Detailed Game Review – NYG 29, PHI 16
Posted: September 27th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 90 Comments »A Giant Debacle
I thought losing to the Falcons last Sunday was tough. Nope. Getting sucker punched by the Giants in our home opener was a whole other level of depressing.
I knew the Gmen wouldn’t come in and lay down no matter how banged up they were. That team still has a lot of quality veteran players. Those guys have talent and pride. That can be a dangerous combination, as we found out. Showing up with a more talented roster meant nothing to them. The Giants played with a sense of purpose and they played for 60 minutes. We took control of the game in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but had a meltdown in the 4th (stop me if you’ve heard this before).
COACHING / STRATEGY
At the 11:43 mark of the 4th quarter yesterday we led 16-14. The Giants had 232 yards of offense to that point (205 in the 1st half, 27 in the 3rd Qtr). Those yards came on basically 4 plays:
Jacobs 40 yd TD catch
Cruz 74 yd TD catch
Bradshaw 37 yd run
Bradshaw 26 yd run
4 plays led to 177 of 232 yards. We’d largely controlled the game, aside from our mistakes. I’m not excusing the mistakes. We made them and they cost us 14 points. But…to that point, we’d kept things under control and had taken the lead. Unfortunately that’s when Andy made a critical mistake. He went for it on 4th/1.
Go here to read my full thoughts on why that was a bad decision.
We didn’t get the 1st down and the result was that the Giants had renewed hope, not to mention great field position. Horrible, horrible decision by Big Red. The Giants may still have won the game, but that call really changed things instantly.
The defense, which had really come alive after a slow start, finished the game by giving up 2 TDs and a 2-pt conversion. Part of that is on the players. There were times when they were in position to make plays and simply didn’t. We also have to give credit to Giants OC Kevin Gilbride. He did a masterful job of playcalling in the 4th Q and got the best of us on some critical downs. His screen pass on 3rd/11 that went for a TD was perfect. We had an all out blitz and Bradshaw beat that for an easy TD. Juan Castillo was guessing while Gilbride was like the chessmaster just waiting for certain moments.
Marty and Andy didn’t fare any better. Mike Kafka was the QB on our final couple of drives. Andy publicly admitted he was too conservative last week. The Giants heard that. So when Kafka came in they expected the same thing we did…we’ll try to go deep on them. Be aggressive. Kafka threw deep and the Giants were all over it. They picked the pass and went down for the TD that sealed the win. We were down 6 points. Why not dink and dunk for a few plays. Then call a deep play, but stress to Kafka not to put the ball up for grabs. We were fighting last week’s battle this week.
Marty and Andy had some positives. They actually stuck with the run very well. There were more called run plays than pass plays (38 to 37 I think). Someday you can tell your grandkids that you saw the game where we had 8 straight running plays in the 1st half of a game where we trailed 14-0. That’s what’s so frustrating about this game. You can’t really enjoy the positives because of the terrible finish and overall result.
There is another situation that was highly questionable and that was some goal line playcalling. We had a couple of series right down by the goal line and came away with 2 FGs. Shady McCoy only got 1 carry. He also caught 1 pass. Owen Schmitt had 2 carries. There was a QB sneak and a failed pass to Steve Smith. I’m fine with most of the play, but the series when we gave the ball twice to Schmitt was questionable. I loved giving him the first run. That’s a tendency breaker and something you can catch the D off guard with. Owen got to the half-yard line so the play did work pretty well. Giving him the ball on 3rd down was dumb. I cover the play in more detail below. That was getting too cute.
Why not feed Shady the ball down there? He’s not a great GL runner. Shady isn’t a guy who gets the ball and then hits the hole. He reads blocks and runs to daylight. During the game Tony Siragusa compared him to Barry Sanders for his ability to make jump cuts and to make defenders miss. That stuff is great, but not at the GL. That’s a compressed area where the Safeties are in the box. You can’t get wide down there. You must run N-S. I’ll write up a post on Shady as a GL runner later on.
My biggest frustration is not involving Ronnie Brown more. He’s bigger. He’s a N-S runner. If you need half a yard, that’s the guy I would feed the ball to. Put Todd back at LG. Put King Dunlap at RT. Then go I-formation and run left behind Todd/Jason. I think you can get half a yard.
OFFENSE
3 things killed us.
1 – We went 1 for 5 in the Red Zone.
2 – We had 3 turnovers. One cost us 3 points and another set up the Giants with a short field that helped lead to a TD.
3 – We had no huge plays. Our longest play was 24 yds. Giants had 5 longer than that, including 2 TDs of 40 or more.
PLAYS
* 3rd/6. Opening drive. Blitzer comes free up the middle. Vick makes great move and guy goes by him. Vick moves up, sees Steve Smith open. Vick throws a laser his way. Bounces off Smith’s hands and is picked off. Costly. We were in FG range.
* 2nd/GL. Mid-2nd Q. We go play-action and then throw middle screen to Shady. His back was to the GL and the action. Blockers were to the right, but there was room to run left. Shady went right and was tackled. That might have been the design of the play so I can’t really fault him. Possible TD if he goes the other way.
* 2nd/10. Late in the half we’d driven to the Giants 11. Shady started up the middle, then bounced out left and did all kinds of stuff before finding a seam and running for the TD. There was no great individual blocking. Shady just went Shady on them. Couple of notable things. Celek lined up right but went left as the play got started. He ended up blocking Boley as Shady cut back. Good hustle from Brent. JPP was calling for a holding flag on Jason. Should have been paying attention. He had a chance to tackle Shady after he had cut back toward the middle. You wait and complain after the whistle.
* Late in the half Vick went down on 3rd down. We had no timeouts and time was running down. Had to kick FG. The OL were milling around. Celek got them alerted to the situation. Vick stood there on the field, as if he wanted another play. Celek had to order him off the field. Henery and the FG unit got out there with seconds to spare and he drilled the kick. Weird, but it worked.
* Bizarre play in the mid-3rd. Vick went back, as if to hand off. Shady, Schmitt were looking the other way. The OL took off upfield blocking like it was a run play. Vick followed them for a few yds. DB knocked the ball loose, but it went right to Jason Peters who caught it and went forward a couple of more yards. Gain of 21 on the play.
* 1st/GL. NYG 2. Late 3rd. First play came out of I-right. Ran FB dive. Had Schmitt cut off the backside as the line flowed right. Great call. FB is underused in situations like this, but you can only do it so often. Schmitt came close to scoring, but was ruled down at the 1/2 yard line.
* 2nd/GL. Ran QB sneak and they stuffed it, but there was offside penalty. We then ran it again on new 2nd/GL play. Looked like Vick scored, but there was no TV angle that showed the ball across the line. Couldn’t challenge.
* 3rd/GL. Got cute. Went back to the FB. Dumb. Schmitt got the ball at the 3. He’s now got to get 3 yds with 11 guys coming after him. Low percentage play. Kelce got driven back off the ball and that really blew things up. TFL.
* 4th/1. We lined up in Ace formation. Giants had 4 DL. 2 LBs were in middle. Had defenders on both edges, so as not to let Shady get wide. Shady had killed them all game with cutbacks to the backside. He tried that again, but someone was waiting for him. There was some room to the left side, between Harbor and Peters. Not sure if that hole would have closed before he got there, but that’s where he should have gone. Shady got greedy and went for the big play one too many times. Just needed the 1 yd.
