Building a Unit
Posted: September 12th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 191 Comments »The Eagles defense got off to a slow start on Sunday, but then shut down the Jags for the final 44 minutes. The overall numbers are pretty good. The D only gave up 17 points. Jim Johnson always wanted to hold an opponent to 17 or less. The D gave up 306 yards, but 51 of those came on the final drive against a prevent defense.
You can’t build a good defense over night. It takes time to acquire pieces and develop the scheme. A year ago the Eagles looked to be worlds away from even running a competent defense. Now, the unit might turn out to be good.
One of the big reasons is the class of 2012. I wrote about that draft class for BGN. The article is about the whole class, but there is a lot of defensive firepower there.
1st round – DL Fletcher Cox
2nd round – ILB Mychal Kendricks
2nd round – DL Vinny Curry
4th round – CB Brandon Boykin
2012 is also when the Eagles got DeMeco Ryans in a trade from the Texans (who else?).
Last year the Eagles added Connor Barwin, Bennie Logan, Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher.
Those two groups form the bulk of the defense. The Eagles aren’t done building yet, but they’re starting to get enough of the right pieces into place that you can see real hope for this group.
Aside from talent, the transition to the 3-4 is also making big strides. Think about the player improvement in the last year from Trent Cole, Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, Brandon Graham, Mychal Kendricks, Vinny Curry and Nate Allen.
While watching the Steelers get shredded last night, something occurred to me.
I never thought I would say this…the best 3-4 defense in the state of PA resides in Philly. Crazy, huh?
— Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) September 12, 2014
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The Eagles added WR Cobi Hamilton to the practice squad the other day. I have yet to write about the move.
Hamilton fits the Kelly description. He is a big WR at 6-2, 212. He has good RAC ability and works the middle of the field well. He runs in the 4.5 range, which is good speed for that size. The big issue I had with him was inconsistency. Sometimes at Arkansas he would be dominant. Other times he would disappear. At the Senior Bowl, you saw the same thing. Hamilton would look great for a few plays, then pedestrian on others.
I’m surprised the Eagles added another WR to the PS. I thought they would go for an O-linemen.
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Andrew Luck has been a godsend for the Colts organization. They made the playoffs in both of his years. But go look at the roster. That is not a compelling team. They have some talent, but you take Luck away and that team falls completely apart.
He truly is a franchise QB.
While the Eagles are the more talented team, beating the Colts won’t be easy. They lost in the opener to Denver and that doesn’t bode well for the Eagles.
If the Eagles can beat the Colts on MNF, it will be the first time the combo of Pagano/Luck have lost back-to-back games.
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) September 11, 2014
There is a lot of luck and circumstance behind that stat, but you can’t totally dismiss it. There is a real mental and emotional toughness to the Colts that keeps them from staying down.
Sheil Kapadia wrote a good piece introducing you to the Colts team. My favorite nugget.
3. The offensive line talent is unimpressive, but sacking Luck is not easy. The Colts had the sixth-best adjusted sack rate in the NFL last season, according to Football Outsiders. The Broncos, however, got Luck three times in Week 1.
Indy starts rookies at both guard spots. Hugh Thornton, a third-round pick out of Illinois, will set up at right guard. Jack Mewhort, a second-round pick out of Ohio State, mans the left side. A.Q. Shipley, a former Eagles practice-squadder, will start at center.
The Eagles did a fantastic job of pressuring Henne last week. There are weaknesses on the Colts’ offensive line that Billy Davis will look to expose.
The Eagles can win this game on the LOS. Bennie Logan could give Shipley fits. And Vinny Curry could be deadly in the Nickel and Dime units when he slides to the inside.
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two rookie guards?! three sacks for kendricks and ryans combined. double a gap blitzes all day!
A gap blitzes and just the threat of A gap blitzes will drive Shipley crazy..
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Kendricks rushed the passer 33% of his snaps last week!!! but they weren’t always blitzes!!a few times we dropped both OLBs into coverage and used Kendricks as the 4th passrusher not a Blitzer
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Colts runningbacks aren’t threats as pass catchers so I’m sure Mykal Kendrick will have the green light to green dog blitz this OL all night.
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Kendricks has been a great Blitzer since college, Demeco had a career year in sacks last year..soon just the threat of them blitzing will have an impact because teams have to respect them as pass rushers.. For example, the threat of them blitzing is what got Nate a free rush to the QB that he could turn into a sack..
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Often we use DL twists and stunts combined with A gap blitzes. I liked that our line didn’t do much twisting and stunting Last week, because I assume it will be a big part of this weeks defensive gameplan
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Loved how we moved around Cox last week and created 1 on 1 matchups that he took advantage of…he even lined up over the center a few times and was dominant… He basically dominated like 3 different OLinemen over the course of the jags game.
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Last week we got the formula down for the amount of snaps curry and Graham should be seeing and they made their impact on the game??everyone’s always crying about Currys fit in nth is scheme, and I always warn that we should ONLY be worried about if he is on the field in clear passing situations..against the jags he was…as long as he is 1st team Nickel, he can have a huge effect on our defense this year..
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Find it exciting that we now trusted BG to backup Cole and Barwin. He has to be improving to see snaps at Jack. After the bye week we should start seeing Marcus get thrown into the 3rd down OLB rotation.
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I think Thornton had a much better game than he was credited this week and it was evident to me that both young NTs were balling
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Our entire Linebacking corp was nasty and I expect that to continue this week
yeah, they’re really getting it now. there really are like 9 potential rushers on some plays – basically everyone but the outside cb’s is a threat.
Yeah and you can tell their presnap disguise has improved and they are holding that disguise til the last second….
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our safety play has gone from LIABILITY to adequate. If it can reach WEAPON level, that would really take this defense to another level later in the year… Hopefully Wolffs head can catch up I with his athleticism by November
nate’s getting nasty though; i’d be conflicted about him losing snaps even though i’m pulling for wolffffe. maybe they’ll show us a “big nickel” at some point
Hey, you don’t see me calling him “not so nasty Nate” anymore lol..
