FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: RAVENS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/22
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Draft, Four Things, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

WE needed to lose and we did. No complaints there.

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A 26 – 27 final at first seems like a hard fought outcome. However, given that most of who played were the same guys who played through the year, it comes across more like a regular season loss, and less like the teaching/evaluation tool the game could have been.

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

1) WR Bryce Treggs: Got to carry the ball for a 4 yard run. Didn’t see any significant time. NOT DONE

2) WR Paul Turner: Was inactive. NOT DONE

3) G Dillon Gordon: Got a to play a snap as an extra blocker, but also didn’t see significant time. NOT DONE

4) DT Destiny Vaeao: Also hardly saw the field. NOT DONE

That brings this weeks score to 0 for 4. I’m not sure what the Eagles are trying to establish at this point, but it certainly doesn’t seem to have an eye towards the future. Next week we’ll be repeating this weeks list, because it’s important and needs doing.

WK15: RAVENS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/19
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

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EAGLES 26 – Ravens 27

COMING into the game, our playoff chances had all but evaporated already, so the best thing would have been to use the game as a teaching tool. Instead, it looked pretty much like any other regular season game. Few young players saw extended minutes over what they normally receive. This left us looking at a number of players that you have to think won’t be here next season.

In a back and forth contest, the Eagles (at one point down 17 – 27), managed to storm back to 26 – 27 and endanger their increasingly favorable Draft position. If not for that missed conversion, fans would be cheering a meaningless win today, but lamenting it come April.

For the fifth time in fourteen starts, QB Carson Wentz (22/42 – 52% – 170 – 0 – 1) failed to throw a single touchdown. Averaging 4.04 yards per pass attempt is pretty pathetic when you consider that the run game, led by RB Ryan Mathews (20 – 128 – 6.4 – 1 – 1), was killing it all day long. Either the plays we ran are poorly designed, the QB we have lacked guts, or we need to totally overhaul the skill positions on this team for next season.

I was very happy with what I saw out of CB Jalen Mills yesterday (2 – 0 – 0 – 0). It’s true that he gave up a touchdown to WR Steve Smith, but we’re talking about a 7th round rookie covering a possible future Hall of Famer. All things considered, Mills did an extremely good job when he was out there. DE Vinny Curry (2 – 0 – 0 – 0) also did nice job of making his presence felt out there.

Did you notice?

Announcer Daryl Johnston said during the game, that the Eagles were still mathematically alive, but that in all reality they had no shot.

WK15: RAVENS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/17
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Draft, Fans, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

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Baltimore Ravens

Sunday 1:00        M&T Bank Stadium        Baltimore, MD

NEEDS TO STEP UP:

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DE Vinny Curry

I said that DE Connor Barwin should have been traded last year. Instead he’s started each of our 13 games this year, gotten 4 sacks, and is part of an almost invisible pass rush now. Despite signing a big contract in the offseason, Curry has still never started a game in his NFL career. This is bullshit. As a member of the the second unit Defensive Line, Curry needs to make it clear that the coaching staff picked the wrong guy to start this year.

WE MUST CONTAIN:

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OLB Terrell Suggs

The best player on that team this year is K Justin Tucker, but since you can’t exactly “contain” Kickers, I’ll go with Suggs. “T-Sizzle” isn’t exactly having his best year with only 27 tackles in 12 games played. Then again, his solo tackle numbers did hit a wall in sayyyyy, oh about 2012. (I wonder who could have retired- OOPS! -I meant, what could have happened, that would have affected Suggs so greatly. Hmmmm…)

EAGLES STORY LINE:

An Eagles fan got on his knees and asked “Please Lord, I just want my team to make the playoffs this year.” The Lord responded. “Sure. I’ll make sure the Phillies get in.” The Fan said, “No Lord, I meant my other team. The Eagles.” To which the Lord replied “Sorry dude, I deal in miracles, not fantasies.”

If you are still harboring Eagles playoff hopes for 2016, sit down, I have some sad news to break to you: YOU stand more of a chance than the Eagles do, of making the playoffs this year. What we can do however, is use the remaining games to evaluate the roster and get a huge jump on our division rivals for 2017.

Discretion is the better part of valor, here. If we’re smart now, we won’t be back here, like this, next year.

BOTTOM LINE:

If we can win this game with a bunch of young guys, great. Any other win is a waste of a teaching tool.

