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EAGLES MIDSEASON REPORT: PART ONE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/11/09
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster. Tagged: Offense, review. 6 Comments

Philadelphia-Eagles-Logo

WITH 8 games played right now we’re sitting at 4 – 4. We’ve made it all the way to .500. (yay.) We had no business losing to the Cowboys or Redskins and the Panthers gave us every opportunity to win the game against them. We could be 7-1 right now, but the reality is that we have way too many things that need fixing to have realistically hit that mark.

What this half of the Midseason Report will focus on, is what’s broken and how it could be fixed. Tomorrow we’ll get into the feel good stuff, but today we’ll tackle the things that keeps ruining shit for us, and why none of it stands a chance in hell of getting fixed.

The QB: Sam Bradford has no business being our starter and I’ve been making that points for months now. Mark Sanchez would be a temporary patch. While Sanchez is also not a game changer, he at least wouldn’t run the Offense while riding the brake. He’s not great, but he’d be a clear upgrade. You won’t see this change happen though, because if GM Kelly sits a healthy Bradford, he’s essentially admitting that he blew it evaluating talent at the key position on the side of the ball he’s supposed to be a genius at.

Running the ball: While we rank among the top teams running the ball, there is room for tons of improvement. We allow too many hits in the backfield, and sweep/stretch plays are too often bottled up before a RB can get to the corner. The announcers for Sunday Night Football pointed out that even in Week Nine the type of handoffs required in this zone-read system, are still not comfortable for either the QB or the RB. This is fixable by running out of the Shotgun a lot less. That of course won’t happen because leaving the Shotgun to run, tells the other team when you’re running.

The Shotgun: It’s harder to run out of, and no one buys our play-action. Running the entire Offense from under Center would fix this, but that won’t happen. That would require too many changes in how plays are designed, teched, and timed, just to name couple things. Besides that, Coach Kelly believes the Shotgun’s elimination of the drop-back, improves processing time so the ball can come out faster. That would be nice if were true when Bradford scrambles back an extra 8-10 yards before throwing yet another pass to the sideline for a gain of a yard.

The 3-4 front: Guess who’s 21st against the run! Guess who has Miami, New England, Buffalo, and Washington coming up! As in previous years our front seven is starting to wear down. We started out crushing the run, but just in the last two games against Carolina (204 yards) and Dallas (134) we’ve proven less than stout. (FYI: Just to compare Cowboys games (G1: 33 – 109 – 3.3) , (G2: 29 – 134 – 4.6)). As the year goes on it’s only going to get easier to run the ball on us. This can be fixed by going to a 4-3 front, but that won’t happen because while more stable than a 3-4, a 4-3 offers less versatility and flexibility. Offensive minded head coaches value versatility and flexibility as it makes them feel they have options.

Single-High Safety: I have long been an opponent of this system as it invites the deep ball to be attempted down the sideline where the one on one is. Particularly against a 3-4 front. Since this system arrived in Philadelphia we’ve ranked 31st , 32nd , and this year so far 20th against the pass. Incidentally no defense coached by DC Billy Davis has ever ranked higher than 23rd vs the pass at year’s end. So let’s keep our fingers crossed for that #20 spot! (Insert eye roll here). OR we could do something that works. Like going to a Cover Two/Man base. LOL! Just kidding. If we went with a C2M it would be the first step to abandoning the 3-4. We simply can’t play a C2M with how this front is schemed. Telling you why would be an article in itself.

The problems aren’t nearly as big of a problem, as the fact that we’re invested in continuing things that keep us from fixing the problems. So there you are. That’s the bad news. Tune in tomorrow for the good news. And yes, there IS good news to be had.

PHILADELPHIA TO THE RESCUE!

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/11/06
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, Rants. Tagged: Dallas Cowboys, domestic abuse, fans, fund raiser, WIP radio, women's shelter. 1 Comment

article regular-fans

YESTERDAY with a goal of $3000.00 the Josh Innes Show on 94WIP radio raised over $10,000.00 for the Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas, Texas. It was a direct shot at the blinders that the Dallas Cowboys organization, fans, and local media are happy to wear in exchange for being able to produce 7-10 extra sacks this year.