VICK — Mike looked sorta funny. Some people thought he had post-concussion symptoms. I just thought he had one of those games where he couldn’t get into a good rhythm. Those happen to QBs from all teams from time to time. The guy then gets frustrated and it seems like he’s not all there. Overall was 16-23-176. INT, but no TDs. Ran 7 times for 31 yards. Used the hard count effectively. Was able to get the Giants offside a couple of times and it affected them.
Had good run on first drive. Made LB look silly. The guy thought he had the right angle on Vick, then boom.
Made awkward throw over the middle toward Maclin on first drive. INCL. He was covered by LB, but the guy was positioned perfectly. Mac had no chance. Dumb throw by Mike. Shady was in the flat wide open.
Forced the ball over the middle to open 2nd drive. Almost picked by Boley. Seemed like Vick didn’t see him, but not sure how.
Made a pretty impressive throw in early 2nd in RZ. Giants DT was bearing down on him, but Vick held the ball until Avant came open. Hit him for a gain of 8.
Had 3rd/GL throw to Smith tipped and almost picked off. Not sure the throw was going to be good anyway.
Made good blitz read and got the ball to Maclin on the left side for an easy gain of 13.
Bobbled snap, then picked it up and run up the middle for 5 yds.
Threw a strike to Maclin over the deep middle for 24 yds late in the half.
Made a heckuva throw to DeSean on 3rd down just after halftime, but he dropped it.
Made a subtlely great throw to Mac in the mid-3rd. Had to get the ball over the LBs. Had to hit Mac on the move. Also managed to put touch on the ball. Play went for 23.
Scrambled left in the late 3rd and found Avant open at the 5. Got him the ball and set up 1st/GL.
KAFKA — Came into the game in the 4th, about 8 mins left. First pass was a deep ball to DeSean that was picked. Forced throw. Got hit by DT as he threw it. Best throw came when he hit Smith for gain of 19. Forced a ball to DeSean after that and it was picked off. Game over.
SCHMITT — Good game. We ran several dive plays with Schmitt. He did well on 3 of them, was stuffed on the 4th. Good blitz pickup of DB in mid-2nd. Most impressive play came when he caught a pass in the left flat. Ran for the 1st, then hurdled a CB and added an extra 5 yds on the play. Good stuff. Got 13 on the play.
MCCOY — Great game. 24-128. Ran for 11 yd TD. Caught 3 passes for 13 yds. Words won’t do some of his runs justice. Go watch highlights. Sometimes out-thinks himself. First play of the game was a screen. Shady had a trio of blockers. He wanted to get behind them, but had pursuers to deal with. Should have gone outside. Would have only gotten a few extra yards, but had room. Shady wanted to cut to the middle for some huge play. Had to settle for 9 yds. We ran a direct snap to him with Brown as Wildcat QB. Shady had room outside, but cut back to the middle. Got a few yds on the play. Got 13 yds on run on 2nd drive. We used the ghost reverse and it froze the backside DE. Easy run for Shady. Got 9 yds on a run in the early 2nd when he bounced the run way out to the right side. Got through one tackler on the edge and then ran to the sideline for 9. Had a great run on 3rd/2. The line flowed left. Shady went to the right. There was a big cutback lane just off Todd’s hip. Shady saw Kenny Phillips coming up. Shady probably should have just run straight since we just needed 2 yds. He decided to bounce wide of KP. Phillips got a good hit on him and tried to wrap up, but Shady is so strong in the lower body that he ran right through the tackle and got into space. He ended up getting 11 yds on the play. Ran for 21 right up the middle on play in early 4th. Looked for a second like he might go all the way, but the S came in quickly and made a good stop.
BROWN — First carry came in early 2nd Q. Got tripped as he went through the line. Had a lot of room if he’d been able to keep his feet. Just got a couple. Next play was a run to the left side. Just got a couple. Giants played it well. Final carry came a few plays later when he ran left. Had no room, but fought for a yard.
D. LEWIS — Got a carry in the early 4th and ran for 3 yds.
DJAX — Mainly a decoy in this game. The Giants changed their gameplan on us and didn’t blitz as much, but did keep Safeties over the top to limit DJax. It worked. Finished 2-30. Ran the toss play to him on first 3rd down of the game. Tuck read it perfectly, but Djax was fast enough to circle deep and still get around him for the 1st. Caught a 1st Q pass over the middle. Made a great catch in the late 1st Q. Vick threw him a strike in heavy traffic. DeSean was able to snatch the ball and make a clean hands catch. Had to really extend for it. Got 17 yds on the play. Used DeSean on a ghost reverse in the early 2nd Q. Shady cut back his way. DeSean saw that and hustled upfield to block. Didn’t end up affecting play, but it was good to see him thinking like that. Could help on play in the future. Bad drop on 3rd down just after halftime. Vick stood in the pocket and made a really good throw. Hit DeSean in the hands. Would have moved us out near midfield. DeSean did have an impact in the game. The DBs staying back opened up the middle for Maclin on several plays.
MACLIN — Good game. 5-69. Caught short pass over middle to move the chains on 3rd/2. Similar play to his final drop in ATL. Nothing fancy, but must have felt good to make the grab this time. Had our long play of the game, a 24-yd catch. Did a good job of getting open on intermediate routes. Strained his hamstring late in the game and missed some time.
COOPER — Played for Maclin late. No catches or throws coming his way.
AVANT — 4-33. Typical Avant game. Just got open and made solid catches. Caught first pass in Red Zone in early 2nd. Just sat down in traffic and Vick hit him for 8. Caught a short pass late in the half. Looked like he had a chance to get out of bounds, but fought for a couple of yards. Wasn’t a gimme that he’d get out, but I wish he’d focused on that. Set up 1st/GL with a catch in the late 3rd. Got open as Vick scrambled. Jason caught the pass and immediately went upfield to secure the 1st down. Smart.
SMITH — Made first big mistake as an Eagle. Steve had pass go off his hands on opening drive. That was picked off and it came in the Red Zone. Ugh. Caught a short pass on 3rd down in the 4th Q. Got 8 yds on 3rd/9 and set up the fateful 4th/1 play. Caught a 19-yd pass from Kafka.
CELEK — Good block of LB on 3rd/1 RZ run. Gave Shady room to run. Caught short dump pass from Vick and got a couple of yds on the play. Good block of Rolle on run play. Sustained the block. Eventually turned to shoving match and Brent put him on the ground. Rolle then got called for a penalty for not stopping with the whistle. Caught a pass from Kafka and finished 2-9. Called on to block a lot and was up and down with that.
HARBOR — Caught one pass for 17 yds. Came on 3rd down in mid-2nd. Got open up the field. Vick’s throw was a bit off, but Clay adjusted and caught the ball as he went to the ground. Had a poor in-line block of Rolle on run play that led to Shady getting tackled for no gain in the mid-3rd. I’d like to get him the ball a couple of times a game. Good potential.
PETERS — Good game. Kiwi shot gap and Jason couldn’t get to him in time. Shady stuffed on early run play. Smart play on 2nd drive. Giant came across line due to hard count. Jason moved and refs threw the flag on them. Free 5 yds. Strange play on 3rd/11. Jason was slow out of his stance, almost as if he had wrong snap count. JPP flew by him. Jason got a hand on him and slowed him a bit, which allowed Vick to get wide momentarily. Ended up getting sacked. Great seal block of DE on 3rd/1 run in the RZ. Allowed Shady to get the 1st. Jumped offside late in the half.
