DGR – Offense vs Oakland
Posted: November 6th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 118 Comments »What a game. The Eagles had put up 3 offensive points over the last 2 games. The media was eagerly embracing the notion that Chip Kelly’s offense needed to be changed. He had to expand the playbook. He had to go get a QB that could run. He had to do this, that or the other. Something had to be done.
Kelly did none of that. He focused on fundamentals. The plays weren’t the problem. Execution was.
Nick Foles came back from his concussion and Kelly had a simple message for him: “Grip it and rip it.” Kelly wanted his young QB to think less and just go out and play. Find the open guy, get him the ball. Simple as that.
Foles listened to Kelly and the result was a record-tying 7 TD passes. The Eagles scored 49 points and gained 542 yards. All of that happened on only 57 plays. The offense was efficient and explosive. The Eagles were 4 for 5 on 3rd downs in the 1st half. The one that didn’t get converted? Jason Avant dropped a pass. The offense had 6 plays of 25 or more yards.
Big plays and offensive efficiency aren’t new. Going 4 for 4 in the Red Zone is. Scoring TDs instead of settling for FGs is huge, both on the scoreboard and in terms of momentum. The Raiders were able to move the ball, but they struggled to get into the endzone. It reminded me of the old joke that they brought a knife to a gunfight.
The Eagles were 31st in RZ efficiency going into the game, but they are now up to 26th. It will be interesting to see if Foles can continue to play well in the RZ. That is critical to winning games.
The real good news for me is that Foles didn’t do anything today that he can’t replicate. There were no miracle passes or runs. Foles just went out and ran the offense. He made the right decisions. He made accurate throws. He moved around and used his mobility to help on those plays when he did get pressure or needed to be on the move.
No Eagles player did anything today that made your jaw hit the floor. There were no circus catches or highlight runs. Players got open. Foles got them the ball. Good things happened.
Foles can replicate the performance in terms of making good decisions and accurate throws. The offense can move the ball and score points. Next time it will problably be 27 or 31 or 34 instead of 49. You can’t count on going 4 for 4 in the Red Zone and having no turnovers on a regular basis.
When the offense executes well and you play a clean game, great things can happen.
Plays
* 3rd/13. Opening drive. This play got me excited. Foles had good protection. Pump-faked to his left and then hit Jeff Maehl over the middle for a gain of 19. That pass had some zip on it. Foles sat in the pocket and looked like a stud QB on that play. That was a sign that the Dallas Foles was gone.
* 3rd/3. Eagles were in 3 x 1 set. Shady went in motion prior to the snap. Foles looked right at him after getting the snap and 2 LBs hustled outside. That left Ertz wide open over the middle. Easy pitch and catch for the 1st down.
* 3rd/5. Ball at 18-yd line. Raiders were in Cover 1 with heavy blitz look. Foles took the snap and looked to his right. That froze Woodson, the FS. Foles then threw left, where Riley Cooper got past rookie CB DJ Hayden. Cooper stretched out and hauled in the pass for a TD. I thought Foles might have overthown Cooper on the play, but turned out to be a good throw.
* 1st/10. Ball at own 37. 2 x 2 set, with a pair of WRs right and Cooper/Celek on the left side. Celek took off upfield. Foles faked a handoff on the outside zone to Shady. That brought the SS streaking down into the box. Foles then looked to his right. He came back to the left, where Cooper was running a post route with only single coverage. The FS had gotten lost on the play due to the fakes. Cooper caught the ball at the 15 and jogged into the endzone. Real good throw. Excellent pass protection from the OL.
* 2nd/10. Ball at OAK 25. Had a 3 x 1 set to the right. Then Shady went in motion that way, making it 4 x 1. Oakland blitzed. The 3 DBs on the front side had 4 guys to cover. They left Shady open so Nick hit him on the move. Shady motored down the sideline for a TD.
* 1st/10. Foles hit DeSean for a gain of 59. The ball traveled 60 yards in the air. The play looked like a variation of the play action pass that the Eagles have run from under Center. Celek crossed behind the formation to block the backside DE. Cooper ran a deep crossing route. DeSean went deep. Foles faked to Shady and then hit DJax with a bomb.
* 2nd/GL. Had a 2 x 1 set with DeSean and Shady in the backfield. Foles faked to Shady heading to the left. DJax then went to the right. Foles rolled that way. The Raiders covered DJax well, but left Riley Cooper, running a drag route behind them, open. Foles pump-faked, then hit Cooper on the move. TD.
MISC
* 4 for 4 in the Red Zone. Huge part of the game.
* 4 of 10 on 3rd downs, but were 4 of 6 prior to the 7th TD.
* Had Shady go in motion out wide on several plays. Mostly he was a decoy, but did end up catching a TD on that play eventually. When players focused on him, Foles went elsewhere. The one time the defense ignored him, Foles and Shady made them pay.
* Used an unbalanced line twice on the opening series. One was a run, the other a WR screen.
Players
QB
FOLES – Great game. Tied an NFL record with 7 TD throws. 22-28-406. No INTs or fumbles. Ran 3 times for 14 yards. Had more TDs than incompletions. That is crazy.
There were no signs of the guy we saw in the Dallas game. That Nick was hesitant and indecisive. His passes were off target and thrown with no confidence. Thankfully, all that was gone. Foles was a changed man.
I thought Foles threw the ball better than I’ve ever seen. His intermediate passes had good velocity. His deep balls were accurate. Receivers didn’t have to wait for the ball. Foles threw on the move and even those passes had zip. In the past, he’s been a guy that needed to plant his feet to get anything on the ball. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.
*Plays *
– First play Foles ran. Had Shady open in the flat, but didn’t see him and took off. Liked the fact he was decisive.
