ARE EAGLES FANS AFRAID?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/07
Posted in: Conversations, Rants. Tagged: , , , . 11 Comments

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THE EAGLES are 6-2, in first place in our division at the midway point of the season, and every other team in the division seems to be burning out of control.

So where is the swagger? Not swagger from the team, but swagger from the fans? Where is that attitude that says “Talk all you want bitch, we own you” ?

Some may say that it’s because QB Nick Foles is essentially done for the year, but to be honest there was a lack of bravado even before Foles injury or even the Arizona loss.

Some may say that it’s because RB LeSean McCoy still doesn’t seem quite right. Maybe, but we still lead the division even without the NFL’s leading rusher being on our team.

Still others might point to a lack of confidence in the Defense, made worse by the season-ending Achilles tear suffered by ILB DeMeco Ryans. Again, we’re still 6-2.

There is an air of…dissatisfaction among fans here right now. Each one you ask has a different reason from the last person you ask, but everyone has a thing that bugs them about this team. No one thinks the vagiants or Foreskins can catch us, and almost no one thinks the Cowpies can win enough games to overtake us.

People seem to feel that we’ve already won the NFC East. That we simply  need to not give away these games, and make it official.  Well if that’s the case, then where is the swagger that goes with it?

FOLES IS GONE.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/05
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Draft, NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , . 20 Comments
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Chip Kelly and Marcus Mariota. Photo courtesy of the internet

 GIVE QB Nick Foles 15 or 16 starts in 2014 before pronouncing judgment on him.

That’s what I said I’d do.

Due to his broken collarbone, Foles won’t start 15 or 16 games this season. The injury will keep him out for 6-8 weeks, so it’s highly likely that his 2014 is over. Even if he comes back in 6, if we’re still playing for anything, he’ll likely be carrying a clipboard.

So to answer the question of whether or not Nick Foles is a franchise QB for the Eagles, the answer is: No.

If you disagree then you probably thought Michael Vick was also a franchise QB for the EAGLES. The knocks on Vick were that he couldn’t stay healthy and was a turnover machine.

Here are some cold hard facts:

  • Vick missed games every year with the EAGLES. But then so did Foles (broken wrist in 2012, concussion in ’13, collarbone in ’14.)
  • In 42 starts here, Vick turned the ball over 47 times, an average of 1.11 turnovers per game. Foles in 24 starts has 25, an average of 1.04 turnovers per game. (And he was clearly regressing).
  • In 54 games here Vick scored 72 TD’s for an average of 1.3 per game. In 28 games Foles scored 50 for an average of 1.7.

Foles has slightly better numbers in all areas, but none of those numbers say “Franchise”.

So no. Foles is not a Top 5 QB. Or a Top 10 QB. Or even a franchise QB. He will not see a huge pay day with this team, and he has likely started his last game in an EAGLES jersey. The “next 1,000 years” sure did go by fast!

Meanwhile Mark Sanchez is simply auditioning for his next team. We will be drafting a QB in 2015. Oh, and at least one Guard.

Hmmmmm. I wonder who’ll be our starting QB in 2015…

TAKING THE FIRST STEP.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/04
Posted in: Fans, NFL. Tagged: , , , , , . 7 Comments

Cheer - EAGLES SUPER BOWL

IGNORANT Cowboy fans kept trying to insist that winning the division wasn’t important. They kept trying to belittle our teams current relevance, by constantly re-hashing their faded glory. Since 8-8 seems to be the best the Cowboys can muster, a division win has largely been out of the reach of what used to be America’s Team.

Then they had the division lead for a few short weeks and suddenly it was important. Suddenly first place in the race for the division was relevant. And now if you look around, (since we have it back) it’s suddenly not important again.

That’s just fucking weak.

Instead of demanding more from their players like current EAGLES fans do, many Cowboys fans have adopted an extremely cowardly approach. They’ve just decided to dismiss the importance of a division win altogether.

FACT: In order to win a Super Bowl you have to first qualify for the playoffs.

FACT: This is easier to do if you win your division.

FACT: Failing that, you need a better record than the other Wildcard candidates. (Which is not a condition in your control.)

Last year we won the division in the last game of the season, where it was either us or Dallas. We won. We won the division. We sent them home.

This brings up a very interesting point. Every time you stop a division rival from reaching the playoffs, you kill any chance they had of winning that year’s Super Bowl. Last year we murdered their dream before they could even qualify for it. Despite their record being twice as good, they never got any closer than the Redskins did. All because WE kept them from the thing their fans say is meaningless.

As for me, I refuse to badmouth a division crown. We need it. It means an automatic trip to the playoffs, which is the first step back to the Super Bowl, where as an 0-2 team there, we have unfinished business.