MATHIS — Good block of LB on Shady run up the middle. Effective block of Canty to open the 3rd Q. Let the guy go wide, which gave Shady a cutback lane. Had a sloppy block of JPP on pass play. Looked like he could have sustained it better, but got too casual. Guy didn’t hit Vick, but pressured him. Got beaten by Jimmy Kennedy on run that came to his side. TFL. Good block of DT on Shady’s run in the early 4th. Good seal on the play.
KELCE — Mixed bag. Had some terrific blocks, but also got pushed around at times. There was an early play where Jason was trying to hurry Vick to call for the snap. A Giants DL was offside and Kelce wanted to snap the ball and get the free yds. You could hear him yelling at Vick to hurry up. Good on LBs, as usual. Joseph beat him in pass pro up the middle and flushed Vick. Bernard got off the ball quickly on run play. Jason walled him off and that gave Shady room up the middle to get 1st down. Poor block of Joseph on 2nd/GL play where we threw middle screen to Shady. Jason needed to wall off his DT. Let him get to the inside and make the tackle. Got driven into backfield on run play late in the half, but it didn’t hurt Shady. On a run play Jason drove LB Boley 5 yards away from play. Locked on and just kept his feet moving. Really pissed off Boley. Sustained contact on defender for 10 yds on the Vick/Peters fumble/run play. Really impressive. Played LG on final drive due to cramping by Mathis. Got beaten by JPP for sack.
DeVAN — Good block of LB on Brown run to his side in early 2nd. Great block of DT on Shady’s run of 21 in the early 4th. Moved his guy out. DT beat him on Kafka’s first play and hit Mike.
HERREMANS — Good game. Overall was solid in pass pro. Had false start that turned 3rd/6 into 3rd/11. Vick was sacked on the subsequent play so that was a drive killer. Bad penalty. Good block of Boley on run play gave Shady room up the field. Got 10 on the play. Jumped offside late in the half, right after Peters did it. Had a very good block of LB on Shady run in the mid-3rd that went for 11 yds.
J JACKSON — Came into the game on final drive. Mathis got hurt and Kelce slide to LG.
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DEFENSE
* Castillo blitzed in this game. Saw the success that the Rams had and copied it. Mixed results.
* Giant burned blitz on 2nd drive for 15 yd run. We created a gap and that happened to be right where Bradshaw ran.
* Giants burned it for TD on screen pass late in the game.
* Didn’t force any turnovers.
* We did come up with 3 sacks. 2nd in the NFL with 12.
* Controlled Brandon Jacobs. He went 7-19. Bradshaw was 15-86, but 63 yds came on 2 runs. DTs didn’t get much penetration, but they did eat up blockers.
PLAYS
* 3rd/2. We blitzed DRC off the edge. Eli threw ball to that side and Cruz caught it. We’d been burned for the 1st down, but Coleman was in position to make the tackle. For some reason he came in high and made a horrible tackle attempt. Cruz busted loose and took off up the sideline. Nnamdi was in position to make the play. He read Cruz and said afterward he expected him to cut back inside. Cruz did just that, but Nnamdi was in poor position and Cruz got by him. Some have faulted Coleman, who’d hustled back into the play, for taking Nnamdi out. No way. Nnamdi screwed up on his own. Kurt hit him after Cruz was pulling away. Complete and utter disaster.
* 3rd/11. Late in the game. All out blitz by us. Screen pass. Bradshaw got the pass and had a wide open path to the endzone. Ugh.
COLE — Good game. Had 5 tackles and a sack. Got the best of 2 blocker on opening play to help bottle up Bradshaw. Got thrown to the ground on the TD pass to Jacobs. LT put his hand on Trent’s back and pushed. 9 of 10 times that is called holding. This was the 1 exception. Got a gift sack in the early 3rd. Rolle blitzed and Eli spun right into Trent’s waiting arms. Cute couple. Chased down Bradshaw on run play to the other side of the field. Great hustle to make that tackle. Should have been credited with TFL on run play in mid-4th, but ruled no gain. AB tried to cutback and Trent was there to get him. Giants tried to burn Trent with Flip 90 late in the game. He made a great play to get AB for no gain.
PATTERSON — Helped to stuff run on opening play. Helped to stuff a screen pass before halftime. Stayed with his blocker and gave the RB nowhere to go.
JENKINS — Got off block and grabbed Jacobs by lower legs on run play up the middle. Used a hard inside move to beat Snee and get sack of Eli late in the half. Got held by Snee on pass play in the early 4th, but no call. Used inside move on him and Chris had his arm up by Cullen’s neck as he tried to go by. Got to Bradshaw in the backfield on run play in late 4th. Came up with a sack, his 4th of the year.
BABIN — Had 3 tackles, sack, and TFL. Mixed bag vs the run. Had a chance to tackle Bradshaw on cutback run, but missed him. Got TFL late in the half when he got to Jacobs in the backfield on screen pass. Assist to Patt on the play. Really hustled in pursuit. Got in on a lot of plays. You can question some things about Jason, but never his motor. Came up with a big sack to open the 4th. 3rd/medium play. Jason got inside the RT and reached for Eli. Got him by the facemask, but no penalty was called. After the quick grab Jason got free and sacked Eli. Flew downfield in pursuit and tried to get a kill-shot on Nicks. Hakeem went to the ground just in time. Looked like Jason was shot out of a cannon on the play. Screwed up on the next play and let AB get out wide to his side. Jason went inside and left the edge open. Set the edge well on 4th Q run and created TFL opportunity.
DIXON — Quiet game. Fired upfield on 2-pt run. Got penetration and had a chance to make the play, but for some weird reason he spun away. I have no idea what he was thinking.
LAWS — Hustled on screen pass to Bradshaw and had a chance to tackle him, but whiffed. Went low and tripped up BJ on run play in the late 3rd. Not pretty, but effective. Fought through a double team and got pressure on Eli on 4th Q pass. Unfortunately the ball was out and it was the TD pass to Cruz.
HUNT — Played as backup DE. Flew off edge as LDE and got by RT in mid-2nd. Got piece of Eli’s jersey and affected his deep throw to Nicks. Pass ended up incomplete. Good burst on that play.
CHANEY — MLB. Not a good game. Was in on 4 tackles (3 solo). Too sloppy. Missed tackles hurt us a couple of times. Helped bottle up run on opening play. Took on blocker in the hole and held his ground. Had trouble getting off block on 2nd drive when Bradshaw ran to our left for 15 yds. Read cutback run by Bradshaw on 2nd drive, but whiffed when he tried to make the tackle. Got off block and stopped Jacobs for short gain on run up the middle. Tackled AB after gain of 9 in the early 3rd. Got blocked initially, but recovered to get the tackle. Missed tackle of AB after short pass over middle. Play should have gained 2 yds. Went for 26. Tackled Nicks after catch over middle in the early 4th. Got blocked by Snee on 3rd/2 run in 4th and was completely out of it. Tackled AB for short gain in the late 4th.
