Conversations

FREE AGENT: NICK FOLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/02/28
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, Defense, free agents, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster, trade, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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LETTING QB Nick Foles become a Free Agent isn’t a good thing. It’s a great thing. This is the only smart move the Eagles could have made, and as a fan, I’m stoked that they saw that. Besides, this just made it easier for us to bring Foles back, at a price we can live with, for years.

Six days ago I said we should let him become a FA, then make him an offer of 50M over 5 years, with 30 guaranteed over 3. (Here’s that article) I still say we should float that out to him. If he bites, awesome. As I said, we’d have him at an affordable price until he retires. If he doesn’t, then he goes to a team that he can lead for a couple of years.

Either way, we don’t get saddled with a tag we can’t afford, on a QB we then couldn’t trade.

Foles was due 20M that we were never going to pay him in 2019. So he “bought his freedom” (yikes) for 2M, which allowed him to become a FA if he wished. This left the Eagles with the option to tag him for around 25M. That sets up a tag and trade situation, right? Right?! Wrong.

If the Eagles had already indicated that we wouldn’t shell out 20M, then why would we shell out 25? Every GM in the NFL with two brain cells to rub together, would realize that it’s just a matter of time before we had to cut Foles, at which point they could go after him for free, without having to give us anything in a trade. They could just wait us out.

In my sickest fantasy, we would have packaged our 1st rounder and Foles, in a trade to Jacksonville to move up from 25th to 7th , and get maybe a 4th or 5th rounder to boot. However, after the trade of QB Joe Flacco from Baltimore to Denver, it seemed that the market for trades had been set, and that it was a buyer’s, not a seller’s market.

That meant the Eagles would have no leverage in trying to move Foles. This is why I wrote last week, about just keeping him. Foles is more valuable as an Eagles player, than as an Eagles bargaining chip. Also, for a man of faith who says that where he plays matters, the Eagles are more valuable to Foles as well.

But…Let’s play Devil’s Advocate. Despite him being 30 already, let’s look at where Foles could get a shot to be “The Man”:

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1) Jacksonville: They’re a team that’s built to win now. The question is whether or not Foles fits in, with what can be an very up and down locker room, that isn’t known for handling adversity well. If they don’t get off to a good start, Foles might wish he never left Philly.

2) Washington: The organization is a shit show from top to bottom. The owner is an idiot. The head coach was 21 – 26 – 1 and he was given a two year extension in 2017. Since then, he’s 14 – 18, which brings him to 35 – 44 – 1 (.444) for his career. The weapons are mediocre. There is no standard for excellence there. Foles would be a fool to sign there. At least without a Kirk Cousins type deal. Which would be so ironic, it might kill me from laughter.

3) Arizona: Rumor has the Cardinals trading away their young QB, which means they’d need a signal caller. Foles played college ball out there in Arizona and most of his family is still in Texas, where he was born and raised. He’d get to play with RB David Johnson, and whatever is left of WR Larry Fitzgerald. Aside from that, he’d have to live with water drought, playoff drought, scoring drought, an offensive line that’s allowed 104 sacks over the last two years… Arizona is in rebuild mode. Foles would need a concussion to decide to sign here.

Basically comes down to if Foles is serious about being part of great team, or whether or not he wants to make a final cash grab. Is he willing to tarnish his legacy by starting for a mediocre team? We shall soon find out.

WHY NOT KEEP NICK FOLES?

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/02/21
Posted in: Conversations, free agents, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster, trade, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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FRANCHISE Tag? Transition Tag? Tag him and trade him? Tag you’re it? Chatter right now is about whether or not the Eagles will tag and trade, QB Nick Foles.

There’s growing speculation that they Eagles won’t, because if they can’t trade him, we’re stuck paying him roughly 25M$ to be a back-up, due to the tag. Growing speculation is that the Eagles can’t afford that gamble, and so may have to let Foles walk as a Free Agent, free and clear.

That means all interested teams have to do, is sit and wait us out.

