Couple of Tuesday Night Items
Posted: November 8th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 35 Comments »Albert Haynesworth was released by the Pats today. He has to clear waivers, which is likely, and then he’s a free agent. Is it possible that the Eagles could have interest? Definite possibility. DL coach Jim Washburn thinks highly of Big Al. Jim knows that Al has issues, but Jim feels that he connects well with him and can bring out the best in him.
How would Big Al fit in here? That’s the tricky question. You sign him as a backup, but who are you cutting and who’s spot in the DT rotation is he taking? You don’t want to cut Jarrad Page if Nate Allen has concussion issues. You’d have to decide what other player you could live without. As far as playing him…Derek Landri and Trevor Laws are the backup DTs now. Landri has done a nice job since being re-signed. Laws has disappointed me, but I don’t know about cutting or benching the guy. If the Eagles felt strongly enough about Big Al, I guess Landri would go, but I’d just hate to see that.
The Eagles might look at Big Al’s tape with the Patriots and decide that he’s not worth the fuss. Al still has big potential, but if you’re not seeing that, what’s the point in adding him. I bet you Jim Washburn is doing some serious talking to Andy Reid and Howie Roseman. I’m sure he’d love to add Big Al to the mix. We do know that Al loves playing for Washburn and he loves the system we use.
Stay tuned.
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It’s been about 24 hours since last night’s loss. I’m starting to get my head right. Games like that hurt, but you can’t dwell on them. The point of football season is to enjoy it.
I know some of you would like to see the team struggle in the 2nd half of the year in order to bring about a coaching change or a change in management. If that’s the way you feel, so be it. I can’t think like that. If I thought Andy Reid or Howie Roseman gave us no chance to win a Super Bowl, I might fall into that camp. Both guys are far from perfect, but I don’t see them as holding us back from where we need to go.
I’m going to cheer for this team each and every week. That’s just the way I’m wired.
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What has happened to the vertical passing game? Impossible to say without looking at the coaches tape. Don’t know who’s open and who isn’t. Is Vick not pulling the trigger? Are the deep Safeties the problem? If you saw the Steelers/Colts game earlier in the year, Chris Collinsworth did a good job of explaining how Big Ben is able to get the ball to Mike Wallace out of certain sets when teams bring a Safety into the box. The Bears played some 8 man fronts last night, but we didn’t burn them. I don’t know why that is, but it is something that must be worked out.
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I’m going to re-watch parts of the game. Not sure if I’ll do a full DGR since it was such a mess and we’re already approaching mid-week.
With Dixon on the shelf we could use some beef in the middle of the D Line. We don’t exactly have any run stuffers out there right now. If Washburn thinks he can get something out of Al. Then bring him in for a year. In a dream world could you imagine a healthy Dixon and motivated Big Al side by side on 3rd and short. Tough to run up th gut. At this point in the season why not? Nothing else is working. Just be ready for the PR nightmare and dream team comments.
You’re sorta right. We weren’t the Dream Team without Al. We need him to complete the set. Brilliant.
Add him and we don’t lose again until 2014.
Since Rolle is the little ball of hate… could Al be the big ball of hate?
We do face the Pats in 3 weeks…
From Dan Klausner, over at SB Nation:
“Right now, off the top of your head, tell me a game in which an Andy Reid team came back in the final minutes to score a touchdown for the win. You can’t because it hasn’t occurred. No, I’m serious, that has never happened during Andy’s 12-year tenure as head coach. Not once has his team or his quarterback driven down the field to win the game in that fashion (down by more than three and needing a touchdown to win). ”
Offensive genius, my f-ing ass!!!
I was going to post that too. Even if someone can find an example when it actually happened, it feels true.
For years I’ve believed Andy Reid is among the best coaches in the NFL, on every day but game day. He can build teams, teach players, draw up plays and game plans, and do almost everything you’d want a coach to do. But on game day, sometimes I think I’d rather have a 15 year-old Madden gamer calling the shots.
In 2003 the Eagles beat the Packers on a last second touchdown on a Monday night. Mcnabb to Pinkston I believe. Garcia had a couple of late TD drives when the Eagles were behind as well. But for a 13 year “offensive genius” coach with a great reputation for QBs you’d think he’d have more than that by blind luck.
In the early Reid years, didn’t they have a ridiculous comeback against the Steelers where they scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick, and then scored another touchdown?
Also, I seem to remember a pretty big fourth quarter comeback last season against the Giants. The Eagles offense drove the field in the final minutes down by seven to tie the game. Then force the Giants to punt and …
In the 2008 NFC championship game, the offense scored a touchdown to take the lead in the final minutes. Then the Cardinals drove down to score a touchdown.
