FOUR THINGS – WK 6 – EAGLES – VIKINGS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/11
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Fans, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Preview, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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THIS is the beginning of an absolutely wicked road trip! I swear, it’s like one of the Eagles slept with the schedule maker’s wife. Hey, speaking of DT Fletcher Cox, QB Kirk Cousins might want to dust off his track shoes. His o-line isn’t the stoutest group of pass blockers, and Homewrecker was the only guy who didn’t eat last week.

This is probably the best team we’ll face until our Bye. That said, after a few days of peeking under their hood, this feels like a “W”. Not like we could win, but like we should win. Look, if I can come up with a game plan to beat Minny, then the Eagles coaching staff has surely already done so.

Unless I’m smarter than they are…

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The Eagles have a statement to make. We need to build up some conference cred, after a couple of early stumbles. A win this week, and we guarantee ourselves another week atop the NFC East.

Also, a loss this week practically invalidates last week’s annihilation of New York. Especially since the division rival right behind us, gets to rag-doll whatever we left of the Jets, this Sunday.

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

2019 Eagles D

1) Stop the run: The idea isn’t to stuff every run. We just need to make it so unreliable that it becomes a liability, and they abandon any real commitment to it. At that point we’ll have taken them out of their wheelhouse, and put them someplace uncomfortable. But how do we do that? What are the nuts and bolts?

Minny likes to give their backs a choice of a high-speed lane, and cutback lane. They do this by getting an extra blocker outside of their Tackles, which triggers defenses to over-pursue. The RB hangs back, reads it and, just picks a hole. The result is every RB on their roster, averaging 5.6 yards per carry or better.

So how do we bring down a charging bull?? We do it with two small, quick tweaks.

Step 1: Staying within our Wide Nine, we use a 4 – 3 Under front with our LB’s. Weakside, Middle and Strongside (WIL, MIKE, SAM).

WIDE NINE 4-3 UNDER

If that Slot WR is worrying you, don’t let it. FB C.J. Ham (yes, Fullback) has 3 starts, and TE Irv Smith has the other 2 so far. So our base Defense may be out there quite a bit until the Vikings scrap the run.

Step 2: Play contain outside of the Tackles, avoid engaging them, and take on the outside blockers, to either force runs back inside, or string them to the sideline.

4-3 UNDER VS MINNY

Again, Minnesota relies on their RB’s to read. That means they can’t hit holes immediately. That will help us trap them in the backfield, and force passing situations. Thus the game will be put in Kirk Cousins’s hands.

2) Protect the ball: Obvious right? For the Vikings this one has more meaning. In their 3 wins, they have forced at least one turnover. In their 2 losses, they don’t have a single one between them. This team needs their opponent to help them. So let’s not do that.

3) Go BIG:

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Three quarters of their secondary is the same one that WR Alshon Jeffery tormented in 2017. They have some tall DB’s, but they’re just tall. They lack the athleticism to play vs size. This would be a nice game to see rookie WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside emerge as a factor. If not, we still have this guy…

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4) Show fear: That is not a typo. We need to jump on this team, from coin toss to hand shake. We make them play from behind, and then we just keep hitting them.

Early on, we need to be a lioness, desperate to defend her cubs. Later, we need to be a lion ending the next generation of a rival male. At no point should we seem relaxed. Our fear. Our urgency, should be on open display.

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 Vikings are as desperate as we are. Their only two losses are divisional, so they are 3-2 and STILL in 4th place. They need this win. Probably more than we do. That means they will come out in their Sunday best, giving 110%, leaving it all out on the hackneyed cliché, yadda blah, and so forth.

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Would now be a shitty time to mention that all of their wins are against teams that have trouble scoring? The highest ranked offense they’ve beaten so far is 18th. We are not Atlanta, Oakland, or the giants. The Eagles are 7th in scoring. And that’s with a run game that we couldn’t count on half the time, and our top receivers injured.

The Vikings are a run reliant team, not a quick-strike team. They’ll make a ton of catches, because our CB’s play 20 yard cushions. Their QB will complete 700% of his passes, and he’ll roll up a lot of pointless yardage to pad his stats. However, once we take the run away, all they will have left, will be Kirk Cousins. And yes, Kirk. We DO like that.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – Vikings 17

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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK 5 – JETS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/07
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

GREAT win today, but let’s not go nuts celebrating it. It was just the Jets, being piloted by an inflatable QB.

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Most of what we were able to do on Defense today (10 sacks, 2 touchdowns) came by virtue of their inexperienced QB, not getting many reps this week. As a result, the poor guy was a wounded lamb, fed to a full-grown lion. He repeatedly held the ball as if he had called “spots” and was counting to 10. It was almost too sad to watch. Almost.

Tee-hee.

Meanwhile his coach seemed indifferent to offer him any help. The play-calling was horrid, as literally (no typo or exaggeration here) EVERY play in the 1st quarter was run through RB LeVeon Bell (15 – 43 – 2.8 – 0 – 0 / 7 – 45 – 6.4 – 0). No other Jet player touched the ball until the second quarter. The Jets pay actual money for this level of coaching.

EAGLES 31 – Jets 6

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The Defensive line FEASTED, with 8 sacks in this one. DE Brandon Graham (4 – 3 – 0 – 0) grabbed 3 sacks. Also getting a piece of the action were DE Derek Barnett (2 – 1 – 0 – 0), DT Hassan “Chop” Ridgeway (1 – 1 – 0 – 0), DE Vinny Curry (1 – 1 – 0 – 0), DE Josh Sweat (1 – 1 – 0 – 0) broke his cherry, and Dasheon Hall (1 – 1 – 0 – 0) showed some of that preseason flash. It was like a drop of blood in a piranha tank.