– Hit Cooper on WR screen for a gain of 42. That energized the offense. Missed Ertz on a throw to the right side. Couldn’t tell if the ball was deflected or just a bad throw. DE leapt and had his arms up, but couldn’t see definitive contact.
– Hit Maehl over the middle on 3rd/13. Huge play. Looked very good on that.
– Hit Shady with a screen pass. Actually pump-faked on that. Might have delayed the LBs by half a second. Play went for 13 yds.
– Ran for 9 yds on 2nd/4 late in the 1st Qtr. Was read-option play and Foles was going to throw outside, but noticed a DB going for the WR. Foles pulled the ball down and just ran himself. Nothing great, but moved the chains with a safe, simple play.
– Did a good job on 3rd/16. Raiders only rushed 3. Nick dropped back and looked around. Had time so he gave his guys a chance to get open. Looked hard left and then came all the way back to DJax on the right side. Got 17 on the play.
– Had a very nice play in the mid-2nd Qtr. Got some pressure up the middle. Moved up in the pocket and then slid to the right. Looked at Shady in the flat, then saw DJax downfield. Threw the ball 23 yards in the air, on a rope and without having his feet set. That was an arm throw, and a good one.
– The TD to Ertz was another play where Foles showed the ability to move around and throw on the run. He dropped back and looked left. He pump-faked. Foles then moved to his right and up the field. He focused on the middle of the field and at the last minute saw Ertz wide open. Foles didn’t stop to set his feet. Threw a strike while on the move. TD. LBs and DBs were influenced by his eyes and the fake.
– Opened the 3rd Qtr by running to his left and then throwing a lateral to Cooper who was out wide. Foles was credited with a 1-yd run and Cooper with an 18-yd run. Refs through a pair of flags (illegal forward pass and OPI), but both were waived off when it was ruled a run and not a pass.
– Used a good shoulder fake and looking to the left to get DeSean wide open for a 46-yd TD in the early 3rd. The Raiders had Woodson in the deep middle. He followed the fake and Foles eyes. DJax got by his CB and was wide open. There was even a flag on the CB for holding, but it didn’t affect DJax.
– Hit Cooper for 12 yds on 3rd/15. Didn’t mean much in this game, but a play like that might matter in a defensive struggle down the line where field position is critical.
Incompletions:
1 – off target to Ertz
2 – downfield ball to Celek…almost a throwaway, but ended up pretty close
3 – overthrew Cooper on a corner route…tight coverage and the ball was too high
4 – drop by Avant on 3rd down late in the 1st half
5 – bounced a quick screen to DeSean in the 3rd Qtr
6 – threw the ball away…very good coverage by Raiders
BARKLEY – Came into the game in the 4th Qtr. 2-3-13. The one miss was a chance for a good gain. Casey came wide open on a corner route. Completed a couple of short passes to Ertz. No turnovers, which is new for Matt.
RB
SHADY – 12-44 on the ground. 4-36-1 as a receiver. Highlight play was a 25-yd TD catch. Got the ball in the right flat and had open space ahead of him. Just flew down the sideline for the TD. Caught a screen on the opening drive and got upfield for 13 yds. Made a terrible blitz pickup late in the half. Either didn’t see the guy or just had a weird moment. Almost blocked him sideways and the LB got off the block instantly. Best run of the day came in the early 3rd. Started up the middle, then bounced a run wide to the left. Got wide and turned upfield for 17 yds. Called for holding on pass play in the early 3rd. Tackled a blitzer. Penalty wiped out 2 penalties on the defense. Receiving stats would be better, but Shady lost 7 yards on a screen in the early 3rd Qtr. Terrific play by Burnett.
B BROWN – Easily his best game of the year. 7-54. Finally delivered a big play. Ran for 32 yards on play at the end of the 1st Qtr. There were 6 in the box. Foles gave BB the ball on a simple inside run. He broke a tackle by Woodson and then got wide. Excellent size/speed play. My only complaint is that he went out of bounds at the end. Had 2 defenders to deal with, but I’d prefer the big backup RB punish those guys instead of just going out of bounds. First run of the game came on a pin & pull toss play. Got 9 yds. Broke a tackle at the LOS. Showed good power and speed on that play. Kept his shoulders square to the LOS. Ran to the wide left on a pin & pull sweep. Squared his shoulders and got upfield for 7 yds. Finished that run well. Lowered his shoulders and got everything he could.
POLK – Didn’t play on offense.
TE
CELEK – 3-27. Highlight play was a 24-yd catch and run. Came on screen pass. Cut back over the middle and got good yardage on the play. Showed good speed as he ran away from a LB and then good power as he ran over a DB. Fun play. Caught a short TD on a crossing route. His DB got lost in coverage and Brent was wide open for an easy throw. Also helped that Riley nudged the DB as he was chasing Brent. Had a good block on Foles 9-yd run. Got enough of the DB to keep Nick clean til he was upfield. Most impressive play of the game was a gain of 0. Caught TE screen and defender hit him in the backfield. Brent would not go down until he got back to the LOS. May have even gained a foot. Great effort. Had a very good block of DE Houston on sweep. Sealed him cleanly.
ERTZ – 5-42, including his first NFL TD. 5 catches was career high. Previously it was just 3. Caught pass on 3rd/3 in the RZ and fought his way down to the 2-yd line. Caught a 15-yd TD in the late 2nd Qtr. Ran a simple corner route and was wide open. Stuck up his arm to get Foles attention. Had lined up in the slot on that play. Did one subtle thing. Stopped moving when he was open and stayed away from the sideline. Some players will keep drifting and create a tough situation. Ertz left himself room to work with. Smart. Caught a short pass on a crossing route late in the half. The ball came loose, but it was clearly after he hit the ground. Had a good block on Cooper’s long gain to open the 2nd half. Caught a pair of passes from Barkley late in the game.
