Defense

BYRON MAXWELL AS AN EAGLE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/06
Posted in: Defense, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 8 Comments

seattle-seahawks-cornerback-byron-maxwell

THERE is no way I could say the Eagles shouldn’t pursue Free Agent CB Byron Maxwell, without being shouted down. He’s got the size teams covet, and having played in the “Legion of Boom” he has a reputation that teams will at least show respect to at first.

He says he likes the Man-Press/Cover Three scheme that we play, because it’s similar to Seattle’s. Perhaps it is as far as the way the Secondary players are utilized. However because of the fact that Seattle plays a 4-3 and rushes their 4 down linemen as a rule, the result is that they play their OLB’s very different from how we play ours.

Then again maybe it’s too much to ask to expect a 6th round draft pick with just 17 career starts to look at such “subtleties”. Oh you didn’t know about the 17 starts? Or the 6th round selection? Or WHY he fell so far? But you DO think the Eagles should pay this guy 12-13M$ a year.

Fine. I won’t argue with that. What I will say though, is that if we sign him and Bill Davis doesn’t change his coverage scheme; the same fans who clamored for him will be calling Maxwell overpriced by Thanksgiving, and for his head by Christmas.

OUR DEFENSELESS COORDINATOR

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/30
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Fans. Tagged: , , . 10 Comments

article regular-red-pill-blue-pill

THE season just ended Sunday. Players were cleaning out lockers on Monday. Here it is Tuesday and we’ve already had our first collective kick to the balls as a fan base. According to Head Coach Chip Kelly, Defensive Coordinator Billy Davis will return for a third season in 2015.

Chip Kelly said that he thought Davis’s unit did a “really good job” and even made some improvements. A MOMENT IF YOU WILL!

I’m guessing that Chip Kelly isn’t counting on Eagles fans looking beyond whatever he says. Seems he’s underestimated you and I. Look. Here’s where our Defense ranked in 2013 and 2014:

 

Interceptions did jump from 8 to 21. Sacks (not on that chart) also went up from 37 to 49. Those are the bright spots.

Total Yards we went from 29th to 28th. Technically that is an improvement. Qualitatively, it really isn’t.

Points Allowed we went from 17th to 22nd. That’s a regression.

Takeaways went from 3rd to 6th. Also a step back.

Kelly said that he felt that the run defense improved. The truth is no, it really didn’t. In 2014 teams attempted fewer rushes than in 2013, but we fell from 10th best run defense to 15th and rushing TD’s allowed went from 15 to 21.

Pass defense shows no signs of improving. We went from 32nd to 31st in passing yards allowed, and from allowing 14 TD’s to allowing 28.

There are conceptual inefficiencies that our opponents have become expert at exploiting. Add to that Davis’s inability to make in-game adjustments, and you have a recipe for failure.

Some might want to argue that Davis’s system has helped us to 2 consecutive 10-6 seasons, or 20-12 overall. Maybe. But I’d wager that Davis’s system has more to do with that 12 than that 20.

Regardless, we’re gonna roll the dice on this guy for a third year. I feel a little less optimistic about 2015 already.

EAGLES/GIANTS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/26
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Preview. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

12.28.14-Wk17

SUNDAY 1:00 Metlife Stadium – East Rutherford, New Jersey

 

STUPID. STUPID. STUPID.

SO we’re gonna play our starters, because Our coach wants to put our best guys out there and WIN. Despite the fact that this will likely push our draft position (reportedly at 20th right now) even farther back. And before you say dropping a spot or two is no big deal, let me just say 4 word in dispute of that: Ha Ha Clinton Dix.

Because we missed Dix by one pick, GM Howie Roseman and Head Coach Chip Kelly decided to traded back 4 spots. We drafted Marcus Smith #26 overall. We’re about to deliberately jack-knife our own Draft.

 

EAGLES

Defense

Many fans want to pretend that our pass defense JUST became an issue this year. But last year when everyone (except me) was cheering about playoffs and what a genius Chip Kelly was, we were ranked DEAD LAST against the pass. DEAD LAST. The 253 passing yards per game we’re giving up this year, is down from the 289 per game we were giving up last year. If you’re just now upset over our spotty coverage, shame on you for not paying better attention this whole time.

