Sizing Up Sanchez
Posted: November 11th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 350 Comments »Let’s talk about Mark Sanchez and how he played in his first start since 2012. How long ago is that? Chip Kelly was the Oregon coach, Ray Rice was a model citizen and that was a time when Miley Cyrus used to keep her clothes on. Clearly a lot has changed since then.
I haven’t re-watched the game yet so this is just me going off what I saw last night. Sanchez showed big time potential. He made some terrific throws. His pass to Brent Celek for the near-TD was Manning-esque. Sanchez put excellent velocity on the ball. I also thought his ball placement was excellent. There were some replay shots from behind him where you could see Sanchez putting the ball low and away from a defender. He’s intentionally placing that ball in a specific spot. Love that from a QB.
Sanchez had very good pocket presence most of the night. He would stand tall in the pocket when it was clean. There were no happy feet. When he had a single rusher coming at him, Sanchez would side-step the guy or climb up in the pocket and re-set his feet. The Eagles mixed in some movement passes where Sanchez rolled out. He looked good on those. You can see his mobility and again…he re-set his feet before throwing. That helped with his touch and accuracy.
I liked his decision-making. There were some plays that didn’t work and Sanchez didn’t force the issue. He ate the ball or threw it away. There were some erratic snaps. Sanchez didn’t panic. He got on the ball and played it safe. Bad things are going to happen in a game. Good QBs will minimize those mistakes and move on to the next play or the next drive.
While there was a lot to praise, Sanchez was far from perfect.
There were several confused players early on. Sanchez was directing players left and right. Was he calling the plays correctly? We’re not used to seeing that many guys get moved around. Quick screens were an adventure throughout the game. Sanchez moved Darren Sproles from left to right on one play, then threw left, where Riley Cooper was blocking for no one. That’s serious confusion. Sanchez fired a quick screen to Cooper that looked off target. There was no rhythm to those plays, for the most part. Screens to Maclin and Sproles worked, but what is normally a safe, efficient play was highly erratic last night.
Sanchez did force one ball to Maclin that was almost picked off. That looked to be a case of Sanchez being greedy and trying to make a play where one wasn’t available. There was a pass to Celek on 3rd/short that I didn’t like. Celek was short of the sticks and had Luke Kuechly all over him. Throw the ball elsewhere or run it.
I just knew the gameplan would be to run the ball and ease Sanchez into action. WRONG. Chip Kelly saw Carolina focus on the run so he decided to attack their secondary, over and over. Sanchez was 20-37-332. I never would have expected 37 passes in a game where the Eagles had a good lead for much of the contest. Sanchez threw 2 TDs and didn’t have an INT or fumble.
Not all games will be this easy, but that was a very encouraging start for Sanchez. You could see his physical skills as well as his QB skills. He ran the offense with good tempo. He looked in command on the field and seemed comfortable.
One huge plus with Sanchez is Red Zone offense. Since he took over, the team is 7 for 7. The Eagles were 32nd in the league when he became the starter. They are now 26th overall. That’s pretty impressive. He makes quick decisions and good throws. He also can use his feet to move around and make good throws from outside the pocket.
The Packers now have almost 2 games of tape to study on Sanchez. You can bet they’ll find something they think they can exploit or attack. The test for Sanchez is to continue to play well. He can’t catch people by surprise anymore. They know what’s coming and how he looks in the Chip Kelly offense.
* * * * *
I’ll write about the defense for tonight. For now, enjoy this.
Connor Barwin is tied for 2nd in the NFL in sacks with 10.5. Eagles 2nd in league as team with 32 sacks. Buffalo 1st with 34.
— Greg Richards (@eaglesnut) November 11, 2014
It is so much fun to see the Eagles pound on opposing QBs. Cam Newton took a beating last night.
Is Connor Barwin the anti-Jason Babin? He’s having a career year (like Babin did in 2011), but Barwin is doing it the right way and remains loved and respected by the guys he plays with and against.
_
No one has really written about Barwin as a football player this year. Is he for real this year? I nominate a scout-trained film addict like Tommy to investigate.
The whole front seven is getting pressure. Barwin has just been the guy getting the sacks.
Still, never pegged Barwin for the putting a tackle on their back type of pass-rusher
He is more likely to win with a bull rush than by a speed rush
Well I was Implying I didn’t know he was much of a pass rusher period. Just the jack of all trades type. True Linebacker.
yea 100%.
Funny is Mychal Kendricks is a better pass rusher than Barwin if not for the size
Such a weird 3-4 where some of our nastiest pass rushers are in the front 3 and an ILB. The OLB’s are obviously not terrible either, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised this team has so many sacks.
That best 3-4 jhas the pass rush come from everybody, that way you cant key in on a guy
This isn’t his first double digit sack season… One time, I can buy that as a fluke… Two 10 plus sack seasons, on two different teams, can’t be considered a fluke… And sacks, don’t even begin to scratch the surface on how damn valuable he is, and how well he has played in so many areas
still, double digits in a season I could see, in 9 games, I would not have predicted we had such a guy during the off season.
I warned that he was a better pass rusher than we saw last year, when he was handcuffed in coverage because we didn’t have Dime packages and other coverage alternatives like this year….but I’d be a liar if I said I expected him to put up 10 sacks in half a season..
…
it also helps that our defense is much better than people realize so he is being aided by team mates who are either letting him get coverage sacks because they are playing well on the back end, and he is playing on a front 7 that all have been pressuring QBs and team mates are chasing QBs into his lap… He has benefited a few times from Cox’s dirty work..
…
Barwin had 3.5 sacks last night, which according to Didinger, is a franchise record for most sacks out of a linebacker in a game..
…
Barwin was already a stud when we signed him., he has built up his reputation with good play, now he is turning it up a notch in the sack column which should be enough to get his first probowl nod…it’s a travesty if he doesn’t represent us in the probowl..
..
The man is a fantastic football player, and he shouldn’t be punished because he is so well rounded and selfless that some times he has to do other dirty work instead of pinning his ears back to rush every play like a guy like VON Miller gets to do
Well lets just say I was very wrong, I thought the pass rush was the #1 issue with this D all offseason and my biggest concern. Gotta give the players their credit, they’re playing their butts off, and Billy D better cut this crap out or someone is going to poach him and give him an HC position. ha
you and everyone else.
Lol I will get violent if any team even tries to talk to Billy D…
…
April 2013: “Philadelphia will grow to love Billy Davis”-GEAGLE
Mirror defense like the steelers great defenses under lebeau dont need unreal pass rushers bc alotts the time the qb isnt sure where the rush is coming from. Beyond that our coverage last two weeks and basically four weeks has been lights out save three – five plays. Helps w sacks. Second yr w this system and growth for young players is all it took … Graham and cole got comfy and the babes upfront learned how to two gap … Jenkins and carrol helped w sub packages and third downs and let the front 7 play freer.
Get me a ballhawk safety like steelers had and maybe a better corner (could be carroll) and wait for dominance
He’s definitely gotten his share of luck, though, where the sack could have easily gone to a DLman or another LB but he was in the right place at the right time
Is he for real?
