PHI at STL – 2nd half
Posted: September 11th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 102 Comments »Eagles up 17-10.
Run defense was terrible early on, but did get better in the 2nd Qtr. Rams finished 15-103. One of those was 45 yard TD. Rest of carries were 14-48. I know a couple of TFLs skew the numbers down, but those plays are part of the Wide-9 concept. Get in the backfield and make plays. The LBs are the big problem. Guys are being over-aggressive and getting in the wrong gaps. That can be fixed at halftime. Get them to settle down and play smart.
The pass rush was good. Only 1 sack, but Sam Bradford took quite a beating and the hits had some effect on him. We did get lucky that the Rams dropped some passes. 3rd down penalties have to stop. Can’t help the Rams out.
Eagles offense was all over the place. There were times when the protection was good and Vick looked sharp. There were other time when the guys looked completely discombobulated. Timing on stretch play runs and run-fakes was very awkward. Vick just missed on a couple of key throws. DeSean dropped a likely TD and then almost made a great catch for another TD.
Biggest play was a strip sack of Vick by Quintin Mikell. Give the Rams credit for that. Well designed play. Well executed. That cost us at least 3 points.
Chas Henry isn’t punting well right now. Not booming his kicks. Alex Henery is 1 of 1. Dion Lewis needs to quit running kickoffs out from deep in the endzone.
Overall, awkward 1st half, but we’re up 7 and I expect us to get settled down at halftime. Only injury to report is Akeem Jordan. He’s likely out the 2nd half.
Run defense got better the longer S. Jackson stayed on the sidelines.
Pass rush does look good, but I’ve been seeing a lot of hands to the face that haven’t been called.
Anyone else really want to see how the Eagles do on a straight up meat and potatoes predictable run? I think they can do it.
The Eagles look more or less like what I expected. Hopefully they get better after the half.
I guess the fear was Vick would take a sack and we’d get no points there at the end of the half? Does anyone else think 9 seconds is enough time to take another pop? What’s “the book” say?
Kicking the FG was smart. Offense isn’t flowing smoothly. Get the points.
Is Steve Smith or Riley Cooper going to even see time with the offense, keep looking for a deep attack and we keep missing
If Desean catches the ball that hit him in the hands along the sideline when he split the cover 2, I’m thinking that’s the long TD catch we’ve been missing. I expect teams to play a lot of cover 2 and protect against the deep ball this year. They want to force Vick to dink and duck and sustain drives. Hopefully, he can do it and not get too greedy looking for the big play.
Come on with the 3rd down penalties!!! Have they been coached at all???
Tommy,
Penalties have been an issue for this team for the last 3 or 4 years. There doesn’t seem to be the discipline there that Andy Reid teams had in the past.
Excellent FG defense there. Some might call it luck, though.
It’d be nice to see the team settle down here with the stop.
Dang you’re a smart dude.
Let’s go score a TD and take control of this game.
Dang you’re a smart dude.
I thought Josh McDaniels did a good job playing calling and keeping the Eagles defense guessing. Looked like Eagles LB’s were being over aggressive and over pursuing, not being manhandled or looking slow. Eagles offense looked out of sync, run defense was abdominal, and yet they are still up. I look for the Eagles D to settle down in the second half and secure a close but nonetheless win.
The reality is for how bad the Eagles played early, and continue to play sporadically, they could easily be up 20+ to 7.
I know people hate “ifs” but if DeSean catches those two passes he has 200+ and 2 TDs.
That one drop was costly, but he is playing well today.
Tommy –
RUN DEFENSE . . . just to be clear: In the 2n Quarter, the Eagles gave up 12 yards (or so) rushing.
The Rams made up for up for the weak 2-Q running by dropping 3 passes. And getting
The stretch play . . . was that part of the deal with Howard Mudd coming over
KYLE DEVAN – gets his name called! Aargh.
RAMS PASS RUSH — keeps getting pushed inside.
Now . . . 1st and goal at the 4.
And we get gimmickry.
VICK IS PICKING IT UP.
We are starting to control the Rams DL.
And Vick is definitely starting to pick it up. He’s getting in a comfort zone.
Time to turn the D-line loose with a 14 pt lead now. This should be fun!
Great to see Trent get a sack. We’ve got 3 today, all by DEs.
Is it at all possible after all this time the Eagles don’t know how many timeouts you get in a half?
These linebackers are going to get killed all year on slants and shallow crossing routes.
Dixon just blew up the middle. If that had gone that way, wow.