CASEY – Played a decent amount, but only had one pass come his way and that was later in the game.
WR
D JACKSON – 5-150-1. Hauled in a 59-yd bomb and scored on a 46-yd catch and run. First catch was WR screen. Got 8 yds on that play. Found a hole in the zone on 3rd/16 and caught a pass for 17 yds. Made an impressive grab on the 59-yd gain. Had the CB right on him as the ball came down, but stayed focused on the ball. Got slung to the ground, but held on. The TD was easy. CB tried to hold him, but DeSean ran by him and kept his balance. Caught the ball on the move and was able to glide into the endzone.
AVANT – The Eagles used more 2 TE stuff and less 3 WR sets so that limited Avant’s snaps. Dropped a 3rd down pass late in the half. Would have been a tough catch, but the kind you expect Jason to make. That was the only pass that came his way. Blocked well, as usual.
COOPER – Best game of his career. 5-139-3. Got started early. Caught WR screen on the 3rd play and was able to get out wide and up the field. Went for 42 yds. Executed a pick play on the first TD of the game. Came across the middle and put a shoulder into the DB covering Celek. Did it in a kinda subtle way. At least sold the notion that he was running a route. Some WRs will run right into the DB and block them. Officials have to call that. Did a good job on his 18-yd TD catch. Adjusted to the ball when it was in the air. Was strong enough to not be affected by contact from the CB. Did a little bit of his own pushing on the play. Also stretched out for the ball. Riley needed to be a bigger/longer WR to make that catch. Used his size on the long TD as well. CB played off. Riley ate up ground with his long stride and got even. The CB tripped, possibly on Riley’s feet, but Cooper never broke stride. TD. Had a good block on Shady’s 17-yd run in the 3rd Qtr. Got 12 yds on 3rd/15 in the mid-3rd.
D JOHNSON – Played more than I realized, but didn’t have any passes thrown his way. Even got to go deep on one play, but failed to get any separation.
MAEHL – Caught pass over the middle on 3rd/13. Got 19 yds on the play. Was in traffic and had to go up for the ball, but took a hit and held on. Big play.
OL
The line had a very good day. They consistently gave Foles good time in the pocket. When a player did lose, he didn’t let the defender get by him cleanly. The OL gave Foles a chance to see the rusher and move. There was only one play where Foles took a really hard hit. That came when Shady tackled a blitzer and some other rusher got free.
PETERS – Good game. Picked up a stunt on 3rd/13 and gave Foles a clean pocket. Good block on first TD pass. Hit DE, then pushed him inside to Mathis. Then Peters blocked blitzing DB. Got away with a false start in the mid-3rd Qtr. Was 3rd/long and Peters started a fraction of a second before the snap. Funny, Peters was on the Eagles when they lost to OAK in 2009. Peters left the game with a minor injury. There were some rumblings that he should be tougher and stay on the field. How times have changed. Now a very highly thought of Eagle.
MATHIS – Good block of DT on Brown’s long run. DT read the flow of the play and moved with the action. Mathis engaged him and used the guy’s momentum to keep him out of the play. Good sustain. Got driven back by a DT on the long TD to Cooper, but was able to re-set and keep the guy from affecting Foles. Called for holding in the mid-2nd Qtr on a broken play, but the Raiders actually declined the penalty. On the very next snap, had a false start. Good game with a couple of blemishes.
KELCE – Another strong performance. Tried to pull on early toss play, but Peters moved back and got into Kelce’s way, which disrupted the whole run. Wasn’t able to block Burnett on run. He got Shady for TFL. Looked like Burnett’s alignment made that a very tough block for Kelce. Real good block on Burnett on early Brown run. Pulled and drove Burnett down the field. Good block of Roach (MLB) on Brown’s long run. Had a good block of the MLB on a 9-yd run up the middle by Shady. Very effective at pulling and getting wide on outside runs.
HERREMANS – Called for holding on the 2nd play. Questionable call. Good block on Brown outside run. Pulled and squashed DB that was in the alley. Gave Bryce room to run. Gave up some pressure on pass play in the mid-2nd, but kept the guy from getting to Foles. Had some issues with Pat Sims. Sims was able to get under Todd’s pads and get him off balance in pass pro. Good job in the run game.
JOHNSON – Good down block of DT on run where Shady got upfield for 6 yds. Was actually more aggressive in some of his pass sets. Came off the ball and engaged rushers rather than always waiting for them to come to him. Had a strong game.
BARBRE – Came into the game in the late 3rd to play LT. Not as good a run blocker as Peters.
VANDERVELDE – Got to play C late in the game.
_
I normally don’t give a big F about Power Rankings, but did you notice that Pete Prisco has dropped the Eagles one spot in his rankings after that amazing performance by Foles and the Eagles?! What a donut…
When you scramble the letters in Pete Prisco, you get…
Septic Pore
Or Trip Pee Co. Specializing in psychedelic urinary tract infection meds.
Peter Is Cop? eh i got nothing.
Stop Creepi?
Ostric PePe?
“Crispee Pot” would explain a lot
LeSean DeCoy?
“Had Shady go in motion out wide on several plays. Mostly he was a decoy, but did end up catching a TD on that play eventually. When players focused on him, Foles went elsewhere. The one time the defense ignored him, Foles and Shady made them pay.”
The Chip Wagon did a great job of breaking down how Kelly set this up: http://chipwagon.typepad.com/eagles/2013/11/lucky-11-the-anatomy-of-a-play.html.