PREDICTION:

Eagles 17 – Ravens 20

FOUR THINGS: EAGLES/RAVENS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Draft, Four Things, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

THERE are no more big plans for the 2016 season. Since most sports pundits and Eagles fans didn’t have many to begin with, no one should be disappointed at where the team is right now. The time has come for us to shift focus. Instead of trying to win 3 more meaningless games in 2016, or we should the table for 2017, 2018, 2019 and so forth and so on. Our 2017 season should start this Sunday.

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Billboard down the street from my house, at the Girard street on-ramp to 95

Since this game is meaningless, this game shouldn’t be about this game. This game should be about the 2017 offseason. It should be an evaluation tool that includes a high number of young players starting and playing in critical situations. We should get a deep look at our youth during “live fire”. Not just during “garbage time”, but while the game is on the line, to see how they handle the pressure and if they can respond well to it.

The smart play here is to get a long look at the back end of our roster, to be sure that we A) don’t release any youth that has real potential, and B) that we don’t waste a Draft pick on something that we already have, but don’t realize that we do. This way we get to focus laser-like on what we truly need, and can build on strengths.

This game shouldn’t be about beating the Ravens, but if we can do that with a bunch of young players and deep bench guys, it portends greatness and is a hell of confidence builder for the young guys.

So let’s talk about the Four Things Players we need to look for, Week 15 versus Baltimore :

1) WR Bryce Treggs: I’ve been screaming for more of him for weeks now. Rumors of possibly signing Free Agent DeSean Jackson next season, only make getting a DEEP look at Treggs so much more important. Why pay more for DJax’s balky, old hammies, when Treggs can already stretch a defense? If he can effectively snag deep balls against a team fighting for a playoff spot, then there’s no need to overpay for a FA, or spend a high Draft pick at the WR position.

2) WR Paul Turner: He should start over WR Nelson Agholor for two reasons. 1) it keeps the fire lit under Agholor’s ass, and 2) we get to see Turner vs starting NFL CB’s, and not just second and third string units. Everyone is screaming that we need to grab a WR early, and maybe we do. However, we should first take a long look to make sure.

3) G Dillon Gordon: G Stefen Wisniewski is a FA after this year, but he played well enough to be brought back. However, given the contract of G Brandon Brooks, and the commitment to developing rookie G Isaac Seumalo, giving Wisniewski an inflated contract to be a back-up, seems unlikely. That makes it imperative to determine if Gordon can be relied upon at all. If he can’t play, at least we know where we stand. If Gordon can play, then we can either improve our leverage with Wisniewski, or move on from him altogether with less doubt.

4) DT Destiny Vaeao: With DT Bennie Logan becoming a FA after the season, it would help to know how Vaeao looks when paired with DT Fletcher Cox. DC Jim Schwartz likes to sub his Defensive Line, 4 guys at a time, so we haven’t gotten to see much of a Cox/Vaeao interior. Even when Logan missed games with a calf injury, DT Beau Allen simply sucked up more playing time. Vaeao isn’t the run-stuffer that Logan is, but he’s a more dynamic pass rusher. Given the fall-off we’ve had in that area, seeing a Cox/Vaeao interior might be the shot in the arm this team has been needing.

At this point, looking ahead to the future isn’t tanking. Tanking is quitting early while there is still something on the table worth winning. We’re past that at this point. To paint you a realistic picture: We’d have to win out and go 8-8, while Tampa Bay and Atlanta (8-5), Washington (7-5-1) and Green Bay (7-6) would ALL have to drop their remaining games. Actually given Tampa and Atlanta’s 6-3 conference records with 3 conference games remaining, I don’t see how we (5-7 conference, 2 conference games remaining) overtake them. When you add in our inability to win road games and that we’d be exclusively on the road, it only makes sense to give real consideration to our Draft position (round Two and on), and determine the depth of our needs pertaining to free agency. It’s just smart football and good business.

yeah-bitch

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: REDSKINS (2)

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/15
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Fans, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Rivals. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

 

OH MY GOD! Mathematically we are still technically not eliminated from playoff contention yet. Someone PLEASE shoot me! This means even if we wanted to tank, we can’t do it in good conscience. Even worse, we’re better rested while this week’s opponent (Baltimore) is coming off of short week having played on Monday night. Odds are, we’ll win this game and diminish our Draft position just a wee bit more. For no good reason whatsoever.

