run game

All posts tagged run game

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WK 12: PACKERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2022/11/28
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster, Special Teams, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THIS was a vulgar display of power.

EAGLES 40 – Packers 33

EAGLES STATS:

Categories include an EXCLUSIVE weekly Offensive Line Report (Rushing TD’s (6 points) + 3rd downs converted by handoffs (1 point) + sacks allowed (-2 points) = score); as well as Drive Killer (Int – FR – 4th down Tackles – FF – TD).

New Category Ace is for Kick return TD’s, Returners run-down, kicks blocked, etc.

Passing : (S) QB Jalen Hurts (16/28 – 57.1% – 153 – 2 – 0)

Rushing : (S) QB Jalen Hurts (17 – 157 – 9.2 – 0 – 1)

Receiving : (S) WR Devonta Smith (9 – 4 – 50 – 12.5 – 0)

Offensive Line Report/Enforcer : (18 + 3 – 4 = 19 ) C Jason Kelce

Drive Killer : (B) SS Reed Blankenship (1 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0)

Sack Leader : (S) DT Fletcher Cox (2 – 1.0 – 0 – 0)

Ace : (S) K Jake Elliott ( Two 4th qtr FG’s, one from 54 to ice the game)

****

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: PACKERS did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Hit Their QB: We hurried him into an early interception, sacked him three times, and knocked his punk ass out of the game. Even before the Packers yanked him, you could see in his eyes that he was finished. (DONE)

2) Miles of Screens: We didn’t throw Screens to RB Miles Sanders (21 – 143 – 6.8 – 2 – 0). He did catch (3 – 3 – 17 – 5.6 – 0) everything thrown his way, while running for a career high 143 yards, but none of it was a Screen pass. This is one place where the technicality works against me, but I’ll own it, because the technicality does not diminish his involvement, nor the statement made by this win. (NOT DONE)

3) Wrap it up, B!: After their first drive we settled in and got this done. The issue this week wasn’t the wrapping up, it was getting guys in the right hole, to meet the ball-carrier. Too often our defenders weren’t getting a shot at the runner, until they were 3 or 4 yards downfield already. Still, on 20 attempts, we gave up just 106 rushing yards on the night.

SS Reed Blankenship lurk in the “Robber” position and breaks on the ball. Between this and his physical style of play, it made me think of Ronnie Lott, after he signed with the Raiders. Not comparing players, just stylistic similarities.

I like the “thump” that SS Reed Blankenship (3 – 0 – 1 – 0) added tonight. There were a couple of downs where I saw OLB Kyzir White (2 – 0 – 0 – 0) try a shoulder tackle instead of a wrap-up, leading to extra yardage for the runner. One of them looked like he was making a business decision near the right sideline. As I said in the Quarter Two Report Card, it may be time to get rookie LB Nakobe Dean some of White’s snaps. (DONE)

4) Deep Down the Middle: Nope. Most of the passing was of the short variety. I think Hurts threw more balls away, than he legitimately attempted as deep passes. (NOT DONE)

****

Yet again we finish at 2 of the Four Things, even though it’s really ore like three of them. No matter. Next week we host Tennessee’s rugby team, and get a first-hand look at their attempt to integrate the forward pass into their offense, as well as we have.

WR A.J. Brown demonstrating genuine Toe Drag Swag

****

On The Whole:

RB Boston Scott and his bodyguard, LT Jordan Mialata.

It was a vulgar display of power, and I LOVED it. We did it because we wanted to do it, and there was no way for them to stop us. And was I excited? I spent that whole game on the verge of reaching for the hand lotion. (Not really, but you get my point.)

QB Jalen Hurts on his way to running for 157 yards on the day. The most by a QB in Eagles history.

We piled up 363 rushing yards in this game. I’ve been saying that running the ball is our identity, and we shouldn’t get away from that, but DAMN. This game was just us being more physical and looking to impose our will. We’ll need more of that next week.

RB Miles Sanders goes off for a career high 143 rushing yards.

Now my concerns. And I have a few.