In 2001, the Hugh Douglass forced a fumble by Kerry Collins, then McNabb drove the Eagles (down by four) down the field to score a game winning touchdown to beat the Giants for the first time under Reid.
These are just off the top of my head. I admit that some of these feel like ancient history, but the over the top statement that an Andy Reid team has never come back in the final minutes to score a touchdown for the win is not true.
4th and 26 has to almost count even if it went to OT before we won
BRAVO!!!
Spot on with everyone of those. In the 2000 Season, D-Mac led the Eagles to 3 comeback victories in a string of 4 straight wins.
From that point forward, McNabb had the reputation of being a late-game performer. Over time, though, especially after his 2005 injury — albeit with the occasional exception — he didn’t live up to the rep. Ironically, the talent improved during that time.
And nothing hurt more than the 2008 NFC title game. After that game, I remember this topic being elevated to another level.
Thank you. Its a stupid comment that its never happened in the Reid era.
Just because it hasn’t happened this year, doesn’t mean its never happened.
And how the hell can Dan forget the Giants comeback last year?
I’m sorry but Dan Klausner is pulling stuff out of his ass.
How about the 2004 game against Dallas where T.O. got injured and Donnie Mac led us down the field for a game winning TD? There look, I thought of one off the top of my head and it wasn’t even that difficult.
I’m not much of a college football fan for various reasons, but I do follow the Virginia Tech Hokies. I just don’t usually invest much time and thought into them.
There are a number of reasons, but the biggest is that I pretty much know how every season will go. They almost always start the season ranked somewhere around 10-20, and struggle early. They lose a game or two, either to a ranked team or a team they should have beaten (or both), drop in the rankings, and then string together wins late. They usually rise into the 5-15 range by the end and get into a decent bowl game, which they almost always lose.
The point is, I check out of the season pretty early. I still follow them and watch games if I can, but I don’t invest anything in them. They’re good almost every year, but never quite good enough to go anywhere, and never manage that final step. They are predictable.
I’m still going to watch Eagles games, and I hope they can string together some wins and fight for a playoff spot. But last night’s game was it for me. For the first time I can remember in years of watching the Eagles, I’ve checked out.
More good stuff – from atlvickfan:
“The common thread is Castillo. Players don’t just suddenly lose their ability to play. DRC has been good for a number of years. Nnamdi has been good for a number of years. Asante was good as recently as last year. Jamar Chaney was much better last year than he has been this year. The common thread is the high school defensive coordinator. If you give your eight year old the keys to your Lamborghini and ask him to race, he is going to crash the car, not win the race. They might as well have held a raffle to pick a fan to be the defensive coordinator.”
* DRC was briefly good because he’s a good athlete, but if he was really that good a CB the Cardinals wouldn’t have parted with him. Everything I’ve read says he was terrible last year.
* Nnamdi seemed so good because he was playing on such a bad team that opposing offenses would just avoid him. They simply didn’t need to challenge him.
* Chaney has more tackles so far this year than he did all of last. They didn’t play him a lot, so nobody had tape on him. And he was replacing Bradley, who is playing so poorly he’s not even a starter on the Cardinals defense.
The real common thread is people blaming the defense. Given the talent disparity, I’d say the offense is just as much to blame. I understand why the defense is struggling, there are plenty of reasons (or excuses if you prefer). Does anybody know why the offense is struggling?
In regards to DRC, he wasn’t very good last year. But he was above avg his rookie year, and damn near elite in his second year. He simply isn’t a slot CB.
And one other thing…Earl Bennett?!?! are you kidding me?!?!?! He is basically Jason Avant in a Bears uni…
NNamdi/Asante/DRC can shut down Miles and Dez one week then completely forget how to play CB? I don’t think so. Players looked lost half the time presnap, blown coverage left and right. Scheme is as much the problem as anything.
In regards to the offense, aside from Monday, they really haven’t been struggling. They have been error prone, but that’s not really the same as struggling IMO. And as to why we struggled this week, Bears are just a bad matchup, and TOs/bad decisions/drops don’t help either.
I put forward some similar sentiments after the loss last night; I am simply not wired to root for this team to fail. It is, perhaps, a sickness. But I don’t really care. I will be as excited about the game against ARZ as I was about the game against CHI, and the game against DAL, and the game before that and the game before that and the game before that. I don’t follow logistics. I am, by no means, a sane person. I root for this team to win, week in and week out. Quite frankly, anyone who roots for their team to LOSE in hopes of a comeuppance of change or a better draft pick, can go sodomize themselves. Harsh, but thats how I feel.