The problem is in the form of trade partners. There are teams who have established QB, who aren’t going anywhere in 2019:

PHI – Carson Wentz

NYG – Eli Manning

DAL – Dak Prescott

MIN – Kirk Cousins

GB – Aaron Rogers

DET – Matt Stafford

CHI – Mitch Trubisky

NO – Drew Brees

ATL – Matt Ryan

CAR – Cam Newton

TB – Jameis Winston

SF – Jimmy Garafolo

SEA – Russell Wilson

LAR – Jared Goff

NE – Tom Brady

PIT – Ben Roethlisberger

BAL – Lamar Jackson

CLE – Baker Mayfield (I got halfway through typing Johnny Manziel)

CIN – Andy Dalton

IND – Andrew Luck

TEN – Marcus Mariota

HOU – Deshaun Watson

KC – Pat Mahomes

LAC – Phillip Rivers

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That’s 24 of 32 teams that wouldn’t gamble what they have for a shot a Foles. The remaining eight:

WAS – Is still waiting for an updated timetable for Alex Smith’s rehab.

ARI – Drafted Josh Rosen last year. Speculation is that Rosen could end up in NE, which would open up a possible landing spot for Foles near the place where he played college ball.

NYJ – Are content to let Sam Darnold continue his on the job training.

BUF – Josh Allen had a bad rookie year, but he was last year’s #7 overall pick, so the Bills can’t give up on him this soon.

MIA – Does Ryan Tannehill get another year? Do they draft a QB? No one has a clue what’s going on with the Fins.

JAC – Blake Bortles bags are packed and sitting by the door. While this team could draft a passer, they’re built to win now, and so would best be served by an experienced hand with playoff pedigree.

OAK – Derek Carr is the guy. The only reason he’s in this group and not the other, is the unpredictability of the Raiders Front Office.

DEN – Just traded for what’s left of Joe Flacco.

Of that group, only Washington, Arizona, and Jacksonville really seem to be in the market for a QB. Which poses a problem for the Eagles, when it comes to trying to trade Foles. Fewer possible trade partners, means we have less leverage to uh…incentivize teams to give us something juicy for Foles.

However, a choked market also means it will be harder for Foles as a FA. If few spots want to add a starter, he could just end up a back-up elsewhere. That is unless he wants to start for Washington or Arizona, two programs currently in turmoil. Dysfunction almost made him retire once. Jacksonville seems like the best fit, but we shouldn’t just let them grab him. Right?

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Hey! Here’s a crazy thought. What if we kept him? He’s frequently said that he loves it here. He’s also said that who he plays with, and the environment he plays in, matters to him. So why not put that to the test? He wants to play FA, okay. Offer him 50M$ over 5 years, with 3 of those years guaranteed. 

Aside from the current Joe Flacco (18M) / Case Keenum (21M) situation in Denver, there is no back-up in football approaching 10M per year. None. Done this way, Foles gets to stay in a place he loves, in a system that plays to his strengths, as he soaks up crazy bench fees, while staying pretty healthy to boot. And if we do need him to step in here or there, his coaches, teammates, and even he himself, has no jitters about what to expect.

He is the ultimate insurance policy for THIS CITY, and he should, and could be paid like it.

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This literally settles everything, and makes a deep strike at making sure that Nick Foles never wears another teams colors, ever again.

2018 WAS WEIRD AS FU–

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/30
Posted in: Conversations, Crazy Talk, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), NFC East, NFL, Players, playoffs, Reviews, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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FROM Fitzmagic; to the Chiefs cutting the NFL’s 2017 rushing leader; to the Minnesota implosion that only surprised people wearing purple; to the state of Louisiana being home to the world’s biggest collection of punk-ass, crybabies, 2018 was a weird season for many teams.

Weirdest thing of all, was the NFC East’s down-to-the-wire, dogfight for a playoff spot.

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Last year’s champs, started 2 – 1 then spent the next 12 weeks being .500 or worse. The team that would eventually win the division, took 12 weeks just to break .500. The team that got out to a 6 -3 start, then contracted Nancy Kerrigan’s Disease, and fell short of .500. And then there was that team that peaked at 1 – 2.

It was a weird year. Let’s take a look back at it, shall we?

NEW YORK: We learned a lot about New York this year. We learned that QB Eli Manning’s contract contains language that allows him to take the offense hostage. At least until the end of 2019. We learned that RB Saquon Barkley can personally generate 1,000,000 yards of offense in a game, and still manage to see his team get blown out by 21 points. Quick question: When was the last time you saw a GM have fire sale at midseason, with a Head Coach in his first year?

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We also learned that in the NFL you need two feet in bounds, to make a touchdown catch, unless one of your knees belongs to WR Cole Beasley.