I worry about the cumulative damage that all this running puts on Hurts. Not the hits, but the wear and tear. The torsion in his hips, knees, and ankles. I’m remembering last year’s high ankle sprain, as being non-contact. Pocket passers almost never get that injury. If we have a lead, there should never be a designed run called for him.

Defensively, we were consistently out-schemed by the Packers Screen and Pitch game. They did a great job of keeping us off-balance, and we had to wait for penalties, to hand us third downs where we could dictate the action. A well disciplined team won’t give us that chance. A PLAYOFF team won’t give us that.

Special Teams is a joke. Not only are we abysmal at returning all kicks, but now we’re now shit at covering them too. I’d been blaming WR Britain Covey, but today he only fair caught a punt. The rest of the returning was done by RB Boston Scott (3 – 24 – 8.0 – 0 – 0) who’s returning (4 – 91 – 22.7 – 0) was also underwhelming. Yet, returners can’t be blamed for the Packers gashing us for 172 KO return yards.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WK 11: Saints

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/11/22
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

RUNNING down a dream.

EAGLES 40 – Saints 29

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 (13/24 – 54.1% – 147 – 0 – 0)

Rushing: (S) RB Miles Sanders (16 – 94 – 5.8 – 0 – 1)

Receiving: (S) TE Dallas Goedert (8 – 5 – 62 – 12.4 – 0

Offensive Line Report: (3 + 5:1 – 3)

Drive Killer: (S) MLB T.J. Edwards (1 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 0)

Sack Leader: NO QUALIFIER

****

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: Saints did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Play Man Press: We started out playing this, and played a fair amount of it. We also played a lot of off coverage which allowed the Saints back-up QB to throw for 200 yards and three scores.

It also contributed to why the Eagles didn’t have a single sack, against a team missing both of it’s starting OT’s. This was one of several things which probably went overlooked, due to the score. We did this, but not nearly as consistently as we should have. (DONE)

2) Force Malcolm Out Of the Middle:

We did a GREAT job of this! We kept S Malcolm Jenkins (4 – 0 – 0 – 0) out of the box, and so we kept him from impacting the game, in any meaningful way. Jenkins had all of FOUR tackles, in this game, despite us handing it off 32 times. He was kept safely away from the action, and our RB’s ran for 173 yards, on 32 totes (5.4 ypc), largely due to an uncongested middle of the field. (DONE)

3) Just Make the Tackle: Great job here as well. We didn’t see a bunch of piles moving, as our defenders clawed pointlessly at the ball. The one forced fumble we got from DT Fletcher Cox (2 – 0 – 1 – 1), was him reaching out to make a tackle, and grabbing the bicep of the opposing RB. BOOM. Ball popped out like Janet Jackson’s nipple.

Nothing extra needed. No holding the ball-carrier up. No clawing for the pig, and letting him churn out extra yards. Just went for the tackle and was rewarded by the football gods. (DONE)

4) Use Play-Action: There was some play-action, but not nearly enough to qualify it here. More to the point, it was deployed poorly. Understand, the game started with a designed QB run, which the Eagles kept repeating. On the day, Hurts threw the ball 24 times, and ran it 18.

There was never a point when the defense got to be more focused on some other player, than they were on Hurts. As a result, the defense keyed on him, never truly buying his fake hand-offs, pressuring him into some ugly scrambles, sacking him 3 times, and keeping the question of his accuracy a viable subject. None of those are the result of play-action used effectively. (NOT DONE)

****

That brings this week’s tally to 3 of Four Things. Next week we take a 90 minute drive to the cesspool that is Rutherford, New Jersey. Then we’ll do what we need to, and walk out of there as a .500 football team. At which point we’ll have seriously positioned ourselves to be in the playoff discussion.

****

On The Whole:

There are several things about this victory that bug me. They were bugging me even during the game. However, this is the first time we’ve had consecutive wins since November 1st of last season. So I’m going to let the fans enjoy this Four Things Reviewed.

Enjoy your turkey. We’ll talk soon. (Unless you decide to reach out to me sooner.)

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: WK 8: Lions

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/11/01
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Roster, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

DISASTER averted!

EAGLES 44 – Lions 6

.

