EAGLES FANS! QUIT WHINING!

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/04
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFC East, playoffs, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

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TOUGH guys don’t whine. If you’re one of these jersey burning types, who declared the season over well before it is, then listen up: Stop talking about how tough you are, how bleed green you are, and how you love your team regardless. Honestly, some of you pussies are downright fucking embarrassing.

The media feeds on negativity and so they pump it. They promote it. Controversy sells papers and generates clicks, and some of you just feed right into it. Our team is struggling as it is. Do we REALLY need to kick them when they’re down? Is that how you learned how to be fan. Bail when it’s not rosy? Quit because the road isn’t smooth. 

Is that the sort of blood that you come from?

I’m going to slam some truth down, hard enough to break your fucking dining room table. If the Redskins fans can talk about still having a chance, YOU bailing now is a direct indicator of how yellow your spine is. The only quitter I see, is in your mirror. The Eagles aren’t done until they’re actually, MATHEMATICALLY, done.

As for now, we aren’t done. 

Whole season

The Eagles still need our cheers and positive reinforcement. Athletes lie and say that they don’t read articles, or listen to call-in shows, or things of that nature. And the second that the shit hits the fan, those same athletes say that they have to block all that out. How can they block out what they were already ignoring? Simple. They were never ignoring it.

My point is that they hear us. They hear us on WIP radio. They hear us on Twitter. They hear us when we catch babies at the scene of a fire. They overhear you when they’re out shopping, or eating. They see what gets said about them on shows like ‘Quick Slants’ (Right, Brandon Graham?) They hear me when they come to this blog. (And they do.)

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So if they hear us, then how about we say some shit to INSPIRE them? When you inspire people you get more out of them, than when you shit on their name. Why spend 7 months missing football, only to quit on the season early? Who does that?? Don’t reserve being a fan for game-time only. Quit whining and get to barking. Get to howling.

Remember those dog masks and how much I hated them, because we weren’t really underdogs in 2017? Well NOW we’re honest to god underdogs. Care to buy a mask? Do you have it in you to root for a REAL underdog? If you feel like I’m calling you out, it’s because I am.

Let’s see who the tough, bleed green fans REALLY are.

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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK13 – DOLPHINS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/03
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

(Disclaimer: I did not see the 4th quarter. I was stuck on 676, and then the 30th Street Station exit, trying to get a loved one to their bus back to D.C. )

DISCLAIMER aside, I saw quite enough during the three quarters that I did see. I saw a Defense that still can’t cover legit deep threats. I saw a Defense that still doesn’t think it needs to make adjustments. I saw our Defense get SHELLED by two players essentially playing catch all day.

There was a point this year, where we won games if the Offense could score 30+ points. Now we’re at a point where even 31 points isn’t enough against a team like the Dolphins. The longer DC Jim Schwartz is in Philadelphia, the further we will get from ever seeing another deep playoff run.

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This is what happens when you don’t re-route a WR early in the play.

Eagles 31 – Dolphins 37

I don’t want to hear people blaming QB Carson Wentz (28/46 – 60.8% – 310 – 3 – 1) for this mess. He was by no means awesome, but he was the main reason we scored 31 points. WR’s Alshon Jeffery (9 – 137 – 15.2 – 1) and Nelson Agholor (3 – 41 – 13.6 – 0) did what was expected of them and reminded us of what we’ve lacked, for the last two weeks.

We also got a solid effort from RB Miles Sanders (17 – 83 – 4.8 – 0 – 0 / 5 – 22 – 4.4 – 1) who had a very Brian Westbrook sort of day. He was productive both with and without the football. However, you could still feel the absence of RB Jordan Howard. We haven’t won since he left the line-up.

The Defense thinking that the game opening interception was enough, packed up and went to the beach after the opening drive. Jim Schwartz wasn’t so much out-coached, as he was more shown that his scheme is an obsolete, propped up gimmick, that even bad teams can beat, because it’s more philosophy than well thought out concept.

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

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Alshon wills his way into the endzone. We need him back in 2020. 

1) Show up and show out: The Offense showed up. Alshon reminded people that when he’s not gimpy, he’s still very much a problem. Agholor showed us a little of what he can do with the ball in his hands. Sanders displayed a promising amount of poise and stability for this Offense today. My hat is off to those guys and those efforts.
By and large though, everyone else either did their job merely adequately, or didn’t show up at all. (NOT DONE)

2) Shut down the pass: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! (NOT DONE)

3) Show ‘em something new: Wentz threw a checkdown TD, and the staff got him out on more bootlegs this week. Aside from that, we more or less ran the same stuff we always run. (NOT DONE)

4) 1-2-3 THROW!: Wentz didn’t hold the ball too long for the most part. I was most impressed by an early throw to WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside (1 – 15 – 15.0 – 1) that fell incomplete because JJAW didn’t get open soon enough. Wentz put the ball on him anyway, and that sort of said to the kid “Get your ass open early.” (DONE)

That brings our Four Things score for the week to 1 of 4, and the yearly tally to 23 of 48. Next week the giants visit the Linc, and I can’t wait to see what sort of weird, trick play, touchdown we get beat for in that one! (My money is on a Sweep and lateral to the Center.)

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World’s. Easiest. Touchdown.

