Just Do It

Posted: October 3rd, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 173 Comments »

Football is a game of adjustments and adaptation, but not in the way most people think. There are very few “aha moments”.  Chip Kelly is never going to fix the offense by remembering some great schematic twist from something he did at New Hampshire or that he read about in a football coaching book.

Kelly is going to focus on execution more than plays. The key isn’t to find something new to throw at defenses. The Eagles simply need to execute better. That’s a boring answer, but it is the truth. Instead of trying to come up with new run plays, why not just do a better job of blocking on the ones being already used? Why not adjust what LeSean McCoy does and have him run more N-S?

Last year Kelly gave simple advice to Nick Foles when he was struggling. Instead of over-complicating the situation, Kelly simply told Foles to “Grip it and rip it.” The results were outstanding.

This year the whole offense is struggling. You can’t tell them to grip it and rip it. But Kelly has talked about one thing everyone can do to help the situation…quit trying to do too much. It feels like Foles wants every pass to be a long TD. It feels like McCoy wants every run to be a long TD. And so on.

The offense is much better when the focus is on moving the chains with basic plays. When that happens, big plays will come naturally. Think about some of the big plays that have already happened this year.

* Darren Sproles 49-yard TD run was a simple run play up the middle on 4th/1. It happened quickly and the Jags weren’t set on defense.

* The long TD pass to Jeremy Maclin in that game came off a play the Eagles had run over and over. It had been runs and intermediate passes to the TE. When the FS came up, Mac was open deep.

* The long pass plays to Sproles in Indy were a screen and simple circle route. Football 101. He just got the ball in space and made something out of nothing.

* The long pass play to Mac vs the Skins was a screen that was well-executed. Should have been an 80-yard TD.

The offense certainly needs to be creative and aggressive. It is important to throw the ball downfield so you stretch the defense out and put pressure on them to cover the whole field. But going deep over and over isn’t a high percentage play. Nor is trying to get outside on every run. I know LeSean McCoy is just dying to break loose, but he’s only making things worse. The old football adage is “Run for 4, hope for more”. In other words, focus on getting 4 yards. If you do that, eventually you’ll break a tackle or make a guy miss or a defender will fall down and you will get 10 or 15 or 50 additional yards.

I will be happy when the run game can put together a series of 4 and 5 yard runs. If Shady comes out Sunday and rips off an 80-yard run, that won’t tell me the run game is fixed. A good running game is consistent more than it is explosive.

The big message from Kelly and the coaches should be to “just do your job”. If each individual correctly executes his assignment, the offense will move the ball and score points. The Eagles have the talent. This isn’t Bubby Brister handing the ball to James Joseph and throwing to Victor Bailey or Maurice Johnson.

Do your job. Eliminate mistakes. We’ll score points.

* * * * *

The Rams will be coming to town as this week’s opponent. They are 1-2 and a bit of an odd team. They have some really good individual pieces, but the overall product is still lacking. Take the defense for example.

DE Robert Quinn – 1st round pick
DT Aaron Donald – 1st round pick
NT Michael Brockers – 1st round pick
DE Williams Hayes – veteran player
LB Alec Ogletree – 1st round pick
MLB James Laurinaitis – 2nd round pick
LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar – veteran player

That is a lot of talent, but they cannot stop the run to save their lives. They are 30th in run defense and allow 5.1 yards per carry, which is an awful figure.

I don’t have a good feel for what the problem is right now. I just hope the Rams don’t get it fixed before Sunday. A porous run defense is exactly what the Eagles need on the schedule right now.

Just as amazing…the Rams have only 1 sack this year. As we know, sacks are a complicated stat, but that is one talented front seven. You would expect them to have a few sacks. In their defense…they have faced the fewest passing plays in the NFL. But that’s because everyone is so busy running the ball on them.

A vicious cycle, huh?

 

* * * * *

Fran Duffy’s All-22 piece on the Rams is excellent, as you would expect.

He mentioned the fact that they like to run the ball with their receivers and boy was he right. I count 13 rushing attempts by receivers so far this year. And that is through just 3 games. The Rams are coming off a bye week. Those receiver runs have only gained 43 yards so far, but Tavon Austin is a threat any time the ball is in his hands.

* * * * *

This has been a long, awkward week because of the Eagles loss and how they played. I really can’t wait until the offense gets out there and scores a TD on Sunday. That will sure make the world seem like a better place.

If the Eagles win, they’ll improve to 4-1. The last time the Eagles got off to a 4-1 start was way back in 2006. The Eagles won the NFC East that year and lost in the divisional round of the playoffs at New Orleans. You might remember the Scott Young Game. Ugh.

_


173 Comments on “Just Do It”

  1. 1 eagleyankfan said at 8:08 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    This won’t be a must win for the Eagles — but it clearly is a “should” win vs. a struggling team.

  2. 2 Avery Greene said at 8:28 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The defense played well last week, Foles (and the offense) didn’t. If the defense looks bad this week, we’ll have that discussion starting after the game.

  3. 3 eagleyankfan said at 9:19 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    the defense played well? I must have watched a different game. SF is an inept offense and still scored 26 points…Gore, who couldn’t get out of his own way in the previous 3 games rushed for 119 yards and season best 5 yards per carry. I see your point.

  4. 4 Tom33 said at 9:26 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I thought the D played well too. They were on the field for 75% of the game, and not so much due to their play this time but rather due to the anemic play of the offense. The only 2 TD’s they gave up were a fluke play where the rookie LB playing out of position lost his man, and one where the offense turned the ball over deep in their end.

    If they can play that well every week, as long as the offense gets back to “normal”, this team will be fine.

  5. 5 GEAGLE said at 12:13 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Absolutely… If we play defense like we did against the Niners, when our offense plays to it’s potential we will be scary….
    ..
    Picture that defense that we saw against the Niners playing against a desperate pressing QB trying to catch up to the points our offense put up..that’s when we really pin our ears back and start coming up with turnovers…
    ..
    I’m confident from what I’m seeing that we will see a really improved formidable defense come December/January because I’m seeing the key improvements it needed to make. The most important of which, defense improving it’s ability to get off on 3rd down..once we clean up the penalties this area will show obvious improvement…. Sooner or later the defense will settle back into the defense that was really solid at not giving up the big plays, and tightened up in nthe redzone holding teams to FG’s…and come December/January is when you really see Cary and Brad step up and play their best ball..

    If the defense stays healthy,mthey will be playing at a nice level come December/January….

    The most important thing now is staying healthy, finding ways to grind out wins every week, until we get the best center and Guard in the NFL back and we can get back to being the elite hammer of god in the run game that we are know and love

  6. 6 GEAGLE said at 9:30 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The defense was fantastic…
    ..
    They played as well as I will ever expect a defense to play who is on the field for over 40 minutes,,.

    They got a crappy breakdown TD against our rookie making a mistake., the other TD came on a short field where they only needed 26 yards to get into the ENDZONE… I thought the defense was fantastic except for needing to clean up a few penalties, and setting the edge better and not giving up runs to the perimeter..

    That’s like the best I can ever expect to see when the defense is on the field for 45 minutes..

  7. 7 eagleyankfan said at 9:37 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I think you have to consider their opponent. SF offense stinks. Gore couldn’t mustar 70 yards on the ground in any other game this year. The scored 14 and 20 points the previous 2 weeks and somehow, scored 28 vs. a terrible day for Dallas. It’s not like the Eagles held Denver to 26 points. Their TE and best WR were hurt too. This offense is one grade above college. I can’t celebrate that as a win for the defense…

  8. 8 GEAGLE said at 2:31 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Dude. Say what you will about the battered 49ers team, but that’s a bad ass OL our puppies had to face, and our DL was excellent against their interior run game, and our pass,rush was beating that highly touted OL and getting pressure on kAp all day long…

  9. 9 eagleyankfan said at 7:53 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    I don’t disagree with you. Eagles did things well except for being discipline in the assignments with the qb at times. But that offense for the 9ers is still not good. So yes..the eagles did played OK vs a bad offense.