If Foles is going to continue to have more touchdown passes than incompletions, I really hope his completion percentage goes down.
Well played, sir.
I can’t think of a smart ass reply. That makes me sad.
I couldn’t come up with one, either. That was simply brillance.
If he can get it down into the low 30’s he will be throwing two touchdowns for every completion.
What’s our next lesson, professor?
Ah . . . addition by subtraction.
I cannot seem to get tHe math to work with a completion percentage under 51%. That is assumeing no time travel or parralel universes. But after Sunday I cannot rule things like that out.
There are literally an infinite number of percentages >50% and <51% that would work.
Errr… no. There is no way to generate those ‘infinite’ percentages. There are a limited number of possible attempts, and of that number of attempts only a few completion numbers are going to generate a percentage in the range specified (in fact in a single only attempts in the 51+ range can generate such a percentage… 26/51, 27/53, 28/55)
Even for a large pool (say 600 attempts for a season), only 301-305 completions will generate the looked for %.
Errr… no.
So you dispute my lighthearted comment.
There is no way to generate those ‘infinite’ percentages.
And then implicitly acknowledge its accuracy. While there may be no way to generate those infinite percentages, there are a an infinite number of percentages in that range.
That would be like me pointing out that there really is no need to root for a lower completion percentage in the first place if you read A_T_G’s post carefully. 40-40 with 40 touchdown passes is certainly better than 21-40 with 21 touchdown passes, and it comes with more touchdowns that incompletions. 🙂
Errr… no again.
The post you replied to referred to completion percentages (not percentages in general)… you were implicitly referring to completion percentages in your response.
And as I demonstrated, the completion percentages are not only finite, but easily computed.
i’ll bet that if Foles ever does manage to throw 7 TD passes in a single game again (heck, or if he even comes close with 5 or 6), everyone in the world will just be saying “I guess its just this fancy Chip Kelly offense that makes it easy for any QB to get touchdowns…”
talking to some of my friends (who seem to get all of their eagles info from WIP), you would think that Foles just had a “good” game. i really don’t understand the hesitancy to give the man credit where it is due. that was one of the greatest QB days ever in the history of the game against a pretty good defense.
instead, its looked at as a ‘solid performance’, but it is inflated because:
* the game these days favors the offense and the passing game
* chip kelly’s offense is explosive
* the defense was terrible
* Foles got lucky
* etc.
i’m not ready to say that Foles is going to be the next Peyton Manning, or that he is even the Eagles QB of the future just yet. But i gotta look at it as a single game – his performance was incredible.
sigh.
I think the problem is there has always been a discrepancy between the NAME Nick FOles and his real abilities as a QB going back to College..he wasn’t praised much in College yet someone name a better QB in he tag PAC besides Luck? He was a 3rd round pick, he wasn’t the sexy highlight real player with the cannon arm and the freak athleticism with the aww shucks Napolean Dynamite demeanor and he has ALWAYS been an under rated QB..
…If his name were Tannahill and we drafted him in round 1 and he went on to do what FOles has done in his is first 10 NFL games under the same exact circumstances, he would be an ANNOINTED GOD in YThis city by now…
….
he played 6 games in the most dysfunctional situation you could possibly throw a young QB into…It never broke him!!
Then he leads us to a 3-1 record in his is sophomore season, providing fantastic QB play in the 3 wins, and one horrible performance in the Loss….The kid is our future, and I look forward to it finally becoming clear to the city in the next couple months…
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For 3 games this season the kid provide the quality of play that we could only be SOOO fortunate to see for the next 5 years, and one time he played really bad…yet half the “fan” base continues to not only NOT support the kid, but they continue to tear him down and diminish what he has done…
Hear, hear. I was starting to think I was crazy this past offseason. When all of the media and fans were talking about how poorly Foles played, I was incredulous. I thought he played well last year for a rookie thrown into the fire with a lame duck coach, crazy offensive line coach and a team that had quit. No Shady or Desean, and Celek was hurt for a good bit as well. Nevertheless, he performed statistically on par with the lauded rookies(Luck, Wilson, etc) and he out performed the veteran he had replaced(Vick). I felt that some fans/media forgot how average a young QB looks. The wins/losses last year with Foles meant nothing(although the come from behind win w/ TB was impressive). People were talking like Foles just looked average and that was not good enough.
I am not ready to annoint Foles our Franchise QB, but the kid needs to start the rest of the year-regardless.
Far better QB prospects coulda been RUINED after being throne in such a horrible position that we threw him into as a rookie…The fact that it never broke him, things never spiraled out of control for him, and he put it behind him and went on to improve, is such a DAMN GOOD SIGN in a young QB…it wasn’t pretty, but I thought last year was so damn encouraging to see! especially since it practically backed up the toughness and Moxy he displayed in college playing with a bad offense
Are you referencing the “David Carr Syndrome”?
It’s happened to plenty..which is why every year you see coaches hesitant about throwing some very talented rookies out there too soon…when they worry about throwing him out there too soon, they aren’t worrying about him not playing well enough for them to win THAT game, they are worrying about him losing confidence and screwing up their development if they throw them into a fire before they are ready…I don’t even care what he looked like last year(although he did put up historic rookie year stats), just the fact that it didn’t break him and he was able to put it behind him and go on to improve his game is very encouraging for me…the fact that even when he plays the worst game of his life he is still judicious in taking care of the ball is very encouraging to me….
…
How many times do we see a QB play on Fire during the first half and then cool off at halftime? That didn’t happen, if anything he just got better and better throughout the game….