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 (9/14 – 64.2% – 103 – 0 – 0)

Rushing: (S) QB Jalen Hurts (10 – 71 – 7.1 – 0 – 0)

Receiving: (S) TE Dallas Goedert (7 – 6 – 72 – 12.0 – 0)

Offensive Line Report: (4 + 2:0 – 0)

Drive Killer: (S) CB Darius Slay (0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 1)

Sack Leader: (S) DE Josh Sweat (3 – 2.0 – 0 – 0)

****

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: Lions did the Eagles actually get around to doing? Well let’s see:

1) Physical Coverage: Can’t complain about the coverage on the ends. Detroit’s top two WR’s caught 3 balls for 46 yards, with only 6 being thrown in their direction. Our CB’s practically erased them from the game.

The opposing TE saw far too many free releases. He caught 10 of 11 passes, but for just 89 yards. If he weren’t harmless, this could have cost us the game. This has to be cleaned up. Still, we shutdown outside passing, contested balls, and allowed just 73.5% of their passes, on routes that rarely seemed deeper than 7 yards. (DONE)

2) Hands Under Balls: Lining up under Center. I seriously didn’t expect to see this much at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. While we still spent far too much time in the Shotgun, we ran quite a bit from under C. If this gets incorporated into the passing game more, it’ll make Hurts look like a whole new QB. (DONE)

3) Run the Ball: The ball was handed off 39 times in this game. That’s not a typo. There were 39 hand-offs, for 165 yards (4.2 ypc), and 4 touchdowns.

That’s compared to just 16 pass attempts, (and 10 runs by the QB). With that much help, Hurts didn’t have to carry the Offense. The result was that he was able to be part of team victory, which was never in question. (DONE)

4) Find Our Ego: Body language and physicality. Chippiness, and winning at the line of scrimmage. All of that was on display in this one. We collected 5 sacks, 3 tackles for losses, and held their ground game to 57 yards on 18 carries (3.1ypc). This is not the Eagles team that we’ve become accustomed to this year, but I wouldn’t mind getting to know them! (DONE)

****

This is 4 of the Four Things being done for the first time this year, and the margin of victory was 38 points. Next week we get to see how consistent we can be with what we’ve learned, as we host the 4 – 3 Chargers and their league-WORST run defense.

****

On The Whole:

Everyone else wants to talk about how they hope that all the running carries over into next week. I on the other hand, am glad that disaster was averted. If we’d lost to an 0 – 7 team, there would have been an implosion.

The Raiders (rumored) inquiry about trading for DT Fletcher Cox (1 – 0 – 0 – 0), would have probably picked up momentum. Head Coach Nick Sirianni would probably have to fire his Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon, to keep from losing the locker room. Deafening calls for Sirianni’s head by the fan base, would finally force owner Jeff Lurie behind a podium, to issue some sort of statement.

It would have been a shit show.

Instead, we’re left to wonder if this new outlook on Offense, will be enough to beat the Chargers and get us to 4 – 5. We’re left wondering if we’re going to attack more on Defense, from now on. On the whole, it’s not a bad place to be.

RUN THE BALL!

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/03/15
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, NFL, Offense, Players, The 12. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

WE’RE heading into the 2021 season with a largely unproven QB in Jalen Hurts. Long established NFL wisdom is that a strong running game is QB’s best friend. This goes double for a young QB. Even if our run game isn’t particularly strong, Hurts needs it to be at least convincing.

The difference between strong and convincing? If an offense can typically rely on their run game in running situations to produce decent yardage, that is a strong run game. A convincing run game means that the offense calls enough run plays, to keep the defense from playing exclusively in pass rush mode.

The Eagles have to call enough runs to keep the defense from teeing off on our QB, and give him enough room, and time, to operate. Our Offense has to keep opposing defenses guessing. This also helps make play-action more credible. (See: THE 12 #4)

Last year Hurts looked at his shakiest while IN the pocket. Without a convincing run game, defenses will scheme to keep him there, all at once taking away what makes Hurts dangerous, and forcing the Eagles to rely on him strictly as a passer.

If the Eagles expect to see any measure of success from our QB, he needs a convincing run game to set the table for him. Especially since he’s going to run a lot of play-action bootleg, and RPO stuff. If it develops into a strong run game, great. Excellent! But even if it doesn’t, we need to stick with it for four quarters.

