Those Annoying Cardinals
Posted: October 28th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 167 Comments »I hate the Dallas Cowboys. We all do. They’re America’s Team. They have Jerry Jones and Super Bowl wins and Thanksgiving games. They celebrate every accomplishment as though they’ve changed the world forever. To say they’re smug would be arguably the biggest understatement in history.
I do not hate the Arizona Cardinals. Nor the Phoenix Cardinals or St. Louis Cardinals. You can’t hate mediocrity.
But the Cardinals do annoy the heck out of me and I wrote about that in my PE.com column. Losing to them is incredibly frustrating. I went over a variety of games from over the years where the Eagles found different ways to lose. The Cardinals just seem to bring out the worst in the Eagles.
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Good and bad news on the injury front. First, the bad.
Todd Herremans tore the biceps in his left arm, per NFL sources. The #Eagles RG is apparently going to try and play at least for 1 week.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) October 28, 2014
Andrew Gardner came into the game for a few snaps on Sunday to replace Herremans. Now comes the news that there is a serious injury. Herremans will try to play through it. This can be done. Back in 1993 LB Ken Norton played half a year for Dallas with a torn bicep. It was probably easier to get away with that at LB, but this isn’t a completely insane idea. We just have to see if Herremans can pull it off.
The good news…
Welcome back, @Jkelce. #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/GOzHaowY2p
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 28, 2014
It looks like Jason Kelce will be back this week. Adding him is huge. David Molk did some good things in Kelce’s absence, but Kelce is special due to his amazing athleticism and ability to block in space. He’s also a great leader and communicator.
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Did you watch Bill Davis today?
Davis stood by Nate Allen in about as definitive a way as you can. I give Davis a lot of credit for saying what he did and explaining the situation that way. Coaches have to support their players publicly. Ripping Nate Allen wouldn’t have accomplished anything, except to placate the fans who want an ounce of flesh. The Eagles are better off boosting his confidence and trying to get the best of him down the stretch. We’ll see what happens when the offseason rolls around.
Actions speak louder than words.
I hope Davis is able to build a good defense. I love listening to his thoughts and ideas. Really smart guy. Would help him to have a big more success on the field.
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David J. Chao, MD @ProFootballDoc · 5h5 hours ago
@Jeff_McLane Possible for O Lineman to play thru distal biceps tear and have surgery after season. Harder for defensive player.
David J. Chao, MD @ProFootballDoc · 4h4 hours ago
@Jeff_McLane Triceps more important in general as there are other elbow flexor muscles. OL doesn’t need full flexion power.
Interesting.
ProFootballDoc always gets upvotes. thanks for sharing
I have quoted this in the other thread already. Still worth a big upvote from me!
Will this injury make it more difficult to commit a holding penalty?
At this point in his career, Herremans is their most replaceable starting lineman, so if somebody has to go down with a serious injury, it’s probably better it’s him than any of the other starting OL. Would Tobin flip over to RG to replace him if he does have to go out, or would they go with Kelly or Gardner?
If Herremans goes down in game, I would imagine Kelly comes in to play right guard. Gardner played RG last week because Kelly wasn’t active. They only kept 7 OL active typically, so Vandervelde got one spot as backup C/G and Gardner as backup G/T. If you move Tobin to RG now you are changing continuity at LG, and RG.
Mathis is going to have to come back and take Tobins spot in two weeks anyway.. So I assume Tobin will play next to Lane, unless they want to leave Tobin next to JP and have Mathis replace Todd next to Lane…
As nice as maintaining maximum consistency on the O-line is, running to the left when you got JP-Mathis-Kelce in a row is just too damn juicy to pass up!
I agree with all that..
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But I was also considering, Tobin would be the weak link, so maybe it’s good to .leave him where he has been playing since him and Jason Peters are probably getting used to each other by now….
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Mathis is so good I’m sure he can play anywhere, and Lane looks like a beast so, Lane,Mathis and Kelce is a nice side to run to…
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If we do have Lane,Mathis,Kelce,Tobin,Peters, in key situations we can always go unbalanced line and stick Peters in between Lane and Mathis turning the line into: Lane, Peters, Mathis, Kelce, Tobin… Should be able to trample teams running behind that
Also, 100% agree about the Cardinals. I still vividly remember one game early in the Reid era (I think it was 2001 or 2002) in which the Eagles lost an absolute stinker to them when Jake Plummer completed a 35 yard TD pass to Martay Jenkins with no time left. It was right before the bye week and left a foul taste in my mouth for 10 days. Ugh.
Jake Plummer earned his rep as a fourth quarter comeback QB mainly on our backs.
Note to Jason Kelce: Not a good look there in that picture.
You look like the guy in my Avatar about to drop a load.
Herremans playing against Houton saves Kelly from having to trot out a less-than-100% Kelce and 2 backup Guards against Watt and Clowney.
IR after this next game would not surprise me. Gardner, Kelly, and Tobin will probably all stay active moving forward, maybe for 1 or 2 weeks
I think given this you sit Kelce. Let him get another week to get his health back to as close to 100% as possible. I just hate the risk in playing him too early.
In fairness, we have no idea where Kelce’s health is right now. For all we know he is perfectly healed and sitting him out would be pointless. I can’t see our coaches letting him come back too soon if he is risking re-injuring himself. If he is good to go, he is good to go..no point in letting him collect dust on the bench
I get it, and you’re right, we don’t have that luxury of knowing how healthy he is. If he’s 100%, sure, go nuts. If he’s operating at less than 90% just to play, can’t do it, IMO.