…
I’m sorry, but the kid made some INSANE throws that I’m just not accustomed to seeing from a backup QB…I remember Matt Flynns 6TD game, and he didn’t look close to how FOles looked on Sunday? The variety of throws all thrown at a high level, almost to perfection was just insane..I watched that game 3 times already and it’s only Weds lol
Here here bro. Let’s hope he stays healthy. A hand injury put him on IR last year. The concussion knocked him out of two games this year.
But to be fair, A. Rogers got knocked out for 3 games, so I guess it happens to the best of them.
It’s really not uncommon for QBs to break the hands on a helmet during a throwing motion…
…
People worry about his concussions, but for someone who already had 1 in the past, if it was bad, there is no way he woulda been able to only miss a week and hang 7 TDs on an NFL defense…this leads me to believe that so far they haven’t taken a toll on his body yet
What I do love about the Chip Kelly Offense is that in the terrible TV camera angle, you can see the entirety of the usual read option/bubble screen play, as opposed to the ball just magically flying to down field receivers and having to wait until the replay to see how it happened.
The real question with Foles is how can he play under pressure? The Raiders simply didn’t get pressure on him consistently, as Lane neutralized Houston. However, PFF had Foles ranked as one of the worst under pressure, which is not surprising (small sample and all) with a young QB, especially one still working on mechanics. When pressure comes, a young QB will tend to get excited and if his footwork hasn’t become second nature, will find himself throwing off his back foot or failing to follow threw or set his body, thus throwing inaccurately. So the key to Foles going forward may be how well he resets after moving away from pressure – he has the pocket movement skills and the size to shrug off rushers, but inconsistent mechanics could be his downfall.
For some reason I thought I saw a stat before last game that showed Foles actually seemed to do well against the blitz? Sometimes I question how PFF get their ratings. I think they have canonized Evan Mathis already.
Nevertheless, I agree with you. For any QB, especially young, performing while under duress from the pass rush is the deal maker/breaker.
We need an animated gif of Foles trying to bounce that one run outside. Because we’ve all dreamed of the impossible.
After this performance, is there any way we can go back to Vick as the “starter”? This year means nothing (unless we get crazy hot and go on a playoff run) so why give Vick games when he A) Doesn’t really get the job done. B) Get’s hurt. C) are not a part of the Eagles next year.
At some point you just gotta give Foles the chance and see what we have in him. When else are we going to evaluate him for real?
I doubt anyone’s even thinking about that at this point, and frankly i thin the debate is a little played out. Vick was ready to hand over the reigns before the Dallas game.
I sure hope Foles pans out. I have strange omen going into this GB game. Now that we think Foles is our franchise QB, I’m thinking back to when we thought Kolb was our franchise QB against the Packers. How strange would it be if Vick was active but announced as the backup to repeat history? Would we be destined for another Clay Matthews hit to put Vick in the game and let him miraculously go wild? It sounds like Vick will still be inactive and Matthews could be too (I think he’s injured). Just a really weird thought that occurred to me this morning from seeing the parallels.
I shared the exact thought on here a couple of days ago. That’s why it’s imperative for Chippah and the Eagles to take out Clay Matthews (it sounds like he will be playing!) with 3 or 4 blockers. I even suggest to let the whole offense line block hi to make sure that history won’t be repeated.
Kolb was much faster the Foles and, I think, more prone to run for his life.
I think Foles learned a painful lesson in Dallas: read, react, throw . . . and don’t run for your life, just get rid of the ball.
Seriously, nothing can stop hit from the back that drives a player’s head into the ground. In the pocket. Outside the pocket.
Consequently, I think your 3-4 blockers strategy should be incorporated into the game plan.
Kolb never lost his happy feet. Haven’t seen that problem with Foles.
yea, i dont want to see Clay Matthews going up against Lane Johnson one on one all game long…
i think Lane has been pretty damn good for a rookie so far this season, but he is still just that – a rookie.
Yeah, but Kolb was the glass man. Plus he seemed super skittish and held the ball for way too long. Foles to me, seems mostly fearless of the hits. Plus he gets the ball out fairly fast.
Excellent analysis of both guys.
A lot of us don’t think that Foles is our Franchise QB. A lot of us simply think that he has a good chance to be our Franchise QB.
The defeat of the Raiders was for a simple reason (beyond the Play of Foles and The Offense): The Raiders owed us. They owed us because the Eagles had never beaten the Raiders in Oakland. They owed us because they helped end the career of Randall Cunningham as an Eagle… and they owed us because of that one game in January 1981. The Eagles owe the Raiders a lot of payback and this is just the start.
Now: the Packers owe us. They owe us because they helped stick us with Mike Vick as starter for over 3 years. They owe us because they got lucky in January 2010 when the normally clutch David Akers missed two field goals. They owe us because of 4th and 26. They could have left any other Eagles receiver open and it would have been fine. Instead, they left open that 1st-round-bust, useless, blowhard Freddie Mitchell, and that idiot and some Eagles fans were duped into thinking Fred-Xtra-Stupid could play in the NFL. More than anything, they owe us because their most famous coach was Lombardi. The Eagles owned Lombardi one time in the post-season and have never gotten to own the trophy with his name on it. It’s been almost 53 years, Lombardi! Get over it and give up that trophy!
Anyone else kinda feel a little cheated by LUCK’s college career after this mornings espn piece?
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basically Stanford had a walk on, backup center who couldn’t play a lick of football yet he used his photographic memory to impress coaches by learning the entire playbook in 3 days..You aren’t allowed to take pics during games in college so QBs don’t get to look at pictures of how the defense is lining up and what they Are doing when they are on there sideline waiting for the next series…so Stanford used this brilliant mind to basically take a 6 second mental Video of how the defense lines up and what they do on every single play and then draw it. basically Luck and the Coaches were the only team that was able to look at pictures of what the defense was doing during games..I find that to be a major major advantage….Now that at this story is going to get publicity ii hope to see college change the rules and allow pictures..if not every coach is going go out and look for their own Braniac who can’t play a lick of football…I understand the value that hat backup center brought to Stanford! but i don’t know how I feel about him earning an athletic scholarship for his brain
Sounds pretty frickin awesome to me.
