EAGLES ALL-UNDERRATED TEAM (1989-2014)

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/25
Posted in: Conversations, Players. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

THERE 3 are simple rules to making  this list:

1)     You have to have played between 1989 and 2014

2)     You have to have been a starter for at least 3 years as an Eagle

3)     You must be underrated by either the Fans, the Media or Both.

 

Today we’ll start with the OFFENSE.

QB: DONOVAN McNABB Underrated by: The Fans 

donovan mcnabb

Ask the average fan about Randall Cunningham, Jim McMahon, or Ty Detmer and you’ll hear some criticism, but also an acknowledgement of and respect for their contributions. Yet many fans are reluctant to show much respect for the best QB in our franchise’s history. This by the way does nothing to help our national reputation.

 

 

 

RB1: RICKY WATTERS Underrated by: The Fans Watters-Ricky

Making the rounds I see fans still talk about Brian Westbrook, Herschel Walker and even Wilbert Montgomery. One name I almost never hear or read is Ricky Watters. Despite his “For who? For what?” moment, Watters went on to handle business week in and week out for each of the three years he was here. He provided us with a 1,000 yard rusher for three years straight for the first time in franchise history; and FYI, since Watters, that feat has never been repeated. Not even by LeSean McCoy. Watters also put together 31 rushing TD’s over that span. Yet another feat so far never repeated.

 

RB2: DUCE STALEY Underrated by: The Media duce staley

We fans love Duce. With his bull in a china shop running style, it wasn’t hard to endear himself to us. It seemed to take an entire defense to tackle him. He simply wouldn’t go down. He could also run, catch and block. Though he was a complete RB who didn’t have to leave the field on 3rd down, he has all but been forgotten by everyone except Eagles fans.

 

 

 

WR1: CALVIN WILLIAMS Underrated by: Both in-cwilliams-091212

Williams is the original Maclin. Overshadowed by a speedster, Williams was the one who moved the chains and caught the TD’s. It was often his ability to uncover and work back to the QB that gave Cunningham somewhere to go with the ball off of a scramble.

 

 

 

WR2: JEREMY MACLIN Underrated by: The Media Jeremy Maclin

Fan’s seem to get Maclin’s value as a chain mover. (In fact there are a number of fans who expect his WR2 numbers to move up to WR1 type numbers. That’s doubtful to happen due to the Eagles system, but…) He averages 66 catches, 860 yards and 6 TD’s a year, yet if you live outside of Philly, you likely have no idea who he is.

 

TE: CHAD LEWIS Underrated by: The Fans lewis_inside_110805

Lewis was McNabb’s security blanket when he didn’t have a decent WR. Lewis wasn’t the most gifted athlete, but he played within his game, and his work inside opened up the outside for the screen passes that made this team so dangerous, back when deep playoff runs were our routine.

 

 

 

 

LT: BARRETT BROOKS Underrated by: Both fillin

Over the last two decades LT to an Eagles fan has looked like Tra Thomas or Jason Peters.  Richard “Turnstile” Cooper was NOT getting on this list, and neither was Ron Heller. With Brooks being a high Draft pick, calling him underrated may seem silly, but really there was no one else to add, as he was the best of a pretty “meh” bunch.

 

LG: JOHN WELBOURN: Underrated by: Both welbourn

Guess who was the starting LG back when we kept going to those NFC Championship games.

 

 

 

 

 

C: HANK FRALEY: Underrated by: Both fraley

Guess who else helped anchor the interior, during that run of NFC Championship games.

 

 

 

 

 

RG: JERMANE MAYBERRY Underrated by: Both jermane mayberry

Remember the NFC Championship run of games? Guess who played RG.

 

 

 

 

 

RT: ANTONE DAVIS Underrated by: Both antone davis2

Another high pick, who wasn’t as dominant as everyone expected him to be. Still, he provided 5 years of consistent starts, on what was a generally winning team.

 

 

 

 

If you liked this article make sure you click the “FOLLOW” button to receive updates like this one.

FANTASY FOOTBALL: MY CHIP KELLY INTERVIEW

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/23
Posted in: Crazy Talk, Offense. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

DeSean-Jackson-Chip-Kelly

AFTER what seemed like forever, Chip Kelly opened his mouth and said “Yes. You can call me Chippah.” I asked him if he had read the article I wrote about him going on a murder spree. He chuckled that he hadn’t, but that he looked forward to doing so.

