Defense

FEELING DEFENSIVE ABOUT VINNY CURRY

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/08/13
Posted in: Defense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

card-vinnycurry

EAGLES Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis told the world that Vinny Curry doesn’t have what it takes to start in his 3-4 system. Or put better, that Davis doesn’t think that Curry at only 278 pounds, can be very good there.

Citing Curry as being under-sized, Davis said that Curry wouldn’t be able to handle the job of playing the run, and essentially said that he is strictly a pass rusher.

Remember last year when Both Davis and Chip Kelly said that the Defense wouldn’t be a 3-4 or a 4-3, that it would be “Multiple”, that it would be a “4-3 Under”?

WELL WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT GO? Because I sure as hell haven’t been seeing it!

Now we’re being told that career underachiever Bill Davis can’t find a way to get what could be our best lineman, out on the field.

This despite Curry’s dedication to get better. This despite the fact that any time Curry is out there, he makes his presence felt. Meanwhile there’s a role enough for drafting 281 pound Taylor Hart? With his 16 sacks in 4 years of COLLEGE? What the fuck is that all about?  If 278 is too small to be a regular contributor, why draft that small at all, let alone reach to do it? Every player is an injury away from starting, right? Why stick yourself with a little guy, if you don’t believe in them on principle? Something doesn’t add up here.

So on top of being lied to about what we’re running (run whatever system you like, but don’t LIE to fans about it), we’re now being told that putting out tour best guys isn’t how this system works. Seeing as how it only yielded 39 sacks and finished dead last against the pass last year, I’m thinking that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to re-evaluate that aspect of our system.

HERE’S WHY WE’RE BETTER THAN YOU.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/08/12
Posted in: Defense, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

the big bird

WE’RE better than you, and I can prove it.

Our QB NICK FOLES isn’t a turnover machine like Thee Lie Manning. He isn’t held together with scotch tape and crossed fingers like RG#. Unlike Tony Oh No! who isn’t worth a dollar, you can get 4 quarters out of Foles. Face it. We’re better than you.

Our RB LeSEAN McCOY can also catch a football unlike the guy in Washington. He’s not a career back-up brought in as a n insurance policy for an underachiever who was too fragile for the game. He can be trusted with the ball to close out games. I’ll be nice and not even mention DARREN SPROLES name. Wait. I just did didn’t I? Learn to deal. And again, better than you.

At WR Dallas and Washington have more proven game-changers than we do. But Dallas being so dependent on one guy makes them predictable and helps contribute to some of those picks. Washington may give us a run, but New York…half the time Rueben Randle can be counted on to run the wrong route (I suspect he’s retarded); and you saw what became of Rico Suave without a legit WR on the other side. At worse we’re as good at the ‘skins. So again we’re BETTER.

At TE in BRENT CELEK and ZACH ERTZ we have twice as many TE’s as New York does. Washington has a good one, but if the guy brushes his teeth too hard, he gets a concussion. Dallas has a HOFer playing for them now, but he’s relegated to a blocker because their focus is getting the ball to the toddler. Flat out better here.

We sent the left side of our Offensive Line to the Pro Bowl. Meanwhile New York and Washington have just shuffled their units. Dallas gets to spend a year hoping that Doug Free doesn’t get “OW! My Back!” killed out there this year. This is no contest. Us: Mount Everest. You: Grab a shovel.

 

Our Defensive Line was Top 10 against the run last year and everybody came back. New York and Dallas both gave away their best linemen. Washington ran out and grabbed a guy we threw away in Clifton Geathers. When your rival goes rummaging through your garbage like some damned raccoon, it’s clear that even THEY think you’re better than them.

Our Linebackers? Put it this way: Name a New York LB. Me either. Dallas’s LB’s? He’s at home. Washington matches up well with us at OLB, but we have the edge in experience at ILB. We win again!

