SAY, CAN YOU SEE?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/13
Posted in: Draft. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

FP: red-pill-blue-pill

THE Truth is right in front of you.

Wide Reciever. Safety. Cornerback. In that order, those have been the most frequently… let’s call it ‘requested’, positions from Eagles fans for the upcoming Draft.

While it would be nice to replace the speed we just lost at WR ,and while like many I came into the off-season wanting Secondary help; picking any of those positions early, ignores the things we need the most now. It ignores those truths hiding in plain sight.

 

RUNNING THE BALL:

LeSean McCoy was the NFL’s Leading Rusher so you wouldn’t think this would be an issue right? Well you’d be dead wrong to think that. But last year we went 10-6, right? What if I told you that in 5 of those 6 losses, McCoy rushed for under 80 yards. What if told you that in those games where McCoy went over 80, we went 6-1. (FYI: The only game that queers both stats is the Chiefs game where he ran for 158 and we still lost.)

So basically if a team can shut down our run game, we can’t win. That game against the Saints? McCoy ran for 77 yards.  Under 80 yards.  24-26.  Losers.

PASSRUSH:

The Defense grabbed 37 sacks last year. Our leader in that category was Trent Cole with 8, followed up by Conner Barwin with 5. All bias aside, there is no player among our front 7 who commands a double-team anymore; and it would be kind to say that our pass rush was inconsistent last year. (FYI: In all 6 of our losses we lost the sack battle. Though this actually indicates TWO problems, one of them is definitely getting after the QB.)

PASS PROTECTION:

Last year we allowed 46 sacks, 28 of which were of Nick Foles in 10 starts. Most uncomfortable was how those sacks began to creep upward towards the season’s end.

Foles was sacked 16 times in his last 5 starts. Taking the Detroit game out (since neither team could rush the QB in those conditions, and both teams went run heavy on offense), that’s 4 times a game, in games not played in blizzard conditions. If we allow sacks at that rate next season, Foles will be sacked 64 times in 2014. That’s too many hits on your QB.

 

Despite the overwhelming fan support for edge players, most of our biggest problems have to do with who controls the Line of Scrimmage. Bottled up run? See the line. Can’t get to the QB? See the line. Your QB getting roughed up? See the line.

But most fans simply can not, (or perhaps will not), see the line. How about you?

On either side of the ball your line is the engine that makes your scheme work. It’s a little easier to see this on Offense, but this goes all but unnoticed on Defense most of the time. This despite the fact that systems are generally named by their fronts like 3-4, 4-3, and 4-4. (4-6 is named for a Safety that played under Buddy Ryan in Chicago when Buddy was developing the scheme.)

I’d like to see the Eagles invest in a couple of players who can change the complexion of the game at the snap of the ball, instead of having to wait until the ball is in the air. I’d like to see them get a couple of guys who get a chance to influence the game on every snap. But the only players who get that chance play on the line.

I hope that in this Draft someone in our Front Office, can see that.

CONSPIRACY CORNER: NICK FOLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/12
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

fail-owned-high-five-fail

” ‘Trust no one! The minute God crapped out the third caveman, a conspiracy was hatched against one of them! Get up goddamn you!” – Col. Hunter Gathers

JUST a thought, but what are the odds that Chip Kelly decides to bring in Marcus Mariota in 2015.

I first floated the idea during camp last year that A) Mike Vick (who I said would start) wouldn’t be here in 2014 (nailed both); and B) that less than a stellar 2014 from Foles would get him benched in favor of a more mobile rookie QB. 

Having lost DeSean Jackson will now change the way the offense was able to function last year. This sets Nick Foles up to take a step back. Knowing the ol’ Chippah’s weakness for former Oregon players…

I don’t know. What do you think about it? 

EAGLES TRADING UP INTO THE TOP 10?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/11
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments
Image courtesy of Philadelphiaeagles.com

Image courtesy of Philadelphiaeagles.com

[ANTHONY Barr] is on the front page of the Eagles website as the subject of discussion on filling defensive needs. 

While we couldn’t land Miami’s Dion Jordan in a trade, the idea that we were even actively wheeling and dealing for a young pass rusher indicates that perhaps the Eagles DO know what they’re doing after all.

Pass rusher is a need for this team. Not a luxury, a need. While fans may have gotten used to Trent Cole being a terror on the outside, it’s been awhile since he was worthy of consistent double-teaming. It would also be nice to have an OLB that was more natural in coverage.