At that point Chippah reached over and selected a California Roll off of the naked woman who was paid to act as our serving tray. I was reaching for the tuna sashimi, when Tony Romo walked over and told me that I could punch him for $5. So I handed him a 50. It was all I had on me.

When the paramedics left, Chippah got down to talking Offense, and he showed me his playbook. There was one formation where Darren Sproles is on the right in the slot with Jordan Matthews, with Riley Cooper split wide. Trey Burton is taking snaps under Center, with LeSean McCoy offset left behind him. It was sort of a Spread/Wildcat hybrid, and it looked like a monster even on paper.

I clapped my hands together gleefully, not caring how childlike it made me look. I was thinking Super Bowl.

Suddenly Bobby Griffin ran into the room, grabbed the playbook, and bolted for the door. Then his knee gave way and he crumpled to the floor. Chippah took back his playbook, and used a push broom to sweep Bob into the hallway as he screamed “Shanahan! Why did you make me do this?!”

At that point I knew to expect the Va-giants to make an attempt. From seemingly nowhere, Eli Manning snatches the playbook, and outside the castle window (I did mention that we were in a castle, right? I didn’t?? Sorry. My bad). Anyway, Victor Cruz yells “Over here!” and Eli throws the playbook right to me. I have no idea how. Me and the window weren’t even on the same side of the room. Eli hung his head and commenced with his  “Struggle Face“.  The day was saved.

At that point I smelled coffee and heard my alarm clock going.

The season can’t get here fast enough.  

THE DANGER OF LOWERED STANDARDS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/22
Posted in: NFL, Rants. Tagged: . Leave a comment

michele-bachmann-corn-dog

JETS owner Woody Johnson (gratuitous porn joke), also favors the idea of allowing lesser teams a chance to sneak into the playoffs, or as it’s known in NFL circles: Playoff Expansion.

I say ‘also’ favors it, because I’ve already written about Cowpies owner Jerry Jones coming out (gratuitous gay joke) in favor of it as well.

Hey, isn’t it weird how owners of teams that make a habit of missing the playoffs, also seem to be fans of the idea of lowering the price of admission to the postseason? Hell, it’s downright spooky.

I know, I know. Every so often some sad bastard (the 2010 Seahawks) goes 7-9, and because they’re the (ahem) “best” team in their division; they get a Golden Ticket to play another week or two. Meanwhile some random 10-6 team gets shown the door because they didn’t win their division, plus one wildcard team was 11-5 and the other 10-6 wildcard won the tie-breaker.

Boo-hoo. That my friends, is called Life. In 2002 the semi-pro team I played for, missed the playoffs due to a tie-breaker situation. Did I complain about it? (Yes. Yes I did. I still do sometimes.) But my point is, that’s how life is. Sometimes it’s not fair. You just come back the following year and do what you do best. Hopefully a little better next time. That’s what you do.

What you don’t do is rig the system to make it where last year’s rules can’t create the same problem; because it’s only a matter of time before the new rules create a new mess. At that point do you do change the rules again? Soften the standard and lower the bar, again? You can’t legislate bad breaks out of life, and you only look silly trying to do so.

Today you have some losers who champion a weaker standard, so their product can have the illusion of being as good as those who produce quality. This is wrong. Moreover, it seems like a perfect recipe for making more of what nobody needs. Namely, losers.

(BTW: YES. I am aware of the economic incentive for this change. I just wanted to shift the focus away from money for once.)

UM, ER, UH, YOU’RE FULL OF SHIT BRO!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/21
Posted in: Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Picard-Bird

HAD to turn my TV off. I was watching the NFL Network and− You know at first, I was just  going to name a couple names, but then I figured to be fair, I should name ALL the names. Then it occurred to me that I’d be sitting here typing for at least a week straight if I went that route. So instead, I’m going to make it a general reference, which you’ll see applies to all of them.

“I don’t care about the stats.”

“I don’t read the paper.”

“All I care about is winning.”

Allow me to call “Bullshit!” on that.

 

If an athlete pays no attention to stats and stuff, then why is it that they always seem to know how much their peers are pulling down?

“I just want to be paid like one of the top performers at my position.”

“I just think I out-performed my contract.”