With that said lol, I just saw an interview of him talking about how this is unchartered waters for him, having to play thru this type of pain, not an injury he is familiar with, so I guess he isn’t 100%
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kelce isn’t a dumb person.. All I know is if he plays Sunday, he better not reinsure himself. Kelce is a tough guy, but he isn’t a stupid guy. I’d like to think he wouldn’t risks his chances to play in December/January over rushiñg back for a november game when we already have 5 wins in our back pocket
I’d like to think so, too. Man, we really don’t need this right now. Hope he waits a week.
Cardinals: I feel the same way, hate losing against them. It especially reminds me of that 2008 playoff game, that absolutely crushed me. I thought we had the team to win it all that year, with a good offense, Dawk, Jimmy Johnson… did anyone else had a big flashback when they saw that flea flicker?
Molk: I am yet to re-watch the game, but he had a great block on one shady run to the outside. I thought that he looked solid the past 2 games.
Todd is still going to have a really difficult time playing effectively.
While tricep may be more important for an OL, bicep is critical as
well. One of the biggest misconceptions about offensive line is that
they have their arms extended, when in fact more often than not they are
closer to 90 degrees. He’s going to be unable to latch in to the defenders shoulder pads. An offensive lineman wants the defender as close to him as possible, the defenders are more athletic and the more space between the OL and defender, the easier it is for the defender to slip off the block and make a tackle.
I heard brent celek is great at playing blocking the guard spot. His contract situation will be interesting.
I was on Reddit and read that James Ihedigbo’s favorite safety is Brian Dawkins. I proceeded to watch Dawkin highlights while a tear rolled down my cheek as I remembered how Nate Allen got caught looking at Palmer.
If only we could put his brain into Nate… It would make me so happy
joe nickles didn’t care
I despise bruce Arians, and I can’t wait to celebrate Fitzgeralds retirement
I’m pretty sure that Watters comment came after Tampa Bay game on opening day. And your memory is fuzzy about McNabb broken ankle game, that happened at The Vet. McNabb came back in time for playoffs to beat Atlanta and then lose the soul crushing last game at Vet to Tampa bay.
No.. Mcnabb got hurt against Arizona at the Linc, I was in high school sitting in my seats rolling a blunt inside my hoodie(young,dumb n full of you know…) lol..positive McNabb broke his ankle at the Linc… You could be right about Ricky Watters tho.. I know for a fact because I was at the game with friends,.. I wasn’t old enough to go to the Vet with friends, only been to the Vet with family
Yeah, you’re wrong. It happened during the 2002 season.
ok awesoem
I was there. At the Vet. I still remember the awful urinals and how courageous Donovan was.
Take your word for it… Not that serious
Read that it was a slight tear yesterday…has that been confirmed?
Re: Nate
Unfortunately he doesn’t have the same mental toughness on the field which is why he gets hammered to begin with. Nate has revolutionized the [un]safety position…
This is also true..
I’ve hated the Cardinals since the 1970s when they and the Eagles were in the same division and they were good most of the time and the Eagles were bad most of the time. But even after the Cardinals fell from glory, they retained their knack for beating the Eagles. In 1980, the Eagles won their first three games, the last of which was a 35-3 beat down of the Giants, then went to St. Louis and got clocked 24-14 in a game that wasn’t even that close.
INTERESTING!!!!!
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Kelvin Benjamin claims that he purposely tanked the combine and ran a slow 40 time because he wanted to fall to the Panthers… Ran a 4.6 claims that he can really run 4.4…
So wait, I want to get this straight. The dude leaves school early to go to the Pros and earn big $$$. But then he deliberately tanks the 40 so he can drop to the last few picks of the 1st round? Giving up, literally millions of dollars to go to the football heaven that is Carolina when he has lived and played his whole life in Southern Florida?? I think I am throwing the bullshit flag on this one.
Sounds wacky doesnt it…sounds so whacky that weird that a kid word dare lie about that… I do think that the 4.6 time isnt a true measurement of his speed, for whatever THATS worth…
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This is just strange
Amen. It’s not like the Panthers are WR heaven. It wouldn’t make sense (due to the risk) if you could play for Brady, Manning or Rodgers while they have a starting WR spot open, it makes literally no sense at all for Benjamin.
One of the knocks against him coming out was maturity. I think he further cements that deficiency. The crazy part is that he wants everyone to think it was noble of him to basically deliberately under perform to get what he wanted. For a few games I lamented that we had not taken him – as did alot of fans across the league. This crazy comment shows some serious judgment flaws whether it’s bullshit or not.
Doesn’t sound like a Chip Kelly player, does he? 😉
If his comments are a trait to his personality (doesn’t matter if the comment was right or wrong) there’s a good chance he wasn’t even on our board.
The difference between Mike Evans contract and Kelvin Benjamins is $8.4 million dollar in garunteed money.
Matt Barkley tanked his senior year to fall to the Eagles.
I think Kelvin is just a moron spouting nonsense.
I think Billy Davis deserves more credit than he is getting. Besides those two 2 huge plays, his defense shut out the cardinals. Take away the 75 yard and 80 yard reception, Palmer was held to only around 170 yards. Not too bad. Just those two plays. I have confidence in our defense. The offense just needs to get consistent.
While I agree with your sentiment, this is a little like when people were criticising our lack of offense when we were scoring TDs on D and STs (so the offense never got the ball).