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Just think Wolff ceilings is ridiculous. Athletically he can be as good as he wants to be…. Will his safety brain catch up? .. Fortunately, Nate looks so much better than he has ever looked so it’s great to have both and do think we will see all 3 get snaps in every game, and all 3 be on the field together at times…
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I just think Wolffs athleticism can equate to a very special safety…he just isn’t a lock to reach that level…Nate keeps improving, but I’m not sure what his ceiling can be at this point. Nate has realized a much bigger percentage of his potential than Wolff has at this point… Think Wolff can improve a ton, hopefully he realizes his full potential and having 3 safeties we like using in games is a nice problem to have
wolfe has some excellent role models in allen and jenkins, as far as preparation goes
And this is also the first time Nate has a quality veteran he can learn from next to him. He has had to play next to some STONECOLD bums since coming to philly… Hopefully continuity in a scheme with the same coaches for the first time in his eagles career plus a quality veteran like Jenkins to work with helps Nate reach new heights as a safety.
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We haven’t come close to putting him in the best position to succeed since we drafted him, so I can’t rule out him being much better than we are used to seeing from nate pre Chip Kelly .. That’s why it’s so hard to predict how much better he can be he was put in horrible positions since we drafted him
Jenkins has only 8 more starts in the NFL than Allen.
But it might as well be 80.
Yeah you can’t even compare the positions those two have been in… Poor guy had to play in a wide 9 with Kurt and Colt Anderson next to him lol
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Wish we could make Nate go thru the combine again, so curious to know how much microfracture surgery has robbed him of his athleticism..
When I rewatched the jags game, it was just striking how much faster he was than anybody else in the box with him on either side of the ball. When you watch live, you can always tell which player is him, knifing through the line, he just moves at a different speed. Now that he’s a young veteran, I think this is his year to break out.
Cox and Kendrick will both play at a probowl level this year. Not sure if the get the probowl nod but they will in 2015 after two big years in a row… My guess is they get injury replacement nods in this years probowl..
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Kendrick will be the best LB in the NFC east soon! especially with Lee always hurt…and cox will be the TOP DL in the division by the end of this year. Boykin may already be the best nickel in the league..and no matter how awesome they play, they aren’t even close to being done improving as young veterans.. These kids should improve for another two or three years…
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It’s such a big mistake to see a young player, and expect him to be the same exact player you saw the year before.. and That’s why you see people always wrong at predicting what level our defense will be at.
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We have good talent, and Charecter…just needs time to cultivate it, grow together, as we add pieces to it THe next two years… Meat and potatoes is in place. Now we can focus on adding quality instead of quantity because we are done turning over the roster
why do the Eagles even announce hiring the replay guy? do they have to do that?
Not sure… Think the dude they hired was a former ACC replay official or something like that…. If teams aren’t letting us see a replay on the road, I. Not sure what good he will do… Hopefully Chip talking about that today, makes someone watch the Colts officials and make sure we get decent replay when It’s needed
someone on Twitter is saying the Panthers are going to release Greg Hardy today. Of course, without a suspension I imagine he will be signed by the Patriots at 4:05 pm.
https://twitter.com/NathanConley
Again, we’re hearing from our @wfnz sources that the #Panthers Organization is discussing cutting Greg Hardy possibly as soon as 4pm today.
Lol sounds about right
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NFL fines him for painting his face 10 Grand but let him play after being convicted for being a piece of shit of a human being. We shouldn’t have to block such trash in the trenches
I love that comment bout the Pats grabbing Hardy IMMMEDIATLEY! funny.
looks like not getting cut, too expensive to.
“Greg Hardy won’t be cut by Panthers
Posted by Mike Florio on September 12, 2014, 3:07 PM EDT”
No way the Pats gets near Hardy after Hernandez
Our pass rush is much better than their pass rusher. I’m not quaking in my boots at the thought of Bjoern Werner. Colts will have to blitz a lot, and FOles has been surgical against the blitz…Colts will play man to man that the Jags didn’t play, so Sproles, Shady and Ertz should have great days as pass catchers, and be great outlets for when they blitz FOles..
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Secondary will be tested this week. Colts didn’t get TY Hilton involved against Denver so you can bet they will try to use him Monday. We can NOT let him get behind us and I like to see Boykin shut him down! Reggie Wayne is precise intermediate route runner but he won’t outclass our corners in terms of speed an athleticsm.. I bet Cary answers the bell and has a good game against Wayne…. Hakim Nicks I don’t really know what to think of, everyone likes to remind how he has but eagkes teams before, but he never hurt anyone on this roster…Secondary handling their WR corp will be crucial, but let’s not forget that the Colts really like their two TE sets and think highly of Fleener and Dwayne. Barwin, and Jenkins are going to have to be sharp when they go two TE..
… Shouldn’t take long to shut down their run game and make them one dimensional…Cary Williams is a big game corner and I expect our secondary to use this game as an opportunity for some glory, assuming we get pressure on Luck that I’m expecting, I expect us to hit him early, hard, and often..
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By the way, they have two massive defenders on that D line…which means they are ideal candidates to tempo their fat asses to death in the first half and reap the rewards from the tempo “body blows” in the second half seeing Shady and Sproles break some big runs,.,..
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If we go down by 17, we are in trouble this week…but as long as we have the lead or keep it close, our tempo and having the better pass rush should make the difference later in the game
Nicks put 9-142 and 7-51 largely against Williams who got largely abused although he played slightly better in the rematch.
Sure the Colts are trying to look to get Nicks as many one-on-one matchups vs. Wiliams. Sure lock to give up at least one big play and quite constantly another two including a pass interference call.
i hope curry gets more snaps this week if we will be in more nickel packages. same goes for Boykin.
Denver TE caught 3 TDs against the Colts… Ertz!!!!!
All:
T-Law reported in his DGR that Fletcher Cox had a very good game agst JAX — particularly playing the run.