Secondary? We have the best CB’s in the division. In fact we’re like 3 deep back there. Right Dallas? The Giants match up favorably at Safety though. I’ll say they’re better in the middle of the field, but not as a unit. Us for the win!

 

So suck it. Suck it until my ass cheeks cave in. Suck it until your wisdom teeth pop out. Suck it until my forehead softens, and Michael Sam fathers six kids.

Dear division rivals, you’ve had it. Run while you still can. Because WE are better than YOU, and we, are coming.

TALKING ABOUT EAGLES TOUGH GUYS.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/07/19
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, Players. Tagged: , , . 4 Comments

Eaglnaut

LAST week a friend of mine said that part of the Eagles problem on Defense is that we don’t have any tough guys on it. I shared that with you all and some of you went nuts over that statement. Some of you pointed out Eagles that you yourselves identify as tough guys. 

I went down to the bar specifically to talk to Rhodie about some of the names some of you mentioned. He laughed so hard that I almost started to take it personal. I haven’t seen him laugh that hard since a couple guys in Kensington caught the guy who raped an 11 year old girl, and beat him to Death’s door with 2×4’s. (Thankfully they weren’t charged.)

“Cary Williams is a tough guy? Why, because he fought Riley Cooper while surrounded by Black guys? Those guys know where each other parks his car. If Williams had a real issue with Cooper, he coulda waited by his car to settle it without a million people there to break it up. Williams wanted an audience and insurance.

[Mychal] Kendrick and [DeMeco] Ryans? I like them guys they play good. But tough guys? At linebacker a tough guy is guys like Singletary, Butkus and [Chuck] Bednarik. [Seth] Joyner was a tough guy. Lambert was a tough guy. You know who else was nails? Jack Youngblood. He played one playoffs on a broke leg. Not bruised, broke. He was an End not a linebacker. But he didn’t play End like an End, he played End like the linebackers play linebacker today. Linebackers used to scrape. Nobody even knows what scrape is today. Everything is blitz or cover.”

It’s not an accident that Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher aren’t mentioned on his list. He talked about them, but I decided to edit out that part. Suffice it to say he respected them as athletes, but he wouldn’t list them as intimidators. As far as Jeremiah Trotter, his tickling Tiki Barber after tackles, ruined his tough guy cred with Rhodie. “Tough guys don’t tickle.”

Which is sort of why I wrote this. While I won’t question anybody’s heart when they play, you have to admit, it has been a while since anyone was scared of any of our defenders. Seth Joyner is on my friends list, and even though his picture is smiling I swear you can still see the derisive, withering sneer that we all thought of as his only facial expression. The man had exactly 2 modes when he played: Hitting you and chasing you. For my money he’s the most intimidating LB we’ve had in a quarter century, and in that department he’s the standard I judge by. Since then we’ve had no one even come close.

When I asked about tough guy D-linemen, he told me to give him a minute. Then he made the bartender laugh by ordering me a “Virgin Special” (it’s an inside joke), while on his way to the can. When he got back he gave me his answer: Darwin Walker.

That made me feel good because I’m a Darwin Walker guy as well. To me Walker was versatile, strong and workmanlike. But I wouldn’t call him an intimidator. Then Rhodie (yet again) turned on spotlight.

“If you can find the tape or old games you’ll see. Reid moved that kid around. Played him at both Ends and Tackle. What you’ll see if you look is that wherever he lined up, teams didn’t run there. Intimidating a player is one thing. But intimidating a whole coaching staff is entirely different.”

Of course I had to ask if he thought of Trent Cole as an intimidator .

“If it’s Halloween and I’m dressed as fuckin’ Bambi, and he comes in with bow and arrow, ask me then. Shit, if he gets here late and I’m already pickled, we might all just stuff that bastard in ******’s cleavage and forget about him.”

At which point the place erupted in laughter.

ROOKIE MARCUS SMITH. NO RUSH.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/07/08
Posted in: Defense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments
Marcus Smith learning the ropes.

Marcus Smith learning the ropes.