On The Whole:

Let’s not insult our own intelligence on this. There is no way a team like the Dolphins should score 37 points. Anyone looking beyond that, is trying to ignore a fire in their lap.

The Eagles lost because our Defense can’t stop the pass. Not couldn’t, as in “just this game”. Can’t, as in “this has been an ongoing problem for three years now”.

I keep writing paragraphs and cutting them out, because they’re less about this game and more about the over-arching problem here. I’m left stunned that the problem was so simple, and yet no one could figure out a way to counter it.

FOUR THINGS – WK 13 – EAGLES – DOLPHINS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/29
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WK13-MIA

I know my NFC East rivals better than most of their fans do. (Not all, but certainly most.) However, I’m less familiar with the AFC East. So, in order to be able to know what to attack, I naturally went looking the Dolphins up. Stats, schedules, o-line first steps, defensive fronts, etc.

OH MY GOD! This team is awful! I don’t know how their head coach is surviving from week to week. I don’t mean from being fired. I mean from fans murdering him in the street! If Head Coach Doug Pederson did to the Eagles what Brian Flores is doing with the Dolphins, we’d need a prison cell that could hold 2 million people.

(Maybe we could put it in the Linc’s basement?)

This is the most important game of the year. If we win, next week will be the most important game of the year. We need these five games, but for the following week to matter, we need to take care of business in the week where we are. That said, don’t let people overstate the stakes of this game.

VALID POINT

Understand, you’re going to hear the term “playoffs mode” get over used and over, from now until January. Don’t fall for it. Playoffs is win or go home. This isn’t that. This is win FIVE and we own the East. Guaranteed. Iron-clad. Period.

And even a stumble might not kill us, if the Cowboys drop another game. (Or two.) So don’t give yourself an ulcer. We aren’t in playoffs mode yet.

Yet.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the Dolphins:

1) Show up and show out: This is the most important key. It’s almost worth three of these Four Things. The Defense has played lights out the last few weeks against top opposition. They’ve been carrying the Offense almost as well as the Offense carried the Defense, earlier this year. What we need is for each man to pull his own weight, and not need carrying by anyone else.

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2017 Eagles Offense.

Professional blockers need to block like professionals. The professional thrower needs to throw like a professional. Pro catchers…Catch the fucking BALL, will ya? Football is blocking, tackling, and doing your job. The Eagles players TO A MAN, need to show up and do their jobs.

2) Shut down the pass: The Dolphins leading rusher averages 1.9 yards per carry. Read that again. So they probably won’t lean on the run. Just a hunch.

At QB they have Ryan “FitzMagic” Fitzpatrick. While he likes to share the football with opponents, he also likes to air it out, and has a knack for stringing together big plays when he gets hot.

Fortunately for us, the Dolphins like to share their QB with opponents. Of course in order to get to him, we have to make sure we keep WR DeVante Parker covered for at least a few seconds. Parker has been heating up recently, so covering him may prove to be more interesting than we’d like it to be, or than the past indicates that it should be.

3) Show ‘em something new: Seahawk LB KJ Wright said of the Eagles offense that they knew the Eagles plays before the ball was snapped. Surely the Dolphins have access to game film, same as any other NFL team. They could study it just like anyone else. No sense in tipping our hand to a bad team, right? So mix in some new plays, this week. Or better still, mix in just a couple of new plays that look and key, like old ones.

4) 1-2-3 THROW!: QB Carson Wentz needs to stop holding the ball for so long. It’s doing us TWO disservices. One which everyone talks about endlessly, and a second that never gets mentioned, but hurts us worse each week.

2019 wentz collapsing pocket

The first thing is, that it creates sacks and sack/fumbles for opponents. While we all know that it comes from Carson wanting to create big plays, it’s clear that we don’t have the firepower for him to try to force the issue so often.

The second thing is, when he holds the ball, it builds in our receivers heads that they can take 5 or 6 seconds to get open. Carson needs them to win early, and in order to communicate that, a couple of passes have to hit them before they’re ready. Carson has to put it on tape that the ball is on time, the receiver is just late. Lots of bad tape can hurt a guy come contract time. So I’m sure the receivers will figure it out.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

The Eagles are going to play with their food. This is an opponent we should overwhelm easily, but the Eagles have clear issues with offensive confidence right now. Leaning on the run early and often, would settle the Eagles down, and likely produce a first drive score, but we won’t do that.

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We’re going to be cute and throw more TE Screens, TE outs, and Wheel routes to RB Miles Sanders. WR Alshon Jeffery just being on the field, will allow for TE Zach Ertz to go from a guy who just catches a lot of passes, back to a guy that hurts opponents in critical situations.

Fitzpatrick will either light us up, or throw us a touchdown. He tends to have a couple of really good weeks, before the carriage turns back into a pumpkin, and the horses turn back into rats. For the last three weeks he’s played better than his numbers indicate. So he’s about due for another implosion, with a big play or two sprinkled in there.

Also, since we’ve fallen for it two straight weeks, expect a trick play where a WR throws the ball. Until we stop it, teams will treat us like chumps with this.