Again, we also scored twice. The first was on an interception in the 1st quarter by LB Nate Gerry (0 – 0 – 1 – 0) on a pass intended for Bell. The second was the play of the day. CB Orlando Scandrick (4 – 2 – 0 – 2) ran up to the Jets QB, and just took the ball from him. Just took it. Not like a big hit, just a straight-up “YOINK!”. Then he returned it 44 yards for that tasty treat. It was almost too sad to watch. Almost.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Scandrick was a Cowboy for 9 years. We signed him in the offseason, but he didn’t make our final roster. Because of injuries at CB, we signed him off of his couch this week, and he gets two sacks, two forced fumbles, a recovery, and a score. 

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On Offense, QB Carson Wentz (17/29 – 58.6% – 189 – 1 – 0) had it in cruise control yet again, as the Eagles functioned as a full team. That’s not to say that Wentz didn’t do some of his typical magic, but there was no need for a lot of it. TE Zach Ertz (5 – 57 – 11.4 – 1) found the end zone for the first time in 2019.

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) Show up: I literally said that if we didn’t get lost crossing the street to the stadium, we were 40% of the way to a victory. Well, we showed up. We were sloppy at points (C Jason Kelce’s bad snap, the muffed punt that either hit a foot or didn’t), but we showed up. (DONE)

2) No liberty for Bell: In regards to covering LeVeon Bell I said “We need to sit on and jump a couple of passes to him. Maybe we can get a defensive touchdown or two out of it.” Well kiss my grits, we got our first defensive touchdown doing just that. We also kept him, and thus the Jets offense, under wraps all day. (DONE)

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3) Run ‘em down: Heavy dose of RB Jordan Howard (13 – 62 – 4.7 – 1 – 0) delivered? He led us in rushes and rushing yards. CHECK. Other backs sprinkled in? 12 carries for 19 yards (yikes!) CHECK. Wentz’s jersey staying mostly clean? CHECK. (DONE)

4) Paint by numbers: We did nothing fancy. Aside from a 3rd and 1 where we threw an incompletion, which set up a 4th and 1, that we didn’t convert, we almost looked like a preseason team that was trying not to give too much away. Toward the end we even sat Carson and put LT Andre Dillard in for a few snaps. It was glorious. (DONE)

This week we put up a perfect 4 for 4, even though admittedly one of them was really low hanging fruit. That brings the season tally to 10 of 20. Next week we travel to Minnesota for the start of a three game road trip, that will remind everyone of why we want to set up home field advantage.

On The Whole:

We could have looked better. Aside from Jordan Howard, our RB’s were pretty ineffective running the ball. If getting off to fast starts is important to this Offense, HC Doug Pederson is going to have to stop trying to make a starter out of rookie RB Miles Sanders (9 – 15 – 1.6 – 0 – 0 / 4 – 49 – 12.2 – 0) who was hitting holes in this game with as much heart as Bernie Sanders.

Again, it seemed we weren’t trying to show much, and we may be getting WR DeSean Jackson back next week. So I’m not very concerned about the Offense.

My concern is with the Defense. The way we played today still allowed a “deer in the headlights” QB, to complete 57% of his passes, to a less than stellar receiving corps. Next week we get QB Kirk Cousins throwing to WR Adam Thielen. It would be nice to get one or two CB’s back by then.

In the meantime, because of this2019 two Ls

the Eagles appear to be atop the NFC East. At least according to the NFL Standings page. They may change it later, but for now it looks good to be up there. 

 

THE RIVALS 2019 (PT 1 of 3)

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/06
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFC East, Offense, Players, Reviews, Rivals, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN KIDDIES!!!

CHANGE MY MIND

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 edition had to wait until the edge of Week 5, because the Eagles had a short week last week. That meant cramming Four Things Reviewed (Lions), Four Things (Packers) and Four Things Reviewed (Packers) into a Monday to Friday window. After which came the Eagles Quarterly Report Part 1. So there just wasn’t time (with a day job), to fit in researching three teams, and writing about them. But now it’s done.

And of course it’s worth the wait. I am always, worth the wait. So let’s hit it.

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This is where things are today:

Washington Redskins: 0 – 4, 4th place in the NFC East

Which is worse, being 29th in scoring (16.5 ppg), or 31st in points allowed (29.5 ppg)? Unable to run (31st, 49.8 ypg) or unable to stop it (29th, 147.5 ypg)? Is it worse to be the prey, or the predator that takes 17 weeks to starve to death?

As I write this, QB Colt McCoy is getting set to start his first game of the 2019 season. This is after QB Case Keenum went 0 – 3, and then was yanked early in Week 4, for rookie QB Dwayne Haskins. Presumably to capture some of the “magic” that the giants had experienced benching starter a week earlier. The thing is, the giants rookie got a week to prep. Haskins came off the bench, cold. So yeah. They Redskin’d it up.

2019 Redskined

Haskins came out, and proceeded to prove everyone who’s ever doubted him, as being right on the money. His 17 attempt, 9 completion, 3 interception debut, had all the “magic” of a 16-wheeler, sliding on its side through an orphanage. Today the Redskins QB position sits in shambles. A perfect representation of their team as a whole.