START JORDAN MATTHEWS NOW OR PAY FOR IT LATER.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/30
Posted in: Coaching, Draft, NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , . 16 Comments

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RIGHT now our 2014 Draft looks awful. DE/OLB/ILB/ Marcus Smith had played in 4 straight games before being held out of the Arizona game. That has all the earmarks of regression. At this point the EAGLES have to hope he was a 1st round reach, and not a 1st round bust.

Despite clear athletic talent, WR/KR Josh Huff has shown some really questionable instincts so far. This only adds weight to notion of him having been a reach in the 3rd round.

WR Jordan Matthews on the other hand has been a consistent contributor so far, but it’s clear that he’s underachieving and is somewhat trapped in his role as a slot receiver. When Chip Kelly said on Draft night that Jordan would start in the slot, I had visions of him working intermediate along and in between the hash marks. Keeping both opposing Safeties playing closer to the middle, and away from being able to help their corners against our WR’s on Fly routes and Fade routes. I didn’t expect him to be a deep threat, but I did expect a guy who allowed the deep threats room to roam.

Instead what we have is a guy who runs WR middle screens, and Bubble screens.  That’s mostly because it’s what he’s asked to do. Seems to me that a WR selected in the 2nd round should be given more rope by now. It would certainly help the run game. Let me show you something:

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That’s RB LeSean McCoy’s career. See that huge, across the board fall-off this year? That’s because up until this year he had 2 WR’s that could get vertical and be enough of a threat to open up room for him to create those long runs. Matthews and fellow WR Riley Cooper aren’t allowing for that. One on hand, routes called for Matthews keep him close to the line of scrimmage. On the other hand neither WR is doing much with yards after catch, as Matthews has 103 YAC, and Cooper has 75. So there is no room for McCoy to create long runs. Oh yeah! Then there’s the other thing. Let me show you something:

wrs

Combined Matthews and Cooper have fewer yards than WR Jeremy Maclin. Despite each having just 10 fewer catches than Maclin, neither man has even half his yards. Or TD’s. Maclin is also on a one year deal and will be an Unrestricted Free Agent after this season. He is clearly looking for a big contract and if someone offers him more money, he’s as good as gone. At that point our experienced WR’s are Cooper, Matthews and Huff.

It would be smart to sit Cooper and start developing (or trying to develop) Matthews into a starter ASAP. This offense was deadly with DeSean Jackson as our #1. It’s fallen to good with Maclin there. However if we lose Maclin too, we’re pretty much dead in the water.

Maclin settled for five million this just year (1.75 base, 3.5 signing bonus) , instead of signing for 5 per year on a longer deal. I’m guessing he’ll want the kind of money he saw DJax making, and will ask for something like 9 million per year. Odds are good there’ll be bidding and we’d have to overpay to keep him next year. Especially with what’s behind him, because as of right now the EAGLES have zero leverage. And oh, have I mentioned that there’s a salary cap crunch looming? Too much money paid for Maclin will, (not may) mean the difference between being able to afford someone and having to release or trade them.

If we don’t start developing Matthews soon, we’re going to be paying for the failings of this Draft through the nose.

 

 

TIME TO SHUT DOWN TODD HERREMANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/29
Posted in: Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

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SCRATCH your nose. That simple movement has become decidedly more difficult for RG Todd Herremans. He suffered a torn bicep during in the loss against Arizona. Hard to say which arm he injured though. NJ.com  has it down as his right arm; CSN says it’s the left; and as usual the EAGLES (as of now, 3:39 a.m.) have yet to write a blessed word on the subject. In any case, he left the game, but came back and finished it basically with one arm. Now he’s going to attempt to continue playing despite the injury.

While it may only be a partial and not a complete tear, every medical professional worth their license, would say that continuing to play will likely only worsen his injury. If you have a desk job and you got this injury, your doctor would prescribe rest for it. Seriously. Don’t believe me? Call your doctor and ask. I’ll wait… The last things a doctor would prescribe for a torn bicep would be weightlifting or football. If it’s a complete tear, he needs to bag the year and get the surgery he needs. It all depends on which type of tear he has.

As a former O-lineman let me say that most of the job is pushing or re-directing, which involves you straightening your arms. That engages your tricep muscles. Herremans has no problem there. Unless you have a handful of jersey and are pulling on it; are “Hooking” a player (which is illegal anyway); or you’re pulling back to set up a hand punch, you don’t rely too much on your biceps. Which may be how Herremans got away with finishing the Cardinals game. (That and adrenaline.)

Here’s another one. Extend your arm out where you can see the back of your hand. Now turn it where you can see your palm. Feel that in your bicep? Herremans now has problems with a move that simple. With a just a partial tear he can do it, but not as quickly, or as strongly as he normally can. Now imagine that he has to block someone like oh, I don’t know…J.J. Watt on a stunt. Right behind Herremans sits a guy named Nick Foles. Am I being too direct?

