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THE RIVALS 2018 (PT 3 of 3)

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/01/01
Posted in: Conversations, NFC East, NFL, Reviews, Rivals, stats, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN KIDDIES!!!

GENERALLY when I talk football, it’s about my Eagles. I tend to keep mum about our rivals, unless we have a game coming up against one of them. Otherwise, I’ve reserved most talk about them for my Pre-Draft Preview, which drops each April. (Look for it).

In 2017 however, I decided to try something new, and give our fan base a running commentary of what the division is doing around us. This ensures that Eagles fans ARE actually the best informed, and most knowledgeable fans, in the NFL. (Provided you visit this site often.) These updates will come out three times during the season: After Weeks 3, 9, and 15.

NOTE: Given that there were playoff seeding implications for 3 of the 4 teams, I delayed this article until everything shook out. From now on, I’ll think I’ll stick with this format (Weeks 3, 9 and 17), instead of the 3, 9, 15. It’s just smarter.

This is where we left off PART 2

This is where things are today:

New York giants: 5 – 10, 4th in the NFC East

Last season they finished 3 – 13 and fourth in the division. On defense they allowed 24.2 points per game in 2017. In 2018 that number swelled to 25.8. Yet, all the talk is about either replacing QB Eli Manning, or shoring up his god-awful offensive line.

With a RB (Saquon Barkley) who amassed 2,000 yards from scrimmage this season (1,307 rushing, 721 receiving), a WR (Odell Beckham) who caught for 1,052 yards in just 12 games, and a QB who threw for 4,299 yards, this should be a scary team. The problem is their inability to stop opponents.

DE Olivier Vernon led the team with 7 sacks, which is what he averages as a giant. He also missed 5 games this year. In fact, his games played and production has dropped each year since he joined the team. What’s worse, is that their GM seems bent on not getting the man any legitimate help. Put in perspective, Eagles DE Chris Long started no games, yet had 6.5 sacks.

Given pressure from fans, and a voracious New York media, odds are strong that the giants will either be goaded into drafting yet another shiny offensive toy, or over-drafting a RT to pair with the LT they over-paid for, from Free Agency this last offseason.

Washington Redskins: 7 – 9, 3rd in the NFC East

Same exact finish as 2017. Well sort of. In 2017 the ‘skins finished 16th in scoring (21.4ppg). In 2018 they finished 29th (17.6 ppg). They improved on defense, but not enough to carry their flaccid offense.

It might be legitimate for the ‘skins to point to injuries (24 players on Injured Reserve), as the reason that their team stalled out. They were leading the NFC East at 6 – 4, when their starting QB Alex Smith, had his leg broken grotesquely by the Texans.

Over the course of their final six games, they were forced to start 3 QB’s for a combined record of 1 – 5. The scoring dropped from 19.7 points per game over the first 10 games, to just 14.0 points per game over the final 6 games. So even before they lost their starter, they were already worse off than they were a year ago.

Given the fact that their starting QB won’t be ready for next season (if he doesn’t retire), they may have to turn to their back-up QB, (who had his leg broken by the Eagles). That’s if they don’t draft a QB, or chase Eagles back-up QB Nick Foles, in hopes that he can be their savior.

Dallas Cowboys: 10 – 6, 1st place in the NFC East

Having won the division it’s easy to say that Dallas is better now than they were a year ago. The defense took a major step forward for most of the season. On the year they’re only allowing 20.2 points per game. However, over the last 4 weeks, they’ve been surrendering an average of 25.2. Despite going 3 – 1 over those weeks, it indicates that perhaps teams have found a chink in the armor.

No matter. A football team has both a defense AND an offense. Lucky for this team that their offense can now take off, since QB Dak Prescott has found a #1 WR in Amari Cooper, who- Wait. Did they find a true #1?

After being traded from Oakland after Week 6, Cooper found an amazing run during Weeks 12, 13 and 14. Putting up 26 catches, 473 yards, and 5 TD’s, while averaging 18.1 per grab during that span. However, his Week 14 performance (10 catches, 217 yards, 3 TD’s and 21.7 per grab) was against a Philadelphia Secondary which included 3 starters who began the year as back-ups (some third stringers), or not even on the active roster. Cooper followed up that performance (closing out the season) with three games where he totaled 13 catches for 83 yards, no scores and a 6.3 yard per catch average. In none of those games did he exceed 32 yards or catch a pass longer than 11 yards.