Since we don’t commit much to playing pass defense, it allows us to play more guys up front so we get decent pressure and shut down the run pretty good. Which is a shame, since the NFL is a passing league now.

Offense

Our pace is slower and we’ve stopped doing certain things like calling for deep routes and calling Bubble-screens to spread out the opposing secondary. We also don’t involve RB Darren Sproles anywhere near as much as we should. None of these can be laid at the feet of execution. What you stop calling and who you stop playing are coaching decisions. These are deliberate moves spanning weeks.

 

GIANTS

Defense

They bleed points and cough up as much rushing yardage as any team in the league. We’re talking total bottom feeders here. But the giants won’t be playing to win, since THEIR coach isn’t an idiot.

Offense

The giants will be playing their starters too, BUT the difference is, Tom Coughlin’s team will be giving work to young guys that they’ll depend on for at least another year. We on the other hand will be allowing guys we don’t want to keep to audtion while guys we need to learn about will sit.

 

BOTTOM LINE

I’m so fucking disgusted, that I’m almost numb. Unless Chip Kelly has a trick up his sleeve (the likes of which no one has ever heard), we’re about to add insult to injury. No! Scratch that! We’re about to add long-term injury to short-term injury. Because Tom Coughlin can recognize the faux value in winning what’s basically the first preseason game of 2015.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 21 – Giants 14

 

 

START MATT BARKLEY

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/22
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

Card-matt barkley

THE 2014 EAGLES season is over. This next game is a preseason game with stakes. Or it should be. If Chip Kelly has any sense at all, he should start Matt Barkley. It’d be smart to know if our second year QB can serve as a viable second stringer in his third year, or if we should free up the cap and roster space for someone who has a chance to be of use to the team.

Now is the time to get a look at our roster and see who can deliver when the lights come on. All indications are that we’re going to lose some key players this offseason, so it’s better to know before Free Agency and the Draft, who is and who is not for real.

Not only should Barkley get to start, but so should:

  • CB Jaylen Watkins. This kid may have been a college CB, but he’s an NFL FS. Regardless, until he gets some playing time, he’s just a wasted pick. Be nice to see Malcolm Jenkins take this kid under his wing.
  • OLB Marcus Smith. He’s made 1.4M$ to do nothing this year, and next year is on tap to pull down 1.7, on a 4 year deal worth a fully guaranteed 7.99M. Even if we cut him today, he counts against our cap for at least one more year in dead money. And that’s space we can’t afford to waste. Not to mention the roster spot. Time to see if this guy has anything to contribute.
  • WR Josh Huff. Give the guy a whole game. Let him be the guy who has to erase his mistakes. Let him learn the progression of why things in this game happen, not just what things happen. He plays like he doesn’t recognize moments, or situations. This throw-away game is a perfect laboratory for him. He’d have a number of plays that he can get wrong and also get right, so then he can compare him vs him in both instances. Let him mature himself this offseason, and maybe he’ll make fewer boneheaded mistakes in 2015.
  • SAK Trey Burton. He’s the anti-Josh Huff. He just makes heads-up plays when called upon. Undrafted, unheralded, nobody’s darling, a total dark horse to make the team. I was rooting for him in the preseason even though I didn’t think the guy stood a snowball’s chance in Hell of sticking. Kelly surprised and impressed me by keeping him. Burton’s a (SAK) Swiss Army Knife who plays QB, TE, WR, and RB. He’s already logged 5 carries for 10 yards this season, and I’d like to see him get a few more of those.

Week 17 finds us standing knee-deep in the debris of what was (not that long ago), a successful 2014 season. However, despite the wreckage that surrounds us now, this season could have one more gift to give down the line. When the dust of 2014 finally settles, things heading into 2015 could be clearer than they ever were heading into 2014.