FIRST round Draft pick, Marcus Smith is a player that I’ll be keeping an eye on once Training Camp begins in a couple of weeks. His chances of taking a starting OLB spot away from Trent Cole or Connor Barwin, are likely almost nil, but then he wasn’t drafted to do that in 2014.

During OTA’s Smith wasn’t just Barwin’s back-up, Smith was 3rd string. That had more to do with letting him pick up the system slowly, and allowing him to watch players who played in this system last year. There’s no need to rush him, good things take time.

Actually despite me not being 100% sold on Chip Kelly, I really dig his approach to the OTA’s. Many NFL coaches use them to sift for a pecking order. Kelly is doing no such thing. His whole approach is to just use OTA’s as an assessment period.

In the meantime, Smith is being said to be doing all the little things in terms of his study and practice habits. Coaches are guardedly optimistic about what they’ve seen, saying that he moves well and has so far not balked at anything he’s been asked to do with regard to responsibilities within the scheme.

Then again that was in shorts, and without hitting. I can’t wait to see what happens when that all changes.

HOW WE’LL WIN THE EAST (pt. 2 of 3)

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/07/02
Posted in: Conversations, Defense. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments
QB Hunters

OLB’s Trent Cole and Connor Barwin conspire, as DE Fletcher Cox looks on.

NOW I’ve already said that the Eagles would win the NFC East, now it’s time I discussed how.

You have stuff to do, so I’m not going to try and cram it all in one article. Instead I’m going to break it up into 3 parts: Offense, Defense and of course, Special Teams. Yesterday we looked at Special Teams.

Today:

DEFENSE

 

THERE is a lot being made of how much better we played down the stretch last year. That may statistically be true, but we also faced a pretty soft stretch on the back half which included Oakland, (an Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews-less) Green Bay, Washington, Arizona, Detroit (in a surprise blizzard), Minnesota, Chicago, and Dallas (without Tony Romo).

Having acknowledged those things, we did make some improvements.

Aside from SS and barring injury, we all pretty much know who’s going start Week One.

2014 Defense

The group will almost be made up entirely of last year’s line-up with the exception of FS Malcolm Jenkins and SS Earl Wolff (if he starts). Personnel-wise Jenkins (who has CB level cover skill) is the first real FS we’ve had back there in years. This is a definite upgrade over where we were last year.

DC Bill Davis is expecting improvement in the system to come mostly from players having a better understanding of it than they did last year. Since last year was also the first year that any player here played in that system, there was no one to lean for mentoring. That’s not the case this season so the learning curves of new players should be a lot less steep. From a mental standpoint that IS an improvement.

 

The scheme itself particularly with regard to the Front Seven, is where all the problems may show themselves this year.

Our defensive line doesn’t generate sacks, which makes us dependent on the OLB’s providing pressure, which means that the flats get left open for easy completions. It was a problem all last year and so far we’ve done nothing to address it.

Mentally this team should be sharper than last year, which again is a plus. However the NFL has a had a year to study any flaws intrinsic to this scheme. Had we not stood pat with our defensive front, opponents wouldn’t be able to be so confident in their scouting reports. However since we did stand pat, they’ll have lots of tape of what all our guys are good at and what they aren’t.

Also no defense is done any favors by spending a lot of time on the field. This is particularly true of 3-4 defenses, which can be worn down inside more easily than their 4-3 counterparts.

 

On the whole this unit will likely finish in the bottom third of the league as that’s about where we were last year, and we added no game-changers to the Front Seven. This is not helped by A) 2014’s opponents being tougher than last years, and B) Each division rival having upgraded their offensive unit.

What will hopefully save our bacon here, is the upgraded Special Teams unit. If we can win the hidden yardage battle, it will help offset how much offensive yardage we surrender, and maybe help yield another 10-6 finish.