Speaking of sodomy(oh man, I’m going to hell for that one)…. this whole Penn State situation is sickening. I’ve always had a soft spot for PSU in my heart merely due to proximity of rooting locale, and I had an Uncle who graduated one of their satellite correspondence courses in the 70s(seriously, thats all I got). I never, ever, in a million years thought that Paterno would be forced out the door in such a manner. And, as someone who would literally take a bullet for his 4-year-old nephew, I hope Jerry Sandusky gets what is coming to him. In the harshest fashion possible.
Sorry for the negativity. Please return to your regularly scheduled programming. Well… this IS a philadelphia sports board. Negativity is kind of the cap’n of the ship, I suppose.
No defense here for Sandusky or anyone accused of what he did.
Just a couple of observations.
First, PSU’s handling of the information 10 years ago (or so) has a terrible resemblance to how the Catholic Church, particularly in Ireland, dealt with similar behavior by priests. The institution, and its figure heard, were to be protected.
Second, while Sandusky’s offenses are off the charts, the reaction of PSU’s management — including Joe Paterno — bears a striking resemblance to how most Big Time college programs deal with bad news: Try to bury it.
Third, Sandusky has no defense for what he’s supposed to have done. I only wonder if he was a victim himself of child abuse.
Finally, in 1999, Sandusky retired from coaching at PSU the D.C. with the reputation for creating “linebacker U”.
That’s just about the time Sandusky’s abusive behavior was supposed first reported within the walls of PSU. I wonder if there was any connection.
Thanks for the post Tommy. You’ve managed to get three posts up since yesterday’s game. If it were me, I am not sure I could sit down and write something out like you without it quickly turning into a rant.
I do have to agree with you about rooting the rest of the season for the Eagles. I guess there is still a chance to make it into the playoffs, so you still have that, but regardless, even if I know it helps our draft pick if we loose (or making significant changes to the coaching staff, depending on your view), I can never get myself to wanting to see the Eagles loose a game. We could be 0 and 15 and playing to loose the last game for a guy like Luck, but I would still find myself rooting for the Eagles to win that last game. For me, the difference is I don’t get as upset after we loose once I feel we are actually out of the playoff race.
In terms of Haynesworth, personally, I don’t really want to bring him here. I feel like he’s a guy that wouldn’t put in the effort, and right now I think that’s the last thing we need. That being said, do you think it is possible the Eagles pursue him partly as a desperation move? I understand Washburn might want him regardless, but at 3-5, it’s natural for a team to start feeling desperate. Could that play a factor on whether they bring him in or not?
Good luck on the DGR Tommy. I can’t blame you for not wanting to do a full one. I don’t know that I would be able to watch even the first drive. Just know that your work is definitely appreciated. The one thing I would be curious to see your thoughts about would be Graham. Trying to pull out any kind of positive out of the game yesterday, I thought Graham seemed to have a decent game. He had 4 tackles according to NFL.com and even though he didn’t get a sack, I thought the times I payed attention to him on the field, he was getting pressure. Does he look healthy?
That point about Haynesworth not being an effort guy is exactly right, and if Washburn is campaigning hard for him to come here, then I hope Castillo is pushing just as hard against, since I don’t think I could live with a defense with DRC, Asante, and Haynesworth showing up to collect their paycheck and then putting in less than minimal effort. Question, though – is the only reason the Pats dropped him because it’s past the trade deadline? They couldn’t try to wheedle draft picks for him, right? How bad must he have been playing if he couldn’t even hold a spot on the league’s worst defense? And if it isn’t bad play, then his locker room attitude must have been even worse, and honestly, that’s the last thing our defense needs. I can’t believe just 3 years after Dawkins, our defense has turned into this Frankenstein’s monster (in a bad way) of a unit.
I thought we’ve learned by now that simply adding more talent to a roster does very little for it, in actuality. That being said, if we do add him, keep him through the year, and have a great, uninterrupted offseason in ’12, then we’ll win the Super Bowl next year. Or not.
“Good” piece on Bleeding Green Nation about where the Eagles’ four 4th quarter collapses through the first eight games place in NFL history…
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2011/11/8/2546924/eagles-are-historically-bad-in-the-fourth-quarter
This begs the question: Are the Eagles a good team with tragic faults, or are they just a bad team?
Can anyone recall any other supposed “good” teams that blundered their way to such a crappy record?
Were we foolish to ever think this would be a playoff team before the season started? Were we duped by the team’s surprisingly explosive play last season and simply blind to their faults?
If you look back at last year there were some pretty bad losses, as well as some squeaker wins…
BAD LOSSES
Redskins
Titans
Bears
Vikings
SQUEAKER WINS
Lions
49ers
Colts
The biggest travesty to me from Monday was how the Bears max protected a lot and still guys were running wide open.
It was just a really embarrassing display for a 20 million dollar secondary.