For the first half of the game, expect some offensive lethargy. Hell! We may even be down at the half. Don’t sweat it though. The Dolphins defense can’t stop anybody. Once we figure that out, we’ll be able to finish this team off.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 26 – Dolphins 17

yeah-bitch

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK12 – SEAHAWKS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, playoffs, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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THIS was yet another weird one. We did most of the Four Things, and still lost badly. Make no mistake, this was a bad loss. The score was close, but the game never felt like it was.

There are going to be people who want to blame our QB. If you want to do that, stop reading NOW. This article will discuss what actually happened in this game. There will be no knee-jerk over-emotionalizing,or revisionist history here. I want to see my team improve. I never look to shit on them, just because a loss was frustrating.

Eagles 9 – Seahawks 17

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This wasn’t a good game by QB Carson Wentz (33/45 – 73.3% – 256 – 1 – 2). That said, his two most reliable WR’s today, were WR Greg Ward (6 – 40 – 6.6 – 0) and WR Jordan Matthews (3 – 27 – 9.0 – 0). So let’s not pretend Wentz is somehow an awful QB all of a sudden.

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Last week Ward was on the Practice Squad, and three weeks ago Matthews was home on his couch, watching the Eagles. Well Matthews started today. Yeah, you heard me. Started. Only the world’s most ignorant fan looks at that sentence and says “So?” Everyone else gets that timing has to be ironed out, and the playbook still needs to be digested.

While Wentz was off target a few times today, so was QB Russell Wilson (13/25 – 52.0% – 200 – 1 – 1), as the gusting wind affected both passers, costing each team a possible TD. The biggest difference between the two, was that Wentz lost two fumbles to Wilson’s one. Wentz was also credited with a fumble that hit RB Miles Sanders (12 – 63 – 5.2 – 0 – 0) directly in the bread basket.

The Defense was stellar yet again. We collected 6 sacks on Wilson

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and for most of the game, it took a trick play to yield the game’s only TD. SS Malcolm Jenkins (2 – 2.0 – 0 – 0) and FS Rod McLeod (3 – 1.0 – 1 – 1) , both nabbed sacks. McLeod also added a forced fumble and a pick.

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

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1) Hit QB Russell Wilson: We got 6 sacks of this guy. WOW. Didn’t see that coming. However, since we got back CB Jalen Mills (5 – 0 – 0 – 0) DC Jim Schwartz has been letting our CB’s play a lot more physically. (Makes you almost wonder what could have been if that were the case back before the Offense was injured.) In any case we hit Wilson and combined with the wind, forced him into a pretty pedestrian day. (DONE)

2) Stay in-line: Rookie LEFT TACKLE Andre Dillard was pressed into starting at RT and naturally struggled. Even with TE help. Eventually he was benched in favor of OT Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who should have gotten this weeks reps and started, in the first place.
In any case, we gave a lot of TE help to the RT position. Even played some Jumbo package. The notion that Vaitai couldn’t block long enough to sell Screens passes, tells you how badly we missed RT Lane Johnson (concussion). Still, we did consistently provide the help (DONE)

3) Use play-action to create space: We did plenty of this in the first half. We did almost none once the score was 17 – 3 , but who would we have been fooling? When the game was in contention, we stuck with play-action pretty well.

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I wasn’t a fan of the routes selected in the play-calling. TE Zach Ertz (12 – 91 – 7.5 – 1) was often double and even triple covered. It seemed to me that there should have been a few Slant and Sluggo routes dialed up in the second half. If only to take advantage of the spacing, or shake them out of those doubles. (DONE)

4) Don’t clutch Agholor: We didn’t lean on WR Nelson Agholor on third and fourth down this week. Which is good since he wasn’t in uniform this week. This game allowed him to either sit back and beat himself up over his drops, or gives him a bird’s-eye view that the problems in this Offense, and at his position, are not just him.

We have to get him out of his head a little bit. He almost certainly won’t be back in 2020, but for the remainder of 2019, he IS here. He IS an Eagle. So we need him up and functional, if we’re serious about a playoff push. (NOT APPLICABLE)

This week’s Four Things score is 3 for 4, bringing our season total to 22 of 44. The good news is, fundamentally we were pointed in the right direction. The bad news is, we simply haven’t had the weapons. Tough break, but it is what it is. With a little luck we’ll better armed, and will keep our vision next week against the Dolphins.

On The Whole:

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There were a few things that irritated me about this game. One of which was the previously mentioned lack of adjustments off of Ertz being covered by sometimes three Seahawks players. Why was no one else open? And why did it take so long or Wentz to throw a ball down the sideline to a WR (Arcega-Whiteside)?

There were also instances of guys just standing around. On one play, both of our TE’s lined up on the right, ran short routes right near each other (ugh), and then they just sort of…stopped. No scramble drill, no extending the route. They just mostly stood there. Like they were waiting for a bus! Another was a run by Miles Sanders that saw Arcega-Whiteside standing and watching him be tackled by three Seahawks. No block. No pushing the pile. Just spectating.

This isn’t just one guy. A pervasive lack of effort speaks to a coaching issue. It speaks to why C Jason Kelce has become so inconsistent. It speaks to why it took back-up G Matt Tobin to finally get a block that put a man on his ass. (It speaks to why Agholor didn’t lay out for a pass a few weeks ago.) It speaks to why Wentz feels like he has to do it all on his own.

This game had a lot to do with not having weapons, but there are also a few things that need to be tidied up, if we’re going to make any noise in the playoffs.