  10. 10 Dominik said at 6:23 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    This offense is one grade above college

    You do know that the 49ers are three for three when it comes to NFC CCG over the last few years, do you? Yeah, there are injuries. We have them, too (remember this kid named Kendricks? I don’t want to speculate, but maybe he could have helped…)

  11. 11 eagleyankfan said at 7:48 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    And the Eagles won the division last year. Past does not dictate future. Look at their offensive numbers for this year. Look at Gore’s numbers before facing the Eagles. Kendricks has nothing to do with how inept their offense is right now. Sure Injuries play a role..like I said crabtree n TE aren’t 100 %..that’s the point.. Blame it on injuries or play calls…they still are not good. Rams are even worse…and yes I do know they were the greatest show on earth on.

  12. 12 GEAGLE said at 9:21 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    The way our defense played against the Niners, add Mykal to THAT defense and we would Have been nasty

  13. 13 bdbd20 said at 8:17 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I think we’re all underestimating the impact of Lane. He’s got all-pro talent. It will be evident right away. Shady, Sproles, and Polk will be running wild all day.

  14. 14 eagleyankfan said at 9:20 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    who’s underestimating? I think we’re all anxious to get him on the field. The bigger issue missing Kelce.

  15. 15 bill said at 10:06 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I don’t think I’m underestimating Lane. He still has some things to prove before I say he’s even a “good” NFL tackle. But I’m also not underestimating what it will mean to have at least an “average” NFL tackle there either. Gardner was “putrid,” and Herremans was “bad.” I’m fairly confident Lane is better than that, and somewhat like the safety position, upgrading from “putrid” and “bad” to “average” is sometimes the most important upgrade you can make.

  16. 16 anon said at 1:33 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    think the guards are more of the issue. be interested to see if we run unbalanced lines to get lj and peters together.

  17. 17 Scott J said at 8:24 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Foles benefitted from a strong running game, and now that defenses have shut that down, Foles need to make them pay – which he has to some degree, but not enough for defenses to change their strategy of loading the box. Foles needs to step up and complete those throws downfield. I think his accuracy and lack of a gun for an arm are getting exposed.

  18. 18 bill said at 8:45 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Except the niners didn’t really load the box. They sometimes rotated a safety in late from an initial two deep look. That’s a different animal. There were plenty of 4 and 5 yard gains for McCoy against that late safety to be had. Instead, he danced in the hole and/or broke it wide and was lucky to get positive yardage. If Shady does as TL suggests and takes the 4, the Eagles are marching down the field consistently against that plan. The Niners are forced to react, and either keep the safety consistently deep (they didn’t always rotate him late), or bring him fully in the box to stuff the run (most likely response). In either situation, the offense has simple answers for how to attack the defense.
    Foles was bad too. If he hits on some of those deep plays, it would have forced the niners to react, too – unfortunately, again as TL notes, those deep plays are much lower percentage plays than running for those 4 yards. In the end, IMO, expecting a younger QB to excel behind a patchwork line that is giving up consistent pressure and possibly the two worst games of running the ball that I’ve ever seen seems a little bit silly. Foles isn’t Rodgers. He’s not going to carry an offense solely on his shoulders for weeks at a time. It’s unlikely he’ll ever be that guy. But neither were Eli Manning, Big Ben, or Joe Flacco. So he doesn’t need to be that guy. He just needs to be better – like everyone else on the offense not named Maclin.

  19. 19 Chiptomylou said at 8:28 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Come on doit, doit…..do it.

  20. 20 GEAGLE said at 8:49 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    FOles is in more pain than the “bumps n bruises” he and Chip will have us believe… Tecgnically it’s the truth but he forgot to mention that his entire left shoulder is a giant bruise that goes half way down his am… If he is in as much pain as last week, and the line starts giving up big hits, it will be another ough day for FOles..
    ..
    Al the silly over analysis this week, just look at FOles deep incompletions. Throwing off his back foot way too much.. This tells me, it hurts too much when he gets hit, he doesn’t trust his line thus we aren’t seeing him step up into his throws… Way too many throws off his back leg last week…
    ..
    Hopefully the pain isn’t as bad as last week. Since playing behind a shitty OL in college, FOles has always been willing to stand tall in the pocket,deliver a strike while the defender is closing in on blasting him… We saw it time and time in the skins game… When those big hits accumulated and the pain was too much for him to take those shots to deliver the ball, we see his mechanics break down, throwing off his back foot instead of standing tall, delivering the ball while taking the big hit…

    Hopefully the shoulder has improved and he isn’t in as much pain as last week..

    Fortunately we will get our run game going this week with the Right side being fortified, and we will also see unbalanced lines to get shady going..
    ..
    We are going to win, but how we win depends on where nicks shoulder is at right now

  21. 21 Henly125 said at 9:07 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The running game needs to click so Foles can do a little less. Shady needs to settle for the 4 yard gains and stop trying to hit the outside. The holes are there, they just close up faster. Shady was relentless attacking north and south last year, once he gets into that groove the running game will start to get back to where it should be. We could survive with Tobin and Molk, experience will only get them better. There’s no reason Demarco Murray should be leading the league in rushing. LeSean needs to show up, and this is the week he will. Hopefully.

    I’m not worried about Foles. I know he’ll pick up his game. Back then I’d be worried, especially with the inconsistent QB play we’ve gotten this past decade, but Foles doesn’t worry me one bit. You can see how bad he wants those big plays. He’ll break out of it and play more consistently.

    Let’s hope our D took the momentum they got from Sunday and brought it back home with them and they stick with it. We could’ve had 6 sacks last week; penalties need to stop.

  22. 22 GEAGLE said at 9:25 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The real problem is shady is pressing to break long runs too early in the game… He can’t be looking for cutbacks in the first quarter after opponent been talking about watching shady cutbacks all week long.

    What shady needs to do is completely abandon the cutbacks in the first half and just take the couple yards the play is intended to get…come the second half, defense will let down their guard in their cutback assignments because shady didn’t cutback all first half, and when the defense let’s down it’s guard, those cutback lanes will open up for him in the second half..and he will break one especially with the defense being more tired than at the beginning of the game..

    I believe the run game will get going this week… If Lane isn’t enough to get the run game going, I expect us to go unbalanced line and stick peters between Lane and Herremans! giving shady 3 quality OL in a row that know what they are doing and can count on executing their blocks…mShady can run behind those 3, and he can also switch it up by faking to go to the side with Molk and Tobin, but cut it back to the other side behind Lane, Peters and Herremans..

    It’s also going to be harder for a 4-3 defense to play the run, then it was for all the 3-4 defenses we Been facing… Easier for Tobin and Molk to not get confused about who they are responsible for blocking against a 4 man Line… 3-4 is meant to stop the run without safety support…if we get our run game going they will have to bring their safeties up to help the 4 man line, which will provide opportunity for FOles to burn them over the top…

    Anxious for this game…

    The game film of Robert Quinn Vs. Jason peters is going to be such a treat for a junkie like me…can’t wait to go back and watch every play of that matchup

  23. 23 Henly125 said at 9:34 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Yup, you’re right on. Facing a 4-3 defensive front should make things a little lighter for the offensive line. Peters faces a tough challenge this week for sure.

    Our WRs should matchup quite well against their secondary. There will be some open targets for Foles to hit on Sunday.