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It’s couple years old, but it says what I’m feeling.

The good news is that we improved in several ways in this last game against the ‘skins. We scored 22 points this time, when last time we scored 20. We scored Offensive points this time. We didn’t almost get our QB murdered in the opening seconds of this game. And we didn’t get ass-rammed for 230 rushing yards this time.

The bad news is that we lost, giving up the same 27 points we gave up last time, resulting in having been swept for a second consecutive year.

But what about the stuff that the stats don’t reveal? That’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To have an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that we’re forced to honestly answer questions AFTER the game.

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

1) We need a plan for covering TE Jordan Reed. Yet again we didn’t have to deal with Reed very much since he spent a lot of the game sitting. I’m yet again forced to give this a passing grade even though it should be an incomplete or not applicable. I’ll be including those next year. DONE

2) Score an Offensive Touchdown early. We did, and as a result the game was a contest that guys poured themselves into. I was VERY proud to see so much pride from some of our players. DONE

3) Work the edges. This is a weird one for me. I normally complain that we don’t throw the ball down-field aggressively enough. I finally get my wish and it’s during a week when it’s not the thing I said we needed to do, for that week. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from punching out all your windows. NOT DONE

4) Blitz relentlessly. We didn’t and the ‘skins QB had a better game this time than last time. NOT DONE

So that gives us a score this week of 2 out of 4 and as we continue our skid of not meeting these recommendations, we simultaneously continue our 4 game slide. Perhaps next week against the Ravens we’ll get around to playing some fundamentally sound football again. So we can win. Now that it doesn’t matter, of course.

I WAS WR-

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/12
Posted in: Conversations, Crazy Talk, Fans, Preview, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . 3 Comments

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BACK in early April, I said the Eagles would be at least 9-7 and win the NFC East. Despite many people asking about my temperature and asking if I needed to lie down, I did not waver from my assertion. Despite the bizarre week or so leading up to the Draft, I didn’t waver. Despite the bizarre preseason that saw us trade away our starting QB, I didn’t buckle.

The Eagles now have 8 losses, and so now winning 9 games is out of the question this year. And don’t even ask about winning the division. That… that’s uhhh…uhh…well see what happened was…Hey man, I’m not on trial here! You know what, could we change the su-

Had I been right, it would have been the stuff of legend! “How did he see that?!” “How did he know?!” The crowd would gasp and murmur as I walked by, and reach out to touch me. They would point and whisper to their children “Look there, boy. There is the man who stuck to his guns! HE is him who said, nine and seven. Let us all bask in his glow.” Instead people now point and say “See that retard over there? Nine friggin’ wins he says! What a dupe. Hey moron! I got your nine wins, right here!” 

BUT, that’s the price you pay for swimming against the current, and until I’m right again (which will be soon!), I’ll have to wear this crown of shit. I could make a ton of excuses. I could. I really could. But I won’t. I will simply man-up, and eat it. I’ll admit it. I was wrr. I was wrrrr. I was WRRRRRR!

(Deep breath) I was wrong.

THAT HAVING BEEN SAID…

WK14: REDSKINS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/12
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Fans, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

wk14-was

EAGLES 22 – Redskins 27

DESPITE the loss and being swept AGAIN by Washington, clearly you could see some very solid building blocks yesterday. Some of which still have me bursting with pride. Today I almost feel like a man whose team just clinched a playoff berth. Although there IS one small thing bugging me.

The was no quit in that game on our side. True, the game was never out of reach, but there were a couple of momentum swinging plays where a young team could have let the wind go out of their sails, and given into the “here we go, again” syndrome. That however, never happened.

When our LS Jon Dorenbos was injured and then the guy who filled in for him TE Brent Celek (2 – 7 – 3.5 – 0) was injured there were multiple Eagles on the sideline “auditioning” to fill the spot. Guys were lining up for the chance to step up. It looked like a team that was eager to support each other and who wanted to not just compete, but win. You can’t help but be proud of that.

The only thing that bugs me about the game was what didn’t happen after the cheap shot on RB Darren Sproles (5 – 27 – 5.4 – 0 – 0 / 2 – 13 – 7.5 – 1). There should have been a brawl. That or we should have returned the cheap shot on a player they need to make a playoff run. I feel like it only happened because we let that same Redskin player get away with injuring Celek, with an earlier cheap shot to the head. A message needed to be sent that those sort of actions precipitate an immediate and costly (Buddy Ryan/700 Level) response. The rest of the NFL cannot be allowed to think that it’s open season on our players.