WHHHHHA??? Did I just predict this loss, and still say playoffs? challenge_accepted

Yes. I did. Stay tuned. Stay dialed in. See you back here, soon.

FOUR THINGS – WK 12 – EAGLES – SEAHAWKS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/21
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

Note: Normally I like to get these out on Wednesday, but I held out an extra day to see if there was any news on Jordan Howard or Alshon Jeffery, only to now find that Nelson Agholor is also up in the air.
As they say: When it rains…it shits all over the bride’s dress.)

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USUALLY in Four Things, I go the Chuck Woolery route of “Two and two”, with two Offensive keys, and two Defensive keys. This week I’m going Offense heavy because that’s the part that needs the help. I know, I know. “We lack speed!” “DeSean’s hurt! Scrap 2019, and trade Carson for Foles!!”

UGH!!! Quit panicking. There IS a solve for our problems with the players we have on the roster TODAY. I’m about to make so much sense, that it’ll make you think that our coaching staff is full-on retarded. Not “mentally challenged”. Retarded.

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Beating New England last week wasn’t really expected by anyone besides me. Then again my analysis, my writing last week’s FT, and releasing it were all prior to finding out that WR Alshon Jeffrey and RB Jordan Howard were both shelved for the game. It was so close that it’s hard for me to buy us losing, if even one of them had played.

My point is, that I expected a narrative change on Monday morning. We lost so it didn’t happen. Now I doubt we’d get that with a victory over Seattle. This is one of those games where a win is just a win. A loss will have Eagles fans jumping out of windows, but a win… There isn’t the sense that it’d shift our narrative.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus… :

1) Hit QB Russell Wilson: This is the only defensive key needed. Wilson is the beating heart (meal ticket) of the entire Seattle franchise. He’s why any of it works. (He’s also what holds it back.) So we need to wreck their game plan by menacing their QB.

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I’m NOT saying to deliberately hurt him or play dirty. I am saying that early in the game, we need to send Seattle’s coaching staff the message that, they might want to let QB Geno Smith finish this one. They won’t pull Wilson of course, but with playoff aspirations, they may drastically alter what they call for him. Just to limit his risk exposure.

2) Stay in-line: With RT Lane Johnson is concussion protocol, it looks like OT Halapoulivaati Vaitai will start in his place. Vaitai is decent with blocker head-up, but he struggles mightily with fast and/or agile pass rushers.

The solution is hella easy. Help Vaitai with an in-line TE, or a TE lined up close to Vaitai’s hip, to create an “alley”. A chip from the TE on his release will be enough to slow the rusher and give Vaitai a chance to get his hands on the guy. This only gets easier to do if used in conjunction with #3. Scroll down.

3) Use play-action to create space: We can run the ball. It’s already credible threat. We hardly have to sell it. Why not feed off of that?

So use play-action to get the receivers open on quick hitters. By quick hitter, I don’t mean lame 1 and 4 yard routes. None of that! Unless we’re running a Screen, this week there shouldn’t be a pass in the air for less than six yards.

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Carson Wentz’s first NFL touchdown pass. 

The routes need to be 7, 8, and 9 yards, with a designated man to graduate to a “GO” in case a favorable Safety look presents itself. Those shorter planned routes, are to get the receiver mentally set to catch early into the route. Shorter routes are also to get Carson to get rid of the ball sooner, and act as natural “hot” routes in case of a blitz. Just identify the possible blitzer and put the ball in his vacated zone.

4) Don’t clutch Agholor: For the remainder of the year, unless the game is a runaway,WR Nelson Agholor  needs to be an almost exclusively 1st and 2nd down receiver, who sits on later downs. 

He’s absolutely a difference maker with the ball in his hands. The problem however, is his hands. He’s a talented athlete, his hands just aren’t clutch.

At the outset of this year Agholor was cast as a third receiver. Due to injuries, he’s now forced to act as our #1 WR. News flash, players don’t get more talented, just because guys above them got hurt. In fact, as you can see, we’ve gotten worse. He’s still a #3 option.

If Agholor plays this week, let him do what he’s good at. Create space around him, and get him the ball on early downs. Take away the mental pressure, and maybe get his confidence back. Help him get out of his head. You know? Like a coach. This receiving corp needs a confidence boost, and a decent showing here could jump-start that.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

The Eagles won’t do nearly as much play-action as they should, because hey, who wants to win, right? RB Jay Ajayi will see some work and provide some badly needed emotional spark to this Offense. Expect 150 yards from the TE’s, because who else does Wentz have?

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We’re going to spend a good deal of Sunday watching Russell Wilson re-enact the first chicken chasing scene in Rocky. Especially if DE Derek Barnett doesn’t do a better job of setting the edge.

The return of LB Nigel Bradham will make for an interesting dynamic up front, with LB Nate Gerry having called plays for the last few games. If they read the same thing, both may intuit what the other guy needs him to do.

In any case, the Eagles have less and less to work with, as the season goes on. Worse yet, Seattle is a team (one guy) that has had our number for a bit. With Howard and Jeffery, I’d call this a tight game. As we are now?