It is, but I never been a fan of finding loopholes to circumvent “the system”…I don’t like that one QB was able to enjoy that type of Advantage in every game he played…rather see them change the rules and allow pics in college, so that athletes who bust their butt their entire lives aren’t losing scholarships to a Braniac who has never and will NEVER play the game….
Jeff Hostetler(sp?) had a photographic memory. Talk about an advantage…
Yeah that’s a CRAZY advantage to have for a QB
Sheldon Cooper for QB!
If I had a photographic memory, I wouldn’t have needed the (sp?). Jealous.
Yes. Stanford has no business handing out scholarships to smart kids.
True, colleges need to spend more money on athletics and less on all them smart people.
Someone at Stanford got a scholarship for being smart?
Stop the presses…
I really like that in all most every game, one of the very 1st plays of the he game is Nick keeping the ball and gaining 5-10 yards with his legs..I love that he does it on the first series of the game basically putting the defense on notice..”unless you want to get burned for 5 yards at a time by my big goofy ackward running ability, then you aren’t going to be teeing off on my RB all game”…I love it!! And you see the difference when Nick does that, and then when Barkley comes in and defenses know there is no chance this pretty boy is running with the ball and they just load up on shady…
Run, Nick, Run. What is he doing? He’s beginning to believe.
Nick “The Rain Maker” FOles..will increase his record for the year to 4-1 on Sunday…
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Basically the kid needs to pull off two wins and he will have this entire city eating out the palm of his hands..assuming Dallas loses this week, if Nick is able to get us a win, we will be tied for the division, setting up a MONSTER game at home against the SKINS,,if he is able to snap that home streak, beat the skins and get us above 500, then everyone will BELIEVE!!!!…if he can pull that off he will be 5-1 for the year…
Again, I am not being funny, but do we really need multiple “FOles” posts in a row? That’s a personal Fo(u)les, my friend.
Ditto here. What is the deal with the FOles thing?
It’s all autocorrect. GEAGLE wrote that a few times already.
Why he doesn’t correct his autocorrect is beyond my knowledge, though.
Because he is not the one reading it… 10 times a day.
Maybe he doesn’t realize that if you correct the autocorrect a couple times it will learn the correct spelling automatically.
OMG..I can’t even imagine the horror..From the bottom of my heart, please forgive me…poor ATG, I feel soooo bad
Well, I don’t know that the tone of my comment was really “OMG” worthy, but I’ll explain. This is a public discussion forum. The reason one posts here is to have other people read it. If one didn’t want to share the thought, one wouldn’t post it. In essence, the poster is asking the rest of us to read what they are sharing.
If one is going to ask that of a group, at least one should have the courtesy to attempt to make the thought as comfortable to read as they can. On some sites that might mean lots of texting abbreviations, on another it might mean auf Deutsch. On this board it seems to mean grammatically correct English.
You find people who are jerks about it and look for minutia to criticize just to feel superior, and I am sure that is the way you feel about FOles. I don’t think asking the group to accept that your phone has been taught the wrong way to write his name, along with the wrong way to spell opinion and at least, is good form. I think the fact that it continues for weeks simply because you don’t care enough to reteach it is worse.
When you see me anally complain to someone about spelling or punctuation or tell them how they should enjoy their Igglesblitz experience, then I might give a fuck about poor lil German boy having to read a zero instead of an O…
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You are welcome to debate my opinion anytime,,if you understand what I’m trying to say, then you can live with how I write it
I was not complaining about your ‘FOles’ spelling, mate, I was only wondering why you need multiple postings in a row to express your love for Foles.
Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate your excitement, but you can easily edit your postings and put all your thoughts in one combined post.
Besides that I am afraid I’m too old for being a boy and thankfully I am not poor either.
Dude, come on. Don’t get pissed here. That’s not neccessary. It’s not about a spelling mistake, that happens to all of us, it’s about a name wrong written all the time.
That’s not a huge problem, but an easy one to correct.
Lol, I can see what I’ve done here. I don’t mind his ‘FOles’ spelling, so please forgive me GEAGLE for the shitstorm. 😉
I don’t mind the multiple posts from him, I just mind about the “FOles” spelling.
So there are two Germans, two opinions, one victim. It’s like in the good old days. 😀
It’s the stupid autocorrect on his phone
Clearly, sir, you want to be heard, or else you wouldn’t spend the entirely of your day typing thousands of words on this and other Eagles websites. If that’s the case, you might want to spend a little time making sure that your thousands of words are legible and proofread a little bit.
So the choice is — read Geagle’s multiple posts about the Eagles and “FOles” or read about the people complaining about it, which has nothing to do with the Eagles? I’ll take Geagles all day — everyday. Preach on Geagle…
Those are two of the choices.
I am looking for some explanations regarding the Foles Dallas performance? I know I should just move on, but my logical side tells me there has to be a reason. No one can look that good, that decisive against Tampa, Giants, and then give the best NFL QB performance of all time and play as badly as he did against Dallas. Not to revisit the game, but that game shook me to my core. While he didn’t turn the ball over, his performance was on eof the worst I have seen by an Eagle since…..maybe Vick last year at Cleveland. Anyway, think about this: in a span of three weeks, Foles has played two games: One that will undoubtedly be the best performance of his career and one that will probably the worst game of his career. Crazy. Now that we have the outliers out of the way, I am ready to evaluate
Wise words, sir. You can’t just ignore the Dallas game. Even if Foles plays really well for the rest of the season (and that would be great, I hope we all cheer for that), Kelly has to look at the tape over and over again (if he really doesn’t know the answer like he said publicly).