Todd Herremans needs to take a few weeks off and let his arm heal. He’s no spring chicken, but if he’s smart (and if it is only a partial tear) he should heal fast enough, and we should get him back well before the playoffs.

GIANTS RB LESEAN MCCOY?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/28
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments
Image courtesy of newyork.cbslocal.com

Image courtesy of newyork.cbslocal.com

 

NEXT season you may be treated to the sight of our all-time leading rusher, LeSean McCoy, playing in a Giants jersey. I hope the EAGLES do a better job of replacing him than they did of replacing DeSean Jackson. That’s of course if there’s any fire to all this smoke, and the rumors of the EAGLES wanting to move him are true.

In any case, unless Darren Sproles is set to carry the load for us in 2015, or unless we draft someone, odds are we’ll be getting a Free Agent. Let’s get a look at who’ll be out there!

Jacquizz Rodgers                                                       

Stevan Ridley                                                             

Bilal Powell                                                   

Cedric Peerman                                                                     

Chris Ogbonnaya                                                                  

DeMarco Murray                                                                  

Leon Washington                                                                   

Shane Vereen                                                             

Daniel Thomas                                                                      

Joe McKnight                                                            

Darren McFadden                                                                 

Knowshon Moreno                                                                

Antone Smith                                                             

Ryan Mathews                                                                       

Mark Ingram                                                             

Kendall Hunter                                                                      

DuJuan Harris                                                                       

Frank Gore                                                                

Roy Helu                                                                    

Justin Forsett                                                            

Jonathan Dwyer                                                                    

Shaun Draughn                                                                      

Ronnie Brown                                                            

Ahmad Bradshaw       

 

According to Spotrac.com this is the list of UFA (Unrestricted Free Agent) RB’s that will be available after this season. You can all but assume that guys like Murray and Forsett will re-sign with their current teams; but even if they don’t, do you see any names that you’d be happy to replace McCoy with? If we ran a different system and depending on what it was, sure I could pick a couple of those names. But for what we do, it’s almost like McCoy was cooked up in a lab just to play in this offense. Why fuck with what works?

You’re probably waiting for the part where I show you what hard evidence I have that McCoy is leaving.  Well I don’t have any. Right now all I have is a teaspoon of speculation, and a ton of history on how our Front Office operates. Here’s what I mean.

I’ve been making the rounds on-line, collecting and sifting news about the EAGLES to write about and share with you. Since last week I keep seeing stories about the EAGLES trading McCoy to Oakland. If you look it up you’ll find different versions of it, but they all have roots in this story here.

I found it interesting because I told my readers months ago (in June) that McCoy might be leaving after this season. I’m still hoping that it doesn’t happen, but anyone who’s been an EAGLES fan for at least the last quarter century can tell you, none of our greats finish as EAGLES. We don’t get to see our own go smiling into the sunset. And that’s been regardless of coach, GM, or owner. It’s part of what robs me of any optimism that there’s a happy ending to the coming crisis my other article mentioned.

I just hope that we at least get somebody good, because we’re almost certainly going to part with somebody great.

THE SCAPEGOAT (Here is why we lost)

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/27
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Fans, NFL, Offense, Rants. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

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 (It should real easy to spot everyone who didn’t actually read this article.)

QB Nick Foles accounted for 2 of our 3 turnovers in the loss at Arizona. So it’s pretty clear that we should blame him for the loss, right? Sure, until you consider that he threw 62 passes and that 2 picks is just 3%. That number stacks up pretty well against most NFL QB’s. It doesn’t stack up to well against Top Ten QB’s like Peyton Manning, Steve Young and Tom Brady. Then again Nick Foles isn’t a Top 10 QB. He is most certainly NFL caliber, and given a weapon like say…DeSean Jackson, he’s capable of getting a team to the playoffs, but he is no Top 10 QB, and that level of play cannot be expected from him. The coach simply cannot put that sort of load on his shoulders.

And what about Chip Kelly? Isn’t it his job to know that Foles isn’t an elite QB? If he does know that, then why would he call 62 plays vs just 26 rushes!? The game should have never been in Foles hands to begin with, right? Sure, until you consider that all of our scoring came through the air, and with only 2 RB’s active you can lean only so hard on them. Especially against the NFL’s #2 run defense. With half an Offense, you need your Defense to keep you in the game.

So we’ll blame the Defense! They allowed not one, but TWO, long passes to happen with defenders in coverage, both times they were simply outrun after the catch by the receiver en route to a TD. So whether it was sloppy coverage, or not enough pass rush, it’s the Defense that let those scores happen, right? Sure it was. But wasn’t it the Offense’s turnovers that robbed us of points and gave extra possessions to the Cardinals, putting extra pressure on the Defense?