MATTHEWS — WLB. Hustled outside on screen pass where Bradshaw was split wide. Got sealed by OL, but forced Bradshaw inside to the pursuit. Got utterly burned on PA pass. Eli faked ball to Jacobs, then Brandon released downfield. Casey stared at Eli for a second before realizing his mistake. Easy pass. Nice catch by Jacobs. TD. Made good tackle of Jacobs to open the 3rd drive. Came upfield and grabbed him by the ankle. Took a few other guys to get BJ completely down. Got in on tackle of Bradshaw on inside run on 3rd drive. Read short pass to Jacobs well and came up and made the tackle. Helped that Jacobs slipped a bit. Good read, quick reaction. Attacked the FB on 3rd/2 run in the early 4th. Slowed Jacobs down, but couldn’t make tackle. Finished with 3 solo tackles. I’m seeing progress from Casey, but his mistake cost us a TD. He’s not diagnosing plays quickly enough on a consistent basis.
FOKOU — SAM. Blitzed on 2nd play of the game and got a hit on Manning, but it wasn’t a big shot. Helped get Jacobs by the ankles on run up the middle. Chased down Bradshaw after short pass turned into gain of 26. Suffered some kind of arm injury on the play. Had 2 tackles. Quiet game.
K CLAYTON — Played in some dime looks (6 DBs plus him). Helped tackle Bradshaw on 3rd/1 run in the the 4th Q. Gave up 2 on the play.
JORDAN — Took over SAM when Fokou went out for short period. Made tackle of Jacobs on inside run play on his first snap. Came up and made a good stop.
ROLLE — Played in the Nickel early on, then got into the base defense at times. Missed tackle of Bradshaw in the mid-2nd Q. Read the play and slid over to the spot, but wasn’t prepared for Bradshaw’s speed. Made a simple hustle play in the mid-2nd. Eli hit TE in the flat on 4th/short. The guy fell on his own and was less than a yard away from getting the 1st. Rolle hustled out there and tagged him to end the play. All the TE had to do was roll forward for a yd. Hustled over to tackle Bradshaw on screen pass late in the half. Read it quickly, reacted quickly. Blitzed in the early 3rd. Was unblocked and should have gotten the sack. Missed, but did get Eli to spin into Cole and Trent got the sack. Giants tried to hit the FB on a wheel route down the field in the early 4th, but Brian had it well covered and knocked the ball away. Similar to Casey’s play, but Brian played it well. Had 2 solo tackles.
COLEMAN — Made a colossal mistake. Went to tackle Victor Cruz after short catch on early 3rd down and missed. Tried to hit him up high for some reason and Cruz escaped with ease. TD for the Giants. I have no idea what the hell Kurt was thinking. All he had to do was wrap him up and put him down. Got benched after that and deservedly so.
ALLEN — Took over for Coleman in the 2nd Q. Slow start. Bradshaw gave him a wicked stiff arm that put Nate on the ground. Had a deep ball thrown his way in the mid-2nd. Wasn’t in bad position, but let the WR get by him at the last second and make a play for the ball. Luckily, pass was incomplete. Took sloppy angle on short pass to Bradshaw that busted out for long play. Turned to run, but Fokou knocked him down. Came up and made good tackle of Bradshaw right at the LOS in the early 4th. Went low and got him down.
J PAGE — Started off playing well. Broke up pass to TE on 3rd down on opening drive. Made open field tackle of Bradshaw on 2nd drive after he’d gotten into space. Came up and tackled Bradshaw after short gain on screen pass. Made poor tackle attempt on Bradshaw’s long gain in 2nd Q. Was in position to make solid tackle, but dove for some reason. Dumb. Played in the box on 4th Q run. Lost sight of Bradshaw and let him get out wide for the 1st. We should have stuffed him for no gain or a loss. Jarrad did make the tackle or we’d have given up another big play. Was there to help Nnamdi in coverage on Cruz’s 4th Q TD. Jarrad was just a step late. Got away with a facemask on the play. Called for PI on Giants first 2-pt try. Finished with 3 solo stops.
ASOMUGHA — Another uneven performance. Played physical press coverage on 2nd play of game and Eli had to throw off target since the WR wasn’t open. Played in the slot on the opening 3rd down. Eli threw deep to Nicks in the mid-2nd. Nnamdi was outside and Allen inside, but Nicks still almost pulled off the grab. I don’t think Nnamdi is used to this much action coming his way. Gave up completion to Nicks for 9 in the early 4th. Gave up TD pass to Cruz in the early 4th. We were in zone, but Nnamdi was right there to make the play and didn’t. Missed the ball by inches…but still missed it. Great players have to make that play.
SAMUEL — Got burned on 2nd drive. Giants threw PA pass and used double move. Asante bit and WR went right by him. Safety bit up and the play was there, but the throw was off. Got lucky. Tackled well in the game. Took down Nicks after a gain of 9 on a quick throw on the 2nd drive. Came up and made a good tackle of Jacobs on run play in the late 3rd. Held him to just a couple of yards. Shocking to see after last week where Sammie hid on some run plays. Almost got TFL on Bradshaw in mid-4th. Got him down, but AB managed to get a couple of yds on the play. Tackled Cruz after gain of 7 on 4th Q pass play. Injured their TE late in the game with a shoulder hit/tackle. 4 solo stops in the game.
RODGERS-CROMARTIE — Hustled in pursuit and made strong tackle of Bradshaw after gain of 37 yds. Had a chance for huge play in the mid-4th. Giants ran toss play on 3rd/1. DRC flew upfield and had Bradshaw for a loss, but couldn’t make the tackle. Costly mistake.
HANSON — Played in some dime packages. Made tackle of Nicks on 3rd/9 and kept him short of the sticks.
SPECIAL TEAMS
CHAS HENRY — Had 2 punts. Averaged 45 yds per kick.
ALEX HENERY — 3 of 3 on FGs. 21, 38, 21. Showed excellent focus, composure on kick before half when he had to run on late and kick in a hurry. Good depth on his KOs.
PR — One PR for 13 by DJax. Another kick they kept away from Djax and it went out of bounds. Short kick that gave us good FP.
KOR — 2 for 45 by Lewis. No bad decisions. He’s improving. Looks more confident out there.
MISC —
* Half our stinkin’ team jumped offside on FG attempt in the late 4th. That gave them a 1st down and led to a TD to completely put the game away.
* Did give up 33 yds on one KOR to Devin Thomas.
A lot of people are down on Matthews, but I think Chaney has been more disappointing this year. I’m not saying Matthews is a good player, I think its time to see Rolle and Clayton get more action. So this is basically how I pass the blame on the defensive collapse:
Jacobs TD- 100% Matthews
Cruz 70 yard TD – 80% Coleman, 20% Asomugha
Cruz 47 yard TD- 95% Asomugha, 5% Page
Ahmad Bradshaw TD- 100% Babin, 100% Castillo, 50% Laws
It’s funny that you posted this. I have been thinking the same thing lately. Casey Matthews has been a liability. However, he is a rookie who was expected to not set the world on fire. If everyone will recall, this linebacker corps was supposed to be hinged upon Chaney, who was moved out of the middle to better use his talents. He stunk there, as well as Matthews at middle. When you consider that Chaney has blown back in his natural position of MLB, it makes you realize that Matthews is just the goat.
Not a single linebacker other than Rolle has done anything of note so far (at least of positive note). I have no idea if Rolle can handle going from backup to starter, but I don’t think there is much of an argument that he has been the most productive LBer in fewer opportunities.