..
Forget the 10 sacks, he is always getting pressure on QBs, moving them off the mark, this wasnt the first time he has put up double digit sacks in a season, not sure why it wouldn’t be for real….not to mention all the batted balls.
..
BRAMA Bull Barwin and COle are ELITE edge setters against the run
..
We already saw Barwin prove that he can step up in a playoff game, and take a key weapon like Jimmy Graham, make him his bitch and bully him throughout an entire playoff game
…
Barwin is literally playing at a probowl level, so yeah he is as FOR REAL as it gets. Really happy for him, that he had this big game on prime time, where the nation would notice. I’d bet money he earns a probowl bid this year….
..
On the other side, it’s jaw dropping the outside linebacker transformation that COle and BG have made. Our 3 OLBs are playing as well as ANYONEs OLBs… This is why I don’t get fans crying about Marcus not playing….how do you take one of these OLBs out of the game, who are playing out of their minds for a rookie?
he’s beasting and that’s because cole and especially graham are playing WAY better this year allowing barwin to take it to the next level. the whole front 7 is doing work. Couldn’t even see a drop off with matthews / acho.
do we have to credit matthews with calling a great defensive game?
I’ll take the cheesy route that probably isn’t true but I’ll make my own reality, THEY DID IT FOR ‘MECO! (the panthers O is pretty pathetic too)
They wore -#59 face paint under their eyes..u can bet they played inspired ball for Mufasa Meco yesterday. “When a warriors goes down, gotta pick up his sheild And honors him with your play”-chip kelly
Certainly didn’t look like he called many mistakes.. X plays were down yesterday, except for garbage time crap
Correct as usual about the defense and marcus
First time we’ve seen good QB play since 2013
Were you in coma during Vick’s redskins game and Foles raiders game? Cause that would explain a lot.
Uh. …. wasnt that 2013
Um Yea…like I said “since 2013”. That was great QB, it was also last year. This year (2014) has had terrible QB play from Foles all year. Were you in a coma when you tried to read my comment?
My bad I read 2003. I was in the morning coma
We do have to remember that this guy was the #5 pick in the draft. He has talent. If he can put it together, it’s probably the end for Foles here.
I really like Foles and I hope he can find a starting spot (Houston, Buffalo) if that is the case.,
Completely agree on Sanchez’ pocket presence: it was great, but it’s worth considering how clean his pocket was. Evan Mathis/Kelce’s return make a great deal of difference, and Sanchez is going to get (national media wise at least) too much credit for the improvements of the offense overall.
Sanchez played with a tempo much more like Oregon than I’ve yet seen from Eagles QBs. Perfect that and this offense is relentless.
I guess you forgot all about last year already?
Was never moving at the pace of last night. That was the real blur, very oregon-esque.
Yup the refs had to call a timeout for themselves they were moving at an insanely fast pace, panthers D was stuck on the field, no substitutions. They also lost a few key players like Lotuleilei(sp?), their season is finished.
The sack numbers look good and our pass rush is much improved but over half of our sacks came in two games against teams without good o-lines. If we get to Rodgers 6 times though I will be a very happy man.
gotta beat the bad teams first. now they are playing with confidence. i’ll be surprised if AR completely abuses us next week.
the 8-9 obviously won’t be the norm, but they’ve been consistently getting 3-4 since the San Fran game. They are definitely legit, and I hope they can get to Rogers a few times on Sunday. This front 7 will decide the outcome of that game.
They’ll have to contain Rodgers like they did Newton, probably spy him too, our D is really gonna have to step up.
Sanchez played well, and reminded us what pocket presence looked like. Also placed the ball really well on crossing routes.
But some perspective:
Football Perspective @fbgchase 49m49 minutes ago
With a 61.1 QBR, Mark Sanchez had the worst QBR of any quarterback against Carolina since Matt Stafford in week 2.
QBRs for each quarterback against the Panthers over the last 8 weeks:
Wk3: Ben – 75.2; Wk4: Flacco – 97.3; Wk5: Cutler – 71.6…Wk6: Dalton – 76.1; Wk7: Rodgers – 94.3; Wk8: Wilson – 64.7; Wk9: Brees – 88.4 Wk10: Sanchez – 61.1
I agree, definately some issues there offense didn’t move for much of the game it seemed like but we also had 0 run game. stats i like are 0 turnovers and 100% in the red zone.
Those last two stats are more important IMO.
Where did you get 61.1? That’s not right at all.
QBR =/= Qb rating. QBR is ESPN’s weird attempt to improve QB rating. It only goes to 100, and tries to account for difficultly of situation.
QBR is the ESPN stat
It was all from that tweet. QBR, not “QB Rating”
http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/type/player-week
what are your thoughts on Earl Wolff getting benched for a castoff safety from jacksonville? i think i saw that guy on the field in garbage time. hopefully this is a wakeup call to Earl
I was hoping Wolff would turn it around but I think he’s done in Philly.
Earl will be cut this off season. The coaching staff hates him. It’s pretty obvious.
Why would they hate him?
That castoff is amazing on all four special teams and allows ilbs to not play bc he is bigger. If allen went down wolff would be active. But the guy is a stud on st like maragos and braman and smith etc
two concerns with Sanchez
1. Can he do it consistently? (Same concern with Foles or any QB)
2. According to Jets fan the success got to his head and he lost focus on football. Hope he learned from that and doesn’t happen again.
For some reason I feel that Chip wont allow him to get a big head.. Sanchez knows he playing for big money this year, he will stay FOCUSED!
If we were told before the game, that Shady, Maclin, Ertz and Cooper were all going to have quiet days, doubt many people would have predicted us to put 45 on the score board.
..
A lot of good last night, a lot that needs to improve.
..
Talk of the town was our pass rush, but no one is giving the secondary the respect it deserved. Again, we saw multiple coverage sacks. Look at all the post game interviews from Barwin, Cox, Kendrick, Cole, Curry, BG, one of the first things they all mentioned was the tremendous job our secondary did…it has really turned Up a notch the past 3-4 weeks… Leave it up to our idiot fans to be ripping them for giving up Garbage time TDs when their safety help late in the game consisted of Maragos, and the new safety who’s name I don’t even know lol..
..
Marcus Smith got 10 snaps, like I expected.. Watched him closely, he had some solid coverage for the most part last night
..
Noticed Nolan Carrol around the ball a lot last night, our Dime package is such a key addition.
secondary had best game of the season last night, brad fletcher flashed, but who were they guarding? jason avant? olsen went off, as usual. be interested to see next week packers have guys all over the place.
They were just as effective against the Giants, and they had a solid showing against the Texans..
…
Like I been preaching for two years now….these are big game corners who play better the later we get into the season.. It’s the letdown games against crap teams like the Titans, when I worry about our CB having a let down game….
…
They aren’t going to shut out Aaron Rogers. He will throw for a TD or two…but I’d bet we see our corners battle next week, and have an admirable performance…. I literally trust our corners more against Qbs and offenses that they have to fear gettng embarressed by…. I’m hoping that we can grow in this regaurd the second half of the season, and no longer play down to the level of our opponents, like we did last year when the vIkings whipped our asses after we had played so well, for 7 games in a row against better QB/WR tandems than the vIkings team that whooped us
hopkins went off last week, but that’s fitzpatrick who is benched. Giants game was legit b/c they can throw the ball, ODB is a god.
