Jay Cutler

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FOUR THINGS: EAGLES-DOLPHINS

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/08/23
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

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THERE are a number of things the Eagles need to tighten up in the next two weeks, but it won’t happen. Let’s just get that said, right now. The Eagles are a team that needs real games to get their edge as sharp as it needs to be. We’re close to turning the corner and these young players need real battle, (real victory and defeat), not more practice.

Since starters will play most or all of the first half, the temptation would be to “win” that half. That would be pointless. This is still a preseason game, so for this team, at this point in our development, the game’s best application is as a learning tool. Since the Dolphins will be playing their starters in the first half too, that’s a great time to sprinkle in guys like RB Corey Clement, S Tre Sullivan, TE Billy Brown and particularly LB’s Joe Walker and Don Cherry, (given LB Nigel Bradham’s possible suspension).

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

1) Impact from WR Alshon Jeffery: Less important than yards and catches, are how he causes the defense to treat his side of the field. I’ll be looking to see where the Safety lines up, and how often he even fakes walking into the box. If Jeffery can “keep his yard clear of trash”, running the ball to that side should be a lot easier.

2) Man up: Our interior Offensive Line needs to show that they can move men off of the line of scrimmage. This has gone beyond the issue of scheme or coaching. At this point you have to question the manhood and professional viability of the starting interior. Must they be the bitch of every man that lines up across from them? Can they win a down? The Eagles need to see if there is at least one real man in that group.

3) Establish the Danger Zone: The Safeties have been very quiet this preseason and that has to change in this game. Sadly, part of our coverage concept includes deep cushions and quick inside releases. If that’s going to be part of the package, something has to “encourage” receivers to take their eye of the ball. The best way to do that is with jarring hits that make men fear for their own well-being. I didn’t say we should injure anyone, but they should certainly be afraid that we may.

4) Back to basics: Football is blocking, tackling and doing your job. This would be a great week to preach fundamentals to the starters, in front of our young depth. This is also a great week to yank a guy for a series or two over a bonehead mistake, if one or more of those happens.

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

The Eagles will put up a decent number of rushing yards against a so-so Dolphin’s run defense, which features a guy who used to be Ndamukong Suh. We will harass and demoralize Jay Cutler and make him question whether or not he really has 2017 in him. We will look like a better team than we actually are just yet. That said, we should handle Dolphins in what should be a fairly boring game.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 24 – Dolphins 9

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WHY IS PHILLY BOASTING?

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/06/24
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, Fans, NFL, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’M excited about the mental development of Carson Wentz, as he makes an effort to be a legitimate franchise QB. I’m ecstatic over the acquisition of G Chance Warmack. I’m extremely happy with the extensions given to T Jason Peters, and C/G Stefen Wisniewski. The addition of DE Chris Long makes us deep with talented pass rushers, and DT Timmy Jernigan will make sure you won’t miss Bennie Logan. We added a ton of proven NFL talent during this offseason.

That all being said, what is with all this boasting already? It’s true. Last week I said we were about to undergo a massive evolutionary jump as a team, but pump the brakes, folks! Pump the brakes! Didn’t we just go 7-9? (Wait no.) Didn’t we just go 7-9, twice? Look, I’m all about optimism and whatnot, but talking to Eagles fans these days, you’d think we were already 14-1 and heading into Week 17. Let’s keep this **** in perspective shall we?

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Most of the talk right now is on how WR Alshon Jeffery will come in and change the Offense by giving Wentz a “big time #1”, “a legit go-to guy”, and “a stud WR”. Well what the fuck? Wasn’t Jeffrey all those things in Chicago when they went 8-8, 5-11, 6-10 and 3-13? This is the same Jeffrey with 26 career touchdowns in 63 career games, right? (This is the part where people blame Jay Cutler, without realizing that in Chicago, Cutler with Jeffery (2012-2016) was more of less the exact same QB without him (2009-2011). Proof you say? Take a look here.)

Let me hip you all to something very important. How Jeffery plays is neither here nor there. It’s not the big issue. Nope. Not even close. The big issue is coverage. (Not pass rush as Sal Palantonio said it is, but coverage.)

Last year, because our CB’s couldn’t even stay with their shadows, our pass rushers didn’t get as many sacks as their talent would indicate they should have. Oh sure, we got a ton of hurries, but a hurry is what they call it when you get to the QB a second too late. (Either that or a penalty.) This season will come down to how consistently (key word!) our coverage can buy 3 and a half seconds for our pass rush. That’s it. That’s the whole season, right there.

Better coverage equals more sacks and turnovers, equals shorter drives, equals fewer chances for opponents to get into scoring range, equals fewer points by touchdown OR field goal, equals fewer points allowed, equals improved chances to win any game we play. All of that starts with coverage, because even great rush (as we saw last year) will be thwarted by quick and easy completions. Not quick and easy throws, but completions.