In this case, we don’t know what the D would’ve done on the drives they gave up a long TD. Might’ve held them on a 3rd down and got off the field, might’ve let them have a clock-chewing drive ending in a TD.
A health OL and a strong running game should bring more consistency, when 3rd and 3 or less is almost guaranteed it keeps the chains moving and takes some pressure off Foles.
Put it to you this way… They killed us with that last TD on 3rd and 5 after we had forced them to go 3 and out for like 4 of the previous 5 drives or something crazy like that. If Nate would have been Where he was supposed to be and forced an incompletion, and we managed to stop them again on 4th down, and the defense winning the game forcing a turnover on downs to win the game, after you just shut out the NY Giants the previous game, we would be talking about one of the hottest defenses in the NFL going into this Texans game
How about Meco swatting the ball out of that TE’s (I think) hands in the endzone. We need to fix the big plays, but this D has been making plays this year, fix those deep balls and we have a solid defense. If we can inject 1 pro bowler into that secondary, to go with our front 7, this defense will be ready.
Such a BIGTIME veteran Boss play!
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I’m struggling trying to figure out whether I should start Meco or Barwin in fantasy football this week. Both will be foaming at the mouth to stick it to themTexans, not sure which player I should start. But I’m leaning towards Barwin..
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I’m sure Braman will be a tad bit more bat shit crazy than usual for the homecoming occasion lol..
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I expect a pissed off group of defenders THATS going to take the Carfinals loss out on Fitzpatrick… I would NOT start Adrian Foster in fantasy football this week…and I’m def starting Eagles/defense and ST for this one,
For two years now people haven’t agreed with my opinion that we already have most of the personel for a future quality defense in place already.. But if people go back to last year we got shredded by the Broncos, billy Davis took the podium and to,d the media to trust him, that he was seeing improvement and soon it would turn around for the defense. After that the defense went on to hold teams to 17-23ptd per game for almost the entire last two months of the season (minus the letdown vIkings game)
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Since last year, our players improved in the scheme. Some young players grew up a little more, and we started this season playing defense at a much higher level than the start of last season. With THAT said, it still had a long way to go to get where we need to be as a defense.
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Funny that the Giants shut out came right around the time of year when billy claimed that the defense would improve and they went out and made him look like a prophet. We build on the Giants shutout with a really solid performance against the Carfinals. It’s a damn shame that the defensive outing was ruined because of two stinking plays…but so far, we are following last years script of growth…if we can replicate last season and improve to play our best defense in The second half and going into the playoffs…if our OL can hold up, we should be a dangerous team, and we should reach a new level as a defense.
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My expectations are that this second half of the season, this defense reaches new heights, and after a few offseason tweaks we will have played so well that this group of defenders goes into next season respected as a consensus quality defense.
I’m not upset with the defense. Either Tommy or someone else talked about the coaches making their assessments in year 2. They knew Chung was garbage, so they got Jenkins. They see the age of a few of their LBs and got Smith. Allen, Williams, and Fletcher played well enough to warrant a 2nd year look. Allen is a backup safety. I’m not a fan of either Williams or Fletcher, so I totally expect to see a S & CB come off the board for them early-ish in the draft. Williams or Fletcher are not worth their contract next year. Maybe both Watkins and Reynolds are those guys, if so, then no need to go to the draft.
This is their 2nd year and people expected them to have all the players in place after 2 drafts. Why didn’t they get an OL or different LB? These questions miss the bigger picture. Patience is needed. If year 4 this team isn’t still moving forward, then we have the talk about the GM/coach. Until then, this is still a work in progress.
I think I want to draft someone early, and get 1 impact guy in FA. If we don’t get it done this year, next year is our year. Not a fan of rookies in the secondary, rookie mistakes in the secondary are TD’s, so it would be a bit of a lateral year 1.
I agree. Wolff is having a problem getting on the field, and I’m wondering if we will see Carroll sometimes on the outside here and there. He seems to be healthy and he’s relatively young. If he can take one of those spots, then we can see if Watkins is ready to step up in Year 2. I’d love to see another true safety, Reynolds in Year 2 might not be ready.
Carrol is playing some quality ball right now. Kendrick injury relly allowed him to grow in that dime role, because we went With a Ton of dime, and less nickel since Kendrick got hurt…
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Nolan has really grown into that dime role and it’s a huge addition to our defensive arsenal. The DGR will show he had like 4-5 really nice plays he made this week. Shame that he had to leave the game every 3 plays because he kept cramping up…
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Kendrick should be back to full strength now, going to be interesting to see how often we use Nickle, and how often we use Carrol and the Dime, because it’s realy grwingnto. Strength as of late..
I just don’t get Wolff, I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he needs to get himself on the field. He seems to have the ability, the locker-room seems to love him, Cary Williams obviously see’s something in him. It’s just frustrating.
Yeah I want nothing to do with a rookie in the secondary during a year we can compete for a Super Bowl.
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Think yeàr 4 is a very fair expectation for building a juggernaut, it’s amazing we have been able to compete so soon in the building process.
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Just give me one Barwin, jenkins type of defensive addition each offseasons and two rookie defenders, and combined with the growth of our current players, we should be a scary defense by next year…
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By year 4, we will have added more talemt in the next two offseasons…amd our puppies will be men!
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Cox,Kendrick,FOles,Curry,Boykin will be in year 5
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Lane,BennielErtz will be in year 4
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marcus.Jordan,Huff,Beau, will be in year 3
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We will be a NASTY defebse by then!!