Considering the amount of ambivalence towards acts committed by one of the players on the roster, you can’t help but think that (in general) cases of domestic abuse are thought little of in Dallas. So a couple of guys on WIP got pissed and used their microphone to see if they could do something. They wanted to see if we could ALL do something. They decided to raise some money.

This money isn’t for local women (because unlike Texas, Pennsylvania is not a Top 10 most likely state for women to be murdered by their partner). This money is to help women who are in harms way by having the misfortune of living in a place where their safety means less than pass rush on Sunday.

So we spoke up. If you want to speak up too, do it HERE: 

By the way if you want to make a donation ANONYMOUSLY you can. Trust me I know because I did. 😉

WK9: EAGLES/COWBOYS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/11/06
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: Dallas Cowboys, Jordan Hicks, NFC East, Ryan Mathews, Tony Romo. 6 Comments

DAL (A)

SUNDAY              8:30                 AT & T Stadium                      Arlington, TX

PICTURE a ragged man dragging a sledgehammer across concrete. Picture a bloody man on his back shimmying away as fast as he can; hand out-stretched, eyes wide, words that won’t form between gasps of breath. The raggedy man with the hammer, still suffers from a wound given to him weeks ago while fighting the bloody guy, but he will not be stopped by mere pain. His eyes, his face, conveys his singularity of purpose.

In that fight, the bloody guy was ripped open. Weeks later that wound still won’t stop spurting. The bandages (Weeden, Cassel) haven’t helped. He’s weak. He’s dying. He knows it. And now the man with the sledgehammer is looking to finish the job. The bloody guy’s head touches a wall behind him. There is is no where else to go. There is nowhere left to run.

Ask any Cowboys fan and they’ll tell you the loss of their starting QB is why they’re in the 5 game tailspin they’re currently in. The hit that sealed the Cowboys fate was delivered by Eagles rookie ILB Jordan Hicks. So in a very real sense, it was the Eagles that ruined, that ended, the Cowboys 2015 season back in Week Two.

And this weekend, with just one more swing of the hammer…we will make it official.

EAGLES

Defense

FS Walter Thurmond has as many interceptions (3) as this weeks opponent. In seven games this team has stolen 11 passes, which puts us on pace for 25 when the year ends. That’s not an earth-shattering number, but with our spotty pass rush, it’s at least something to hang our hats on while we tighten everything else up. By everything else, I mean the pass rush, the 4.0 yards per rush we allow, and the 64% completion rate allowed.

These are the type of numbers that sub .500 teams put up. Oh wait, we’re 3 – 4 now. So yeah, we need to get this fixed. The sack production (7) from our starting Defensive Line is better than it’s been in years, but there’s been a massive drop-off in production (8) from everyone else so far. In a passing league that also has to get fixed.

Luckily for us, this week the NFL has lobbed us a softball, underhand. This is perfect time to experiment and see what works for when we start seeing real teams again.

Offense

Even with last week’s Bye, the Eagles are in the middle of the pack as an Offense. That’s due in part to the actual use of RB DeMarco Murray and employing some basic power elements which not only benefit Murray but also RB Ryan Mathews. Now if only QB Sam Bradford would get around to getting rid of the ball sooner, we might be able to break out and scare some teams.

In the meantime we’ll put up points in our usual “off and on” manner. We score enough points to stay in games, but it would be nice to be able to put together four quarters of high octane ball for a change. It’s a good system our coach has brought here, we just don’t have the top-shelf talent to run it anymore, since our GM gave it all away.

.

Cowboys

Defense

Statistically this is one of the better teams in the league. Those stats also tell you that they suck at forcing turnovers. In fact, the only thing they do worth a damn, is rush the passer. Everything else, (4.1 ypc allowed, 65.8% completion rate allowed, 3 picks all year far) they suck at. All those statistical rankings…we’re talking about a paper tiger here.

Offense 

Matt Cassel‘s QB rating is over 40 points lower than the rating of starter Tony Romo and 33.6 points lower than Brandon Weeden whom Cassel replaced. QB is a downward spiral for this team. Well at least they can lean on their run game.

Did I mention that they just cut the guy who was their Week One starter and their current leader in rushing TD’s? Oh yeah and also their long run leader. And their yards per carry leader. He’s been replaced with a brittle and less explosive player as the Cowboys are now staking it all on former Raider RB Darren Mcfadden.