I don’t care about the turnovers he didn’t have, that was the worst QB performance I have seen in my (short) football life. Couldn’t move the ball if there would have been a gun to his head. Unacceptable.
Now that doesn’t mean that Foles can’t be the future. But you have to know how (!) it is possible that the QB you want to build around can play such a incredible, horrible game against a division rival without a good Defense.
Terry Bradshaw (3X), Warren Moon (2X), Griese, Namath, Eli…it happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_quarterbacks_who_have_posted_a_passer_rating_of_zero
Also, from the entry on Perfect Passer Ratings (of which Nick is the most recent member)
“Nine QBs have had a perfect 158.3 passer rating and also earned a 0.0 (lowest) passer rating during their careers: Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Len Dawson, Bob Griese, James Harris, Bob Lee, Craig Morton, and Eli Manning.”
But only 1 QB posted a perfect rating and 0.0 rating in the same season — which seems to me to be a more interesting statistic.
“General” Bob Lee — 1973 Falcons. Led them to a 9-5 record under the Dutch Van Brocklin. Erratic team.
No playoffs; Atlanta lost game 13 in their 14-game season to the 4-9-1 Cardinals, slipping behind the Washington team for the last playoff spot.
But Lee had a huge game against the Eagles in a 44-27 win. Entertaining day of football.
I have watched and remember a lot of sporting events in my life, but you seem to have an historical anecdote for almost every possible situation that is way out of my league. It really is remarkable and an interesting perspective you give here. Thanks!
AC, I was less than surprised to see you had an answer for ChipWagon’s trivia question on his latest write up. It’s a nice luxury having our own commenting Football Almanac on the blogs.
When I started following the Eagles, we had 9 TV channels in Atlantic City: NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, Channels 17 and 29 from Philadelphia and — from NYC — Channels 5, 9, and 11. It was the age of black-and-white TV.
WPIX (Ch 11 – NYC) was a treat because, on Saturday nights, it broadcast “Chiller Theater.”
The intro was priceless. And even knowing what was coming, I’d let it pass unwatched sometimes. Other times, I’d give it a peek.
Nothing wrong with that, I don’t think.
Here’s the intro, by the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CafM97ifNc
Love your posts, mate, but where’s the context? 😉
Foles . . . in Dallas, I mean.
Fair enough. 🙂
Yeah, you had more channels than we did… I remember at one point we only had 3, 6, and 10. That was before channel 12 started and before my parents bought a UHF converter.
You’re OLLLLLDDDDDDDD!!!!
One more crack like that young man and we’ll send you to your room!
I remember when the first family on our street in NE Philly got a color tv. I remember thinking how weird it seemed.
We didn’t have one of those until 1969. I remember the year because one of the first things we watched on it was the moon landing.
Are you forgetting channel 48?
I think that only started in 1966 or so. The other ones were a few years earlier. Channel 12 also started around then.
P_P_K:
Did that channel reach Atlantic City? Darned if I can remember it.
Foles using pump fakes, shoulder fakes, and moving defenders with his eyes…
Funny those are the same things you say about Brady, P. Manning, Brees, Rodgers (side fact: 6 superbowl wins between them in past 11 seasons).
I’m not putting Foles in their class. But the signs are looking real. Playing QB at an elite level requires not only talent but smarts as well. I know Nick has the smarts and physical talent (arm strength). The biggest thing he showed was repetitive accuracy.
The same trait that sets Brady, P. Manning, Brees, and Rodgers in a class of their own.
I’m excited and curious to see if he can show good ball placement for the rest of the year.
All that talk of photographic memory… but to me it seems like the real advantage is to have the kind of field vision where you don’t need to remember anything, you can see everything developing at once without going through any progressions. That’s what they used to say Marino had.
ICD . . .
Here’s the best QB story I’ve ever heard, which fits your thesis:
I lived in Dallas for a time.
One day, former Cowboy safety Charlie Waters was on the radio being interviewed and the topic of the Cowboys’ 2 losses to the Steelers in the ’75 and ’78 SBs came up.
The question was why couldn’t Dallas stop Terry Bradshaw — who performed brilliantly in both (’75 SB is remembered for Lynn Swann’s circus catch and tight-roping the sideline while IN THE AIR on a key 3rd down pass).
Anyway, Waters says that he and Cliff Harris, the other Cowboys safety, completely disregarded the defensive calls and were playing games with Bradshaw — showing him looks he could have never seen on tape. Waters explained that the defensive players knew what was happening and adjusted. Waters said he and Harris were all over the field.
But Bradshaw just picked Dallas apart.
So at the Pro Bowl after the ’79 season, Waters goes up to Bradshaw and asks him how he was so sharp in those two SBs . . . how could Bradshaw have been so good at reading the Cowboys defense since Waters and Harris were doing things they’d never shown before.
Bradshaw’s answer, according to Waters, was: “First I looked to the right to see if Swan was open. If he wasn’t I’d throw the Stallworth. If I looked at Stallworth first and he was covered, I throw to Swann. That’s it.”
Waters walked away speechless.
Much less complicated than blowing bubbles.
And that’s a good thing, because I don’t think anyone has an o-line that can block for this extent of time.
http://spongebob.nick.com/videos/clip/bubblestand-clip.html
Also I have mixed feelings about Rodgers being out this Sunday.
I agree it gives us a much much better chance to win the game.