Was that near interception worth a challange? It looked like he had the ball, went down and then went out of bounds before the bobble.
I’m really impressed with DeSean moving the chains today – who says he’s only a home run hitter?
TOUCHBACK!
Paige seems to be having a nice game. He’s a real surprise, when they picked him up I didn’t even expect him to make the team much less start. Nate Allen may have a hard time getting his starting job back.
Page is having solid game. Love the fact he made a play in the Red Zone. Our RZ defense was horrible last year. Getting a stop is a good sign.
After watching college ball all day yesterday, it’s refreshing going into a 4th quarter without half the stands idiotically holding up four fingers. Why not do that for the 2nd quarter… or the 3rd?
Seems like they do it for the 1st period the whole game through….
3 Quarters done:
* Pass Rush — great all game . . . without any blitzing.
* Run Defense — since the mid-1st Q — is very, very good.
* Pass Defense on the outside is excellent.
* Pass Defense on the short inside routes — needs work. BUT THAT CAN BE FIXED.
This defense has a chance to be very good.
If they can learn to trust themselves on 3rd down and not commit penalties.
Caveat is this is not exactly the most talented offense out there, especially with Jackson only having one play.
Dumb to run a play action pass on 3rd down. RB wasn’t able to block the right guy.
Play-action also a factor on the Q strip-sack. Seems to cause protection problems if they bring an extra man.
Bad protection caused that back-side blitz sack.
Herrmans picked up the same guy as McCoy.
Not Vick’s fault.
Did Brian Billick just say the Rams “had some sex with the no huddle”???
He’s got marbles in his mouth… and his head.
Never seen a line-referee look across to the first down marker before spotting the ball. Hmm…
That was weird. Strange game.
I didn’t think it was a terrible spot, just interesting that he didn’t trust his own spot and was clearly looking across the field at the markers. Didn’t make me feel great, though…
Babin had 2.5 sacks in 2009 for us.
He’s got 2 in this game.
Excellent observation. He and Wash are quite a pair!
Ronnie Brown time?
Nice call. Hope to see him get several touches on this drive.
We just burned them on their effective blitz with the run. Nice.
Looked like Jason Peters collapsed their entire line on the run. Awesome.
Shady owns the 4th Qtr. Love his ability to read blocks and get upfield.
Now we need to feed the ball to Dion and Ronnie.
Memory caps: Did Gibson make an identical catch diving down the sideline in the pre-season for us two years ago?
Man this line has played so much better than I hoped today. That and Shady looks another step faster /again/ this season. He must have never lifted weights in his life pre nfl.
Not enjoying seeing Asomugha get beat deep twice though..
agree about the line. encouraging. if we can figure out or scheme against the Antoine Winfield Memorial Blitz i’ll feel even better.
How is it all of these 4 year, team captains can be so stupid? We didn’t get a penalty but come on, Coleman.
A personal peeve. Please, please, please don’t celebrate the touchdown until AFTER you’re in the end zone. I simply HATE that. (And yes, I’m looking at you DeSean Jackson.)
Wide 9 with a lead is deadly
Jenkins with a sack! Man it is so refreshing to not be relying on Trent Cole – lots of D-line contributors today.
Was that a Vick slide?!?!?!?!
Why is McCoy still out there? This is tailor made for Brown and Lewis.
Put LeSean on the trophy shelf.
How can a guy who is in the conversation as the greatest athlete in football be unable to master the slide? Eight-year old kids can do it.
Interesting that Juan is calling LOTS of blitzes now
Tommy, what happened with Akeem Jordan?
Why are we letting Vick get hit on a 4th and 11 when we’re up 18 with 2 minutes left? How about a pooch or let’s see what Henery has??
Or just run the ball with Lewis. He could use the touches.
Give it to Swoop, I don’t care, but maybe don’t have the franchise QB stand back there and take a pounding on a meaningless play.
If we get the ball back before the end of the game, I figure it’s time to start building a trade market for Mike Kafka…
But we’ll probably just run it out.
Should we be concerned about Nnamdi? Admittedly I haven’t watched many Raiders games but he got beat deep twice.
He got beat on a fake double-reverse… what was the other play?
I think the Gibson long pass that was reviewed (and maybe when Bradford went out).
Yeah, that was the one. But I don’t think you can downplay how terrific of an effort that was by Gibson. Nnamdi had pretty solid coverage and Gibson just laid out and made a terrific grab.