Name one guy in the secondary that we’ve drafted that’s decent. Either we’re buying them or it’s not happening.
Boykin. We haven’t seen Watkins or Reynolds yet, and it’s still too early to judge. Wolff can’t stay healthy, I don’t think anyone could have projected that issue. I’m willing to be patient with the newbies.
Boykin is what he is (very good slot corner), unclear to me whether they even re-up him. Looked like carmicheal covering receivers the other day. I think Watkins or Reynolds is going to take that spot and be a CB/S, covering slot and TE, so he can stay on the field.
I’m willing to give Boykin the benefit of the doubt. He tweaked his hammy against SF, and that is not an easy injury to get over. He doesn’t have the burst he usually has. I hope sometime near the end of the month around the Seattle game, that he’s close to 100%.
What do you mean? I dont view our picks as busts.. We have gotten our money’s worth, we just haven’t made significant investmemts in the secondary via the draft yet.
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Boykin is a Homerun 4th round pick
Watkins remains to be seen, but a kid that can play, safety, nickel, dime and played his ass of as a gunner in ST during the Giants game probably will grow into a nice player in ATleast 1 of those positions, but it remains to be seen
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Reynolds still need to wait and see.
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We took Jordan Poyer late, and so far 3 different coaching staffs have viewed him as an NFL talent, he has played a role for the Browns. We couldn’t keep him, but our talemt evaluators did their job with such a late pick.
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Wolff stil can go either way, Tho I’m starting to worry
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It’s not like you can say we been spending first rounders of safety’s and corners who end up sucking. Our talent evaluators have done a solid job scouting the secondary considering what we have invested in improving the secondary,. It’s not like they drafting Ed Reynolds in round 2..
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Amd scouting department did pretty well plucking Cary,Brad and Nolan considering the market.l..
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And our scouting department reminded fans and “experts” why they are all amateurs when they plucked Malcolm Jenkins for under 20mil
You notice we only take DBs with late round fliers? Think that has anything to do with the fact that we aren’t great at evaluating them and therefore don’t want to invest a lot of resources there?
Reynolds and Watkins are long term projects. Wolff not panning out for a mental reason. If Poyer was good a team would have kept him. Look at all the other members of the secondary we’ve drafted over the years– are they here, even as backups? Nate Allen the one 90% of the fan base hates is the only one.
It’s not a dig on the FO. Better to know you have a weakness and work around it then pretend like you aren’t weak there. I’m fine buying FAs that have proven they are scheme fits.
Here’s a list of DBs drafted over the last 6yrs — are any of these guys doing anything in the league?
2014: Watkins / Reynolds (too early to tell but not active game days — even on teams)
2013: Wolf / Poyer
2012: Boykin — Slot corner, way better last year than this year
2011: Jarrett / Marsh
2010: Allen / Te’o Nesheim
2009: Harris
2008: Demps (marginally good) / some other dude.
I could go way farther back. But I don’t see anyone on this list that’s sniffing a pro bowl other than Boykin last year.
Teo-Nesheim was a LB/DE, not a DB.
You’re right, but still proves my point.
And yes you could’ve went further back (if you wanted to pile on) and mentioned Macho Harris, Barksdale, Iguana. The Eagles have had problems finding DBs for a long time.
Yeah cuz listing past regimes that are no longer here is relevant
I already adressed this.. See above
Te’o Nesheim was a DE. You mean Trevard Lindley?
I’m not concerned with anything pre 2012… I see no reason for you to use past regimes that weigh the stats down to your side of the argument..
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Btw, EVALUATING the corner position also has to do with free agent signing.. Brad and Carrol are good players forwhat they cost, and someone new that malcolm jenkins was a quality DB even if those blow hards PFF said otherwise..,
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The relevant info is:
Cary Williams
Brad Fletcher
Nolan Carrol
Boykin
Jalen Watkins
Jordan Poyer
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Ed Reynolds
Wolf
Malcolm Jenkins
Maragos
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I wouldn’t call that bad DB evaluations at all.. I think we got decent/solid bang for our buck/draft pick considering the investment behind those additions
No…we were Bulding a new team, figure we did things the right way and started with building the trenches and working their way back… Personally I dont believe in. Rookie defensive backs, and I get the impression that our coaches may not either…..
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We switched to a 3-4, needed to get the front 7 in place first… I also think it wasn’t a case of spending 1 first round pick on a DB and all our problems are solved..we have to redo the entire secondary. Only andy Reid olayers we have are boykin and Nate…
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I know people thought we like Fuller, but I heard that was BS and in reality we were high on Roby but his off the field questions cooled us off…not sure what’s true and what isnt tho…
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This wasn’t a case of go get a good corner and a good safety and we are set. We need multiple DBs..
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I don’t at all believe that we will start a rookie CB next year when we can be contenders, so I expect to workout an extension with Cary, or Brad, if not both, while also getting an outside CB talent that can start being groomed behind them, and when he is ready to play, we will cut our existing corners,..I don’t at all believe we will cut cary and Brad and pencil in rookie cornerbacks as September starters…,maybe sniff around and find out a price on a young outside CB like Antoin Cason, but there aren’t many CB option on thuis years FA market.
How can you write an article about frustrating losses to the Cardinals and not mention Greg Garrity being tackled at the 2 after a 34 yard reception as time expired in 1986? That game scarred me to the point where I will always remember Greg Garrity.