Prescott threw his customary 22 touchdowns again, despite starting and finishing all 16 games. (Unlike QB Carson Wentz who threw 21, yet only played in 11 games. With no real run game.) Based on this season, the Cowboys are about to sink a huge amount of money into a handful of players, (two of whom I just mentioned). It led to a playoff berth this year, but it does raise the question of whether or not this season’s success is at the expense of their future.

So that’s the state of our division rivals as your Eagles head into the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs.

FOUR THINGS: WK 13: EAGLES-REDSKINS

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/11/30
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Fans, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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WHO’S ready to finally win two games in a row?! I know the fans are. I just hope the Eagles are too. Ready as in, prepared. Ready as in, motivated. Ready as in, not looking past this week’s opponent, just because their injury situation is suddenly as bad as (and arguably worse than), ours is.

Having dropped 3 of their last 4, then losing half an offensive line, plus their starting QB, by all indications the Redskins playoff hopes are dead in the water at 6 – 5. History, on the other hand, teaches that a wounded animal is often a very dangerous one.

The Eagles come into this game with a 5 – 6 record. Without having strung two wins together all season long, thus far. Our playoff hopes also look thin.

That is, until you do the math, and realize that a win this week and next, would put us at the head of the NFC East. Yes. That is a fact. Look it up. In fact, here’s a link to the standings: BOOM! 

However, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there is this matter of the Redskins to attend to.

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

1) Neuter their defense: Get the ball downfield to TE Zach Ertz. Nothing of the quick 5 yard variety. The ball needs to be in the air for 8 to 10, and towards the sideline. Make the Redskins have to cover him with an OLB and nullify their own edge rush. That will also soften those edges for RB Josh Adams on pitches and stretch runs.

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2) Jump on their offense: QB Colt McCoy is a gutsy player. I actually like him. He plays the game the way fans can appreciate. Murder him. Take away the short quick passes and dial up the blitz. Kill this team quick. Do what we should have last week.

3) Keep our balance: Last week, offensive balance helped the Eagles erase a 16 point deficit. We looked like we were getting the hang of being balanced again. At no point did we have a swagger about us, but to me it kept looking like that was just over the next hill, or around the next corner. 31 passes to 27 runs. Those sort of numbers are what we need to shoot for this week as well.

4) KISS on Defense: Keep It Simple Stupid. We don’t need to do anything fancy to stop the run. Our players just need to trust what they see, and trust the man next to them. Set hard edges to keep the runner in front of a tackler, and then just hit our run fits. That’s it. Same as we did last year, and early this year.

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

Eagles fans from Philadelphia are gonna hate me for saying this but: Trust the Process. Clawing back to the top is just that for us. It’s a process. A new Offensive Coordinator, a ton of injuries, a touch of complacency. We got knocked on our asses. Deservedly so.

Yet look at how we responded to it. Down 16 to a mange ridden cur last week. Perfect excuse to fold up, eat that 4 – 7 record and point to injuries as our easy out. All we had to do was lay down quietly. Sleep until September.

NOPE! We fought. And we aren’t done fighting. Some of these Secondary players from off the street got a taste of that. You think that hurt their confidence? Or maybe bolstered it?

Your Eagles will be prepared and motivated. Not because there are stakes. The stakes have always been there. They’ll be prepped and hyped, because they’re starting to feel it. The team isn’t there yet. Not yet. We need this second one in a row.

When we get it though…

PREDICTION: EAGLES 30 – Redskins 17

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THE DOOMSDAY SCENARIO

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/11/21
Posted in: Conversations, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFC East, playoffs, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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DESPITE an awful season so far, we’re still just 2 games out of first place with 6 games to play, 4 of which are against division opponents. We still control our own destiny as far as winning the NFC East goes. However, let me indulge those who say the season is already over. Let’s talk about the worst case scenario for 2018.

Lets say the Eagles fall off a cliff, lose all of the next 6 games, and end up 4 – 12. What does that mean for us?

1) It means the Eagles would likely pick in the top five in every round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

We have a good nucleus to build around, and an ass ton of Draft picks to work with. We already have a franchise QB, a solid RT, 2 blue chip TE’s, a solid WR group, youth at CB, a blue chip DT, a young star at DE, 2 solid starters at LB, a K that we can grow old with, a utility RB who may still have some up side, and a third string QB who would be fine as a second stringer.

We need a bell-cow RB, some youth on the interior Offensive Line, youth at Safety, a third LB, and a second DE.