  24. 24 GEAGLE said at 2:28 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Yup yup, let’s get this offense jump started….
    ..
    We are lucky Molk and Tobin are facing Aaron Donald early in his rookie season… Would be much worse having to face him in December…Injury to Chris long is a huge break!

  25. 25 P_P_K said at 9:52 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Is the injury to Nick’s left arm the result of the Baker hit?

  26. 26 GEAGLE said at 2:21 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Not sure… That wasn’t the only big hit he took in that skins game.. I know the “bruise” happened in that skins game and it bothered him in San Fran more than they want to let on… Hopefully the pain level is much less than last week..
    ..
    Really like that they refuse to use this as an excuse… Eagles reporters saw this ugly bruise in the locker room..if it was up to Chip and FOles they wouldn’t have disclosed this

  27. 27 anon said at 1:32 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    i read this and it says start mark sanchez if we care about winning / protecting the qb.

    also says to me that they are flirting with a failure to disclose an injury.

  28. 28 GEAGLE said at 2:24 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I like that we don’t disclose injuries.. We damn sure won’t be hearing Chip and Nick use injuries as an excuse for bad play. Gotta respect that…. But we can’t just assume that it’s having no effect on his play…

    When iI see a QB who takes pride on standing tall and delivering the ball while a big hit is closing in on him, throw so much off the back foot..it tells me he is skittish because of the pressure and is afraid to step up into his throws….

    No big deal..football is about over coming adversity… Don’t care about watching the eagles play flawless football in early October… I care about them overcoming enough adversity all season, to make it to the playoffs, hopefully get healthy and hot in December, peak going into the playoffs as that bad Mofo team that no one wants to face…

  29. 29 anon said at 2:31 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    so you don’t care if the inaccuracy costs games?

  30. 30 GEAGLE said at 8:02 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    If your starting QB can gut it out and play, you leave him in there… Rather lose a game than to see Sanchez come in and play great. This city doesn’t know how to act, that’s a nightmare of a QB controversy we don’t need in the middle of thie season…
    ..
    FOles broke his hand as a rookie, concussion last year, I really hoping he can gut it out and play 16 games this year…

  31. 31 Bert's Bells said at 9:10 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    With the state of their QB position, I’m not surprised the Rams are using so many WR running plays. They need to get tricky on offensive to generate explosive plays -kind of the opposite of what you’re saying about the Eagles.

  32. 32 eagleyankfan said at 9:21 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    just read that there are rumors that Shady has a lingering turf toe. Anybody else hear about this?

  33. 33 GEAGLE said at 9:27 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I dunno…it will be easier to believe when I see Sproles tearing it up in the run game with shady struggling….. Tho shady gave some answers this week that support the injury theory

  34. 34 Henly125 said at 9:38 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I have to say I’m not sure how to feel about Chip being so vague when it comes to injuries.

  35. 35 GEAGLE said at 12:05 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Doubt he does it just to be a dick to us.. Seems like the man does everything for a reason, would be curious to hear his thoughts behind it off the record…I would assume he feels their is a competitive advantage behind it.. Who knows…. Obviously I would rather know, then be in the dark about it..

  36. 36 mtn_green said at 10:02 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    He missed a couple training camp practices with a ‘toe injury’ hard to know if it has lingered or not.

  37. 37 Maggie said at 8:18 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I believe it. Have thought so all along. If he can’t bend his toes properly, he can’t “break” his ankles either. Try walkng upstairs without bending toes and see how the ankles don’t move in their usual motion either.

  38. 38 Henly125 said at 9:42 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I wonder if the coaches will be conservative with Boykin this week considering his hamstring tweak. He recovered pretty quickly though.

  39. 39 iceberg584 said at 12:47 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Makes me think we might see some three safety sets again. I think Billy Davis likes moving Jenkins around.

  40. 40 GEAGLE said at 9:18 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    If Boykin doesn’t play, we will def see a ton of 3 safety sets, because Malcolm Jenkins is actually Boykins backup at nickel CB, which is kind of weird that Nolan Carrol is a dime slot corner, but he doesn’t back up Boykin in the slot in nickel…weird..

  41. 41 eagleyankfan said at 9:45 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    going off topic — Patriots are a mess. Problem is the “I want to be a great coach McDaniels”. Go back in history and see what he did to the Denver franchise. The see what he did the Rams offense. After those fiascos he tucks his tail and heads back to NE. Since then NE had done nothing, including the SB where he was a “special advisor” after the Rams kicked him out. This year in NE he suspended one of their WR’s for 2 games because of an argument. This guy is a clown. Thank god he’s not here.

  42. 42 Henly125 said at 9:58 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Lol yeah Aaron Dobson has been a healthy scratch for 2 or 3 weeks now. Crazy how that team fell apart so quickly. Belichick deserves some blame too for drafting poorly the last couple of years.

  43. 43 RobNE said at 10:19 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Being here this is all highly amusing to me. I agree, a riff between a WR and the OC looks silly from the outside when the NE offense could use any help. They have our OL problems but (I think, I don’t follow closely) they don’t have the injured/suspended people coming back.

    I think the Bengals should whoop them on Sunday night, but with Belicheat and Brady and all the times in the past they have won despite ignoring parts of the roster, I won’t count them out.

    Plus the AFC East is awful. They would have to implode, really badly, not to win the division. My hope is for the Bills.

  44. 44 Henly125 said at 10:30 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    All it takes for that division to be wide open is for the Patriots to continue to struggle. If they lose to Cincinatti, that’s what’ll happen.

  45. 45 RobNE said at 10:19 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Also, the Patriots being a mess is never off topic.

  46. 46 P_P_K said at 10:36 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Evidence of The Mess:
    http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/wilbur/2014/10/_if_forced_to_lay.html

  47. 47 RobNE said at 12:18 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    trading Brady this year seems to me ridiculous for the Pats. I think the chances are about 0%.

  48. 48 P_P_K said at 2:02 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Agreed. 0%. But the fact that someone is even daring to raise the idea is indicative that all is not well in Foxboro.

  49. 49 GEAGLE said at 3:50 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Yes it is ridiculous… HOWEVER, the man gave them BIG discount trusting them to put a team around him he can win with….and he watched them get rid of Welker, one of his best weapons..and Mankins his best OL, and the players replacing them at best are “meh”
    ..
    I don’t know what’s crazier, Trading Brady Now, or wasting away what time you have left with the great Tom Brady, putting a crappy offense around him?

    As crazy as it sounds, if they have no intention of giving Brady some players he can win with, they might as well get rid of him and go young… A year like this year is just a waste…

    Tell you what, if I’m Brady, after I gave them a discount, waited patiently after they cut Wes Welker and they continue to regress instead of improving, I wouldn’t care about my Patriot legacy! I would demand a trade out of there… He is 36 years old, I make it clear to them that this is their last chance to pony up and build a contender, and if they don’t sign some free agents that can help me contend, I would demand a trade before the draft…..

    It’s a disgrace to have Tom friggn Brady, so committed to your organization that he makes your job easier by giving you a discount so you can build a contender and you are wasting what little time he has left sorrounded by this slop..

    I was actually looking forward to the eagles continuing to improve and getting ATleast 1 epic Eagles vs. Pats game before that patriot era ends.. Just want one Chip/FOles vs. bellicheat/Brady before that era ends! and it doesn’t look like we will get to see that match up.

  50. 50 gherbox said at 4:15 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    What discount? That contract he signed only gives an illusion of a discount.

  51. 51 GEAGLE said at 12:01 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Brady got as much as he could have out of them?

  52. 52 D3FB said at 12:44 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    McDaniels also was the O-coordinator for the 16-0 team. The biggest problem with that team is that Bellicheck the GM is not as good as Bellicheck the HC.