Aside from that, it was a VERY good game.

I want to talk a little Offense now. QB Carson Wentz (32/46 – 69.5% – 314 – 1 – 1), showed his usual poise, and added a dash of escapability to the mix. It was good to see him display that. Even better were the types of passes that he threw. They were mostly down-field throws, not passes at or behind the line of scrimmage. Our Offense went on the offensive for a change.

Defensively DT Fletcher Cox (3 – 1.5 – 0 – 0) made return to relevance yesterday nothing a sack and half. While stats are not the end-all-be-all of football, when your chief pass rusher doesn’t get to the QB, it becomes a concern. CB Leodis McKelvin (5 – 0 – 1 – 0) picked off a pass and took it back to the house for 6, after getting torched by DeSean Jackson for an 80 yard strike earlier in the game. Aside from that, our CB play was pretty shitty yet again.

Did you notice?

Fourth quarter, Washington’s ball, 4th and 1 from our 35 yard line:

QB Kirk Cousins lines up in the Shotgun, so it’s an obvious pass. McKelvin lines up opposite WR Pierre “Not Very Fast” Garcon, giving him a cushion for some reason. Garcon gets a free release and makes an easy 6 yard catch over the middle for the first down. Two plays later the Redskins scored the game winning TD.

WK14: REDSKINS (2)

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/10
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Draft, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview, Rivals. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

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Washington Redskins

SUNDAY 1:00        Lincoln Financial Field, PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania

NEEDS TO STEP UP:

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DC Jim Schwartz: Last time we met, the Redskins ran a train on us for 230 rushing yards. Having done that to us already this year, the ‘skins will be expecting to get away with it again. We also didn’t sack their QB even once. That points to needing a better Defensive game-plan than we had in Week 6.

You may also recall that we had some problems with our edges.

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Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, but we didn’t do a good job of containment, due to poorly set edges. If that happens twice in one year along with a diminished pass rush, it will mean that something significant has to change for 2017.

WE MUST CONTAIN:

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QB Kirk Cousins: The ‘skins are an offensive team whose real secret is down-field pass distribution. They have 3 receivers with at least 58 catches, and not one of them is a RB. That makes it hard for a defense to focus on any one player or area. This by default creates space for everyone. The trick to diffusing that attack is killing it at the source. That means that we have to unsettle Cousins and affect his timing.

(SIDENOTE: Cousins Week 5 win over the 3-1 Ravens was his first win over a team above .500. The Ravens three wins? The Bills, Browns, and Jags.)

EAGLES STORY LINE:

With 7 losses already, 9 wins is the ceiling for this team. That record could (with some help) see us stumble into the playoffs. As long as there is something worth playing for still on the table, and fans are still shilling out to sit in 20 degree weather, there is going to be an expectation for the Eagles to chase this win. Good, bad or indifferent, it is what it is.

BOTTOM LINE:

Draft position be damned! We don’t want to be swept by these ass-clowns, so let’s put it out there!

PREDICTION:

EAGLES 24 – Redskins 17

FOUR THINGS: EAGLES/REDSKINS (2)

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/10
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Draft, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview, Rivals. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

RIGHT now the Eagles need to determine if we’re playing for 2016 or playing for the future, because as of last week, those two things became mutually exclusive. Since our team can’t even beat a 3-7-1 team on the road, chasing 9-7 and a possible wild card playoff spot, only matters if we’re okay with a one and done appearance.

So it needs to be decided now what the goal is, because your goal affects not only your strategy, but also how you handle obstacles.

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Whatever the Eagles (as an organization) true goal is, there are several reasons why the Eagles may want to win this game:

1) We have not been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet.

2) You don’t want young players to start their careers feeling like a division rival “has our number”.

3) Since the ‘skins need this game, some of our players would need to step up and take this game to win it. Great evaluation tool to judge next years roster.