New York giants: 2 – 2, 3rd place in the NFC East

Two weeks ago the giants were 0 – 2 behind QB Eli Manning, and the organization said “Fuck it! Put the kid in!” The kid, is rookie QB Danny Jones, whom we all mocked the giants for drafting in April. They gave him a week to prep. Eli got a week to play diplomat. It was a tasteful ceremony. Everybody hugged and had s’mores. The transition went smoothly. (Did you hear that Washington? Smoothly!)

The second Jones hit the field, BAM! the “Anybody But Eli” movement got an emotional lift. The giants (behind a stunning four touchdown debut from Jones), beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32 – 31, after the Bucs missed a field goal that would have iced the game. A week later, Jones would look a lot like Eli, and get his struggle face on, in a game against the lowly Redskins.

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This week they get a hungry Vikings team with a chip on their shoulder. It was different when the season was in the shitter, and the giants were just grooming a kid. Problem is, today 2 – 2 is just two games out of the division lead. Problem is, today there’s NFL tape on Jones. Problem is, today NYC will have expectations of and from the kid.

Throw the stats out the window. None of them mean diddly. The giants are a team in transition now. They are not who they were in Week 1. They’re trying to figure out who they are now. Unfortunately for the kid, there is no worse place, no less patient place on Earth, than New York for doing that.

Dallas Cowboys: 3 – 1, 1st in the NFC East

Had this report come out on time, this section would have been written very differently. Perhaps even deferentially. In light of that, I want to send a shout out to my friends, the New Orleans Saints… Good luck during the season, fellas. We’ll see you here. After our first round Bye.

Now to the Cowboys.

If your team has yet to win a game, the Cowboys are gonna smash that ass. They have hung no less than 31, that’s THIRTY ONE, points on every team they’ve beaten this year. If your team’s defense already can’t stop anyone, the Cowboys offense is a machine.

Until they finally beat someone who comes into a game against them, with a win, they’re basically the Tommy Gunn of the NFC.

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Paper Champion.

Three weeks in, there was serious talk about QB Rayne Dakota “Dak” Prescott, being the NFL MVP at season’s end. He was completing 156% of his passes, while throwing 18 touchdowns per game, with a passer rating of “Where do you want it?! Where do you want it?!” Those numbers are of course an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Cowboys fans were in Greasy Hooker Heaven.

People were talking about how Prescott’s price tag was just going up and up. Everyone was saying that Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones, was foolish for not rushing to get Prescott signed to long-term deal.

All the rumblings of Prescott needing RB Ezekiel Elliott to carry the Cowboys to win games, seemed to quiet down. Except, the entire time Prescott was playing well, so was Elliott. Until Week 4 when Elliott didn’t have a great game vs the Saints, and the burden was shifted to Prescott, who also had WR Amari Cooper playing in that game.

Suddenly all the excuses were gone. Elliott was playing, but he was struggling. They had a #1 WR. They had a Hall of Fame TE, in Jason Witten. They had their entire starting offensive line. They had a bookend DE. Good Lord, they even had a healthy Sean Lee! It was Prescott’s moment. His time to shine! 

Final score: 10 to 12. 

Saints.

And the Cowboys bandwagon…

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The MVP talk has suddenly gone stone silent, and those rumblings about Prescott have now re-started. The conversations around the Cowboys are suddenly very different. People want to see what happens this week against Green Bay before they say anything else. They likely sense what I’ve been saying the whole time.

Lean in. Close. Closer than that dammit! It’s a screen, I can’t bite you! 

Have you ever heard the term “overrated”? Inflated? Propped up? Paper Tiger? I’d been saying that for weeks now. No matter. A week ago, this section would have been written very differently. Perhaps even deferentially. But one game against a decent team, with a so-so back-up, and well…? Well here we are. 

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So that’s the state of our division rivals as your Eagles head into Week 5. The Eagles have their issues. There is absolutely no room for patting ourselves on the back. That said, this is still a wide open division. We’ll check back and see how things are shaking out after Week 9. (No short week for us then. That one will be on-time.)

FOUR THINGS – WK 5 – EAGLES-JETS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/04
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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THIS game has to be a win. After this game, we go on a three week road trip vs Minnesota, Dallas and Buffalo. All of those games are winnable, but stacking them as a triple-decker away game sandwich, makes a four week split seem acceptable, so long as we don’t lose the division game. Or to the Jets. Not the Jets. So yeah. This game has to be a win.

At stake this week is momentum. To come off of a thrilling win IN Green Bay, and then laying a turd vs the Jets…? That would kill not only our current momentum, but also make it harder to re-establish it later. This can’t be a trap game. We need it too badly for it to be a trap game.

We need defenders like SS Malcolm Jenkins and DE Brandon Graham to set the tone, by making big plays this week. We need TE Zach Ertz to make plays downfield to pull a LB out of the box and into coverage; and for RB Jordan Howard to churn out repeated 8 and 9 yard runs to pull a S into the box.

Like last week, this game can’t be all on QB Carson Wentz. We need a team effort here.

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

1) Show up: By ‘show up’ I don’t mean give an all-out effort. I’m literally saying, don’t get lost crossing the street from the NovaCare complex, to the Linc. The only thing that keeps the Jets from being the worst team in football, is the Dolphins. If the Eagles team can make it safely across Broad Street, and into the stadium walls, they will be 40% of the way through beating the Jets.

2) No liberty for Bell: The Jets already have enough trouble running the ball, and now they face the NFL’s 4th best run defense. So naturally they’ll want to throw the ball against THE WORST PASS DEFENSE IN PRO FOOTBALL. Problem is, they only one weapon and it’s RB Le’Veon Bell. As their second best receiver, the Jets will want to pass, and stow the game in their best player’s hands. We need to sit on, and then jump a couple of passes to him. Maybe we can get a defensive touchdown or two out if it.