  53. 53 Sean Stott said at 1:28 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    No way, if Belicheck does it, it’s genius. Therefore, everything he does is correct.

  54. 54 GEAGLE said at 2:54 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Wasn’t MCDaniels the jackass that spent a first rounder on TEBOW

  55. 55 RobNE said at 2:58 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    ohh! checkmate.

  56. 56 anon said at 3:01 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    tebow did win a playoff game. that’s more than you can say about andy dalton. however he played the ugliest football i’ve ever seen.

  57. 57 GEAGLE said at 3:41 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The “red rifle”??? Lol takes some balls for him to sign that no security contract… If he can’t win a playoff game this year he is screwed

  58. 58 GEAGLE said at 3:38 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Il never forget how proud MCDaniels was feeling after that draft pick… It’s like he had this big secret that TEBOW actually could play! and he was going to make everyone look stupid when him and TEBOW take the league by storm hahaha..he was so proud to have landed the great Tim TEBOW lol…

    Imagine Bill Bellicek watching the draft.. He was probably laughing at MCDaniels like look at this fuckin idiot. He wanted to go be a head coach lol…smh you know the moment he watched him draft TEBOW he knew, “MCDaniels would come crawling back for his OC job in the near future”

  59. 59 anon said at 1:30 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    how they let blount go i won’t understand.

  60. 60 Dominik said at 6:39 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Blount was good, but they have two young solid RBs. Have a friend who is a hardcore Patriots fan (I trust him when it comes to Football) and he says it’s not even Mankins, it’s the departure of Dante Scarnecchia, their legendary O-Line coach, that kills them. X and Os is a mess at their O-Line at the moment and they couldn’t clean it up so far.

    As soon as they can do that (altough you’ll never know if they can fix it this season), they will be the same old Patriots. Like with our team, it’s horrible O-Line play that kills their Offense.

  61. 61 GEAGLE said at 8:13 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    You know Bellicheat was laughing at him when he was watching him draft TEBOW..

  62. 62 P_P_K said at 10:06 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Great writing, Tommy. I agree the problem has been execution, and I wonder if the playcalling is even any different this year than last when Nick got his jersey into Canton and Shady won the rushing title. If Foles hits his wr on even one of those long passes he missed in the SF game, we’re 4-0. If he connects on two of those passes, we win by double digits and we’re near the top in power rankings. Also, if the O-line is anywhere near healthy, Shady might well be dancing his way to another rushing title.
    I’m still of the opinion that the Eagles are a team that hasn’t yet clicked and run on all cylinders. I also think we match up really well against the Rams and this Sunday might be the game when things come together.

  63. 63 anon said at 10:08 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    lots of teams would have better outcomes if their players played better.

  64. 64 P_P_K said at 10:11 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Exactly. This is the Eagles situation. The problem is with the players not the coaches.

  65. 65 GEAGLE said at 3:25 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I agree.. With that said, last week wasn’t one of chips best gameplans.. Tho I’m sure being limited in what he could call with his back ups, played a part in it too..

    I have a theory that we will see Brilliant gameplans from Chip during the 5th, 9th and 13th games of the season.. Curious to see if that holds true… After every 4 games we play he goes back and self scouts our past 4 games. The Teams we play, watch our most recent 4 games, so this week Chip will have scouted us the way Jeff Fisher has been doing, so I expect these weeks to be when our coach is at his best, in terms of making little adjustments to take advantage of what the Rams expect us to do.
    ..
    We’ll see

  66. 66 GEAGLE said at 3:07 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Chip spoke about being limited in what plays he could call because of the back ups…few times this week he admitted to being handcuffed with his play calling last week..
    ..
    Have to tip our hats to the Niners.. First of all, going into the game it was known that Vic Fangio really had a good grasp on chips offense..
    Either the Niners are brilliant or insanely lucky:
    ..
    They admitted that last Friday the only two goal line plays the practiced happen to be the two plays we called on 3rd and 4th down on the goal Line.. Those two plays were plays we scored on in last years Raiders game and they were completely prepared for them

    How the fuck they knew to prepare for two plays from the raiders game, I have no idea… But gotta tip my hat to them

  67. 67 anon said at 3:11 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    look at any play breakdown on the internet and it the all 22 they use is the raiders game.

  68. 68 suthrneagle said at 5:23 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    the 49ers got lucky Foles threw a couple of bad passes and that Riley dropped the TD. If only one of things had happened, the niners game planning wouldn`t be getting as much praise as they would(should) have lost.

  69. 69 RobNE said at 10:23 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I rewatched parts of the Colts game last night. I was surprised at how big the running holes were compared to SF. I do think the OL mess is much more of the problem than Shady. There were gaping holes all over the place.

  70. 70 anon said at 10:40 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    SF has a WAY better front 7

  71. 71 RobNE said at 12:14 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    but don’t the Rams too? this worries me

  72. 72 anon said at 1:28 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    yup less talented secondary although we’re starting their cast off. hopefully we can neutralize quinn with the screen game.

  73. 73 mtn_green said at 2:55 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Screen game is pretty obvious now.

  74. 74 RobNE said at 2:56 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    what? not the fake one way, throw the other way. I never see that one coming. They should set that up, and instead fake one way and throw 40 yards downfield.

    It’s the new shovel pass.

  75. 75 mtn_green said at 2:59 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    It may be that the Oline starters are better at selling the screen.

  76. 76 anon said at 3:01 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    now they just put someone in the sidewalk. our line is less athletic so hard to get downfield blocks

  77. 77 mtn_green said at 3:02 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    True too.
    For all the glitz chip is really trying to get the players so good that even if defense knows what’s coming they can’t stop it.

  78. 78 GEAGLE said at 3:00 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Jason Peters got paid.. Let him handle Quinn

  79. 79 Ben said at 10:49 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    “Awful skinny playbook, ain’t it?”

    “It’s like novocaine. Just give it time, always works.”

  80. 80 daveH said at 11:20 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    darn MR Lawlor you are good! RUN FOR 4 HOPE FOR MORE!
    ..just used that in a marketing pitch to our CEO.
    I think it worked! you da man.

  81. 81 Mark Sitko said at 11:35 AM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I think of Trotter in that 2006 saints loss – they picked on him all day…they knew he couldn’t cover anymore and they kept going back to the well

  82. 82 iceberg584 said at 12:44 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I remember Deuce McAllister running all over us in the second half. It was unfortunate because it looked like we might had set a tone with the Sheldon Brown “cardboard box” hit on Reggie Bush in the first quarter, and we actually led by eight points early in the third quarter.

  83. 83 daveH said at 2:19 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    great hit!
    cover of SI

  84. 84 unhinged said at 12:27 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Good points, Tommy. Moving the chains is what this offense ought to be able to do anytime, anywhere. If the passing game was focused on simply getting three or four yards when SF was smothering the run, they would’ve had a few more first downs, SF would have had a little less possession time, our defense would’ve been a little more rested, and the end result may well have been a W.

  85. 85 RobNE said at 12:32 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    “Mike Tyson said, ‘Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the
    face,’” said Chip Kelly this week. “We got hit in the face and we’ve got
    to respond to it.”

  86. 86 Sean Stott said at 1:27 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I feel like the original quote was “punched in the mouth” and CK butchered it.

  87. 87 suthrneagle said at 10:22 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    he was paraphrasing

  88. 88 Sean Stott said at 11:30 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    he doesn’t get any slack. He’s such a sarcastic dick to anyone who gets anything slightly wrong at his PCs.

  89. 89 Joe Minx said at 2:15 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Scott Young.

    Why, Tommy, why?

    Although I remember the 3rd down pass to Thomas Tapeh more from that game.

