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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WILD CARD GAME: Buccaneers

Posted by The BEAST on 2022/01/17
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, playoffs, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THERE were many lessons in this game.

EAGLES 15 – Buccaneers 31

EAGLES STATS:

New categories include an EXCLUSIVE weekly Offensive Line Report (Rushing TD’s + 3rd and 4th downs converted:missed of 2 yards or less – sacks allowed); as well as Drive Killer (Int – FR – 4th down Tackles – FF – TD).

Passing: (S ) QB Jalen Hurts (23/43 – 53.7% – 258 – 1 – 2)

Rushing: (S ) QB Jalen Hurts (8 – 39 – 4.8 – 0 – 0)

Receiving: (S) TE Dallas Goedert (12 – 6 – 92 – 15.3 – 0)

Offensive Line Report: (1 + 0:1 – 2)

Drive Killer: (S ) OLB Alex Singleton (0 – 0 – 1 – 0 – 0)

Sack Leader: (S ) DE Ryan Kerrigan (3 – 1.5 – 0 – 0)

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I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these Four Things articles. It’s to point out what we need to address BEFORE the game. Then AFTER the game, there’s a no-bullshit assessment of whether or not the Eagles did any of what they needed to do, to ensure the win.

So how much of what I mentioned in Four Things: Buccaneers did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Run the ball to our left: Nope. Hardly even tried. Note: RB Boston Scott (1 – 34 – 34.0 – 1 – 0) had a touchdown run, and RB Miles Sanders (7 – 16 – 2.2 – 0 – 0) had his longest run of the day (14 yards) going to the left. Maybe we should have tried to run more in the first half? I say that because we had 4 just handoffs in the first half. Four.

In fact, we only handed the ball off just NINE times in this game. Which EXACTLY matches what we did in our Week 6 loss to this team. (NOT DONE)

2) See Tom Run: We collected 4 sacks in this game, but in general our coverage was so loose, the ball was quickly out of QB Tom Brady’s (29/37 – 78.3% – 271 – 2 – 0) hand. There was never any chance of making him run to buy time. (NOT DONE)

3) Man Press Coverage: Instead of dictating to the QB by using Man Press coverage, we played soft on the corners, and tried to “confuse” Brady with slight shifts and bails. It was a sign of our stupidity, to be so blatantly disrespectful of a QB who’s career is old enough to drink legally.

We didn’t show him a single thing he hasn’t beaten a hundred times already. It was goofy on our part to suggest it in a meeting. It was full-blown Are-tarded to try to work it into a game. (NOT DONE)

4) Speed Kills: We tried 3 times (not 6) to get the ball deep to a WR. Two were overthrows to WR Quez Watkins (7 – 2 – 35 – 17.5 – 0) and one was an interception while trying to get to WR Devonta Smith (11 – 4 – 60 – 15.0 – 0). Too many passes were being thrown to a double covered Goedert. (NOT DONE)

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So we did 0 of the FT’s, and we got shit-canned as a result. While some would tell you that 15 – 31 isn’t being shit-canned, you and I would know that those people didn’t actually watch the game.

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On The Whole:

This one has me in a weird place. While many didn’t give us a chance to win, I almost EXPECTED us to. Yes expected. Given Tampa’s overall injuries, we were clearly the more physically talented team on the field. Given that they suffered injuries during the game, that edge should have been magnified.

The problem with us is mental. Once again, our coaching staff approached this game like they were more afraid of being embarrassed, than they were hungry to win. The play calling on Offense childishly simply, and our Defense had the feel of a preseason game, where a team doesn’t want to reveal too much.

Being that I practically expected a win here, you’d think I’d be angry, or disappointed. Weirdly enough, I’m neither. Instead what I feel, is that this game is THE GAME that truly begins the Nick Sirianni era. All of that first year coach, virtual rookie QB, team in transition bullshit, died today. There are going to be expectations next year, of getting past this point. This game has set the tone for how we view the rest of Sirianni’s reign.

I’m not going to harp on players too much here. I’m not going to talk about the future of Hurts. I’m not going to talk about any first round busts, being absolute fucking trash. I’m not going to talk about the Draft. Not here. Not today. There were many lessons in this game. We need to take the time to unpack them, as we turn our eyes to winning the NFC East in 2022. 

WELCOME, NICK SIRIANNI

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/01/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

DON’T let the noise fool you. The media is selling that new Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni, is here to “fix” QB Carson Wentz. That’s not true. It’s not even close to true.

Eagles Owner Jeffery Lurie expects the new staff to get Wentz “back to that elite progression”. He has never said, nor hinted that Wentz was broken. He never said, nor even hinted at Wentz’s confidence being damaged. He never said, nor even hinted at Wentz losing his love for the game. That kind of speculation has come strictly from the muckrakers, to whom Wentz hasn’t spoken, since his benching.