Two questions:
1. How did he — Cox, not T-law — do as a pass rusher?
Getting pressure? Close to any sacks?
For example, on the TCole strip-sack, Cox seemed to be at the LOS before playing scoop-and-go with the Johnny Pigskin.
2. How did Cox do against Luke Joekel before his injury-forced exit for JAX (I think LJ was injured at some point, right)?
How did Cox-sey’s 1-man army do against LJ’s replacement? (assuming my premise is right.)
thats way more than two questions
In the law business, they’re considered sub-parts.
haha ok
Check out Sheil Kapadia’s Defensive all 22… Really good stuff and give you a great idea of just how great Cox was,,, he pretty much dominated 3 different jags Lineman over the course of the game, moved him around a lot, and he did whatever he wanted out there
will do
Let me know what you think after you see it. Really good stuff
but wait, wait!! All the beat reports didn’t see Cox do anything all PS!!! how did he manage to turn it around?
Lol same way Meco has a great season after every reporter writes about how he is washed up every offseason… ATleast they learned this year. only took them two years of looking ridiculous.. They had to aim their stupidity at cox this year
hate to do this to an ex-stater, but i hope logan destroys shipley on monday
I would have thought the Eagles should sign a ILB for the PS…if Ryans or Kendricks go down, we are screwed as neither Acho or Matthews are legit starters and a 3-4 D relies heavily on LB. I agree signing another WR was strange.
GB:
After cut-down day to 53, I think T-Law wrote somewhere how thin the talent pool is across the NFL at ILB.
That may be the problem.
ILB Josh Bynes was released by Ravens. That is a quality 3-4 inside linebacker. Starting experience on a great 3-4 team, young with outstanding size, character and work ethic, big contributor on Special Teams. Ravens resigned him a week later to their PS.
If they go down, a linebacker from the practice squad ain’t saving the day
We did add one ILB to the roster
Colts GM Ryan Grigson seems like he’s on target to build a long-term winner in Indy — not just because he has a rabbit’s foot at QB.
So . . . what led Grigson to make the deal for Trent Richardson? Not that RG traded for Richardson. But that RG traded a 1st Rd pick for him.
(There’s hope still, I suppose, that Richardson will become a 3.7+ YPC back, as former ‘Bama backfield mate Mark Ingram has finally begun looking like a quality NFL RB.)
I dunno,,,I not that impressed with how that teams was built..I think we are much ahead of them right now in terms of overall team building, and i kind of view them as our AFC counter part,,,I like to judge us against them…
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It’s not that I’m not impressed, I just feel like they should be further along.. They still have holes left and right, stop gaps that need long term replacements… That team may not make the plays off if it played in the NFC
Kelly’s been building on defense.
But on offense, 10 opening day starters were on the roster when Kelly arrived.
Grigson’s faced a tougher task, I think. Didn’t luck into much except the 1st overall pick in the right year.
That’s why I was asking about Richardson
True… Figure Luck would be a SB contender if he had our team around him… I hate the Bjoern Werner pick for them. Love Donte Moncreif pick. Love Daqwell Jackson but he is aging and is a major liability when teams pass. We are going to pick on him with whoever he matches up with out of Shady, Sproles(doubt they dare put him on Sproles), Ertz, Jordan Mathes… Any of them are capable of abusing him in the pass game..
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They did us the favor of stealing Ricky Jean Francois in free agency! forced us to taKe Logan, and the rest is history.. We have a top line of puppies, they have over priced stop gap players
I honestly think we should have a lottery for the NFL draft. I don’t like how teams tank for generational talents like Luck. It’s not fair when QB is so very, very important.
I don’t mind the tanking but the rule. the bottom say 5 teams should have a lottery.
Def should have lottery!!!
More angry birds picked a bad year to tank.
NBA lottery is a stupid mess tho.
Rather see rules changed that make QB less important.
NBA lottery is awesome when you have a GM who has no shame exploiting it… I love the lottery, it’s allowing us to build a young dynasty…
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After this next draft Hinkie will have accumulated:
Embiid
Noel
MCW
Saric
Karl Towns Jr
Mario Hezonja (Miamis pick)
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And by the time Hinkie is done stacking the deck with elite young talent, the NBA lottery system will change lol, which won’t matter because as long as Embiid stays healthy we will be a playoff team for a decade lol
Looks like cowboys, wa and nyg might as well go full Hinkie
Lol.. The hope is that they all equally suck so they each get a win against each other… That’s 3 wins, hopefully they can win 6 games each,,. I don’t think they end up with Marriotta, but I’d bet their is a good chance Jameis Winston or Hundley end up in our division
So check this bizarre idea out: so add an extra wildcard slot to each conference, bringing the total amount of play off teams to 14. The results of said playoffs will inversely determine their draft order per usual.
But this is where it gets weird. The remaining 18 teams are entered into a losers tournament to determine the draft order at the top of the draft: winners get the 1st round pick, etc. It’s whack but if you think about it: draft picks would be awarded to winning behaviors rather than awarding quitters, so no more letting your team implode or start rebuilding mid year. Also, finally the stars of the draft would be going to teams on the cusp of relevance rather than disappearing in the most dysfunctional garbage franchises in the league. Would be kinda interesting. Would be more satisfying for teams to earn high draft picks rather than have RNGeesus determine it.
Colts didnt tank for Luck unless you think they planned on Peyton Manning getting season ending injury.
In the last 20 years only 7 of the 20 Winners was won by a 1st overall pick and 4 of those wins was by Aikman and Elway.
There’s no rationalizing the Trent Richardson trade. That was a terrible, terrible trade for a bad runningback.
He didn’t draft Mathis, his only notable pick has been Luck, which was a no brainer. He’s one of the worst GMs in the NFL.
Agreed, it’s so hard to rationalize a first round pick on a running back period, let alone a dude flirting with bust status.