  90. 90 anon said at 2:27 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    denver cut matt prater

  91. 91 GEAGLE said at 2:33 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Wow really… Didn’t expect that.. Haven’t been paying attention sinc Cody Parkey walked into my life, but it assume McManus has been kicking very well in Denver for them to get sick of dealing with Praters alchoholic issues

  92. 92 Dominik said at 6:53 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Damnnnnn. Hope he’s on the street for like forever :D, so we’ll have an insurance. Parkey is playing really good this year, so no need to be worried. But I don’t 100 percent trust him (yet). If his one miss would have been from 45-48 Yards – I don’t care. But it was 38 Yards – should have made that against the Colts.

    Prater is really good. This is nothing against Parkey, though. If we’d still have Henery, I would freak out if they don’t sign him.

  93. 93 Media Mike said at 7:59 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Funny that you mention that human tampon Henery; watch Detroit add Prater.

  94. 94 jcwhy said at 2:31 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Just saw on twitter… Bethea was calling out most of the offensive plays prior to the birds running them.. he was mic’ed up and is heard calling them out left and right.. interesting

  95. 95 RobNE said at 2:50 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Belicheat is involved somehow

  96. 96 BlindChow said at 2:53 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Really hope the Eagles figure out what happened and change some things up.

    I’d also like to see Foles do some hard counts for once, so if the defense is jumping the count they’ll look as bad as the Eagles defense whenever an opposing QB does it…

  97. 97 anon said at 2:57 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    sort of surprised he hasn’t worked on that feel like it’s a great skill to have for 3rd and short especially if our run game isn’t working. luck gets like 2-3 first downs a game out of it.

  98. 98 mtn_green said at 3:52 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Nick stomps foot, right guard taps center. They do a silent count, and yes defenses jump that too.

  99. 99 Maggie said at 8:10 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Mark Saltveit posted this on 24/7 on Tuesday or Wednesday. McManus commented yesterday actually.

  100. 100 NickS1 said at 2:41 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Byrd out for season.

  101. 101 GEAGLE said at 2:43 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Lol… 50 million dollars down the toilet.l

    How has Ward been playing?

  102. 102 NickS1 said at 2:48 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    No idea. I’m just amped about being wrong about Jenkins.

  103. 103 GEAGLE said at 2:50 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Lol I’m amped about being right about Jenkins 🙂 lol…
    ..
    Then again, I would be lying if I said I expected him to instantly play at this insane level…
    ..
    Torn meniscus for Byrd.. They lost Roman Harper and Malcolm Jenkins.. No idea who they have left to play with Vaccaro..that top ranked defense was already underperforming… Nice to see a veteran NFC contender having these problems

  104. 104 NickS1 said at 3:25 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Tip of the cap for being right about Jenkins… That said, the part I’m surprised about is the tackling. Seems the emphasis on fundamentals here helped quite a bit.

  105. 105 GEAGLE said at 3:28 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Yeah, what’s really awesome is seeing our coaches improve our players tackling, while only allowing the players to “thud” at camp and avoid tackling each other to the ground and injuring each other..

    You would think, tackling in practice is the best way to improve your tackling… To be able to improve, while putting our body’s less at risk is HUGE!
    ..
    Compare that to 2012 training camp where Andy had our players killing each other in camp, season rolls around and they couldn’t tackle anyone…

    Personally, I have never experienced practicing only with “Thud”… But it seems to be working just fine… Last year most of the guys who sucked at tackling in 2012 improved.. This year, guy like Jenkins who had a reputation for bad tackling, you wouldn’t even know it with the way he is playing..

    It’s just friggin AWESOME to know that FINALALY, someone in our front office knows what a great safety is supposed to look like

  106. 106 Maggie said at 8:08 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    You might enjoy this:

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2159570-jairus-byrd-injury-updates-on-saints-stars-knee-and-recovery

  107. 107 wee2424 said at 11:58 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Very average.

  108. 108 RobNE said at 2:50 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I have Saints in my knockout pool

  109. 109 GEAGLE said at 2:55 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    They are desperate for a win…playing at home.. You should be fine

  110. 110 GEAGLE said at 2:42 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I’m jacked up to see our defense build on last weeks performance.,
    ..
    Very impressed to see Barwin get so much pressure on Kapernick when he had to spend half the game spying him.. Nice to know we have Barwin spying in our tool belt if we need it against the rams Mobil QB..

    As for this Young QB we are about to face,, I don’t know much, but:

    This QB is a big Brett Favre groupie. Went to Brett’s college, plays with that emotional fiery gunslinger mentality that Brett played with instead of the cool as ice,stoic Nick FOles demeanor..

    This QB has one of the best completion percentages right now, but he is the epitome of captain Checkdown and dinking and dunking isn’t usually how you beat the eagles when our offense is doing it’s job..
    ..
    Captain Checkdown will throw up a few opportunities to come away with an INT.. Off the top of my head I think he has something like 3 INTs in two games,,

    So if our Offense puts up a decent amount of points and gets the lead, captain Checkdown will start pressing and look to go down field which should present an opportunity or two for an INT…

    First half is very important this week…you don’t want to come out flat, let this team get an early lead, because playing with a lead will allow this QB to dink n dunk away… We need to put points up and put pressure on this crappy offense to take chances because they need to score… Is Malcolm Jenkins really going to get his 4th INT? Lol

  111. 111 Joe Minx said at 2:49 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Just released Jake Knott with an injury settlement. That didn’t last long.

  112. 112 anon said at 2:49 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    wow

  113. 113 GEAGLE said at 2:54 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Wtf

  114. 114 mtn_green said at 3:44 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    So beat up on ILB can’t imagine he couldn’t at least be deep Practice Squad backup.
    Kendricks and Goode out.

  115. 115 anon said at 5:14 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    he got an injury yesterday.

  116. 116 wee2424 said at 11:56 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Lol NFL. Not For Long league.

  117. 117 GEAGLE said at 3:13 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Don’t Iike to get on young players too much before they are done growing..but Ertz has to step his blocking game up. He knew he needed to improve his blocking, he added muscle, worked on it all summer, now the kid needs to roll his sleeves up, step up, get dirty and start executing his blocks..he is costing us in the run game!

    Teams know Celek is drastically better blocker so they are starting to focus on him In the run game, slanting in front of him, not allowing him to be effective. Team are waiting for us to run to Brent’s side, so against the Niners we switched it up and were going away Brent, and running towards Ertz side, and he did NOT to an adequate job of blocking.
    ,,,
    It’s more important to get shady going, than to get Ertz going…so if we have to take a step back with Ertz for the next week or two and go with more Celek/Casey tandems so be it….. We need to make whatever adjustments neccessary to get shady going.

  118. 118 anon said at 3:14 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    have you seen jimmy g block? very few all around TEs out there.

  119. 119 GEAGLE said at 3:32 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    No I haven’t,lol he is such a pussy they don’t even ask him to try and block any more..

    Loved seeing Barwin Mic’ed up talking shit to Jimmy all game, just bullying the heck out of him in the playoffs…he really made Jimmy Graham his bitch. If they were in prison together, Barwin would make Jimmy walk around with lipstick and his shirt tied to the side showing his belly button. Jimmy should be ashamed of himself for that gutless playoff performance
    .,
    Knowing we have a weapon like Barwin who can take a guy like Jimmy I out of a playoff game is HUGE down the road for us

  120. 120 GEAGLE said at 4:03 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Fantasy help… After my draft, I thought I was really weak at WR.. Of course the NFL is so wacky and unpredictable that my weakness has become a strength, don’t know who to sit, all my WRs are hot right now.. Help..

    Which one do I sit?