You don’t build a winning mindset by dialing down effort, while there is still something to compete for. Admittedly, we’re basically a cooked team this year, but if we’re going to compete, then we need to really compete. Until we’re mathematically out, we’ll assume that winning these games is still a goal.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to look for, Week 14 versus the Redskins:

1) We need a plan for covering TE Jordan Reed. I’m not sure that we have a LB with the skillset to go step for step with Reed. Having to keep Safeties back deep to help with WR DeSean Jackson, means that bracketing Jordan with OLB Nigel Bradham and SS Malcolm Jenkins is out of the question. Alternating coverage concepts underneath will help get the job done, but only if we get enough heat on QB Kirk Cousins to keep him from making reads in time. NOTE: I just copy and pasted this from the Week 6 article. Due to a concussion, Reed didn’t play that week, so we didn’t need this then. We will this week. (Unless he brushes his hair too hard. LOL)

2) Score an Offensive Touchdown early. This may seem like sarcasm, but it really isn’t. We lost the last game 20-27 without benefit of an Offensive score. Given that our head Coach recently questioned the effort of some of his players, the last thing this team needs is to have players mentally checking out of this game because they feel like the ‘skins have our number.

3) Work the edges. (This was also taken from Week 6.) Like we did with the Steelers who also run a 3-4 defense, we need to force the ‘skins OLB’s into coverage. Their two best pass rushers (Ryan Kerrigan, Trent Murphy) are OLB’s who don’t excel at playing in reverse. Against the Steelers we needed to pull the OLB’s out. That favored using RB’s. For the ‘skins we need to push the OLB’s back. That means short passes along the hash marks to WR Jordan Matthews and TE Zach Ertz. We didn’t do this last time, and it resulted in not being able to run and QB Carson Wentz almost being murdered.

4) Blitz relentlessly. Last time we met, we didn’t sack their QB once, and yet that game still ranks as his lowest completion percentage (52.9) of the season. We need to continue to harass him and make him feel as unsafe as possible. But instead of just bringing the heat, we need to also bring the pain this time.

Look, win or lose, this is a message game. Doug Pederson needs to show that while he may have had a rocky rookie year, he has understood the lessons and made some adjustments accordingly. What better way to show that, than by beating a foe that we already lost to? Like the Tampa Bay game in the preseason, this is an opportunity for our roster to see the plan and re-invest. Over the next few weeks we’ll be playing games that have more to do with the coming years, than they do with this year. Eyes on the prize Eagles fans. Eyes on the prize.

yeah-bitch

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: BENGALS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/12/08
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

LAST week’s game was a gimmie, and we not only found a way to lose that game, we found a way to embarrass ourselves in the process. You know what? No. That was inaccurate. Some of the players found a way to embarrass us. Insult to injury: Those same players didn’t seem to be the least bit embarrassed themselves.

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We put up 14 cosmetic points in the 14 – 32 hosing that we got from a team that came in 3-7-1. We didn’t even bother to attack their weaknesses. It was weird to watch. I’m not sure what the coaching staff was trying to do last week, but winning that game was the farthest thing from their minds.

On the up-side, we held the Bengals to 2.4 yards per rush on 33 attempts, which is nothing to sneeze at. Sadly, that only highlights what I’ve been saying about the Secondary not pulling their weight. We choked over 332 yards, 2TD’s and allowed a completion percentage of 74.1.

But what about the stuff that the stats don’t reveal? That’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To have an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that we’re forced to honestly answer questions AFTER the game.

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

1) Get off the bus running the ball. This flat out didn’t happen. Instead of feeding the 28th ranked rushing defense a steady diet of RB Wendell Smallwood, we ran the ball a team-wide 19 times and threw it 60. No Eagles player ran for more than 19 yards or had more than 8 rushes. To Head Coach Doug Pederson, all I can say is: “Way to go, Ace!” The only way you could have outdone yourself here, would be to try and get RB Darren Sproles killed, by running him despite a broken rib. Which would be insane, right?!  (Sigh) This was so simple, yet… NOT DONE

2) Start the Presses. The CB’s weren’t giving up huge cushions, but they continued to give up free releases at the line, doing nothing to disrupt QB Andy Dalton‘s rhythm. NOT DONE

3) Treggs, Treggs and more Treggs. WR Bryce Treggs sat this one out. The only Eagles WR who can threaten a defense deep, was inactive for this game. Nice one Eagles. NOT DONE

4) More wrap artists and fewer hits. Our tackling in this game was the best I’ve seen it in weeks. DONE

We close out this week with a score of 1 out of 4, proving once again, that if you ignore fundamentals, it’s hard to win football games. While I don’t maintain great hopes for the postseason now, a win against the ‘skins this week would be a nice change of pace from this 3 game skid we’re on.