Brings me back to Barr. There is no mock Draft that still has him on the board at 22. I have yet to see one where he makes it past 12. There are lots of OLB’s in this Draft and some of them are pretty good. Few have the size, and many are one dimensional (pass rushers OR coverage backers).

Barr gives you size and dynamicism, but in order to even reasonably have a shot at him we have to move up at least ten spots. I say “at least” because I’ve seen him go as high as 6 on some boards.

If I hadn’t seen this on the Eagles website, being discussed on a podcast ( after about 7 minute) by guys like Baldy (Brian Baldinger) and Bo Wulf, I wouldn’t even be mentioned it.  But with the way that the Dion Jordan thing failed to happen, a trade up just seems like the next logical step; because their proposed scenario where Barr slides to 22, I just don’t see happening.

In any case I think it pays to be aggressive and get after what you want, instead sitting and hoping it comes to you. Especially after Baldy said the guy is like a bigger version of  former LB William Thomas. So in that spirit I think dangling Matt Barkley, Brandon Graham and our first to move up should be enough to catch someone’s eye. Or at least get a dialogue going.

Comment box right below. Tell us what you think or how you’d do it better.

 

KELLY’S MAGIC TRICK

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/08
Posted in: Coaching, Offense. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

(NOTE: This film used in this article is of the 2013 Eagles/Bears game. All the snippets (none longer than 34 seconds), are culled from a video I got off of YouTube. There’s more film out there, but this was the most extensive example that wasn’t just scoring plays.)

 

LAST year the speed of DeSean Jackson forced defenses to begin many downs with their FS practically lined up in the parking lot. This did two things for our Offense.

  1. Made the FS late to help in run support, and even to most tackles after a pass.
  2. Forced OLB’s to frequently play inside the DE and back from the Line Of Scrimmage (LOS). They’re of almost no use as blitzers, late to fill against the run, and out of position to defend the outside pass. Remember our LB’s in the Wide 9? This is what we reduced opponents to.

And we gained these advantages prior to the snap of the ball!

The OLB’s playing on the DE’s inside hip changes everything from an Offensive Tackle’s perspective. The OLB being “in and back” means the OT doesn’t have to worry about two players on the edge. Since there’s no LB “out and over”, there’s no stunt or outside overload blitzer for the Tackle to worry about. Everything is literally in front of the OT. As an ex-O-lineman I can tell you, that’s the easiest block you can make without being on Hollywood Squares.

Remember how Jon Runyan would have to turn to his outside to block Mike Strahan? Take notice how on this running play Jason Peters completely ignores Julius Peppers 

Here it is again 

and again

 

and again

 

The FS isn’t so far back here, but again watch the OT ignore the DE

and again 

Gotcha didn’t I? 

In almost every one of these plays the FS lines up in in the press box, the OLB is inside the DE, and the OT just steps forward, ignores the DE and makes himself a problem for a LB. (Big people beating up little people.) It’s 1-2-3.

Against the pass it’s almost sad to watch. Almost.

There is nothing remotely resembling Safety help underneath; and due to the run game’s success, TE’s are getting easy releases off the line and into those underneath patterns. Here’s an example 

Here’s another 

Hold up, I have one more 

Okay last one, I swear 

 

Since the FS had to move so far back, teams had to compensate inside with a LB to fill what would normally be the FS’s run support lane. If teams didn’t do that instead of seeming unstoppable, our run game might literally have been unstoppable. And it was ALL, (every play you just saw) dictated by the one player.

This is what we have to make up for in 2014.

That’s not saying we have to find a player that moves a FS out again (though it would help). But we need to find a way to routinely make blocking schemes easy; get TE free releases; and practically renders one of the defensive players non-existent.

Yes. It is indeed a tall order.

The scheme’s keys weren’t hard to decipher, so believe me if an ex-semi pro OT can do it, you can bet your ass that NFL DC’s would have been too. This is partly of why I think Chip Kelly is going to a truer version of the Spread this year. But again, if I’m onto that, you can guess who else will be.

MOVE ON! DA BITCH GONE!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/04
Posted in: Conversations, Players. Tagged: . 4 Comments

move

PLEASE stop crying about DeSean Jackson. Everything from:

“They out to get Trayvon! I mean, DeSean!” to “I’m burnin’ his jersey! While I’m still wearing it!”

