DISCUSSING WHAT WENT WRONG

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/23
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Crazy Talk, Fans, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 1 Comment

Mick

SO I go down to my favorite bar, hoping to have a talk with the Mickey Goldmill of football, my friend Rhodie, about what went wrong this year. No sooner than I walk through the door, Danny is up and ushering me to the back. “Where the hell have you been?” he asks me.

Rhodie is not on his perch at the bar. A sick feeling hits my gut, and in a flash I wish I’d stayed home. My first thought is that something happened to Rhodie, and that the bar wants to break it to me gently. Instead, seated at a table like some guest, is Rhodie. He doesn’t say hello, he just points to the chair. Grateful that the old fuck is still with us (still with me), I sat my ass down.

“They could still go 10-6” he cackles. “That what you want?”

I could have been smug about basic math and said that 10-6 or 9-7 is better than the 7-9 he predicted.  Except that if you don’t make the playoffs, 10-6 or 9-7 isn’t better than 7-9. It’s worse. It’s a lower pick in every round. We screwed ourselves as badly as we could have this year. So I didn’t get all smug about how 9 or 10 wins is more than 7. Truth to tell, in this situation he was right, we would have been lucky to go 7-9. Total case of irony.

So I sat and waited to learn something from someone who had CLEARLY demonstrated (yet again) that he knows more than all of us. Or at least knows something we don’t. I turned on the recorder as he wiped his tongue with his napkin and raise his glass in a silent toast.

“What do you think of the Defense? Don’t bother. I get to read what you write on ######’s computer when he brings it in. You think it’s the scheme, but I think it’s that we don’t have any tough guys. And when (DeMeco) Ryans went out, it only got worse.”

I asked him if it was the Defense that he pinned this collapse on, and not Mark Sanchez.

He chuckled. “What you’re really askin’ me is, if I agree with you. Like I said, I read what you write. So relax. The answer is, yeah I agree with you. When you can score like the EAGLES do and still miss the playoffs, that ain’t nobody but the Defense. Look, you know a lot more about schemes and crap than I do, but I know football, and these EAGLES are missing a ticker. Who’s the heart and soul of that Defense? Nobody that’s who.”

I asked him what he thought about Nick Foles. That discussion became a whole other article. Or two, depending on how I split it. I’ll just sum up and say that compared to Rhodie, I look like a Foles cheerleader.

I mentioned that I still don’t think Chip Kelly is leveling with the fans, and at that point Rhodie hooted and asked what I was drinking. I said I wanted a Cosmo and he responded with “Are you fuckin’ serious?” I was. I wanted a Cosmo. So I got a Cosmo.  Then I asked him where he thought it all came apart. I drank while he talked.

“He’s in over his head. Last year he was good against shit teams. This year he’s good against shit teams. Last year was10-6 with a playoff loss, this year is 9 wins and no playoffs. That look like progress to you? And this arrogant prick don’t think he needs to change nothin’! He insists on running a pro team like a college one. I told you how 2013 would go. I told you how this year would go.”

 “Here’s the thing. Kelly wasn’t a great finisher in college and now he can’t finish in the pros. He doesn’t build sound offensive players, just guys who play well in that style he coaches. His deal is, don’t worry about the Defense, just outscore the other guy. Don’t worry if players are tired, just keep going fast. Don’t worry about tryin’ to coach players to understand the game, just make sure they understand their assignment at that moment. (Jeff) Lurie replaced the EAGLES all-time winningest coach with an imposter. He traded in a workhorse for a show pony. A show That’s what the EAGLES have become now. Just a good show. Now we gotta watch that fa***t Cowboys team parade around like they did something, besides watch us collapse. They didn’t win the division, we dropped it on the ground and walked away from it. You ask me why we came apart?! You ask me?! I coulda told you in the fall.” (He did in the summer actually) “We didn’t come apart. We were never together. This guy is (Joe) Kuharich all over again.” Then he yelled for the Primo’s menu.

I ordered a Big T Diablo (a whole on a Sarcone’s roll), and resolved to take a much closer look at the 2014 season than I did the 2013 season. Just a total deconstruction, start to finish. Break it down by the first round of Free Agency, and bounce it off my readers as I go, to see what you have to say about it.

And I’ll of course bounce it off of Rhodie too.

