Game Review – Bears 30, Eagles 24
Posted: November 10th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 33 Comments »Not as long or detailed as usual.
Disappointing game. Even a late TD to steal the game wouldn’t have overshadowed a very sloppy performance. Trent Cole has a free shot on Jay Cutler and whiffs. Jeremy Maclin drops a pass in the middle of the field on the run. Countless blocks get missed. Coverages are blown. And so on. Give the Bears credit for outplaying us in the 4th quarter, but this was another week where it felt like we lost as much as the other team won.
The Eagles got down 10-0 before going on a 24-7 run. That gave them a 24-17 lead late in the 3rd Qtr. Chicago then scored the final 13 points and controlled the 4th Qtr enroute to the win. Ugh.
Now we sit at 3-5 with no one to blame but ourselves.
OFFENSE
VICK —Very up and down game. Mike didn’t get good protection and that has to be factored into things. Still, that doesn’t excuse some of his poor decisons and sloppy play. Finished 21-38-213 with and INT. The INT came on a drive where we had just driven into the Red Zone. Mike dropped back and threw right into coverage. Briggs missed the pick, but hit the ball and a DB picked it off. Both guys were in the passing lane. I have no idea what Mike saw/didn’t see. There was another 1st half play that was odd. Vick rolled left. He had open room to run for a 1st down along the sideline. He paused and faked a throw to the middle before running again. He was then held to a short gain by a pursuing LB. With no fake, Vick gets the 1st down. There was a pass play late in the game when Vick again went left. He threw back toward the middle. The receiver wasn’t open. Luckily the ball fell incomplete, but I have no idea why he threw the ball like that.
Vick did make a few great throws. Hit Maclin for a big gain with a DT bearing down on him. Had a couple of real good throws to Celek, one down the seam and the other a short screen pass thrown around a DE. Nice touch on that. Vick made a couple of impressive throws that were dropped. To get revenge, he was off target on the final 4th down and Mac fell down after hauling in the pass. Weird night.
MCCOY — Good game with some great moments. 16-71 on the ground. Highlight was a 33-yard TD run. Shady made one guy miss and then used his burst to get up the field and into the endzone. Had a couple of impressive runs on short yardage situations. Ran straight ahead and ran hard. Had to deal with a lot of defenders in the backfied. Was tackled for a loss 4 times. Not his fault. Reminds me of the scene in Red Dawn when Patrick Swazye asks Powers Boothe why he got shot down. “Well, did get 4 of them first.” Shady made as many guys miss as he could, but there were some plays when not even his magic feet were enough. 5-46 as a receiver. Highlight for me was a play in the Red Zone. Caught the ball with his back to defense and in the middle of the field. Had a DB bearing down on him and Shady faked one way before spinning the other. Seemed like he had eyes in the back of his head. DB went for the fake and Shady then got us the 1st down. Simple, but great. Special player.
Had 18 touches in 3 Qtrs, but only 3 in the final quarter. Not good.
BROWN — Good TD run. Ran hard and fought his way into the endzone. That’s the Ronnie Brown I wanted us to get.
DJAX —2 catches, 16 yards. Covered tightly for most of the game. Had a pass come his way in the 4th Qtr on deep cross. He extended for the ball, but failed to catch it. Not an easy drop, but looked like a pass he should have caught. Non-factor in the game. Ran an end around for 10 yards early on.
MACLIN — Disappointing game. 4-63. Had a crucial drop late in the half. Vick hit Mac at the 40 yard line. Thing is, Mac was on the move. He would have gotten to the 50 with ease and had a shot to possibly go all the way if he really flew up the field. There was a nice seam if he hit it right. Instead, dropped the ball. Caught pass on final play, but had to extend for ball and then stumbled, fell. Short of 1st. Barf. Had good block on Shady’s TD run.
AVANT — 2-20. Largely a non-factor which surprised me. Impressive catch along sideline.
