Eagles Offense

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EAGLES SEASON JUST STARTED

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/11/18
Posted in: Conversations, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

EAGLES

NOW that Quarterback Sam Bradford has had his inevitable injury (told you), this team has a chance at winning this loaded diaper of a division. It was hard for some to hear me over all the noise of people rubbing their faces on Bradford’s jockstrap after just 15 preseason passes. However now that we’re 4 – 5 behind his starts, and now that he’s injured again, Eagles fans are looking to hear a voice of reason. You’re looking for a reason to believe our season isn’t over. Well relax. Our season just got started.

Mark Sanchez is by no means a great Quarterback. No one would ever confuse him with a (healthy) Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, or even Phillip Rivers. (Deflators don’t make my list.) However, what Sanchez is, is the best QB the Eagles currently have under contract; and yes, by that I’m saying he was the best QB we had on Opening Day.

Despite having a year’s experience in this system, there were a number of factors that led to Sanchez riding pine behind a guy who struggled with executing the offense. Between not trusting his body and not being comfortable with his players or the system, Bradford kept looking to take the easy way out, time and time again. As a result the Offense stalled and sputtered under him.

Say what you want about the red zone interception that Sanchez threw last week; the Offense hummed with him out there. There was no hint of the typical falloff that happens when a back-up comes into a game with only a few warm-up throws under his belt, 9 games into the season. Imagine next week with a week of first team reps under his belt.

No one is predicting that we’ll put up 30 points per game under Sanchez, but don’t expect us to dip far below the 25 per game we averaged under Bradford. Then again….Hell maybe we will post 30 per game under the Sanchize. In Sanchez’s 8 starts (4 – 4) last year, the Eagles averaged 30 points per game. In fact we hit that 30+ mark, 4 times. In Bradford’s 9 starts we’ve done it all of twice, one of which required Overtime. Would an additional 5 points per game help us out? That spread would have helped us defeat the Falcons, Redskins and Dolphins, and would have us running away with the East at 7 – 2 instead of down third at 4 – 5. (But I’m just saying is all.)

I won’t even go into the differences in their mobility.

I will bring up something else I like about Sanchez over Bradford, and it’s not something that shows up in a box score. If you screw up, Sanchez will get in your face about it. As a former player I love that. When it’s you that screwed up you don’t always like hearing it; but being immediately accountable has a way of waking you up and making you assess yourself faster. If you give a damn about being better,

You saw what happened out there earlier this year when WR Riley Cooper and Bradford were on different pages with a routes and the ball was thrown near no one. Bradford had nothing to say to Cooper on it. Even if all he did was jog over and say “My bad.” Instead there was nothing. Meanwhile the miscues mounted. Sanchez on the other hand, you will immediately hear from. Players know that bad play will not be shrugged at with Sanchez out there. They now know that they can’t “dog it” anymore, and in that we have a leader who makes everyone around him better. From Bradford you get a guy sitting by himself on the sideline and on the field doing shit like this.

Sadford

and this

done

If this is your idea of a leader, you probably get off on being disappointed that we don’t win the Super Bowl every year. Bradford couldn’t lead stink to shit. Mark Sanchez on the other hand, say what you want about his shortcomings, this team now has an actual leader out there.

VIOLENCE IS THE ANSWER.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/10
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 15 Comments
Image courtesy profootballspot.com

Image courtesy profootballspot.com

OUR opponents know that we’re a team that is largely dependent on finesse to run the ball, and you know what? That shouldn’t change. After all, that IS who we are now. It’s what this city (not so much this fan) fell in love with last year. Why overhaul what works? And yes, I still think it works, I just think it’s stuck at the moment.

So how do you get it unstuck? Simple, you run the ball.

Not a single offensive lineman on this roster (starter through 3rd string) played under Chip Kelly, or in a system similar to this in college. That means they all learned how to drive block for the run at some point. Most of the linemen we have were NFL veterans when Kelly was hired, which means they blocked for the run not just in college, but also at the pro level already. My point is they know how to do it. They may not be naturally gifted for it, and they may be rusty at it, but they do know how to do it.

What would help to get us ‘unstuck’ would be to mix in a basic dive here and there.  No pulling. No zone. No counter. Just a few basic “body on a body, and man on a man” type plays, where LeSean McCoy knows ahead of time that it’s a quick hitter, and that zero time to dance is built into the play.

On too many of these runs to the outside, McCoy is being greeted by 2 and 3 tacklers, because they flow straight to the edge since they know we don’t really attack the middle with McCoy. Hey, did anyone notice where Darren Sproles 2 longest runs of year were? They were right up the gut. If Sproles can make his way through grabs and arm-tackles, you can bet your ass that McCoy can. We just need to commit to doing it.