Don’t be worried about Nnamdi. I feel quite the opposite; I’m actually very relieved that he gave up a few completions. Get the jitters out of his system.
Based on his play today I’d take Kafka over AJ Feeley
Based on his play today I’d take Kafka over AJ Feeley
Awesome to get a W on opening day. It wasn’t beautiful, but I love the result.
Switching over to watch our previous two franchise QB’s in action…
Actually, with AJ getting some work today, I wonder how many former Eagles QB’s will throw a pass on opening day? At least 3, right?
At least 3. Is Mike McMahon playing in someone’s backyard?
I’m glad we settled down and looked a lot better in the 2nd half, but I’m also thrilled we were playing the Rams and not the Patriots first up, cuz we still got some kinks to work out.
Also as an unrelated LoL, the Browns had 4th and 8 near the 2 minute warning, and Colt Mccoy panicked and threw the ball to his OG standing a few feet away. Really Colt? At least chuck it up for grabs to an eligible reciever.
similarly, did you see ‘matty ice’ run around like a headless chicken and fumble the ball? that was pretty comical
Yeah, that was nice.
Yeah he looked really confused after he dropped the ball, just stood and looked at it for a second. Some really weird plays this opening weekend.
McNabb’s first pass… INT!
I hope Donnie plays well for Minny. Watching him last year was miserable.
Agreed. It was tipped at the line, but rough start to his Minny career.
Excellent, excellent.
A bit of an ugly start, and it makes me wonder what the game would’ve looked like had Steven Jackson not bowed out so early. But, I digress. Gap control seemed to be an issue in run defense, but we made just enough plays to keep things in check. We have some tough tests coming up, most immediately Michael Turner next week. I understand the Wide-9 sacrifices gap integrity but the LBs need to get better at cleaning up their lanes.
Everything else was gravy, dudes. That pass rush is downright FUN to watch. St Louis has a quality OL; Saffold, Smith and Dahl are good players. And they were getting beaten and battered all day long. At points in the 3rd and 4th Q, Sam Bradford had that “just get me the fuck out of here” look on his face, which I loved. Coverage, for the most part, seemed pretty good(although the 6 or 7 drops from Rams receivers didn’t hurt matters). Special Teams were spotty but I expected that in week 1.
Offense seemed to labor until the 4th quarter. Vick was up and down, and I’m very concerned at how effective the opposition’s DB blitzes CONTINUE to be. How have we failed to make adjustments to that even after we saw NYG, MIN and GB have great success against us with the exact same play calls? The OLine seemed to protect fairly well, but it was those DB blitzes that continued to put blindside pressure on Vick. I have to say, it seemed like the Offensive Line’s cohesion and execution of Mudd’s system improved GREATLY from quarter 1 to quarter 4. If they continue to make incremental improvements like that, I look forward to how well they have a chance to play a few weeks from now.
As for next week… we play very well against Atlanta under Reid. But they’re going to be at home, on primetime TV, with their backs against the wall after taking a beating from Chicago. They could be a dangerous team, and we’re going to need to be on our A+ game.
Agreed on ATL being a dangerous team. Must win type game for them.
Great to get that first win! I think we saw what was expected from the defense: sacks and the occasional medium-length gain by the opposition. Aside from the Jackson TD, I think they did very well. Bring on the Falcons!
Is anyone else bothered by Vick’s mouthpiece? Seems like 75% of the time it’s stuck in his face mask. You wear them for a reason: to protect your teeth and reduce concussion risks. For a QB that takes as many hits as he does, he should be taking care of himself anyway he can.
I sort of assumed we’d get gashed in the running game early in the season. Our players need to adjust to this new DL scheme and Stephen Jackson is a monster RB. No shame in getting ripped open by that guy.
The biggest takeaway for me is that Vick was able to settle himself down and get in to a zone. When Vick is able to get focused, he’s damn near unbeatable.
I was watching ESPN a few minutes ago and they talked about Vick’s rushing numbers. Basically, does this game show Vick isn’t as comfortable a passer as we thought he had become? I don’t think ESPN’s guys actually watched the game. Vick rushed when the opportunities were there, not as a first option. Besides, isn’t that threat the thing that makes Vick so dangerous? NFL pundits mystify me – they talk about how dangerous Vick is because of his athleticism, he uses it and they talk about how that must mean he’s not as complete a QB as he should be. In other words, they want to be able to eat their cake.
Since Rex Grossman outplayed Eli Manning, by the transitive property of quarterbacking he’s in the same class as Tom Brady. Right?