AR obviously is no joke – pass rush is the key, hopefully they can cover well enough for rodgers to get popped a few times.
Gotta hit Rogers!! If I was a QB, i wouldn’t be excited about playing this defense… You see well trained pass rushers who have gotten really good at aiming for your throwing Arm and hitting it at the perfect moment..QBs need to be careful, they mess around and get themselves hurt facing this front 7
they were abusing panthers line with strength yesterday. bull rush was on.
Greenbays OL is nothing special either…
…
Like I always say, if you out class your opponent in the battle of the trenches, you will have a great shot to win the game. And I love the way our front 7 matches up against their OL… Take a look at all the individual battles of the matchups on both sides of the trenches, and we should win a good 60-70% of the individual matchups at the line of scrimmage…..if that holds true, we will give ourselves a solid chance to win the game.
…
not to mention we have a BEAST of a special teams unit that can end up making a big difference in the close battles against other top teams like the Pack.
..
Sunday isnt a must win by any means, but it’s a huge opportunity to take anotjer giant step of growth in the right direction…
..
Perfect timing by the schedule makers. packers blew out their opponent on Sunday night primetime. Next night the Eagles dominated the panthers…and the two hot teams are set to face off This week….
..
I know aaron Rogers is awesome, but their is no reason why we shouldn’t feel Capable of playing with and beating anyone.
Also starting 4 UDFAs…like Gettleman is trying to ruin Cam
Dead right bout secondary last four weeks. They turned a corner so to speak. I still expect rodgers to go 300 and 2-3 tds but he does that at will at home. I expect alotta dime to combat rodgers and three wide and force lacy to beat us. Big game for babes and kendricks upfront. Lot like saints playoff game.
Some observations:
1) all praise be to Howie Roseman. Since taking over the reigns he’s made one smart move after another (the year who’s name shall not be mentioned withstanding). Hiring Chip Kelly was brilliant. FA signings, Barwin, Mathis, Jenkins, Sanchez, Fletcher have all been sneaky good pick ups. Drafts have been outstanding. Trades for DeMeco Ryans and Darren Sproles, genius. A ton of hits, not many of which that were obvious at the time, and very few outright misses.
2) Sanchez has the skill set of a number 5 overall pick and the difference in physical skill between him and Foles is more than noticeable. If he continues to limit mistakes and play this well, it’ll be hard for Foles to reclaim the starting QB position. we shouldn’t be talking about it now, but as AR would say it’s a great problem to have. Worst case scenario Sanchez plays poorly and we get one more year of Foles on a cheap deal to see what we have. If Sanchez plays well, Foles becomes the most sought after tradable asset in the NFL.
3) The Eagles have a legitimate top 10 (possibly 5) defense. And that’s with Cary Williams who is pure garbage starting at RCB. Getting a top flight CB has got to be a huge priority this off season. No way I’m paying him $9 mil next year to be too slow, get burned by 10 full yards, be no where near the guy he’s covering and then point at Nate Allen cause he was expecting inside help. We could pull Nnamdi out of retirement to do just that for a lot cheaper.
4) Bradley Fletcher is good. Not sure why he gets so much flack. He plays the ball better than any of our other CBs. I’d be comfortable with him as a number 2 CB.
5) Connor Barwin is a legitimate pro bowler who’s beasting people on a regular basis.
6) how do you not bring Trent Cole back next year regardless of his increasing salary. No clear cut successor on the roster with MS2 being moved inside.
7) how do you not bring Brandon Graham back next year? I don’t like him as Coles every down replacement, but he excels as the 3rd rusher off the bench, plays the run well and has become adequate at covering.
8) lock Mychal Kendricks up for the next 8 years. The light finally went off and he’s the best playmaking LB from his draft class.
9) pick up Jordan Matthews in all your fantasy leagues. The connection with Sanchez is real, the skills and talent are real and he’s hitti his stride. Plus, I was wrong, Rielly Cooper sucks…he’s the fourth WR next year and off the team in 2016. He’s a good 4th WR…but he’s being paid WR2 money and isn’t doing jack shit.
10) I was also wrong about Billy Davis…I completely lost faith in him when he played Boykin at LB last year (too small for CB…just the right size for an OLB that rushes against a LT?), but he’s been stellar this year.
11) Jordan Matthews needs shorter shoelaces and he’d have had 4 TDs last night.
12) Chips the best coach in the National Football League hands down.
Jernst wrote:
“all praise be to Howie Roseman”
________________
I think the hiring of Kelly was Lurie’s call.
And — just last week, in reaction to the Foles kerfuffle — Kelly went on record saying he controls the roster.
Has Roseman coordinated the gathering of good information? It would seem.
But did Roseman make the call on those players?
Not according to Kelly — it appears.
Kelly controls the roster, the final 53. Roseman gives him the 90 guys to choose from.
So, for example, who says, “I want to sign that free agent”?
Offseason free agents? Likely a collective effort. For a guy like Prosinski? That’s more likely Chip asking Howie to go find another S who fits certain HWS mold and has experience. There is no way Chip is maintaining a roledex of guys on the street. Chip likely has a large say on draft picks (as do position coaches, and this is common in most org’s) but UDFA’s and street free agents are almost exclusively Howie and the scouts. Burton was 100% a Howie pickup. Your Tobins, Gardeners, Parkeys, Goode, Tuckers are from the front office.
Clear. Excellent.
And a premium FA like Barwin or Jenkins?
Same as with draft picks?
Chip has said many times, even though he watches college tap once a week and tries to do some NFL scouting while he’s preparing for other teams that there simply isn’t enough time for him to watch 1000s of players in 1000s of games, and that its Howie and the scouts who he tells what he’s looking for who then go out and narrow the field down and supply him with cut ups and opinions on a few options at each position. Then they try to come to a consensus.
Gotta give Howie more credit. Of course Laurie wanted Chip but Howie had a lot, A LOT of input on that decision, and it was his handling of the negotiation and his continued contact with Chip that got it done. Chip might say, “I love Darren Sproles from New Orleans, Howie. I’d love to get a guy like that on this team.” Howled still the one that dials up their GM and proceeds to bend him over with a 5th round pick trade and makes it happen.
Chip controls the roster, he decides who starts, who makes the team, who gets cut, how it’s constructed, which positions are prioritized, what types of players he wants. Howie goes out gathers all the info, picks the players he thinks fit Chips vision, supplies him with a few options and they come to a decision on who to pursue. It’s a group effort, but like D3FB says, Howie is the one with the roledex of 3rd stringers being cut, he’s the one providing the options that fit chips vision, and ultimately he’s the one making the deals that get those players here.
I think Howie deserves more credit than you give him, for many of the same reasons as others have elucidated above me.