PREDICTION: EAGLES 16 – Seahawks 24

yeah-bitch

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK 11 – PATRIOTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/18
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Front Office (F.O.), NFC East, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

WINNING this game would have been a huge emotional boost to the roster. That said, let’s not pretend that this 7 point loss to the Patriots, is somehow a mark of shame.

Our #1 RB and #1 WR were both on the shelf this week. Our #2 WR is on IR. We signed two former Eagles off of their couches this week. And still we had a shot on the final drive.

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Eagles 10 – Patriots 17

First and foremost, we need to tip our caps to DC Jim Schwartz for calling a hell of game. There were actual downs when we played some man press. I almost cried. The result was holding a well oiled offense to 17 points. Here’s hoping that this weeks lessons are remembered next week.

Our WR’s caught 6 of 17 targets, although most of the incompletions to WR Jordan Matthews (1 – 6 – 6.0 – 0) were the result of QB Carson Wentz (20/40 – 214 – 50.0 – 1 – 0) sailing the ball too tall towards the sideline. Seems like someone was missing their Alshon. Speaking of Alshon, Wentz threw TE Zach Ertz (9 – 94 – 10.4 – 0) 11 passes. Over a quarter of his attempts, for nearly half of his completions. 

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Wentz did hit TE Dallas Goedert (3 – 36 – 12.0 – 1) with an absolute laser, for a 5 yard score to cap a 95 yard 1st quarter drive. Other than that drive, we spent the day dead in the water on Offense. Rookie RB Miles Sanders (11 – 38 – 3.4 – 0 – 0), teamed with reserve RB Boston Scott (7 – 26 – 3.7 – 0 – 0) to produce all of 64 yards on 18 handoffs (3.5ypc). RB Jay Ajayi never sniffed the field.

Wentz was sacked either five or five hundred times. It seemed when the protection wasn’t breaking down on him, he held the ball like a WR was supposed to walk up and ask him for it. (Maybe that would have worked better than them running routes.)

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

1) Use play-action bootlegs: Yeah, there was no attempt at this one. Head Coach Doug Pederson seemed to leave a lot of meat on the bone coaching this week, and this is one such aspect. Especially after LT Jason Peters had to exit the game. The scheme seemed to call for Carson to hang in the pocket like a side of beef. Here in Philly there’s an image that goes with that.

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(NOT DONE)

2) Get Brady to moonwalk: We did a brilliant job of this in the first half, and for most of the third quarter. Brady pretty much couldn’t step into his throws, and it forced them into resorting to a trick play for their only touchdown. (DONE)

3) Pry that clam open: We attacked the FS on the opening play of the game and attacked that area on the Goedert score. Otherwise we mostly threw Crossers, Outs and Curls. There wasn’t much challenging the Patriots downfield on the inside. Weird because that’s where you’d expect to see Jordan Matthews and the TE’s making their money this week. (NOT DONE)

4) Take care of the ball: Wentz lost the ball on a sack-fumble, but given the number of hits on him, especially after losing both OT’s, we did a decent job of protecting the ball. (DONE)

This week’s Four Things score is 2 of 4, bringing the season total to 19 of 40. We’ll need to be sharper than that vs a Seattle team that has had our number since Russell Wilson was drafted there.

On The Whole:

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Wentz at the presser, somehow not pleading for help.

Offensively we were a nightmare. When I put Four Things out last Wednesday, WR Alshon Jeffery and RB Jordan Howard had not yet been ruled out. While that list was compiled with them in mind, it wasn’t dependent on them. That said, I have no doubt that if one one or both of those players had played, it would have changed the end result.

While you may see me as the eternal optimist, I can’t help but point out three obvious and irrefutable truths here:

1) This may be a bad team from a personnel standpoint, but they are still a good team as far as sticking together. (i.e. not throwing each other under the bus.)

2) The Front Office is pushing for results, and thus setting a tone downstream.

3) The Eagles are still in the hunt for the division crown.

grabz

 

EAGLES ARE AFRAID TO SAY…

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Front Office (F.O.), Players, Rants, Rivals, Special Teams, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

INJURIES are now the norm. This is an issue that the Eagles have avoided discussing. Initially as a fan, I gave them the benefit of the doubt on this. However, now their lack of mentioning it, now feels too deliberate to ignore.

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Eagles players spend far too much time being unable to show up and do their jobs. If you missed time at work like Eagles players do, your job would be looking to replace you. One of the axioms of the NFL is “The greatest ability, is availability.” Well fellow fans, our team stacks up poorly in that department.

Understand, this is no way an indictment of our players. Nobody wants a torn this, ruptured that, or any of their muscles tearing away from a bone. Yet that’s what we have on this roster. Throughout this roster. Regardless of position or age. And it’s been going on for years now.

I understand Head Coach Doug Pederson’s loyalty to the coaches on his staff. He deserves the chance and reserves the right, to go to bat for his guys. However, not taking a hard look at a couple of coaches, may negatively affect the entire staff, when everyone gets shit-canned, due to annual and systemic under-delivery. It could also undercut young and promising careers, for coaches as well as players.

There could be an argument made that perhaps our Strength and Conditioning department is less than competent at keeping our players strong and in good condition. Then again what does a guy like me know about football conditioning? Especially vs a group of top experts.