I’m not sure if I’m more anxious and excited to get the taste of loss out of our mouths against the Texans, or if I’m more anxious and excited about watching the Cardinals whip the Cowboys ass this week!
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Pissed off that the Eagles and Dallas both play at 1pm sunday and I doubt they air the Cowboys game on CBS, I’m giong to have to download a torrent of the cardinals whipping of the Cowboys or catch the condensed replay on NFL network…
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Can’t miss this weeks Cowboys game, cardinals are the perfect team to really expose their weakness:
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they have the run defense to not Allow Demarco to run all day and hide all their weaknesses.. They will be EXPOSED!
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Weak pass blocking RT and LG should be exposed against a team that blitzes all day.
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The blitzing should expose Demarco blitz pickup, he blew two huge blocks against the skins.
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The blitzing should expose Garret’s stupidity of not using max protect or keeping a back in to block at the right time which he was horrible at doing in the skins loss.
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cardinals use 4 and 5 WRs all day. And take a bunch of shots down field the perfect team to expose an average at best secondary of Scandrick, Church, Wilcox and Carr…. Especially when Dallas can’t generate much of a pass rush
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All of Dallas wharts should be exposed by the cardinals. So if the Eagles take care of business in Texas, it’s going to be one awesome Sumday for Philly!!
Nate Allen, I mean he is so easy to hate yet somehow I don’t hate the guy. He has done nothing but improve over the past two seasons. He is actually a mediocre NFL starter I would think a this point. There are bad safeties in this league, that is just the state of the way things are. What is nice about him is that he is actually pretty versatile. He can play in the box, and can play high, and he can even play some man. Sure he isn’t great at anything, but as Bernard Pollard to play deep high safety and see what happens to you. I think if there were a ranking of NFL safeties today Pollard would be in top 15.
Sure that was a bad play by Allen. He was in a situation where you just CANT get beat deep and he got beat deep. That’s football though. He got beat by a guy who is turning out to be a great deep threat. In the same situation earlier in the game he made a pretty darn good interception of Palmer…at the endzone. If he doesn’t make that play the Eagles are probably in losing position at the end of the game anyway..
Gotta take the good with the bad and, unfortunately Allen is the best option for the Eagles right now. There is a pretty good chance he could be the best option next year too..
Yea can’t hate him. Generally he’s in the right position. People get beat all the time, that’s how you score points. There’s probably 50 “x” plays every week.
Eagles brought a safety in today for a look.. Some 2011 draft pick that the Jaguars realeased..Poslisnkis or some polish name that starts with a P…. Doubt we keep him.
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Funny that I see a bunch of fans acting as Tho Nate is hurt and he will have to miss sundays game, which I don’t think is true..seems like wishful thinking from fans…..It would be interesting if Nate has to miss on game with a minor injury, to get a look at how different things would be if we had to go with Earl a wolff instead of Nate. Either Wolff steps up and we found our upgrade, or he flops and we appreciate Nate a little more… But I dont think Nate is n jeapordy of missing sundays game.. Mjust wishful thinking from a frustrated fanbase.
I pretty much agree with all that you have said, IMO he has the tools required to be a good safety in this league, it’s up to him to put it together.
He is mediocre at present – which is much better than what we have had in a while and better than what many teams have as their No.2 safety – if he can put it together he could be a good safety (not great)
Texans are better than their record. Eagles better show up.
We should thoroughly outclass them and look like the better team the entire time like the cardinals game….but like the Cardinals, they have dangerous homerun ability at the skill positions. We can shut down that offense all day, but hopkins or Andre end up catching a bomb, or Foster breaks a long run….so we have to kick ass like we did to the Cardinals offense, but we can’t make those critical mistakes and end up losing because of two or three plays again….That Can’t happen!
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We also face the scariest defender who can dominate a game since Reggie, so we can’t go into this game assuming our offense is going to have a 30 point picnic… JJ Watt can turn this into an ugly dogfight, so our defense has to do their part and BRING IT, in case we can’t stop JJ
Best skill players we’ve faced since Chicago, Qb is the only think limiting that team. That and their terrible DBs.
Watt is going to be a one man wrecking crew, eagles weakness is Oline.
When everyone was blowing the Cowboys, I warned about not being prisoners of the moment and that what you see today can look very different two weeks from now….
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Now we are going into a week where 1st place of the NFC east is up for grabs, Todd Herremans tore his bicep, yet it looks like there is a better chance of Todd Playing, then the great Tony Romo playing.
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Week 9 and Romo is already back to missing games?
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Week 9 and Demarco starts fumbling and being horrible in blitz pickup already?
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Week 9 and Jim Haslett already exposed their blitz pickup and pass blocking?
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Every year it’s the same OL cowboys, and natipnal Donkeys year in and year out always get fooled into taking the bait…hook, line, and sinker… Cowboys this, Cowboys that, Americas team is coming, hide your wife and kids…give me a break! can’t wait to hear what everyone has to say about the Cowboys when Todd Bowles stonewalls Murry and blitzes whatever QB that lines up, into the turf!… It’s November after all!!
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Cowboys are like the november ground hog… When the Cowboys go from great to sucking, you can look at your Calender and you will see that November has arrived… It never fails
“Cowboys are like the november ground hog… When the Cowboys go from great to sucking, you can look at your Calender and you will see that November has arrived… It never fails”
Great line.