CELEK — Good game. Led team in receiving, 7-60. Caught a variety of passes. Okay job as blocker. Made one frustrating mistake. Late in the half he caught a ball near the sideline. Should have immediately stepped out. Instead he went upfield, was hit, and officials let the clock keep going. That was the end of the half. Dumb. Didn’t really affect the game, but we had small chance for big play if he goes out. Staying in made sure we had nothing.
HARBOR — 1-8 as receiver. Blocking was up and down. Bears were much tougher than Dallas.
OL — Bad night, plain and simple. All 5 guys had some struggles. RG Danny Watkins seemed to play the cleanest game. Didn’t notice him as problem very often. Todd Herremans had the worst game. Got beat to the inside a few times. Can’t let that happen. Had one highlight moment when he floored Urlacher on a run play to his side. That was great. Jason Kelce didn’t seem to have as much impact up the field. Had a “good” block of Urlacher on Shady’s TD run. Basically was speed bump. Did slow Urlacher down and keep him from making play, but not impressive. Evan Mathis had the worst lowlight. Rookie DT Stephen Paea threw him aside on pass play and then pressured Vick. Paea just tossed Mathis like rag doll. Impressive play by the rookie. You may remember that he’s the kid who did 49 reps at the Combine. Jason Peters had some real good moments, but struggled more than I expected. His highlight was the long TD run. Peters shoved the DE out of the way and then went and popped a DB and cleared Shady’s path to the endzone. Beautiful.
Biggest problem for OL was confusion. Guys were missing assignments and letting rushers come free. We hadn’t faced a 4-3 team since the Giants way back on 9/25, but that’s no excuse for the amount of missed blocks we had. The Bears did some creative stuff and deserve some credit, but our guys just seemed to have an off night in terms of handling stunts and blitzes.
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DEFENSE
* Forte killed us early on. Started 5-54. After that, was 19-79.
* Bears killed us on 3rd down. 7-14.
* Bears were 3 of 4 in RZ. To be fair, should be 2 of 4, but bogus penalty on Babin kept alive drive in the RZ.
* Bears mixing in lots of protection on pass plays. We regularly faced 7 man blocking.
* Troubling thing is that when CHI went max protect, they had 3 targets running routes against 4, 5, or 6 cover guys. And they still got open. Can’t have that.
* Bears did a lot of cut blocking. Defenders hate that, but our guys at times acted like they’d never dealt with cut blocks before. Gotta use your hands to fight off the defender and stay up on your feet.
DL — Highly disappointing game. Bears basically controlled the LOS. Failed to sack Cutler, only 2nd time that’s happened to him as a Bear. Chicago did mix in a lot of 7 man protections. They also used cut blocks on DEs. Good job by them. We did beat their blocking at times, but that’s when Cutler started improvising and making some real impressive plays.
In re-watching game we did get more pressure than I realized watching it live, but it was still a case of guys getting near Jay as he threw instead of hitting him. Babin got a real solid hit on Jay, but that might be it. Trent looped inside on a play and had Cutler in his sights, but whiffed. Babin beat blocker off the edge, but slipped and fell when he got near Jay. There was a play where Jay fell and 3 Eagles touched him, but only after Jay had gotten up and gotten rid of the ball. Ugh, times 10.
Brandon Graham re-joined the lineup and was okay. He was credited with 4 solo tackles. Best one came when he closed down the LOS and tackled Forte from behind and held him to short gain. Graham set the edge nicely on run play and forced Forte back inside to non-existent pursuit. Graham was limited as pass rusher, but so was everyone. He did get pressure on play where they cut him initially and he got by that blocker.
Derek Landri had TFL on run play. Mike Patterson hustled to recover Forte fumble that Cole forced. Trevor Laws got crushed on Barber’s TD run in the early 4th. Cole got an arm on Barber, but couldn’t make the tackle. Poor help by LBs.
CHANEY — Jamar was in on 10 tackles and made some nice stops, but had a frustrating game. Too often he was out of position. His biggest issue was getting upfield. Did this on a run where Forte went to the right side. Chaney should have stayed back and flowed to the ball. By going upfield all he could do was chase Matt from behind. Dumb. Did a similar thing on Barber’s TD. Chaney flew upfield and Barber ran by him with ease.