WASHINGTON: Their 2018 season included more sad chapters than The Bible. Imagine riding high at 6 – 3, then suddenly: “Hey! Anybody wanna see a grotesque injury?” At which point QB Alex Smith’s leg was broken/blew up vs the Texans. At home in his living room, an unemployed Mark Sanchez said “Damn. That’s a shame” and looked over at his phone. Seemingly minutes later, the Eagles broke QB Colt McCoy’s leg. On the sideline QB Mark Sanchez said “Damn. That’s a shame” and put his helmet on. Sanchez was allowed 1 start, after which Owner Dan Snyder said “Damn. That’s a shame” and began burning his Redskins jerseys.

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Adding insult to injury, were even more injuries! I almost forgot to mention that their starting G’s were on IR for half the year. And then they lost back-up G’s and a starting OT, and then a back-up OT, and then… You know what? It would be faster to list the Redskins who didn’t end up on IR in 2018. Hey, have you ever seen a man break a 90 yard touchdown run, and still not rush for a 100 yards in that game? Yo, Adrian! Magically, RB Adrian Peterson managed to rush for 1,000 yards, despite being 33, with no supporting cast. Perhaps he’s the player the Redskins can finally build around. Damn. That’s a shame.

PHILADELPHIA: City of Champions! “Oh no! Our Starting QB might be healthy enough to play!” Nothing says “Get well soon, Carson!” like a shrine to back-up QB Nick Foles, built in a teammate’s locker.

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You wanna know what weird is? Weird is watching your team get jungle raped, 48 – 7 on national television, and then watching our players say (WITH STRAIGHT FACES), they still believed the Eagles could make the playoffs. Weirder still was believing it as a fan. Weirder than that, was realizing that we as fans, might be delusional this time.

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This fan base can be infuriating, but nobody, absolutely NOBODY, makes a point and drives it home, like this bunch.

Then, when the shit actually happened, even us believers were like “Wait! What? Yaaaaayyyyyy!” How about all the injuries to our Secondary? So many guys played back there, that they started putting letters on jerseys instead of numbers. (“Who the hell is ‘M’?”) There comes a point after you watch a field goal double-doink off a goal post, when you wonder if you too should have built a shrine. Then the team blew a 14 – 0 lead the following week, and we broke out the old “We’ll get ‘em next year!” 

DALLAS: They had a great year. Started slow, but won 7 of their last 8. Traded for a player that opened up their offense, and helps hide how much of a liability QB Dak Prescott is. Found a LB who lets them move on from LB Sean Lee. Saw a couple of draft gambles pay dividends. Even won a playoff game. Everything looked great in Big D. Yup, they’d almost pulled it off, buuuuut… You realize that the 2018 season isn’t technically over, until the Super Bowl ends, right? So everything that’s happened in the last couple weeks, is still part of the 2018 season. Meaning that 2018 will end with, Dallas’s brain trust, intentionally trying to murder 2019 already. Dallas decided to fire a lackluster offensive coordinator, and hire…Kellen Moore? He was the Cowboys QB coach in 2018, and that’s it. That’s the extent of his coaching career, and now he runs the offense. What’s weird is, the hire comes from over Head Coach Jason Garrett’s head, so he’s just getting stuck with the arrangement. Which is fine with him because, well, you know how he and Jerry Jones are.django1.jpg

Then again, one questionable hire isn’t so ba- Wait! It wasn’t just one questionable hire. They also hired Jon Kitna to be Prescott’s QB coach. You realize that Kitna was an absolute turnover MACHINE when he played. Now he’s coming off 7 years of coaching high school football, with ZERO pro coaching experience, to make a ‘meh’ QB,better? So no stars were suspended. No convicts were signed. Nobody stole any underwear and were run down from behind, by a mall cop. Just a strong finish, culminating in a division win, plus a playoff win and… DAMMIT! They couldn’t wait to squander all that momentum. Couldn’t even let it wait until Monday of next week. Talk about reserving your spot on the basement couch! 

So there it is. The NFC East season that was. It made you want to pull your hair out at times, but it was never boring. Odds are pretty slim that 2019 will treat us to as crazy a rollercoaster ride as this year was, but just in case, I’m going to ask for a prescription for heart pills today.