This is all hard stuff to know if you don’t pay attention to the numbers. I mean if you ran for 1,500 yards how do you know if you did better or worse than others, without looking at the stats? And not just your stats, the entire league’s stats. You can’t. In order to know your worth, you have to be up to date on what is going on in relation to you.

I suppose we’re to believe that every contract hold-out is the agent’s idea. Or every time a guy talks about wanting a new deal, that it was his entourage that got the ball rolling. Yeah. Right.

 

And what does “out-performing their contract” mean anyway? When athletes sign, aren’t they essentially saying they’re going to do their best? Isn’t that what the clichés are all about??

“I just wanted to leave it all out on the field.”

“You know, um, give 110%, and, um, er, uhhhh…give thanks to the coaching staff, my teammates and uhhhh, oh yeah, God.”

Instead of crying for more money just because they had a good year like they were supposed to do, they should honor their contract.

By that same token teams shouldn’t go asking players to take a pay cut. They too should honor the contract.

If both parties think an extension is in order; or the player is willing to give up some years for more up-front money, that’s one thing. That’s an indication of both parties not just honoring the contract, but also honoring their commitment to each other’s wellbeing.

 

Instead we got guys who “don’t know what’s going on”, willing to hamstring the same teammates they praised for helping them get to a position to (hurt them) hold-out for more money. And no one is calling “Bullshit!”

Until now.

WARREN SAPP: REDSKINS WILL WIN EAST

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/18
Posted in: Conversations, Uncategorized. Tagged: . 1 Comment
z-1off-warrensapp.500px.foxsports

Image courtesy of foxsports.com

FOR the second time in two nights, I watched Warren Sapp tell Rod Woodson on NFL Total Access, that he thinks the Redskins will win the NFC East.

A few things make his assertion worth mentioning:

1)     Despite the fact that he’s kind of a jerk, he’s a HOF, Super Bowl winner, who’s football IQ has never been in question.

2)     He’s a proud Cowboys fan, so you know it was an unbiased statement.

3)     In my Pre-Draft Review I say that we should win the East, but the Redskins are closer to us than many might think.

Having said that, I don’t see us having trouble head-to-head with division opponents. I think head-to-head we’re still clearly better than our division rivals. If we lose the division, I think it’ll be because of math.

Small differences, like how we get the Packers and Panthers back-to-back, while the ‘skins get the Vikings and Buccaneers with their Bye in between. We get games against legit competition, while they get a couple gimmes against teams with QB issues.

Also we finish on the road for 2 weeks, and they finish at home for 2. That may seem small in June, but by late December, (if both teams are playing for something), it’s huge.

Last season the schedule kept a bad Cowboys team on life support until we put a bullet in them and packed them in the cold ground, in front of 91,000 of their closest friends. I think this year will be a little like that, except I think this year’s ‘skins team will be better than last years Cowpies.

If the ‘skins don’t improve on the Offensive Line and in their Secondary, then we have nothing to worry about and 10-6 should be more than enough to see the playoffs again. However if Washington can get those things performing even respectably, we may need 12 wins to punch our ticket in 2014.

DEAR EAGLES, THANK YOU

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/17
Posted in: Conversations, Fans. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Cheer: Philadelphia-Eagles-Logo

 

THESE words are in an article that the Eagles put on their website to tell fans not to get too hyped yet. They want you excited, but they want to tell you “don’t go nuts”. Again, this is coming from the Eagles, not me.

“Fans want something to get excited about.”

“Continue to read the practice reports. Get excited when players make big plays and do noteworthy things. That’s part of the fun of the offseason. Just keep things in context.”

I just felt the need to give the team credit for being a straight shooter and keepin’ it real about this issue. When I make these points I get called “a downer”. Nice to see my team and I agree.

Personally I love their message, because that’s the approach I take every year anyway. In the offseason that’s really the only sane approach to take. At no point have you seen me jumping up and down over OTA’s. Hell, even  Chip Kelly suggested fans  shouldn’t try to make judgments based on OTA’s: “If anybody is trying to make anything of who is playing what or how many reps, all we’re trying to do is see if we can get three reps a minute, as fast as we can go, get it on tape and coach off of that. So there is nothing to read into who is where, what, whatever, because we’re not playing a game until September.”