If I could choose I’d take Murray’s 1054 rushing yards despite his fumblitis over Shady any day of this season.
Wow….Put shady behind their line, and ask Murray to run behind Gardner, Molk and Tobin all lined up next two each other for like 3 weeks and Murray wouldn’t have done much better than shady,
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Dude was the best back in football last year, I’d let him play behind something that resembles his OL first before I go chucking shady in the trash for a stinkin cowboy that never accomplished anything.
As much as I love Shady, Murray’s having a season for the century. I doubt Shady would put up similar numbers behind that O Line. This is history in the making what we are watching.
Murray’s numbers are going to drop off.
We will see or shall I say: let’s hope so.
Without a,doubt
He’s averaging 5.1 yard per carry. Which as an average over the course of a season is very good but far from “season of the century”. You could run 1000 fullback dives and he would break the single season rushing record.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/rush_yds_per_att_single_season.htm
Wonder why so many few teams have done it then…
Because you wear out your RB, and even if he makes it through the season they rarely do well the next year. Murray is on pace for over 450 touches through 8 games. That is pretty much a career killer.
http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/story/24604430/draft-prep-400-touch-running-backs
I don’t really care what next year is. The point that I was trying to make is that we don’t see those kind of rushing numbers very often. That’s all.
Of course Shady won’t match Murrays #s.. (Murray already has like 6 fumbles in 8 games)
That’s why I said ‘despite his fumblitis’. Is it so hard to read these days?!
Adrian Peterson averaged 6 ypc during his 2000 yard season.
murray had highest ypc in the league also last year. don’t know if he’s a better back but he’s better in traffic, probably not better in the open field.
My current thoughts –
I bet on WASHINGTON to beat the Cowboys straight up, at 4-1 odds. That was a nice feeling.
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The Cowboys have far exceeded expectations. The Eagles have been seriously underperforming.
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WTF is up with the huge, back breaking plays we are allowing? The mental errors that allowed those two TDs are just embarrassing.
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First round playoff bye is still in the “Cards”, but there is virtually no chance we get the #1 seed now. We lose the head-to-head tiebreakers against either the 49ers or the Cardinals. That really hurts in my opinion. I’m more concerned about that than Dallas.
Assuming we win our division, the difference between getting the #2 and #3 seed will be razor thin. That’s the difference between getting sent to clean out your lockers by the Saints, or getting an extra week off.
All in all, our loss against the Cardinals hurts the eventual playoff seeding, but it’s a wash within our division, since Dallas also lost, to a divisional opponent no less.
I hear ya, but I keep thinking hat the playoffs are not a sure thing right now with the way this team is playing turnover wise. the eagles need to really beat the crap out of the Texans and no interceptions or fumbles.
Right now, the Eagles are a near-average team riding a bunch of non-repeatable special teams luck. The offense has to get on track, or getting to and making noise in the playoffs is a fantasy.
Division is ours! Take that to the bank
I honestly feel that a win in Houston over JJ That’s Watt’s Up’s Texans would be more impressive than a win over the Cardinals.
Watt scares me… Playing against watt is how you end up having to watch Mark Sanchez for half a season…better keep that monster off our QB. Hold the fucker if you have to. I’d rather take the penalty
I love him. Wish he was an Eagle.
One thing Nate Allen’s struggles tell us is that Earl Wolff stinks! We can forget about seeing Wolff on the team next year. We have two keepers among the DBs: Jenkins and Boykin. Next offseason we will need two more starting cornerbacks, a starting safety, and depth.
If the Eagles can re-sign Boykin, one starting Corner will do.
Boykin will never play outside..never! There is no shot in hell a philadelphia eagle outside CB will be giving away 5-7 inches to an opposing WR. That’s just not going to happen as long as these coaches are here and I’m thankful for it…
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It’s bad enough that teams move guys like Dez and Fizgerald into the slot a couple plays each week, I wouldn’t want to see boykin give up 4-7 inches every snap of every game..
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My understanding is boykin doesn’t even care about going outside… On the podcast last week he was asked what’s the question he wishes no one would ever ask him again, and he said he wishes people would stop asking him about moving outsider and get educated on how hard and important slot corner is….
.l
Practically every franchise has ATleast 3 quality WRs you have to worry about..I don’t get why people want to take a great nickel corner and go screw with his game and try to move him outside…yes he would play more snaps, but did people stop and thibj that maybe the fact that he is only playing 50% of the snaps might help him be fresher late in games which maybe helps him with all the late game heroics he is known for. Leave it up to Eagles fans to beat a dead horse into a pulp
I was not talking about moving Boykin to the outside. I see slot corners as starting corners so if he leaves in free agency the Eagles will need two starting CBs, one on the outside and one for the slot.
Yeah that’s it…we roll over 20 mil in cash every year so we can lose great young players that we dr draft…
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Get real man,,,boykin will never even sniff the free agent market..he be locked up way before then…if he was ok with leaving the Eagles, and he really wanted to play outside dont you think we would hear about it now that he has a great year of leverage under his belt?mif he doesn’t care about staying here Longterm. And he wants to be and outside, why isn’t he vocal about it, when he could haven he entire fanbase on his side?
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4yrs 20-24mil boykin gets extended, by that time, we will have outside CB on cheap rookie deals.. For the 15th time… The Eagles don’t care how much they have to pay a nickel corner, they care about how much they are spending on the corner position as a whole..and since we won’t jettison boykin so that we can keep cary and Brad, boykin is going no where…. It’s such a non a issue…
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Man, I wish I could bet on this in Vegas..
