Philadelphia

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PUTTING LEASHES ON COWBOYS FANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/20
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Fans, NFL, Rants. Tagged: , , , , , , . 15 Comments

xcuse

FOR weeks when we were the top seed all you heard from Cowpie fans was that we only had it by a “technicality”, that it was “still early”, and that who was top seed “didn’t matter until the season was over”. 

Yesterday they struggled to beat a vagiants team that we shut out, humiliated, and sent packing just one week earlier. And when we beat them they at least still had WR Victor Cruz for a good portion of the game. Still we game them NADA. Zero. Zilch. The Cowpies on the other hand gave up 21 points to a team that didn’t have Cruz at any point. In fact 2 of the TD’s they gave up we to a rookie WR making his first start. 

But a win is a win, and Dallas went to 6-1, which is one more win than we have (at 5-1), since our Bye week came up early. They have the division lead on a technicality. Early. So of course the season isn’t over. My point is, they have the division lead under the EXACT SAME conditions we did, only now it’s valid for some reason.

If you bring up the fact that we sent them home last year when we won the NFC East, they’ll tell you quick that a division win is unimportant and what matters is a Super Bowl win. What’s funny is how that isn’t the song they’re singing today. Suddenly it’s important to be the division champ. Suddenly it’s valid.

Yesterday, in their own charmingly hapless way, the vagiants exposed some serious flaws in the Cowboys team that I look forward to seeing exploited as I enjoy my turkey next month. And the best part is that through the act of shooting of their mouths last night and today, the Cowpies fans MADE IT KNOWN that at the very least, as of 10/19/14 they consider the division lead important. That means that now by default that makes WINNING the division important. EVEN TO THEM.

THIS IS WHAT PASSES FOR A RIVAL NOW?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/13
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFL, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 7 Comments

nfl_a_boykin2_kh_600x400

I’M stunned as fuck over the sheer number of ignorant Cowboys fans out there who claim to be NFL fans, yet don’t know about something as basic as NFL tie-breakers.

Don’t get me wrong some of them do, but there are specifically way too many Cowboys fans who don’t. Which says something right off the bat about how well Cowboy fans know this sport, this league, and what the fuck they’re talking about in general.

Not that it matters much. Fact is, the season isn’t ending today or next week, and each team still has 10 more games to go. On top of that, the EAGLES have the tougher schedule BY FAR, since we went to the playoffs last year after we sent the Cowboys home.

Then of course there are 2 head to head match-ups coming. A split leaves the argument on the table; but a sweep gives the winning team bragging rights until 2015, especially when the Cowboys miss the playoffs because of it.

Don’t get me wrong. I love posting memes telling the rest of the NFC East that we own them, but this is still October. I’ll leave the dancing in the streets over holding 1st place FOR FOUR HOURS, to the lesser team.

It’s almost like they held it for us (“Here bitch, hold this”) so we could pummel the Giants with both fists. After which we took it back so they could finish what we started Sunday night (“Get that shovel and bury that piece of shit in the basement with the Redskins.”).  And they damned well better do as we say, because if they don’t, 1st place won’t be about a tie-breaker, and their only division game will be a loss.

As they fade farther back in our rear…view….mirror…

But seriously EAGLES fans: If you should catch yourself in a debate over an NFL rule that really doesn’t apply right now (except for bragging rights); chances are you’re letting an idiot make you look like them. DON’T BE THAT GUY.

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.

LANE JOHNSON TO THE RESCUE

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/01
Posted in: Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

card-lanejohnson

 

RIGHT Tackle Lane Johnson is coming back today. Everywhere I look people are reaching for bananas and dildos in celebration of the return of the EAGLES 2013 run game.

Hold up! Steady on! Pump the brakes. Chillax big homie. Lane Johnson plays on the right. The EAGLES do most of their damage rushing, on the left.

Dig if you will, the picture:

clutch

Notice that “PWR” category. It’s the percentage of times a team picks up either the first down or a touchdown on 3rd or 4th down. Think of it as a clutch meter. Notice how it decreases going from left to right? Again Johnson plays on the right. That lower percentage was without Johnson missing time. Though he was a rookie, so you cut him some slack on that.

Instead of expecting 2013’s LeSean McCoy to emerge because Johnson is back, the biggest improvement might be that instead of having to play multiple second stringers by default, back-ups have to beat each other out for that LG spot. Competition returns.

Where we have really been atrocious has been running the ball inside. Aside from sealing off DE’s and LB’s crashing down the line, I’m doubting that Johnson’s return will aid us on much besides runs off the RG and further right.