I’d like to add one point, which is Howie has done an outstanding job of building a quality organization with good, smart people, and getting out of their way and letting them do their job. Lurie obviously deserves credit for this as well, but Howie was responsible for hounding Chip, and then being unselfish enough to hand him the keys.
Chip is a motherf**king GENIUS. But Howie is a good org man, who deserves a lot of credit for working with Chip and providing him support and giving him the tools he needs.
The organization is as unified as it has been since I’ve been following the team, and I don’t think its a coincidence that the team is currently so successful.
Correct. Mf genius.
howie does great with cap management. Never really had to do much on the personnel side except from take orders. He’s also great at trades / draft maneuvers. But you’re right his best quality might be staying out of the news.
Riley Cooper`s block is what let Sproles walk (slowly if he wanted to) into the end-zone untouched…where`s the love?
I like Rielly, but let’s be honest we can find a blocking WR you doesn’t do much in the passing game for less than $5mil per year.
Jernst wrote:
“. . . let’s be honest we can find a blocking WR you doesn’t do much in the passing game for less than $5mil per year.”
______________
Cooper’s March 2015 Epitaph.
the salary situation is up to the people who pay. if/when they decide he`s not worth the $ he gets, things will change. For now the Eagles are winning, with 7 more till the new season(should they get there). If he only blocks and they score because of that,and keep winning,then for me he could an Eagle for life.
4. This must be the first eagle game you watched closely
6. Brandon Graham
8. “he’s the best playmaking LB from his draft class.” Isn’t LK in that class?
4) I think Fletcher has been solid all year. It’s arguable, but I like his game more than Williams
6) See number 7
8) LK makes a ton of tackles. Kendricks makes plays.
I just have one criticism of Sanchez (maybe “concern” is a better word). A disproportionate number of pass attempts went to TE and the slot receiver and not many attempts to wide outs down the field. The only one was almost an interception. Is it a case of those were the players that were open? Or is he not comfortable with those throws? Either way, you can bet defensive coordinators are going to focus on taking those plays away and force him to go elsewhere?
chip said sanchez likes throws over the middle, foles likes them outside the numbers.
Chip said big part of the gameplan was throwing to our slot WRs and TEs in the middle of the field. He thought we had big mismatches there, and considering how things played out, hard to argue against the gameplan
Chip and Mark both said in the press conference last night that going into the game they thought their best mismatch was the TE and slots WR’s.
maybe the game plan was be opportunistic,and the passes to TE and slot receiver were there for the taking, and were taken.
Major part about why we are seeing such a good team pass rush, is something Barwin spoke about last night… We are doing a really really nice job of pass rushing as a cohesive unit. No one is playing selfish trying to go get their sack numbers up. They are rushing in Unicen, and it’s starting to make all the difference in the world. 1 guy gets credit for the sack, but on most of the sacks, two, three, four Eagles players had their hand in helping to force the sack, instead of just having a freak pass rusher like VON Miller who does his thing and generates pressure on his own..
.,
Offseason a lot of the talk was about not having that elite pass rushers but i warned we would be a really good team pass rushing units for a few reasons:
1) Interior pass rush screws QBs up more than anything, and with Cox and Curry, not many teams have better interior pass rushing Tandem.
..
2) we don’t have a 20 sack guy….but we have 3 OLBs who can all flirt with double digit sacks this year.
..
3) we had really good pass rushers at other positions.. malcolm Jenkins was ranked the best blitzing pass rushing safety in football last year., Kendrick has been a beast blitzing pass rusher since his days at Cal
…
Our pass rush comes from the entire defense… Even our nose Tackles can generate pass rush more than average NFL NTs..the front 7 rushes passers with discaplin as a cohesive unit…and now we are starting to see our secondary start to play some solid coverage and force multiple coverage sacks every week.
…
We don’t have that pass rushing 20 sack terror, but we do have the 2nd most sacks in the NFL, the longest streak of forcing ATleast 1 turnover in a game, and we also Happen to boast the 4th ranked Run defense,,..defense is a few more months of improvements for our young players, and a player or two away from growing imto that top 10 defense i guaranteed this current personel would grow into!!!!!
“Unicen”? Really?
That’s a new one.
How great is this coaching staff?? In his post game interview with ESPN, Sanchez lauded the offensive minds of Musgrave, Chip, Shurmur, and either Azzinaro or Stoutland – plus talked about how Chip takes input from everyone and isn’t concerned about who gets credit, just wants to win. Talk about leading by example…
On defense, for months the writers and fans were convinced the Eagles didn’t do anything to improve their woeful pass rush. Countless articles and posts questioning the team’s ability to get to the QB. Oh ye of little faith, how great are these coaches at developing players – what a testament to their hard work and consistency in executing a plan.
I kind of love that all the national writers rankings and analysis focus on offense and defense, with special teams being the usual afterthought mention. The Eagles special teams are a weapon that gives us a competitive advantage. What a great job by Fipps, Coach Kelly, and Howie in building a roster and culture that sees the true value of special teams play!
Wonder how many upcoming FAs watched the game last night and are pining to be a part of something special here in Philly?
Love this TEAM, this staff, this organization.
reading posts like this make me happy! FINALLY fans are starting to realize that our defense is much better then “experts” thought… Clearly, people don’t understand defense, the growth process of new defenses and developmental process of young players..
..
To think I spent all offseason fighting with people defending Bennie Logan from the bullshit over reaction to the saints game..now bennie is playing like one of the best NT in the NFL…
..
Finally people are starting to realize that ALL ALONG, we had like 70% of the personel in place of an eventual top defense, we just needed to grow and cultivate our young defenders, and give all thenew pieces time to gel…..practically shows how little people especially the philadelphia writers know about defense.
..
All those months of having to read articles shitting n our defensive personel, when I knew we had some serious young players already in place…finally, we can begin to have accurate conversations about the defense since it’s finally becoming evident to everyone, that we are t far away from growing into a top defense..
..
I friggin GUARANTEE we will go into the next season considered a consensus top defense, because of the defensive improvements we make the rest of this season, and a few offseason additions. Next pffseason, it will be Obvious to everyone, that we have a true Philly Style Defense back patrolling Linc!
..
Makes me happy to finally see our defenders get the respect they deserved after so many people were so wrong about so many of them
Those logan arguments were priceless. Kid is babe just need one offseason to grow and learn and he is second in the league for tackles by a nt. wait till he gets his man strenght on.
I loved that the backups got some time on offense and defense. I saw MS2 and Maragos out there on the last couple of series if I remember correctly.
Defense was awesome. Offense looked good. Tommy you’re right that there are some things to clean up, so it’ll be interesting to see how things play out this week in GB.
Marcus played 10 snaps, as expected. Funny how the media said we wouldn’t see him because of the San fran game LOL
….
maragos and theNew safety who’s name I don’t even know, where the safeties late when Kelvin Benjamin was helping me pull off a big fantasy come from behind win thanks to his garbage time points.
..
Would have liked to see Barkley get more work then he did.
…
Would have liked Wolff and Jalen to be active last night so they could have gotten some garbage time game experience
still no stats for MSII be interesting to see what happened on plays he was in.