Hey! Speaking of experts at the top of their field, did anyone notice that our Strength and Conditioning Coach is essentially a dietitian? Also his Assistant S&C Coach, is a big, fat, round guy? No really. That’s going on. Right now.

DT Timmy Jernigan and LB Nigel Bradham. WR DeSean Jackson and RB Darren Sproles. These are the guys in charge of making sure that those players are ready to go every week: 

S&C Coach Josh Hingst, and AS&C Coach Keith Gray:

The S&C coach for the Eagles, was the S&C assistant for a year in Jacksonville, before we brought him here. For four years before that, he essentially made smoothies and planned menus (2009-11 college, 2008 Atlanta Falcons.). There are literally more pictures on-line of his wedding, than there are of him coaching.

The assistant (not just strength, but conditioning) would probably die of a heart attack if he attempted to jog a lap with the players.

Our roster is now a reflection of a department that doesn’t pass the eye test, and then proceeds to fail every relevant test that follows that. It’s gotten so bad that it may now affect our playoff chances.

Something needs to be done. Is Pat Croce doing anything?

FOUR THINGS – WK 11 – EAGLES – PATRIOTS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/13
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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WHILE many Eagles fans are talking like the season is already over, I will be here until it actually is. For good or ill. Anybody looking for doom and gloom from these articles, will always come away disappointed. Generally my articles are written to cover subjects that the Eagles website won’t touch. Four Things however, is about discussing ways that we can win the upcoming game.

This is Philadelphia. We are the reason the name “Patriot” even has it’s American definition. We don’t quit. We don’t run. So chin up Eagles fans! Shoulders back and eyes front. There is much more rough road ahead us, but there are none better at making it smooth, than we.

Word around the campfire has it that the Patriots were embarrassed at being mushroom stamped on national television last week. Awww. They think, (get this) they think they’re just gonna waltz into the Linc, sign some autographs, and stroll out with our “W”. Problem is, we need that “W” to reclaim our division lead. Which means, we can’t let them have it. Translation: They’re shit out of luck.

Though New England has played almost exclusively bottom-feeders, they still boast a Top Three defense that’s 11th vs the run, and has 32 sacks so far. That means their players will come out playing with pride. With energy! With urgency!! All of which sets them up as the perfect, tailor-made mark, for this week’s caper.

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Here are the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus New England:

1) Use play-action bootlegs: We can turn their pass rushing strength into a liability, by having QB Carson Wentz fake a few bootlegs after a handoff, and then sprinkling in some real play-action bootlegs. (Every real bootleg we run, should be drawn-up as an Option play.) What we want, is for an opposing player to cheap shot Carson once, get flagged, and cause the defense to no longer trust their eyes for that first split-second of a play.

If we can cause New England to slow down a tick, in effect it speeds the Eagles up a tick. After which point, we let the pace of the game drown them. No need to do anything fancy. Just fuck them in the brain with some old timey bootleggin’. Right Joe? (That’s a Kennedy joke for us old folk.)

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2) Get Brady to moonwalk: QB Tom Brady never had the strongest arm, and today you can clearly see he’s lost something on his fastball. We can make that worse by making it hard for him to step into his throws. That’s were DT Fletcher Cox comes in.

New England’s RG Shaq Mason is coming off of an ankle injury. I’d lay money on his ankle not being up to a full day, of bull-rushing by Cox. Driving Mason backwards, drives Brady backwards, and doesn’t let him get as much on his throws. That increases our chances of getting to one or more of Brady’s passes. Or forcing him to run with the ball.

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3) Pry that clam open: To do that, we need to show that the left side of our passing attack has re-opened for business. Nothing crazy. Just a couple of early completions near the numbers. A Slant to WR Jordan Matthews (hopefully lined-up outside), and an Out route to whoever plays the Slot. Perhaps WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside? Maybe? Please?!

Once we staple their CB’s to the outsides, we can attack the Cover One/ Cover Three that NE likes to run. On the surface FS Devin McCourty is a guy to avoid. He has 5 picks in 9 games, but all against weak competition. (Including 1 in each game vs the Jets.)

New England has yet to face a TE anywhere near the talent level of TE’s Zach Ertz or Dallas Goedert. That’s a match-up we need to exploit. Work the play-action, freeze the SS underneath, and get balls 8 and 12 yards in the air to our TE’s down the middle. Isolate our 6’5 250 pound TE’s, one-on-one with their 5’10 195 pound FS, and see if they can break a couple of his tackles during the game.

Zach Ertz Dallas Goedert

4) Take care of the ball: This is common sense, but it’s also key to stopping this opponent. They come into Week 11 sporting a plus 17 turnover mark. Then again their dance card has included two games against the Jets, and games against the giants, Miami, Cleveland, Buffalo, Washington and Pittsburgh (when they were spiraling out of control during Week 1).

Given that their offense is neither explosive, nor powerful, we’ll be able to make them work for points. We just need to not give them any extra possessions with good field position.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

Jordan Matthews wasn’t brought here to be a decoy. How could he? He doesn’t have the resume for that. The reason he’s here, is to give Carson a comfort zone and let him feel confidence in using the the entire field again. That’s it. Nobody has ever doubted Matthews hands, nor his ability to get open, or find the end zone. The entire issue with Matthews has been his back. (Remember all the shots he took to his back, playing in the Slot for Chip Kelly?)

