Rage Against The Eagles
Posted: November 8th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 62 Comments »Last night was no fun. None. I’m not talking about the fact we lost. Even when we led 24-17 I wasn’t having fun. You just got a bad vibe from the team and the sloppy play was mind-numbing.
During the course of a normal Eagles game I yell at the TV. Sometimes I’m yelling encouragement and other times I’m yelling criticism. Still, it’s usually just an aggressive tone, but nothing all that bad. Last night was rage. I was bitter and angry starting early in the game and that never let up. Had we won, I would still not have enjoyed it. That game was just miserable.
I cannot stand dumb football. I understand some mistakes are going to get made in the heat of the moment. Joe Montana made bad reads. Reggie White jumped offsides. Mistakes are part of life. The problem last night is that we saw guys doing dumb things over and over. Maybe the worst of all was Brent Celek failing to get out of bounds late in the half. That wasn’t a significant play. We weren’t likely to score anyway, but to see a veteran player fight for a yard or two instead of getting out to stop the clock…I can’t begin to grasp what he was thinking. If he’s a speedy WR running in the open…I understand. A TE fighting tacklers near the sideline? Dumb. Unbelievably dumb. Nothing good is coming of that. Hell, I’m glad he didn’t get stripped and give the ball back to them.
I don’t get why this team plays so dumb. The players are generally bright guys. Celek gets good coaching. He has to know the situation. Yet something causes him to listen to his gut instead of his brain.
Everyone wants to know what is wrong with the team. Les Bowen said on Twitter that he thinks the team is soft. Maybe. That’s not the first word I think of. We were down 10-0 and then went on a 24-7 run. We led 24-17. I think of soft teams as not responding well to tough situations. Blowing leads is more sloppy than soft in my book, but maybe we’re looking at that word differently.
People want to jump right back on the “Reid/Marty/Juan can’t coach” bandwagon. I get that. You want someone to blame. Why not the coaches?
People talk about leadership. “This team needs Brian Dawkins” or someone like that.
The personnel department has no idea how to draft/trade for/ sign players. Our roster is a bunch of bums.
And so on.
I don’t think there is one simple culprit. There is something off with this team. We don’t have the right combination of talent/coaches/personalities. There are some obvious areas that need to be upgraded, but this roster is still very talented. The coaching staff is largely a good group. The team is mostly high character players. But something in that mixture isn’t working.
My biggest beef is with the prima donna types. Jeremy Maclin made a couple of mistakes, but I see him also busting his butt most of the time and delivering for us most of the time. His mistakes frustrate the heck out of me, but I’m not down on him.
DeSean Jackson is a different story. He’s had too many drops this year. That punt return debacle late in the half was a game-changing moment. The game was tied. We had momentum. Even if we just went 3 and out, we’d have gotten the ball to open the 2nd half. Instead, we gave the ball to them in scoring territory. That gave them the lead and momentum.
When fielding that punt DeSean has to be focused on safety. He’s deep in our territory. The Bears have a great STs unit. We’re in a tie game. That isn’t the situation to think risky and run backward while swinging the ball away from your body. DeSean had no situational awareness. That mistake could have been easily avoided, but DeSean was thinking too much about “making a play”. Aggressive is good, but dumb isn’t. Bad decision on his part and it cost us big time.
Asante Samuel played a terrific game last week and I was hoping for more of that. Once again we were back to the old Asante, hoping for INTs. Bears WR Earl Bennett said after the game that the Bears felt they could burn him in the Red Zone because Samuel plays so soft. He lays off receivers and baits the QB to throw that way. Cutler hit Bennett for a TD and Samuel was a couple of yards away. Great job, Asante.
Again…situational awareness. Why play off in the friggin’ end zone? You don’t think about making plays in that situation. You focus on tight coverage. Hold the team to a FG. Playing for INTs is insane.
This is the kind of stuff that kills me. DeSean and Asante are gifted players that can do great things, but too often they do dumb things that undermine the success of the team. I’m not saying they are the only 2 to blame. There’s plenty of fault to go around from last night.