I hate the Sammy Watkins trade… Cleveland gonna end up with like two top 15 picks smh
Depends on how you look at it. Maybe it’s good to give the high picks to the Browns to waste on players like Manziel and push worth while players down to us 😀
,they stole Christian Kirksey from us.. We would have drafted him, I know it..and he is having a great start to his career… Problem is they know what they are doing on defense, but they will botch offensive picks lol…
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Dumb bills traded away the top 10 pick they needed to draft someone to pass Watkins the ball
go figure, hah
I like their OLB Jabaal Sheard too… Violent mofo, hits free agency this year
One guy I want in FA next year is KJ Wright to replace Meco. I know you are big Meco fan, but he will be 31 next year and is already getting phased out with Kendricks been the dime LB and not Meco.
KJ Wright is a 6’3 246 LB who has played both the SAM and the WILL position. He would be a Barwin type just at ILB for us, not great at anything, but have great athleticism (can cover TEs) and can be moved around
Doubt I get to have 4 ILBs on the team next year better than Meco..we have money,, you can add Wright, Mykal Kendrick, Eric Kendrick and I would still want Meco in a leadership role.. I don’t believe in ripping the band aid of losing our respected captain,,,I believe in phasing him out, less snaps… Once you have 4 better ILBs on the roster, I’ll sign Meco’s release myself… Goode will not be better than Meco next year, neither will Acho or casey…so you can draft and ILB and Sign one, and I’d still bet we work it out with Meco…. Chip is all about leadership and locker room, Meco hasn’t fallen off enough for Chip to screw with the locker room… Telling you he will be here next year… But I also think we will upgrade ILB..,..I like KJ, but those Super Bowl winning fee agents tend to cost a shit ton in free agency
The problem is, is Meco willing to take a huge reduced pay cut to be a backup?`
I would love for him to be a veteran backup, but not sure he agrees on it.
The reason I want KJ Wright is that he currently plays a very anonymous role on the Hawks defense and not in a role with flashy stats (4-3 OLBs are some of the worst paid players in the NFL), so I really doubt Wright would cost more than around 5-6 mill per year
I think Meco would take that pay cut. I can’t see him getting bigger cash elsewhere.
Same,. He means a lot to this locker room…can’t see us taking him from the locker room going into a Super Bowl year when his team mates love him and know he can still play…. I just don’t see us losing him this year
Dude, I love KJ and almost anyone on Seattles defense.. Sign me up for KJ any day or the week..
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I just don’t expect it to happen. When a young SB champ becoms a free agent, if he isn’t willing to Sacrafice to remain a Seahawks, it usually means he will sign with whoever pays the most…his stats might not be gaudy…. But former Seatle defender is all a dumb owner like Snyder or Jerry need to hear to open their checkbook….. That’s why traditionally these players fall off after taking the most money to leave their SUPERBOWL team…because the most money usually comes from bad teams…
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Meco’s career is winding down and we would still give him snaps next year, just not the amount he is used to…But a paycut to finish his career contending for a SB?… Maybe… Seems like a man motivated by more than money.. He can retire here and get any philly media job he wants to compensate for the money he leaving on the table…..
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I just think he means too much to the players in the locker room… Playing with fire, not payng to keep such a respected leader going into a year you should be a contender.l.. I think losing Meco is a horrible idea… I think he has enough left in the tank, and Kendricks is developed enough to where we can afford to fill that position with a high draft pick, like Eric Kendicks! where as OLB is a position I would prefer not to deal with another rookie….
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Rather go 4th or 5th year veteran OLB and rookie ILB easing into the lineup behind Meco..
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But I don’t mind being wrong and welcoming KJ to philly.. Love his game
My point is, kj Wright is not a super star or a big name so only hard core fans know him and the nfl do not value 4-3 olbs at all
A Meco upgrade / long term replacement is an absolute must. He can still rock it, in theory, in 2015 but I’d agree that we need the next guy here sooner rather than later.
They traded for Richardson because Pep Hamilton wants to replicate the Stanford offense (death by a thousand cuts) and they thought Richardson could be that sledgehammer to wear down the defense and open up the offense.
The problem is that the Colt’s OL is terrible at run blocking and Richardson has zero vision and do not trust his blockers.
A —
Great answer. Makes perfect sense.
Any hope for Richardson?
A great O-line coach can do wonders with mediocre talent. I don’t know who does that for Indy. Injuries can’t help, though.
Richardson has zero vision, so even a great OL wouldnt help him
Well said… I was surprised they didn’t jump at the chance to add the “big weirdo” Jonathon Martin
Friend who is a diehard Colts’ fan (grew up in Ft. Wayne) says Richardson has an uncanny ability to find tacklers & make sure they wrap him up on contact.
Basically said Richardson will lose his job or at least the majority of carries by Week 4 as long as Bradshaw can stay on the field. Might even be as soon as this weekend from the reports out today.
Wow Cheifs lost their LG for the year,,that OL is turning into a real mess. Feel bad for those KC fans.. Not only did they not do anything to improve the team this offseason, what they had last year is taking a major hit. Hate myself for drafting Jamaal Charles
coldhardfactsoffootball dot com is calling andy’s 2012 team the dumbest in football!! chiefs were next to last and that’s of course where andy feels the most comfortable!. very intriguing read indeed! –>
http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/content/nfls-dumbest-teams-chip-kelly-must-re-educate-philadelphia-eagles/22803/
That team is going to implode this year, kind of feel sorry for them, they did nothing to improve themselves all offseason, Eric Fisher sucks, the RT is suspended, LG out for the year with elbow surgery..BOWE hasn’t played, McCluster is a Titan, DAT is injured like fellow Duck Huff)…
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They drastically overpaid for Alex smith and he looked like shit.
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Super LG derick Thomas oUt with injury…Eric Berry battling injury… They don’t have a #2 safety, you know Andy ain’t finding a safety. They cut their probowl CB flowers, who sucked last year..Dee ford I hate..
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How could he not build on the great team he inherited? Instead he is ruining it..Smh.