    Maclin Home vs, Rams… Maclin is like the most targeted WR in the NFL, I can’t sit him..
    ..
    Emmanuel Sanders: Peyton Loves him. cardinals have two quality outside CBs, so Sanders in the slot could be the go to weapon..

    Kelvin Benjamin at home vs, Fuller and Da Bears… Benjamin is by far their most targeted WR
    ..
    Steve Smith Ravens @ Colts: Steve smith oldest player to start his first 4 games with 400 yards,.

  121. 121 anon said at 5:12 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    i’m sitting sanders. why? All those other guys are getting tds. We have basically the same receivers which is funny. In fact i’m trying hard to move sanders.

    Both AZ and Den coming off a bye so i expect the defense to be really tight. plus i think sanders will be outside with welker inside.

  122. 122 GEAGLE said at 5:30 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Your trying to trade him? He has been Peyton’s top pass catcher and he hasn’t even been playing with him that long., too reliable for me to trade. Plus, I’m not really desperate to make any trades.. I feel comfortable with Jamaal Charles and Reggie Bush as my backs..

    The only reason I drafted Kelvin Benjamin was cause it’s a fantasy keeper league so I figured I could keep him for cheap and he would be much better in year two than the 10th round pick I paid for him…just so happens he is producing now.. They have no one else to throw to…

    I didn’t expect old man Steve smith to go to a veteran team and instantly become their #1’WR… To the point where I saw Torrey Smiths name on the waiver wire in my league this morning lol

  123. 123 anon said at 5:50 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    yeah i took kelvin b/c he’s a red zone threat and the only receiver, he’s almost starting for me. For me the problem with sanders is that DT and JT are both bigger bodied guys great for the red zone, etc. I’ll take 80yds and a td over a 100yd game any day.

    I’m always looking for a new stud RB.

  124. 124 GEAGLE said at 6:24 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    True true…
    ..
    Who are your backs?

    I don’t feel great about Reggie bush cuz bell gets so many of his snaps but fortunately he always gets like 4 catches to make up for week RB day, Joquie bell is injured this week so hopefully Bush has a big day..

    As for Jamaal Charles, I’ll always be nervous about a RB when Andy is coaching, plus his health is always worrying me…

    I try to take fliers on unknown RBs that get game time because of injurries…. Just picked up the Darrin Reaves Undrafted RB for Carolina.. Tolbert. Deangelo, Jon Stewart, all the running backs are hurt… I assume Reaves will get much more carries then Fozzy Whitaker… Hopefully this Darrin Reeves kid can bust out and keep getting snaps when those RBs get healthy… I assume he will get some decent opportunities with that mess of an offense.. All they have is Cam, Greg Olson, Kelvin.. Then#2’WR is that chump Philly Brown.. Avant isn’t doing anything.. Hoping this Darrin Reaves kid bust out and those guys stay injured for a while..

  125. 125 GEAGLE said at 4:26 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Rams CB Trumaine Johnson has been ruled out so rookie EJ Gaines will continue to start outside opposite of Janoris Jenkins…
    ..
    Pretty sure the rookie plays on the left side so veteran Maclin with his crisp route running, better victimize the rook. I like EJ Gaines, but we should be able to pick on him in his 5th NFL game….

    Janoris Jenkins will give up plenty of plays but FOles needs to be careful not to let Janoris bait him into throwing a ball he can intercept because he will take it to the house,,..

    I’m sure we will get a dose of reverses and gadget plays that Try to trick our defense… Young QB, few games under his belt…probably means he is going to look for his tight end Jared cook a lot… Last year we were 25th against TE’s, now we are like 5th and it’s not like we haven’t faced good TE’s(Paul,Fleener, Dwayne!Vernon Davis)… Barwin was really good against TE’s last year, I’m sure adding Malcolm Jenkins is what’s really making a world of a difference against TEs.. Funny that I think Malcolm has a very good chance of getting another INT this week… This QB is captain Checkdown who will dink and dunk all day.. The few times he takes a shot down field, I bet he will be looking for his Tight End.. Hopefully Malcolm is ready to bait the kid into throwing a pass To Cook that Malcolm can break on and intercept.

  126. 126 Mr. Magee said at 8:17 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Well said. Good analysis and I agree with it.

  127. 127 wee2424 said at 11:53 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Was thinking the same thing with Jenkins. I could see the TE running a hitch route and Jenkins jumping it.

  128. 128 Mitchell said at 6:43 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    I predicted Matthews first TD and now I’m gonna take another shot at a prediction. We win big tomorrow boys! We are gonna be a well oiled machine like last year and roll the Rams. Marcus Smith gets a sack tomorrow…..

  129. 129 GEAGLE said at 6:55 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Ok… But how are we going to play on Sunday? If Casey mAthews can get a sack last week, why not Marcus..

    Malcolm Jenkins gets his 4th INT, Boykin goes from questionable to getting his first INT…

    I’m really anxious to see if our special teams can keep building off last weeks performance. they played out of their friggin minds in San Fran.. If they make a play like that in Philly, the stadium will go insane… For all you Cody a parkey lovers (he is soooo dreamy), he was in studio with Spadaro, video is on PE. Com

  130. 130 Mitchell said at 9:58 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    The key to predictions is making them as vague as possible. Nicky Flash with 3 tds and 275 yards. Maclin, Ertz and Cooper all get one.

  131. 131 mtn_green said at 12:19 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Vague as possible….

    My prediction Philly fans will not be pleased with the eagles performance on Sunday.

  132. 132 Mitchell said at 2:12 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Now you’re getting the hang of it, old sport.

  133. 133 wee2424 said at 11:50 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Lol

  134. 134 GEAGLE said at 9:14 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Nicky flash!!

  135. 135 P_P_K said at 7:30 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Good job on the Matthews call. Wish I could say the same. I’m with you this week, though, we match up great against the Rams. Nick is steady, Shady breaks out, 34-17 Eagles.

  136. 136 GEAGLE said at 6:55 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Curious to see what happens to the Falcons offense this week now that they have to play without their center…..sucks that the Giants are the lucky mutts that get to face them this week. Hopefully they can miraculously score enough to beat the giants, but the falcons defense sucks..definitely doesn’t help that safety William Moore is joining the IR club…
    ..
    I get great pleasure out of the Skins already having two division losses…. I’m hoping Seattle has enough pride to not be complete pussies on the road and allow the skins to get a win this week. They can’t be so bad on the road that they lose to Kurt Cousin, I’ll be furious if the skins steal a win this week. Hope Sherman tortures Desean all game

    Cowboys at home against the Texans… Hopefully it’s one of those weeks where JJ Watt is dominant.. Wouldn’t mind DJ Swearinger knocking a cowboys block off. Dez, Demarco, Tony…any will do….. sucks to have to rely on Firzpatrick, but the texans WR should be able to light up Dallas corners.

    Cheifs @ Niners is an interesting game. Hopefully Andy does us a solid and gives the Niners a loss…..

    Can Brady and Bellicek battle their way out of this or are the patriots going to lay down and get embarrassed by the Bengals?
    ..
    Denver’s vs. Zona is interesting.. No positive news on Carson’s nerve damage or when he is returning. Can the Cardinals really continue to be one of the top teams with Drew Stanton at QB, or will the clock strike 12 on Stanton’s Cinderella offense soon?… Impressive that the cardinals have been able to move the ball on offense with Stanton, and play some tough defense considering they have absolutely no pass rush… How long can that defense continue to thrive with no pass rush, and how can,it beat an elite team live Denver without pressuring Peyton? Curious to keep my eye on that game.