GET UNDER CENTER

Posted by The BEAST on 2021/02/28
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, NFC East, Offense, The 12, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

PLAY-ACTION makes a mobile QB more deadly. However, we have to be better at selling the run, in order to make our play-action more effective. On first and ten or in short yardage situations, we have to make opponents believe that a QB Sneak, a HB Dive, etc. is immediately on the table. All of that is far easier to sell with a QB lined up under Center, vs being in the Shotgun or the Pistol.

When a QB uses play-action from the Shotgun or Pistol, he has to thrust it forward to the RB. Generally with both hands on the ball to prevent a fumble. A defensive lineman who sees two hands on the ball, immediately knows it’ll be a fake. The fake doesn’t sell, and the QB ends up sacked. Sound like something you’ve seen?

From under C, when the QB fakes, he turns his back to the defense. This helps hide the ball momentarily. A defensive lineman has to honor the hand-off, and identify whether or not the RB truly has the ball. That right there, that second’s pause, helps slow the pass rush and gives an offensive lineman a chance to secure his block. (Which we are always thankful for!)

During a real hand-off, what happens? The QB clears out of the way, and no one really chases him because they’re chasing the ball. When it’s a fake, the QB can take his clearing momentum and turn it into a bootleg. This gets him far away from pressure, and gives him a clear view of the field. In which case he can throw it, or pick up some quick yardage with his legs.

Lining up under C makes play-action more dangerous, because it is the most legitimate alignment to run from. Again, your QB Sneak, your HB Dive, yadda and so forth. This is especially true for teams that run 12 Personnel (1RB, 2TE). With the Eagles being a team that is still rumored to favor such a package, lining up under C needs to be the rule and not the exception.

FOUR THINGS: WK 8: EAGLES – COWBOYS

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/10/29
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Players, Preview, Rivals. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

AFTER beating the giants, we’re looking to keep the win streak alive! Getting to the Cowboys QB, will be key to that this week. Fortunately for us, they don’t exactly specialize in protecting passers. This week, DE Brandon Graham (already on pace for a career year) gets to take the lunch money of the Cowboys rookie RT.

Washington being on their bye week, can’t add a win to challenge for the lead. At least not this week. That means whichever team wins this game, will be the top team in the division come Monday morning.

The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics will practically guarantee our Eagles this win. CAUTION: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know football and that’s IT. If you use FT as a gambling tool, you are trying to lose your money.

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

1) Bait the QB: The Cowboys are starting a third string QB, who was a 7th round draft pick, who transferred from a major university (Pitt), to a lesser one (James Madison) because he couldn’t beat out Nate Peterman for the starting spot. Getting pass rush to him will be a big deal, but showing him coverages that bait him into bad throws, would be even bigger.

2) Run the ball: The Cowboys defense is a bucket with no bottom. It’s incapable of containing anything. The Cowboys rank DEAD LAST vs the run. They even gave up 208 rushing yards last week, despite starting the game in a 5-2 alignment. No, you didn’t read that wrong. They ran a 5-2. In the NFL. In 2020. The Eagles need to hand this ball off 25+ times this week.

3) Shark Tank!: Early in the game, establish the middle of the field as dangerous for Cowboys receivers. Their QB is young, new to the scheme, and lacks a pedigree. The bottom line: There is no deep trust or rapport there yet. If he gets a couple of receivers blown up early, it’ll change how they run routes. It will also lower focus on balls, as receivers try to locate where those footsteps are coming from.

4) Put on a clinic: There is no need to finish this team quickly. They have typically died slow deaths at the hands of opposing run games, and an inability to get their defense off the field. There is no need to re-invent the wheel here. Dallas has laid out the blueprint on how to beat them. All we need to do, is actually follow it.

If we do these Four Things, the final score should be:

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – Cowboys 17

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how it went.

#1 RUSH FOR 2,000 YARDS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/02
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, playoffs, stats, The 12, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

1 - RUSH FOR 2000.jpg

RUSHING for 2,000 yards has to be one of the goals for the 2019 season. If another Super Bowl win is our mission, then we must pay respect to a very basic NFL truth. Specifically: If you want to win playoff games, pack your defense and your run game.