The two plays I noticed:
On the first he was lined up in a two point at LDE/OLB. Run play his side. Panthers pulled a couple backside OL. Set the edge well forced run back up inside.
Second play, was the sole ILB on the second Benjamin TD. Nothing was really in his zone.
I saw him set the edge well on the play you pointed out.
..
I also saw,him matched up in coverage against the running back, had quality coverage on him that play, QB forced to throw an incomplete to someone else.
,,,
since he only played 10 plays (I expected he would play 6-12), it’s worth going back and seeing what he looked like on all ten of those plays. Hopefully I can see all ten of his plays without the coaches tape
..
Curious to know if he played on special Teams yesterday
Not on special teams according to birds 24/7
I know it was against Carolina and this team has some big games coming up, but for the first time I actually think this team can win the whole thing. I really do.
Optimism, I’m not used to it.
I love that it’s mid November, and we are in complete control of our own destiny. The only NFC team with a better record then us now has to rely on Drew Stanton, and we are fortunate enough to have games matched Up against the Packers, Cowboys, Seahawks, 3 of the top NFC teams today.. So we are in complete control of our own destiny as we stand here today. If we do what we did last year, get hot in crunch time and play our best ball in November and December and handle our business, that #1 seed and homefield throughout is OURS! And we will have won tiebreakers against most of our potential competitors
…
Beat the Pakers, give seattle a loss and dallas two losses, and the only competitors we don’t get to take matters into our own hands against are the Lions, possibly the saints, and the Niners…. Arizona is going to lose some games down the stretch. Repeat last years streak and the road to the SUPERBOWL will have to run through south Philly, where for the first time, the Linc has become a true home field advantage
I’m a little hesitant just because the Eagles haven’t beaten a lot of good teams. Yet I still believe this is a really good team. Get in the playoffs and they will have beaten a lot of good teams. Get hot in January and who knows…
GE wrote:
“we are in complete control of our own destiny”
_____________
Remember what Kelly said about destiny?
It’s something you have no control over because it is “destiny.”
Wink, wink.
______________
Kelly must have learned that from the song in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” called “Trial Before Pilate.”
Last years hot streak was against injured and bad teams, the playoff caliber teams were in the beginning if the schedule. This year eagles will haver to play 4 games against playoff teams in last 7 games, and the easy part was the beginning of the schedule.
Defense and st are far better than last year.
brandon marshall/Alshon Jeffries/Forte
Dez Bryant/Terrence/Witten
Larry Fitzgerald/Floyd
Calvin/Reggie Bush, Burleson.. It was snowing for our offense too, It didn’t only snow when they were on the field
…
Young defense did well against saints offense for their first playoff game.. We were a brand new team last year, I don’t believe we were in any position to scoff at any wins lasts year…. This year is different, we are SUPPOSED to beat teams this year. But by the time this season ends we will have faced:
Colts
Niners
seahawks
packers
Cowboys
Cardinals
..
We will be plenty of battle tested against solid opposition by the time this regular season plays out..
I want to see how we stack up against the Packers and Cowboys for sure. I’m really looking forward to this week.
Gonna beat the pack!!!
Against an anemic Carolina team, Sanchez looked solid (if a bit erratic at times).
Much praise has been leveled on Kelly, Shurmur, and the offensive scheme. (Steve Young was almost orgasmic.)
The big loser tonight?
QB Matt Barkley.
Doesn’t seem Kelly’s magic has worked on him. At all.
I hated him as a prospect and was pretty upset when we drafted him.
I think he’ll improve over the next few weeks. I think he just needs to get comfortable and hit a groove. He doesn’t have to be Joe Montana, he needs to make the right reads and not turn the ball over. He may struggle at times over the next couple of weeks, but I think after that he’ll hit a stride.
It’s hard to think of two people as opposite as Barwin and Babin. And really they represent the difference in the disfunction and selfishness that plagued the end of the Reid era (Nnambdi, DRC, Wahburn) vs the start of the Kelly era.
Barwin does his job and the little things no one else wants to do. Setting edge, covering TE and RB. Last night in some plays he was spying cam, and taking advantage of the turnstile for a right tackle that panthers have.
And that is just on the field in one game. Add his attitude off the field – I mean on Twitter you see Barwin involved in all sorts of things, from bands to charities to joking with his teammates… Babin on the other hand was constantly self promoting (well that or republican candidates)
i noticed DRC crying during the Giants game. haha what a POS
DRC and Antrel Rolle were both acting like idiots on the sideline sunday…
…
cant wait to play them again. All the crap they talked the week of then gme we shut them out, can’t wat to hear them the week leading up to the next game. The only things annoying this season is having to wait so long to kick division rivals teeth in!
I can’t friggin wait to play RG3, Desean and scumbag Chris Baker again…can’t wait to beat up on Eli and shred their defense again…… AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, football Gods gave us the opportunity to single handedly destroy the Cowboys playoff seeding by giving them two losses late in the season
He has 0 Super Bowls and he always will.
1. Sanchez underthrew the first deep pass. Was a completion, but the receiver had to slow down to catch. If the receiver was led, that play is a TD.
2. The Celek TD was poorly thrown to a well covered receiver. If that play happens against the Eagles’ D, this board is roasting the defensive player for not getting his head around for the easy pick.
There were a few other luck plays that worked out in his favor. Some of that is just taking chances and hoping your guys outwork their guys, which I think is a foundation of Chip’s offense, so you have to live with it. But I think against a better team, his numbers would have looked a lot different. Not saying Sanchez didn’t do a good job as a backup, but people are overlooking quite a bit in this performance. Luckily, he has another weak defense that will probably overemphasize stopping the run next week, so he should be able to repeat this performance without too much trouble.
By definition against a “better” team any players numbers will look worse.
Overlooking? I don’t really see people getting too carried away with his performance. He only had 2 TDs, not like he went crazy.. Tho, I’m not sure if we are really talking about “overlooking” or if we are holding him to some ridiculuos expectation of perfection.
..
Off the top of my head I can rattle off like 5-7 passes that he would probably like to have back, but can’t we say that about almost every game of almost any QB?
…
We won the game. It wasn’t even close. Mark Sanchez wasnt at all a liability that we had to overcome. he hasn’t played in two years, is me not feeling the need to over analysis and hold him to some insane expectation “overlooking”?
…
You listed a handful of plays that weren’t good enough. Can’t we say that about most QBs every week, even the ones whos team won?
..
The guy hasn’t played in two years, think it was safe to expect some mistakes last night that need to be improved on whether we won or lost… For someone who hasn’t played in two years. Has so little experience in this offensee im way more impressed with his ability to side step the pass rush, step up and throw Lasers where the ball needed to be so guys could run after the catch, and the overall command of this offense THATS new to him, and implement our tempo, then I am down on the handful of mistakes that need to be improved on…
…
I didn’t expect his best last night. Figured he would improve as he gets some game time to shake the rust off and get comfortable. Since I didn’t expect last night to be his best, I think last night was a nice starting point. Also saw improvement from the Houson game. Keep making some improvement each week and gaining confidence in this offense, and we should be fine
Boooooooooo
This just in, BREAKING NEWS. QB making his first start in two years didnt play the perfect game and had like 5-7 plays he needs to do a better job of….shocker lol
..