The part that is troubling the most about our defense right now though is the fact that 3 lbers and 2 safeties are playing bad football. That’s 5 out of 11 starters in the base defense, all in the middle of the field. Unless these guys can improve dramatically over course of the season (or someone is brought in from the outside) our defense is going to have a tough time.
Right on Iskar! The tragic thing about this is that our wide 9 scheme serves up our weakness to opponents on a silver platter. If the game is close, the other team can and will still run the ball on us…effectively. Teams can easily see how to attack our defense with relatively conservative offensive schemes. While I love our ability to get to the QB without blitzing, the middle of our D (LB’s and S) is playing so bad right now that these conservative offensive plays can keep them in the game. Although, I am hoping that this was our annual WTF game! As Victor Cruz (undrafted FA in 2010) looked like some sort of All Pro. Typical pain I have to endure as a long suffering Eagles Fan!
The one thing that did impress me was the way they got that FG off in the closing seconds of the first half. Both the rookie kicker and holder kept their cool and didn’t panic.
I never thought I’d say this but we need more Mmmmbop in nickel situations.
I think going with MmmBop in the slot is probably a good idea. Juan is mixing and matching as he tries to find the right combo. That’s okay, but he does need to figure the situation out pretty quickly.
Gilbride- Not a chessmaster. Average player. Juan was just playing checkers.
Schmitt- Really wants to get picked early in pickup basketball at Nova One this offseason.
Matthews- Rookie mistake. Not good. However I can live with it, at least he played better the rest of the game. I will be curious to see if Juan starts the ball of hate/Tommy’s illegitimate child. That way Rolle can become a beast, sign a giant contract and supply Tommy with all the PBR and puddin’ he can eat.
Rueben had a Q&A with Juan yesterday and asked if Jarret is ready to see time. It sounds like while they like him physically right now, he still is struggling to pick up the playbook and nuances of the defense.
Jarrett has been very fortunate to have escaped criticism for so long. As a second round pick, you certainly don’t have to start your first year, but you absolutely should be able to be active on gameday, play on STs, and come in for spot duty in the defense.
I don’t know man. We kept Colt Anderson just for that reason; special teams. With Allen being the one year veteran he is also the next choice. Jarrett would really have to beat out Page for a gameday spot. Or at this point, Coleman?
Jarrett may take Coleman’s spot soon enough. Kurt was okay last week, but struggled the other 2. Major disappointment.
If our safeties continue to struggle do you think there’s any possibility that we see Nnamdi move to safety, let DRC play coverage on his side of the field and have Hanson do the work in the slot that Nnamdi is doing now? Seems like a good way to get our best players on the field.
I hope we switch to a 5-1-5.
Namdi—DRC—Page—Hanson—Asante
____________Rolle
Cole—Jenkins—Dixon—Pat—Babin
BEAST MODE!
Samuel would make a better free safety, at least in terms of diagnosing/reacting. Based on DGR his tackling is getting up there…. but you really don’t want Asante with too many of these.
None of the linebackers are LB that should be playing in a base 4-3 defense behind a wide 9 DL. They over pursue because they lack the ability to take on blockers. This is on AR for choosing to go with this group.
Tommy, can we see a Detailed Game Review blurb for um, Jason Pierre Paul (2 sacks) for the opposing team?
Or maybe one for Sean Lee last night in the MNF game (8 tackles, 1 INT)?
Or one for Earl Thomas in the Seahawks game on Sunday vs. the Cardinals?
Or one for Derrick Morgan in the Titans game on Sunday?
Or one for Cameron Jordan in the Saints game on Sunday?
If you don’t draft well, you don’t win games in the NFL. Period. No amount of free agency spackle can hide the fact that Howie Roseman / Andy Reid are the worst drafters in the NFL right now. While other teams are seeing the fruits of the 2010 and 2011 drafts develop into key contributors, the Eagles have received almost nothing in return for their investments. Most of the draft picks of the past two years are either deactivated on game day (Graham, Watkins, Jarrett), have been cut (Teo-Nesheim, Lindley, Sapp), or are marginal contributors (Allen, Coleman, Chaney).
The Steelers and the Packers rarely trade down to acquire more late-round draft picks but are two of the best teams in the NFL right now because of their ability to make the most of the few draft picks that they have on draft day. Howie Roseman thinks he can be cute and trade down to maximize the volume of his draft picks, but the real key to drafting well is simple: pick the right players. Quality matters more than quantity. Case in point: simply picking Sean Lee in the 2nd round in 2010 vs. trading down for Daniel Teo-Nesheim, Trevard Lindley, Mike Kafka, Rickey Sapp, etc.
Have you noticed the disparity in the draft classes of the Eagles and the Browns ever since Howie Roseman supplanted Tom Heckert as the General Manager? The Browns have hit on a substantial amount of their draft picks in the past two years, especially on defense: Joe Haden (2010) is one of the best CBs in the NFL already; TJ Ward (picked after Nate Allen in the 2nd round of the 2010 class) is maybe the best safety of the 2010 class; Colt McCoy (2010) is their franchise QB. Phil Taylor is, thus far, the best defensive lineman of the 2011 class; Jabaal Sheard is maybe the second best pass rusher of the 2011 rookies thus far. Compare that to what Roseman’s drafts have given the Eagles.
The most important thing for a Coach to do in the NFL is the hire the right people. Andy Reid owes his entire career to maybe three men: Ray Rhodes (who drafted a bunch of players who formed the foundation of those early 2000s Eagles teams), Jim Johnson (whose genius defensive mind single-handedly made Reid teams contenders in the 2000s), and whoever (whether it was Modrak, Heckert, or someone else) was selecting his players in the draft from 1999 to 2009. If you can find a good general manager, and a good defensive coordinator, you will have a long career in the NFL. Andy Reid used to have the best at both positions, but right now he has bums at those positions instead. And it shows.
Until Reid fixes the mistakes he has made in the past two years in his D.C. and G.M. hiring process, he will continue to lose and (hopefully) be ejected from his post. If Reid honestly believes that people like Howie Roseman and Juan Castillo give him the best chance to win, he needs to be ousted. If these are simply grevious errors made on his part and he recognizes them as such, then he needs to rectify them immediately and hire both a new GM and and a new DC, and competent ones this time.
The Eagles’ 1-2 start must be like heaven for you, right?!
“Howie Roseman / Andy Reid are the worst drafters in the NFL right now.”
Gold
Correction…..Solid….Gold. Colt McCoy and Franchise QB in the same sentence….absolute genius nugget.
You disagree?
Why are nearly all of the draft picks from Roseman’s past two drafts either deactivated, cut, or mediocre in their limited playing time?
And why are so many players that he passed on in those two drafts shining for other teams? And players that filled areas of need at the time, who were passed on for players who played identical positions but were seen as inferior prospects?
I.e. passing on Derrick Morgan/Jason Pierre Paul, the consensus top 4-3 DE prospects to select Brandon Graham, who many projected as a high 2nd round / low 1st round 3-4 OLB prospect… or passing on drafting Sean Lee to overdraft some unknown prospect named Daniel TeoNesheim… or drafting Jacquian Jarret higher than the 4th round, which is as high as most draft analysts pegged him…
Yes. I disagree with your assertion that Andy/Howie are worse drafters than every other team in the league.
I would say the Chiefs have drafted worse (Eric Berry and Tony Moeaki are hurt therefore, they are busts). The Colts (among others) have not drafted well recently.