Perhaps the EAGLES will need to give less TE help in pass pro and Foles can get the ball out of his hands sooner on a few short routes to say…Brent Celek with just a Safety in front of him. (You can already see the tire tracks on the Safety’s chest can’t you?)

Make no mistake, I think Lane Johnson’s return will help, but this is by no means a rescue mission. One man will not return this team to the circus act you’ve all come to expect (I told you it was going to be very different), from last season.

I think it’s very important (especially while he gets back up to game speed), to temper expectations for Johnson, and/or what his return is supposed to mean for the O-line.

INJURIES TO FOLES AND McCOY?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/09/30
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Crazy Talk, NFL, Players. Tagged: , , . 22 Comments

 

Image courtesy of the Daily News

Image courtesy of the Daily News

 

WHAT if Cary Williams was right?

Last week after a third straight comeback win over the Redskins, EAGLES CB Cary Williams said the players were tired. Burnt out. Overworked. He said the slow starts were a result of having no legs after virtually playing a game the day before in practice.

Since Williams is already a mouthy guy, and is “only” a player, and wasn’t backed up by fellow players that felt the same way according to 2 sources; what he had to say was dismissed out of hand.

He even said his mea culpas.

FLIP SIDE!

QB Nick Foles and RB LeSean McCoy have been off their games since Week One. They’ve been off so much in fact that there is now a question of whether or not they’re hiding injuries. Basically that says that both of these men are needlessly holding the team back and humiliating themselves in the process, just to make sure their back-ups don’t get to play.

Often players will gut through an injury because they “Don’t want to let the team down.” Well in this case their play has already done that much. To say even after that, that Foles and McCoy would be unwilling to sit and let a healthy man help out, quietly insults their character by making them seem selfish, questions their commitment to the team’s success, and indicates that they lack a sense of professional pride in what they produce.

I also find it odd that in regards to running the ball, our Offensive line can’t open simple holes up the gut or off-Guard. They can’t generate a push on either side? I’m to believe they can’t win ONE battle up front, just because they’re back-ups?

Riley Cooper has never been what you’d call a sure-handed WR, but his drops this year have been nothing short of alarming. If he’d been this bad as a rookie he wouldn’t still be here today. It can’t be that Foles throws it too hard, because he doesn’t. Those drops show a clear lack of focus.

How about our lackluster pass rush?

You can go on for hours coming up with all the little reasons we’re performing how we are out there. Or, I can offer you 4 words that would explain ALL of it.

The ROOT of it.

Tired. Burnt out. Overworked.

We can keep on ignoring what is becoming painfully obvious, or we can maybe listen a little closer to Cary Williams.

Even if he is “only” a player.

 

 

 

EAGLES FAN WEIGHS IN

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/09/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Fans, NFL. Tagged: , , , . 14 Comments

the big bird

 

EAGLES TO FINISH 7-9???

 

MONEY in my pocket, my team is 3-0, free time and I’m out of the house. Sound good right?

After running some errands today I decided to show my face at the bar and have a screwdriver. Of course Rhodie was there holding court over why they will never get around to doing the part of the Broad Street Line that’s supposed to go from Broad and Erie, up the Boulevard and out to Grant. (Really. That’s actually a thing.)

Upon seeing me, discussions about city planning were shelved, and people started acting like I was Paul Domowich or somebody. Except I still had to pay for my booze.

People almost never get to stick it to Rhodie, because he’s usually right about sports, but I had to rib him on that whole “7-9 if we’re lucky” prediction. I started right in with “We’re 3-0, you flea covered coot!” Out of respect I didn’t take out my tape recorder because sticking it to him is one thing, but recording it would be too much like trying to embarrass him. Then he says: “Get your recorder out.”

I don’t even get a question in and he starts. “So you think 3-0 seals the deal? We’re 3-0 so everything is perfect? I seen what you wrote on your site about us playin’ shit teams, and the problems we got. I saw what you wrote about the practices and how the players feel like they’re being worked too damned hard. What do you think happens when they get a decent team, and they fall back by 20 early?”

He had me there. I’m glad for the 3-0 record, but I’m under no illusions about it and how we came by it. But 7-9? C’mon man. I offered him the chance to adjust his prediction.

“Adjust my prediction? What, are you doing me a favor? 7-9 like I said. I rooted for this team even before the coach was born, before the Linc, before the Vet, before any of the candy asses who read newspapers on a computer. I know a train wreck coming when I see one. Chip Kelly didn’t re-invent football, it just that fewer and fewer people know anything about it.”