For Kelly the OTA’s are just a step to measure, not an achievement to crow about. That’s because the offseason is a diagnostic and prep tool. This is the time of year where whatever needs fixing, needs to be pointed out. At this point, whatever held us back in the past, now must be addressed. Look, if you were leaking blood, you wouldn’t consider it an act of love if someone you counted on, just ignored your wound and instead said nice things about your shoes. Ignoring what is hurting our team is not supporting it. If your spouse had a drinking problem, love wouldn’t be turning a blind eye.

Here’s a fact: Last year in 17 meaningful games, we lost nearly half of them (10-7). Here’s another: While the record books say we won the NFC East in 2013, it came down to an elimination game vs. a back-up, and we only won by 2 points. Add 1+1 and it equals: There is PLENTY to fix if we’re to have a shot at the Lombardi.

Luckily as the Eagle’s article says: “The football season is a marathon, not a sprint.”  

I NEED TO SEE MORE TOUGHNESS.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/15
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations. Leave a comment
Image courtesy of nbcphiladelphia.com

Image courtesy of nbcphiladelphia.com

RECENTLY an Eagles fan asked us (his fellow fans) if we believed in Chip Kelly. It’s a good question. An intelligent one to be sure, so I think my fellow fan deserves a response.

This in no way is me trying to speak for other Eagles fans.

I am not 100% sold on Chip Kelly.

Full disclosure: I didn’t want Kelly to be the next HC. I wanted Gus Bradley or Vic Fangio. And I only wanted them because I knew we couldn’t lure Bill Cowher out of broadcasting. What I wanted, was Defense.

Instead we got an Offensive college coach who ran the Spread (Run and Shoot)/Spread Option. He added some gimmicks like a fast tempo, and a QB in the Pistol instead of under C, but there was otherwise nothing Earth-shaking going on.

So he gets here, and who does he hire as the DC? Bill Davis. Most Eagle fans couldn’t have picked Davis out of a line-up, but my best friend is a 49er fan, so I knew his work already. Not impressed would be putting it mildly. (FYI: His units have a funny way of being worse in his second year. Look it up. In fact, here’s a link.) As a guy who wanted the Eagles to go Defensive, this was like brass-knuckles across exposed teeth.

This used to be 4 paragraphs, but I’ll say it as one sentence: I had some issues with Kelly’s credibility prior to the start of last season.

 

Like most, I expected 6-10 or 7-9 for last year. The 10-6 finish was nice, but let’s all be honest here; there were some CRAZY mitigating circumstances to that record.

And we did lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Actually the loss isn’t what bothers me, it’s HOW we lost that bothers me. Haunts me actually. We were pushed around at the line of scrimmage on BOTH sides of the ball, vs. an insultingly vanilla game plan. It was almost like Sean Payton was schooling Kelly, while only using the A-B-C’s of football. On national television, the Saints of all people, showed the world that the easiest way to defeat Philadelphia is to just beat on us. Wail away. Up-front on both sides of the line, our big guys were manhandled. It was nationally televised emasculation at the hands of a team that is itself thought of as a finesse bunch. 

Seems like a fluke until you realize that all the Saints did was copy what the Viking’s back-ups did during Week 15. (So many Eagles fans have amnesia about that game.) With so many starters hurt, Minny went fairly vanilla and beat us a convincing 48-30. They did it by out-toughing us. They simply beat on us. As a native Philadelphian, the idea that I root for a football team that is now able to be pushed around by the Vikings and the Saints, is jarring.

I remember when we were thought of as tough. I remember a time when the Eagles were a team that would send 7 guys at a time after you, or play games like “The Body Bag Game”. Players on other teams feared our players. No one “looked forward to” playing against Reggie White, Seth Joyner or Andre Waters. No one talked trash about facing Jeremiah Trotter, or “circling dates” for when they saw Brian Dawkins.  

That’s not the case now.  We’re fair game now. This is the primary reason I wanted a defensive coach. Offensive gurus don’t tend to promote toughness and physicality the way defensive coaches do. They’re schemers. They like to scheme. And that’s what Kelly is. He’s a schemer. 

I’m waiting for Chip Kelly to (among other things), make his team as good as his words “We’re from Philly, and we fight.” Until he does that, or until he can consistently make it to round 2 of the playoffs, I’ll never be 100% sold on this guy.