DRC didn’t play well. He did cover okay early on, but Cutler just made some terrific throws. The problem was DRC’s actions after the passes had been caught. He stood there and watched. That is unacceptable. I’d have benched him on the spot. No guys are allowed to watch. Play or sit.
DRC isn’t made for the slot. He is a very good CB when put out wide and allowed to be aggressive. In the slot, he’s uncomfortable and trying to figure things out. We’d be better off with Joselio Hanson in there. I’m not giving up on DRC overall, but in the slot you’re just not going to get consistently good play from him.
I’m not going to sit here and list every player that screwed up. Don’t have the time for that. Clearly that loss was a team effort, players and coaches. I’m glad this is a short week. This team needs to get back on the field, ASAP. That’s how you get a game like this out of your system. Go play.
I know I’ll be glad when I can put this game completely in the rear view mirror. Utterly miserable night.
At what point does dumb play after dumb play, season after season from a variety of different players become the coach’s responsibility? The Bears benched Forte for 10 minutes after the second fumble and he’s been 40% of their offense this year. Desean has an awful game, costs the team dearly, and doesn’t miss a play.
The bottom line is Andy is just good enough to never get fired, and Eagles fans are forever stuck in purgatory because of it.
Also, Juan is clearly in over his head. The players don’t respect him and it translates onto the field. Another massive boneheaded move by Andy that he’ll never be held accountable for. Best thing for this franchise might be an 0-8 finish and a 3-13 season. At least, as long as they clean house before Howie and Andy can blow the draft pick.
Based on the first half: are we keeping DRC or Asante?!
DRC…Asante is due close to 10mil next year and is on the wrong side of 30. DRC is due a shade under 1 mil. They need the $$$ to resign Lesean,and DRC Plus Asante has run his mouth against the front office. DRC may be soft, but is being misused in this defense. Watch film on him when he is allowed to play bump and run on the OUTSIDE. Juan is the only genious in the NFL that thinks DRC can play in the slot. The eagles resigned Joselio thinking Asante was gone at the trade deadline or next year. Your three starters will be Nmandi, DRC and Joselio..Hughes and Marsh will be depth along with player to be named in the draft.
I thought the same thing on that Celek play. Just get out of bounds doofus.
I was thinking about it, that if this team won two or three of the Niners, Bills, Falcons, Giants game, this outcome wouldn’t be this bad.
But when you season is pretty much on the line, and this is how you play? Frustrating. Something is off on this team. They can’t make crucial plays at critical times- long third downs, fourth quarter stops, game winning drives. And I don’t know why that is.
Chemistry…that’s whats wrong…in a short offseason we went ahead and brought all the big names available along with the coaches and scheme changes…Green Bay stood pat…got all their players on the same page and the offenses seems to be even much better than before…you have high profile coaches like Mudd, Washburn…and you add Castillo in this mix – whose basically a rookie DC…
Its bland offensive play calling and terrible defensive play calling. The talent on this team, is keeping them in game and slightly negating the poor coaching. Andy and MM have been together how long? It seems like I watch the same 20 plays over and over and over. How many times did they go to the well on that sprint draw? When Clay Harbor was lined up a yard off the line, I thought, here comes the trap play they ran on demarcus ware so well. Guess what, it was!!! And Peppers knew it and made Clay eat his helmet. Only hope is Spags gets fired this offseason and the eagles give the keys to this defense to him. And don’t let Roseman pick anything this year….no more 6’0 275lbs DE’s….How bout a DT in the first round, and 2 LB’s in the second?!?!
Butch, my thought EXACTLY:
“I was thinking about it, that if this team won two or three of the Niners, Bills, Falcons, Giants game, this outcome wouldn’t be this bad.”
If you play five could-have-gone-either-way games, you can’t lose all five of them.
Towards the end of the game (though through 3 quarters I was on pins and needles – screaming for someone to make a play) – I was resigned to the fact that they would lose….I could see it coming somewhere in the 3rd quarter…and I told myself they do not deserve to win coz they played the whole game poorly….other than Vick (who continuously puts his body in harms way and pops back up), Lesean and to some extent Jason Peters..this team is a joke and a sorry bunch of losers!!