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3) Run ‘em down: A heavy dose of RB Jordan Howard, with our other RB’s sprinkled in as complementary pieces should keep Carson Wentz’s jersey VERY clean.

4) Paint by numbers: This game should be about getting our fundamentals down, and working on our discipline. Run hard on 1st down. Use play-action on 2nd down. Spread out the defense on 3rd down. Just basic stuff. Nothing fancy.

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:

Look, we’re going to make the Jets QB look like an all-pro. That’s what we do. They’re going to score more than their standard 11 points per game. However, we’re going to run the ball and tire out their defense.

Controlling the clock will keep our defense fresher, and create sort of quicksand effect, where the harder the Jets struggle, the worse they perform. Don’t be surprised if their coach yells “Y’all killin’ me!!” at his players during this game.

Even those who probably hate Jets

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would say after this game, that if at first they don’t succeed, they should dust it off and try again. This however, is not their week.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – Jets 18

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2019 SEASON REVIEW: FIRST QUARTER

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/04
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Special Teams, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

SEASON Reviews are usually done at the end of the season. (Duh, right?) A few are done at the halfway mark, and/or at the end. Starting in 2017, Eaglemaniacal.com began treating the season like a game, and breaking it into four quarters. Since football is a hard sport, we’ll take a hard look at where our team stands at the moment (in relation to where it started), and where it needs to go next.

STATUS: 2 – 2 overall, 1 – 0 division, 2 – 2 conference, 2nd in the NFC East

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OPPONENTS:

W: Washington (0 – 4)

L: Atlanta (1 – 3)

L: Detroit (2 – 1 – 1 )

W: Green Bay (3 – 1)

Combined: 6 – 9 – 1

OVERVIEW:

(Written prior to Week 5 Thursday Night Football. Statistics indicate where were after Week 4.)

Despite injuries, drops, and slow starts, the Offense is still 7th in the NFL with 27.5 points per game. The problem is the Defense which allows 26.2 points per game. Only 6 teams allow more. As far as pass defense, we are DEAD LAST in the NFL, allowing 323.8 yards per game. We have allowed 27 points in three of our four games so far.

The season will be a disaster if this keeps up.

GRADES:

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QB: (A) Carson Wentz, despite drops, despite injuries to his receivers, despite having to stage a comeback in every game so far, despite all of these things, he has been nothing short of amazing. While many go by QBR stats and such, I’m old school. Wentz has 9 touchdown passes to just 2 interceptions. He also has rushed for a score, and has no fumbles, thus far. There is one small thing however. Wentz’s completion percentage so far this year is 60.7. However, he hasn’t completed 60% of his passes in any of the last three games.

RB: (C ) Rookie Miles Sanders leads the team in rushing attempts (45), but hasn’t been up to the task of being a starter. While his numbers get progressively better every week so far, he still has a tendency to come up small in key moments. Jordan Howard has been a beast when he gets the chance to play. He leads the team in rushing yardage (186), yards per run (4.6), and rushing touchdowns (3). Darren Sproles has been more effective as a runner, than as a receiver. Corey Clement has yet to record an offensive stat in 2019.

TE: (C ) Injuries both here, and to surrounding receivers, have limited the effectiveness of this position. Zach Ertz currently leads the team in receptions (24) and receiving yards (255), but his routes are less dynamic than they were a couple of seasons ago. He’s been less of a downfield threat since 2017. Dallas Goedert’s blocking and ability to make teams account for him in the passing game, is more than anyone can reasonably expect from a back-up.

2019 Alshon Jeffery scores

WR: (B) This grade is lower a week ago, but with everyone looking to be back, the grade raises. Alshon Jeffery is on no one’s highlight reel right now, but even gimpy, he’s still a redzone threat, as evinced by 3 touchdowns (1 rushing, 2 receiving) inside of 16 yards. DeSean Jackson (when healthy) has been even better than we remember him being. Granted, the two touchdown bombs he caught were only against the Redskins, but name the other receiver who’s done that this year. I’ll wait. Nelson Agholor is (as always), a mixed bag. While his 3 touchdown catches are not to be taken lightly, his drops and tendency to fall off the radar are alarming. Mack Hollins is a 4th receiver who looks like he could be a 3rd if he got to play more. I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the slot, challenging Safeties on fade routes, from 40 to 25 yards out.


OT: (A) Lane Johnson has been Lane Johnson. ‘nuff said. Jason Peters has also been Jason Peters. That means he’s great when he’s in, but he’s prone to miss time on the field. Rookie Andre Dillard got his first taste of real NFL action when Peters went down. And then Dillard went down. The sample we got was fine, but not enough to get a true sense of him. When Dillard went down, Halapoulivaati Vaitai stepped in and didn’t make me spurt profanities. When a team can go three deep at this position, and it doesn’t cause panic or get the QB murdered, you’re doing great.

OG: (B) QB sneaks have been insanely successful, which says the initial burst and channel positioning are flawless. Isaac Seumalo has looked especially good pulling to his right. It seems like Brandon Brooks is being used more conservatively. Everyone’s run blocks in space, could be a bit cleaner. Blocks in general could also stand to last a second longer. Falling off blocks is causing us to leave too many big plays on the table. Also, when Wentz drops back, it would be nice to see these guys cause the rush to flow to the outsides, to open up some clean 4 or 5 yard scramble lanes, right up the gut.