Lurie (for his part), when speaking about Wentz, sounds like this “This guy is tireless. He has his heart in the right place and he’s really dedicated off-season, on-season – he’s just what you want”. This is the polar opposite of what the speculation says. Lurie isn’t trying to salvage a QB. He isn’t trying to get Wentz back to being a functional starter.

Lurie expects Wentz to be elite. His quote here, tells you exactly what company he expect Wentz to keep “understand that there have been many quarterbacks in their fourth and fifth year … if you trace this, you can come up with many, many quarterbacks that have a single year where it’s just, whoa, the touchdown-to-interception ratio is not what you want. And we’re talking some great ones, like Peyton [Manning] and Ben [Roethlisberger] and guys like that.”

Nothing in that quote indicates that Lurie thinks Wentz is “broken”, or “needs fixing”. He called it “a single year”. Which is exactly what I spent the season TELLING EVERYONE. It was just a bad year. That’s how Lurie saw it, and he’s right. It’s not sexy. It’s not interesting. It doesn’t give you something to blame. It just was, what it was. A bad year. They happen.

That being the case, I suspect that Lurie (brace yourselves) may have hired Nick Sirianni to coach his entire football team. I know it seems crazy, right? Who hires a head coach, with more than just one player in mind?! That kooky Lurie. Will he ever learn? (Sigh)

(By the way, just in case an idiot stumbles across this article: The last half, of that last paragraph, was entirely sarcasm. Calm down.)

Carson wiping Doug Pederson’s blood off his hands. I’m kidding! I’m kidding! Doug forced his firing.

I told you in the Fourth Quarter review, that if you isolate Andy Reid’s first five years here, then subtract his best and worst seasons, he’d still be 34 – 14 (.708). Do the same with Doug Pederson and his record is 25 – 23 (.520). Lurie clearly felt that the coach was holding back the team. That’s why he moved the coach and not the player.

Don’t let the noise fool you. Nick Sirianni isn’t here to fix Carson Wentz. Nick Sirianni is here to fix the 4 – 11 – 1 Eagles.

NO COORDINATOR ISN’T OFFENSIVE

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/02/07
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

ccard.doug.pederson

I’M on record as saying that if Head Coach Doug Pederson hired anyone else to be the Offensive Coordinator besides Assistant Head Coach Duce Staley, that Staley should walk. Well, Doug didn’t hire anyone else. What he did was tweak and jiggle his staff a little, but he basically kept last year’s alignment.

Dismiss any talk of needing to replace Mike Groh. During the 2019 season Groh was the OC, but it was in title only. Offensive Line coach Jeff Stoutland served as the run game coordinator, which essentially made Groh just the passing game coordinator. Doug determined the system, and called the plays from the sideline, thus making him the de-facto OC.

In 2020 Doug will still call the plays. New Defensive Line coach Matt Burke will coordinate the run. (Yeah, I don’t get that either.) The new passing game coordinator is Press Taylor (last year’s QB coach). So as I said, it’s mostly a re-shuffling, and the way the Eagles function on game day, won’t change very much.

2.7 ONE LOOK

What WILL change is the mix of ideas in the room during meetings. While Doug will lay down a concept, the play designs will come out of new heads. Taylor (passing game), and Burke (run game) are unproven, but with so much technical and analytical support around them, I’m interested to see how their imaginations impact our approach to the 2020 season.

I’m most curious about Senior Assistant Rich Scangarello, who will probably take over G.J. Kinne’s duties in Offensive Special Projects. QB Carson Wentz will also have a new voice in his ear, in the form of Passing Analyst (QB coach) Andrew Breiner.

Scarangello was only Denver’s OC for about a year, to no particular distinction beyond having a hand in rookie QB Drew Lock’s 4 – 1 record. That said, he has worked continuously since 1998 (22 years) as an offensive coach or coordinator.

No Defense. No Special Teams. Nothing just to “have a job”somewhere. Scangarello has been dedicated to just one side of the football for half of his lifetime. (Sort of like former Eagles DC Bud Carson was.) That level of singular interest has me curious to see what little trinkets are rattling around in the guy’s head.

I’m not interested in the big stuff. Not the broad strokes. Everyone does those. I wanna see the wrinkles. The nuances. The small concepts. Those are the things which will show up as ripples throughout our play design. That’s where the difference between last year and this year will be.

Still, in the end, it’s Doug who lays out our system concept, and calls the plays in the heat of battle. Doug Pederson is your OC. He always has been, and as long as he’s the coach, he always will be.

2.7 New boss

CH-CH-CHANGES.

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/10
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Howie to players.jpg

FIRING Offensive Coordinator Mike Groh and Wide Receivers coach Carson Walch seems to have caught everyone off-guard.

Everyone except me, that is.