Tommy-
Let me help you get an early start on DGR on a few players that stood out to me.
Michael Vick – Hurt by some drops and helped by some drops…I think he’s taking the mantle from Carson Palmer in 2010 with at least 2-3 surefire INTs dropped by the opposition each game. He’s got 10 INTs in his last 10 games, but it should be more like 30.
LeSean McCoy – I want to have his baby…are they close to making that scientifically possible yet?
DeSean “For Who For What” Jackson – Drops all over the place, fumble, and one very scared to go across the middle play that he should’ve made.
Jeremy Maclin – Hurts me 2 say this bc he works hard and he’s putting up good numbers, but he’s served up the PuPu Platter now 3 times at crucial points in the game. Dropped pass against ATL, the big fumble he made (can’t remember game) and now falling down bc he had to stretch for a pass! Again, stats are nice but if you want to be elite have to come up big in crunch time. There’s a reason I was the #1 pick in both my flag football and softball leagues. When the game is on the line I’m making the big play.
Brent “Brain Fart” Celek – Do you see that white line separating the field of play and out of bounds? How about taking your size 14s and moving your body across that white line Dummy!
D-line – Can’t stop the run, couldn’t get pressure on a horrible o-line, 2 offsides in a row and Jason Babin hitting Jay “Country Club” Cutler late to turn a FG into a TD.
DRC – Makes Asante look like Dick Butkus when it comes to tackling. Oh, and he can’t cover…as a CB I’m pretty sure that’s a problem.
Asante Samuel – Good bye
Nnmandi – The third member of our 3 stooges who can’t tackle. Oh and also can’t cover. When ur a $16 mm player, I don’t want to hear anymore about how the coverage is impacting you so negatively.
Ummm, I think that’s all I have for now.
Memos to:
Jason Avant – keep your trap shut and quit blaming the fans…try and win something before mouthing off
Asante Samuel – quit show boating and acting like a prima donna when you have done absolutely nothing this season
Desean Jackson – quit your stupid showboating – you have done squat – learn humility and when you make a blunder like the one you made – stand up and accept your mistake like a man (for more explanation look at his meet the press after the game)
Not. A. Good. Team.
This is how bad teams play.
We’re good enough to look good while losing.
I went to sleep angry and depressed but I calmed down. Then I looked at the schedule. The season is NOT over.
Look at who the Giants play over the next four games : @SF, PHI, @NO, GB. The Giants should lose three, and maybe all four, of those games. If one of those losses is to us, we’re back in the running for the NFC East.
Last night was a gut punch. But the Eagles are not done yet, if (and I know it’s a big if) they get their act together.
Because of scheduling, both the Eagles and Cowpukes have a chance to catch the Giants over the next month. The problem for me is that I no longer believe this Eagles team can rise to the challenge and, therefore, they will be uncompetitive in playoff football. I doubt we can be beat any of the NFC teams that seem headed for the post-season.
Well, I’m no longer convinced they can do it, but I think if they actually played like they are supposed to (see Cowboys game) they could beat any of them.
True, the season is not over. We could easily be one game out of first place two weeks from now, with 6 games to go.
The problem is, when you’re 3-5, it takes a great suspension of disbelief to imagine your team winning seven of eight. They are talented enough to win that many, but they are not consistent.
There is no way to look at this season anymore but one game at a time. It is not over. It is not time to cut or fire people. It is, however, way premature to think this team will do its part to catch the Giants, even if the Giants poop the proverbial bed.
They need to show us.
