Rants

THE 2019 SCHEDULE: PRETTY SNEAKY SIS.

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/18
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFL, playoffs, Preview, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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AT first this schedule looks like a pretty fair deal. On the plus side, there’s only one short week, and it’s early in the season. We open at home vs a shaky division rival. So we get a great tone setter game. We also get to play the AFC East, and the NFC North. (And any rival who points out how soft our schedule is, is also playing these teams.)

So it doesn’t look bad, until you look closer. CLOSER!

It’s a set-up! It’s a trap!

This schedule can either be our ticket to a first round Bye or the reason we sit out the playoffs.

First, those three road games in a row, jump out at you. But, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before (2017), right? In the middle of that world tour is a division rival, who can max themselves out, because unlike us, they have a Bye following the game.

Did you notice the short week before we go to Lambeau?

How about the fact that we only play back to back home games, ONCE all year long?

WHAT MADNESS

But the worst part is, the season ending on four straight divisional games. FOUR STRAIGHT DIVISIONAL GAMES! Unless the Eagles enter that stretch 12 – 0 or 11 – 1, we still have to claw to either maintain, or acquire a playoff berth, because any loss we suffer during that period would help whichever team sits just ahead of us, or just behind us.

That sort of week in and week out adrenaline surge, essentially puts the Eagles in playoff mode a full month before the playoffs actually start. That potentially means the Eagles have to burn playoff hot for TWO STRAIGHT MONTHS, instead of just one. That sort of intensity is almost impossible to sustain through a Super Bowl win.

It’s a pretty sneaky schedule.

#8 QB HOLDING

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/09
Posted in: Coaching, NFL, Players, Rants, Special Teams, The 12, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

8-QB HOLDING

I’VE said this before and I’ll keep saying it every year, until we do it. If you want to increase the accuracy of the Kicker, use a QB as his Holder on Field Goal attempts.

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K Jake Elliott has a career accuracy rating of 83.9%. He was 26/31 in his first year. He was 26/31 in his second year. He’s had none of his kicks blocked (knock wood), thus far. That’s not for a lack of teams trying though.

That of course has to factor into him working to get his kicks away sooner. However, if given a second or second and a half longer, to dial in… Hey, that can only help him out. But what does that have to do with a QB playing Holder?

If a QB is the Holder, it means that any FG attempt could be a fake. It means every FG attempt could be a fake. (Especially with Doug as the coach.) If the kicking team packs the line, then the defense has to crowd them and gets to attempt a block. However, if it’s 4th and 4, and the wing players line up outside, then the defense has to pull potential blockers away from the kick, to cover what could otherwise become a completely uncovered receiver.

This tells the Kicker that he has a little more time and breathing room for his kick. And it would all stem from using a QB as the Holder, as the Saints did here with QB Luke McCown

This play might not have happened had the defense identified and respected the personnel that was on the field.

We need to adapt and adopt tactics which make teams uneasy about how they approach US. At the same time, these seemingly small wrinkles can supply our own players with a greater sense of calm and confidence.

#7 DUELING RETURNERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/08
Posted in: Coaching, Players, Rants, Special Teams, The 12, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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SPECIAL Teams has really fallen off here in Philadelphia over these last couple years. Some of it is player loss. Some of it is rule changes. Regardless, something needs to be done to make this unit’s presence felt again.

I still have faith in Special Teams Coordinator Dave Fipp. However, over the years he’s lost some key coverage specialists (LB Bryan Braman, S Chris Maragos, TE Trey Burton),

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and has either missed out on the availability of our primary return specialist (2017, 2018 PR Darren Sproles) with injury, or lost them completely (2015 KR Josh Huff, 2018 KR Kenjon Barner).

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A major part of the problem has been trying to give the Punt Returner job to one guy, and the Kickoff Returner job to one guy. When that player gets hurt (or cut for driving through Jersey with hollow-points and weed in his car), then other players get pressed into the duty. At that point the fill-ins are never as good.

Also with the new kickoff rules, KR’s are encouraged to take touchbacks rather than try to make something happen. How does the Offense begin an aggressive drive with kneeling? It’s psychologically counter-intuitive. Where is the spirit of competition?

It’s that very problem which gives rise to my solution. These jobs need to be split. Two PR’s and two KR’s.

BOOM! Right away the competition comes back. While I could end this article right there, and claim Supreme Victory, I have an even better idea…

To make things sweeter, Starters on the team could put money into a pot (maybe each Starter puts in 300$ per week, for a weekly pot of 6,600$, which can roll over.) When a returner breaks one for a touchdown, they get the whole pot. If a coverage guy forces a fumble, he splits the pot with whomever recovers the fumble. If more than one of these things happen in a game, then all of those players split the pot.