ROLLE — Up and down. Highlight play came late in 1st half. Knocked ball out of Forte’s hands after short catch. Brian scooped it up and ran back for TD. Had a couple of good tackles of RBs. Credited with 5 solo stops. There were a few run plays where Brian failed to get wide enough and let Forte get upfield too easily. He’s got to get better at that. Covering the right gap is critical to good run D.
FOKOU — 2 tackles. Disappointing game.
COLEMAN — Good game. Led the team with 12 tackles (10 solo). Did a good job of getting Forte down in the open field. If Jarrad Page had played in this game, Forte would have run for 233 yards instead of 133. Kurt covered Roy Williams pretty well on a deep ball. Kurt didn’t get a hand on the ball, but his presence bothered Roy and helped keep him from catching it.
ALLEN — Left game with a concussion. I didn’t notice the hit/play where it happened.
JARRETT — Took Nate’s place and played well. Had 3 solo tackles. Missed one tackle that I could tell. Came up to get Forte and I think was caught off guard by Matt’s speed. Wasn’t able to bring him down. Took on the FB on a run play and stuffed him, helping to bottle up Forte. That’s something I’m not sure any other S on the roster does. Looked okay in coverage. Didn’t stand out, good or bad. Looks like we’ve got another talented young Safety.
ASOMUGHA — Sloppy game. Lowlight was getting called for PI late in the game and putting the Bears down inside the 10-yd line. Played a lot of press, but when he was used in zone and/or moved inside he was up and down. Didn’t have a good matchup like Witten from last week.
SAMUEL — Old Asante came back. Useless on run plays. Gave up a TD when he played off in the RZ and Bennett ran a simple fade route and Asante didn’t affect the play at all. Bennett said later the Bears knew Asante played soft in the RZ and could be beaten. Makes me sick to my stomach to think about that. Broke up a couple of downfield throws.
RODGERS-CROMARTIE — Bad game. Gave up several completions, but in DRC’s defense he actually covered pretty well on a couple of those. Problem is that he was in the slot and that’s not his strength. He doesn’t anticipate well and is going to be just a bit off, all Cutler needed to beat him. DRC got confused on a play where he and Nnamdi were playing man on a couple of WRs to the right side. Nam stuck with his guy. DRC also tried to cover Nam’s guy, leaving someone wide open for easy pitch and catch. Worst part of DRC’s night was his reaction to getting beat on a couple of plays. Stood and watched. Completely unacceptable. Should have been immediately replaced by Hanson for that.
HANSON — Played sparingly. Drew a flag on Earl Bennett for OPI when Earl pushed off to get open.
SPECIAL TEAMS
CHAS HENRY — Averaged just 35 yds on 2 punts, but that’s because one went just 26 when he was trying to pin them deep. Kept ’em inside the 20, but needed to be another 8-10 yards deeper. Was involved in a huge play in the 2nd half. We had driven to about the Bears 40. 4th down. Chicago didn’t have anyone covering our gunner to the left. Henry got the snap and threw a pass that way. Looked like a brilliant trick play. Guy was wide open. Only question is 1st down or TD. Except that Henry’s pass hit the ground 10 yards short. Barf.
ALEX HENERY — Hit a 47-yd FG. Barely. Said he hit the ball fat and that’s why it was such an ugly kick. Did a good job on KOs. We intentionally kicked the ball short and high to help coverage. Bears had 51 KOR yards on 5 attempts. That is great kicking/coverage. Bobby April had a good gameplan and it worked perfectly. Devin Hester was a non-factor.
PR — DeSean fumbled punt late in the half that set up Bears TD. Caught the ball, backed up, swung the ball away from his body, and got stripped. Other than that, great play. I would have killed him at that moment if possible.
KOR — 23.3 per KOR by Lewis. My only complaint was him bringing the ball out late in the half. Burned time and didn’t get to the 20. There wasn’t much time left. I’d rather give those seconds to Vick, DJax, Mac, and Shady.