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/01
Posted in: Defense, Players. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment
Image courtesy of gcobb.com

Image courtesy of gcobb.com

FOR now it’s only OTA’s so I won’t get too ahead of myself here, but FS Malcolm Jenkins has caught the eye of his Head Coach in a good way. The exact word Chip Kelly used was “Outstanding”.

This is what I was talking about months ago when I was hoping that we would grab Jenkins if we didn’t get Jairus Byrd. The guy is just a solid ball player. Nothing flashy, just a pro’s pro.

If we can manage to shore up the middle of our Secondary, we can put a bullet in a problem we’ve had now for a half a decade now. That in itself will help the pass rush, and maybe allow Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis to be more creative with how he calls coverages on routes to the flat and on crosses. Those routes killed us last year, and artificially inflated opposing QB completion rates. Take a look:

RG# vs NFL 60% vs Eagles 61% and 48%

Philip Rivers vs NFL 60% vs Eagles 76%

Alex Smith vs NFL 60% vs Eagles 62%

Peyton Manning vs NFL 68% vs Eagles 82%

She-li Manning vs NFL 55% vs Eagles 46% and 64%

Mike Glennon vs NFL 59% vs Eagles 60% (Rookie)

Tony Oh no! vs NFL 63% vs Eagles 59%

Terrelle Pryor vs NFL 57% vs Eagles 53% (Back-up)

(Scott Tolzien) vs NFL/Eagles 61% (3rd string)

Carson Palmer vs NFL 63% vs Eagles 58%

Matt Stafford vs NFL 58% vs Eagles 40% (Blizzard hampered both teams passing attack)

Matt Cassel vs NFL 60% vs Eagles 74% (Back-up)

Jay Cutler vs NFL 63% vs Eagles 57%

Kyle Orton vs NFL 64% vs Eagles 65% (Back-up)

That’s 9 games where we gave up completion percentages of at least 60%, and every QB who would go on to reach the playoffs, looked better against us than they did against the league in general. You can’t live like that and have deep playoff hopes.

Jenkins will be key in fixing that. His ability to play CB and cover slots man-to-man, will free up the DC to dial up all sorts of things that we couldn’t dare try for the last 6 years. As I figured Nate Allen is ahead of Earl Wolff  for the moment for the SS spot, but I don’t expect that to hold up too long at all.

I’m excited!

VINNY CURRY IS NO JOKE

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/05/28
Posted in: Defense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 4 Comments

card-vinnycurry

FLETCHER Cox is probably safe, but Cedric Thornton had better watch out, because Vinny Curry is making a move. Curry wants a role in the base 3-4 the Eagles use on Defense and not just a spot role when we go to our occasional 4-3 front.

Lost in the fact that Curry didn’t start last year, is the fact that he had 4 sacks while the three starters had a grand total of 6. (Cox led the starters with 3).

Curry has spent this offseason making his 280 pound frame trimmer and leaner, stronger and more explosive. Being that DC Bill Davis likes his DE’s up around 300 pounds, you’d think Curry would want to bulk up instead.

Unless there’s a change coming.

FG prompt2

 

 

Maybe we’ll be playing more 4-3 than we did last year. Or maybe something more exotic, like folding in some 46 elements. Whatever it is, there has to be a reason that Curry thinks NOT bulking up will earn him more time on the field. 

I look forward to seeing this play out.

 

OVERRATED and UNDERRATED EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/05/25
Posted in: Defense, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment
Image courtesy of trendingplayers.com

Image courtesy of trendingplayers.com

 NICK Foles set the NFL on fire last year, and LeSean McCoy led the NFL in rushing. Both went to the Pro Bowl, in addition to 3 of our Offensive Linemen, and a WR.

It was a good year for the team as a whole. But last year there were some players who I think got more credit than they truly deserved, as others didn’t get nearly enough.

I won’t go into who I think is overrated because I’ve done that enough on this fan-site this off-season. If you care, then you already know. If you don’t, then why bore you with it?

I WILL however,talk about the teams two most underrated players:

DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks.