2) It means we (should) get a 2019 schedule with fewer playoff teams on it.

In 2017 we came off of a 7-9 season, and had a schedule that included the Seahawks, Raiders, Chiefs, all 2016 playoff teams. add to that four games against division rivals (Cowboys and giants) who were playoff teams. Coming off of a losing record, we played half a season against playoff contender class teams. If 2019 is easy, so what? We’re owed an easy schedule year.

3) What are the odds that the injury bug bite this hard THREE years in a row?

It’s already weird that it’s biting this hard for a second straight year. So next year we’ll likely be healthier. (Then again, I thought the same thing for this season.) Aging, oft injured vets like RB Darren Sproles and LT Jason Peters will likely not be back. So those annual nagging injuries won’t be part of the 2019 landscape.

4) It means that this next offseason will not be spent writing books and such.

I don’t begrudge the players for basking in what could be once in a lifetime limelight. However, the fact is, those hungry dogs became so well fed, that they had trouble rolling over onto their legs. A 4 – 12 finish would mean that, Summer with Carson up in Fargo this year would have a different feel than it did last year.

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This is all provided that the Eagles year gets worse. In the event of a worst case 2018, the foreseeable future still looks pretty good. In fact, it could be argued that a bad 2018 could be used to our long-term advantage.

This isn’t justifying losing. It’s not spin, rose-tinted glasses, or tireless optimism. It’s about getting up when we fall down. It’s not about glass half-full, or glass half-empty. Its about seeing in either case, that the glass needs to be completely filled. 

 

As long as we’re still mathematically alive for any sort of playoff run, this team has no right to tank. Players like Peters, Sproles and Carson Wentz deserve better effort than that. That said, even if the season does go full-blown Hindenburg, there’s no reason to hang your heads Eagles fans. One way or another we’ll come out ahead of this.

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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THE RIVALS 2018 (PT 2 of 3)

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/11/14
Posted in: Conversations, NFC East, Reviews, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN KIDDIES!!!

GENERALLY when I talk football, it’s about my Eagles. I tend to keep mum about our rivals, unless we have a game coming up against one of them. Otherwise, I’ve reserved most talk about them for my Pre-Draft Preview, which drops each April. (Look for it).

In 2017 however, I decided to try something new, and give our fan base a running commentary of what the division is doing around us. This ensures that Eagles fans ARE actually the best informed, and most knowledgeable fans, in the NFL. (Provided you visit this site often.) These updates will come out three times during the season: After Weeks 3, 9, and 15.

This is where we left off  PART 1.

This is where things are today:

New York Giants: 2 – 7, 4th in the NFC East

The good news: It’s not over yet. They could win out and uh…. No. No. Just no.

The bad news: It’s not over yet.

It took 9 weeks for the giants to reach their 2nd win. That makes sense given that winning is done by controlling an opponent. At this point the giants don’t even seem to have control of their own roster.

Weekly now, there are questions about whether QB Eli Manning should be benched, in favor of a back-up that no one is excited over. They jettisoned two starting defensive players DT Damon “Snacks” Harrison, and CB Eli Apple, via trade. They have yet to give their 233 pound, first round drafted RB, 20 carries in any game. But he’s had 4 games where he’s caught 9 or more passes. (Without getting to 100 receiving yards in any of those. What’s up with that?)

All indications are that this team has no idea who it is, or what it’s doing this year. The giants are putting on a clinic on how to create a 4th place team, with top-shelf talent.

Dallas Cowboys: 4 – 5, 2nd place in the NFC East

Despite an identical 4 – 5 record with Philadelphia, the Cowboys are in 2nd place by virtue of the tie-breaker, due to just having beaten us on Sunday night. But don’t be fooled by the flashy 4 – 5 record that their fans are so proud of/relieved to have. This is not a good team.

First the good news: They made a trade for Amari Cooper to upgrade their WR group. It seems to be working so far. The Top 10 defense they had in Week 3, is still a Top 10 defense. While folks could question the stats, the underlying reason for the stats, or the quality/condition of their opponents, the fact is, Dallas is still statistically a top unit. They also own the NFL’s 5th ranked run game.