In order to create passes to the left, the Eagles have been moving WR Alshon Jeffery around more than ever. As a result, Carson’s attempts, AND EYES have been following Alshon. However, Carson’s comfort level with Matthews erases all of that immediately.

2019 Jordan Howard Khalil Mack

With the field stretching horizontally again, RB Jordan Howard will see more room inside. Howard has just one 20 yard run this year, but don’t be surprised to see one or two of those this week. While not having upgraded the “talent” around the QB, the QB has been vastly upgraded, because now he’ll be more relaxed.

Defensively is a harder read. Our Secondary hasn’t been good this year (or last year, or the year before that), but NE’s receivers are hardly worth losing sleep over. Given their QB’s diminished arm strength, and the constant harassment he should be under, we might be able to box this one up by the fourth quarter.

Be prepared for some tragic news though. An Eagles win will have people trampling each other, just to get on that bandwagon over there. Meanwhile we Eagles Phaithful will keep sipping our Wawa beverages, because we never stopped believing.

Seriously, when you get past all the “But they’re the Patriots” BS, it’s hard to imagine how they’d be able to win this game. The weapons just aren’t there, and this isn’t the AFC East, against whom they’ve already played 4 times for 4 of their 8 wins. Great QB or not, Tom Brady doesn’t cover receivers, and he damned sure doesn’t catch passes.

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PREDICTION: EAGLES 25 – Patriots 17

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THE RIVALS 2019 (PT 2 of 3)

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/09
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, Rivals, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN KIDDIES!!!

GENERALLY when I talk football, it’s about my Eagles. I tend to keep mum about our rivals, unless we have a game coming up against one of them. Otherwise, I’ve reserved most talk about them for my Pre-Draft Preview, which drops each April. (Look for it).

In 2017 however, I decided to try something new, and give our fan base a running commentary of what the division is doing around us. This ensures that Eagles fans ARE actually the best informed, and most knowledgeable fans, in the NFL. (Provided you visit this site often.) These updates will come out three times during the season: After Weeks 3, 9, and 15.

This is where we left off Part 1 

This is where things are today:

Washington Redskins: 1 – 8, 4th in the NFC East

There’s the basement, and then there’s being thrown into the Rancor pit. It took playing the Miami Dolphins to get this team a win. The Dolphins. The ones tanking publicly, and throwing out players like a desperate mother pitching her babies from a burning building. With 8 losses already, the Redskins ceiling is .500.

They’re ranked 31st in offense, only because the Jets are, well… the Jets. The bright spot of their season was that Week 6, 17-16 win over Miami. It was the last time they scored more than 9 points. (Perhaps for a long time.) Let’s take a look at their personnel.

In the backfield, starting QB Dwayne Haskins has an interception percentage of 9.1, and has yet to throw or run for a single touchdown.

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Methuselah is their starting RB, but he produces. Everyone behind him is trash. Just pure trash.

The ‘skins leading receiver is 200 yards ahead of the next closest guy on their roster, despite not catching for more than 40 yards in three weeks. Their second leading receiver doesn’t start, and hasn’t played a down in three weeks. The guy in third is a professional WR with 6 starts in the 9 games he’s played.

This offense isn’t just bad. It’s nuclear waste bad. It’s cancer risk bad. Right, Trent?

Defensively S Landon Collins is everything the giants hyped him up to be this offseason. (I know, I know. That was mean.)

All jokes aside, DE’s Jonathan Allen and Matt Ioaniddis come to wreck shit every week. I’d jump at the chance to see either of them in midnight green.

 

New York Giants: 2 – 7, 3rd in the NFC East

“YOU had dreams, of a Lear jet

But then it ended up, like Aliyah’s jet” – Loaded Lux

When QB Danny Jones took over an 0 – 2 team, in Week 3, giants fans were eager to see what the kid had. Then after two straight wins (over bottom feeders), you couldn’t tell giants fans anything. “Eli was holding the team back!” “We love Danny Dimes!” They were convinced that the team would battle back, and win the East this year.

Then, the worst thing that could happen to a breakout rookie, happened to Danny Dimes: Teams got some tape on him. PFFFT!!! Don’t look now, but if you compare Jones to deposed starter QB Eli Manning, they look a lot alike this year. So what? The giants still have RB Saquon Barkley. Right?

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Barkley is the worst kind of tease. He’s like watching partly scrambled, soft-core porn, on a “chipped” cable box. Just when you think you see somethiiing… NOPE! Nothing at all. Typical Saquon is 17 carries for 36 yards, and then 1 carry for 65. For that day it’s a 6.1 yard average, but it doesn’t reflect his actual average carry. And so the giants stall on drive, after drive, after drive. His deliveries often fall so short, that if he worked for the Post Office, most of the time you’d have to walk to the curb to get your mail.

As far as catching the ball, there’s TE Evan Engram! Did I mention that right now he has an injured foot and will miss at least Week 10. At least. Through nine weeks the leading WR for this team has 29 catches. I could go on, but it just keeps getting sadder. This isn’t me picking on the team. This is actually who they are. Look it up. If you root for this team you should already know this stuff.