MISC —
* Great job by coverage units. Keenan Clayton had a couple of tackles. Colt Anderson was a stud as always.
It really bugs me having DRC play in the slot. The coaches know that it’s not his strength, but they continued to play him there throughout the game as he continued to struggle, despite having a very capable slot corner standing on the sideline.
Part of good coaching is recognizing that different players have different strengths and playing to those strengths. There’s no point in trying to make DRC as good as Hanson in the slot, when you have Hanson standing right there. You have 53 guys on your roster, use them. If your 3rd stringer is better than the 1st stringer in a certain situation, use the 3rd stringer.
I’m not sure you can say definitively that Hanson is better than DRC (even in the slot). I seem to recall this off-season that Hanson was cut, shopped around and came back to Philly.
I’m not saying the Eagles shouldn’t have tried something different (i.e. bench DRC after he stands around instead of pursuing a guy after he fails to make a play). What I don’t think you can state as though it’s a fact is that Hanson is better in the slot than DRC. Maybe Hanson is better, maybe he’s not… I’ve never been “that” impressed by him.
I think Hanson was braught back because they thought they might move Asante at the trade deadline. They would have moved DRC to the outside and have Hanson play the slot.
DRC avoids contact more than asante sometimes. DRC doesn’t even seem to be trying sometimes. I feel he feels his job is to cover, deflect or intercept, and not to tackle. Im not being sarcastic, it looks like this is what he feels. After his man makes the catch he just jogs near him, unless he was already draped all over him going for the ball. But then sometimes he runs out of nowhere on a long run to make a saving tackle, so who knows with this guy.
I noticed it big time on a play in Buffalo. Monday night he stopped playing and let others tackle his man. When desean fumbled, he seemed hesitant to dive on it first. He went in sideways and late. He should have dove head first for the ball. Im in complete favor of Hanson over DRC
Then I have to watch Desean take a dive on the interception. He saw someone coming to block him and he fell to the ground. Worst thing I ever seen, much worse than the alligator arms he showed us
Can we build the defense around Jarrett?
It sounds, all in all, like he was the best player on the field for the Eagles defense.
There is just so much this team needs to do to rebuild . . . on defense, especially.
The 49ers did it in 1 draft in 1981. No reason the Eagles can’t (assuming good scouting, etc)
On offense, I like Mathis. But after seeing his performance on Monday, even when he wasn’t be tossed around, he’s a spare part. A good one. But a spare part.
Mathis is a good LG in our system. He got caught off guard by rookie DT. And that is the guy who holds the Combine record for BP. Paea has incredible strength.
I was secretly hopeful that the Eagles would take a flyer on Paea…
More importantly though… can Vick throw the ball over King Dunlap’s head this week?
He’s just gonna have to scream “duck” when he wants to throw it.
Nicely done.
I don’t get the worry, the DT dunlap is going against is 6’8 and will be trying to get his hands up; I doubt dunlap trying to stay low will be more of a problem.
Thing is it’s (Vick hitting Dunlap in helmet) going to happen. Just hope it happens when we’re up 20 instead of driving to tie the game.
I think Chicago also felt we would take a flyer on Paea. If only they had they of been penalised for the 1st round blooper with Baltimore.
I’m not sure we beat ourselves in this game. I think we got killed on both sides of the line, the Bears tackled hard and I think we were intimidated a bit. We “only” lost by 6 but it felt like we were not just beaten, but beaten up at well.
The Bears played hard and smart, while we did neither.
Thanks Tommy!
I’m going to petition that you become the next DC of the Eagles. According to the Eagles logic, “you’ve been scouting players for years and talked with brilliant minds over breakfest, you’re ready son”.
Either DC or maybe Mike LB.
I’ll run the defense if we can have French Toast.
I make a mean plate of French Toast… You gotta use real Texas Toast, add some sugar and vanilla to your eggs and milk, and then top it with a fruit syrup reduction or real maple syrup. Sidle it up with some scrambled eggs and applewood smoked bacon for a man sized portion.