EAGLES/REDSKINS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/18
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

12.21.14-Wk16

SATURDAY 4:30 FedEx Field – Landover, Maryland

 

PUMP THE BRAKES

SEATTLE should have been competitive, but it should have been a win. Dallas should have been a breeze. I mean seriously, we even came back from being down 21-0. But in both games the Offense just stalled out, and the defense had a single problem that it couldn’t solve all game long (Russell Wilson’s running vs SEA; and covering Dez Bryant vs DAL.) At this point I have no idea who is showing up in our uniforms on game day.

 

EAGLES

Defense

Due to an under-comittment to defending the pass, we’re pretty solid at defending the run. And when we aren’t being ripped for easy completions, we get good pressure on QB’s. So there’s that.

Let me say this: While CB Bradley Fletcher did look bad out there, stranding him out there like that was total bullshit and horrible coaching. I was glad to see Brian Dawkins weigh in and say the same thing. Before I had this website, (some of you may recall) I wrote when we first signed him, that Fletcher was a kitted-up Safety. WHAT A SURPRISE, I WAS RIGHT AGAIN!

That said, our Secondary is an open fucking wound. Everyone knows that we can be had on shallow crossing routes and now they know that our Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis will strand our CB’s even when they are over-matched. This week I hope to see us play some Cover Two. The last time we played this team we didn’t and it was a shootout. Be nice to see if Davis is capable of learning.

Offense

Remember throwing the ball deep? Remember Jordan Matthews catching multiple Bubble-screens in game? Remember Jordan Matthews? Where the hell did all that go? Mark Sanchez was never really as in synch with Jeremy Maclin as Nick Foles was; but jeez, I’d rather see Sanchez forcing the ball to Maclin than to Riley Cooper.

I’m not even going to harp on our run game. It’s been up and down all year, and right now it’s down again. We all know why that is, but this week especially is not the time to get on that again.

Even without Foles there’s enough firepower here to shell our opponent. But it all depends on which EAGLES Offense decides to show up.

 

REDSKINS

Defense

What can you say about this unit? It has a talented pass rusher in OLB Ryan Kerrigan, and it doesn’t give up a ton of yardage. On the other hand, they have just 4 picks all year long and they allow more points than all but 6 teams. It’s a perfectly “meh” level unit. They should be an ideal “get our confidence back” type of opponent as we work some shit out. 

Offense

Hey look! RB Alfred Morris is about to rush for 1,000 yards again. In that plodding, one dimensional style of his. Despite the QB’s drawing straws every week to see who starts, WR DeSean Jackson has put up nearly 1,000 yards on just 50 grabs this year, and some of you may recall that he is one hell of deep threat. Maybe some Cover Two would be nice?

 

BOTTOM LINE

If we don’t win this game, we should start Matt Barkley next week. This is an absurdly winnable game for us and it pains me that even though I still think we’ll win, I don’t feel confident that we’ll show up looking to handle business.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 24 – 20

 

ME AND BRIAN DAWKINS ARE PISSED

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

BDAWK

EAGLES future Hall Of Famer Brian Dawkins, took issue with the way Dez Bryant was covered during our 38-27 loss to Dallas this past Sunday. While he did point the finger at the Secondary for not communicating better, he was very upset by the coaching and game plan. He went as far as to say that the EAGLES “gave [Bryant] the opportunity to do what he did, in my opinion, by continuing to single that dude up left and right, by himself, over and over again with no help at no point”. 

Now granted, I’ve been bitching about Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis since the EAGLES first announced that they were even interviewing him. Where most EAGLES fans had no idea who the guy was, I was already familiar with his work and his concepts, (since my best friend is a 49ers fan). I also knew about his failure Arizona. I wrote that every defense he coaches is worse in the second year. It was true in San Fran. It was true in Arizona. It’s now true here in Philadelphia.

His 3-4 concept DOES NOT WORK AGAINST GOOD TEAMS. His underneath coverage is highly susceptible to Crossing routes. TE’s can expect clean releases off the line. And due to all the Single-high Coverage, opposing QB’s generally know where the one-on-one is as soon as the huddle breaks.