I’m used to it by now, every time we beat a team either A) that team sucked, or B) we won but made too many mistakes,
..
Has there been any “good wins” this year according to our fanbase and media?
What about Foles last year?
Hadn’t taken a snap since pre-season, then stepped in against the Giants before the half and made great plays.
Sanchez’s had a good game.
But Foles — in very comparable circumstances — stepped in an played at least as well . . . and against a team putting pressure on the pocket.
Call me a Foles guy.
Foles had a legendary year, but you can still look at any of his games, and find a handful a plays that he would have liked back…
..
to each his own, but for me, last night Sanchez was about what I expected him to be, solid game, good game all things considered, but not a world beater performance. A Nice first start for someone shaking off two years worth of rust
GE:
“I still think he [Sanchez] has a long way to go, if he wants to take this team away from Nick.”
______________
I agree. And believe Kelly sees it as you do.
The reaction to last night’s game has been manic in some quarters.
Your quiet eval on Sanchez hit the mark.
Yeah I’m trying to avoid media, and eagles fans reactions today. Can’t imagine what the radio sounds like today over rating what Sanchez did last night and forgetting everything Nick has done at the same time lol
…
It was a good step in the right direction from how he played against the Texans, but he still has a ways to go to reach the level we will need him to reach..but we saw what was an encouraging first step. His command of the offense was solid for just learning it 6 months ago..for someone who has two years worth of rust to shake off, he did a good job of feeling the pass rush and side stepping it, or stepping up perfectly to avoid it, and keep his fundamentals sound so he could deliver a few lasers.. The few times they got some pressure, you didn’t see footwork issues or breakdown in mechanics, he calmly knew where to step to avoid the rush, keep his solid footwork underneath him so he could deliver a strike….
..
No disrespect to Sanchez, but 300 yard 2TD days are an average game for Nick FOles so far in his short career. Mark has a ton of improving to do if he wants to take this job long term.
..
Fans and media will beat Sanchez Vs FOles to death, but in reality, Chip is worried about finding away to keep both of them here as long as possible… If anyone heard how glowingly Sanchez spoke of chip and being here in the interview with Gruden, tell me that doesn’t look like someone who might prefer staying here to compete with Nick, instead of taking a starting job with some crap team like the Bucs, or Titans?..
..
My guess, Sanchez n Nick both be here next year. I expect FOles to continue to work thru the issues, come out the other side looking like a stud. I know Nick can handle this. He won’t Fold, it will push him to step up and improve….if the same thing goes for Sanchez, then these two should push each other to knew heights leaving us with a bad mofo as a. Starter, and a gunslinging backüp ready to take over and not skip a beat..l.both Sanchez and FOles might as well be honest with themselves and each other in that, it’s probably not likely either will be seeing many seasons when they are healthy for all 20 games(including playoff)… Both will play at some point, they like each other..watch chip sell them on staying here competing wifh each other but try and win a Super Bowl together? Nick is under contract, and Sanchez already found out what ts like to be the man for an average franchise…Sanchez sounds like chip hypnotisized him, he Sounds like someone who has died and gone to heaven…
…
Hopfully these two QBs can push each other to combine to win a Super Bowl these next two years!
the pass to celek was an awesome play
I have to agree, he’s was on point there. Unless I see a replay saying otherwise, I remember that being a great pass.
Celek caught it, with his fingertips, off the back of the defenders helmet (the defender was facing Celek).
Fantastic catch by Celek. Poor throw by Sanchez.
Congrats to Trey Burton and his wife on the birth of their first child last night,
..
Awesome seeing Braman set the tone with a big hit oh the opening kickoff
…
I saw a lot of ripping Earl Wolff, and not dressing is NOT a GOOD sign, but has anyone heard any reason for it? Was he injured? Did he miss practice last week? It’s bad enough if he missed another game to whatever bumps and bruise he suffering from now, but it’s a REALLY REALLY BAD sign, if he was a healthy scratch a week after being forced to play the entire game due to injury..
Anyone know anything concrete as to if he missed the game due to injury or was just a healthy scratch?
..
So much athletic potential, being pissed away…. IF I was Earl wolff I would be In chips office today, begging Him to tell me what wall to Go run through to show that he will be better than he has been. The talent is there, hoping he can be salvaged, I would hate to see him become a defensive player of the week for Rex or Rob Ryan on another team two years from now like Jaqain Jarrett
For whatever reason, Wolff is in Davis’s and Kelly’s doghouse. I don’t know what Wolff has/hasn’t done, but it’s clear his days in Philly are numbered.
Has Davis become the new Niedermeyer?
Or Wolff the new Flounder?
He got the NFL Scarlet Letter: “won’t play thru injury” label
Wolff himself said he was completely healthy and practiced all week. He said he has no idea why he was deactivated but that he felt it coming during this week of practice with the way the week was going. Sounds like he’s in the shittiest of dog houses to be a healthy scratch for a scrub we just picked up off the waiver wire from hands down the worst team In the league
Thanks , and…FOCK!!! That’s not a good sign AT ALL!
..
I hope if Wolff didn’t get the message before, he is reading it loud and clear now. WTF
Yea I had high hopes for Wolff … Kids got top talent and all the skill in the world. But choosing to voluntarily hold yourself out of a playoff game because of knee soreness is a bad sign. Could you imagine someone like Brian Dawkins being cleared to play in a playoff game and going, “no thanks, I don’t play unless I’m 100%”. I know you don’t want players hurting their team by playing when they can’t…but you want players dying and fighting to get on the field. The coaches should be the ones to say he can’t go, his limitations due to the knee are hurting us.
“Won’t play thru injury” is an NFL kiss of death.
..
We don’t have so much safety talent that we should give up on him yet. I think, ATleast I hope, he gets one more year…but he is going to have to start building some trust back with the 2nd half of this season, or he could get Axed. Earl Wollff is a good kid,no past injury history. Hopefully someone can get thru to him before it’s too late
There was a report, I forget where, this off season that the coaching staff was really frustrated with him and couldn’t believe a 5th round rookie, who was medically cleared to play, and was offered a chance to start in a playoff game, said, “no thanks coach, my knees a little sore, I think I’ll just sit this one out.”
I’m looking below and someone said to put things in perspective that Sanchez had a 61.1 QB rating, etc. That’s not even close
Stats: 20/37, 332 yards, 2 TDs, 102.5 QBR
According to Didinger, and he’s pretty sure of it, we saw history for an Eagles linebacker last night. While Reggie and Clyde have had 4 in a game, and I would imagine Reggie may have had more, Barwin set the record for an Eagles linebacker with 3 and a half sacks.
Speaking of Reggie, look at this great write up about his strike shortened season. He averaged 1.75 sacks a game which would have totaled 28 if the season had been full. Not to mention stripped a ball against Doug Williams and raced 70 yards for a TD in the first game of the season against the Redskins. Some people may argue, well that 1.75 average wouldn’t have held up, but if you watch that Eagle’s season you would know he was so dominant he may have exceeded that total, no sh*t. In fact in case you don’t read the article:
” Or, to be more exact, add White’s sack count from his last four games
of 1986 or first four games of 1988 to make a full season. In either case he’d have more than 30 sacks for one string of 16 games.”