Unfortunately, no one (but me) seems to want to have that discussion. In a division with Eli Manning, Kirk Cousins, and (to a lesser extent) Dak Prescott, the idea of Defense hardly seems to be a subject around here. That’s disturbing, given it’s importance to the Eagles 2017 season.

Let me repeat a few points I made in my last article. I said to sit back and enjoy the next few years. I said this team’s evolution is a process. I said what we must undergo and undertake cannot be faked, nor simulated. While it would be nice to ride this offseason to a playoff berth, it would be foolish to go around expecting it. (At which point people will act like the Eagles somehow let them down again.)

There is much left to be done before we fans can strut around like we own the division. It’s been years now since we won the East. Years. We don’t own any form of valid bragging rights anymore. You claim bragging rights when you win, and NOT before. That doesn’t mean you can’t talk trash, but until our team can break .500 again, it might be wise to pump the brakes with the boasting.

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?

yeah-bitch

WEEK 2: BEARS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/09/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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CHICAGO BEARS

MONDAY 8:30        Soldier Field        Chicago, IL

NEEDS TO STEP UP:

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DT Bennie Logan. Last week against the Browns we got gashed by their run game at times. It’s common knowledge for Eagles fans that DT Fletcher Cox is our dominant pass rusher up the gut. That leaves Logan as the stabilizer and guy who helps keep the LB’s clean. That didn’t happen last week, it will be the death of us if it doesn’t happen this week.

WE MUST CONTAIN:

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RB Jeremy Langford. You might find it funny that I didn’t say QB Jay Cutler. Last week Cutler was sacked 5 times and hit a total of 13 times. No QB in the NFL saw as much punishment. However, if the run game gets going and Cutler can start to set his feet, we could have a long day. So the key is to topple their Jenga pile by hampering their so-so RB, and placing the game squarely on the shoulders of their turnover prone QB.

EAGLES STORY LINE:

The Bears aren’t a great team, but unlike the carcass we picked apart last week, the Bears are at least seen as pro caliber. A road win over this team (regardless of how we win it), would close the door on any lingering doubts from last season. It would also signal that we were truly heading in a new direction. A loss here would be no great blow. In fact, it could be just the thing this team needs to put some fire in the players bellies.

BOTTOM LINE:

Last week was the beginning of our schedule, but this week is where the real season starts.

PREDICTION:

EAGLES 20 – Bears 17

FOUR THINGS: EAGLES/BEARS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/09/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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LAST week we had our 5th preseason game, and the team took care of business. There were some apparent bugs to work out, but nothing we saw last week should takes weeks to fix. Then again, everything we saw is being judged against the backdrop of a team long known for it’s dysfunction.

This week’s opponent isn’t very good either, but they also aren’t lightly thought of. The Bears can be good at times. Their organization knows how to build a winning team. They have a couple of players that you wouldn’t mind having on this roster. Beating them would legitimize us as credibly being on our way.

Let me say right now though, if we lose a competitive fight this week, it’s nothing to get pissed over. The best way to learn how to take a punch, is to take a punch. Considering how soft this team has grown over the years, an early punch in the mouth could help shape the street brawler mentality that this team has lacked for some time now. (If you were a fan during Buddy Ryan, you know what I mean.)

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to look for, Week 2 versus the Bears :

1) Hit Jay Cutler early and often. cutlerlossbills

We don’t need to sack him early, we just need to make him concerned for his well-being. He’s a turnover machine. Coming into this season, Cutler averaged 17.5 turnovers per year over the course of his career, and 18.5 per year since becoming a Bear. Better still, he doesn’t respond well at all to pressure.

2) DE’s need to keep contain. Last week the DE’s ignored the old adage of play the run first, as they instead focused on pass rushing, from the start of many downs. This led to them being too far upfield on the edges, leaving space inside for the Browns RB to find room to run. This week they need to play more disciplined ball.

3) Get some Guard help for C Jason Kelce. Bears NT Eddie Goldman is the sort of big (6’4, 320) bullrusher that has always given Kelce fits. If Kelce can’t hold his ground, then QB Carson Wentz won’t have a pocket to step up into.

4) Play aggressive man coverage with WR Alshon Jeffrey. Disrupting his timing and force him inside. He breaks tackles. A CB will find no tackling assist from the sideline. However, Jeffrey has a history of missing time. Forcing him inside, sets him up for big hits which would be very much on his mind as he tried to locate and secure balls.

Most of what we need to watch for this week, is on the defensive side of the ball. Barring Carson Wentz walking on water or turning it into wine this week, our Defense will need to play well for a whole game if we’re to win this one. This week they won’t get away with showing up late, like they did last week.

yeah-bitch