WHO CAN STOP US?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/14
Posted in: Coaching, Offense. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment
Going No Ware in 2014

Going No Ware in 2014

COUPLE days ago I wrote how in two steps the Eagles Spread Offense could be shut down. Those twos steps were: Play Cover Two and consistently send six. While I didn’t say it would be easy to do, it’s a sound and proven strategy against this type offensive system.

Hundreds of fans saw the story and fewer than 10 people disagreed with the strategy. This indicates that either Philly has some pretty knowledgeable fans overall, or that only the knowledgeable ones come to my website. I’m good with either.

The strategy itself brings up a couple of  interesting questions. Who is equipped to execute such a scheme? What exactly do you need?

1)  You need a DC with the balls to play Cover Two and give up all those easy completions underneath. Despite all the yelling some coaches do, having the stones to go out on a limb and do something bold is rare. Which is why you so often hear that “The NFL is a copycat league”.

2) You need excellent play from Safeties who play Safety, not quasi-Cornerback. On the surface that means of course the Safeties have to make tackles on those short easy completions. But with Chip Kelly’s system being run-based, it means the Safeties have to fill their run fits and reliably cause a pile, especially if they can’t make the tackle. For example, note what happens here with no Safety to fill the gaps.

You can’t beat a running team by thinking pass first. (New Orleans and Minnesota understood that.)

3) Consistently send six is easy to say and not so easy to do, yet if you can master it, you can cause headaches for any system, coach, or QB. Late Eagles DC Jim Johnson understood that you simply need to mix who you send, how often and from where. During his time here we couldn’t reach the passer with 4, so he took to sending anywhere from 5 to 7 players on almost every given down. In case you need a frame of reference: 1 blitz every 5 downs (20%) is a high number. Now here’s a breakdown of just how often JJ dialed up blitzes.  (Seriously don’ skip it. Check it out.) We won the Division how many times behind that approach? That’s because if it’s well managed, it’s deadly. Again it also has a successful track record against this type of system.

So just who can pull this off? Provided that opponents can get quick penetration by an unblocked rusher, pretty much anybody. Free runners mean short passes, at which point you make the tackle underneath and deliver the big hit on the passer. Even if it’s late.

In today’s safety conscious NFL, late hits will mean 15 yard flags. Fine. As the expression goes it’s the “cost of doing business”. You follow it with another big hit. Even if it’s late. Look at it this way, if you were Chip Kelly would you sacrifice Nick Foles early in the season for a single TD drive? Of course not. We need him “next week”, so the smart thing is not to let him get beat to shit. So you keep either a RB or a TE in to block. This changes the Spread concept because now the defense is less spread, with fewer people to cover. This is known as a ‘win’ for the defense.

It’s throwback football. When your opponent is scheming you off the field, you shift into caveman and make it a war of attrition. You make ‘em too tired and sore to be clever. Done with some discipline, ANY team is capable of this.

TRENT COLE’S POSSIBLE 2015 LANDING SPOTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/13
Posted in: Conversations, Players. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

card-trentcole

TRENT Cole says he expects to be around for years to come. Specifically here, as a member of Bill Davis’s defensive unit, for years to come. That would indicate that Cole is willing to accept a massive pay cut to stay.

Then again he also alluded to his current contract by saying “Man, I’ve got three years left! At least give me three years!” It’s a nice soundbite, but the truth is that if he’s not willing to play here for less than say 8-10 mil a year, odds are that he’s gone.  

Proclaiming that he’s still wants to be a factor, and that he still has years left in him, could be a smart move on his part to signal to other teams that over 2-3 years  maybe he’s worth the type of money Justin Tuck just got from Oakland. But just who might be willing to pay him 8-10 million a year?

 

OAKLAND

When I played semi-pro, I wore Silver and Black. I also cut my NFL teeth on the Los Angeles Raiders. So I have an unabashed soft spot for them. That being said, the Raiders have a history of spending money like drunken pirates. Cole is 6 sacks and a bad year from Lamar Woodley away from being offered enough money to lure him to “Philly West.”

CINCINNATI

Cole is an Ohio native, and while Cleveland has the most in common with the Eagles in terms of internal structure, they are a consistently awful football team and having a choice in the twilight of his career, I can’t imagine Cole would want to spend it losing.

The Bengals on the other hand always seem to think they’re a piece or two away from making the leap from bridesmaid to bride. With Pittsburgh and Baltimore poised to struggle for a couple years, soon than later would seem to be Cincinnati’s window to strike.