That’s if you go either way, 4 games the season before, or 4 games the season after. In either
case he’d have more than 30 sacks for one string of 16 games.
If not for the strike, maybe the most dominant year for any defensive player ever.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/reggie-white-sacks-season-1987_n_2345103.html
Wow, I would have thought Seth Joyner might have done that one year. The one Eagles player that should be in the HOF, but probably will never get there. That defense deserved to win a superbowl. His career numbers are slightly better than Derrick Brooks who is in the HOF.
That’s a good point, because of their great d-line the linebackers had so much more freedom on that defense. Actually just checking his stats, career was 52, his best whole season was 7 and a half. He was still great it’s just a case of the defensive line getting there I would imagine.
No argument from me about the astronomical sack numbers White would have posted in a full 1987 season.
But “the most dominant” for any defensive player ever?
Not sure I agree. Only because there have been a number of other defensive players who had Ruthian performances.
In 1960, Lions MLB Joe Schmidt ties the Eagles’ QB Dutch Van Brocklin for NFL MVP.
In 1962, NYG DE Andy Robestelli wins the Maxwell Award — and leads a very good but not great Giants team to the NFL title game (lost to GB).
In 1971, Vikings DT Alan Page wins the NFL MVP award. Page — like White in ’87 — was unstoppable that year.
In 1986, Lawrence Taylor wins the MVP and Maxwell Awards — culminating a 6-year run as the most dominant player I ever saw . . . because he was a LB and free to roam.
In the past 29 years — since LT — no NFL defensive player has received either the MVP or Maxwell Award.
Good point, Deacon Jones is also mentioned in the article.Those guys you mentions other than LT were playing before sacks were counted and really, before NFL films, it’s more difficult to track what some guys were doing unless you really know about it. From reading your other write-ups you have a really good grasp of the history. Deacon Jones apparently kept count and gave himself 26 one year. According to the article, he’ll tell you he once slew Godzilla, I guess he was a good story teller. LOL
BC1968:
In the pre-internet world, folks like me relied on (1) NFL Films’ great Saturday show, “This Week in the NFL”, and (2) national broadcasts on Sunday and MNF.
Otherwise, we had to take the 2nd-hand word of writers.
(By the way, NFL Films was founded in 1962.)
Damn it goes back further than I thought. You know though, I guess i”m thinking more cameras and more angles and the way they can break down individual players seasons. I’m also realize I’m being biased. I do remember the terror that LT reigned on the Eagles.
Hey talking about the 80’s and before Buddy, remember the sack that the Bears player put on Jaws? One of the most violent hits you can imagine and do you remember the guy who did it? I typed in google and only got a Randy White hit on him. Can’t find a video of it anywhere, which surprises ,me because it was a pretty famous sack.
Bears #73 Mike Hartenstine — from Penn State — delivered the sack.
The game was during the 1980 season . . . when Buddy was just beginning to develop the 46 defense. (At that point, Bears didn’t have DLs Dent and McMichael, LBs Singletary, Wilson, and Marshall, and CBs Frazier and Richardson.)
Most vicious blind-side sack I’ve ever seen. E-V-E-R.
here’s the sack . . .
first hit on the video.
along with some other vicious hits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD4_c1hsYUk
That’s some nasty stuff. I think that there are quite a few players today who wouldn’t have been able to play that type of football and never would’ve played in the NFL. Example: The guy who just left. He did take that one hit against Atlanta, but that was a weekly thing in the old days. I don’t want to single just him out, I’m sure there are plenty of guys today who would’ve chose a different career.
I knew it! I was hesitant to say if it was one of the most violent hits ever, but I remember they used to show that hit all the times in highlights, but you confirmed it. You would think it would be easier to find a video of it but I can’t.
Edit: Thanks for the find!
i think you are just seeing the difference in two different metrics for measuring QBs… Total QBR (or just QBR) is the ESPN method…. i think it is out of 100. QB Rating is the one we are more familiar with that is out of 140-150 or something,
I found that in an article online from the star ledger, also heard around 100 on postgame live last night. I didn’t know there were different measurements though, so I would be clueless about that.
yea, the “normal” rating puts him at 102.5, i think. espn’s rating system put him at 61.1. whatever. i think espn’s system is garbage…
check this out for espn’s system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Quarterback_Rating
(yeah, yeah, its wikipedia, not the most trusted source, but whatever)
especially note the section “Reception”….
“Further controversy erupted when the Total QBR system gave the Denver Broncos’ Tim Tebow a higher rating than the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers in their respective Week 5 contests in 2011. Noting that Rodgers completed 26 of 39 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the Atlanta Falcons, while Tebow completed four of 10 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown, and six rushes for 38 yards and a touchdown, in a loss to the San Diego Chargers”
The thing I didn’t notice in your first post, it’s out of 100 as opposed to 140-150, so kind of getting it but still, seems like a controversial method. You have at least 2 QB’s who don’t like it or understand it, Rodgers and Rivers. In the regular method they were saying Cam was staying in the 30’s until garbage time put him up to a respectable number. Not sure what the final number was for him, but it just shows how it doesn’t always gives you an accurate reading of what happened no matter what system.
I wonder what the non-espn version would put the numbers against the other QB’s that played against Carolina? Not worried about looking it up because it really doesn’t matter for one game. We’ll get the whole picture on him this year going forward anyways.
I replied to you above, but yes, that was ESPN’s QBR, as were all the other ratings, so it was to scale. The point was Sanchez had the worst QBR of the 8 or so QBs that have played Carolina since week 2.
I liked, on the 3 and long, backed up by our endzone, Sanchez completed the pass to Matthews and instead of leading him into the safety to get flogged, he threw it a bit behind so Matthews could protect himself.
Do you all think Matthews is replacing Avant adequately? 5 tds and 450 yards is not too shabby at all considering the other weapons we have. What numbers would he have to get to make him have a homerun first year in our system?
He’s on pace for something like 60 catches, 850 yards and 9 TDs which would be a definite home run. I bet he surpassed those numbers this year with Sanchez feeding him the ball and him hitting his stride.
Production-wise, definitely. But it’s almost like comparing Zach Ertz to Brent Celek. Avant likely aided the running game more, but I haven’t really looked at Matthews blocking snaps, so I can’t be sure. You know he doesn’t lack for effort though. Long term there is no doubt this was the right call.
Avant was/is a great possession receiver, not what the Eagles are looking for in Matthews, you’re right.
I think the total numbers are less important than him having 2-3 plays every game where he picks up key first downs or a score etc. Bot him and Huff have major RAC ability and do not go down easily. You saw it with his 2nd td last night, Matthews is a fighter and that doesn’t go away.