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Denver is going to destroy them this week
I hate fat andy. bad guy. the thought of him snubbing us all at every press meeting, and all the while he is demanding to be coach AND GM ..that’s wrong ..and his 2 giants sons running around like johnny too bad .. I can never feel sorry for andy reid. the way he let the entire nfl show up for his sons funeral .. hearing broadcasters brag about how great he is eery time the birds were on national tv .. grosses me out to no end.
..sorry im not over it!! GO CHIP !
GE:
I know you liked Ole Miss’s WR Moncrief in the last draft.
The Rebels have another WR named Laquon Treadwell, a sophomore. 6’2″ 229 lbs. Coming off a 72 catch season.
The guy’s dominant. DOMINANT. Pre-season All SEC.
A lawyer pal of mine’s an Ole Miss alum with lots of access — he’s defended a bunch of Ole Miss athletes. We had sideline passes for last week’s Vanderbilt game. Up close, Treadwell’s built like a LB. With huge hands. Long arms.
The coaches say Treadwell’s gone after 2015 and, with no injuries, he’s a Top 10 pick.
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Great All 22 Defense — as promised.
Cox over the nose on passing downs? Mandatory. Should be mismatch most weeks.
Ask your friend to keep you up to date on the OL Miss Safety Cody Prewitt.. 6’2 218lbs.. Should be one of the top safety prospects in this years draft.
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Sideline passes must have been a real treat,
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Def add him to my list of WR to keep an eye on,,, the Sammie Coats kid from Auburn is supposed to be a fantastic athlete..Stanford’s Montgomery we already discussed.. Love the Dorian Beckham kid, but Chip probably won’t draft a walking red flag…
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Think we learned more of what Chip looks for out of each position, but we also learned that we should probably keep an eye on Charecter, whether the kid graduated, work ethic, commitment versatility, special team play…. Think we learned a lot that should make the next draft process interesting.,..
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A lot of edge rushers I like, but they take time to develop. Not sure if we want to wait on another rookie OLB…thinking we trade or sign for n OLB going Into his 3rd or 4th year, possibly with Curry as the trade bait..
Need a bookend for Marcus darling?
The hope for me is that Graham shows enough to keep him.
It was one game Anders.
Why I said hope.
I’m convinced Curry and Dion Jordan eventually get swapped, like I Genuinly believe Dion will be an eagle. 6 months ago we were still asking about his availability
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Wouldn’t mind BG improving enough to get extended either ..
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Miami won’t be able to extend him because he isn’t the best fit, and we won’t be able to extend curry because we can’t offer him a 3 down role…eventually these two teams will help each other resolve these issues
Adrian Peterson indicted for beating his son with a switch? His status for Sunday is in jeapordy. Wouldn’t be surprised if the patriots snitched on him..
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What a great week the NFL has had
Freakin pats. Unbelievable.
They were about to start the season 0-2, and Belleicek got AP indicted… Not for nothing. But it’s no ones damn business how he wants to discapline his son..l kids cost like 200,000 grand, you should discaplin them how’ve the hell you please 😉
Since when are the Patriots become the home for crappy people? Im not sure they touch AP or Hardy if any of them is released because of Hernandez
No need to justify ribbing the Patriots on the lines they’re willing to cross to win when you’re an Eagles fan. It’s an exercise of hate and humor, not academics my man 😛
is that a joke or did that really happen?
It happened.
yeah, went to deadspin as soon as i saw that, first story on the page
Reckless negligence to a child.. What a joke
this is starting to sound like a “whitest kids you know” bit
This is the week where life just shits on NFL running backs apparently.
AP lost his son last year… They better be screwing with him for a good reason that I don’t know about
I think the addition of Malcolm Jenkins allows Kendricks to rush more, as a safety can cover the TE.
In Las Vegas you can bet the over and unders on how many times Phillip Rivers throws at Richard Sherman LOL.. The line is 3 times… rivers is no punk like the wimp in Greenbay. He def testing Sherm more than 3 times… I don’t bet football, but I may have to take that bet,,
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Over and unders on how many sacks “N-donkey-Kong” Suh gets on Cam Newton and his bruised ribs is 1.5…
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Gotta love Vegas
Question: kind of political/impression based…
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How will The slimey Roger Goodell play his hand this week?
1) Does he go into hidingk out or site/out of mind
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2) Does he appear at an NFL game to put on the “business as usual” face?
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You know he is being advised on every everything starting with what color underwear to put on these days.. How would a politician under HEAT play his hand?
Crisis management . . . .
Rule No. 1 (of 5): “Be Honest and Forthcoming About the Situation.”
Goodell would serve himself and the NFL well if he gave a press conference and said, “I was wrong . . . .”
I get that people worth hundreds of millions of dollars are never wrong, whether personally or through the actions of their employees and agents.
But someone needs to get the NFL’s owners to admit they — as the people who own this league — and their commissioner have mishandled the Rice situation.
Even if they don’t believe it. JUST SAY IT.
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Then they can get on to Rule 2-5.
And try to sound sincere. But no croc tears.
How much longer can they wait and then say sorry?
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I think Greg Hardy situation needs to be added to rice investigation,l
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You made yourself the moral bad ass, judge, jury, executioner of moral authority, protecting the sheild…. You took 78 million friggin dollars in fines from players for legal tackles, 10 grand from Greg Hardy for painting his face, 30 grand(a new car) from Jimmy Graham for dunking n goal posts…. Yet you haven’t held up your end of the bargain protecting the sheild when you take domestic violence less serious than you do painting of faces..
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Court Judge ruled “we are convinced hardy assaulted and threatened his girlfriend”… GUILTY… You didn’t give a shit to do anything about that…. And your handling of the rice situation proves how little you cared about the issue….NO MATTER that excuse you give, on so many different level, it’s not good enough! What happened under your watch was not OK! And NOW says they have 50 examples of domestic abuse over Goodells tenure that wasn’t taken serious… No matter what happened, you saw the tape, you didn’t see the tap, you tried you didn’t try… Allowing Greg Hardy to play this Sunday, proves that On your watch, domestic abuse has been less serious than dunking on goal posts.