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2017, we ran for 2,115. Last year in 2018, we ran for 1,570. See the difference?

During the regular season last year, we won 9 games. In each of those 9 wins, the Eagles ran the ball at least 20 times on non-QB carries. Our lone playoff win also fits into this category. We lost every game in 2018 where we didn’t run the ball at least 20 times.

Since 1999, the Eagles have run for 2,000 yards six times. Of those six times, we reached the Super Bowl twice (one win), and the NFC Championship game three times (two wins). More importantly, we only missed the playoffs, once. (Note: in 1980, the Eagles as a team, ran for 1,995 yards. We lost that Super Bowl)

We need to make a solid commitment to running opponents down physically. We need to make a solid commitment to controlling the clock. We need to make a solid commitment to limiting an opponents opportunities to posses the ball.

The NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a war of attrition. It’s critical that we adopt and adapt the tactics to accomplish our goal. In this case we need look no further than our own recent past.

So let’s get to wearing away our obstacles. Setting a goal of 125 rushing yards per game, and then executing it, does exactly that.

UPDATE: I wrote this on 3/4/19. Since then we acquired RB Jordan Howard via trade. I think the Eagles and I are on the same page right at the outset of these.

Jordan Howard.jpg

Jordan Howard posing with his jersey, standing outside of (ughhhh) my job.

 

FOUR THINGS: WK 16: EAGLES-TEXANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/12/20
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, playoffs, Preview, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WK16-HOU.jpg

MAN, if only we could trade that Rams win, for a win over the Cowboys! Instead, we sit here, as the 7th seed, needing help to climb into the 6th position. A Vikings loss to Detroit this week would be a huge boost, to that hope.

However, there is an even BETTER (though highly unlikely) scenario. If we win out, we’ll finish 9 – 7. If Dallas manages to lose out, they’ll finish 8 – 8. Given that Dallas gets 2 gimmies against Tampa this week, and the giants next week, that’s (as I said) HIGHLY unlikely. But if we sprinkle just a little more Spite,

SPITE bottle

we might be able to help that thing happen. (Though we still have to win out.)

Don’t let Houston’s record fool you. That 10 – 4 mark is about as hollow as 10 – 4 records get. They split with Indy and Tennessee, but aside from that, their only win against a +.500 team was a 19 – 16 win over Dallas. That’s 7 of 10 wins, over teams that are .500 or poorer. So I assure you, we aren’t taking on world beaters this week.

The Eagles have a bunch of key injuries, but what else is new? We’re playing without our first string QB, but our other starter just earned a cool quarter mill by winning a shootout with the #2 team in our conference. There’s another quarter mill bonus on the line of he wins this one, too. So think of this as Jeff Lurie putting a hit out on the Texans.

stinger missile.jpg

Foles going deep to Jeffery.

Yippie-ki-yay motherfuckers.

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

1) Run the ball: Every time I say it, we do it, and we win. Every time I neglect to, we take a football up the ol’ poop chute. We need 25 carries at least! Houston owns the 4th best run defense in the NFL, but they’ve played a bunch of teams that can’t run the ball for shit. Let’s put them to the test.

2) Take away the catalyst: WR DeAndre Hopkins has 1,321 yards receiving. The next four Texans have 1,310 receiving yards. COMBINED. Hopkins’s 11 touchdowns, are 2 more than any other two Texans players combined. If we’re going to slow that offense, Hopkins seems like the right place to start.

Unlike many star WR’s, Hopkins doesn’t have a static side to line up on. He tends to travel, which greatly affects how a defense needs to react to him. Here (just to lay out the concept of how he needs to be played), I have him lined up on the LEFT.

v houston.jpg

In the diagram, Hopkins is lined up across from #32 CB Rasul Douglas. #29 FS/NCB Avonte Maddox is over the Slot (presumably WR Keke Coutee). #24 FS Corey Graham is playing deep in Cover Two. Hopkins has entirely too much speed to play Cover One against. Especially since the Eagles play cushion, not bump. (If you see Graham lined up as a “Center Fielder”, expect to get hosed on that down.)