The coaches could give Special Teamers who commit no penalties, or who down balls inside the 5, an extra day off during the week. Holds and blocks in the back, would practically disappear. Near fanatical hustle would be evident on every play. From every player!

All throughout each aspect of Special Teams there would be improvement. Players would be competing with each other, and playing for short-term bragging rights. (After all, these weekly pots wouldn’t really make that big of difference to these guys financially.)

Our Special Teams is merely fine today. However, if we adopt and and adapt the Seahawks practice of encouraging competition among teammates, we will be ensuring ourselves of a unit that pushes themselves, and also each other. When teammates do that, excellence is sure to follow.

#6 UTILIZE THE SPEED

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/07
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Players, Rants, The 12, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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OUTSIDE Linebackers Nigel Bradham and Kamu Grugier-Hill, are probably not the fastest OLB duo in the NFL, but each man has better than average speed. However, in 2018 the Eagles did a poor job of using it to it’s full potential. As a result the Defense (quite frankly), underperformed.

The OLB’s generally get used in shallow man or underneath zone coverage, most of the time. They do a pretty good job of reading run keys and filling their run fits. This keeps many inside runs held to small gains. These are all good things.

What we need to do more of, is use these players to attack. Yes, that means more blitzing (as I said in #3). However, it also means more baiting the QB to throw short passes, and then undercutting those routes. Possibly intercepting a Screen pass here and there, and taking it directly to the house.

Our OLB’s should be more than just run and chase guys. It’s not 1962, LB’s should do more than just scrape. We need to adopt and adapt the tactic of using our LB’s as weapons. Similar to how the Bills use their LB’s to disrupt plays, and not be passive observers. They need to be used to intimidate opposing coaches into simply not calling certain plays when they play US.

THE AAF IN PHILADELPHIA

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/01
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

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GENERALLY I don’t do interviews. Since I’m not an actual journalist, I usually can’t get direct access to athletes, coaches, general managers and owners of sports teams. The idea of talking to a fan with a “blog or whatever” doesn’t hold much appeal for people who already have large distribution media hanging on their every word.

As it happened however, on Saint Patrick’s Day, I managed to get into a liquor fueled shoving match with a guy, after he spilled his drinks on himself. He was walking backwards, carrying two drinks and shouting across the room. While it’s true that I was doing the same thing, I didn’t spill my drinks. So as you can see, that shit was totally HIS fault.

After my fingers were pried from his throat, I found out that he’s a lesser known figure in pro football. When I told him that I had a site, he asked if I wanted to interview him. To which I said. “Fuck. Why not?”

His name is Eugene Nicks, and he wants to start an AAF (Alliance of American Football) team here in Philadelphia.

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Image courtesy of Philly Sports Zone*

To this point the AAF has not contacted him, and he has several theories on why that is.

BEAST: First of all, I want to thank you for agreeing to this interview, and for dropping the charges.

EUGENE: I never said I was dropping the charges.

BEAST: Fair enough. Okay Eugene-

EUGENE: Mr. Nicks.

BEAST: Fair enough. Alright dude, why do you think the AAF hasn’t contacted you?

EUGENE: (Points to his MAGA hat) I think they’re worried about public perception, with their league being so young. Especially after what happened with Kaepernick and the Pledge of Allegiance.

BEAST: Yeah, no. It wasn’t the- You know what? Neverm- You said there were several reasons?

EUGENE: With Philly being home to like what is it 5, 8 million people?

BEAST: One point six.

EUGENE: Nooooo. It’s bigger than that. Gotta be. Gotta be. Know what? The number isn’t important. The point is that the market here is huge! The AAF should have a presence here, if they want to survive. But they don’t want a guy like me, because I have a history of telling the truth. Because I bring up subjects that make people uncomfortable.

BEAST: Subjects like?

EUGENE: Reparations for White people. I belong to certain groups that strongly believe we White people are owed for our contributions towards the development of Black athletes. I’m not saying that slavery was good, but there were, how can I say…unintended benefits, of that institution. Through a couple hundred years of selective breeding, Whites were able to create a race of super-athletes. Blacks have capitalized on that, and have made millionaires out of people with no other discernible skill or ability, beyond what we gifted them.

BEAST: Holy shit, dude.