If we are only looking at the previous 2 drafts, I would say the Eagles are about average, but we need more time to evaluate.
I am more or less satisfied with the general level of talent on the team. I am not too happy with the execution and decision making at this point (both primarily coaching related).
Morton, I agree that the current status of the picks from 2010 and 2011 have me a bit concerned at this point in time. However, the knee injuries for Graham and Allen will take some time so it is too early to say that they are ouright McDougleesque busts. I will reserve that judgement for later. As for outright saying that Andy and Howie are the worst drafters in the league as in #32 you would have to line up the drafts of all teams for the last two years and prove that to me. Just becuase a few players that you mentioned from a few teams are having success with players we “could of” drafted doesn’t get me there. Step back from the ledge and lets see how the players develop.
Morton, I agree that the current status of the picks from 2010 and 2011 have me a bit concerned at this point in time. However, the knee injuries for Graham and Allen will take some time so it is too early to say that they are ouright McDougleesque busts. I will reserve that judgement for later. As for outright saying that Andy and Howie are the worst drafters in the league as in #32 you would have to line up the drafts of all teams for the last two years and prove that to me. Just becuase a few players that you mentioned from a few teams are having success with players we “could of” drafted doesn’t get me there. Step back from the ledge and lets see how the players develop.
I’m trying so hard not to be negative and stick to my plan of waiting until weeks 8-10 before i truly judge, but sh*t morton is breaking me down. i’m close to going over to the darkside.
It’s not really that had to find great players we passed on considering around 250 players were selected and we only drafted 11 and 13. The odds are kind of against us.
Yes, but Sean Lee! The Eagles were hoping that Bradley would recover from his ACL tear. How did they think that passing on LB who was ALSO recovering from an ACL tear was the right move?
Clearly, Morton and others would have seen the wisdom of drafting a player in the second round who tore his ACL as the best possible option to compete with our player at the same position was recovering from the same injury.
It was the second round. You have to take risks on talented players.
For example, they took a risk in drafting a 26-year-old rookie with little football experience in the *first* round this year. That risk is arguably greater than drafting a productive, All-American MLB one year removed from an ACL tear in the *second* round.
I have your JPP quotes bookmarked. Just sayin’
I was no fan of Heckert.
But Roseman’s making him look like Ted Thompson.
Have you actually looked at the Steelers draft history? Aside from the draft where they took Woodley and Timmons, they have maybe 3 starters from the past 3 years. Their O line is mediocre (and don’t try to tell me Pouncey is a stud. He may grow into that but he did not deserve that pro bowl berth), and their D-line has 3 aging veterans. Their secondary (aside from Polamalu) is nothing to brag about, and They still have Hines Ward as their starter at wide receiver.
They have a great, great Linebacking corps, and that’s because the Steelers specialize in linebackers. They are ok at secondary (the LBs make up for a lot of weaknesses) with an aging D-line, a fair-poor O-line, and a receiving corps where Hines Ward is still number 1. I know that they are supposed to be the golden standard of consistency etc etc, but I wouldn’t call them the masters at drafting.
Does Herremans play well enough to invoke memories of the Runyan acquisition? Obvious differences as Runyan was the FA and Herremans just a move from RG but I feel that Herremans has a chance to impact our RT position and bookend the line with Peters for a few years.
Also, Shady has to be a top 3 back in the league to watch right now from a talent and results standpoint with AP and McFadden.
Herremans is off to a good start at RT, but Jon in his best years had some dominant stretches…except against Strahan. Todd has brought stability to RT. And Mathis has been adequate at LG. The OL overall is playing pretty well.
Tommy
I know this has been mentioned before but can you please do us a favour and rate all the players? If the players get grades from you, e.g. from 1-10, it will be easier to sum up their performance over the season.
Apart from that, great work as always!
Stat of the week:
the Eagles are on pace to give up 48 TD passes this season.
Since its stat time:
Eli’s QB rating of 145.7 was his career high for a full game. Nice job Juan and co.
Tommy,
I assume Castillo gets the full season to try and turn it around. However, what are your thoughts of him as defensive coordinator? I think he is a good position coach, but the rah-rah, smack the ass/head butt stuff is kind of losing its luster. I would rather we have a thinker/strategist back there and leave the emotions for his assistants and coordinators. I am starting to fear that the screaming and emotions are all that the guy brings. I think he may work his butt off, but that can’t make up for experience and knowledge. Thoughts?
I’m going to write up a column on Juan. Tough subject.
I don’t think we can fairly evaluate him until we’ve seen more like 8 games. Need a good sample size. Spags got off to 1-2 start as DC with Giants and they allowed more points, yards than us. We’ve given up 77 points. Spags gave up 97 in his first 3 gms. He turned out to be pretty good.
I’m not sold on Juan right now, but do think we need to give him a while before we can make a fair evaluation of him.
I never thought Juan was a good offensive line coach either. He was essentially gifted a 1st round LT, one of the best free agent RTs and a 1st round tackle turned guard for a few years before going nutso.
You can use JJ and Herremans as justifications for his qualities as a position coach, but I just don’t see it.
Geez, now I’m sounding like Morton.
I took a look at the Titans during Washburn’s tenure to see who their DLs, LBs and Safeties were — from 1999 – 2008.
During that 10-year period, the Titans generally had a pretty darned good defense.
And, for those 10 years, the Titans also had Jim Schwartz — the Lions current head coach and a well regarded D.C. (I stopped at 2008 because that’s when he left.)
I’ve listed the Titans’ DLs, LBs, and Safeties for several seasons to show that, with a couple of exceptions, they were really a bunch of non-Pro Bowl no-namers — who were very well coached apparently.
1999: 13-3, lost in SB to the Rams.
DLs: Javon Kearse & Henry Ford (DEs), Josh Evans & Jason Fisk (DTs)
LBs: Eddie Robinson, Baron Wortham, Joe Bowden.
S’s: Blaine Bishop, Marcus Robertson
2000: 13-3, best record in AFC, lost to SB champion Ravens in divisional round
DLs: Kearse & Kenny Holmes (DEs), John Thornton & Jason Fisk (DTs)
LBs: Greg Favors, Randall Godfrey, Eddie Robinson
S’s: Blaine Bishop, Marcus Robertson
2002: 11-5, lost in AFC title game to Raiders
DLs: Kevin Carter, Carlos Hall (DEs), Thornton & Henry Ford (DTs)
LBs: Peter Sirmon, Godfrey, Keith Bullock
S’s: Tank Williams, Lance Schulters
2003: 12-4, lost in divisional playoff to eventual SB winner NE Patriots
DLs: Kearse & Carter (DEs), Robaire Smith & Al Haynesworth (DTs)
LBs: Sirmon, Rocky Calmus, Bullock
S’s: Tank Williams, Lance Schulters
From 2004 to 2006, the Titans went 5-11, 4-12, 8-8.
2007: 10-6, lost in the wildcard round to the Chargers (rookie Vince Young at QB)
DLs: Antwon Odom & Kyle Vanden Bosch (DEs), Haynesworth & Tony Brown (DTs)
LBs: David Thornton, Ryan Fowler, Keith Bullock
S’s: Chris Hope, Michael Griffin
2008: 13-3, best record in AFC, lost to Ravens in divisional round
DLs: Kearse & Van Den Bosch (DEs), Haynesworth & Tony Brown (DTs)
LBs: D. Thornton, Steven Tulloch, Keith Bullock
S’s: Chris Hope, Michael Griffin
The two constants for the Titans defense were coaches Jim Washburn and Jim Schwartz.