Bad news time: They don’t score much (24th), move the ball well (27th), or throw it worth a damn (28th). Their QB is still a liability, and the owner has publicly committed to extending his contract. Oh yeah, and there’s the owner who won’t fire the coach, because well… you know:

Washington Redskins: 6 – 3, 1st in the NFC East

Washington was listed as the #2 team in the division after Week 3. However, through the magic of winning ball games (hey Eagles, are you writing this down?), the ‘skins have moved into sole possession of the top spot.

With 176 points for and 175 against, we aren’t really talking about a juggernaut here. They can’t score (27th), move the ball (26th), or throw the ball (25th). What they can do is run the ball (10th), stop teams from scoring (5th), and not shoot themselves in the foot. (Seriously? Are you writing this down?)

The good news: Washington quietly boasts a defensive front that can be a handful. They do a good job of creating confusion and helping generate turnovers.

The bad news: Washington is coming into the tougher part of their schedule just as age and injury seems to be catching up with them. It’ll be interesting to see where the next 6 weeks takes them.

So that’s the state of our division rivals, as our Eagles head into Week 10.

2018 SEASON REVIEW: QUARTER TWO

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/11/05
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Front Office (F.O.), NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

SEASON Reviews are usually done at the end of the season. (Duh.) A few are done at the halfway mark, and/or at the end. Starting in 2017, Eaglemaniacal.com began treating the season like a game, and breaking it into four quarters. Since football is a hard sport, we’ll take a hard look, at where our team stands at the moment (in relation to where it started), and where it needs to go.

STATUS:

4 – 4 overall, 1 – 0 division, 2 – 3 conference, 2nd place in the NFC East

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OPPONENTS:

L: Minnesota (4 – 3 – 1)

W: New York Giants (1 – 7)

L: Carolina (5 – 2 )

W: Jacksonville (3 – 5 )

OVERVIEW:

Injuries are part of any football team’s season, but the bug seems to LOVE us. For the second year in a row, all you can do is shake your head at the number and severity of our losses. We have a LT who was battling his way through a torn bicep, when the RT sprained a knee ligament, and will now miss a month. The right side of our 2018 projected starting Defensive Line is now on Injured Reserve. Starting RB, gone for the year. Deep threat starting WR, gone. Starting FS is on IR. Our reserve FS is out. Nickel Corner, out.

Yet here we sit. At 4 – 4. Still in the hunt.

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The stated mission last quarter was to tighten up the pass defense to improve our pressure up front. There was marginal statistical improvement across the board, except for takeaways. In the first 4 games, the Defense surrendered 1,161 yards on 103/159 passing (64.7%) allowing 7 touchdowns and grabbing 3 interceptions. In these last 4 games, the Defense surrendered 1,137 yards on 103/160 passing (64.3%) allowing 4 touchdowns and grabbing only 1 interception. We collected 11 sacks in both quarters so far.

Given the nasty injuries we’re dealing with in the Secondary, which have us starting a rookie (out of position) at FS, it’s hard to poo-poo these seemingly meager improvements.

We still have some things to sort out on Offense, however. For one, we need a proper run game. I won’t write a book here for it, but if you read my last one, then you know how we can do that up nice.

GRADES:

 

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QB: (A) Carson Wentz has been nothing short of AMAZING over these last 4 games. He’s posted a 10:1 touchdown to interception ratio, a 73.1 completion percentage, 1,185 yards, and an average yards per attempt of 8.5. He’s been killing it. He’s also been sacked 12 times. Some on him and some not.

RB: (D) This was an “A” last quarter (read why HERE). It would be an “F” this quarter if injuries to the Offensive Line, and scheme issues didn’t also play a contributing role in the fall-off in quality. But that’s all the curve I can give this group. The fact is, to a man, none of them has shown themselves to be an individual difference maker. Wendell Smallwood has gotten the bulk of the work, and has shown no ability to be explosive, elusive, or physical as a ball carrier. He’s the anti-Zeke. Starve him. Corey Clement has 52 yards on 23 carries in the last three games. He is however, still dealing with a lingering quad injury that already cost him two games, so the Eagles have limited his role as he works his way back. Rookie Josh Adams had the best day of any Eagles back since starter Jay Ajayi went out on IR during Week 5. Adams isn’t terribly physical as a runner, but he does provide more POP than the other two backs on the roster.

TE: (A) L’embarras du choix. Which is pronounced…

Pardon my French. That phrase means “Embarrassment of riches”. Right now in Zach Ertz leads all NFL TE’s with 61 catches so far. He’s tied with WR Odell Beckham for most catches in the NFL, and behind only WR Adam Thielen. In the last 4 games he has two 100 yard games and a touchdown in all but one week. Rookie Dallas Goedert looks like a seasoned pro out there, grabbing a touchdown in both of our last two games. Josh Perkins hasn’t caught a ball in the last 6 weeks, but we haven’t needed him to.