While it’s one thing for me to rant about this stuff, it’s quite another to have a guy like Dawkins voice the same concerns. And while yes, he’s only talking about this one game, what we saw out there is characteristic of what we see every week out of our Secondary. What Dawk and I are most incensed about isn’t that a guy will get beat, or that the game plan may have holes; it’s the total lack of being able to make adjustments.

Dawk played for Jim Johnson who was The Master of in-game adjustments. To see Davis be unable to even make basic ones is enough to make your nose bleed from stress. It’s the New Orleans playoff game all over again.

I saw this mistake (hiring Davis) coming before we made it. I’ve been pointing these faults out in detail for two years. But to now have some validation from a player of Dawk’s magnitude…I wonder if anyone else is as pissed as we are.

EAGLES/COWBOYS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/11
Posted in: Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , . 12 Comments

12.14.14-Wk15

SUNDAY 8:30 Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

SHOWDOWN

THIS is the biggest game of the regular season. Not because it’s against the Cowboys, but because it’s one of three division games at the end of the season. As long as two teams in this division were still alive in the race to win it, there was ALWAYS going to be a fight somewhere during these last three weeks.

Personally, I’m glad it’s the Cowpies. If we can string this and the va-giants game into wins, we can rest our starters in Week 17. If it were us and the Foreskins, we’d have to run hot the whole time, which might burn us out for the playoffs.

 

EAGLES

Defense

Except for the inability to contain Russell Wilson last week, our Defense was what I expected it to be against the Seahawks offense. Dallas plays with a similar mindset (pound the ball, draw teams into the box, hit’em up top vs 1-on-1 coverage), but Dallas’s QB can’t run around anymore. Somewhere out there DE Vinny Curry and OLB’s Brandon Graham, Trent Cole and Connor Barwin are licking their chops.

Then of course there’s the fact that this Defense took away all of Dallas’s weapons last time we met. It’s not like the Cowboys had anyone out on injury or suspension when we did that. They weren’t playing on a slick field that hampered their running. Conditions will be similar this time around. Except colder. Windier. And the crowd won’t be neutral this time. It’ll be downright unfriendly. Expect the Defense to repeat what it did two weeks ago.

Offense

QB Mark Sanchez cut Dallas’s defense up like a fork-tender steak the last time he saw it. And RB LeSean McCoy ran through their defenders like he was coated in Ex-lax. The excuse from Cowpies fans last time around was that they only had 4 days rest. Translation:

 cowboys ready

Fuck outta here, you whiny bitches. It was the same 4 days of rest we had, plus WE had to travel.

If you take Dallas now having to travel east to play outside in cold air (making breath harder to recover, trust me, I know), and add it to the fast paced Offense we tired them out with two weeks ago;  it might have these guys on the sidelines wearing oxygen masks like they’re playing in Denver.

 

COWBOYS

Defense

Really? They have one?

Offense

My instincts say that with the colder, windier weather that will make the ball as hard as a brick, Dallas won’t want to throw the ball around too much. Especially if fans are loud enough to make it hard to hear in the huddle. (And just so you know: Run plays usually have short names like “23 Trap” or “31 Dive”; whereas pass plays have names like “Spider 2 Y Banana” or “Spread RT X Left Zoom Post 269”. So the louder fans are, the harder it is for an opponent’s passing game to be in synch.)

Basically this next game will be them attempting to get RB DeMarco Murray on track early. As long as we realize that and focus more on limiting him and don’t over-commit to stopping him altogether, we can throw a wet blanket over their whole offense again.

 

BOTTOM LINE

Dallas plays a style of ball that currently can’t beat us on offense and can’t keep up with us on defense. The only way we lose this game is if we’re careless with the ball and maybe not even then.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 40 – Cowboys 6

HITTING THE HOLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/10
Posted in: Defense, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , . 16 Comments

article regular-NFL Draft.640px.espn

 

WITH all the talk going on about which QB we want to win with or whether or not Chip Kelly (actually Howie Roseman) will draft a QB in 2015; what we haven’t really discussed is what we actually need. There’s been no real discussion on how to fill the holes on this team. Or even what those holes might be.