The LBs were — except for Bullock — are a forgettable group.
The safeties weren’t particularly great.
And the DL was turned over with some regularity.
My take away — and please chime in — is that Eagles are new to this scheme.
The LBs and safeties missed critical off-season training. So it’s going to take time, unfortunately. Consequently, I don’t think it’s the players . . . not after looking at whom the Titans used all those years.
I think it was all about Jim Schwartz. Just like, for the Eagles, it was all about Jim Johnson.
So the question for the Eagles now is whether Juan Castillo can do the job. It’s really all on him. Not the LBs. Not the safeties. It’s on Juan’s scheming and game-calling.
Just a theory.
Here’s another theory: maybe Washburn wasn’t the key to a successful defense? Maybe Tennessee just has better players throughout the defense than the Eagles?
Look at the Titans right now. Despite losing Washburn and Babin, they currently have the #2 rated defense in the NFL. Hmmm.
There’s no way TEN’s #2 D has anything to do with playing the Jags and Broncos is there? Nah, must be getting rid of Washburn and Babin that did the trick.
There’s no way TEN’s #2 D has anything to do with playing the Jags and Broncos is there? Nah, must be getting rid of Washburn and Babin that did the trick.
Opponents at QB through 3 games.
Eagles: Sam Bradford, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning
Titans: Luke McCown, Joe Flacco, Kyle Orton
One is not like the other
Are there supposed to be a huge difference between those two lists? Flacco’s the best of the six QBs listed. Sure, McCown’s the worst, but it’s hardly as though the Eagles have played Brady, Brees and Rivers while the Titans have played McCown, T. Jackson and Andy Dalton.
Marc, I like this analysis and agree with your final poistion that we are new to the scheme and Castillo is new as a DC. However, the LB situation is significantly different. Our starters (I mean all 3) play can be described only as below average or more aptly put, it can’t get any worse. The forgettable linebackers that you speak of from the Titans were at least average and bullock was an all pro selection 3 times making him an above average player. Now we still have a lot of season left so maybe our guys can get to an average level of play, but at this point in time the Titans LB situation is way ahead of what we have.
How in the world are the Eagles going to cover Vernon Davis this week?
Juan Castillo will unveil his new “no-cover” defensive scheme, which involves only playing 4 down defensive linemen and nothing else. The trick, according to Castillo, is to “out work” and “out hustle” the offense, and by playing only 4 players on defense, you show to them just how hard you are willing to work.
Funny stuff. I like funny.
I guess you will wait to tell us what everyone knew we should have done until after the game.
Though a lot of you may laugh at Morton – he brings up very valid points – other than a few decent players which came through the draft most of them have been forgettable in the Reid era – watching the Cowboys game last night and seeing Jason Witten run his routes made me think didn’t we pick LJ Smith over this guy (maybe I am wrong)…Witten will most probably go into the HOF one day (anyone who says Celek is better than him must not be in their right senses)…and Sean Lee deffy looks like the real deal…the Eagles have taken fliers on guys with injury issues – why could they have not taken one with Lee…again JPP looks much better than Brandon Graham (I know I will take flak for this comment since Graham is injured but it is what it is)….since we let Dawk walk the safety issue has been a sore spot…I don’t have confidence that Nate Allen is the answer…Stew looked like a great LB until he had the injury and never came back…Allen had a couple of good games then his performance tailed off and then he got hurt…he has not looked comfortable ever since…has Reid won anything after JJ passed away – JJ covered up a lot of AR’s deficiencies – and now he gets exposed…I just hope I am proved wrong and will happily eat crow
Didn’t FO have Graham rated as the best rookie DE last year? And he was used incorrectly as a DT often.
Eagles coveted Graham. Still think he’ll be terrific. Yes, he did play some at DT in the Nickel/Dime last year. Wasn’t wasted. Did well in there. Disruptive player on the inside.
The problem w/ looking at your own team is that you tend to look at how they screwed up in the draft and come up w/ every guy they passed on. The eagles have definitely struggled to draft certain positions over the years (i.e. DE & WR until their hits on Desean and Maclin) and if I go back and look at all of their misses I can get frustrated. But go look at all other consistently good teams and see how many misses they have. New England has spent a bunch of picks on DBs who have been average to busts. They’ve also struggled to draft WRs. Look at some of their rds 1-3 picks in the last few years who were busts and aren’t on the team: Maroney, Chad Jackson, Terrence Wheatly, S. Crable, Darius Butler, Ron Brace, etc. If you listened to everyone talk about the Pats drafting you’d think they hit on every pick, but they miss a lot. Everyone does. It helps though when you have a top QB of all-time and a prob top 10 coach to cover up those misses.
When you focus on who we passed on and act like everyone else was so smart to take them, you forget to also say, “wow, we got shady in the 2nd round while the genius Bill Polian passed on him to take Donald Brown.” I mean yes Dallas picked Sean Lee, but they’ve been garbage in the draft. They have 2 players out of 12 from their 2009 draft.
We’ve got our hits & misses, but overall I bet we stack up pretty well against the top tier teams as far as drafting is concerned.
My bigger problem is that seem to get too cute w/ how we use some of our players. You get a stud like Asmough (sp) who is a one-on-one shutdown corner and we put him in the slot and zone. Just put his ass on their #1 and call it a day. We draft B. Graham and DE and we keep throwing his ass at DT. Put him at DE and keep it simple for the rookie. Last year we’ve got T. Cole dropping back like he’s a CB on far too many plays. It’s like we want to show how great our schemes are instead of just saying, “okay here’s a stud player what are his strengths, let me emphasize them and see what happens.”
anyway, i’m done venting.
THIS ^
Eagles coveted Graham. Still think he’ll be terrific. Yes, he did play some at DT in the Nickel/Dime last year. Wasn’t wasted. Did well in there. Disruptive player on the inside.
Didn’t FO have Graham rated as the best rookie DE last year? And he was used incorrectly as a DT often.
Yeah, we took LJ Smith over Witten. I was flabbergasted at the time. I thought Witten was a sure thing coming out of Tennessee, and we took a guy from Rutgers.
On the bright side, I don’t think Howie Roseman, being a Gator, would have made the same mistake.
If Andy and Marty want to “get cute” inside the 10 yrd line it should involve Ronnie Brown at QB. You can run him up the gut with a direct snap, run an off tackle option, have Ronnie lead block for Shady. Have Ronnie throw once in awhile…
I don’t know… at this point anything that provides the possibility of getting in the end zone and/or not producing a turnover sounds good to me.
I am all in favor of moving Todd to LG like Tommy suggested when you’re inside the 1 yd line. Maybe even sub in Jam Jax at C for that play?
Tommy,
How did you feel about the decision to go with Kafka when Vick couldn’t go back out? I know Kafka played well against Atlanta, but with Vince active I thought he would be Vick’s immediate backup. We were only down 6 with about 8 minutes left so the game was far from over.
I agreed with the move. Kafka was poised last week and did well. He got practice time during the week and was prepared. He got too caught up in the moment and forced a couple of throws that were picked off. The playcalls didn’t help.
Typical young guy. Has his moments you love and others that make you cringe.