    Bears offense vs. keachly’s panthers defense..that’s a fun game

    September in the NFL is fraudulent…now the season gets juicy, this is when we start to really find out who teams are… All the 2-2 teams feeling good, half of the, will be a not so pretty 2-3 (never wanna be under 500)… Then you get to see which 3-1 teams are for real, and which were just pretenders who took advantage of being more prepared at the beginning of the season?… That’s why I feel so good about this eagles team…a team like the cowboys has to play really well to be 3-1…. For us, this season has been a disaster, we have 99 problems to overcome and we are 3-1… With how hard it is to win in this league, it be 3-1 and we aren’t even any where close to even the same area code as our best ball…..that tells me that we have something special on our hands…that tells me, that we are learning how to win, regardless of adversity that comes our way…and this tells me that if we can stay healthy, remain afloat, once we get Kelce and Mathis back we are going to be a scary team..
    ..
    Now if we have a bunch of other injuries from now til then, we can end up having a bad season… But if we can avoid any more season ending injuries, we have a good chance of having our team in place for the December/January stretch..and if that happens. We are going to make a run at this thing, and I doubt too many teams will be hoping they draw a game against Philly….

  137. 137 Mr. Magee said at 8:06 PM on October 3rd, 2014:

    Uugghh. While I don’t disagree with anything in this piece, I don’t understand how so much focus can be given to execution without any discussion of play calling and keeping the opposing defense off-balance. Chip did a HORRIBLE job of this last week – exceptionally poor, in fact. If we see more obvious screen plays and roll-outs, we can expect the offense to struggle again.

    We’re not gonna get 3 TDs from the STs and the defense this week, so everyone’s gotta be better – Foles, the O line, Shady, and yes, Chip.

  138. 138 GEAGLE said at 11:41 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    This was definitely not one of chips masterpieces but it’s hard to really get on him for it because we don’t know to what extent he was hampered by what he can call because of playing so many backups..
    he admitted that we had to scratch a big portion of our playbook… It’s obvious he has to do better than that play calling but Chip strives for a 50-50 run/pass balance.., anytime you see us throw or run the ball 65-70% of the time you know we have issues and Chip is trying to work around them….
    ..
    After every 4 games Chip goes back and self scouts the quarter as a hole. So this week I’m expecting one of chips masterpiece games, assuming execution allows it…

  139. 139 Nicodemus_09 said at 12:11 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    I know it’s probably a dumb question & just me over thinking the situation. Because the offensive line apocalypse being the obvious acilles heel with Foles’ (and just about everything offense related) drop off in performance I know it makes it really difficult for a guy like me to analyze. But out of curiosity, has there possibly been a drop off or maybe a chemistry issue with the switch from Bill Lazor to Bill Musgrave as far as Nick’s mechanics? Just a thought.

  140. 140 mtn_green said at 12:16 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Your not alone in your speculation.

  141. 141 Media Mike said at 6:18 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    i think it’s fair to question just about everything until the production improves. I’ll certainly have less questions once we’re 5-1 going into the bye.

  142. 142 SteveH said at 6:58 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Well I had forgotten the Scott Young game. Thanks Tommy.

  143. 143 GEAGLE said at 9:27 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Molk trying to block Aaron Donald is a nightmare… If we want to get our run game going, we may have to forget trying to run up the middle where our center will be outclassed… Going to have to use our athletic tackles to run the ball on the perimeter… .. Thank fully Herremans is moving back to Guard, because Dennis Kelly, Molk and Tobin would have gotten killed against Brockers and Donald on the interior

  144. 144 Media Mike said at 9:30 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Both tackles should be easily getting their jobs done 1 on 1, so we can help shore up the middle as needed with a helpful double and/or the RB picking up an extra blitzer in the middle if they go that route.

  145. 145 GEAGLE said at 9:37 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    I just hope our current line gets to stay together for a few more weeks instead of suffering any more injuries,,

    The problem with the run game is our blocking scheme requires double team combo block at the start of the play, once the defender is controlled, one of the lineman peel off and go hunting LBs at the next level…… This means we need our lineman to get some damn continuity playing with the man next to them… If guys are playing next to a different player every other week, we will never get this run game going…

    If we can stop starting a different 5 lineman every week, we will get this offense going and be fine until Mathis and Kelce get back… ..if guys keep playing next to a different player every week, we are,going to continue to struggle on offense.

    Should be HUGE that Molk has veteran Herremans next to him today

  146. 146 Media Mike said at 9:38 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    And Herremans is much better at guard, so that can’t be all bad either.

  147. 147 GEAGLE said at 9:39 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Definitely a good thing…

  148. 148 Media Mike said at 9:42 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Yeah, having Todd / Lane together should be very helpful and stable allowing for Molk / Tobin to double the one tackle while Peters, Herremans, and Lane all win their stuff 1 on 1 allowing Foles to have a cleaner pocket on pass plays.

    I’m not sure if the run blocking will be good enough until we get Kelce and Mathis back.

  149. 149 GEAGLE said at 11:32 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Hopefully our running backs can get out on the perimeter, as far away from Molk as possible…..

    Unless this kid can put on some serious weight in the future, which I doubt, we will be back in the Hroniss Grasu sweepstakes come draft night….. I don’t ever want to be in this position again. Kelce needs to have a quality backup, that’s why you go get a backup center like Grasu who can also play guard for you if Kelce stays healthy for the rest of his career….
    ..
    If by some miracle Molk proves to be the Longterm answer at center or we trust Vandervelde, then we won’t have to spend a draft pick on Oregons center, and we can maybe turn our attention to ORegons Jake Fisher, who can play Guard for us, but be the Longterm replacement for Lane at RT, when peters retires and he slides to the Left side…..

    But these Oregon lineman will get picked in the top 100, so best case scenario is not needing To spend a top 100 pick on OL because our back ups improve enough with this seasons game time to be an adequate short term backups, so we can wait til like the 5th round to add OL help and adress the defense and WR in the top 100
    ….
    I feel like if you need immediate help at OL you have to draft an OL in the top 100… If you have some time to develop rookies before you need to count on them, then you can wait til rounds 4-6 and you can end up with an OL that can be groomed into a Longterm solution..

    But if we are spending valuable draft picks on offensive lineman, I prefer to eliminate the guess work of how this 300 LB men will transition to playing in our crazy tempo attack. Best way to do that is to draft Oregon OL who Chip has recruited and knows how they can handle playing at his crazy tempo..
    ..
    Those options in this draft will be:
    T/G Jake Fisher
    C/G Hroniss Grasu

  150. 150 Mitchell said at 1:16 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    I am completely open to drafting a OL within the first two rounds and then another late like the 5th/6th. I understand we have some back up potential but after seeing what happens to the run game with OL out, I want to be more prepared than ever. I guess we are ok with WR if we sign Mac Attack back, Jordon and Huff develop into something pretty good and we keep Riley Pooper. So that leaves us with nabbing an amazing OLB (hard to do), ILB (possible round 3?), and CB (we just need an upgrade from our 2 starters, they are ok but come on). Of course taking a ILB/OLB in whatever round hinges on the development of Marcus Smith.

  151. 151 GEAGLE said at 4:43 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    I dunno… Chip might want to add a top notch WR prospect or another Zack Ertz type of TE like Funchess… I could see Chip look for a big legit outside WR like Jalen Strong..or another Maclin type like stanfords TY Montgomery…maybe a deep ball threat to take the top off like Sammie Coates…

    I assumed we would draft Kendricks brother and be set at an all Kendrick ILB tandem for the next 7 years after Meco leaves in a year or two..