THE PATRIOTS AREN’T GREAT

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/28
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Rants, Super Bowl, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

THIS is an article about the New England Patriots.

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Actually, no. No it isn’t. This is an article about how the rest of the AFC has been complicit, in making the New England Patriots seem better than they really are.

I’m not going to harp on the cheating and the scandals. Me railing about the worst kept secrets in pro sports, would totally undercut what I’m getting at here. This is not about attacking the legitimacy of New England’s achievements. Nor is it about questioning the credibility of the current NFL for their stance on all things Patriot.

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In fact, let’s banish that for the duration of this article. For the sake of argument, lets say that every call, score, win, and division crown in the last nineteen years were ALL gotten by 100% legit means. Let’s say that the Patriots earned it all, and that they are really as good as advertised.

Let’s say that the rest of their conference, simply isn’t a match for them.

That very statement is a problem. Saying that the Patriots are that good, invalidates nearly half of the sport of pro football. It makes the rest of the AFC superfluous. In fact, if that statement is true, then the Owners on the Competition Committee, need to take a very hard look at what is going on here. Because it means that the sport is broken.

The Patriots have employed a single coach for just one year shy of two decades. There is plenty of film on what the he likes to run on both sides of the ball. There are a ton of former players who have cycled through that team, who have then carried intel to their new teams.

The coach’s offensive system isn’t a mystery. The basic tenets:

*Run on early downs, to eat clock and set up manageable 3rd downs.

*Attack the middle of the field with short to moderate passes, to punish and dissuade blitzing.

*Protect the QB by spreading the defense, so that he knows pre-snap where to quickly unload the ball.

*And run it all through a favorable mismatch, or the exploitation of an opponents weakness.

For example, here is a play in classic Patriots style:

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ESPN diagrammed this, this year like they were explaining cold fission. Meanwhile I figured this out over a decade ago, just by watching it on television! However, the rest of the AFC, especially the AFC East, has yet to figure out how to stop it. Nor have they decided to employ these tenets themselves, to become just as dangerous. Mentally it seems that they’re asleep at the switch.

Bah! Maybe I’m being short-sighted and not giving enough credit to their QB, who has been there almost as long as the coach. As time has gone on, he’s clearly become a stronger, faster athlete, right? That’s why his numbers are better than they were the year before, every year.

Except that’s not the case. Year in and year out, the QB hovers around 30 touchdowns and 64% accuracy, with exception of an extreme outlier in 2007, where he somehow threw 50 touchdowns, and had an accuracy mark of 69%. (Neither of which he’s ever approached again. For some reason.)

So how is it that the rest of the AFC can’t catch on to two people, doing something more or less one way, for two decades? Don’t misunderstand, there have been challengers.

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The Colts had a couple runs when Peyton Manning was there. Denver also had a couple runs under Peyton Manning. The Steelers have had a few under Ben Roethlisberger. But by and large, the rest of the conference has been playing Dizzy Bat for 20 years now.

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Note the team doing this. While wearing pads. See my point?

It’s not like the Patriots load themselves up with the most talent. They never have the most dangerous receivers. They never have the league’s rushing leader. They’ve built a few solid contributors out of other teams cast-offs. They’ve even been up and down on defense over the span.

So it’s not like talent is what’s bailing them out. Their offensive scheme isn’t a mystery, and their defense is trash at times. So what is it? Perhaps it’s other team’s stupidity?

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This is an 8-man box vs Rex Burkhead. Go ‘head and read that again.

The Patriots are less a product of doing anything great, and more product of other teams being wasteful, slow to learn, and slower to adapt, to what is almost mind-numbing repetition. The mere fact that New England has been challenged by less than a handful of conference rivals, but repeatedly challenged by the same ones, only drives home my point: The AFC is trash and the Patriots are simply fortunate enough to play in the most remedial division, of a shit-show conference.

Today the upshot of all of this is, most of the country is already shrugging over the upcoming Super Bowl 53. Ticket prices have fallen as Los Angels fans are way too fickle to travel cross-country, like (Saint Louis) real fans would. Patriots fans are simply bored from going so much.

It’ll be interesting to see what the domestic television ratings are, and if announcers and media types, try to hype how high the rating were in foreign markets. (As if NFL fans care about how many Hondurans watched a game that we tuned into for the commercials.)