That would be the best thing for him to do at this point, because It’ll only keep getting worse.
What are those scary moaning noises the panthers owner was making during his crocodile tears performance?
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Just ruled “court is entirely convinced he assaulted woman”.. CONVICTED.. Why the hell should this piece of shit be allowed near Nick FOles this year? I don’t want Jason peters having to touch this filthy despicable scumbag
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What a fraud. His contract expires at the end of the year, they won’t re sign him, thus never having to deal with his suspensions and they will have gotten all their money’s worth out of signing Greg Hardy, and this asshole is on TV crying and making creepy moan sounds? .. Jason peters should boycott blocking Greg Hardy.. Our boys shouldn’t have to block such filth.
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Dude tried to kill his girlfriend over infedelity with rapper nelly?. This is the scum bag you are paying and allowing to represent you on Sunday. And you are on TV crying? Like I’m really supposed to buy this?
LMAOOO why was he crying? I saw the press conference……… But why was he crying?
Cause people are saying they don’t take woman beating serious enough and he doesn’t want to be judged before everything plays out…what a fucking joke. They are making sure they get every penny’s worth of that Grag Hardy contracts and not extend his contract and let him become a free agent! thus they will never deal with his suspension. What a bunch of frauds.
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ITS LIKE all week long, scumbags with power are pissing in my ear and telling me it’s raining…normally I know, but don’t care, but this is over some despicable shit!!! What Hardy did is so much more disgusting than Ray Rice.
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Go listen to the 911 call and tell me how the hell you allow him to reprsent you on sunday
I’m curious to see how Roger Goodell gets out of this mess. They’re coming down hard on these guys this week for sure.
Trying to drag this out long enough for us to not care I guess… I don’t see how else you can get out of this,,
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If you tell me one of your employees got the tape and didn’t let you see it,than you don’t have control over your office and need to be fired anyway… No matter how he sliced it, he made himself the moral judge jury and executioner, and he hasn’t lived up to the standards he held everyone else to… He can not survive this…fining players for every little bullshit totally 78 million dollars in fines taken from players, yet you don’t care about beating woman?
If that disgusting pig of a human being Regan was able to dupe the free world into letting Oliver North take the fall for Iran-Contra, I can’t imagine Goodell will have much of a problem with getting some executive VP to fall on his sword.
GC of GM still around after all those cars killed all those people. People at the top have a good way of letting people at the bottom take the fall.
Chip Kelly announced that his standards against domestic abuse will be stiffer than the NFLs.. .. Yet good OL Ron Rivera keeps saying Hardy will play Sunday! an the owner is crying on TV?
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I love my defensive maniacs more than most…but allowing a man convicted of such violence to a woman is disgusting.. Ray Rice socked his girls In an elevator. It was horrible, but his wife was NOT fearing for her life to the extent of Hardys girlfriend. Ray knew he couldn’t go nuts in a casino… Hardy could have killed her behind closed doors similar to the disgusting MMA fighter “War machines” attempted murder assualt of porno star girlfriend Chrissy Mack
It’s definitely a bad look for the Panthers. But, at the end of it all, Goodell is under the microscope. ANY connection to domestic abuse should result in Goodell taking disciplinary action and suspending the player. Ray Rice is suspended indefinitely BECAUSE TMZ released the video. This dude Hardy was found guilty of assault IN JULY, he should’ve been suspended from that very moment, but he wasn’t because a video wasn’t released?? Lol. It’s been handled poorly by both the Panthers owner and Goodell.
Was Rice even taken to court for hitting his lady? Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think he was.
I think failure to punish Hardy, should be added to the rice investigation… Look, Goodell dropped the hammer saying two things:
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1) you don’t have to be arrested or convinced to be punished by the NFL, they want to catch things before they get to arrest levels…FAIL!
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2) He told the saints “Ignorance wouldn’t be excused”…. The entire world knew rice knocked his girlfriend the fuck out, he should have cared enough to have gathered the facts before ruling a two game suspension.lol if he saw the video he is a liar, if he didn’t he is incompetent, either way how do you argue out of it, when you have done NOTHING to adress Greg Hardy?
The dude doesn’t miss on a uniform infraction, excessive celebration, or trace levels of weed that can literally be obtained by sharing a generously large room with someone smoking weed though. The dude’s a joke, you made your gazillions, time to go and let us forget you.
PREACH!
And Kaep just raped somebody this offeseason…………… and nothing happens.
And add sock color / length fines to your rant!
Wait he was exonerated right? Hardy and Ray Rice were basically given probation. I hate all of this over-moralizing. If a dude’s not going to jail he should be able to play – or if he’s suspended he should get his game check and go to counseling. And after getting out of jail he should be able to play if someone wants him.
The victim in the Kaep case had unfortunately consumed too much drugs / alcohol to get things to the point where legal action could proceed.
Rice’s wife obstructed what the judicial system can do in this case. Brett Myers’ wife did the same thing when he should have been jailed for punching her in the face in Boston.
The Hardy thing is a joke on the NFL’s part because we have a conviction on several charges. An appeal can go on forever and Hardy can feel free to pursue it on his own time. The league should have acted the second the conviction came down.
I agree man. Putting Hardy’s case up next to Rice’s is maddening. We knew exactly what happened with Rice, that got him 2 games (absurdly). People had to see it, and when they did the change was drastic. Hardy gets convicted in a court of law of something much worse and he gets to play all because people didn’t get to oggle over the video on the internet? Like infants that believe dad ceases to exist when he hides behind his hands, these jokers get to pretend nothing happened because it’s not slapping them in the eyeballs.
The 911 call of the Greg Hardy case should be blasted thru NFL stadium speakers around the league lsunday ol.. Bet Greg Hardy isn’t allowed to play week 3 lol
I’m sure he’ll get a very warm welcome to Philadelphia by our fans. There is a dude in the one endzone who has dirt on every guy in the league…………. and yells it loudly. He made Brandon Jacobs lose his mind during a pre-game once.
