Gameday – Lions

Posted: December 8th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 24 Comments »

90 minutes til kickoff. Excited yet?

The inactives are:

QB M Barkley
RB M Tucker
OL D Kelly
OL M Tobin

LB N Goode
CB C Marsh
DB E Wolff

No major surprises for Detroit. CB Darius Slay is out while CB Chris Houston is active.

Big plays are going to be critical today. In the last 4 games, Nick Foles leads the NFL with 22 completions of 20 or more yards. Matt Stafford is 4th with 19. The Lions give up more big plays than the Eagles.

There is light snow in Philly already. Detroit is a dome team, but it is hard to say how much they’ll be affected by the weather. Detroit is obviously a cold-weather city so the players won’t be caught completely off guard. Also, they play away games in GB and CHI every year. You can bet that they’ve played in some cold weather in the past few years.

I’m interested to see how Nick Foles handles bad weather. This is another good test for him. Bad weather only usually affects 1 to 2 games a year, but it is something to keep in mind since it can be a factor in the postseason.

Riley Cooper has gone 2 games without a TD catch. I’m betting that changes today.

2 big concerns for me…tackling Johnson once he’s made the catch and handling stunts. Megatron is a force of nature. Eagles DBs need to use good form in pursuing, hitting and tackling him. The Eagles OL has had some issues with stunts this year. Detroit likes to do that. The Biggies need to communicate well and make sure they don’t let rushers come free after Foles.

* * * * *

Want a quick non-Eagles distraction?

Dan Graziano reported today that Mike Shanahan almost quit last year due to concerns about the Dan Snyder-RG3 relationship. This would be a really interesting report…if it wasn’t Graziano. For those who don’t know, he seems to have a close relationship with the Shanny’s. He’s rarely critical of them and has gotten some odd scoops on the Skins. He feels like a designated source for them. If they want info out, they leak it to him. Nobody knows this for sure, but you can make a pretty good case for it.

The funny thing to me is reflecting on something Graziano said on Twitter back in the summer. He made the prediction that Chip Kelly would be the first of the NFC East coaches to either get fired or leave.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA … repeat that over and over.

Tom Coughlin, Shanny and Jason Garrett could all be gone before Kelly even gets the toilet in his Philly home broken in just right. That was an utterly absurd prediction from Graziano and boy did he get defensive when confronted about it. I don’t know if anyone has asked him about that prediction today.

No matter what you think of Graz’s report, the Skins are a mess. The Shanny’s are not happy. Snyder isn’t happy. And RG3 is a young QB caught in the middle of team drama. Have fun with that.

_

24 Comments on “Gameday – Lions”

  1. 1 Kevin_aka_RC said at 12:05 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Graziano is the worst: defensive, doesn’t like analytics (or seem to watch tape) and doesn’t seem to be fun.

    I just don’t see how Mike Shanahan walks away from 7M a year.

  2. 2 bdbd20 said at 12:11 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Florio actualy had a good point regarding this. Shefter and Shanny are extremely tight. Mike could have easily diffused the report thru Shefter, but he didn’t.

    Shefter and Mort went forward with the report. Florio speculates that the report actually came from Shefter but was passed to Graziano so as not to point to Shanny as the source.

  3. 3 TommyLawlor said at 12:17 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    A source’s source? Interesting.

  4. 4 bdbd20 said at 12:18 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Crazy, but that situation is getting pretty insane.

    You can’t make this stuff up.

  5. 5 Baloophi said at 12:39 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    “A source is a source of course of course, and no one can talk to a source of course…”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU&t=0m15s

  6. 6 bdbd20 said at 12:24 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Also, Mike may not care about the money anymore.

    If he feels that he can get $4 million somewhere else, he may in fact walk.

    I know it would be tough for any of us to walk away from $3M, but we’re not NFL coaches with other big contracts available.

  7. 7 ian_no_2 said at 12:43 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    The other backdrop is that HCes routinely get sacked with a year left on their contract because owners want the players to play for them and factor in the expense of a year’s HC salary after a firing, but not cheapo Snyder, so that’s why he took Zorn’s playcalling away from him to get him to quit. I’m not sure Shan would get a job right away, or what Shan senses, so it’s unclear whether Shan would walk away from the money. Snyder may or may not have contacts with another coach he likes. This means it’s possible Shan will come back next year with Snyder clipping his wings week after week. When Shan took this job I said over and over he shouldn’t have.

  8. 8 Baloophi said at 12:18 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    If you rearrange the letters for Dan Graziano, you don’t get much.

    BUT, and it’s hard to think this is sheer coincidence, if you rearrange the letters for Daniel Graziano, you get…

    Irani Gonad Zeal

  9. 9 ICDogg said at 12:34 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Dan Graziano = Dazing An Oar

  10. 10 Jason Cox said at 12:26 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Tommy have you heard anything about Tucker? Seems to me he could be a good 4th quarter back to move the chains because his size and tired defenders and all that. Just curious how he’s progressing

  11. 11 ICDogg said at 12:31 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    The weather is the big story today.

  12. 12 ICDogg said at 12:32 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    pic.twitter.com/5v8bb7OYnH

  13. 13 Baloophi said at 12:36 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    The caption on that Twitter link reads: “Snow blowers have started clearing the field.”

    Aren’t those people?

  14. 14 ICDogg said at 12:36 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    pic.twitter.com/19HMZ5dbOh

  15. 15 ICDogg said at 12:40 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Snow Blowers (and corporations) are people too!

  16. 16 OregonDucker said at 12:38 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Thanks ICDogg for the picture. Looks good for an Eagles win!

    FYI – Eugene’s low was -10 F today. We’ve got 8 inches of snow left over from a couple of days ago. But its clear today. Very weird weather for us.

  17. 17 Baloophi said at 12:48 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Weird here in L.A., too. High of 59 F and only “mostly” sunny, so looks like I’ll be digging out the thermals.

    I kid, I kid! Every breath I take outside is the equivalent of inhaling a motorcycle exhaust pipe so just let us have the warm weather our concentrated pollution provides.

  18. 18 Dragon_Eagle said at 12:34 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Very excited for this game. Really good test to see if we’re really a team that belongs in the playoff conversation.

    At this point, I feel like we’re playing with house money. I figured a 7-9 season, but was really looking to see improvement over time. Well, got both 7 wins min and improvement in all phases of the game beyond the my wildest hopes. Entire coaching staff deserves a lot of credit.

    Regardless of a win or loss, I’m excited because the team is moving in the right direction.

    Keep it up, boys.

    Go Eagles!

  19. 19 ICDogg said at 12:39 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    https://twitter.com/EliotShorrParks/statuses/409738488263630848

  20. 20 Baloophi said at 12:43 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    Aggravated calf

  21. 21 jshort said at 12:52 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    reggie bush reinjured calf muscle

  22. 22 Baloophi said at 12:52 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    I doubt a snow-slicked field benefits Shady’s quick cuts…

  23. 23 ICDogg said at 12:58 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    In snow like this, anyone can cut on a dime… whether they want to or not!

  24. 24 Baloophi said at 12:58 PM on December 8th, 2013:

    New thread!