I tend to agree with you. They were basically max protecting on every pass play. with 3 WR in routes play man w a deep safety and maybe a LB playing underneath/short middle. Not Zone. Why give an opportunity to find the hole in zone coverage when its not necessary.
The last thing that a team lacking the chemistry that this team lacks is Fat Albert. Weren’t we the ones laughing at the Redskins for bringing him into a dysfunctional team that lacked clear and strong leadership?
Tommy, if you don’t do a whole DGR, I would still like a brief writeup on some of the younger guys that did OK or better to give me something positive to think about.
Didn’t outsiders say Rolle is progressing nicely?
Yeah, I’d love to hear how Jarrett and Graham did.
I remember seeing the 8-man fronts and getting excited. Then we did nothing to it. Frankly I think part of it is Desean is playing lazy/sloppy. He was never the best route runner, but he was better than decent. This year, it’s just sloppy.
I didn’t think you’d do a full DGR, but I’d like to hear about Jarrett and Rolle. I’d also like to know who abducted our o-line.
I posted this yesterday but I clearly remember in the second half when DJax was wide open on a deep route but Vick didn’t look his way even though he had time.
This team is as fun as the 2005 team. Good enough to be in every game, bad enough to lose tight ones. We have a star WR looking for a new deal. Our franchise quarterback looked battered and bruised. The 2005 season was definitely my least favorite of the Andy Reid era, but this one is creeping closer.
RE: Eagles’ comebacks
During D-Mac’s last few years, it seemed like he could never win a game on the LAST possession — like in the 2008 NFC title game.
Early in Donnie’s career — despite the irony of having subpar receivers — he was much better.
This year, in particular, as I’ve posted previously, the Eagles’ 4th Quarter offense has been disappointing to say the least. Very disappointing.
RE: Eagles’ comebacks
During D-Mac’s last few years, it seemed like he could never win a game on the LAST possession — like in the 2008 NFC title game.
Early in Donnie’s career — despite the irony of having subpar receivers — he was much better.
This year, in particular, as I’ve posted previously, the Eagles’ 4th Quarter offense has been disappointing to say the least. Very disappointing.
what happened to the pass rush? did they scrap the wide 9? they couldnt even stop the run and the bears’ line is suspect.
Rooting against the Eagles means “BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.”
The only time I rooted for the Eagles to lose to get a better draft pick was the last game of the 1994 season.
The Birds were at the 2-13 Cincinnati Bengal, Rich Kotite’s last game as coach. The Eagles started the season 7-2, but were on a 6-game losing streak in which they were eliminated the week before in a 16-13 loss to the 8-7 Giants. (In 1994, the NFC Central had FOUR teams in the playoffs — 3 with a 9-7 record, so the loss to the Giants killed the Eagles season).
The way the Eagles lost was truly amazing . . . almost the perfect opposite of the Miracle at the Meadowlands I & II.
The Eagles are up by 10 points with under 2 minutes to go. The Bengals are pinned deep around their own 25 facing a 4th and 16. The Eagles flush QB Jeff Blake from the pocket and scrambles 16 yards up the right sideline for a 1st down! The Bengals then march right down the field for a TD to cut the lead to 3 points.
The Bengals then execute a successful onside kick. After a few plays that get the Bengals all the way to the Eagles 7 yard line, Pelfrey kicks a 22 yarder to tie the score with 8 seconds on the clock.
Pelfrey hits a line-drive kick that goes right at former Penn State full back Brian O’Neal, who’s about 25 yards away or so. O’Neal bobbles the ball and the Bengals recover. Pelfrey goes out and hits a 54 yarder to win the game exactly 3 seconds after his game-tying FG. Bengals win 33-30. [And Kotite’s fired, only to be hired by the Jets’ owner Leon Hess because he wants to win “now”. Kotite goes 4-28 in two seasons and we’ve never heard from him again.]
THE RESULT OF THE BENGALS LOSS
The Eagles get the 12th pick in the draft at 7-9. Ray Rhodes is the new coach. He swaps picks with No. 7 Tampa to draft DE Mike Mamula. Tampa settles at No. 12 for HOF DT Warren Sapp.
If the Eagles did nothing and just finished 8-8, they would have been in position to draft DE Hugh Douglas. Since Rhodes wanted a pass-rushing DE, Douglas — from Central State in Ohio who absolutely dominated the Senior Bowl competition — would have been right there, instead of having to trade 2 picks for him in 1998.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful what you wish for.
I was a kid but I remember the Joe must go sign at Franklin Field, Joe went and we got Jerry Williams who was even worse. After Williams we had to suffer through 2 more bad coaches until we got Vermeil. Almost an entire decade waas wasted.