker, he was greeted by candles and stuffed animals, left in memory of his talent. It felt like we celebrated our victory with a wake. (Not really, but you get the point.)

Slayton is a little dinged up this week, but that’s not the point. The point is that we can’t let any of the giants receivers romp and frolic in our wilderness, this time. We need to find a CB who says “Not on my watch” and enforces it.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

Were TE Zach Ertz not nursing a broken rib, I’d call this an automatic win. However, Ertz will either be out, or play a limited role mostly as a decoy, running the TE (B) routes, with Goedert running the TE (A) routes. That will change how both Wentz and the Offense functions.

Upon qualifying for the playoffs, we won’t get a Bye week, so it’s wise to put as little additional wear and tear on our Starters, as we can. That thought has to be part of HC Doug Pederson’s thinking process this week. We need to put this game out of reach quickly, and then sit our Starters. So, look for Wentz to try to involve his WR’s by taking big shots early.

The giants defense is ass. They were ass when we beat them a few weeks ago, and they’ve only grown more shit-caked since they cut CB Janoris Jenkins for playing Twister in the rain.

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In the last two weeks they’ve allowed the Dolphins and Redskins to put up 55 points, and 7 touchdowns, against just one takeaway (fumble.) So, don’t expect much defensive resistance if we come out swinging.

The giants QB will get the green light to air it out, so expect to hold your breath a lot. Unless we’re down in the second half, don’t expect any sort of creative pass rushing. Four man rushes with a lot of faked blitzes. We might bring three or four, but unless we need it, expect a vanilla, almost preseason sort of Defense.

Our under-manned Offense will be expected to carry the day in this one. Since the giants defense is so bad, we should pull it off unless we suffer a defensive cave-in.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – giants 10

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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK 16 – COWBOYS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/23
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview, Reviews, Rivals, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ONCE again the Eagles are back at the head of the division, and please don’t start with how “unsexy” the division is. Your car isn’t a Rolls Royce, but you still love it and fuss over it, right? Well in that same spirit, this division may not be the NFC West, but we’re gonna drive this motherfucker ’til the wheels fall off.

2019 opponent-rival mock

Yes, yes, I know! That’s not to say that the East is ours free and clear. We still have one more payment to make on it. And it’s due next week.

EAGLES 17 – Cowboys 9

Despite all the missing weapons, QB Carson Wentz (31/40 – 77.5% – 319 – 1 – 0) led his team to (what right now is) the signature game of his career. That’s not to say that he was without help. For the second week in a row, rookie RB Miles Sanders (20 – 79 – 3.9 – 1 – 0 / 5 – 77 – 15.4 – 0) put up 150+ yards from scrimmage.

NFL: Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles

Dallas Goedert scores the go ahead touchdown in the first quarter.

Stepping up for TE Zach Ertz (4 – 28 – 7.0 – 0) who injured his ribs early on, was TE Dallas Goedert (9 – 91 – 10.1 – 1). Geodert hit pay dirt with a 6 yard dart from Wentz. Don’t look now, but WR Greg Ward (4 – 71 – 17.7 – 0) may be trying to coax Wentz into throwing the ball down the stripe a little more, after breaking off a 38 yard gain for his QB. Even rookie WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside (2 – 39 – 19.5 – 0) made a declaration of sorts, by opening the game with a 27 yard grab, and catching both balls thrown to him.

Defensively, the stat line for MLB Nigel Bradham (2 – 0 – 0 – 0) doesn’t tell how instrumental he was in rendering Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott (13 – 47 – 3.6 – 0 – 0 / 7 – 37 – 5.2 – 0) ineffectual for the day. The same can be said for DT Fletcher Cox (3 – 0 – 0 – 1). It’s a shame that the fumble he forced, didn’t turn into points.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until it happens. DE Vinny Curry (2 – 1.0 – 0 – 0) needs to be brought back in 2020.