Midway through the season and the giants two leading tacklers are their Safeties, with 65 and 67 stops. Safeties leading a team in tackles isn’t unusual, but 132 tackles this early in the year, indicates that teams are bypassing the LB level at an alarming rate. Especially when sporting a minus 10 takeaway figure, and surrendering 28 points per game.

This team not being in the basement, tells you just how awful the Redskins truly are.

 

Dallas Cowboys: 5 – 3, Top of the NFC East

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Boasting a Top 10 Defense, a Top 5 Offense, and an amazingly healthy roster, the Cowboys have ridden their good luck all the way to a staggering, one game lead in the division. Media pundits everywhere, say that QB Dak Prescott (15TD, 8INT) is finally playing his best football. Um, okay.

Accompanying the virtuoso passing, is RB Ezekiel Elliott. He had a 27 yard run in Week 2, and a 27 yard catch in Week 5. His longest plays of the year! He remains a player you have to watch for on every down, despite the fact that his explosive plays get less explosive, every season, for three straight seasons in a row. But who cares?! What he lacks in explosiveness, he’ll make up for in volume. In fact, he’s on pace for another 350 touch season, and is showing no ill-effects from that workload. Nor will he next year.

The catalyst to this whole thing is The Anointed One, WR Amari Cooper. Cooper leads the NFL in recep- Wait, that’s actually the Saints Michael Thomas. Well Cooper leads the league receiving yar- Hold on! No, that would also be Thomas. Okay, yards per catc- Nope! Chargers Mike Williams owns that. How ‘bout them touchd- Ooops! Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, and Detroit’s Kenny Golladay share that lead. So what’s all this Cooper talk about?

You know, when I step back, their offense doesn’t look quite as dominant as we keep being told it is by football pundits. Perhaps we should talk defense.

You can’t argue with 17 points allowed per game, and a plus one turnover margin. Those are either luck vs a couple of early winless opponents, or pretty good marks with such a weak pass rush They only have 22 sacks so far. That’s one ahead of the Redskins, tied with the giants, and two behind the Eagles.

All the media buzz aside, this looks like a pretty stoppable team to me. 

TRIVIA: During the 2019 season, only one NFL team allowed the Jets to score 24 points on them, while losing to them mano y Mono. Who was that team? (Hint: It was not the dreadfully awful Redskins. Then again the Jets and ‘skins don’t play until next week. So the Jets could hang 24 on them, but if they don’t, man, it’ll just make this trivia question so much more amusing.)

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So that’s the state of our division rivals as your Eagles head into Week 10

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FIXING OUR RECEIVER PROBLEM

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/11/05
Posted in: Conversations, Draft, Offense, Players, Rants, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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OUR struggling Secondary has almost become the stuff of legend, with many fans feeling that it’s the fault of the athletes, and not the harebrained, tea-dance, flag-football scheme that we run on Defense. Ask most Eagles fans what should we grab with our first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the answer you’ll hear most is: CORNERBACK.

CB Avonte Maddox is a gambler and a battler. CB Rasul Douglas is a ball-hawking, Screen sniffing machine. (He’s a bigger Sheldon Brown with much better hands.) As far as drawbacks, Douglas has issues with raw speed, and Maddox simply isn’t very tall.

In a Cover Two scheme, both of those deficiencies would be masked, and we’d end up with two excellent CB’s who not only cover well, but play the run well, and finish tackles. Hard to justify spending a high pick on one guy, when you could just swap out a shitty coach, and get a still under contract, two-fer for free.

Where our top pick should be spent, is on a WR. Actually, picking a top WR in 2020, would be making up for a move that’s already two years overdue. I said a couple years ago, that with Wentz as the Franchise, the Eagles should include him in their quest for the WR who will be the Rice to his Montana, or the Clayton to his Marino.

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As it stands today, the Eagles #1 WR is Alshon Jeffery.

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While all of Alshon’s traits scream top-shelf WR2, we use him as a WR1 because frankly, we don’t have better. Alshon (when healthy) is physical, confident, and fast enough to hurt a secondary down the sideline. What he isn’t is a vocal leader who commands the ball and inspires his QB to throw it to him, regardless of who is covering him.

While Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Chad Johnson type talent is rare, it is also not deniable. It is not containable. It is not team, scheme, nor QB dependent. Unfortunately, too often, the Eagles Offense is all of those things.

We need to stop piece-mealing the WR position, and to stop avoiding studs, as we instead hunt for steals. We spent on the QB. We added to the Offensive Line. We grabbed a great young TE. Even spent a high pick on a back-up RB. It’s high time that our QB got an outside weapon that put the NFL on notice.

That being said, we need to knock off this idiotic bullshit of getting ourselves a deep threat. When our SINGULAR deep threat gets hurt, we end up with 2018 and 2019.

Here’s a novel idea! Why not add more than on fast guy to the roster? Or better still a WR’s coach who can actually develop young players. Name the last WR the we drafted then groomed into a respectable starter. I’m thinking we’d have to go back to Jeremy Maclin. (Jackson was drafted a year prior.)

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Picture Carson with these two and Ertz. SHEEEESH!

So yeah. It’s time to drop some serious Draft capital on at least two players. Two sounds about right. After which, we should fire our current WR coach. Then we tell then new guy, that we want starters, if he doesn’t want WR coach to be his career’s dead-end.

More talent. Scared coaches. That’s how we fix our receiver problem.