All I could think to myself when we were on defense was that even I knew, generally, what play the bears were going to run for most of the game and I don’t watch any tape. This got even more blatant as the game went on and they figured out what worked. I by no means can currently run an NFL defense even a tenth as well as Juan is, but my point is I think Juan is a great teacher but a horrid coach. He’s the perfect assistant, he can do all the teaching and motivating that all coaches need to do but he CANNOT call a game to save his life. If someone can point out to me that I’m wrong, I’ll gladly admit it, but to me that seems to be the problem on D. I give him a minor pass for trying to utilize the talent on the field simply because he has 3 outside CBs but there is only room for 2 on the field at once, and they’re too talented to justify sitting downin Nickel/Dime sets. However, WHY IN THE F* IS ASANTE STILL PLAYING CB IN THE RED ZONE?! Take his ass out of the game when we get down there. We have 2 supposedly Exceptional Man corners on this team use them, I mean I’m not happy with DRC’s tackling/effort either but I’m so pissed at Asante giving up TD’s like that down there. Just try DRC and see what happens because it can’t get any worse. If Asante and Juan are not gone before next season then Reid is officially losing his mind. That said, I’d be ok with giving Juan any other defensive coaching position on the team as long as he doesn’t call plays because it does seem like he can teach.
I don’t even want to get into how much I want to punch DeSean right now, I want him on the team next year because he is such a weapon and good decoy at times but he is really playing to his current contract and doesn’t deserve much of a pay raise at the moment. So if he wants a monster contract then I say, Goodbye dips*t.
Thank god MW3 came out last night or I would still be stewing the juices of this game. Like Tommy said, I think I still would have been pissed if we won this game with the way we played. And yes, we are soft and have been soft since Dawk left. I’m just thinkin off the top of my head, but every time we are put up against a physical team we get bitch slapped. We’re the 5’11” 165lb track star with a 3.8 GPA, and we will continue to keep getting the shit kicked out of us by the 6’2″ 250lb MLB with a 2.0 GPA. I say good day!
Good way of putting it.
I can’t comprehend playing DRC in the slot. He has no idea what he’s doing there and the coaches know it. Andy Reid said it himself in the post game presser that he’s learning what he’s doing. We have a good slot corner in Hanson. Why isn’t he on the field in those situations? I’m normally very supportive of the coaches, but if you’re doing things like that, you’re hurting the team before you give them a chance to play.
Tommy,
I was at the game last night seated pretty high so I had a good view of the whole field. I’m not even lying it seems like about 75% of the defensive plays our D-Backs, specifically Nnamdi and DRC, are running around like mad men hand signaling and pointing places, that it’s almost like they don’t know what they are doing.
I could be dead wrong, but do you think there is some breakdown in communication somewhere in the secondary? It just happened so many times that it looked like they were clueless as to who they were guarding or where they were supposed to be right before the snap, and in turn there was definitely a ton of blown coverages last night. Do you see this as a communication issue, or a play calling issue, or a players not knowing their assignment issue. I’ve gone to a ton of games over the years and never noticed so much indecision before the snaps, but maybe I just haven’t paid close enough attention in the past.
Fat Al anyone? Haynesworth was cut by the Pats, can/could he help the Eagles run defense/QB pressure?
Yep… I’m in. Maybe he can bring some “nasty” with him.
Ultimately, if I’m in the F.O. I already have this figured out, and the man making the call is named Washburn (yes/no).
No thank you. He has done nothing in NE to make it even remotely worth the risk.
I feel like I’d still take a flyer on him. I mean seriously – what is cutting Jarred Page, or Philip Hunt or Juqua Parker going to hurt this team (or the laundry list of offensive linemen who suck).
I think he’s probably finshed, but I’d still take a flyer. What we have isn’t working.
It would make sense if this team’s problems could be solved by a good DT. Plus, if they actually were in contention for anything.
I am so freaking tired of watching this team of soft, underacheiving and selfish b!tches. If I have to watch Jason Babin go too wide on a running play one more time, I will swallow my remote. The guy may be one of the most overrated players on our team. He is a one trick pony, and that is it.
I thought the wide nine was going to be scaled down? The opening drive when the Bears ran it down our throat, (you know-the one where we all realized it was over before it had really begun), the ends were so wide that Darnell Autry could have had 10 yard scampers.
I am so completely ready for accountability and regime change, I really could care less if the Giants fall apart and we make the playoffs–I want a new coaching regime and scouting department.
I have to do my “Hanson in the slot, flip DRC” I told you so
My wife finds it hard to understand that yelling at the tv can influence the outcome of the game. She laughs when me and buddies are on the floor doing push-ups to help the Eagles, especially while watching a recorded game that’s been over for 3 hours. Women, whadda’ they know.