Let me get started by picking up where I left off:

GUARD: Last year I said the EAGLES needed to draft a young Guard. A real inside mauler. Just a big ol’, Popeye’s chicken eatin’ sumbitch. I know, I know. Our scheme is predicated on getting linemen in space, and running around in tutus and shit. That however is exactly why we do so much east west running. That’s cute in college, but in the pros, you need to be able to move the line of scrimmage. For that as you’ve seen this year, you need a mauler. So no more Tackles converted to Guard!

STRONG SAFTEY: We could also use a Strong Safety with some real speed. Even if employed in a Cover-Two, SS Nate Allen has been easy to run by for YEARS now. With a Safety being your last line of defense, he’s got to be able to run someone down. Since we won’t be able to pry UFA Rahim Moore away from Denver, I’m thinking the Draft is where I’d head for this spot too.

CORNERBACK: This is a weird one, because I think soon to be FA Bradley Fletcher is fine at CB, but I don’t think he’s pay raise worthy out there. Before yelling about drafting someone or adding another expensive FA, it makes sense to see what we have on the roster. But things are going too well (as far as wins and losses) right now to go sitting starters down just so we can say “let me see something”.

LINEBACKER: What every defense needs at its heart is a guy or two who will not be pushed around, and who will grab teammates by their short and curlies if they get caught being pushed around. If we do cut ILB DeMeco Ryans (as my friend Chris suggested could happen) to make cap space, a sneaky good addition could be current Bronco and soon UFA, Nate Irving. He’d be both the playmaker and the vocal leader you expect from a MLB.

Oops! Did I say MLB? This is assuming that DC Bill Davis gets canned after we get shelled in the playoffs. I love my EAGLES, but come on; we aren’t exactly holding our own vs playoff caliber teams this year. Part of that is the Defense. Actually a large part of it is the Defense. What do you think of Rex Ryan? I think it’d be nice to have another Ryan coaching our Defense. But not Rob.

 

I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THE EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/08
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

headshot

Seattle 24 – EAGLES 14

 

NOTHING I saw yesterday was familiar. Beyond the score and the results and the yards, I didn’t see the EAGLES out there yesterday. Particularly on Offense. Defensively, however I definitely saw my team. But let me talk about the Offense first.

It would be one thing to see us failing at what we’re good at, but we didn’t even seem to be trying. The biggest thing was the pace. When have you seen us look that slow under Chip Kelly? Not even the Green Bay game featured that snail’s pace. Don’t get me wrong, by normal NFL standards it was fine, but this Offense isn’t run by normal NFL standards; and last night it seemed like it took forever between plays. Worse still, there seemed to be no move to correct it after the half.

There didn’t seem to be a concerted effort to push the ball down the field either. QB Mark Sanchez (10/20 – 50% – 96 – 2 – 1) averaged fewer than 10 yards per completion, with his longest completion being a 35 yard catch and run touchdown by TE Zach Ertz (2 – 39 – 19.5 – 1). Unstack that and aside from that one completion, Sanchez was 9 for 19 (47%), while only throwing for 64 yards, with a completion average of 7.1 yards per. Not yards per pass mind you, but yards per completion.

Add to that all the east-west run plays we ran. RB LeSean McCoy (17 – 50 – 2.9 – 0) saw a decent number of carries as he quietly became the EAGLES all-time leading rusher. But even without his costly third quarter fumble, it was hardly an effective day by he or the Offensive Line.

Defensively we were who we are. We did a pretty decent job of handling RB Marshawn Lynch, but as is always the case, when we face a playoff caliber QB, everything wrong with our basic defensive concept gets lit up like Times Square. Seattle did nothing jaw dropping out there yesterday, but by playing common sense offense and not getting flustered when they made a mistake, they were able to shoulder past us.