Ok, so now we all know why I’ve put on 60 lbs in the last 5-6 years… lol
Asante is such a good corner, but clearly beatable. He plays off so the WR is not going to run straight by him, and if offense tries to run multiple crossing routes, you do not know which one he is going to jump. I think Eagles’ coverage ‘breakdowns” often happen to the offense’s left / defense’s right when LBs/safeties mess up the coverage and do not have Asante to jump the routes. It’s in my book it’s also “OK” if he is vulnerable to double moves, because by definition we are talking slow developing plays with low chance of success.
However he is not a “shutdown” corner in that he needs safety help to be most effective. And of course you can out-jump him, and he happily gives his guy the short completion (most of the time, though recently he is starting to play a little press). And you run right at him. Basically Tommy is right that he has to be off the field when defending the goal line.
Stephen Tulloch, MLB, Detroit Lions
Contract: One-year, $3.25m
Impact: When you adopt a scheme that sees your defensive line getting up the field, you’re going to need your linebackers to be adept at taking on linemen. In 2010 that was a big problem for the Lions, and they’ve had issues with it at times this year, but to nowhere near the same degree. A large part of that has been the signing, and subsequent play, of Stephen Tulloch. It was truly baffling that there wasn’t a stronger market for the former Titan who was coming off a superb year, but the Lions are reaping the benefits now. Our second ranked MLB on the year.
Why did eagles not grab this guy?
Stephen Tulloch, MLB, Detroit Lions
Contract: One-year, $3.25m
Impact: When you adopt a scheme that sees your defensive line getting up the field, you’re going to need your linebackers to be adept at taking on linemen. In 2010 that was a big problem for the Lions, and they’ve had issues with it at times this year, but to nowhere near the same degree. A large part of that has been the signing, and subsequent play, of Stephen Tulloch. It was truly baffling that there wasn’t a stronger market for the former Titan who was coming off a superb year, but the Lions are reaping the benefits now. Our second ranked MLB on the year.
Ray D’s takedown of our D is pretty compelling. Hard to argue with his conclusion that DRC and Samuel are charmin soft and a big part of the problem with our D. They better be gone next season and Fokou better not be starting.
,
http://www.csnphilly.com/football-philadelphia-eagles/news/Under-Review-Bears-exploit-Eagles-softne?blockID=590928&feedID=692
Ray and Baldy jump in the Hyperbole Machine and set it to full speed ahead.
Trent Cole is soft? Jason Babin? Patt? Kurt Coleman? And so on. DRC and Asante are. But those are 2 guys on the defense. Nnamdi is a better hitter than tackler, but he’ll at least mix it up. Chaney and Fokou aren’t great players, but they aren’t soft.
I wrote in my preview that the Bears would run to their right side (our left). That’s what they did. You force Babin to play run D and you have an advantage because Fokou is so sloppy and Asante is a non-factor vs the run. It isn’t that we’re soft over there.
Tommy – not sure to what extent you can answer this (as you don’t sit in on defensive coaching sessions to my knowledge) but this is my thought process:
DRC is putting in approximately zero effort. You wrote that it made you sick to your stomach hearing the Bears say that they knew Asante played soft in the RZ and they took advantage of it. I totally get that, though for me, the real gut punch came on the first Bears drive where DRC tried to “tackle” a guy who would have broken out of that attempt even if it were flag football. DRC then lazily turns around upfield, sees the guy still running, watches for like a full second, and then throws his hands up. Not when the guy was finally brought down, but because the guy was still running. I’ve never seen that reaction before.
If I were Juan, I’d play that clip about 10 times in a row first thing in practice the next day, make all the defensive guys watch that “effort,” and then leave the room so that it’s just DRC with the rest of the D, no coaches. Put that clown on the spot and ask him what he says to the rest of the team. They all played sloppy for sure (even the stalwart Trent Cole, as you mentioned), and that’s a huge issue. But this issue is even bigger for me. Make this week about effort. Make it really, truly about effort and hold every damn slacker out there accountable to the guys who are going out there and killing themselves on every play. This is where Dawk would have been such an incredible help and this is why defenses need leaders. If DRC did that on the Ravens, I think Ray Lewis would be facing another murder charge right now.