Please fellow Eagles fans, for our collective dignity can we (you really), stop letting a REDSKINS PLAYER have so much control over our conversations?

I mean honestly, some people are starting to sound like that friend who keeps saying they’re over their ex, but won’t shut the fuck up about them.

Meanwhile they keep coming home to the WR’s we do have, and either talking about the ex or the next. It’s all Cooks or Jackson. Evans or Jackson. Riley Cooper and Jeremy Maclin who?

That’s no way to treat somebody who’s gonna lay it all out for you. Be a fan. Support YOUR TEAM. Leave the Foreskin players to the Foreskin fans. 

LESEAN MCCOY PART II

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/04
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), Offense. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Image courtesy of 700level.com

Image courtesy of 700level.com

LET me share something with you. On an average day Eaglemaniacal.com gets about 40 visitors and 68 views. The site itself is little older than a month old, and those numbers (at this stage) are actually pretty solid.

When I posted the LeSean McCoy story I was (of course), hoping for better than my average day. What I could not have anticipated was the 500+ views and all the responses the story got. At first I was happy. I was up all night responding to your individual takes on the situation. (Mostly on Facebook because for some reason you guys won’t post comments on the website itself.) But by the time I got to 250 hits, something in my gut began to sink.

I realized that people were clicking the link or reading the story not from curiosity like I’d hoped, but with a sense of dread. A sort of “Oh no, not again!” was sitting in the back of your minds, because this has happened to you before. And it has happened you TOO OFTEN.

It was never my intention to freak you out, but the idea that fans couldn’t just dismiss the idea of the Eagles moving McCoy, speaks volumes about fan’s trust regarding how our team handles our favorite players.

To be clear: I HAVE NOT HEARD OR READ THAT LESEAN MCCOY IS GOING ANYWHERE. It was just fan conversation.

But it brings up a very interesting point.

I created Eaglemaniacal.com so that fans could BE HEARD. I’m not a journalist, I’m just a regular fan. But I got HEARD, didn’t I? You too can get heard. In fact, Dammit you SHOULD get heard!

Write something on here. Make it story about your favorite Eagles moment, or your favorite player. Or about the time you met________. Or about why you love tailgating, or your favorite tailgating spot. Make it about the sports bar where you watch the games, or that drink you invented (It’s called a Joe Banner: 3parts vodka, 1 part Kool-Aid.) Make it about anything. Just make sure we all hear YOU. 

NEXT TO GO: LESEAN MCCOY?!

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/03
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), Players. 6 Comments
Image courtesy of Zimbio.com

Image courtesy of Zimbio.com

ACCORDING to 6abc’s Jamie Apody (3/28/14) though the Eagles won’t issue a public statement regarding DeSean Jackson’s release, they basically had some issues with his character. Here’s a direct quote from Apody:

“Jackson happens to be one of the team’s highest paid players and they want their highest paid guys to be stewards of the Philadelphia Eagles and represent what they’re all about. The higher ups in the organization were concerned he was not representing them well and that it was increasingly getting worse.” 

When I read this I couldn’t help but think of LeSean McCoy. Does anyone else recall last year when he doused a woman with a drink and tossed her off a bus in the middle of Pigfuck, New Jersey? Is that what a steward looks like?

Then again, Riley Cooper got $25,000,000 for calling people niggers.

And Jason Peters did get a new deal after being arrested for leading cops on a high speed chase.

Stewards? But of course!

When you get right down to it, Jackson was cut because he was a vastly overpaid, one-trick pony, whose contract threatened the long-term stability of the franchise. But instead of manning up and admitting that he made a huge mistake awarding Jackson that deal,  Howie Roseman and company are trying to make this an issue of character.

Because you know…Stewards.

At least until it’s time to move another large contract off the books. Then there will be a need for a new scapegoat. Another sacrificial lamb. Another trusting player who’ll be a deer in headlights. (Wow. We’re really awful to ruminants, aren’t we?)

Meanwhile in the next 3 years Shady is due 11, 8, and 7 million respectively, at what is currently the sport’s most undervalued position.

So when Shady gets run out of here (a la Reggie, Randall, T.O., McNabb, Dawkins, and Jackson), what do you think it’ll be? They just did “gang”, and they played that “player didn’t call us back” card with Reggie and Dawk already. My guess is since it won’t be a contract year it’ll be something new. Maybe something with midgets…..