I have not watched the game last night, though I woke at half and checked the score. I wonder how the locker room feel about DSJ and his contract? Up until this year, no one can argue that he has played above his salary – far above. This team used to lock up its own picks, especially the young ones. I can’t believe this doesn’t have an effect on the team. Asante’s opinion, with his past franchised history along with his current experience hardly calms the nerves when thinking about this.
This team though long and hard about this offseason and received a lot of acclaim, but it also seems it has got away from one of the fundamentals of the Reid era – reward your own.
I’ve never agreed with Tommy on Asante – until maybe like last night. The guy keeps claiming the Eagles odn’t want his “play making abiltiies”….and it dawned on me – what play making abilites. Much like DeSean – Asante hasn’t made any this year.
The very 2 players, playing under a cloud of uncertainty. Asante has less of a grievance as he is being healthily remunerated.
The problem with “play-makers” is that they’re useless when they don’t make plays. Ryan Howard when he can’t hit HR, Jeff Carter without goals. Maclin doesn’t make a big play? Well maybe he’ll make a big 3rd down catch or block to spring Shady. Samuel/Jackson are high-risk, high-reward players.
I look forward to having both shipped out of here next season.
it seems the secret to beat our defense is to run towards the strong side to the right, facing babin, fokou and samuel. chaney isn’t getting over there fast enough and we have to hope that one of our inexperienced safetys can get over there to get the runner down for ‘only’ a 5-6 yard gain.
*sure, there was a run early in the game that went to the left, but it was designed to go right and we overpursued to that side leaving the cutback WIDE open….
It definitely occurred to me yesterday that Fokou is the most expendable member of our defense. We have talent at CB, S, DT, DE. Except for the miscast corners, we even use the talent in the right way, for the most part. With Graham getting healthy, maybe he could replace Babin on run downs, because you’re right … that side of the field is like big giant neon arrow-shaped blinking sign that says RUN THE FOOTBALL RIGHT AT THESE GUYS!
We have so much talent yet such obvious (to a coach’s trained eye) weaknesses to exploit.
I’m hoping against hope that something amazing occurs, the Eagles begin to run on all cylinders, and we actually make some kind of late season push. It would take a miracle. More realistically, based on a half-season of data to evaluate, the Eagles look like their record, they are a 3-5 team. The have some strengths but, by and large, their weaknesses are easily exploited by talented coaches. From this perspective, the Dallas game was not a turning point but an oddity, a flash of lightening like a great song by a one-hit-wonder band. They’ll beat Arizona next week, probably by a wide margin. If the ball bounces their way a little more during the second half of the season, they might even finish a bit above 500, but so what?
Yeah I had hope. But you can’t lose all five close games you play (I am not counting the Redskins game as truly close) and expect to recover from it. You are right that good coaches get the best of them. The Bears played their style. Four teams figured us out in time to pull off fourth-quarter wins.
I think they still have a 20% shot at winning the division, especially if they win the next two games. But I no longer believe they can catch lightning in a bottle and outplay the Packers in the NFCG, because they would have to play so much consistent football to get that far, it boggles the mind.
This is a frustrating team more than a fun one. Too bad, they had great potential.
You are right, they are capable of churning out one great song at any given time, but their album sucks. What a disappointment so far.
I wouldn’t say the season is over yet, a loss to the Giants would pretty much do it though. But think of it like this, next week should be a win and it’s not unrealistic to say the 49ers could be the Giants. So that would give the Eagles a chance to pull within one game of the G men with 6 games left and bear in mind they still have to play the Packers and Saints. So it’s not over yet.
i dont think that would pull us within 1. we are now 3 games back, i believe.
a NYG loss and a PHI win would only bring us to 2 games back.
It’s over the course of two weeks, San Fran beats NY and the Eagkes beat the Cardinals then the Eagles win the game against the Giants. That would make up two games.
ahh i see what you are saying now. ok.
so then we’d still need them to lose one more. we’d have to win one more and then theres a tie. head to head tiebreaker is tied…….
i think conf record is next tiebreaker (we have 4 of our 5 losses in the conf) or is the next tiebreaker divisional record? (we’d be 3-1 at that point. not sure about NY).
too lazy to look up the tiebreaking stuff
So 8 games left and just to recap we’re really a very good team, we just need to fix some things.