I know, I know. At the joint press conference with General Manager Howie Roseman, Head Coach Doug Pederson outright said that the two would be back. And you believed him. This is why everyone was confused.

doug pederson water bottle presser 2020.jpeg

Well, that was PARTLY what had everyone confused…

I have to say, when Doug said that both would return in 2020, THAT is what left me confused. It would have meant Doug spending a second straight offseason defending the job Groh has done, had Groh stayed. Had Walch stayed, it would mean keeping a position coach who A) failed miserably to develop young players, and B) couldn’t help any player (young or established) once they started to struggle.

ESPN reporter Chris Mortensen, said on December 2nd “Barring a run in the playoffs, I would say that there is going to be some significant changes on the Philadelphia staff“. Local scribe Rueben Frank echoed those thoughts on THE SAME DAY. 

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Two reporters, from two different agencies, with one story? Folks, that’s what we sportswriters call “a done deal”. I think many people (both fans and media) either ignored them, or forgot that they said it. I did neither. So for me, these firings were natural. They were the final result, of sustained poor results.

I’m in that large pool of people who thinks that the OC job should go to Assistant Head Coach/Running Back Coach/Run Game Coordinator Duce Staley. I hate the idea of losing him as a position coach, because we’ve generally gotten great results out of his pupils. However, it’s time that Staley got a chance to see if he has higher level coaching chops.

ccard.duce.staley

Snubbing him a second time… If the Eagles do that, he should leave. He’s done nothing but succeed for this team, both as a player and as a coach. He’s earned it. More than earned it.

If we don’t give him a bigger nibble, we are officially an obstacle to any higher aspirations that he may have. If we don’t offer him the spot, a serious question has to be raised as to (and I can’t believe it’s me raising this issue), why Duce keeps being passed over, for lesser qualified White candidates. (It’s a non-issue of he gets the nod this time.)

At Wide Receivers Coach, I’d like to see us bring in someone like former WR Cris Carter. He’d bring Immediate Hall Of Fame credibility, high standards, and would make Philly a more attractive destination for free agents, who want to work with coaches who understand what they go through.

I also like Ricky Proehl, but I doubt he could be coaxed up here, from his life in North Carolina. Carter on the other hand, may be (ahem) looking for a next move. Making the move here, could be just the doctor ordered for a man with a much knowledge as he has. Especially, given that it could finally grace him with the Super Bowl ring that has eluded him.

In any case folks, I hardly think we’re done with this overhaul. And just so we’re clear, my 6th sense is telling me that Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz won’t be here in 2020. Regardless of whether or not Cleveland hires him as their new head coach. .

 

OUR 2019 – 2020 EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/09/03
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFC East, NFL, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Swoop Flag2

NOW the games count. No more talk of managing risk. No more holding players out. Unless a team is rebuilding, finishing the year as champs, is every team’s mission. There is only one champion at the end of the year, and the 2019 – 2020 Eagles aim to claim that title. PERIOD.

So are we good enough to win it all? The simple, honest answer is: We should be.

Offensively we have the weapons to score with anyone, and I mean anyone. Rams, Chiefs, Wilt Chamberlain, whoever. We have enough skill-player talent, to stress any defense, along with enough depth to step up in case of injury. Or to keep applying the pressure when a Starter needs a breather.

2019 Carson's Weapons

The starting Offensive Line is very good, with a couple of reserves who could be starters today. Our starting QB is a problem for opponents when he’s on the field. Should he miss time however, his back-ups don’t look like they have any magic up their sleeves. That’s just as well. Realistically there are starting QB’s in the NFL who don’t have that quality. It’s lunacy to expect that from a back-up.

Our Defense is designed to slow teams down, not shut them down. It’s a bend-but-don’t-break, Wide 9 concept. It works fine, as long as our Offense can put up points early. If we’re behind, or the game is hotly contested, it’s not the most reliable system. However, as I said, we can score with anyone. Though I may not be a fan of the system, the coaching staff understands who we are, and after all it did win a Super Bowl. (While allowing a senior citizen to set the all-time passing yardage record against us.)

In my Pre-Draft Preview, I picked us to go 10 – 6 and win the NFC East. After the Draft, (I didn’t write it, but) I was thinking 13 – 3 or 14 – 2. However, after our poor use of the preseason, my official expectation holds at 10 – 6. More would be better! However, it’s hard to see more than 10 right now.

The Eagles have the weapons, but we’re liable to have “in situation” and “real game” rust, for not playing more starters during this preseason. Look, whenever a player holds out, coaches, the media, and we fans alike, all paraphrase the same line: “Nothing can simulate actual football.”