I happen to TOTALLY agree with that by the way. Leave it to Rhodie to say in a sentence what most of us writers can’t say in a page. But a train wreck? I asked him about that.

“The players feel overworked. As long as they’re winning, everyone’s gonna talk about how good Kelly practice style is. Other teams are gonna try to duplicate it…You see where it goes? The players have to make Kelly see what he’s doing don’t work.”

He was suggesting that players would throw games to force Kelly to change. I told him he was nuts to think that.

“It don’t all have to be quit. That’s the thing. If he’s running them down, it’ll show up anyway, both in guys who bought in and guys who didn’t. Throw in just a few downs where some of ‘em give less than 100%, and people over his head are gonna ask him some tough questions, and tell him to make some changes. Something you left out in your other article there. These guys are multimillion dollar investments. Those bodies are investments. This ain’t college.”

I’d like to dismiss it, but I remember Rich Kotite’s last year here, when the team quit on him to finish (ironically) 7-9, primarily because they didn’t like how he was running things. Sometimes perspective is a gift. Other times it’s a curse. Especially when others lack it. Once again Rhodie had schooled the ‘young buck’. And this time he used my own words and convictions to do it.

I’ll be watching for signs of quit now. Funny, just a day ago it wasn’t even on my mind.

EAGLES NEWS 9/23/14

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/09/23
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Players. Tagged: , . 9 Comments

Cheer: Philadelphia-Eagles-Logo

 

CARY WILLIAMS VS CHIP KELLY

 

“I believe we’re the freshest team in the fourth quarter,” Kelly said. “I think if you look at what we’re doing in the fourth quarter of games I thought our defense came up huge. Malcolm Jenkins (two) weeks in a row with interceptions in the fourth quarter was big for us. To force them after that short punt to go four straight downs and out at the end of the game and they were close to being in field goal range. I thought the way our whole team played in the fourth quarter obviously shows what type of conditioning we have.”

 +++++

When Williams was asked this, “We do things differently here, we play a game before the game,” Williams said. “You have to be politically correct all of the time, at all times. You take those words with a grain of salt from last year. My legs hurt. My legs were done in the fourth quarter, in the third quarter, before the game started. I sat out a couple of days and that still didn’t work, because they’re so taxing on us during the week.”

A few other players agreed with Williams, just nodding in agreement, but refusing to comment further. “Let’s just say I’m spent when Sundays come, because it feels as if you’re playing two games in a week,” one player said, nodding his head ‘yes’ when asked if Williams was on to something.

  +++++

BEFORE Chip Kelly was hired there was a lot made of his conditioning program. At that point Eaglemaniacal.com didn’t exist, and I was still posting articles on another site. In one of those articles (back in early 2013), I voiced a concern for this very situation.

I made the point of saying that I was concerned about the long term effects of Kelly’s training program on professional players, because there are factors that make things so much different at this level than college. For instance in college:

  • Rosters are double the size of an NFL roster. Kelly’s 2012 roster had 105 players on it. 
  • Players cycle through for stays of no more than 4 years
  • Players are almost always between the ages of 18 and 23
  • Players face sliding scales of talent week to week

Like a used car just off the lot, NFL rookies already have quite a bit of wear and tear on them. They may be new to their NFL team, but they carry with them all the scars from all the battles and surgeries that came before their first pro game.

If a rookie isn’t pristine, imagine what condition veterans of different ages could be in. And now you want to run a 29 year old NFL veteran the way you would a 20 year old college sophomore? It has to be understood that there’s a price to be paid for that.

CB Cary Williams is speaking up about that price, since it’s his body that’s paying for it. According to the previously cited report and LaDanian Tomlinson on NFL Network last night, other players feel the same, but aren’t quite ready to say so yet. Then again maybe they don’t need to.

Last year many players attributed their good health to the training program, while many attributed it to luck. This year with the same program, the EAGLES are seeing an awful lot of injuries, awfully early. That’s not to say or imply that the training program is causing the injuries, just to point out that it’s not preventing them. So that said, why beat your own roster up so much?

The answer is simple: The Defense’s experience is a byproduct of conditioning the Offense to run the system. To run a system that moves this quickly you (duh) of course need players in shape enough to stay on the move. The caveat is that running players this hard is like any other thing you put a human body through, the effects are cumulative.

All over the roster.

The NFL season is a marathon not a sprint. We got out to a fast 3-0, but there is no law that states we will another game this season. Those wins must be earned. Traditionally teams that don’t finish strong don’t generally see the postseason. May not hurt to listen to the veteran.