But I am also sick of the media discrediting Eagles’ performances.
First it was “Its the Raiders”. Now it’ll be “Well, Rodgers was hurt.”
Its not in the teams control. You can only play who lines up in front of you.
But I was hoping to see the Eagles beat a Rodgers-led Packers team.
I agree, but not so much because of the media. I thought the Packers were going to be a good test for our defense – an opponent that is running and passing well.
Oh well, like you said, we can only play the opponent that takes the field.
really not paying huge attention to KC, but read where they’ve beaten 3 backup, a 3rd and a 4th stringer…no one’s pooh-poohing those 5 wins.
me too, but that’s weekday PC. come kickoff, i’ll be perfectly happy seeing him in sweats.
You can only play who lines up in front of you
exactly this. we’ve seen our eagles go out against teams they were supposed to beat handily and struggle. you have to go out there and win regardless of the opponent!
Chipwagon makes a great case for Nick Foles here: http://chipwagon.typepad.com/eagles/2013/11/the-case-for-nick-foles-as-the-franchise-qb.html
I completely agree with the Chipwagon assessment. From my experience, once you have performed extremely poorly, you get pissed off. Each game you know no fear but have a chip on your shoulder. You have something to prove and you know you can. Now Foles really, really knows he can.
Thanks for this. That was an awesome read. After reading the article, I was much more confident in my feelings re: Foles. I had forgotten how clutch he seemed last year as well. That drop by Evan Moore against the Redskins was horrible, I think I had tried to block it out.
Wasn’t there also a drop by an offensive lineman at some point in a clutch moment? I don’t remember the circumstances particularly well other than we were in the redzone and ran a trick play that went to an olineman who had the ball hit him in the gut and then drop it.
Have you ever had a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?
I’m still in wait and see mode, but listening to Morpheous (GEAGLE), perhaps it’s time to realize Foles may be the one.
I once dreamed that I rearranged all the furniture in my bedroom. Then I woke up and I swear, for several seconds I was trying to process how it all got put back in the original places that I had moved everything from.
I’m still more skeptical than Chipwagon, but I think he makes a really good case and I’m starting to be convinced. At least a little.
I vaguely recall some folks saying the Foles performance vs TB was a statistical anomaly and couldn’t possibly happen again.
Apparently they were right, he was able to produce and even better performance vs. a better defense.
Who’da thunk?
not all foles detractors are made equal. somes saw a good back-up, hoping for more, figured ’14 draft qb…i’m a card carrying member of that group. never fugured he could do enough to get the dallas game out of my mind…well, he crammed that down my pie-hole. still have concerns, but he knocked about 3 out in 1 game, deep ball to jax, bounce back ability and movement in pocket. not ready to hand over keys yet, but they are out of my pocket
Agreed. Let the kid play the rest of the season before we jump to conclusions again. For all we know, he could have good/bad games every other week.
Wasn’t his pocket mobility always a plus?
http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2013/11/06/22-bennie-logan-run-day/
Sheil article on Bennie Logan.
Logan:
“You get your hands on people, anybody, you can pretty much stop the running game. That’s our main thing when we go into games is make sure we get our hands on our opponent and just control the line of scrimmage so the linebackers can flow.”
Fran Duffy final Oakland recap
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Eagle-Eye-In-The-Sky-Final-Oakland-Recap/c02df0cf-5da2-49eb-9932-8b7dda5dd805
I liked the pace of the game. It was too fast for anyone on offense to over-think things. Some dopes are saying the Reiders defense let Nick Foles have success. I think our offense made their defense play bad.
Here are two more numbers – 24 and 2. 24 years old and 2nd year in the league.
Re: Who Likes Kelly’s Way . . . .
T-Law:
A question whose answer is still in the incubation period — but curiosity got the better of me (after reading the Azzinaro/Logan piece at 24-7).
By all accounts, Schiano’s a dead-man walking in in Tampa. Maybe, if the Raiders tank, Dennis Allen’s out in Oakland. Possibly, Houston moves on from Kubiak — the window there’s getting awfully small.
So . . . who on Chip Kelly’s staff do you think GMs (and owners) will see as possessing sufficient coaching timber to be in this year’s interview derby?
And who should be?
What about the man he left behind in Eugene?
Or are Kelly’s staff members, and Oregon acolytes, still a couple of winning seasons away from the derby?
Obviously, I’m assuming (rightly, I believe) these Eagles — and Nick Foles especially — will prove themselves pretty good and, maybe because of the schedule but maybe not, secure a winning season. Playoffs possibly, too.
Now, the last time I went out on a limb, I predicted an easy Eagles win over the Chargers. And if two of the passes to a very open DJax had connected, I’d have been right. But since then, I’ve tried to bridle my enthusiasm — and give up fortune telling.
But I just love the idea that Kelly’s approach is the new “good news” in the NFL. And thus his coaching apostles will be USDA prime in January.
(NOTE: bad mixing of metaphors to be sure.)
Re: Eagle Rookie Starting QB Rick Arrington
For those looking to compare Nick Foles to another young Eagles starting QB, here’re the highlights from Week 6 on “This Week in Pro Football” in 1970.
Arrington — sadly — debuted by posting a 0.0 QB rating (among the group in link of Tom33’s earlier comment).
Must see TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aR2fArayuY&list=PLs-D1vmqGQ1ziccGmaUyNIP35GlkEcLIH&index=64
It’s really a lot more fun to read the DGR when the Eagles play so well.
Hear, hear.
Yeah, I would love a detailed review of the incompletions our QB threw on any given tuesday or wednesday (whenever the DGR is posted). Because it is hard to imagine we lose a game if we only have 6 incompletions on gameday. 🙂