1) Putting our guys in a better position to make plays
2) Cut down on turnovers
3) Tackle better
4) Cover better
5) Block better
6) Cut down on drops
7) Cut down on mental errors
Fix those things and we’ll be sitting pretty. Also, I was just looking and our 3 wins are against teams with a record of 8-19. Our 5 losses are against teams with a record of 28-12. Just in case you’re keeping track at home, you’d be correct that we haven’t beaten a winning team yet. However, for all the folks who like to say, “well except for the 4th quarter or except for these 2 plays”, if you took out the 4th quarter in every game I think we’d currently be 7-1. Unfortunately, we play 4 quarters. 🙁
LOL. That’s a pretty long list, and a pretty apt description of every bad team in the league. I’m sure if the Dolphins fixed the 7 major things that they do wrong, they’d be a winning team too.
Yep, those excuses worked when it was happening once or twice or thrice.
At this point, the Eagles are an inconsistent football team who has lost five games it was perfectly capable of winning. They have given us no reason to think the next batch of close games would suddenly begin to break their way. This is more than a fluke, and there is no this-would-solve-it-all solution.
So … playing just well enough to not lose badly is something they excel at!
This team is rotten at the core. Too many of the players follow the lead of Asante Samuel and Desean Jackson – play only for yourself, and play only to get paid. These two players specifically needs to be excised like a cancer. This team needs to start fresh without any big-name players being paid big dollars.
The General Manager and the Head Coach (and his coaching staff) need to be fired. Their lack of talent evaluation skills have directly led to this mess – if they had been able to draft better, they would not have needed to fill the gaping holes in their roster with overpriced, underperforming free agent spackle. Championship teams build almost exclusively through the draft and generally eschew free agency. Their boneheaded hires (Juan Castillo, Rory Segrest, etc) have destroyed any semblance of stability or competence in the ranks of the coordinators. Championship teams feature, almost exclusively, stable defensive coaching staffs (with years of NFL experience) executing tried-and-true defensive schemes.
When Jeffrey Lurie hires a new General Manager and Head Coach, they can begin the rebuilding process with three draft picks in the first forty slots, presumably. I would like to see them retain some of the talented younger players with potential (Brian Rolle, Jamar Chaney, Brandon Graham, Curtis Marsh, Kurt Coleman, Jeremy Maclin, etc), cut or demote stupid, untalented, and/or underachieving players (Moise Fokou, Trevor Laws, Jarrad Page, Jason Babin, Domonic Rodgers Cromartie), and EXCISE WITH A VENGEANCE the cancerous players who are infecting the team with a malaise-engendering attitude (Asante Samuel, DeSean Jackson).
Only if these steps are performed can the rebuildling process begin in earnest. This season, and this roster, as currently constituted, cannot be salvaged.
Morton:
You’re the GM:
Whom do you draft w/ those 3 choices? Or at least who are the 4 or 5 guys you want.
And what position MOST needs to be upgraded?
___________
Yes, indeed. Babin is a 1-trick pony. And that’s why every team pulls a guard and runs right at him every week and makes good yards.
If Dallas hadn’t imploded, DeMarcus Murray could have had a huge night running the same play over and over right at Babin.
So I mean firing people and drafting new people are great offseason solutions. Meantime, in the next eight games, assuming the team is going to try to win as many of them as possible, you have any less-drastic solutions?
Maybe play Graham at DE on obvious run downs and let Babin come in and pin his ears back on 3rd and long. He’ll still get his sacks that way and be happy, and we won’t have an obvious flaw (assuming Graham can play the run as billed) that any decent coach can exploit.
Another good one that’s been suggested … just play Hanson in the slot and stop trying to make one of our outside guys an inside guy.
We might not be able to “fix” this team this year, but you can’t just stop trying.