BOTTOM LINE

Under no circumstances should the Eagles lose this game. Both teams have issues, many of which are similar, but the bottom line here is that the Cowboys are just a bottom feeder team this year. They probably would find themselves being blown-out by some college teams. (Alabama springs to mind.) There’s nothing the Cowboys can do to save themselves. This week the hammer falls and the with it so does one fourth of the NFC East.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 28 – Cowboys 18

THE REAL PROBLEMS WITH THE OFFENSE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/10/28
Posted in: Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: Darren Sproles, Offense. 5 Comments

Sadford

SAM Bradford is not to blame for the Eagles passing game woes. Or so we keep being told. In fact our Head Coach/GM went as far as to say at his Monday press conference, that he’s pleased with Bradford’s play. So Bradford is officially blameless for this mess. Instead what’s happening is the entire receiving corps is being thrown under the bus (by the media) because of the high number of drops this year. But the truth is, the drops aren’t the problem.

I’m not saying that the 18 drops should be swept under the rug; but don’t you find it odd that suddenly everyone on the team can’t catch? No fan came into 2015 worried about the hands of WR Jordan Matthews. He had a nice rookie year, so expectations were high for 2015. Some of us were concerned about WR Josh Huff, but that had way more to do with mental lapses than his ability to catch. Rookie WR Neslon Agholor had most fans salivating over the idea of what he’d do once the games counted.

All those guys and this Offense looked so good during the preseason, right? So what changed? Speculation is that Matthews might have a hand injury, but his injury can’t cause RB Darren Sproles to drop passes. The coach suggested that it’s likely a concentration issue. So wait….his answer is that suddenly everyone has poor concentration? Come on now, Kelly. That dog don’t even hunt.

Meanwhile as we focus on 18 drops in 274 attempts, what no one is discussing are the Real Problems. And yes I said problems not problem. The First Problem isn’t the drops, it’s the completions. That’s not a typo, and I’ll say it again. The first problem is the completions. More directly it’s where they happen.

Entering Week 8, our 3rd down conversion percentage (32%) is 4th lowest in the league. That has a lot to do with where the ball is thrown. Swing passes that meet our RB’s at or behind the line of scrimmage, and passes over the middle to WR’s crossing beneath LB depth, are the norm now, and it repeatedly leaves us in poor down and distance situations, often setting up 3rd and long. This is made worse by repeatedly throwing the ball short of the first down marker during those same 3rd and long situations.

The routes run during the plays are not Bradford’s fault, but it brings up the Second Problem. While Bradford didn’t design the Offense or draw up the plays, he does elect whom he throws to. That is 100% on him. However, instead of challenging a defense, he nearly always reverts to Checkdown Charlie, and takes only what a defense will allow him to have. And then we punt.

This is every game so far, regardless of what defense we face or which coverage is rolled out. Be it Cover One or Cover Four, Man or Zone, the behavior is the same. Our Quarterback doesn’t play to win, he plays to not lose. That’s fine if the opponent is willing to self-destruct for you, but if they play even remotely competent/competitive ball, we’re in trouble.

Under Michael Vick this Offense was productive. Under Nick Foles this Offense was productive. Under Mark Sanchez this Offense was productive. Under Sam Bradford it’s sputtering because he’s okay with “just getting by”.

The obvious (and temporary) solution is Sanchez, but as I told you before, it won’t happen because then the GM is admitting that he blew it trading for Bradford. This brings up the Third Problem where the GM sandbags the Head Coach with a player that EVERYONE KNOWS he’s not happy with. It’s Kelly throwing himself under the bus to keep himself from making himself look bad. And we all get to watch him drag himself through shit. Meanwhile Howie Roseman, still smells like a rose man. Just as I told you he would.

EAGLES/PANTHERS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/10/24
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers, Jordan Hicks, NFL, NFL.com, Preview. Leave a comment

Wk7-10.25.15

SUNDAY         8:30      Lincoln Financial Field        Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

OUR place atop the division is by no means secure, as it’s really only by the slightest of technicalities (head to head tie breaker), that we even have the spot. This week however we can show the world that we’re a team to be taken seriously, IF we beat the 5-0 Panthers and look good while doing so. Having beaten this team 45 – 21 last year in their own home means that us simply escaping with a win, will do nothing to help the perception of our team.