I’ve said before that our problem on Defense is the guy who runs it. Until we replace him, we’ll be stuck with concepts that don’t work against playoff caliber teams. I said in the first article on this website, that as long as we stick with Bill Davis at Defensive Coordinator, we won’t be able to win a Super Bowl. Granted, maybe we’ll hit the playoffs, get hot and he’ll prove me wrong. However at the rate we’ve been going versus playoff caliber teams, both this season and last, it seems so far that I’m right on the money.

But again, I’m really kind of stunned by what I saw out there from our Offense yesterday.

WHY WE DON’T BEAT GOOD TEAMS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/19
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Front Office (F.O.). Tagged: , , , , . 8 Comments
(l-r) OLB/DE Brandon Graham, DE Vinny Curry and OLB Connor Barwin. These three represent 21 of our 33 sacks Image courtesy of Phillymag.com

(l-r) OLB/DE Brandon Graham, DE Vinny Curry and OLB Connor Barwin. These three represent 21 of our 33 sacks
Image courtesy of Phillymag.com

OUR team averages almost 30 points a game, yet almost every game is a nail-biter. The reason is simple: We can’t stop anybody. Oh sure, our Defense has given us a few exciting plays, but by and large we hemorrhage yards and points pretty much every week. What’s worse is that we do it the same way every week.

Let me nutshell that :

In Points our Offense is #4 in the NFL, our Defense is #20

In Yards our Offense is #4 in the NFL, our Defense is #26

So who isn’t pulling their weight here? The Defense.

We have THREE problems on Defense, but they all have the same solution. Take a look.

 

PROBLEM 1: Coverage

For some reason (in a pass happy league) we play a lot of Single-high Safety coverage, which leaves our CB’s on an island with more field to defend. We keep the other Safety in the box to help with the run. Throw in NFL rule changes that inhibit the physical style that BOTH of our CB’s were brought in to play, and you have a recipe for weekly meltdowns. The EAGLES can’t control the rule book, but we CAN pick a coverage concept that doesn’t make things harder on our own players. This is a system problem.

PROBLEM 2: Pass Rush

We have 33 sacks. How is that a problem? Good question. Here’s your answer. We’re a base 3-4 team, but at times we switch into a 4-3 front. In our 3-4 set we typically send 5 to get pressure on opposing QB’s. What’s funny is that in our 4-3 set, we can reach the QB with only a 4 man rush. If we can reach with 4, then sending 5 is wasteful, because it takes away from our underneath coverage. However, due to the base system we’ve selected, we’ve hemmed ourselves in pretty good. This is also a system problem.

PROBLEM 3: Talent Utilization

The reason we can reach with 4 in our 4-3 set, is because our two best pass rushing DE’s are back-ups. What’s funny is that on a team with 33 sacks so far, those two back-ups have 10.5 of them. DE Vinny Curry is our second leading sack man (6) and OLB/DE Brandon Graham (4.5) is tied for third on the team. So we don’t start our best because they are too small to play 3-4 DE. Instead of finding a way to get our best talent out there, our coaching staff is in love with a crappy system. That is most assuredly a system problem.

 

Everyone wants to blame the players when our Defense shits the bed, but the reality is that Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis’s scheme is full of obvious holes. Crossing routes give us fits. In routes are almost automatic, and the Flats are 7-11 (always open). Due to Connor Barwin and Trent Cole being used mostly as rushers, that’s pretty much how this scheme is supposed to go.

By design of our scheme, we give up easy completions because we totally vacate the surrounding areas where those routes (CROSS, IN, QUICK OUT, and WHEEL) are run. Those are already high percentage routes. Without any coverage in those areas, teams are just playing catch. And again we do this every week. Every week. These same repeated flaws allow even bad teams like Jacksonville and Washington to have a shot at beating us. As you’ve seen.

 

THE SOLUTION: Replace Bill Davis

Bring in a Defensive Coordinator who understands that today, playing lots of physical man coverage will breed lots of flags; which in turn breeds soft play; which in turn breeds touchdowns allowed. Bring in a DC, who doesn’t waste his resources, but instead gives himself and the athletes options. Bring in a DC who will play his best players, and be more married to results than a scheme. Stop paying a guy who makes things easy on out opponents.