WR: (D) Yes we added Golden Tate. However, this report is about how Eagles players did during this last quarter. Tate wasn’t an Eagle, so this is about the guys who were.

Alshon Jeffery leads the team with 4 scoring grabs, 3 of which came in the last 4 games. Jordan Matthews doesn’t see a lot of targets, but he’s made the most of them when he does. His hands have been reliable, and he’s averaging 17.5 per catch over these last 4 outings. Nelson Agholor simply isn’t doing enough in the slot, and he may be the reason why we traded for Tate. Without a deep threat to open space underneath, Agholor has been rendered harmless. In the last 4 games, no one at this position has had a 100 yard day, only Jeffery has scored, and only once have two players had 50 or more yards in the same game.

OT: (D) Injuries be damned, LT Jason Peters is plowing through the season like a Mack truck going downhill, with no brakes. He is leaving everything, every ounce out on the field, in what looks like an unannounced swan song. Both he and RT Lane Johnson have had an issue of letting rushers leak underneath, after elongating the pocket. They need to start dictating a stop point. That is, when Johnson gets back from the month he’s about to miss with an MCL sprain. This should manageable though, since Halapoulivaati Vaitai is better suited to the Right. Rookie Jordan Mailata, was promoted to the active roster for Week 7, so his debut could be very very near.

OG: (D) For the first 4 games we had Stefen Wisniewski starting a LG, for the last 4 we’ve had Isaac Seumalo. Pressure up the gut has become a real problem. So has being unable to generate a new line of scrimmage on run plays. Some of that is scheme, but some of it is stepping down in terms of talent. Wiz is a battler, while Seumalo is kind of soft.

C: (D) I’ve WATCHED a couple plays in this quarter where Jason Kelce went to double a guy and had a man smoke right past him. Someone is doing a poor job of identifying secondary rushers, as well as stunt keys. That job is usually reserved for this position.

DE: (C ) Losing Derek Barnett was a big blow. He was playing very solid vs both the pass and the run. Brandon Graham isn’t producing the sacks that he was a year ago, but his run defense has been as good as it ever was. Chris Long is doing a good job of applying heat to QB’s, but he’s proving susceptible to off-Tackle runs, since this scheme frequently plays a LB inside the DE-DT gap, instead of outside of the DE, to set the edge. Michael Bennett is logging time at DE and DT, and is also second on the team with 3.5 sacks. Rookie Josh Sweat needs to show the coaches something if he wants to earn more meaningful playing time. This is a group that is playing very good team defense, but they aren’t delivering big plays, in big moments.

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DT: (C ) Fletcher Cox has come in playing like a man on a mission. He leads the team with 4 sacks, and is a MAN about defending his area vs the run. Haloti Ngata has been nicked up recently, probably due to playing more minutes than were anticipated when he signed. Treyvon Hester has started a game, but all indications are that he’s just a guy. Destiny Vaeao was waived and Timmy Jernigan has yet to return from the Non-Injured/Reserve list. This has taken a massive toll on last year’s stellar rotation strategy, but sprinkling in some Michael Bennett is keeping this unit from being a one man show. Word from on high, has it that Jernigan may make his return right after the Eagles Bye week.

OLB: (C ) This group still has yet to stand out, but they haven’t been a liability either. Nigel Bradham and Kamu Grugier-Hill have the athleticism to do all kinds of things, but they aren’t being utilized with any creativity.

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MLB: (A) Jordan “Cowboy Killer” Hicks had 31 tackles in the 1st quarter, and he topped that with 40 in the second quarter. He also added 1.5 sacks to bring his 2018 total to 3 so far. Coming into this season he had 2 total for his career. Hicks is stepping his game all the way up, but you never hear his name outside of Philly.

S: (D) Malcolm Jenkins is the emotional and mental heart and soul of the Secondary, but we need him to force more turnovers. With Rodney McLeod done for the year, Jenkins needs to lead by example more than by words. Corey Graham was tasked with filling in for McLeod and was promptly injured. Filling in for Graham, is rookie CB turned FS Avonte Maddox. Maddox just looks thrilled to be playing, even if it’s not his true position. He’s throwing his body around, playing with reckless abandon, and has even made a couple of plays. CB/S tweener, Rasul Douglas is being groomed to play this spot. Like the DE position, S is playing solid team concept ball, but fails to deliver in tight spots and big moments. Injuries here have impacted us severely.