2019 Vinny Curry on the a Dak.jpg

DE Josh Sweat (2 – 1.0 – 0 – 0) is justifying the coaches patience with him, and is starting to look like the steal he was drafted to be. (Though he has a tendency to flirt with neutral zone infractions. Crown of your helmet Josh!) DT Anthony Rush (1 – 0 – 0 – 0) gives us a physical presence inside that makes it hard for a run game to get traction. I thought I saw him make a Tackle For Loss, but the (generous) spotting of the ball made it a run for no gain. In fact, Bradham (1), Curry (1) and Sweat (2) all had TFL’s. Just what we needed against this team.

2019 Sidney Jones.jpg

Much maligned CB Sidney Jones (1 – 0 – 0 – 0), made yet another excellent play on the ball, in a critical fourth down situation. In fact, the play he made was potentially what saved the game, and possibly the season. He still tackles like a young Deion Sanders, but if he can get his confidence back up, we may have a guy that we can trade out of the conference. (Tackling is too important to risk keeping him.)

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

2019 Nigel Bradham vs Elliott.jpeg

1) Keep Bradham clean: Our D-Line not only kept Bradham from having to fight off offensive linemen, they made plays on the other side of the line of scrimmage! This was the deluxe version of what we needed here. (DONE)

2) Force them into their base defense: Apparently the Eagles coaches and I see things very similarly. According to a Next Gen stat that was put up on the television screen, deep into the 4th quarter, the Eagles had run 2TE formations, 56% of the game. That forced the Cowboys to play newcomer OLB Malcolm Smith (2 – 0 – 0 – 0) clearly more than they wanted to. So much so that at one point you could see that he was visibly winded. This allowed us to victimize him several times. Good show! (DONE)

2019 Carson Wentz with the carry.jpg

3) Gut the middle: The idea was to keep them in their base, and make their LB’s play chase all day long. If they’re chasing, they aren’t dictating the action or making big plays. So we made them chase TE’s, and we forced them to follow Sanders all around the formation. We also threw 6 passes to RB Boston Scott (3 – 12 – 4.0 – 0 – 0 / 6 – 7 – 1.1) and he caught all of them. Almost all of them were routes towards the sideline to force LB’s into lateral coverage, or pull a Nickel out of position. We even ran Wentz a couple times on designed runs. Worked like a charm, and the Cowboys stayed off-balance all game. (DONE)

4) Don’t over-commit vs the run: Since the front seven played well enough on it’s own, there wasn’t much call for that. We showed some heavy fronts, but they never really brought the house aside from short yardage moments. We did a lot of “threaten and bail”, which forced Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (25/44 – 56.8% – 265 – 0 – 0) to read our coverages more often than film study would have suggested was necessary. We didn’t over-commit to the run, and made it harder for him to throw the ball against us. (DONE)

For the third time this year, we nailed a perfect 4 of 4 for the week, boosting our season tally to 34 of 60 (.566). Next week we can clinch the NFC East and a home playoff game with a win vs the giants. That game by the way, has been FLEXED from 1:00 pm to 4:25 pm.

On The Whole:

Cowboys Season Kevin Hart1

We’ve been a team in need of consistency for weeks now. Recently our QB play has gotten more stable and creative. Carson was moved around a lot today. Bootlegs, called QB runs, split out wide… Everything except QB Sneaks. (Weird, right?)

Play at RB has become more dynamic recently. I said after the Miami game that Sanders reminded me of Brian Westbrook. Weeks later, I stand by that. He is effective both with, and without the ball in his hands.

Lots of people want to draw a comparison between he and LeSean McCoy, probably due to body type. However, young McCoy was a more dangerous natural runner, but needed the football to make plays. Sanders is a much scarier draw out-wide, than McCoy ever was.

And then there’s situational football. As you could see on Sanders “Take a Knee 2.0” today, for him making the play isn’t always about what you do as a runner. He gave up a TD in exchange for sealing a win.

Defensively we need to decide on who we are. If we’re going to be a team that doesn’t rush 5, we need to scheme more rushes or packages that actually get hands the QB more. For two years I’ve been saying that we don’t cover long enough for the rush to get home. That wasn’t true today.

If we’re going to affect games, dictate action and cause turnovers, we need our Defense to be more sudden. Our plodding pass rush of the last month has to improve if we intend to make any noise in January.