I agreed with the move. Kafka was poised last week and did well. He got practice time during the week and was prepared. He got too caught up in the moment and forced a couple of throws that were picked off. The playcalls didn’t help.
Typical young guy. Has his moments you love and others that make you cringe.
I thought Kafka telegraphed his throws this week. Looked right at his first read and then went there. And got the result you’d expect. More than once. And if I can tell who he’s looking at on TV, an NFL player trained to see such things can tell too.
He’s pretty far down the blame ladder, but he didn’t even give us a chance to win. I’d be all in favor of Young starting if it has to happen.
I guess the real question is not whether our LBs, safeties or scheme is good enough. It is this: Does Juan Castillo really have a touppee? And if so, what type of animal did he skin to get that wonderful pelt?
per Graham, I wouldn’t give up on him yet. He was frequently inside and dropping back into coverage last year. Even with that he led all rookies in pressures. I know pressures aren’t as good as sacks, but was able to get to the QB on a consistent basis. He hadn’t quite developed into a sack monster, but I thought he showed some promise.
I think Washburn may be able to really utilize him once he’s healthy.
Are we going to be the Cowboys of last year? So much hype and almost every analyst picking us for the Super Bowl… and it’s looking ugly. Sounds a lot like the same path Jerry’s Minnions went down last year…
Most analyst were actually kind of against us and few picked us.
Anyway there is one fundamental difference between us and Cowboys of last year, they gave up and quit on their coach, I don’t see that happening here
On that one drive where the Eagles drove the field with the running game, they ran the ball something like 13 plays in a row, then on a 2nd and 9, they lined up in the shotgun with no backs in the backfield and threw.
Am I being too picky, or is that just plain stupid? If you’ve got them on their heels expecting the run, why not go play action if you’re going to pass?
But no, the Eagles like to save play action for 3rd and long situations when it’s obvious to anyone who’s ever seen a football game that they’re going to throw.
Good point and I thought about that during the game. Run, run, run…empty? Odd.
Watkins may make his first start Sunday. Thoughts?
Thank god and hopefully he plays well?
What article or report is this from? Just curious.
Watkins will be the RG at some point. He’s much more talented than DeVan. We just need to make sure Danny is ready to play.
RE: Kelce – “There was an early play where Jason was trying to hurry Vick to call for the snap. A Giants DL was offside and Kelce wanted to snap the ball and get the free yds. You could hear him yelling at Vick to hurry up.”
Shouldn’t he just snap the ball? It’s a free 5 yards no matter if Vick is ready for the snap or not.
Even if its offsides if the result of the play is better than the 5 yard penalty you can take it, i.e. you get a “free shot” as the announcers like to call it.
I know, but that’s not my point. If the center sees a defensive player standing offsides, he should just snap the ball, even if the QB doesn’t call for it. Even if the QB fumbles the snap and turns it over, you still gain 5 yards. Nothing to lose.
What if the refs missed the guy being offside and the ball hits the QB and he fumbles it? The snap needs to be a sure thing when you’re in the shotgun. If the QB is under C, then snapping it right away is more acceptable.
I noticed that as well. It actually gave me a much better feeling about Kelce knowing that he was very aware of the situation. I think he did that when the playclock was running low as well.
Both Les Bowen and Reuben Frank have suggested trying Hanson at safety, thoughts?
Supposedly, Aaron Curry is on the market. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/09/27/aaron-curry-hints-hes-on-the-trading-block/
Any chance we’d have interest? He used to be very highly regarded coming out of college.
Gotta depend on the price, i.e., how high of a draft pick the Sea-squirrels want.
If he’s traded, Curry’ll have missed all of T.C. with his new team. The scheme may be entirely new (like a Wide-9, for instance).
He’s still expensive, even after he redid his contract (per PFT.com).
So give the squirrels a 5th-rounder.
He’s gotta be better than any 5th rounder coming out next year.
Reuben Frank says no chance. Adam Caplan agrees.
I’ve asked around and I’m not hearing anything about a trade.
What was that meme on TATE a few years ago? URRRLAAAKKKKURRZZZZZZ or something like that…
We need that to happen for realsies.
I believe it’s -ZZZZZZZ11111!!!! after the name
Hey Tommy, I’ve just got to say that your game review is outstanding. There is no one else providing this degree of analysis and, without you, there’s a whole bunch of us who would never get this information. Your DGR is so good, week in and week out, that I sometimes take for granted how much time you must invest. Here’s a shout to your hard work and a word of thanks.
Thank you sir. These things do take time, but it can help to understand what happened in a game, good or bad. The old saying in football is that tape usually isn’t as good after a win as you think it will be and isn’t as bad after a loss as you think it will be.
Yeah, I second this. Tommy’s DGR is the only thing I look forward to reading the week after a loss.
We were absolutely battling ghosts from last week with the call on Kafka’s first pick. The second one I chalked up as a hail Mary attempt. Needing 2 scores, there wasn’t much point in throwing underneath. The announcers said all the routes were deep.
We were also battling ghosts on the goalline. The plays to Schmitt were in response to the turnovers where both prior opponents ignored the quick fake handoff and keyed on Vick. Like you said, the first time was a good idea. Teams will see that on tape and have to respect that option. The second time was dumb.
—————
I’d imagine the drive with all the running was an adjustment to the safeties playing deep, and a good one at that. Did it pull them up? I am curious as to why we didn’t continue in that style but also didn’t seem to use it to open up the deep routes
What do you guys think of my proposed solutions at LB and S for the upcoming game on Sunday:
Base D:
LB: Fokou – Chaney – Rolle
S: Page – Allen
Nickel D:
LB: Clayton – Jordan/Rolle
S: Hanson – Allen
Anyone know the word on Jarrett? I can only imagine that they didn’t want to go complete wet behind the hears with Coleman, Jarrett, Matthews, Chaney, and Fokou anchoring the middle of the field. But what we have right now is a fish hook trying to anchor a cruise ship. Doesn’t look to me like Page is playing all that well. He’s slow , frequently a step behind, and has missed more tackles than you’d like from your SS or FS, whatever the hell he is in their system. Either way, I’d rather see a rookie in there learning and making rookie mistakes than a vet who just isn’t cutting it.
C’mon, top three players from the draft inactive, two of which are at positions of dire need. That’s just awful
I know I’m late to the game here….was having trouble with the comments section. First time that I didn’t read the detailed game review. This is one I’d rather forget.
Just some thoughts….hindsight is 20/20 but maybe we should have shelled out the $ to keep Q. I watched him against the Giants the other week and he was making plays left and right.
Most troubling things to me….
• The offense is boom or bust. If we’re not hitting big plays, we’re not moving the ball consistently
• Red Zone struggles continue on offense….when this is year after year, it’s got to be philosophy and play calling, not strictly personnel
• Anyone else beginning to miss Mark Simoneau, Blaine Bishop, Levon Kirkland and Quinten Demps?
• Doesn’t look like D-Jax is getting that big contract anytime soon unless he steps up his game.
• However…how many big plays have we hit in the passing game this year? Looks like teams figured out how to take away the deep ball
• Prediction: Casey Matthews is out of the league in 3 years
That’s all I got for now
The offense is moving the ball fairly well – 6th in overall yards. It’s once they get inside the 20s which is the problem. And has been for years.
Websites worth visiting…
I enjoyed reading your article, many thanks….