Will Shipley

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FOUR THINGS: WK PS2: EAGLES – BROWNS

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/08/15
Posted in: breakdown, Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

BEATING the Bengals was nice but not amazing, given that their starting defense already sucks so badly. So our back-ups, scoring at will on their back-ups, was a foredrawn conclusion. The Browns should be more of a challenge defensively, so this would be a great chance to set some goals, and see if we can reach them.

Wins and losses mean nothing to the team at this point. All the stakes are with the players. Who can stack a second good week, and almost assure themselves of a roster spot? Who stumbles for the second week in a row, and will be applying for a 9 to 5 by the second week of September. Expect to see some spirited football in this one.

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Now let’s talk about those goals!

RB A.J. Dillon gets loose for few yards.

1) Get Our Run Game On Track: Last week the running was easy. The Bengals were allowing just about anyone in an Eagles jersey to average five or more yards per carry. That kind of success would be nice to see this week as well. RB Will Shipley had 7 carries for 48 yards (6.8ypc). A stat line of 11 – 50 – 4.5 would be nice vs this team.

2) A Sack By A DE: Last week’s sole sack came courtesy of rookie DT Ty Robinson. Glad to see it, but sack production by our DE’s has been relatively low for years now. (The Super Bowl featured a Chiefs o-line that was beyond banged up.) We shouldn’t have to rely heavily on OLB’s to bring down a QB. It limits what we can do defensively.

3) Win the Nod: Someone between CB Kelee Ringo and CB Adoree Jackson, has to pull ahead and at least get the nod as the starter. Having two potential starters has left us with zero potential starter. Corner is a confidence position. No being shown any confidence isn’t giving either man anything to feed off of. That must change.

4) Bench Our Back-up: We know what we have in QB Tanner McKee. Why let him play and risk injury? After all, we do have to decide that third spot, between QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and QB Kyle McCord.

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It’s preseason, so I didn’t bother to do any kind of scouting report. Many of the guys playing Saturday, will soon be getting visits from the Turk. So no team is going to roll out their full package, especially if none of the starters are going to play anyway. AS with last week, I expect the Eagles to use this game as an evaluation tool, while the Browns will prioritize winning it.

Prediction: Eagles 17 – Browns 21

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WARNING: 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 Four Things as a gambling tool, then you are a fool trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

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

 

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP : Commanders

Posted by The BEAST on 2025/01/27
Posted in: breakdown, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, NFC Championship, NFC East, Offense, Players, playoffs, Rivals, Special Teams, stats, Super Bowl. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

PHILADELPHIA is going to the Super Bowl.

EAGLES 55 – Commanders 23

EAGLES STATS:

Passing: QB Jalen Hurts (20/28 – 71.4% – 246 – 1 – 0 / 10 – 16 – 1.6 – 3 – 0)

Rushing: RB Saquon Barkley (15 – 118 – 7.8 – 3 – 0)

Receiving: WR A.J. Brown (8 – 6 – 96 – 16.0 – 1)

Drive Killer: MLB Zack Baun (TD: 0/Int: 0/ FR: 1/ 4th down stops: 0/ FF: 1)

Sack Leader: OLB Nolan Smith (Sacks: 1.0/ FF: 0/ Tackles: 4)

Special Teams Ace: RB Will Shipley KR: 3 – 87 – 29.3 – 0 (36L)) / KC: FF/ Rush: (4 – 77 – 19.2 – 1 – 0)

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

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

RB Saquon Barkley rips a 60 yard TD run on the Eagles first offensive play. LB’s Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu are reminded of why teams keep letting them walk.

1) Torment Single-high Coverage: We didn’t take advantage or refine many opportunities to do this at all. Many of our passes thrown, absolutely challenged one-on-one coverage of the outsides; but many of those were out-breaking routes that started from bunch formations.

We have to find ways to capitalize on loaded boxes, designed to slow down our run game. One of those would be to play with few WR bunches. The earlier Hurts can identify an open man, the faster he can get the ball out. (NOT DONE)

2) Limit the Scrambling: The Commanders QB finished the game with 48 rushing yards, but he only ran the ball 6 times in this game. In the prior two games he ran 16 and 13 times respectively. While he didn’t have a bunch of yards in any of the games, those runs help extend plays and mine opportunities for big plays.

We limited his chances to run and in that way made him play straight-up. The result was that he looked like a rookie who couldn’t match the pace of the game. (DONE)

3) Muddy the Coverage: We did an excellent job of this, especially in the first half. They got a single big passing play on a 36 yard catch and run, but most of what their QB Jayden Daniels (29/48 – 60.4 – 255 – 1 – 1) was forced into, was dumping off to his security blanket, TE Zach Ertz (16 – 11 – 104 – 9.4 – 0).

Just to illustrate how limited we kept Daniels, Ertz saw a full one-third of his QB’s attempts. Once we took away Daniels legs as an x-factor, it exposed how limited his supporting cast was, forced him to read more, and form there the hunt was on. (DONE)

4) Goedert As Hot Read: This one makes me grumble a bit, because instead of discussing general use of TE Dallas Goedert (8 – 7 – 85 – 12.4 – 0), I got hung up on discussing his third down use. While the Eagles put him to excellent use today, most of it was not as a receiver on third down. So we used him like an outlet, but not on the specific down that I wrote about. We did this, but it’s a technical: (NOT DONE)

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This week’s Four Things score was 2 of 4, but it we did enough to post a blowout.

Now we get a week’s rest, and then we travel down to the Big Easy, for a Super Bowl win that won’t be. Bring on the challenge. Our guys wouldn’t have it any other way.

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LG Landon Dickerson started the game at C, but had to leave with a knee injury. But he kept rooting for his guys!

Game Hero: The Offensive Line – The hidden story of the day is 29 rushes for 229 yards (6.3ypc) and 7 rushing touchdowns. That’s not a typo. We ran for SEVEN MOTHERFUCKING TOUCHDOWNS, in one game. And we did it behind a line featuring two injured Centers, tag-teaming the spot.

Game goat: K Jake Elliott (0/1 FG 7/7/XP) – I’m going to go with Elliott here, despite the fact that I didn’t care about the 54 yard field goal miss. Part of that has to do with the fact, that he’s been ass from 50+ this year; but I also wasn’t feeling the vibe in that moment. We’d unraveled on that drive, and were essentially hoping that a struggling guy might save us. So when he missed, it almost seemed like what needed to happen.

On The Whole: The 55 points that we put up in this game were the most point EVER put up in a Conference Championship Game, NFC or AFC. The Eagles own that record. Period. We scored 8 touchdowns in this game. All on Offense.

I made it clear in Four Things, that I wasn’t the least bit worried about Washington, and now you see why. We collected three Defensive turnovers, and one on Special Teams (by a RB who also ran for 77 yards and TD), along with ending two drives on unconverted fourth downs. One being a sack by Nolan Smith.

DT Jordan Davis makes his presence felt during a sack.

How bad was this blowout? If you doubled Washington’s score, and spotted them an extra touchdown and a two point conversion, they would have still lost by a point. So spare me all of that “Super Rookie” garbage. We just dragged his team’s face across stucco, in front of the nation, and he was helpless to stop it. Because what can one man do, against a superior team of superior men? The scoreboard is the answer.

And now onto New Orleans, to add to this poster.