And while Juan’s at it, play that awful, unwatchable Asante off-coverage in the RZ clip as well. I assume no one told him to play off there, so show the clip and ask Asante whether he just doesn’t want to get pushed by big, bad Earl Bennett, or if he’s that incredibly stupid that he thinks off coverage is the right way to go 5 yards from the goalline.
Maybe Juan does this, I don’t know, but if so, it sure doesn’t seem to be helping and the only solution in this case is getting rid of the turds. I’m giving Juan more and more credit (though he’s still been awful this year) because it just seems like the players don’t care anymore. The effort right now is lower than I’ve ever seen it. I partly blame Asante for it; he’s turd #1 for me. I think he brings that “business decision” attitude to the D that makes it okay to play soft and intentionally avoid tackles just to make sure he gets another big contract. I won’t be sorry to see him shipped out anytime soon. For all the talk of Nnamdi appearing a lot better last year just because the opposing QBs threw to the other guy, can’t we make the same case about Asante? He was playing off of every QB’s Mother Teresa / Santa Claus, Dmitri Patterson. I think he’s getting exposed just as badly this year.
Players do get criticized by Andy and/or Juan. Andy isn’t the calm, saintly guy that he comes across as in public. He gets after the team hard when he thinks they need it.
DRC is a different player in the slot vs outside. Put him out wide and he’s an adequate to poor tackler. In the slot, he’s awful. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
I’m not willing to give up on the guy, but he needs to be outside to get the best out of him.
“If DRC did that on the Ravens, I think Ray Lewis would be facing another murder charge right now”
For the first time ever I am finally agreeing that this team needs a defensive leader. I’m not sure they need a dawkins type, but they need a Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis type. Someone that will make u play team ball and not me ball. I think we have too many guys that just care about themselves and not about the team. I am sure the real fball players on the team get frustrated as heck playing with guys like this.
I wouldn’t want DRC on my team. I have never seen anything like the things he does. He wont even go full speed at a fumble. He falls in sideways and lets the other team get the ball cuz they want it more. He jogs while others make the tackle for him. How do u unteach stuff like that when a man is 27 years old? Desean taking a dive so he doesn’t get blocked on the INT, then alligator arms? How many plays in one game can their b like that?
I like Babin but I said from the beginning I just hope his recklessness doesn’t costs us too much. Well it is def costing us. Even without the Bears game it costs us in other games. And I know he was pushed from behind but as soon as I saw a flag I knew it was Babin. He has done that a lot this season where he flies into the QB late and they are never even hard hits, they are just pointless. I think he could have avoided the QB
RE: Nate Allen concussion play: Bears ran a stretch play and Allen came up to blow up a block on the edge on a T (could’ve been a pulling G) and went helmet to helmet with him. Nate fell immediately.
I wonder if that guy will get a fine for a dirty hit… O wait… It’s Thursday so I guess we already know the answer to that question.
Big Al and rumours of Ochocinco being next, egos upsetting team ethos. The problem with the ‘Dream Team’ laid bare by New England?
Al didn’t want to go to NE. He was traded for.
Chad did want to go, but I think Brady resents him. Not 100% sure why.
All the guys here wanted to come, except DRC. I’m sure he was thrilled initially, but now hates the crowded group at CB. Different situations.
How does Mccoy only have 3 touches in the 4th quarter, especially when you consider the Eagles started the quarter with the ball and a 7 point lead. That is criminally bad coaching.
I was wondering how Jarrett looks- glad he looks promising.
And DRC needs to be benched and Hanson inserted at the slot.
Riddle me this…
The Eagles played approximately 15 mins of good football on Monday night, and that is almost enough to win a game. What the heck?!