I’m not saying that the Patriots suck or aren’t good, but if the Patriots were truly as good as advertised, the coach and QB’s record in Super Bowls would be 8 – 0, not 5 – 3.

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(Sigh)

Real team dominance looks like 4 – 0 in the Super Bowl. Right Joe?

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I have no idea what that fifth ring is. GOAT bling, maybe?

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: DIVISIONAL ROUND : SAINTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/14
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, playoffs, Reviews, stats, Super Bowl. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

IF nothing else, the ballooning debate over which QB we should ride with, has had most of the air let out of it. That’s the only silver lining here. The rest is muck and drivel.
I spent the latter half of the fourth quarter saying that I lay last nights loss at the feet of Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz. This is due to his repeated unwillingness to make adjustments, even when it’s clear that our opponents have. Former Eagles OLB Seth Joyner later echoed my assessment, and also fingered Schwartz for calling too passive of a game.

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Eagles 14 – Saints 20

QB Nick Foles (18/31 – 58.0% – 201 – 1 – 2) didn’t have his “A” game yesterday, an with the Eagles having no kind of run game, it was all on him to conjure up a win. It might have been possible had the Offense had more opportunities with the ball. Instead, DC Jim Schwartz seemed determined to make sure that the Saints had all the time and space that they needed, to operate their offense.

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) Spread the Ball: Three receivers with 50 yards or better was what we ordered. Two receivers with 50 or better is what we got. NOT DONE

2) Sack Attack: We got a couples of sacks, but we did not keep hands up in the QB’s face. As a result he had clear lines of sight to convert key third down after key third down. NOT DONE

3) Win Rushing yards: We started Wendell Smallwood. You can’t win rushing yards without a RB. NOT POSSIBLE

4) Take away the short pass: With all the off-coverage, and vanilla zones, we didn’t take away the short pass, the long pass, the hall pass…. NOT DONE

That makes this week’s Four Things score 0 out of 4. That also brings the 2018 – 2019 to a close.

While it would have been great to have this year end like last year, we all know that no team can win it all, every year. So we are are going to see more playoff runs that end like this, than like last year. Which will still make for exciting seasons.

That being said, this season was a fun ride while it lasted.

On The Whole:

After jumping out to a 14 – 0 lead, we had no business losing this game the way that we did. Personally I see this as worse than the 48 – 7 regular season loss, because it feels like it was almost an inside job. The only thing that keeps me from thinking Schwartz got an envelope, is the fact that he’s been doing this shit since he got here. Here’s what I said in Four Things Reviewed after the Super Bowl:
“ 4) South Paw Switch: To be fair, I didn’t really expect this to get done, since it isn’t actually DC Jim Schwartz’s M.O. to make wholesale changes at the half. It would have however, kept the Patriot from outscoring us 21 -19 in the second half. (NOT DONE) ”

This is who Schwartz is, and this is what we have to live with. For as long as he’s here. Given that this was the last year of his contract though….

THERE IS NO PLAN.

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/09
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, Crazy Talk, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, playoffs, Roster, Super Bowl, trade. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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MY position a couple weeks ago, had QB Carson Wentz starting, and QB Nick Foles returning to the bench, if the Eagles made these 2018-2019 NFL playoffs. It was the only thing that made sense out of not putting Wentz on Injured Reserve after he was found to have fractures in his back. After all, you keep an athlete active to play him. If he isn’t going to play at all, you shut him down for the year, and put him on IR. That’s how this game works. It’s no-brainer kind of stuff.

Wentz playing in these playoffs seemed like a given, due to several (still pertinent) factors:

1) The Eagles need to evaluate how much money they’re going to pay Wentz on his extension.

2) Wentz’s contract will likely set the new market.

3) Raiders QB Derek Carr missed one game with this injury in 2017, and Lions QB Matt Stafford missed zero games with this injury in 2018. (Wentz missing these last FOUR games indicates that he’s not as tough or as hungry to compete.)

All those things can be thrown out the window, if the Eagles have already decided that Wentz’s next contract isn’t their problem. In which case, you shut him down to avoid any distraction, and chart a clear course with Foles. Again, this is all no-brainer stuff.

Unless of course, the Front Office expectation was that Foles was going to flop against Chicago’s #1 ranked defense. Had that happened, it could be stated that there is no “Foles magic”, that there’s nothing to see, and we can move on.