THE 12th MAN IN THE MIRROR

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/04/02
Posted in: Offense, Players. 2 Comments

0: nofear

NOT sure why everyone wants to talk about a guy who isn’t here anymore. Seems a little disrespectful to the guys who’ll actually be putting their bodies on the line in Eagles uniforms.

No disrespect intended to those who’ve come before, but shouldn’t  it be the future we want to talk about? That and the players now responsible for fulfilling the dream? Maybe they deserve to be on our minds a little more. Maybe it should be those players we’re discussing so passionately.

I mean, they do inspire the fans don’t they? The fan base does Trust Chip, right?

If so, then act like it. Don’t say it, show it. Not to me. Not to each other. Just show it.

Don’t talk big, BE big. Because our future, is now.

JASON AVANT AND ME

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/03/31
Posted in: Conversations, Crazy Talk. Tagged: . Leave a comment
Image courtesy of Arrowheadaddict.com

Image courtesy of Arrowheadaddict.com

JASON Avant and I were sitting down at Penn’s Landing eating walnuts, with our feet in the water, enjoying the warmth of late spring/early summer. George Washington was leaning out of his kayak, yelling about the boat traffic on the Delaware, how he had a war to get to, and how “ain’t nobody got time fo’ dis!”

I told Jason that the Eagles had released DeSean Jackson. He started to nod, then he looked at me and said “Released? You mean traded, right?” I shook my head “Naw. Just released. They only want players of high character.”

Jason stared at me for what was the most uncomfortable three or four seconds of my life. I was almost certain he was going to swing on me. Understand I’m no punk, but no one wants to be the guy who drowned when Jason Avant knocked him into the Delaware. I tensed up, because no one wants to be the guy who swung on Jason Avant for no reason. When he finally spoke, I flinched.

“So they’re into character now?!” He asked with his eyes as wide as eggs.

What was I supposed to tell him? I looked around for inspiration and saw George and a 6-foot squirrel in a canoe, trying to hit each other with their paddles. Kanye West urged them on, screaming into a megaphone “Yes! This is how it ends! This is how it all goes down!”

“They won’t have any luck for this” Jason said and bit into a walnut. He was himself again but something had changed the moment. There was a chill to the warm air now, and I remembered that I don’t really like walnuts. Suddenly it seemed silly to be biting them through the shell. Slowly the seagulls became an alarm clock, and it became obvious that I’d been dreaming.

Funny thing. Hours later and awake, I just can’t shake Jason’s words.

They won’t have any luck for this.

HEIGHTENED AGGRAVATION.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/03/30
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

JeerEaglefan

COME with me,

And you’ll be

In a state of heightened aggravation….

 

michaelbolton.slate

I love the Eagles team, but I detest the Eagles organization. I enjoy the football. The memories. High-fiving strangers who only needed a green shirt to become family. Being able to go anywhere and shout “E-A-G-L-E-S!” and have others stop to join in, and help me finish. I love that part.

What I hate is this constant manipulation of us. The way their “reporters” feed us only the angles that make the organization look good, even though the parts they leave out are readily available from outside sources. It’s one thing to be lied to. It’s another thing entirely to have the one who’s lying know that you’re aware of it, yet continuing to do it while smiling in your face.

This latest debacle just had us giving away a (vastly overpaid) Pro Bowl WR. So far there is no official reason for it. Just a kindergarten level smear campaign of leaked bi-level information that on one level is decidedly false; and on the other level would be just as damaging to the Eagles if it were true.

But if you go to THEIR website, all you’ll see is what a perfect place Duloc is.

And that’s why I created THIS website.

Look around and you’ll see me hyping my team, trumpeting good news, and trying to see the bright side of some situations. But when something stinks, expect to see it here. Because you deserve real information. Your loyalty buys you that. And if the Eagles media won’t give it to you, know that in this place you’ll always find it.

I started Eaglemaniacal.com for Eagles FANS. For you. That’s why I made it where you can write on it. It’s why I’m always asking your opinion. It’s why I take it to Facebook, and Google+, and other social media and blogs. It’s why our neighborhoods are the backdrops for it.

I’ve always taken it personally and spoken up when they do this to fans, but now I can BE HEARD as something other than just one tiny voice on a message board.

And now you can too.