It’s breathtaking that if the Eagles (i) beat AZ (and the living Skelton) while the 49ers hold serve at home over the G-men, and (ii) win on the road in No. Jersey against the G’ints — the Eagles are 1 game back w/ 6 to go.
Sound too good to be true? Yeah . . . probably is.
But Reid’s made a career out of eking out a spot in the playoffs via unfathomable developments with other teams. As in 2008.
It’s too bad Reid didn’t care about receivers in the mid-’00s. That his hubris about out-scheming everyone was enough.
Oh well. Buddy didn’t care about any of the 11 offensive positions — and LCB (where Izell Jenkins played) — except QB.
You’re making things unnecessarily complicated. The answer is simple. The team isn’t as talented as everyone keeps saying. People had come around to that thought earlier in the season, but the last two weeks convinced everyone that the team was in fact the league’s most talented. It’s odd, since it was a pretty lackluster performance against Washington. One fantastic game isn’t enough to confirm that a team is ridiculously talented. They just aren’t that good. Cancel the investigation. That’s all it is.
Or even more simply put, they are a lot of talented individual players whose sum is less than its parts.
I’m not even sure the sum is less than its parts. I think the sum is just a lot smaller than people like to imagine. Hard to have a large sum with at least five below replacement-level players in your starting lineup.
I’m not even sure the sum is less than its parts. I think the sum is just a lot smaller than people like to imagine. Hard to have a large sum with at least five below replacement-level players in your starting lineup.
In some ways, the offseason was an Eagles fan’s wet dream… all the big names migrating here Oakland, AZ, NY. And the result has been a team that has played disjointed, clumsy, mal-coordinated football. Perhaps Reid will not try this again.
Maybe this was never a “win-now” team. Change over some of the redundant pieces for some functional ones in our weak spots and try again next year, with an experienced D-coordinator and a reevaluation of the wide-9 concept.
Next year might not look so bad.
I completely understand the frustration with DeSean’s performance, both in this game and throughout the season, but I’m not sure I understand any of the prima donna stuff about him. He has this stigma of being immature, and maybe you can make the connection that his lack of production is related to that… maybe… but publicly, he hasn’t been very much a prima donna at all. The guy has said nothing about his contract, he hasn’t called out his coaches or other players. At worst, he has said things like, “We have a great team,” which I know is something that has irked Tommy, but it is certainly not prima donna type material.
I’m not trying to defend DeSean. I think he deserves to be strongly criticized for his play, but I think the criticisms should be fair and accurate. Criticize his dumb play on the punt return. Criticize him disappearing on a regular basis throughout the season. Criticize him for dropping passes. But criticizing him for being a guy with confidence is silly, especially when he is not using that confidence to be a distraction. The guy hasn’t played well and frankly we haven’t heard from him most of the season. On the other hand, Asante plays poorly, but you are constantly hearing controversial comments from him.
I noticed that the first couple of times and let it slide. I don’t think DeSean, as team players go, is in the same boat as Asante. DeSean has given a good effort on a few diving catches this year early in games when we really needed the boost from him. He’s refused to let his contract situation become divisive. And he never clamors publicly for more touches despite being one of the most explosive players in the game.
Asante has pretty clearly said “I’m here for the check” although he definitely wishes he were loved by the Eagles. Babin seems like another guy who might care a lot about his own stats.
But in reality, selfishness might not be the issue with this team so much as what so many of you laid about before … thinking they are better than they are. Just because they have a lot of talented individuals doesn’t mean they function well as a team.
It’s a shame because if someone could meld all this talent together, it could really be special instead of special ed.
TOMMY:
Why is the Steeler’s Mike Wallace still getting open deep — after 2.5 years of being a 1-trick poney?
But D-Jax and J-Mac can’t seem to get open deep anymore.
The Eagles throw 67% of the time (pass attempts + sacks + QB runs)
The Steelers throw 64% of the time (same).
What’s the theory?
Especially when McCoy is far and away the more productive runner compared to Rashard (brother of Walter) Mendenhall.