EAGLES

Defense

The climb to the top of the division was done without big splashes coming from our 2014 offseason Free Agent acquisitions, instead the boost has come from guys like DE Fletcher Cox, rookie ILB Jordan Hicks, and CB Nolan Carroll. No one could argue that this is a top 10 defense, but beating this unit is by no means an automatic. If they don’t have to carry the team, if they keep playing at their recent level, the Eagles could be better than a mere playoff qualifier.

And yes, I just dropped the “P” word. Division leader comes with certain perks.

Offense

Power running, power running, power running. None of that zone shit. Getting cute last year saw us run for fewer than 40 yards. Mostly what happened during last year’s blowout, was we capitalized on 3 interceptions (by Nate Allen, Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher) and some smart, TURNOVER FREE football played by QB Mark Sanchez. We likely won’t get the breaks we got last year, so why do what didn’t work last year?

Also the more we run the cleaner and more upright QB Sam Bradford stays. Considering how erratic he’s been with his play this year, it would be wise to not put this game on his shoulders. Feeding the rock to RB DeMarco Murray is not only good for my fantasy football team, but also the Eagles. We would be wise to make sure to do so this week.

Panthers

Defense

This unit has a few guys who I’ve lusted for in prior Drafts and so it’s hard not to look at it’s performance and feel pride in my ability to spot talent, but bitterness that it’s not here. They get pass rush and sack production from different players, from different positions in their defense. So there is no “one guy” to stop.

What’s freaky is them also finding a way to mine value out of S Kurt Coleman. I think that’s to be commended but if there’s away to attack this team, I’d say it’s by targeting him with the the long ball. (Isolating him against a second slot reciever will get him out of the box. At which point you switch over to power running, power running, power running.)

Offense

Cam Newton. This unit is joke if he goes down.

If we cut off the head, the body dies.

 

Bottom Line

Stop Newton and we stop Carolina. It’s one-stop shopping. Newton threw for over 300 yard and 3 TD’s against us last year. Then again, we sacked him 9 times and hit him a lot more; so he also threw 3 interceptions. (When I said he threw 3 TD’s I didn’t mention that one of them was to CB Bradley Fletcher.) So the Rx is simple. Beat on him. A lot. And then beat him some more. This is real simple stuff folks. You walk Jordan Hicks up to the line of scrimmage and have him holler “COLLARBONE!” and then send the house a couple times early. Make no mistake, he remembers the ass whipping we put on him last year. So this year you bring it all back. You harrass him. You intimidate him. And then you break him. This game is ours if we’re willing to push down the accelerator with both feet.

Prediction

Eagles 26 – Carolina 19

WK 6: EAGLES/GIANTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/10/18
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: Eagles, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Preview. 3 Comments

NYG (A)

MONDAY      8:30                 Lincoln Financial Field                      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

WITH a win the Eagles will be in first place in the NFC East. We’ll have the head-to-head over the giants, and one more win than the Cowboys or Foreskins. That may only last a week, but it speaks to how winnable this division is. We just need to win this game and we’re in the driver’s seat.

EAGLES  

Defense

DE Fletcher Cox leads the team in sacks with 4, but the pass rush around him seems to have completely dried up. Of his 4 sacks 3 of them came last week vs a bad Saints team, so it’s not like there’s been a lot of consistency there. Luckily we haven’t been playing offensive juggernauts, so as long as we can keep opponents to 17 points or fewer we have a chance.

What we do well so far (again no juggernauts) is get turnovers. We have 14 (8 fumble recoveries, 6 interceptions) to date. What we don’t do well is defend the pass in a passing league. Only 6 teams do a worse job than we do. We’re 10th against the run, but that’s a mixed bag since teams choose to take yards in chunks through the air instead of running the ball.

Offense

Reports of this Offense finally getting their act together, are greatly exaggerated. What’s happened is we’ve gotten a few less than stellar defenses to play against and that trend will continue this week. That’s actually good for us because it allows us to continue to sharpen our Offense.