START MATT BARKLEY

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

Card-matt barkley

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

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

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

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

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

EAGLES/REDSKINS PREVIEW

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

12.21.14-Wk16

SATURDAY 4:30 FedEx Field – Landover, Maryland

 

PUMP THE BRAKES

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

 

EAGLES

Defense

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

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

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

Offense

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

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

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

 

REDSKINS

Defense

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

Offense

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

 

BOTTOM LINE

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

PREDICTION

EAGLES 24 – 20

 

ME AND BRIAN DAWKINS ARE PISSED

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

BDAWK

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

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

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

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

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

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

EAGLES FANS: QUIT PANICKING

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/15
Posted in: Fans, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . 11 Comments

CHOW BABY

WE were asking too much. We were all hoping that we’d wrap up the NFC EAST with 2 weeks to spare. And why not? We decimated this team two weeks ago, with everyone from that game playing in this one. And don’t hand me the “back-up QB” excuse for this game, because it was this same back-up QB (Mark Sanchez) that gutted our rival just two weeks ago. So we generally figured we had this.

Even if we didn’t blow them out, why would anyone expect to lose to a team that we had just systematically dismantled? We didn’t expect a loss. Granted most of you expected a close game, but no one was worried about a loss.

For my part I didn’t think it would be as close as the last time. CB Bradley Fletcher didn’t get ass-raped the last time we played, so why would he now? Our Offensive Line kept Sanchez upright and made bigger holes for RB LeSean McCoy the last time we played, so why wouldn’t they now? Same guys against the same guys, right? In fact, the law of averages said that the deck was stacked tougher against our opponent this time. It was simple.

And that’s where I fucked up. I treated an EAGLES/COWBOYS game like it was just another game. I overlooked one important law:

IT IS NEVER SIMPLE WHERE THE EAGLES AND COWBOYS ARE CONCERNED.

For the last few years (unless it’s a year where one of us goes 4-12 or 6-10), for one of these two teams to win this division it generally goes all the way to Week 17. And it’s that way again this year. Even if they lose next week and we win, we still have to win Week 17. And if we win next week, they can’t clinch until Week 17. And that’s only if they win. It’s NUTS!

I said back in April that our schedule was a set-up. I referred to it as a “a road straight through Hell” and as a “meat grinder”. As a former player, I hated this schedule the moment I laid eyes on it, yet I still didn’t grasp the entirety of what I was looking at. The only comfort I take now, is that at least our rival is getting a fraction of what we’re experiencing now.

There was never going to be an easy end to this. That just means we have to scrap until the end. So don’t let last night fuck up your process. “It always ends like this.” 

EAGLES/COWBOYS PREVIEW

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

12.14.14-Wk15

SUNDAY 8:30 Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

SHOWDOWN

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

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

 

EAGLES

Defense

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

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

Offense

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

 cowboys ready

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

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

 

COWBOYS

Defense

Really? They have one?

Offense

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

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

 

BOTTOM LINE

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

PREDICTION

EAGLES 40 – Cowboys 6

GIVE US FANS WHAT WE DESERVE!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/11
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), Rants. Tagged: , , , , , , . 9 Comments

article regular-fans

I’M so sick of watching our best players play their last down in a uniform other than ours. And don’t hand me that “One day contract” BS. I want their last down, their last inning, their last inbound pass, their last shot on goal. I want that. I need that. As a fan I deserve that. WE deserve that. Our loyalty has more than earned it.

You and I have spent years paying for that right. Not privilege. RIGHT!

Last night my ex and I were talking about the Jimmy Rollins trade…Actually she was talking about it. I was full-on bitching about it. Yeah, I get that we need to rebuild. I get that when you do that, you have to remove the old stuff first, but some shit is just fucking sacred. Or at least it should be. That thought prompted an exchange between my ex and I. Instead of telling you about it, I got her permission to show it to you.

 MyAnna

Okay granted, she was kind of a Madden 2K widow, but I later got help in the form of actually playing football. (Which she thoroughly  😉 dug!) But did you notice her lack of doubt in us winning a string of Super Bowls if I was the owner? It’s not as sweet as the blanket she made me for Christmas last year, but it was still pretty cool.

My point however, is I think to get a team that REALLY reflects US Philadelphians, we’re gonna need a Philly born, raised and based person to buy one of our teams. The current ownership regimes don’t feel this like we do. And here’s why:

The EAGLES owner Jeffrey Lurie: Boston Massachusetts.

The Flyers owner Ed Snider: Washington  D.C.

Sixers (principle) owner Joshua Harris: Chevy Chase, Maryland

Phillies primary owner Bill Giles*: Rochester, New York

(*part owner and team president David Montgomery is from Philly.)