I still maintain the problem with this team is that they felt like they earned a postseason berth in the preseason. I can’t know that for sure, but when you look at how sloppy they played (and in all honesty the Buffalo, San Fransisco and Chicago games were all unmitigated slopfests) that indicates to me that they aren’t focused and dialed in. Now that changed for the Washington and Dallas games where we finally strung together some nice performances, and everyone felt they were on the top of the world again. Fast forward to last night, everyones starting to relax a bit, Vick’s been talking about how safeties are playing 500 yards deep, etc.
The problem with that mentality is that even the very best teams in the league, even the best teams we’ve seen over the years, know how to stay focused and bring their A game every week. They don’t believe the playoffs will just happen because they are superior in some way. Even take a look at New England in 2007, each and every week they came out and attacked with frightening speed and precision, you’d have thought each week was a playoff game they were so focused and dialed in.
The point is if the team harbors some kind of mentality where they believe they are entitled to a postseason berth, they aren’t going to respect each and every game, regardless of what they say to the media or even behind closed doors. The gap between the good teams and the bad teams is too close in this league to allow yourself to get sloppy.
I remember some of the players saying things during that brutal september/october stretch like “we’re better than team X that beat us” or “we’re a few plays away from being unbeaten”. I felt like they were missing the point. It is true we were a few plays away from wins several times, but even if we had won that doesn’t excuse how bad we were playing overall anyhow. Even a win in those situations would have been a mirage because sooner or later teams are going to make you pay for all those mistakes.
Just yesterday I heard Tom Coughlin say something interesting, which I wish the Eagles would take to heart. He talked about how the team has to learn to handle both failure AND success. Thats the key there, handling success. You can’t get complacent when you start winning, because thats how you start dropping winnable games.
Applied to our situation, we opened on a bad run, went 1-4. Finally everyone starts realizing, hey we’ve got to start winning games or we’re going to be out of this thing before it really even gets started. Now we go and play our two best games of the year against Washington and Dallas. Now all of a sudden we’re having some success, pundits are starting to say good things about us, fans are happier, etc. Instead of riding that success and building on it, understanding that we can’t let up, we reverted right back to our old form and it cost us.
Well said.
I no longer hold out hope for this team. And really “team” is kind of a misnomer. They’re more or less a collection of talented individuals who haven’t learned how to get it together to form a cohesive unit.
I think as fans we’re all looking for that quick fix. That one thing that will make this team click, and honestly, I don’t think we’ll find it this year. I’m certain they’ll continue to be up and down all season long and will ultimately finish out of the playoffs. I’m not even sure how people can be optimistic about the playoffs when we’re effectively an additional half game behind the Bears and Falcons due to losses against both those teams, which we’ll probably be competing against both of them for the wild card. The schedule does look easy, but looking over it, it seems we can definitely lose to any one of those teams. I suppose there is a chance that NYG go into meltdown mode (again) in the 2nd half of their season, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I want to believe we can get it together in the 2nd half and go on an epic run to the playoffs, but I’m thinking the only thing that will make this team better is time. Time playing together, time in the scheme, time in their respective units. The coaches could use more time as well. Hell, Juan still can’t seem to figure out how to use his corners. Do you put DRC in the slot? Or do you put a guy like Hanson in there? You would think after half a season of film he would have some idea. BTW, DRC doesn’t work in the slot because he’s not tough enough. Hanson, and before him, Brown, played well in the slot simply because they’re tougher guys. They’ll get their hands dirty supporting the run, blitzing the QB, etc. Put DRC outside, matched up one on one, and I think he’ll be a much improved player.
I’ll watch every game from now until the end of the season, whenever that will be, but I think I’ll be watching with much, much, much lower expectations.
Off topic, but I just want to say a farewell to Smokin’ Joe. A true Philly athlete, loads of heart and grit. Peace be with you, Champ.
“DRC isn’t made for the slot. ”
And Nnamdi isn’t Charles Woodson.
And Casey Matthews isn’t Clay Matthews.
And you can’t run a Wide 9 with crappy LBs.
And light DLs wear down in the 4th quarter.
And Jarred Page shouldn’t be playing in the NFL.
And, most of all, you don’t take an OL coach and make him DC.
This is all painfully obviously to everyone BUT Juan and AR.
This is why they both need to go, the sooner the better.