CB: (D) We allow too many QB’s to leave the game with high completion percentages.

LS: (C ) He snaps the ball. Whoop-dee-do.

P: (B) Cameron Johnston punted 15 times this quarter, for 9 returned, and 3 fair caught. Same as last quarter on 5 fewer punts. He hasn’t been hitting them as hard and as a result, none of his boots have ended as touchbacks. In fact, 5 of them were downed inside the 20, with one out of bounds. Johnston isn’t great with his placement yet, but he’s working on it.

K: (C )Making 6 of 8 field goals (75% same as last quarter) Jake Elliott is reliable, but he has yet to show off the big leg that catapulted him into Eagles lore, last year.

PR/KR: (C ) On 10 punt returns DeAndre Carter is averaging 10.3 per attempt, with a long of 42. On kickoff returns he’s posting 20.4, with a long of 30. serviceable, but not scary. We need scary.

KC: (D) Last quarter we gave up 16.0 yards per kickoff return. This quarter we’re giving up 26.0. That number will only encourage returners to not take the fair catch. Punt returns went up too. 5.6 per return in Q1, then 8.1 in Q2.

SINCE LAST QUARTER:

We continue to be inconsistent. Despite increasingly amazing play from Wentz, the Offense seems stuck in neutral. The lack of a credible run game prevents us from being able to close out games, and rest our Defense.

Special Teams has forgotten about the importance of winning the hidden yardage battle. Or to wait until a game is over before you celebrate.

MISSION FOR THIS QUARTER:

Find a run game! Three of our next four games are division rivals, and we can’t beat them if we can’t run.

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FIXING EAGLES GAMES

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/10/31
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Rants, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

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THERE are things that this team needs to fix. With that in mind, the Eagles needed this Bye Week now, and not a week later. Injuries at Wide Receiver, Offensive Tackle, the Defensive Line, and in the Secondary, have left the coaching staff scrambling every week, to put out solid units. As a result, almost no aspect of this team is running at capacity.

In the spirit of fixing things, popular fan refrains have been “Trade for X” or “Fire Y”. However, the plain truth is that we need to tweak (not wholesale change, just tweak) a few things, to start getting the most out of our players.

While we generally have had the depth-on-hand to plug a player in here and there, there is a difference between a back-up being ready to play this game, and a back-up being ready to play his game. Our Bye allows the coaching staff to step back, and re-imagine what the rest of 2018 needs to look like, for us to make it back to the post-season.

One of the first things killing us, is not running the ball effectively. Some fans and media types people put it on our RB’s. Folks like me have been blaming the Offensive Line. Turns out both of those camps are wrong. It’s the coaches. It’s our alignments. Those are the reasons why we can’t run the ball.

Look at these game shots:

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-32-24.pngrun play.png

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-28-44.png

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-33-28

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-24-34

The disclaimer on this is, I had to cull these shots from highlight videos. (I chose the Panthers game.) Since our running game sucks, the rushing highlights were, well… Yeah these are all passing plays, but they’re still our typical alignments. 

You may recognize that these alignments with the WR’s tight to the O-line, are typical of our Offense this year. We did some of this last year, but this year it seems to be our Default Setting. Go back and look at each picture, and you’ll see 8 and 9 man boxes. A couple of them “loose” boxes. Again those pictures are all from pass plays, but we run the ball out of these same alignments.

This has been great for play-action, but it means zero room inside, on actual hand-offs. That was fine when we had bruising inside runners, to mask the Offenses true intent, but without a physical runner to help, all our smoke and mirrors are easy to see through. While our Offense puts up 22 points per game (21st in the league, 11th worst), the inability to run, has kept us from being explosive.

The simple fix is to spread our formation during the early part of the game when we want to establish the run, then later on when we need to sit on our lead, and close the game out. Rotate the slot receiver and put him in motion to move that 8th man out of the box. When room opens up inside for the ball carrier to find a crack, hit it, and step on the gas.

At that point we could get around to doing #7 from The 12. The Defense could rest during games, and we could seriously talk about running the table for the remainder of the year. Oh yeah. I said run the table. And YES, I’m aware that the Rams and Saints are two of our dance partners.