Our Secondary needs to focus on taking away areas of the field. Allowing completions, but shrinking the size of the holes the QB has to throw into, as there’s less and less field to defend.

Again, Hopkins will travel, so this strategy needs to flip sides as he does. If he lines up in the Slot, the Nickel needs to switch out of Zone, and force him across the middle where the big hits lurk.

3) DE’s set the edges: The Texans use Hopkins to clear out room for their largely unheralded run game. This is why I called him a catalyst , despite him leading the team in scoring. Don’t sleep on this run game! They are 6th in the NFL at running the ball. Keep the Texans run game directly in front of our tacklers. Force their RB to run through creases and tire himself out. Our Defense has done too much East/West running over these last two games, and LB Nigel Bradham is playing with a cast on his thumb. If we’re going to win four straight playoff games, we need to get out of the regular season without running our defense into the ground.

4) Screen Time!: The Texans feature some pretty good pass rushers. Let’s turn that against them, with a few Screens to RB Darren Sproles, a couple to TE Dallas Goedert, and let’s see if we can get RB Josh Adams involved in that as well, off of play-action. No WR Screens please. The Texans are too good for something that lame. If we want to get the ball to WR Golden Tate, throw it down the field for a change. Hey, you know what would be awesome? A QB Screen on 3rd and short.

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:

Houston will try to run the ball. When they see that they can’t, they’ll try to threaten us with the quick pass, to create room underneath. This will be a grind it out game, with just enough of a lack of familiarity to allow each team chances to score.

Last week was a game of balanced offense, which let our defense rest. This week needs to be very much the same. 25 carries says we win, 24 carries says we lose. Period. Head Coach Doug Pederson will call up a formula of something like 24 handoffs, and 31 passes. This is an extremely winnable game for the Eagles, but a lack of commitment to the run will be fatal.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 24 – Texans 26

yeah-bitch

FIXING EAGLES GAMES

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/10/31
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Rants, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

Come_at_me_bro.jpg

THERE are things that this team needs to fix. With that in mind, the Eagles needed this Bye Week now, and not a week later. Injuries at Wide Receiver, Offensive Tackle, the Defensive Line, and in the Secondary, have left the coaching staff scrambling every week, to put out solid units. As a result, almost no aspect of this team is running at capacity.

In the spirit of fixing things, popular fan refrains have been “Trade for X” or “Fire Y”. However, the plain truth is that we need to tweak (not wholesale change, just tweak) a few things, to start getting the most out of our players.

While we generally have had the depth-on-hand to plug a player in here and there, there is a difference between a back-up being ready to play this game, and a back-up being ready to play his game. Our Bye allows the coaching staff to step back, and re-imagine what the rest of 2018 needs to look like, for us to make it back to the post-season.

One of the first things killing us, is not running the ball effectively. Some fans and media types people put it on our RB’s. Folks like me have been blaming the Offensive Line. Turns out both of those camps are wrong. It’s the coaches. It’s our alignments. Those are the reasons why we can’t run the ball.

Look at these game shots:

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-32-24.pngrun play.png

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-28-44.png

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-33-28

Screenshot at 2018-10-30 02-24-34

The disclaimer on this is, I had to cull these shots from highlight videos. (I chose the Panthers game.) Since our running game sucks, the rushing highlights were, well… Yeah these are all passing plays, but they’re still our typical alignments. 

You may recognize that these alignments with the WR’s tight to the O-line, are typical of our Offense this year. We did some of this last year, but this year it seems to be our Default Setting. Go back and look at each picture, and you’ll see 8 and 9 man boxes. A couple of them “loose” boxes. Again those pictures are all from pass plays, but we run the ball out of these same alignments.

This has been great for play-action, but it means zero room inside, on actual hand-offs. That was fine when we had bruising inside runners, to mask the Offenses true intent, but without a physical runner to help, all our smoke and mirrors are easy to see through. While our Offense puts up 22 points per game (21st in the league, 11th worst), the inability to run, has kept us from being explosive.

The simple fix is to spread our formation during the early part of the game when we want to establish the run, then later on when we need to sit on our lead, and close the game out. Rotate the slot receiver and put him in motion to move that 8th man out of the box. When room opens up inside for the ball carrier to find a crack, hit it, and step on the gas.