Is it known who reported AP to the Police for punishing his child?
No clue, but he has been deactived for Sundays game, so the Vikings feel its bad enough to not play their best player
It’s total BS. More people should parent like Peterson. The world would be a better place. No chance a Texas jury convicts him on this nonsense.
Dude, facts are starting to sound bad…. But I hear you on pussy punishments of our children
I just saw the pictures on Twitter. Harsh yes, abuse……….. I’m not seeing it.
Not just the pics some other stuff is coming out.,admitting to whipping his groin by accident on text,… Kid may have said something about punching n the face.. Leaves in his mouth while he gets whooped?
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Starting to sound excessive
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Lol they certainly won’t release AP
But how do we know that mom didn’t coach him on that to get $ from Peterson? And why didn’t the original grand jury choose to indict given they had all of this the first time around?
See above
Excessive or “southern” if we’re talking switches and leaves?
Sorry, but do you seriously suggest that its okay to beat your child bloody with a cord?
I see a scratched up backside on Twitter from the pics posted from the case, not a bloody beating.
So its also okay to beat your wife? His skin has been ripped off. Im sorry, but I just lost what ever little respect I had for you and hope somebody beats you bloody with a cord as well (whipping with a cord is considered torture)
How do you know that’s what happened. I broker no allowance for what guys like Ray Rice and Greg Hardy do. None at all. For you to equate discipline of a child with beating a woman is embarrassing. And your “hope” towards me is a joke. Who said anything about you hoss? You’re making ridiculous jumps outside of your weight class.
https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/adrian-peterson-son-injuries-1.jpg
You claimed you had seen the pics. So I assume you have seen this pic right? That is not just your normal spanking, that is abuse. There is torn skin and the kid is 4, no matter what that kid ever did, you do not use a torture instrument to punish him
Yes, those are the correct pictures posted. Yes, I saw them. How do you know that level of scratching equals abuse?
my point is that switches leave marks like that. Undoubtedly he was spanked but I think this is an example of a black texan sharing a kid with a white chick from minny. They should have talked about spanking beforehand and gotten on the same page (of whether it’s ok or not).
I’m not sure about the race of the mom, but you’re right this is 100% a southern cultural thing. The fact that one grand jury saw all of this already and declined to indict is going to leave the prosecution having to answer a lot of difficult questions from Peterson’s legal team. I cannot fathom how this would lead to a 12 person jury in Texas voting guilty.
Yeesh, what could a 4 year old possibly do to justify that?
switches leave marks. For some people spanking is cultural, i was spanked. I don’t know if i’d spank my kid but I don’t see it as abuse. Then again my dad wasn’t ap-maybe that’s a different type of beating.
up-voted for nuance !
Those pics were taken a week after the incident.
He is starting to be accused of more than just that.. Says he been hit in the face, Ap apologized to the mom for whipping his nuts by accident… Sounds much worse than I thought… I would have deactivated him…
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Panthers owner would probably be starting him
Possibly the mom coached him?
Yeah it started to get to that area where that did cross my mind,
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Somehow Bellicek wins again…,,
No.
PLEASE DISREGAURD ANY insensitive AP child abuse jokes I have made… As some of these details start to come out, I’m not so sure if it’s a laughing manner anymore.. Doesn’t sound great and the pics weren’t what I had in mind
.. Need to learn more before I judge
Using the Jaguars game as evidence this defense is better is just too much of a stretch especially given the injuries the Jags had before the game at WR and the injuries to Gerhart and Lewis during the game.
If they keep Luck relatively contained, force a few picks, and keep the Colts to 20 pts or less, then we can start to took about improvement.
Absolutely. But I won’t get too vexed if they can’t beat a lock division champ on the road in a dome on Monday night.
Honestly if the Eagles go 2-2 into the bye and beat the Skins, I’ll be more than satisfied.
There is only one team from the NFC East going to the playoffs again this year and as long as the Eagles go 4-2 in the division (or even better) it will be them.
Thing I am really interested to see if last week was just a fluke or if the other NFC East really suck as bad/inept as they looked last week. Can’t believe they will all lose again and look so poorly especially Skins vs Jags at home.
I am “all-in” for a win vs. San Fran. That team disgusts me and I need to see Foles demonstrate how much better he is than garbage Kaep.
Eagles’ fan will place way too much emphasis on that game. If the Eagles win, great but if not it isn’t any kind of hit. Even a blowout doesn’t mean much this early in the season.
Game vs Skins matters a lot though especially at home. Skins played really poorly last week but I thought it was as much the poor play-calling as much as anything.
I hear you from a full-season / long-term view, but I really f-ing hate San Fran. It’s like when we play the Giants and I go thermonuclear on every snap.
i agree. it was a good warm up game for them and tehy did well.
the colts will be the biggest test all year almost considering luck is so good.
hey we can’t win em all but we can win this game…
These domestic violence issues have completely taken over the excitement of the NFL season being underway.
Goodell could have cleaned this up by suspending Rice and Hardy long ago while also pre-suspending Jameis Winston.
Goodell doing NOTHING to Hardy, directly speaks to how they treated the rice case… Two different occassions were Goodell hasn’t taken domestic abuse serious… The rice case is no isolated incident.. I ain’t answers to handling the hardy situation in conjunction to handling the rice case
They gave him a suspended sentence, a female judge no less. I’d let him play too — I don’t get it. De-activate and pay him just to prove a point? Deactivate for a whole season? That’s just not feasible for a team.
If CK wasn’t our coach i’d say cut AP, cut greg hardy i’d love to pick them up.
Absolutely. What a joke.
I don’t see Richardson/Bradshaw being are able to run against this defense and this is another game where the Colts are forced to have Luck throw 40+ times and create.
If the Eagles can force a pick and get a fumble (from Luck or Bradshaw), I really like their chances. If Foles suddenly keeps up his Vick impersonation as the Human Turnover Machine, the Eagles are getting to get smoked this week.