C: (B ) Again, sneaks look good. Interior seal blocks aren’t dominant, but are solid. There has been some spotty placement on a few shotgun snaps, but nothing has caused a sack yet. A key word is needed, to release Jason Kelce off of a double-team, and turn him into a personal bodyguard on up the gut scrambles. That could result in some spirit-crushing, red zone running from Wentz.

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DE: (D) Sacks are the currency that this position is judged by and as a group of six on the active roster (five who dress), there is currently one sack between them. One. As in uno. As in, half of dos. While all the blame for the lack of production isn’t on this unit, none of these guys has looked particularly fast chasing a QB outside of the pocket. Too often we aren’t making QB’s pay for that half a heartbeat, where they slow down to fire the ball, while on the move. Derek Barnett is also doing a terrible job of contain on mostly every down. He starts nearly every play trying to cross the face of the blocker. It opens too many lanes behind him for Screens and QB scrambles. DE Brandon Graham has played the run well, but he’s at zero sacks, a quarter into the year.

DT: (C ) Hassan Ridgeway and Akeem Spence are great depth guys, but with injuries to Malik Jackson and Tim Jernigan, Spence and Ridgeway have been asked to step up. The result is that it’s now Fletcher Cox and just some guys out there. Still, despite the constant double-teaming that would have been impossible with Jackson or Jernigan, Cox has managed to already knock down two passes. So he’s getting back there.

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OLB: (C ) Kamu Grugier-Hill is just coming back from injury. Nigel Bradham is the only other true player at this position. Bradham managed to seal aWeek 4 Eagles victory, with an interception in the end zone that would have allowed the Packers to take the lead and possibly win the game. They really aren’t schemed to do much besides occupy areas of the field.

MLB: (B) Zach Brown is doing an effective job as the thumper in the middle, and is also showing some skill in coverage. Nate Gerry is brought in to spell Brown, but he lacks the sand in his pants needed to be a genuine inside presence.

S: (D) It seems like the only player playing the position, is Rod McLeod. Unfortunately, he’s spending most of it in single-high coverage, in packages that allow for him to be pulled out of alignment, prior to the snap of the ball. Malcolm Jenkins and Andrew Sendejo, are essentially Nickel shadows, that work the underneath. While you won’t see them getting beat on long passes, they frequently don’t play deep enough to challenge those passes, or deliver kill-shots. This is another position that is not being schemed creatively.

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CB: (F) Yes. Injuries. We know. However, our back-ups have seen extensive playing time as a result, and so that injury excuse, no longer applies in 2019, the way it did in 2018. At this point we’re experts on being without our best players at this position. That said, it doesn’t matter who’s day to day, who’s on the PUP list, or who was just promoted from the Practice Squad. Due to our scheme, it doesn’t matter which player is out there, there’s still going to be a huge cushion that allows the opposing QB to get the ball out in under 3 seconds. That means no pass rush. That means allowing long drives. That means a tired front seven by the end of the third quarter.

LS: (A) Rick Lovato. Does his job well enough to seem invisible.

P: (A) If our Defense was worth half a damn, Cameron Johnston would be a a candidate for team MVP. Out of 14 punts, 8 have pinned the opponent down in inside the 20. This has been helping us quietly win the field position battle.

K: (A) Jake Elliott is 4 of 4 kicking field goals and 10 of 10 on extra points. What more could we ask?

PR/KR: (B) Hear ye! Hear ye! Royal Punt Return Fool, Darren Sproles is on a mission this year! His 3 fair catches and 6 returns, says that he’s being aggressive. His 9.3 yard average says, look for him to break one. Soon. Kick Returner Miles Sanders almost broke one in Envy Bay last week.

KC: (C ) Aside from that 100 yard kickoff, that was returned to the center of our collective asses vs the Lions, the kick coverage has been decent.

SINCE LAST QUARTER:

Since last quarter, we started a new season. We got healthy. We got deeper. We got hurt again… Injuries are part of football, so no excuses, please. That said, taking the same injuries, the same way, for the last three years, has gone from ironic, to frustrating, to fatalism.

Regardless. It is our job to overcome it.

MISSION FOR THIS QUARTER:

Suck less for success.

If you scroll down the list of pass defenses, the only thing lower than our name, is the careers and contact information for the NFL’s website. We need to bolster our pass coverage, so that the rest of the Defense can get back on line.

To finish above .500 by next quarter, we need to take 3 of the next 4 games. We start with the Jets coming here, but then we have Minnesota, Dallas, and Buffalo, all on the road.

A three game win streak would put us atop the NFC East, regardless of what our division rivals do. However, that won’t happen if we can’t get our act together vs the pass.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK 4 – PACKERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/28
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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THIS time we won. Yet again the defense allowed 27 points for the third time in just four games. Yet again the Secondary allowed the opposing QB to get passes off quickly, before our pass rush could apply consistent pressure. What? You thought this would be all rosy and complimentary?

This year we’ve won two shootouts in comeback fashion, and we’ve lost two shootouts in comeback fashion. The slow starts aren’t great, but at least our Offense gets started at some point. Our Defense still seems to be in New Orleans.

In any case, we won.

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EAGLES 34 – Packers 27

The story of the night was RB Jordan Howard (15 – 87 – 5.8 – 2 – 0 / 3 – 28 – 9.3 – 1). He finally got the workload fans and media types have been clamoring for, and he produced like gang-busters. Not only that, but RB Miles Sanders (11 – 72 – 6.5 – 0 – 0) used in a supporting role, not as the lead, had his best game so far as a pro. (FYI: his yards per carry has improved in every game so far.)