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If that’s what the FO wanted, it completely blew up in their faces with a clutch touchdown drive, followed by a miraculous, unheard of, tipped and double doinked field goal miss.

NOW the problem is, with every playoff win, the notion of Foles magic grows exponentially. The farther we go, the harder it will be to get this fan base to accept Wentz again as the starter, with out half of the base calling it a step backwards.

Should Foles win another Super Bowl this year, shipping him out, or (finding a way to afford him and) sitting him behind Wentz again, sets Wentz up as a sham QB. In fact, if we repeat, anything short of Wentz winning one next year, says that the Eagles are where we were before we drafted Wentz. Searching for a QB who can deliver.

The only way out of this, is for Wentz to play and win in these playoffs. That’s it. At that point Foles isn’t magic, and Wentz isn’t magic, the Eagles are magic. Nothing short of that gets the whole fan base all on one bus, and allows Foles to leave here and Wentz to stay here smoothly.

Short of a Wentz  won SB in 2019 or 2020, Head Coach Doug Pederson can look forward to the remainder of his tenure being marred by questions about whether Wentz is over-paid, and if his bosses goofed when they took away the only magic this franchise has ever laid claim to.

Not a good look.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WILD CARD ROUND : BEARS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/07
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Roster, Special Teams, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ONE win down, three more to go. On the road, with a back-up QB, playing against the league’s top ranked defense. Oh, and down at the half. If it were any other team, that game would have turned into a blowout. Instead, OUR defense came out and showed our opponent the difference between being ranked as the best, and actually being the best.

(It also helped that our opponent kicked the potential game-winning field goal, smack into the upright. For the ELEVENTH time this year. Yes. Eleventh.)

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EAGLES 16 – Bears 15

QB Nick Foles (25/40 – 62.5% – 266 – 2 – 2) had the worst playoff game of his career. Meanwhile he proved as clutch as a handbag, slinging the go-ahead touchdown on 4th down, to WR Golden Tate (5 – 46 – 9.2 – 1) leaving less than a minute in the game. LT Jason Peters let the world know, that even with a bad wing, he’s still a one-on-one match for one of the best pass rushers in the game.

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The guy playing out of his mind was OLB Nigel Bradham (7 – 0 – 0 – 0). Deflections, tackles for losses, even diving on a loose ball that was an incompletion. His stat line can’t communicate how disruptive he was. S Tre Sullivan (3 – 0 – 0 – 0) got his hand on three passes and played the best game I’ve ever seen from him.

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Nobody made plans for Nigel. So he just wrecked shit.

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) Score more than 22 points: Okay, the Eagles didn’t score 22, but everything else in that section, we did. We left no points on the field due to 4th down gambles. We put the game on their QB. Though we accomplished the spirit of this, the heading wasn’t matched so I put ot down as not. NOT DONE

2) Run the damned ball!: We had 22 handoffs, not 25. We also started G Isaac Seumalo and got no push inside. In a way it’s like the coaching staff was just paying lip service to running. NOT DONE

3) Set hard edges: We didn’t allow a bunch of runs to the outside, and kept the ball-carriers well bottled. DONE

4) Work the edges: The TE’s saw plenty of work, but most of the passes on the outside were for WR’s. Still did the job. DONE

This game saw us snag 2 of 4 of our Four Things goals. Not bad since we got out with the win. Next week we head down to New Orleans, to give them the playoff game they wanted from us so much, last year. Careful what you wish for fellas!

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On The Whole:

Wanna hear something hilarious? Bears K Cody Parkey (3/4FG, 0/0XP), is in the first year of a four year deal. With 9M$ guaranteed. Yes. You read that right. Guaranteed. Current 49er and former Bears K, Robbie Gould was in the stands watching the game. Did I mention he’s the Bears all-time scorer? I didn’t? Well he’s the Bears all-time leading scorer. Aaaand they probably could have used him. Such a shame that they cut him. Looks like the team came down with a case of that there Karma. Heard it’s been going around and coming around.

Okay, stop laughing, stop laughing. We have our own glaring issue to stare down. This thing where we’re trying to wring one RB out of four players, has me worried. Yes, I said four. RB Boston Scott got to see time in the backfield, picking up at least one blitz.

The inability to manufacture meaningful rushing yards, is a problem. If we don’t figure out how to provide balance, this magic carpet ride likely ends next Sunday.

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