    We might need an OLB, but I could see us trade Vinny Curry for Dion, possibly sign one like Jabaal Sheard but that’s probably not likely. OLB cost TONS in free agency and we have to extend a bunch of our guys..I really don’t feel like dealing with another rookie OLB growing pains…so if we are fortunate enough to trade a player we know we can’t keep Longterm like Vinny, for a much needed OLB it’s a no BRAINER. in that case we don’t have to draft OLB, but a spot opens up at the DE rotations behind Ced……in which case we would drool over Big Long two gaping athletes like Oregons intense Arik Armstead on baylors 6’8 275lb Shawn Oakman from Lansdowne PA..

    Figured in the first 3 rounds we go, in no order: DE, ILB, WR…we will have two 4th round picks or two 3rd round picks.and a 5th., figured we adress OL and DB

    If we don’t trade or sign a talented young OLB, then drafting one moves towards the top of the list,, especially since this is a great pass rush draft.

    Be nice if we can pluck another Malcolm Jenkins or Barwin caliber defender out of free agency

  152. 152 Mitchell said at 4:58 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Hell, I say draft two pass rushers. I mean they are so important, if there is a lot of depth in a draft, take advantage of it.

  153. 153 wee2424 said at 11:46 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Idk about that man. Quin is dangerous, and Peters while having a good year is not at the beast mode level he used to be. Johnson hasnt played a snap since preseason, it would be foolish to expect him to dominate right out of the gate. Also, expect alot of loops and stunts to confuse our interior line.

  154. 154 GEAGLE said at 11:59 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    Aleast Lane doesn’t have to deal with Chris long in his first game back…

  155. 155 wee2424 said at 12:04 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    In which we are all very happy about, probably Johnson also lol.

  156. 156 anon said at 1:09 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Does quinn ever play that side? B/c if i’m the DC that’s what i’m considering.

  157. 157 GEAGLE said at 4:32 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Last year they moved him around a lot.. Everything I see of him this year has been lining up to the right..It makes sense that they aren’t moving him around this year because so far Aaron Donald has been the chess piece that they been moving and lining up all over the place..

    Probably won’t move him around as much tomorrow.. I mean, he probably isn’t going to find better “looks” them seeing undersized Molk in front of him… When Molk is blocking you, it wouldn’t make much sense to move around…if I’m Donald I’m licking my chops to get matched up with the undersized center…

    Quinn has moved around in the past, wouldn’t be surprised if he goes and tests Lane for a few snaps…. You have to keep a body on Quinn at all times, he has a crazy “motor” as Andy would say. Plays with a ton of effort, chasing down and making plays a man his size shouldn’t be able to… the Young Beast of a DE vs. Hall of fame LT…can’t wait to go back and watch every single snap from that battle…talk about Clash of titans,
    ..
    Worried that Quinn has been quiet on the sack front This year.. How many more games can that many continue to go sackless? When they do finally come, they will come in bunches so hopefully JP can keep him sackless for one last game…

    Now on paper we should blow this team out of philly… But they have a real legit gamebreaker. mighty Quinn can straight up take over a game, so we would be foolish to overlook the rams, especially coming off our first lost…I hope I see a team mentally tough enough to not lose two games in a row all season…

  158. 158 Insomniac said at 4:35 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    I think Lane actually matches up better vs Quinn.

  159. 159 wee2424 said at 11:42 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    I think the best way to attack him would to acctually to run straight at him. He is good at getting after the passer, not stopping the run. One of the reasons the Rams have HUGE problems vrs the run.

  160. 160 anon said at 1:08 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    run that unbalanced line and run between LJ, Peters and Herremans.

  161. 161 GEAGLE said at 4:19 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    I will be shocked if I don’t see us whip out the unbalanced line

  162. 162 GEAGLE said at 11:57 AM on October 4th, 2014:

    It’s been a few weeks now since Wade smith joined the Bird Gang… Wonder how close he is to being in passable “eagles shape” meaning, being able to play him while still using our Ricky Bobby tempo attack?… I assume it will be hard for the old man to get in that level of shape without playing but I hear Wade is a very smart veteran and he happens to be Molks backup at center..if Molk doesn’t improve with game experience I wonder if and when Wade can take over for him?…
    .,.
    Being a smart veteran he should be ready to handle center duty in our offense by now…hopefully he will be physically ready soon to give us another option… ATleast I can count on the veteran Not being so undersized, and I can count on the veteran to not be day dreaming about how great it is to be out there and flying pink unicorns or whatever the hell he is daydreaming about while he is in the middle of getting his ass kicked by Ian Williams in a War…

    Also, I think very highly of Tobins future. I can see him having a chance to grow into a possible starter, or at the very least a serviceable backup like Barbre. With that said, he needs to improve with every game of experience he gets under his belt, and if he isn’t improving and performing adequately, I don’t want to live and die with Tobin…don’t be afraid to make the switch to Dennis Kelly… I really hope that Tobin is outclassing Dennis Kelly in Practice for us to be going with Tobin… Enjoy Dennis Kelly’s size and strength in certain matchups.. I hope those two are pushing each other to improve with every week of practice..

    Counting down the days til November 10th, Mathis and Kelce returning for the panthers game! It’s friggin HUGE that we have a bye week between now and November 10th, that’s one less game we have to try to overcome their loss. The bye week is also BIGTIME because it ensures that worst case scenario we only lose Kendrick for two more games! but hopefully he is back for the giants game

  163. 163 wee2424 said at 12:21 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Has Wade Smith ever had any in game experience at C?

  164. 164 Maggie said at 6:27 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    from Rotoworld:

    “A 16-game starter each of the past four seasons for the Texans, Smith provides depth with the Eagles missing four of their top seven offensive linemen. Smith has dabbled at tackle in the past, but played primarily guard. That’s where he spent his entire tenure in Houston.”

    Seems to me that would have included blocking for Arian Foster a couple of years ago.

  165. 165 GEAGLE said at 4:18 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Jason Peters is working with Ertz to teach him how to run block…. We have a young TE who can get open and catch passes against anyone..but instead of going the fairy sissy Jimmy Graham route, our young play maker is working with the best run blocker in the NFL, committing himself to working on run blocking every day til his blocking catches up to his pass catching…

    Love this team!

  166. 166 BobSmith77 said at 5:24 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Can the defense actually keep the opposing team under 20 points this week and not force the offense to have put up 28+ pts to win this game?

  167. 167 EAGLES said at 5:57 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    This was a good read.

  168. 168 Mitchell said at 7:39 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    First time watching Coates and you can color me impressed. I just watched him literally shove a jam 2 feet back and then proceed to catch a 57 yard td after slinging the cb off him, in double coverage……

  169. 169 GEAGLE said at 8:25 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Really really explosive,,, assuming you are talking Sammie..

    Michigans Funchess
    ….
    Arizona ST Jalen Strong is a BIG body WR that may apeal to us,,

    Stanfords TY Montogemry is like a Maclin type

    Amari Cooper I struggle with… I mean, even a blind man would know he wIll be the top WR drafted, but I struggle trying to figure out HOW special he is….like last year it was easy to know watkins was a special WR… I like Coop but I find it hard to put him in sammy Watkins class

  170. 170 Mitchell said at 9:49 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    I guess we pray Coates falls to the teens if we wanna draft him.

  171. 171 eagleyankfan said at 8:21 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    Fantasy…flex spot..ppr…Sankey or edelman or Wayne or Royal? Speaking fantasy…tomorrow should be lights out for Shady… Hoping for the old Shady and no evidence of an injury…

  172. 172 GEAGLE said at 8:40 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    WOW Pats waived WR Kenbrell Tomkins… They used to think highly of the kid..quick fall from grace that was

  173. 173 GEAGLE said at 9:01 PM on October 4th, 2014:

    RAms special teams has been pretty poor, both coverage and return units. Should be a solid opportunity for our special teams to continue to impact these games