The running game being so effective, allowed QB Carson Wentz (16/27 – 59.2% – 160 – 3 – 0 / 6 – 13 – 2.1 – 0 – 0) to go unsacked. Not only that, but the even balance of pass attempts (27) and handoffs (27), saved some wear and tear on our triggerman’s arm.

One of the most pivotal points of the game was DE Derek Barnett (3 – 1 – 0 – 1) forcing a fumble on the games only sack. To this point he has not produced like a first round pick, and so it was nice to see him show up and make such an impact play in this game. OLB Nigel Bradham (4 – 0 – 1 – 0) has two passes hit him in the hands, but he made sure he caught the second one, which salted the game away.

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) Work the body to bring down the head: Boy did we ever! There were some outside running plays, but for the most part we ran mostly from Guard to Guard. When you do that, it takes the starch out of any interior pass rush. It also pulls that extra Safety within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage. Showing we can run inside now, sets the table for explosive plays later when WR DeSean Jackson comes back from injury. Hell, it helped WR Alshon Jeffery (3 – 38 – 12.6 – 1) almost make a few plays, despite still being a little gimpy. (DONE)

2) Don’t let Rodgers relax: Get QB Aaron Rodgers (34/53 – 64.1% – 422 – 2 – 1) moving to his left, to force him into his least deadly pass. That was the idea. We got right to that, on his first pass attempt, and we did a few more times in the game. A couple of times he just pulled it down for a 4 yard scramble. (DONE)

3) Generate two turnovers: Derek Barnett’s forced fumble, recovered by DE Brandon Graham (1 – 0 – 0 – 0) was the first. And of course, Nigel Bradham’s touchdown robbing, victory sealing, show-stopping interception in the end zone, was the second. (DONE)

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4) More 2nd down play-action: The Eagles seemed to run play-action on any down that wasn’t second down. We got away with that in this game, but really second down is the ideal time for that ploy. (NOT DONE)

That brings this weeks Four Things tally to 3 out of 4, and the season’s numbers to 6 of 16. Now we get 10 days to use as a sort of Bye week. Guys can get some treatment and maybe take a couple of days to get away, go see family, spend a couple days in pajamas… After which, we come back and get ready to build some momentum vs the Jets. Regardless of whether or not their diseased QB is back.

On The Whole:

Outside of me, not many people thought the Eagles could beat the “undefeated” Packers team. After looking at how the Packers came by their wins, it was clear that their record was less about them being good, and more about their opponents (Chicago, Minnesota, and Denver) owning the 29th, 31st, and 24th ranked passing offenses.

Details MATTER. Ignoring details is a recipe for having disasters, and repeating disasters. This is why I always say that context is important.

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As far as this win goes, the bad news is, our Secondary was exposed on national television. The good news is, most of the victimizing of the CB’s was with no Safety help in the Single-high look. The great news is, unless DC Jim Schwartz is retarded, this has to mean an uptick in Cover Two, Tampa Two coverages.

Help for our pass rush, might be on the way.

Side note: When the fans at the game were chanting “Troy sucks Buck!” why was there no mention of how classless those fans were? Had it been Philly or Buffalo, the announcers wouldn’t have hesitated to shit-talk the fans. 

FOUR THINGS – WK 4 – EAGLES-PACKERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/24
Posted in: Coaching, Crazy Talk, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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FOR the Eagles this is one of those ‘bad news/good news/great news’ things. The bad news is, this game will be the Packers third in a row at home, so they won’t have any travel fatigue. The good news is, the Packers also had a Sunday game, so they’ll also be coming off of a short week. (Sauce for the goose.) The great news is, rushing yardage, passing yardage, total yardage, or points per game, the Packers offensively rank no higher than 24th in any of those categories.

For the Packers the bad news is, unlike the first three weeks, they have to play against QB Carson Wentz, not a Draft bust, or an overpaid hack, or a has-been who’s winding his career down. The good news is, that they get to play at home again. The great news is, they seem to have found a defense. (Unless of course, their defense is just the result of playing poor offenses…)

Dear Eagles Faithful: A record of 1 – 2 can still become a record of 14 – 2. That’s not to say that the Eagles actually have 14 – 2 potential, but it is me saying, “Relax” (right Aaron?)

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We just came off of a couple close losses where injuries were a massive factor. We get a little healthier here, with TE Dallas Goedert being full go, and WR Alshon Jeffery not a 100%, but probably able to give us something.

So this season is far too young for panic. We’d need seven more losses to just to finish sub .500 and we’re clearly better than 7 more losses.

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

1) Work the body to bring down the head: Run the ball downhill, early. The Packers NT Kenny Clark is an active NT. His game is not one of anchoring, then eating space and absorbing blocks. That means we can get our G’s up to the second level on those 230 pound LB’s, gash out some big ol’ runs, and pull their SS into the box. Later in the game when their front seven is tired, Carson would be able to get plenty of time in the pocket to go deep off of play-action.

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2) Don’t let Rodgers relax: He’s a pretty good and fairly aggressive scrambler, so when I suggest getting him to run, it’s well considered. Bringing heat from his right, will force him to his left. He can make those throws, but they are among his least sharp passes. Also he tends to hold the ball longer in those instances, which gives us more time to lay tooth-rattling hits on him. (I said this same thing in 2016. In fact, I copy and pasted (then italicized) this from that edition. We didn’t do it in 2016, en route to a 13 – 27 loss. Let’s see if our HC has learned from that.)