DALLAS

Is in need of a pass rusher and it would give the Cowpies a window into specific nuances of Bill Davis’s system. Besides, Jerry Jones is not adverse to spending money and has had pretty good luck getting production from former Eagles (Randall Cunningham, T.O., Herschel Walker…). Just 6 or 7 sacks from Cole in 2014 would be enough for Johnson to throw his Stetson in the ring.

 

Understandably there are a couple of moving pieces here: Whether or not Cole has a big year. Whether or not a pay cut is levied. Whether or not teams decide to go younger and develop a player instead of chasing the FA quick fix. We’ll see. In the meantime, let’s see what you think.

STOPPING THE EAGLES OFFENSE IN JUST 2 STEPS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/06/10
Posted in: Coaching, Offense. Tagged: , , , . 10 Comments
Image courtesy of sportige.com

Image courtesy of sportige.com

SOMEONE in an Eagles group I belong to, pointed out an article (written by another Eagles fan) that summarizes how one Redskins fan said he would stop Chip Kelly’s offense. The summary made the ‘skins fan sound like a moron, and I had a laugh; but then I thought “an Eagles fan did do the summary”. So I went to the source material to see it for myself.  

I’m glad I did. I have to say, there was a lot of sound research and football knowledge on display there. Nothing the guy said was technically wrong, and he made some of the points that I made when I did a breakdown of why we were so successful last year. The only problem with his “blueprint” was that he put in too many moving parts.

So how would I do it?

Step one to stopping someone, is understanding what they do. What do the Eagles do? We run the Spread. Okay so what is the Spread?  The Spread is a system that typically uses a 3 WR formation (sometimes 4), to spread a defense horizontally, so it can force man coverage concepts that open up the middle of the field for short passes and the run.

What Kelly added to this system was a frenetic pace, and the constant employing of “the mesh” which basically is a legal way of running a ‘pick play’. (If you want to know more about “the mesh”, Sheil Kapadia has an excellent article on it.) Kelly also tweaked the system a bit by frequently using TE’s in the place of slot WR’s, though they are mostly used as receivers and not much in pass protection. So the Eagles typically pass block with just the 5 O-linemen, with a touch of chipping or slow releases.

 

Now some historical perspective:

Back in the 1990’s there were already 2 teams heavily employing the Spread: the Houston Oilers and the Atlanta Falcons. Back then however, everybody called it the Run and Shoot (RAS).

Both the Falcons and Oilers scored a ton of points using this system. Neither team had a TE of note from their RAS days, primarily because they almost never used one. Even in the run game. The result was a lot of hits on the QB. The sack numbers for QB’s Warren Moon and Chris Miller really don’t tell the whole story. Miller had the misfortune to play in the same division as Pat Swilling and Rickey Jackson (Saints), Kevin Greene (Rams), and Charles Haley (49ers). (If you aren’t familiar with those names, look them up.) There were a lot of late hits and free runs to the QB. Miller missed quite a few games.

 

What I’m saying is the Spread is expensive. It requires you to gamble with the most precious resource on your team: Your starting QB. It’s why you don’t see a lot of it these days. For example: Bill Belichik has been recently borrowing concepts from Chip Kelly. Now take a look at Tom Brady’s recent sack numbers and completion percentage. However Brady’s recent TD/Int ratio indicates that Nick Foles (or another QB) may be able to produce similar numbers in this system.

 

Once more: The Spread is the Run and Shoot. Kelly’s version is run at a faster pace, while getting as close to cheating as possible without justifying the flag being thrown. That’s our Offense in a nutshell.

So then how do you stop it? Simple. Play some Cover-2 and consistently send 6, (since the Eagles typically block with 5). It’s Jim Johnson 101.

That’s it. Really. You don’t need 80 steps like what’s listed by our Redskins friend up there, just 2. Make sure the hit is delivered (even if it’s late), and make the tackle on the short completion.

That’s it. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. You make it a game of attrition. Because limping QB’s can’t run the hurry-up, and scared QB’s rush their passes, or get flagged for intentional grounding. (Remember those?)

It was this formula (and everyone running some version of the WCO) that ran the RAS out of the NFL. And as I said in another article: If I know this, you can bet NFL DC’s do too.