While RB DeMarco Murray is only averaging a sad 2.7 yards per carry, that number should be on its way up, as the Eagles seem to want to involve Murray more. Getting serious about running the football in between the Tackles and not only on zone-plays, will help keep QB Sam Bradford’s jersey clean. (FYI: Last week we committed to the run and Bradford was not sacked or knocked down by NFL statistics.) If we commit to running the ball the rest will fall into place. In our two wins the Eagles ran it 38 and 34 times. In our three losses, 16, 17 and 18. This ain’t rocket science folks.

giants

Defense

Gone is the pass rush from this team as their most explosive defender is not currently on the active roster. As a result the giants are the worst pass defending team in the NFL. This is only made worse by the pectoral injury to CB Prince Amukamara.

While they are the number two defense at rushing yards surrendered, only eight defenses have faced fewer rushing attempts and two of those teams have had their Bye already. Teams simply don’t attempt to run because there is no one easier to throw against.

Offense

We like to joke that QB Eli Manning is a turnover machine but the guy is responsible for exactly THREE turnovers this year so far. On the other hand he’s thrown 10 TD’s including a dagger to the face of the 49ers last week. Their passing attack will be without WR Victor Cruz and (if he’s smart) Odell Beckham. Beckham may attempt to play, but if he does will be a shadow of himself and may be more of a decoy to help get guys like Rueben Randle (who likes the middle anyway) more room to roam inside. TE Larry Donnell will be someone you want to look for as well. Running the ball is also not something they can rely on since they do it so poorly.

BOTTOM LINE

This is not a good team, they simply benefit from having a good QB and a +5 turnover ratio. They could easily be 1 – 4 right now, save for a break here and there. They are extremely beatable. That being said, we have things we have to get straight before we can say that we deserve to be on top of our division. Overall we’re a better team than the giants, plus we’re playing at home, in our black uniforms. It’ll be close, but it’ll be a win.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 20-19

EAGLES/SAINTS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/10/09
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Offense, Preview. Tagged: Darren Sproles, Drew Brees, Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia, Preview. 7 Comments

Wk5-10.11.15

 

SUNDAY        1:00                 Lincoln Financial Field          Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

THIS team was the last one to beat us in a playoff game (AT HOME!), so you may have noticed that I’m still working through some bitterness. This game has the ability to be a shootout that keeps you on your feet, or it could be the equivalent of Phil Simms appearing on the inside of your television, greeting you by name, and then smearing handfuls of feces all over his side of your screen. I think it will be the latter. This game will be won by the first team to realize there’s a game going on.

 

EAGLES  

Defense

Having to play 95% of the minutes− Oops! Sorry, Chip. The “snaps” –in every game, is starting to show up in the number of injuries that are beginning to mount among our Defensive players. Right now we can’t stop the pass (ranked 25th) and are only okay at stopping the run (13th). However, stopping the run only gets harder as the year goes on. At this rate we won’t be able to stop anyone passing or running by December. But December is still weeks away. Unfortunately for the Saints, they face us in October.

Offense

Being unable to run makes us only half of an Offense. Teams know we’re going to pass because it’s the only way we really move the ball. We cripple ourselves with runs that start off going east-west instead of downhill. The one week we opened up with something different (vs the Jets) we were able to run our full Offense and we won the game.

Opponents are now just squatting in the “B” gaps to disrupt our blocking scheme. Look for how our opponents play the “B” gaps. You may be in danger of becoming a more knowledgeable fan.  

 

Opponent

Defense

Rookie OLB Hau’oli Kikaha has recorded a sack in 3 straight games and he leads the Saints in that category. Word on him is that he’s a one trick pony. Then again, getting sacks is an impressive trick. Especially when it leads to 2 of the teams 3 turnovers. Yes you read that right. Going into Week 5 the Saints have a paltry 3 turnovers, none of which are interceptions.

Offense

Like us, they throw the ball a ton because they can’t reliably run the thing. For that reason more than any other they’re 3rd in passing yardage, but they’re 19th in scoring.

QB Drew Brees is still trading on his rep from back when he had weapons like RB Darren Sproles, TE Jimmy Graham and a functioning version of WR Marques Colston. In reality his TD and yardage numbers have been dropping every year for the last four. He’s still good, but he’s not “that guy”anymore.