3) Generate two turnovers: The Packers offense is sputtering and is hardly the model of efficiency. Now is the time to be opportunistic, and force errors on a team that is already uncomfortable with it’s performance so far. Besides, we can’t keep coughing up 26.0 per game and expect to win. Two or more turnovers should be enough to put down a team with a sputtering offense.

4) Lots of play-action on 2nd down: Let’s keep the pocket clean, keep Carson’s jersey clean, and buy an extra step for receivers to uncover early. Throw in a pump fake here and there, and deep shots will be there for the taking. (Just make sure we catch them.)

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:

DC Jim Schwartz will keep calling blitzes, instead of allowing our CB’s to play some man-press. HC Doug Pederson will keep running the ball with RB Wayne Gallman, instead of RB Jordan Howard. (FYI: Gallman is the back-up to RB Saquon Barkley. See what I did there? ) When these things happen I will finally become a version of Michael Douglas in ‘Falling Down’.

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Regardless, I think this is a game that the Eagles coaching staff doesn’t lose. In fact, unfortunately I think they win this one their way, almost in spite of all common wisdom. After we win, the coaching staff will think they’re right about ignoring what they keep hearing from us fans. And the media. And former players. And fortune cookies. Whatever. Just get us the “W”. We can resume the argument when we’re 2 – 2.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 27 – Packers 20

yeah-bitch

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK 3 – LIONS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/23
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

2019 kermit madness

AT one point the announcers described the Lions QB’s play today as “pedestrian”. The Lions by no means won this game. The Eagles lost it. Or more to the point, our coaching staff gave it away.

How does a rookie fumble twice on one drive, and still get multiple touches of the ball later? How do we not get a single sack vs a team with a banged up LT? How do we not run high efficiency routes with our back-up receivers, late in the game, so that our QB doesn’t have to hold the ball all day long?

The answer to all of these is, coaching decisions. It’s a decision, to keep playing a RB who right now seems like a change of pace guy, like he’s a starter. It’s a decision, to play defensive backs in soft coverage, which gives our pass rush no time to get to the passer. It’s a decision, to eschew teaching situational football, in favor of appearing to be aggressive. All of these decisions were made not by players, but by coaches.

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Eagles 24 – Lions 27

QB Carson Wentz (19/36 – 52.7% – 259 – 2 – 0) is absolved of any blame in this game. Let’s clear that up immediately. He had seven dropped passes in this game. SEVEN. For a second week in a row, he seemed like he was singlehandedly, trying to will the team past its shortcomings. He even ran for 33 yards on 4 carries (8.25ypc). RB Miles Sanders (13 – 53 – 4.0 – 0 – 2 / 2 – 73 – 36.5 – 0) led the team in both rushing and receiving yards, but put the ball on the ground twice in one drive, losing it the second time.

WR Nelson Agholor (8 – 50 – 6.2 – 2) also lost a fumble, on the drive immediately after Sanders’s. Both led to field goals. TE Zach Ertz (4 – 64 – 16.0 – 0) hasn’t been the same guy since WR Alshon Jeffery was hurt in Week 2. WR Mack Hollins (4 – 62 – 15.5 – 0) was flagged for offensive pass interference twice and nearly a third time on one of Agholor’s scores.

SS Malcolm Jenkins (3 – 0 – 0 – 0) blocked a 4th quarter 46 yard FG try. CB’s Sidney Jones (3 – 0 – 0 – 0) and Rasul Douglas (2 – 0 – 0 – 0) each had a nice pass break-up, but otherwise this defense did nothing to write home about.

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) Run with power: RB Jordan Howard (11 – 37 – 3.3 – 1 – 0) cracked double digit carries for his first time as an Eagle. Despite not fumbling and even scoring, the coaches elected to stick with Sanders today. Sanders didn’t look as bad as he did in the first two weeks, but if you ask any fan who watched the game, they’ll tell you that Howard needed more touches. (NOT DONE)

2) No Cover Zero: We actually managed to stay out of it in the first half, but on a critical 3rd and long in the second half we got beat for 27 yarder, while in Zero. It was amusing to see Jenkins at one point audibling the Secondary into Cover Two. It makes me wonder if there’s any friction in the meetings, between players and coaches. In any case I did say ‘no’ CZ, I didn’t say ‘very little’. (NOT DONE)

3) Hit Stafford from the blindside: We didn’t get much real pressure on QB Matt Stafford (18/32 – 56.2% – 201 – 1 – 0). Not one single sack all day. Even when we blitzed. DE Derek Barnett (1 – 0 – 0 – 0) continues to crash down hard inside the LT, instead of first setting an edge. This would be one thing if he were a one-dimensional sack machine, but he clearly isn’t one. (NOT DONE)

4) Unleash the deep ball: We did throw the ball deep to Sanders early, and an early deep throw to Agholor netted us a pass interference call. It was the only early deep ball to a WR. The ball was thrown long a few times later in the game, but they were more prayers than passes. (NOT DONE)

Internal scream

That gives us a Four Things score of 0 for 4 this week and 3 for 12 on the season. Clearly the Eagles have gotten too far away from fundamental football, and it has us as a losing team right now. We have a short week to prepare for our Thursday game at Lambeau Field vs the 3 – 0 Green Bay Packers.

On The Whole:

There is clearly an agenda to push the young players like Sanders, WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (1 – 10 – 10.0 – 0), and TE Dallas Goedert (1 dropped touchdown). This would be fine if they were ready for bigger loads. With the exception of Goedert, they are clearly deer in headlights.

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I’m tired of complaining about this Defense, so I won’t.