EUGENE: There’s also the letter I wrote, saying that it’s in the leagues best interest to get an early handle on the salary issues. To make sure that we keep control of the plantation, so to speak.

BEAST: Plantation? Seriously? Are you- Seriously? Surely you’re aware that your rhetoric is overtly racist. Of course the AAF wants no part of you.

EUGENE: Racist? You say potato, I say potato.

BEAST: You just said “potato” the same way twice.

EUGENE: My racism isn’t even their biggest issue with me. It’s my insistence that we introduce new elements into the game. To help differentiate us from the NFL.

BEAST: New elements might be good. What kind of new elements?

EUGENE: Animals. The ball should be a cat, and you should have to get that cat, safely into the end zone. If the cat ends up dead, the team loses the game then and there. If the cat is just injured, it’s a penalty. A healthy cat makes it into the end zone, it’s 6 points. There would be no concussions because you couldn’t tackle too hard. And there would always be an element of chance to every game, because with the ball fighting to get away, the turnovers would be impossible to plan for. And of course players wouldn’t be allowed to wear any wrist or forearm protection. Gotta give the ball a fair chance to get away, right? Plus you’d have to be careful on the recovery of a fumble, because again, squished cat equals dead cat. Dead cat equals loss. So imagine what the bottom of a pile would look like!

BEAST: I can’t believe, I’m entertaining this, but… What about the passing game?

EUGENE: Can you imagine the fear in a wide receiver’s eyes as he worried about the hit AND being clawed up by the ball as it hissed and yowled through the air?

BEAST: People can’t throw a cat 30 yards!!

EUGENE: For enough money, and with enough vodka in their system, people will sure as hell try. That’s my other innovation. We’d replace water with vodka. Cramps, dehydration, bloody scratches, screaming cats twisting through the air… Drunk players stumbling everywhere, terrified of hitting each other, but still trying to… Tell me you wouldn’t pay to see that.

BEAST: I wouldn’t pay to see that.

EUGENE: Then you my friend, would be missing out.

BEAST: Don’t call me your friend.

EUGENE: Then you good buddy, would be missing out.

For those who’ve made it this far, let me just say APRIL FOOLS!

Love you folks! THE 12, starts tomorrow.

*Note: Shout out to Philly Sports Zone, for having a picture I could use as click bait, and being a media voice who actually has the “Philly Accent”. Most Philadelphian’s don’t have it, and we get sick of hearing about it. But it was interesting to hear football being broken down by a guy who does have it.

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?

WHERE MY DOGS AT?

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/11/14
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFC East, playoffs, Rants, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

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I’M fucking disgusted. Last year, we ran away with the NFC. Not just the NFC East, the entire NFC. East, West, North, the other part. The whole damned conference. We owned half of professional football. The playoffs were a mere formality, on our way to setting up the showdown that would conquer and take the OTHER half of pro football.

And all the time, Eagles fans embraced that whole “underdog” thing. Eagles fans couldn’t get enough of the underdog imagery and talk. Which I thought was stupid.

I even said as much, starting in Week 7 last year, and continuing to mock it throughout the playoffs. Not just once, or twice, but three times.

So we weren’t getting respect from pundits. Who cares?! They were just fans of teams they grew up being told were already winners. You know the type. Steelers, Cowboys, the hoards of New England fans that didn’t exist in 1992. Not getting respect from a bunch of dick riders was no big deal. Them not rooting for us couldn’t make us underdogs. You can’t be an actual underdog with the best record in the sport, and being favored (often heavily), by Vegas to win almost every week. You just can’t be. So yeah. I mocked it.

Fast forward to TODAY. New Orleans is 8 – 1. The Eagles are 4 – 5. We’re the away team. We have a ton of key players on Injured Reserve, and we just lost to a shitty division rival. Dear Eagles Fans: THIS is what an underdog actually looks like. Care to buy a mask, now that it really counts?

Half a season left, just two games behind our division leader, and some fans already want to tank. You heard me. TANK. You tank when you’re completely, mathematically eliminated from even a wild card spot. For example, right now, the 2 – 7 giants have no right to tank.

Where is that fighting spirit now? This is when you need heart! This is where backbone counts! Then those same fans turn right around, and call Cowboys fans “front-runners”? Fuck man! Do you even OWN a mirror?

Good times and bad. THAT is a fan. Get OFF your asses, get ON your feet, and go find that “Hungry Dogs” t-shirt you bought at the parade, scarcely 9 months ago. Go circle both Redskins games on your calendar. Because unless you were just a front-runner, you should be about STARVING now.

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