Wait. So now were back to blaming the Offense??

How about this? It was the EAGLES who lost the game. Kelly told Foles during the vagiants game that culture wins ballgames. Culture also loses them. We’ve been getting away with some less than fundamentally sound football since September 7th. This is the second time we faced a team above .500, and both times we ended up on the ground. That’s telling.

Our redzone percentage has been atrocious. We struggle to run the ball, in a run first offense. (O-line injuries you say? Okay. So our back-up O-linemen can’t run block? Then why are they on OUR roster?) Culture.

Our second round draft pick doesn’t even average 10 yards per catch. Our first round reach has been a healthy scratch for half of our games and despite playing in 4 straight games has yet to record a single stat. Any stat. Or the third round reach? Culture.

Our defensive philosophy sucks. We allow too many easy completions. The culture has become to say that it’s Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher. But remember when it was Nnamdi Asomugha and DRC before that? And Asante Samuel before that? And Sheldon Brown right before he was traded? DO you realize how many talented CB’s have sucked in Philadelphia since 2008? We haven’t had one we liked. Despite the EAGLES calling in Defensive gurus who focused on improving the pass rush, when it failed we always buried the CB’s. Culture.

You want a scapegoat, THERE is your scapegoat.

PUTTING LEASHES ON COWBOYS FANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/20
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Fans, NFL, Rants. Tagged: , , , , , , . 15 Comments

xcuse

FOR weeks when we were the top seed all you heard from Cowpie fans was that we only had it by a “technicality”, that it was “still early”, and that who was top seed “didn’t matter until the season was over”. 

Yesterday they struggled to beat a vagiants team that we shut out, humiliated, and sent packing just one week earlier. And when we beat them they at least still had WR Victor Cruz for a good portion of the game. Still we game them NADA. Zero. Zilch. The Cowpies on the other hand gave up 21 points to a team that didn’t have Cruz at any point. In fact 2 of the TD’s they gave up we to a rookie WR making his first start. 

But a win is a win, and Dallas went to 6-1, which is one more win than we have (at 5-1), since our Bye week came up early. They have the division lead on a technicality. Early. So of course the season isn’t over. My point is, they have the division lead under the EXACT SAME conditions we did, only now it’s valid for some reason.

If you bring up the fact that we sent them home last year when we won the NFC East, they’ll tell you quick that a division win is unimportant and what matters is a Super Bowl win. What’s funny is how that isn’t the song they’re singing today. Suddenly it’s important to be the division champ. Suddenly it’s valid.

Yesterday, in their own charmingly hapless way, the vagiants exposed some serious flaws in the Cowboys team that I look forward to seeing exploited as I enjoy my turkey next month. And the best part is that through the act of shooting of their mouths last night and today, the Cowpies fans MADE IT KNOWN that at the very least, as of 10/19/14 they consider the division lead important. That means that now by default that makes WINNING the division important. EVEN TO THEM.

THIS IS WHAT PASSES FOR A RIVAL NOW?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/13
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFL, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 7 Comments

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I’M stunned as fuck over the sheer number of ignorant Cowboys fans out there who claim to be NFL fans, yet don’t know about something as basic as NFL tie-breakers.

Don’t get me wrong some of them do, but there are specifically way too many Cowboys fans who don’t. Which says something right off the bat about how well Cowboy fans know this sport, this league, and what the fuck they’re talking about in general.

Not that it matters much. Fact is, the season isn’t ending today or next week, and each team still has 10 more games to go. On top of that, the EAGLES have the tougher schedule BY FAR, since we went to the playoffs last year after we sent the Cowboys home.

Then of course there are 2 head to head match-ups coming. A split leaves the argument on the table; but a sweep gives the winning team bragging rights until 2015, especially when the Cowboys miss the playoffs because of it.

Don’t get me wrong. I love posting memes telling the rest of the NFC East that we own them, but this is still October. I’ll leave the dancing in the streets over holding 1st place FOR FOUR HOURS, to the lesser team.

It’s almost like they held it for us (“Here bitch, hold this”) so we could pummel the Giants with both fists. After which we took it back so they could finish what we started Sunday night (“Get that shovel and bury that piece of shit in the basement with the Redskins.”).  And they damned well better do as we say, because if they don’t, 1st place won’t be about a tie-breaker, and their only division game will be a loss.

As they fade farther back in our rear…view….mirror…

But seriously EAGLES fans: If you should catch yourself in a debate over an NFL rule that really doesn’t apply right now (except for bragging rights); chances are you’re letting an idiot make you look like them. DON’T BE THAT GUY.