At that point we could get around to doing #7 from The 12. The Defense could rest during games, and we could seriously talk about running the table for the remainder of the year. Oh yeah. I said run the table. And YES, I’m aware that the Rams and Saints are two of our dance partners.

FIXING OUR RUN GAME

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/09/20
Posted in: Coaching, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

headshot

HEAD Coach Doug Pederson said “We’ve got to get the run game fixed.” That statement came as a shock to me, because I thought the run game had already been neutered. Seriously though, there are a number of things wrong with the run game, but most of it is stuff we can repair in-season. There is no need to start suggesting trades. We can win the division with the roster we already have.

Be warned, this is not a short article. I tried to make it short, but that kept leaving out too many important details. Skimping on details won’t paint an accurate picture. To really understand what’s happening, the coaches need details. If that’s the case, then you can imagine that if we’re really going to understand, us fans also need details. So no shortcuts. Nothing wrong with taking your time, and making sure you do it right.

The first thing we need to do is to drop the cute attitude. Running the ball requires pushing large, aggressive men out of the way, so that another man can produce yardage. It requires brute force. All these wide pitches, Jet Sweeps, all these cute east/west runs…they need to be replaced with more north/south running between the Tackles.

Some of the offensive linemen on this team are mentally soft. Not all of them are eager to impose their will on an opponent, and that’s a problem. An offensive lineman should be a hammer who sees anyone in lined up front of them, as a nail. Any offensive lineman who isn’t eager to mix it up, won’t help much with creating holes up front.

We also need to commit to running the ball early. Early is important, because it wears defenders down as the game goes on. It can be exhausting if the run game gets established early, which is why teams focus on taking it away ASAP. Pass rushing can leave players winded, but it doesn’t physically beat them up like run defense does.

With a pass block, the offensive lineman starts out by shuffling backwards. When he makes contact with a defender, it’s because the defender (with momentum) has run into them. Often while the offensive lineman is still drifting backwards.

With a run block, the offensive lineman surges forward. When he makes contact with a defender, it’s because the (generally bigger and stronger) offensive lineman is dictating where the defender is allowed to be. The defender has to fight through that block, find the RB, and then hopefully participate in the tackle. It’s exhausting.

So we need to adjust our attitude about running, put some hammers out there, and commit to running early. Those are all things we can correct in the next day or so. Those are all internal fixes, and most of them are mental. However there is a physical question that requires an answer: Who are our hammers and who needs to sit down?

Lets start with who needs to sit.

The guy getting most of the blame for this mess is LG Isaac Seumalo. Everywhere you look sportswriters are throwing him under the bus. Even I got in on the act Monday, and that was unfair of me. That was wrong of me. While Seumalo had a horrendous game, he wasn’t alone out there. C Jason Kelce also looked pretty bad. Look at the two of them engaging defenders and sustaining their blocks in these clips. (BTW: I didn’t compile these clips. I saw them a few places on-line and just decided to share them.):

 

I noticed RG Brandon Brooks is generally doing a very good job out there. So it’s not the system, and we don’t need a whole new interior. Take a look a few more clips.

I soured on Kelce early in his career. I’m on record saying that he benefited from playing next to wily veterans like Evan Mathis and then Allen Barbre/Stefen Wisniewski. I’ve said that for years now. Playing next to Seumalo who lacks the experience to compensate for Kelce, we’re now clearly seeing what I’ve been saying. Kelce may be a decent C for systems that require linemen to play in space, but in a more traditional system, his game has too many drawbacks for him to be anything but a liability.

Both Seumalo and Kelce need to sit, if this team is to get the run game on track. That however, means we need two players to step into their places. Those players are Chance Warmack who should get the nod at LG, and Wisniewski who we absolutely need at C. Instantly we’d get more physical up front, and would stop being a lop-sided offense.

We can worry about rebuilding our depth in the off-season. However, to get the run game on track, we already have all the tools that we need. We simply need the will and desire to use our tools. Head Coach Doug Pederson said “We’ve got to get the run game fixed.” This is how we can do it right, and with no shortcuts.