But you started this line of discussion by saying “one starting Corner will do” which certainly seemed like you were saying Boykin could start outside.
Then you still didn’t get it.
Chip and billy both also said that boy,in has competed for outside CBS slot before, and he isn’t as good at it as the other two… I know people think a corner is just a corner no matter where they line up…but it’s really two completely different positions so I have no reason to think our coaches are lying, and that boykin can be the next deon sanders on the outside and our coaches refuse to play him there out of spite or whatever ridiculous reason this fanbase has for not dropping this damn boykin outside CB debate. Boykin answered it a million times, as did our head coach and our dC…enough! Get over it! Chip won’t even draft the stud oregon corner because we don’t have any interest in 5’10 outside corners
He might not play it here but he has the options to do it somewhere else.
No he doesn’t, he will sign a 20-24million dollar contract with us that keeps him from even getting to explore his free Agent options… Bet anything Boykin never makes it to free agency
I hope he stays but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he does leave.
Giants are a combination of annoying and smug and
And irrelevant
agree!
Listening to Lispy and the Unlikeable Douche on WIP, Lispy suggested that Foles was responsible for the decision to throw 600 times based on his reads. And that he should have given it to Shady more often. Given that he does a radio show with Shady, that criticism has to have come straight from him. Talk radio is amusing sometimes.
Wait which show is that?
Lispy=Gargano
Unlikeable Douche=Ellis
LOL.
I don’t know why these guys do shows with players/coaches, it throws whatever reasonable perspective they may have go right out of the window. Another one is Eskin’s player/coach friends, they can do no wrong, no matter how much they screw up. . Missanelli with Paolantonio is one big pukefest. Even though Sal isn’t a coach or a player, he’s still an annoying analyst and after a minute with them two, if I get that far, bye bye.
Wolff is going to step up and go off this Sunday. GO Wolff!
Why does everyone think Nate isn’t going to play this weeK? I know him and boykin haven’t practiced but my understanding is they are expected to play. What am I missing?
It’s called hope.
Lol.
Lol…shiiiit sign me up!
I read he was going with the first team and could be getting his shot this week.
Nick Foles displayed some serious arm strength on his last second throw to Matthews in the endzone.
Same play where Herremans playing one-armed whiffed on a cut block and Tobin was playing turnstile.
Espn has showed the Eagles last play a couple of times today. It was indeed a pretty impressive throw, after taking 10 backpedals and throwing of his back foot. The ball still had great velocity and gave his receiver a chance.
Better mechanics probably means that ball is better placed.
You cannot honestly fault Foles’ mechanics on this throw.
It was the last play, under high pressure, into tight coverage. In fact with a better footwork Maybe Matthews catches this ball inbounds. Wonder if Megatron would have scored.
Hard to say. Obviously Megatron is superior in all ways vs Matthews but I’d still say it’s 50/50.
That’s my feeling as well.
From memory, Matthews caught it in his body, which means he had to jump to get his body there. It may have been required to catch it with arms outstretched, but if you could do that, I think keeping the feet on the ground was quite feasible. Someone tall like Megatron could probably do it much easier. Very instinctual move though. It’s possible Matthews thought he could still get his feet in, but the hit changed that.
Placed anywhere more away from the boundary, and that safety that came off of Celek probably can make a play on the ball. Any other QB makes that throw and everyone’s talking about what a perfect placement it was under extreme duress. Foles had plenty of bad throws for people to obsess over on Sunday; picking on that one just reveals more about the critic than it does about Foles.
Perfect placement… JM just needs to extend arms and drag feet instead of jumping and body catching
Would have been nice if Matthews didn’t body catch it…..
….big issue with him.
One point about losing to the Cardinals this time. Right now they are the better team, and they’re going to prove that by beating the Cowboys more decisively than they beat us. Weren’t most of those miserable losses to the Cardinals in the past when they were a second-rate team and we were favored? This feels different for me. We could’ve won and we should’ve won, but I know that we can play a lot better (offense) than we did, and I don’t believe the same can be said for Arizona.
Dallas lost Justin Durant, their leading tackler, for the reminder of the season.
Let the collapse begin.
Good. Morning.
Rolando McClain was getting all the praise but Durrant was playing like their best LB, strong against the run and in coverage for them.. Huge loss!
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Cowboys tear their Biceps, and they head to IR… Our RG tears his bicep and he wraps it up, goes back in the game, blocks with one arm on the final drive where we drove all the way up field and were a,few inches put of bounds from completing the comeback
Sounds like McClain was pretty banged up after Sunday as well. He sat out today with a shoulder and groin injury, though not serious.
Regarding the Greg Garrity game the guy mentioned below that Tommy didn’t mention. Shame on me for not clicking on his article before writing this but here goes. : I’m not exactly sure if he was at the 2 yard line when he was tackled, but he was damn close to scoring a TD. A FG would’ve tied it and they had a timeout remaining.