A FRANK DISCUSSION

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/21
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Offense, Players, Rants, Super Bowl, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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WE got spanked last year. We keep talking about how talented this team is, and how deep it is, and yet it still under-performs. Every Eagles scribe (me included) has weighed in what’s wrong with parts (Defense, run game, Secondary, etc.), but no one has yet to address what ails the whole team.

So let me nutshell it for you.

Amid the high of being the defending champs, and RT Lane Johnson talking about how much fun things were here, and everybody writing a book, and blah-blah, our Eagles lost focus. The result was a team that did what most first-time champs do: They basked in the afterglow.

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There’s a great feeling to knowing that I’m in this shot. You’d need a microscope to see me, but I’m there.

The hungry dog, underdog mentality, gave way to a sort of well-meaning swagger. We didn’t have the cocky, “FUCK YOU.” variety of swagger. We had the well-meaning, self-confident sort. Which is kind of the root of the problem. I’ll get back to that when I finishing listing the symptoms that make up our condition.

Our loss of focus, and the wrong type of swagger, weren’t helped by the injuries that ravaged our Secondary last year. While those injuries did a lot to deepen us, many of the lessons we learned in 2018, were ignored or shelved (so far) in 2019. For instance, our starting CB’s should be Rasul Douglas and Avonte Maddox. They play with a chip on their shoulders and an aggression that Sidney Jones and Ronald Darby simply do not possess. Eagles CB Jalen Mills has that. (Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey also has that. IJS.)

When you add all these things together, they spelled 9-7 record, and a second round exit from the playoffs. In a very real sense, circumstance punched us in the mouth, hard enough to knock us unceremoniously on our ass. Being possessed of well-meaning swagger and not FUCK YOU swagger, we haven’t charged back, to give as good as we’ve got. So far we’ve just sat there. Like pussies.

Bleeding.

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From the Head Coach on down, almost nobody has it in their head that they’re going to MAKE things happen. Sure, we saw QB Carson Wentz in that Atlanta game, trying to will the team to a win on his own, but there weren’t enough guys thinking the same thing.

Mentally the Eagles seem to be in a defensive crouch. Nobody is hunting. We’re more focused on surviving, than on going out and making something happen. Magic only happens when you cast the spell. Silence, and inactivity yield nothing. Lacking the will to act, will only result in someone else getting what WE want.

We have plenty of talent. We have all sorts of depth and we’re putting it to the test now. What we need is for the team to decide if they want more than to just “get through it.” Circumstance kicked our ass in 2018, and we’ve yet to prove tough enough to come back at it.

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GO. GET. IT.

If we want to be Number One, we have to go get it. Period. There is no substitute. GO GET IT. We have to earn it. Otherwise we don’t deserve it.

I know on the eve of a game, this is hardly Pep Rally material, but it needs to be said, and you can’t count on anyone whom the Eagles pay, to be this honest. But again, it needed to be said.

FOUR THINGS – WK 3 – EAGLES-LIONS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/20
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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THIS is the first of two games in a five day span, and we’re already teetering on the knife’s edge of being sub .500. We need this game. The Atlanta loss was a hard one. It was just such a weird game, that it’s hard to take a solid lesson from it. So it’s best to just accept our bright and shiny “L”, move on, and get to making sure we don’t get ourselves another one this weekend.

The Eagles need to establish themselves as a serious contender this year. We’re talented, and deep, but how much of our roster is really hungry? This game isn’t about a rudderless Lions team. It’s about who the Eagles want to be this season. It’s about whether or not we can regain, and keep our focus.

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

1) Run with power: The Lions are highly susceptible to the run. We need to feed it to them by the fistful. Not with RB Miles Sanders. He didn’t deserve to be jumped ahead of RB Jordan Howard and Karma is seeing fit to make us pay for that. Run the ball with the guy who knows what he’s doing.

2) No Cover Zero: If our CB’s really are the problem, then they need support deep. That’s just coaching. If they don’t need the support then show us something different.

3) Hit Stafford from the blindside: We need to speed up the clock in QB Matt Stafford’s head. We need a sack or two from DE Derek Barnett. DE Vinny Curry can also deliver, but it’s high time we saw some production from Barnett. Especially with Lions LT Taylor Decker either out or nursing a back injury.

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4) Unleash the deep ball: With WR’s DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffrey on the shelf, the thought will be that the Eagles don’t have the firepower that we did before. While there is an element of truth to that, the fact is we still have weapons. We should make that point known early, with a deep jump ball to J.J. Arcege-Whiteside, to open up room inside for the power run game.

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:

Sanders will get the start and evenly split carries with Howard. The Eagles are trying very hard to make stars out of their young guys, and we haven’t heard that there’ll be a change in the depth chart. With TE Alex Ellis added to the active roster, the plan is probably to run more 12 Personnel like the staff wanted to do last week. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out, since Ellis isn’t said to be special neither as a receiver nor a blocker.

With TE Dallas Goedert as our 2nd TE, teams might have been more reluctant to load the box, but Goedert is out. With Ellis being sort of a lucky camp body, until he teaches opponents otherwise, he won’t command that same respect.

HUNTING

Defense is a mixed bag. We got three picks last week, lost by just 4, and it still felt like we got gutted all night long. An evolutionary step needs to take place this week, but it’s unlikely to happen. Something has to happen to give the pass rush time to get home.

Keep an eye on the deep Safety in this game. Don’t expect much Cover Zero this week. In any case, even with the injuries, the Eagles depth is hard to ignore. Add in that they play here at home and the Eagles go from a team that could win a close one, to one that could win this handily. Especially if they have any kind of Offensive balance.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 26 – Lions 16

yeah-bitch