The reason there’s so much disconnect between us and them, is because there is a disconnect between us and them. They don’t get us and we don’t get them.

I wonder if we could swing a Green Bay type of situation here? One where the public buys shares of the team and then pays a board to represent us and carry out OUR wishes. Be awesome if we could right?

Failing that, I’ll have to check my couch cushions and old coats to see if I have enough money to tempt Lurie into making that sale. That way there’s at least one owner of a Philadelphia team, who would finally give enough of a damn to give FANS of Philadelphian teams, what it is we truly deserve.

HITTING THE HOLES

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

article regular-NFL Draft.640px.espn

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

EAGLES FUTURE: SANCHEZ vs FOLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/09
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster, trade. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

players-nickfoles.marksanchez.4712EAGLES fans are at each other’s throats in regards to whether Nick Foles or Mark Sanchez is the QB of the future for this team. Fans of one QB are outright attacking the guy who isn’t their QB of choice. It’s to the point now where fans are showing more respect for Dallas QB Tony Romo than whichever guy they aren’t backing. Let me hip you to a few things that too many fans keep missing:

  1. Both of our QB’s have won more games than they’ve lost this year.
  2. You shouldn’t be rooting against either one of them.
  3. Sanchez is here on a one year deal. While he could resign with the EAGLES next year, it is far more likely that he’ll want to go somewhere and start. Dallas, Washington, Tampa Bay and Tennessee are all far more likely to give him that opportunity.
  4. If you’ve been looking at it as “Foles OR Sanchez” as our future options, you’ve missed the point entirely.

Here’s the point: We’re drafting a QB in the Spring of 2015.

Why now and not before? 

  1. Most NFL head coaches hired out of college with no (even positional) pro coaching experience, do poorly. So when Jeff Lurie hired Chip Kelly on a 3-year deal, it was a gamble.
  2. You don’t compound that gamble by risking a high draft pick to run an experimental Offense.
  3. Every QB Kelly has had except 4th rounder Matt Barkley has been a re-tread.
  4. With Kelly doing this well in his first two years, you can bank on him getting an extension next season.
  5. That extension will NOW give him the carte blanche and more importantly the time to groom his flagship QB. And what offensive minded head coach doesn’t want that? Make a list. You’ll find way more do’s than don’ts.

I’m on record here as saying that Foles isn’t a franchise QB, and I said that because he isn’t. True franchise QB’s put in work during the offseason. Foles didn’t. The results were evident. Blame his turnovers on the line or the run game if you like, but know these three facts:

  1. Sources (that’s multiple) inside the EAGLES say that GM Howie Roseman and others soured on Foles  even before his injury.
  2. Kelly may control the roster, but Roseman controls the purse strings. If Roseman isn’t sold on Foles, he will not give him a huge deal. Roseman has made too many mistakes already with throwing money around and with the coming cap crunch, he will have to be much more cautious with every dollar he spends.
  3. With the new CBA and rookie salary cap, even an expensive rookie QB taken in the 1st round would still be much cheaper (from 2015 through 2018) than Foles would be starting in 2016. (e.g. Blake Bortles was #3 overall in 2014 and has a 4 year 20.6M$ deal.) That alone makes drafting a QB a no-brainer for us.

It’s my thinking that Kelly would want Oregon QB [Marcus Mariota] as his guy. There’s a school of thought that says Mariota would be out of our reach pick-wise. I find that hilarious.

  1. Since Kelly’s system was instituted at Oregon in 2007, every QB that started in it has put up gaudy numbers. Thing is, with the NFL long being leery of System QB’s, not one of Oregon’s was drafted high. And that’s if they were drafted at all (Dennis Dixon 5th round, Jeremiah Masoli UFA, Darron Thomas UFA).
  2. Mariota has yet to have a pro day, an interview, or a Combine showing. But I won’t bet against him. In fact, what the hell, I’m generous. Let give him the benefit of the doubt: Let’s say he does go in the top 10.
  3. Considering the teams who’ll have a high pick that could use a star player to help put asses in the seats and who also don’t need QB help (Oakland, Jacksonville, Carolina), a trade could help the EAGLES both move up significantly and save some serious cap space in one master stroke.

You have to keep in mind that the EAGLES are first and foremost a business; and that what they’re doing is investing huge amounts of money, time, and even their own jobs in human capital. There are drivers to this QB situation that go way beyond who you may or may not like.

It’s high time that was recognized.

I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THE EAGLES

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

headshot

Seattle 24 – EAGLES 14

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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