The Eagles were down by 3 points with one timeout left and around the twenty or so? Maybe 10 seconds left or so.. I believe it was Cunningham and Buddy’s team. Anyways, Garrity caught the ball and was running with a lot of space around him and damn close to the goal line. If you remember watching the game you’re freaking out as he ran because of the seconds ticking off and the “what if’ he doesn’t get in the end zone factor. “Legend” has it the Cards defense, and they claimed this after the game, let him run free and then tackled him to let time run out so they wouldn’t have time left to even call a timeout. Actually they also said it post game, and I remember reading it in the paper the next day. They let him free and tackled him not even leaving a second for god sakes. You may say they took a big chance, but hey, that’s what legends/rumors or whatever are there for. It happened.because he was going for the win when the tie was right there to be had and he wasn’t aware their would be no time if he kept going and got tackled. Sure, we all wanted the win, but the Cards played it beautifully or so they say. . That “legend” about the Cards letting him run until time wound down so he couldn’t call timeout appeared to end up being very true. This was before social media, but the print media in Philly seemingly agreed with the assessment. I remember seeing the replay and would love to see if it’s around somewhere.
This is what I remember reading the following week in the Philadelphia inquirer about an Eagles’ practice the following week: Greg Garrity caught a pass in practice and immediately fell down and signaled for a timeout. They all laughed. Not sure Andy or Chip or this team would’ve felt the same way. May have been the mediocre team on their way up so making a joke about it may not have been so bad. If Tommy remembers details, or it’s somewhere to be found, probably the Eagles Encyclopedia or deep in Ray Didinger’s brain, I could be off., It seems pretty close even if I have lost many brain cells since.
Eagles seem to be dead set on continuing with Herremans. I get how he can pass block with an injured bicep, but im not sure how he will run block..but as of right now, Herramans plans on continuing the season. I don’t thnk this is a case of him just trying to gut it out til mathis gets back, I thnk this maniac thinks he is going to play the season out lol
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I mean, the Eagles aren’t even preparing a contingency. kelly and Gardner are getting 2nd team reps, but jason Kelce is just getting back in the lineup, and he has taken every first team rep next to Herremans. They aren’t giving Dennis or Gardner any first team reps just in case Todd can’t get thru the game…
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i think this is a good sign..Kelce and mathis talked about how rugged and tough Todd is and they sounded like They plan on going full steam ahead with Todd instead of just hoping he can gut out on last game, which really didn’t make much sense anyway..
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Cowboys Justin Durrant tore his bicep and he is done for the season, while Todd tries to gut it out like a “grid iron Gangsta”….
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It’s a little to soon to write off the TODDfather and leave him for dead…
Biceps he could play through the pain as it will be the triceps being more involved with the extension n punch that OL do.. If he was to hold n flex as you do with tackling then yeah he be no good.. Only risk is if his pec over compensates then tears then youre screwed
Ken Norton Jr 1993 played with a torn bicep for around half a year I believe. Still managed to lead the team in tackles with 159 tackle and make the Pro Bowl. But he played linebacker, so how much more difficult would that be as a lineman?
Cortisone shots?? lol Who knows bro thats some He-Man stuff right there
Possibly even something else if you know what I mean. Different era. It’s weird not much detail about it, like him saying I screamed every time I made a tackle. At least give us something haha.
There really isn’t much pain. When I tore mine just felt like something let loose(like a rubber band popped off in my arm. Like a WTF was that. When I finally looked in a mirror knew something didn’t look right, had a bicep like Poppie. the mussel just balls up as it is attached to nothing
Now if they are able to brace or wrap that nice and tight, keep it from going into a big ole ball, he should be just fine for the season. He will loose strength and will have to get surgery after the season. Never got mine fixed it reattached itself, like my Poppie ball when I flex.
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Jesus, that story sounds terribly negligent.
No. Did go to an orthopedic surgeon. Told me it would reattach itself. Hell, I was 50 when that happened. If I was playing sports or engaging in heavy work, then he suggested I should have it surgically repaired. Even to this day, 10 years later, if I do lift something heavy, it will ball up. Just have to rub it a little bit until it releases.
Appreciate the intell
It didn’t reattach then but you’re right if you’re not gonna tug at it all the time, what’s the point?
Personally i think it’s terribly selfish. Did you see him just try to cut block the player on the last play. Even if it gets better over the course of a week, he’s got two monster lineman / LBs coming after him this week. It’s not like her was necessarily all pro before.
GEAGLe you asked why people think Allen might not play, it’s b/c he didn’t practice today (hamstring).
I thought he was using that for that one play. Guess it is mentally lingering.
I get that, he didn’t practice yesterday either,..boykin also sat out both days, but my understanding is they are expected to be ok for Sunday…. I sure as hell wouldn’t mind a game with wolff instead of allen
So what’s the scouting report on the Texans? (other than Watt) where do we have the advantage or disadvantage?
secondary for texas is terrible, especially against speed guys. DL is good, sacks, pbus, etc. Question mark is what Clowney will bring next week.
offense great OL and RB. QB limits what andre johnson and deandre hopkins can do. he is turnover prone. if you can stop foster and make fitzpatrick throw…well you know the rest. they will be a tough team if we get behind.
Their RT is suspect
Can’t see how anyone in Philly is judging Foles this year? The OL is a mess and the guy is scrambling backwards to set and rushing. Can’t see Herremans being better with one arm than his backup, so why is that guy even on the roster. Need to spend some picks there.
Also tough to adjust to no DJ. Foles hit some darn small windows, got the team into a position then has to make throws to the endzone under pressure with the other half the defense just waiting.
Plus so many games where the run game isn’t doing the job.
It’s all about the OL health, everything else is symptom.
Oh, man, looks like GEagle made the road trip down to Phoenix and didn’t tell anyone. http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/heat-index/2014/10/28/fight-breaks-out-between-cardinals-eagles-fans/18061471/