We Eagles fans can’t say that about a rival team’s holdout RB, and not apply that same logic to our own QB. That’s just being deliberately hypocritical. It’s one thing to back into hypocrisy by accident. We all do that, from time to time. It’s quite another to flagrantly cannonball into it, with eyes wide open.

romantic-cannonball.jpg

Our first four games (Washington, Atlanta, Detroit, Green Bay) feature three teams (all but GB), who played their starters at least a little, in real game scenarios. We didn’t do that. If we come out rusty, or too often off-schedule, or committing endless penalties, don’t expect our opponents to let up, and go easy on us. Three of those four games (all but Washington) are games we could actually lose.

And God forbid we should see a Week One, home loss to the Redskins. Our coaching staff would have more than egg on their faces.

watermelon catapult

My point is, while we can compete with anyone talent-wise, we may be a little slow coming out of the gate. Provided that the coaching staff is right about not needing the preseason, we are plenty good enough to be champions again.

Washington will tell us a lot, in about 6 days.

EAGLES ON THE OFFENSIVE

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/02/16
Posted in: Coaching, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

pederson1

ANYONE who thinks the 2018 Eagles Offense will be similar to the 2017 edition, is woefully misreading the situation. While Head Coach Doug Pederson was the guy who called plays for the Offense, play design had a ton to do with whether or not a called play would succeed.

Any former NFL coach will tell you there’s as much art as science, in designing and maintaining a system. As no two artists paint, write, or draw exactly alike, so to are NFL coaches. For example, we all know about Jon Gruden’s version of the West Coast Offense, but who runs it like Jon does? Nobody. Who ran the 46 like Buddy Ryan? Nobody. Who runs Zone Blitz like Dick LeBeau? Nobody. Sean McDermott studied under Jim Johnson, and when Johnson passed, McDermott was overwhelmed by all of the on-the-fly adjustments, required to make Johnson’s system work.

Our Buddy Steve

Coaches are artists. Never loose sight of that fact.

That’s partly why our Head Coach is in no rush to replace Frank Reich, “I’m not going to rush into it, I’m going to make sure it’s the right person, the right fit for what we’re doing. I think that’s important too, that that person fits the culture and his way of thinking has to coincide with the way we’re thinking…”

The artist (Reich) that Doug spent the last two years crafting our offense with, has moved on. At some point either one guy (or two), will replace him. That means we’ll get a different personality (or two), a different source of experience (or two), and a different perspective (holding mic out to the crowd) helping design plays. From that mix we will get different art.

Understand, who we pick will affect who we draft, who we sign, and who we re-sign. At times during weekly prep, they may oversee or manage something that Doug cannot, because his attention has to be elsewhere. This will impact the win/loss column. It will affect playoff seeding. This isn’t some minor thing.

If you didn’t know how much this mattered before, you certainly do now. And you will likely never underestimate it’s importance ever again.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: BEARS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/09/22
Posted in: Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

MONDAY Night Football. Prime time, national audience, on the road, with a rookie QB under Center. The stage was set to watch our budding team fall on their faces. After which national sports pundits would talk about how nice our rookie was, but how much farther this team has to go. But this team had other plans in mind for how that game would turn out.

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DT Destiny Vaeao gets his first sack-fumble on Jay Cutler.

It wasn’t a performance for the ages, but it was a 29 – 14 victory. At no point did the team panic when something didn’t go our way. After spending the first half unable to get the ball in the end zone, all three second half scores were touchdowns. That says that someone somewhere on the coaching staff, is correctly recognizing the underlying problems, and then doing a great job of addressing them so far. Kudos to them.

The Defense was stingy on the ground giving up just 64 rushing yards, and driving the opposing QB out of the game with a hand injury. He was the second QB we knocked out of a game in two weeks.

But what about the stuff that the final score doesn’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) Hit Jay Cutler early and often. We did. He gave us 2 turnovers and we knocked him from the game. DONE.

2) DE need to keep contain. I was watching this one like a hawk and we did a solid job of it. As a result the Bears run game was bottled up and the game was put on Cutler’s narrow shoulders. DONE.

3) Get some Guard help for C Jason Kelce. While keeping an eye on this I noticed that starting LG Allen Barbre was losing some snaps to back-up Stefen Wisniewski. While I can’t say that I was bowled over by how the left interior played, I will say that QB Carson Wentz was able to stand in the pocket and step up when he needed to. DONE.

4) Play aggressive man coverage with WR Alshon Jeffery. We really didn’t do too much of that. Jeffrey saw a lot of off-coverage and what looked to me like tight zone coverage. The result was 5 catches for 96 yards with a long of 49. NOT DONE.

The result was a clear score of 3 of 4 goals this week. In sports it’s possible to got one of these things “mostly done” or “done for all intents and purposes”, if you write about sports, you have to be mindful of that fact. This week however, (and thankfully) there was no parsing of these things.

Next up we get a hard assignment in the form of a high scoring Steelers team. Can the Eagles hang in a fire-fight? Or will our Defense do to Pittsburgh’s offense, what China did to their regional economy?

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