Doesn’t this defense suck? What’s with the confidence in shutting down a playoff teams run game?
Suck no I just don’t think they are anything more than a mediocre unit overall without nearly enough playmakers.
Mediocre defenses don’t consistently shut down run games they way our puppies have been doing dating back to early November last year… Mediocre team don’t accidentally hold teams under 23 points for the last two months of an NFL season..
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We have a good defense, they will prove it this year
We’ll see. You said they would finish Top 10 this year in most of the important categories including points allowed.
I don’t think they nearly have the talent to do that especially if they have a few injuries. Eagles had the healthiest front 7 in the NFL last year on D and that is almost certainly not going to happen again this year.
We both talked about this a lot this offseason & said the lack of time lost last year was largely a fluke because the Eagles didn’t have a single big injury besides Maclin. Already had 3 last week.
Yeah, id want to reserve judgment until we play a playoff calibur team, especially one with a halfway DC QB. I do think we’re better than KC and DEN games, hopefully we can be competitive.
To be honest, the only game where the D was really bad when the season settled in was the Saints game.
We got manhandled in the Minny game too. But agree.
I may have blacked out from the Vikes game.
What was bad was the O-line the last few games of the season including the Saints game. McCoy got some flak for not doing much in that game but the O-line got manhandled most of the game.
I was hoping the Eagles would have used a #1 or #2 round pick on an OL this year especially on a T who they could have used for competition vs Herremans in camp and could possibly slide outside to replace Peters in a year or two.
I get killed by some folks on here (and 24/7) for pointing out how Kelce getting owned by a loser nobody like Brod Bunkley killed our run game vs. the Saints.
Kelce is overrated a bit if you ask me. He does some things very well but he’s a liability too in a few spots including 3/4 and short and inside the 5 because he can’t struggles against the guy in front of him.
I agree that he’s held in too high a regard by most folks, but I think his only weakness is that he lacks the functional strength to win 1 on 1 matchups vs. some of the better DTs/NTs and a few of the ones who suck but are big. I think he’s fine as a fringe pro-bowler, but not an all-pro.
Yeah although he is arguably the guy most irreplaceable player for the Eagles after McCoy. Understand why he gets so much credit especially in this scheme where his strengths & abilities are really key.
Vikings?
EDIT: Nevermind. Addressed below, a long time ago.
Think we should be top 15 in everything that isn’t drastically effected by being on the field more than everyone else…
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Can’t judge this defense by all the normal criteria.
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I care about points allowed
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Turnovers
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3rd down conversion percentage
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Those are the ways I judge this defense.. I’d probably also look at,rushing yards allowed, because I don’t think our pass rush is good enough unless we can shut down run games, force teams to throw so we can pin our ears back n the second haLf and get after QBs.
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We have to wear teams down, and beat them late in the second half… Offense has to wear down defense with first half Tempo, defense needs to shut down the run in first half, offense gets a lead, defense rushes the passer in second half after they’d abandon run from playing from behind…that’s how we have to beat the other top teams…
You said Top 10 and I agree about not as being concerned about the yards although I was concerned about this unit’s ability to generate sacks & INTs. Why I wanted them to sign Byrd & hated the Jenkins signing (through mediocrity).
Byrd already forced a fumble last week and I bet he ends up with 7-8 turnovers vs 1-2 from Jenkins.
By the end of the year, I expect us to look like top 10 in everything, but I expect us to have to grow over the course of this season to get there… In septembers I want them top 15 in all categories(top half of the league). And by December I want us up into the top 10 area
Fair enough.
Richardson agree. Bradshaw; fearing him on pass plays if the Colts go 12 personnel and he sneaks out into patterns.
Meh, Kendricks is used to practicing against Sproles lol.. Bring on the Giants former trash
And if they run the TE right into Kendricks and put Bradshaw the other way so Cole has to cover him?
Barwin would be on the TE, Kendrick would be on the back, so I would assume those two switch instead of running thru the pick… I Ike Barwins chances on Bradshaw…Malcolm Jenkins will also be there to pick up TE’s
If I’m the Colts I’m putting two TEs in the game. If you put Barwin on one, Jenkins on the other, and Kendricks on Bradshaw; you’ll need to hope Nate Allen doesn’t get sucked up into the mess underneath if/when Cary or Fletch lets Reggie Wayne or TY Hilton over the top.
I’m not feeling our D this week.
They love two TE sets.. Everyone talks about the WRs, but you can bet we will be seeing plenty of their two TE sets..
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I’m starting our d in fantasy this week.
Good because that is a set I would love to see them in this week instead of Wayne, Hilton, and Hicks on the field at the same time most of the night.
Don’t know that I see it happening that way. I think we give Luck the Drew Brees treatment, sell out to stop luck, make them beat us on the ground (which the Saints did because they have a nice line). The Colts will get their points, but I think we’ll get a fair share of stops as well, we’ll need our offense to be on point.
Expect the Eagles do a bit better job of protecting Foles this week though and the Colts have to throw a lot to keep up.
I think out O-line will be flawless vs. this lame group of pass rushers on the Colts D. I just don’t trust our D to perform well enough to win a shootout game.
Guy in the spotlight to me this week even more than Foles is Williams. Been relatively quiet this week and maybe ate some humbie pie after Hurns burnt him twice for TDs on simple moves and nearly a third time if Hurns had focused on catching the ball before contact.
Big spotlight on him and I bet Williams struggles again.
safe bet. Evan Silva has been murdering him all week.
Dumb bet,,, Cary brings it against the teams he fears.. He plays down to competition due to overconfidence,,
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You will see him look good against teams like Colts, skins, Niners, Seahawks, but get burnt when we play jaguars, Titans, Vikivgs.l,
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Cary going to have a big game,.,.just watch
cary is a big game player… Bet you a beer he has a fantastic game,
I’ll take that bet and ship to you a 6-back of your choice.
I would mind if Williams even if he gives up a big play (no TDs but a 20+ yd catch) as long as he can force a pick and/or not take a penalty or two.