WR Brandin Cooks is shaping up to be a phenomenally pedestrian player; (and to think some fans wanted this guy to replace DJax.) The receiver to keep an eye on is Willie Snead.

What the Saints do different this year is they’ve knocked off that RB by committee nonsense and now they run everything through the team’s leading rusher (in both carries and yards), and leading receiver (in both receptions and yards) RB Mark Ingram. It’s not producing great numbers or wins yet, but it’s a sound building block to establish a go-to for big moments.

 

BOTTOM LINE

This is two bad 1-3 teams hanging on by a thread. Somebody’s season is coming to an end on Sunday. The giants are almost certain to beat the 49ers and go to 3-2. We can ill-afford to fall to 1-4. On the other hand most of our issues are technical and can be overcome. The Saints however are every bit as bad as their 1-3 record indicates.

 

PREDICTION

EAGLES 28 – Saints 16

EAGLE/REDSKINS PREVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/10/02
Posted in: Defense, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: Eagles, NFL, NFL.com, Philadelphia, Preview, redskins, Washington. Leave a comment

WAS (A)

 

SUNDAY        1:00                 FedEx Field    Landover, MD

EAGLES fans, we’re about to find out a lot about our team this weekend. This is not the same pushover, “see them on the schedule and write two wins down in ink” Redskins from the last few years. These Redskins plays with a bit of a chip on their shoulder on both sides of the ball. This game will serve as an early season measuring stick for our Eagles.

 

EAGLES  

Defense

It’s the same as the last two years. We’re fine against the run (7th), but we still rank among the bottom feeders against the pass (24th). Our defense gets turnovers, but they play too many minutes. (And yes I said minutes, not snaps.)

This week we get an opponent that relies heavily on the run, so unless they decide to give us a big dose of their passing game, or our guys get gassed out there, stopping the opponent should be right in our wheelhouse this week

Offense

Guess who the ranks dead last in the NFL in yard per game? That’s right, the Rams (274.3 yards per game). And who is just above them? Us (285.3 yards per game). We are 30th in the NFL at rushing yards per game, and so far we have a 2.7 yards per carry average. Our passing attack is ranked 23rd.

Some blame QB Sam Bradford, some blame our WR’s for the 10-15 drops so far. The truth is it’s the Offensive Line. Specifically the Guards. Notice how last week the O-line played better and we still won, despite a pedestrian 50%, 118 yard performance from our QB? When we committed to a basic power running approach (keeping it simple for our Guards) early on, it set a tone and allowed us to dictate the action. It’ll be interesting to see if we try that again this week or if we try to go back to what wasn’t working two weeks ago.

 

Redskins

Defense

Keep in mind that while the ‘skins are ranked high across the board, they also have played three offenses that rank very low or have consistency issues. That having been said, this is a feisty bunch. If you were in a bar fight and the Redskins defense had your back, you’d be in good company. Whatever we get from this team we’ll have to take, because they will not give us anything. They have a 69.4% stop rate on 3rd down, and in three games have only given up 4 first downs due to penalty. (We’ve given up 8). 

Offense

The Redskins have allowed more QB hits (63) than any team in the NFL (even though the Steelers and Ravens have each played one more game). QB Kirk Cousins is nothing special, but he’s a low level starter/high level back-up who can manage a game. Just don’t ask him to put a team on his back. The bread and butter of this unit is the run game. That 4th place run game is no mirage.

 

BOTTOM LINE

This game will be a fight. Two 1-2 teams, who are division rivals looking to avoid the basement. Two QB’s trying to legitimize themselves as starters. Two coaches trying to prove that their way is the right way. Ascension in the division and pride are on the line. However, on the road, in nasty weather…Bad weather doesn’t favor fast paced offenses. In fact it tends to magnify miscues. (Remember how bad we looked for ¾ of the Snow Bowl? Thank god we were facing a dome team!) I think Mother Nature teams up with D.C. this weekend.