Better, I think, because Eli is in the same class as Brady and Grossman outplayed him, that would put him in a class above Brady.
Such a good win. When you win by 18 on the road without your A-Game with a new defensive system/o-line, you have to feel good.
I agree, but I have a feeling a lot of “fans” aren’t going to be so cheery tonight and tomorrow. Life as an Eagles fan.
Final offtopic thought of the day, saw this tidbit over on BGN and almost fell out of my chair: Donovan Mcnabb played the entire game today, and only threw for 39 yards. That must be some kind of historic low for a quarterback who played a full game.
Its a shame, too. I’m rooting for Donny. I harbor no ill-will against the guy, and I never will. I don’t view Minnesota as a direct threat this season, so I saw no harm in hoping that Donovan had a career re-defining season.
Unfortunately, it looks like it could be quite the opposite for him.
It’s early but you have to wonder what the hell happened to him. I’m rooting for him too, hopefully he will turn it around
He only had 15 attempts. I didn’t watch the game, but I sort of want to say, “good for him!” LOL – it’s about time he gets a chance to relax and hand the ball off all game.
Sadly, it looks like his lack of attempts was due more to the lack of TOP: only 22 minutes!
I didn’t realize until looking at the stats that we were 8-for-12 on 3rd downs. And that was with a dinged-up Ronnie Brown and no Steve Smith. Can’t wait to see how efficient we may be later in the year.
Great stat! That’s tied with Green Bay for best in the NFL so far this week.
Our 3rd down percentage last year was only 40%. League best was 49%.
I’m still shocked how good our o-line was. They couldn’t pressure us with their front 4. They had to blitz. Sometimes they got home. Others, we hit huge plays.
We also didn’t take a lot of shots deep which probably helped the 3rd down%
I was taking the homer approach and expected our OL to be good, but it was still hard to believe, glad I was right.
I also thought it was positive that while we didn’t have great game we didn’t rely on big plays to win. The only one was the fumble and return. We also had Shady’s run but that was hardly a necessity
In the ultimate all-encompassing statistic out there, Bradford entered the 4th quarter with negative points for my fantasy opponent (who inexplicably started him).
More seriously, I can understand that there will be some gainers on the ground against the wide-9, and the results I can live with. What frustrated me was how often Williams was open on swing passes and dump offs. Our defense should get plenty of practice against those.
I’ll echo the sentiment that it was nice to see things start to come together as the game went on. The halftime adjustments seemed to work and the guys seemed to fix mistakes each series.
I was also impressed that the people making decisions on the TV production side took the high road on the Amadola injury and told the viewers it was bad, gruesome, and they were not going to show it. As much as the morbid side of me wanted to see a bone pop through the skin, it was the right decision to make.
About the swing passes and dump offs, Tommy, or anyone for that matter, can correct me, but I thought we were going to play more Cover 2 similar to the Bears this year. If so, that involves the MLB retreating to the middle zone after he reads pass which opens up the short middle of the field. That’s how the Colts beat the Bears in the SuperBowl a few years back. Addai had somewhere around 10 to 13 catches and the majority were in that open spot in the zone and it just killed the Bears. It’s something that we will have to make an adjustment to fix.
As for the swing passes, and Tommy can correct me again because he watches (and let’s face it, knows a lot more than I do) more tape, but it seems when teams are running swing passes we are usually in man and Chaney usually has the RB. I don’t know if it holds true all of the time, but it always seems like Chaney is the guy chasing the RB.
Great win today. I was fortunate enough to be at the game and it was great to see the win in person. While there were mistakes, this team showed it has the potential to do many great things. One thing I was thinking about on the way home is I think we have 7 different opening day defensive starters from last year (Jenkins, Babin, Matthews, Chaney, Nhamdi, Coleman, and Page). It’s going to take a few games for these guys to really gel and master then new scheme. Once they make adjustments and the young guys progress they can be a special group.
As someone said above said above, it was nice to have a game like this to get the jitters out and shake some of the rust off. The Rams are a good, young team and should do well this year, but it was nice to not have to open at Pittsburgh or New England or another tough place. Next week is not going to be a cakewalk and we are going to have to play really well to win the game. It’s going to be a fun week and a good game.
Tommy,
I watched the game on tape, and Matthews seemed not only to get stuck on blocks and not be able to get to the running lanes, but he missed a lot of open field tackles, or had his arm tackles on backs run through. I was VERY discouraged by his play, and thought Rolle really outplayed him. Thoughts?