In terms of run support, they are the interior of the Defense. If the NT gets beat it’s on them to fend off Guards and Fullbacks and still get to the ballcarrier.

In terms of coverage, they’re responsible for a sizable chunk of real estate out there. Remember when Charger WR Malcolm Floyd got destroyed?  

Look at who’s in coverage, 17 yards deep, on 1st and 10. That’s DeMeco Ryans. Watch it again and look at Mychal Kendricks read and begin a dropback before the ball is released. That’s not chase, that’s coverage. Did you see who delivered he clean hit and who hurried to grab the loose ball? Take a look again if you didn’t

So much is balanced across these two that the system would break if they weren’t so good. Think about it. Sit one and replace him with Casey Matthews or any other ILB on this roster. Would you feel as good about the line-up? If you answered yes then you’re dumber than my cat’s ass, because it doesn’t work without those two.

Worse than Kendricks being treated almost as an afterthought, is Ryans having possibly his best year as a pro, yet being talked about like he was still not quite effective enough. That almost gives me rage issues.

I don’t know if anyone else sees it, or feels how I feel about it; but instead of waiting around for somebody to say it for me, I decided I’d say it myself. 

DARREN SPROLES TO UNSEAT LESEAN MCCOY?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/05/16
Posted in: Defense, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment
Image courtesy NJ.com

Image courtesy NJ.com

 

ACCORDING to NFL.com’s projected starting line-up for the Eagles LeSean McCoy and Brent Celek may have competition for their starting spots.

chart-depthchartprediction

As you can see, of the 11 Offensive starting positions only two are listed with a slash mark. Normally that mark on a depth chart means “either” or “splitting time”.  If it means something else then they should say so.

Not that I’m putting a lot of stock in these predictions. One: Because it was done by NFL.com’s Chris Wesseling, who’s an idiot altogether.  Two: Take a look at our projected Defensive starters. Notice how there is no DT/NT and there are 3 CB’s? (BTW: He has EVERY team in our division starting 3 CB’s.)

Wesseling’s prediction is that Billy Davis will use Nickel and Dime packages 65-70% of the time. No, seriously. That’s his prediction. It’s like he didn’t even glance at our schedule.

This season out of 16 games, 9 of them are against teams that lean on power running.  I wrote about that back February in my series “The 12”. (Back then we knew the opponents, just not the order.) Power running is the exact sort of game that teams will need to stay in games against Chip Kelly’s fast paced approach.

Does Wesseling  seriously think we drafted Bennie Logan last year and another NT this year, just so we can start a 3rd CB? With a 2 man D-line? Leaving our ILB’s unprotected against the run?!.

Going nickel or dime 6-7 times out of every 10 downs, is a recipe to have our LB’s beat up and worn down by the Bye Week. I’m far from Billy Davis’s biggest fan, but there is NO WAY that I can believe him to be that stupid.

Seems more like Chris Wesseling is just being an idiot again, which for him I’m afraid may be chronic. Somebody get that guy a ticket to a Pop Warner game. He needs to learn the basics of the game

But it brings up and interesting question. Who do YOU think will be our starters this year?

FINALLY A DEFENSIVE BACK!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/05/10
Posted in: Defense, Draft. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

player-jaylenwatkins.570px.

WHILE not a world-changing pick, Jaylen Watkins should be at least good enough to push the veterans at both CB and FS.

This pick is at least a sane investment in the developmental aspect of the Secondary as a whole. Whether this guy pans out as a HOF player,  or he doesn’t make it past first cuts, his presence alone means others have to step it up in camp this year. So from that standpoint alone it’s good pick.

From what I’ve read about this guy, so far he doesn’t sound all that impressive as a player. He’ll tackle, but he’s fragile. He can run, but he has poor ball-skills. He can cover, but he’s grabby. It’s a mixed bag.

In all truth he sounds like a default Special Teamer. But that’s at least something.

Very interested in what we do with both of those 5th rounders.