PREDICTION

Redskins 23 – Eagles 18

 

KELLY CAN’T BENCH SAM BRADFORD

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/09/30
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: bench, Eagles, Jeff Lurie, Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, Philadelphia. 9 Comments

chipsamich

CHIP Kelly can’t bench QB Sam Bradford, so you may as well get used to the idea of him as your starting QB for 2015. Remember when Kelly said “Peyton Manning switched teams because of an injury. Drew Brees switched teams because of an injury. So we went down that path.”. Does it feel like we got a Peyton Manning or a Drew Brees, to you?

The problem with that is that Bradford isn’t playing anything like those QBs. Even if you adjust for drops, he still looks to check the ball down, still stares down his receivers, and even former Eagles RB Brian Westbrook says he looks tentative out there. He simply lacks the swagger or heart of someone who should be a leader of men.

Circumstances however, make Bradford virtually unbenchable. If he’s benched and we don’t make the playoffs, fans won’t be the only ones to question whether or not Chip Kelly has too much say in personnel issues. Jeff Lurie handed Kelly a great deal of rope to either climb with or hang himself with. Meanwhile we’re 1-2 due primarily to problems on the side of the ball that Kelly himself specializes in.

Look, most fans (and not just Eagles fans) understand that Kelly brought Bradford here to attempt to package and trade him to some team (Tampa Bay or Tennessee) to move up in the 2015 Draft and then select QB Marcus Mariota. There’s more to that, but long story short the move blew up in Kelly’s face and we got stuck with an oft-injured, $13M lemon, on the last leg (no pun intended) of his rookie deal. We’re essentially renting a taxi at Lamborghini prices.

Could Kelly have sat $13M of Jeff Lurie’s money to let Mark Sanchez open as our Week One starter and lead us to 8-8 or 9-7? Of course not. Even if we went 10-6 with Sanchez, Eagles fans would wonder about “what Bradford could have done if given the chance”. In fact anything short of 12-4 with Sanchez would likely precipitate that question. And don’t even mention what people would say if we missed the playoffs behind Sanchez. So the money says to start Sam Bradford; and getting ahead of public perception says to start Sam Bradford.

So Kelly is stuck with starting Sam Bradford. And we’re stuck with watching it.

Trading away the starting QB (Nick Foles) that he was winning with, for a fragile checkdown artist was bad enough. But if Kelly kept him on the bench for 1/10th of the teams salary cap, it would be a major step towards showing that he can’t evaluate talent. That means Kelly has to keep Bradford on the field in hopes that he can salvage some value from the Foles/Bradford trade. That also means that Kelly has to keep lying about being happy with Bradford’s performance even though there is no way he can be.

What that means is that you can expect to see Bradford out there for the remainder of 2015. Kind of sucking and being underwhelming won’t be enough to sit him down. To see Sanchez start a game this year you’ll need one of three things to happen:

  • Scenario One: Bradford gets injured. Doesn’t have to be long-term, just one that lasts long enough for Sanchez to win a couple games and remotely justify Kelly “going with the hot hand”.
  • Scenario Two: Bradford melts down in consecutive games. I mean like throwing 3 picks in back to back games, or arguing with Kelly on the sideline, or going full-blown Jim Everett and the Phantom Sack. Something on that level.
  • Scenario Three: Week 12 or 13 is here but the NFC East is still a tight race, Bradford has been treading water and so Lurie flat out tells Kelly to play Sanchez. (This is almost entirely unlikely, but I’d be remiss not to mention it, because although remote, stranger things have happened.)

Barring those three situations you can pretty much count on a steady diet of passes under 8 yards, 20 passes per game thrown in the direction of WR Jordan Matthews, and WR Neslon Agholor being invisible for yet another week. And the whole time while you suffer and grit your teeth this year, keep in mind that nobody, not the fans, not Sanchez, not the WR’s, wants Bradford to ride pine as much as Chip Kelly does; but he can’t just bench Bradford. He pissed in the bed he made, and now he has to lie in it.

COACHSPEAK: THE RUN GAME

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/09/26
Posted in: Fans, Players, Rants. Tagged: coachspeak. Leave a comment

csp1

YOU can use stats and film from selective plays to absolve every player on the team of responsibility for our 0-2 start, but why would you do that? Ultimately we’re losing because men are being beaten by the men across from them. Until there’s accountability and yes, BLAME, there will be no fixing what has stopped working.

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