We’ve gotten so fancy now, that we’ve forgotten about the basics. That it’s your heart and not your 40 time that makes you great. We’re so smart now that we’ve even started outsmarting ourselves, and strayed from the truth that at its heart, this is a violent sport, and that violence is not just reserved for defensive players to dish out.

Let’s not overlook the physical toll it takes on a defender to fight off an offensive lineman, and then try to bring down a RB with a full head of steam. Some downhill running would take some of the wind out of defenders who’d later have to chase McCoy to the edge, or hustle over to help on a bubble screen. If they’re beat-up already, the likelihood that they can make a play goes down.

We don’t get much of that right now. At games end, opponents are starting to look fresher than we do. Near the end, did the Rams look at all tired to you last week? They seemed to be surging from where I sat.

I’m a throwback type. I believe if you cut off a man’s head, he can’t outsmart you. If you break your enemy’s body, he can’t break yours. It’s why the finesse style can’t appeal to me. That being said, the pace we play at, by itself, won’t break a team. We need to lay hands on and physically break a team. We need to run them down. Run them over. Back up. Do it again. You want to get the running game back on track? Get back to basics. THAT’S the way you do it.

How do you get unstuck? Simple. You run the goddamn ball.

PROBLEM #2: RUNNING ON EMPTY

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/09
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , . 11 Comments
Image courtesy of myfantasyopinions.sportsblog.com

Image courtesy of myfantasyopinions.sportsblog.com

OFFENSE:

  1. a violation or breaking of a social or moral rule; transgression; sin.
  2. a transgression of the law; misdemeanor.
  3. the act of offending or displeasing.
  4. the act of attacking; attack or assault

OUR run game is built largely on deception. We rely heavily on sweeps, and stretches, and cutbacks runs. What we don’t specialize in is attacking what is directly in front of us. We don’t employ our Offensive Line offensively enough. We’re relying on people chasing us to tire themselves out, instead of beating on them and THEN making them chase us to tire themselves out. Our O-line excels at moving the point of attack and playing in space, but doesn’t really do to well at re-establishing the line of scrimmage. This is by the way, not just true of our back-ups, but also our starters. We don’t have any maulers on our interior line.

Adding to that is our constant rapid-fire approach. The result is that RB LeSean McCoy looks so tired out there that people are asking if he’s injured. One long-time EAGLES fan and frequent poster on this website, joked that McCoy must have stopped using his steroids. Keep in mind: While our opponents have to deal with our rapid pace only once or twice a year, our players have to do it EVERY WEEK. And it’s plainly and obviously taking a toll.

Lastly, and here’s the most important one folks: In this Spread, QB Nick Foles is not an Option. Last year the system was still new and Michael Vick showed teams just how dangerous a running QB could be under Chip Kelly’s system.

Even after Vick went down, because of what the EAGLES had shown, opponents were fearful of Foles now coming out the back door. At least at first. Consider that in 10 starts and on 57 carries last year, Foles only produced 6 double-digit runs (12, 14, 16, 20, 21, and 10 yards), each in a separate game. Worse yet those 6 runs represented 93 of his 221 total rushing yards, (leaving a remaining 51 carries for 128 yards and 2.5 per carry).

Seeing Foles was no threat as a runner, teams stopped guarding the back door, to pay more attention to McCoy coming out the front door. Since then it seems that teams have made the decision to “Just let Foles run” and so far he hasn’t made anyone pay. (His longest run of the year so far was 14 yards, on a day where he finished with only 13.) The upshot here is the extra attention paid to McCoy has effectively shut down this team’s run game. We can’t rely on deception at this point, because Foles as a runner is a poor hand to bluff with.

It’s a three-headed monster, but it’s essentially ONE problem: We rely on smoke and mirrors too much. Running the ball isn’t easy, but it is simple. 

Tomorrow I’ll get into how we could fix this, and get it done as soon as Sunday.

FIXING THE DJAX PROBLEM

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/07
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , , . 7 Comments

New York Jets v Philadelphia Eagles

 

IN my last article I showed you the hidden culprit behind why our Offense isn’t nearly as lethal or as machine-like as it was last year. Most fans want to chalk it up to injuries on the Offensive Line and look no further than that. That is a mistake.

It’s true that the Offensive Line being beat-up affects what kind of holes RB LeSean McCoy gets to run through, and the time that QB Nick Foles gets in the pocket. However when McCoy breaks the line of scrimmage and STILL can’t get himself free like he could last year, that’s not the O-line. When Foles steps into a pass that sails too high, or too long, that’s not the O-line. In fact who do you “blame” for Foles holding the ball too long? And the O-line has nothing to do with WR Riley Cooper going off a cliff.

What all these things have in common is the absence of DeSean Jackson. He was shown the door and no one bothered to replace him. By replacing him I don’t just mean getting a fast WR. We don’t need to replace what he could do, we needed to replace what he caused to happen.

Teams didn’t line up their FS 15-20 yards deep just because of his 4.4 speed. He also could change direction in a flash, has fairly reliable hands, and unlike a lot of 4.4 guys, can run the NFL route tree. As a result, teams warped their defenses to try to compensate and not make scoring TD’s too easy for Jackson

While we don’t have anyone on the roster with Jackson’s individual abilities, we do have a guy who can warp a defense: RB Darren Sproles. He’s every bit as dangerous in space a Jackson was, break tackles better, and can run most NFL routes from the WR position.

Put in motion to the slot, you can bet your ass a Safety would follow him out there. It’s not like you can cover Sproles with a Linebacker. Instead of a Safety playing extra deep, you have one playing extra shallow. And it’s still a warped defense isn’t it? And you know…when that Safety comes down, someone on the outside has a 1-on-1. That leaves a lot of options for Foles to place a ball.

You could do this in multiple formations, with multiple packages…It doesn’t have to be a restrictive number of plays at all.

So that’s it. You motion Sproles out like he used to do in New Orleans. (Man do they miss HIM!) That’s how you create space for McCoy and Cooper. That’s how you give Foles wider windows to throw to. That’s how you solve the DeSean Jackson problem.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about problem #2.

 

THE OFFENSE’S UNSPOKEN PROBLEM

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/06
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Rants. Tagged: , , , . 9 Comments

players-foles+mccoy550px eagledelphia

IT’S easy to blame the Offensive Line for the mess that our Offense has become, and while they shoulder part of the responsibility, the Offensive Line isn’t overthrowing WR’s, or dropping passes. The Offensive Line isn’t holding onto the ball too long, or dancing around before it hits the hole. We have other problems.

Of course, the first step to fixing any problem is correctly identifying it.

The first problem (nope, no foreplay), is that we’re missing DeSean Jackson. Or more accurately, Nick Foles is missing DeSean Jackson. And Riley Cooper is missing DeSean Jackson. And so is LeSean McCoy.

Last year in 10 starts Nick Foles got to just lay the ball out there, knowing Jackson has the speed to get under it. In case after case this year, we’ve seen that Foles no longer has a WR who can do that. That’s where all those rainbow shots are coming from, as Foles tries to put enough air under the ball to allow who he has left, to run under the ball. The result has been more than twice the interceptions in half the starts, compared to last year. You may say you don’t miss Jackson, but the numbers don’t lie. Nick Foles misses DeSean Jackson.

Let’s take drops out of the equation. Last year Riley Cooper averaged 17.8 yards per catch, and generally caught balls with lots of space around him. This year the coverage is tighter and he’s averaging a meager 8.3 yard per catch. I had a laugh when Chip Kelly said that aside from Calvin Johnson, no WR in the NFL sees double coverage. I’ll give Kelly the benefit of the doubt and say that instead of lying to make the loss of Jackson more palatable for fans, he merely doesn’t recognize bracket coverage when he sees it. Regardless of which one it is, Cooper is no longer the beneficiary of loose coverage. At this rate by season’s end, his new, over-inflated, NON-GUARANTEED contract won’t be commensurate with his play and will be expendable. I promise you, right about now DeSean Jackson is one n***** Cooper misses.

When the Free Safeties of most defenses you face, line up almost in the parking lot on most downs, it makes turning short runs into long runs much easier. On runs when LeSean McCoy can make it out of the backfield, he has plenty of those short runs to his credit. Problem is, there isn’t much space for him to create now. Now all the dancing around people loved about him last year, is getting him hemmed in most of the time this year. LeSean McCoy misses DeSean Jackson.

Getting rid of Jackson was one thing, but assuming that you didn’t have to replace his effect as a catalyst was outright foolish. But again, this is just to identify the problem. We don’t have a player on the roster who can do what Jackson did (try as Jeremy Maclin might). But there are things we can do to get us back on track, and what’s more, we can do it with guys we already have under contract.

And I’ll get into that, starting tomorrow.

KELLY’S MAGIC TRICK

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

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Here it is again 

and again  

and again  

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

and again 

Gotcha didn’t I? 

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

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

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

Here’s another 

Hold up, I have one more 

Okay last one, I swear 

 

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

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

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

Yes. It is indeed a tall order.

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