Love hearing Sanchez rave about pope Jordan the 81st. Keep in mind, Sanchez is a veteran QB that got a close first hand look at the Jets drafted a Big strong, talented WR prospect in Stephan Hill, so Sanchez knows what an over hyped, bust of a young top WR prospect looks like, and he thinks the WORLD of Jordan Mathews. Bet if a reporter asked Sanchez to compare Jordan to what he saw from young Stephan Hill, he wouldn’t be able to answer that question with a straight face…
So much talk about Eagles beating up on a bad Panthers team not really proving anything. You can only play the teams on your schedule as they come up. The Jets just beat the Steelers, this is the NFL where on any given Sunday, Monday, Thursday. If anything, you should be happy with how the Eagles keep winning the games they’re supposed to win.
Eagles are 14-3 in their last 17 regular season games, with two of those losses having winnable opportunities at the end of the games. There are no consistently dominant teams in the league this year. The Eagles are a force to be reckoned with.
I like out chances in GB this week – Eagles are so versatile in their game planning, I trust the coaches to come up with an effective plan to best the Pack.
Yes, you can only play the teams on your schedule.
But I think the hesitancy being voiced about the Birds’ performance concerns the question “what can we learn” from having beaten a bad team — besides the Eagles are much better than Carolina.
the D was amazing, and Sanchez looked good.
7-2. bring on the packers.
Re: Where Exactly Are We After Carolina?
I’m hesitant to draw too many positive conclusions from last night’s game — besides the Eagles are much better than Carolina — because the Panthers are a very bad team this season. So far at least.
The defense that Sanchez faced last night ranks:
— 29th in most plays against
— 28th in points allowed
— 28th in yards per play
— 28th in 3rd-down conversion %
— 25th in yards per game
— 25th in 1st downs allowed
That’s a pretty dog-gone awful defense.
Offensively, the team the Eagles beat last night isn’t particularly good either, ranking:
— 29th in yards per play
— 25th in points scored.
— 25th in yards per game
____________________
The Eagles beat a team they should have beaten.
As T-Law observed, it’s the most complete — and I assume he’s suggesting the *best* — game which the Eagles have played this season.
But — as the saying goes — you’re never as good as your best game. Or as bad as your worst.
____________________
So I’ll remain cautiously positive at this point.
About Sanchez. And about the defense (though the Eagles still need an outside pass-rusher who causes teams to game plan for him).
As for the running game, however, I remain very concerned.
At some point — let’s say in the playoffs — the Eagles will face a very good team that shuts down the passing game, as well as the running game. And had a good offense.
The Birds really do need to find a way to impose their will on the opposition via the ground game.
So what that defenses put 8 in the box. Great running teams, with great RBs, find a way to be productive.
Every great RB — from Jim Brown to OJ Simpson to Eric Dickerson to Adrian Peterson — has faced that challenge . . . and produced.
Old fashion of me to believe the Eagles must become much more productive on the ground? Maybe.
But championship team — no matter how good they are throwing the ball — need to be able to run the ball.
‘Cause more bad things can happen throwing the ball than running — including a sack that, you know, injures the QB.
[In half more than century, I’ve never seen a QB injured on a running play for the HB or FB.]
So I’d like to think that in a few weeks, the O-line’s effectiveness running the ball will return (assuming no more injuries).
No matter how defenses stack up.
I’m thinking the Panthers were going into that game, I’m lying Didinger said this last night: They were probably expecting the run, loaded up on the run, and figured their odds would be better to let Sanchez try and beat them than to let the running game get going.
Not word for word, but that was his take on that. Didn’t get an overall view of concern about the run game, but it did look horrible last night, the o-line is still letting them knife through and get into the backfield before the play gets going. That’s with all our guys back, not counting the one who won’t be back.
You gotta figure that Sanchez is going to have to be more than just be a game manager to win this thing, the other teams will be focusing on our run game and give Sanchez every chance to beat them.
That might not be a bad place to be for Sanchez. If you hit the 1-on-1s and beat the defense, they will have to pull some of those guys out of the box right? I would think that would help the running game.
*** This is not to be demeaning *** Foles (I think injured way earlier) was not hitting on these throws and our line was banged up. Teams could keep most of the guys in the box. A couple more games together and I think the oline will start to get some push. Especially if Sanchize hits what’s given to him. I think this offense forces teams to be honest. If you completely sell out to stop one, the other can burn you if they are executing.
“though the Eagles still need an outside pass-rusher who causes teams to game plan for him”
What team are you watching?
Carolina came into the game in the bottom 5 in sacks allowed.
Do you think Barwin is a dominant outside pass-rusher?
Just because he has 10.5 sacks? And had 11 w/ Houston in 2011 (9.5 over a 3-game period). Otherwise, Barwin’s been a 3-5 sacks-per-year guy.
Teams don’t game plan for Barwin.
Or any other Eagles pass rusher.
There is NO DeMarcus Ware on this team.
If you think there is, I’d like to see your argument and analysis.
Was that his first game ever without Ryans being his middle linebacker?
Yes.
In his career, Ryans has never missed a start for any reason except a ruptured achilles tendon (twice)
You think that could trend in favor of him playing more like last night? Not that Ryans was holding him back, but possibly he changed his style to compensate and it turned into 3 and a half sacks?
BC1968:
That’s a great question.
Barwin seemed to be playing “spy” — or “joker” — last night.
It helped that Carolina’s O-line is like the 2012 Eagles.
But your thesis is an interesting one.
If you mean Barwin, no. Ryans was here for a year or two before Barwin was signed.
Between Barwin, Cole, Graham, Curry, and Cox, this team has plenty of pash rush to keep D. Coordinators up at night.
I’d rather have what we do than have what SF has… a single dominant edge rusher with no one else to be found.
I understand.
In the Eagles only 3 games against teams with winning records at this point, they have a total of 4 sacks.
(All 4 against the 49ers who are tied for 2nd in sacks allowed.)
Hopefully, the Eagles will put up Carolina numbers against Green Bay and Dallas.
Well they did impose their will on the Texans with the run game when they deigned to use it. Last night, they saw Carolina bet on stopping the run, and made them pay.
Personally I want a team who forms a game plan, anticipates their opponents’ moves, and then makes them pay.
Like against the 49ers.
When the offense was shut out.
Right, that game where 2/3rds of our starting line was down.
Excuses.
Carolina’s O-line has been decimated.
I haven’t read anyone in this thread apologizing for how well the D-line played.
Not excuses. San Fran was a thing that happened, so was the Texans game. Which game is closer to where we will be at the end of the season?
My guess is the Texans game.
My guess is SF – defenses, even mediocre ones, tend to play better in the playoffs. And that Texans’ D had been playing above their level, IMO. That’s a bad D with one Reggie White level lineman.
You’re making his point for him. Carolina’s line was terrible and they had an awful night. Our OL was hurt, and we had an awful night against the Niners.
True enough. Thanks.
From the first game, the running game’s struggled against 8 in the box.
Has to be a way to do better than 40 yards.
Thing is, the SF game, they were giving Shady 5 yds/carry with the way they were rotating the safety late – yes, he’d be in the hole, but 5 yds off the line of scrimmage. It’s not about being a power back, it’s about taking easy yards when they’re available to simplify the game for your QB. That’s what makes Lynch so valuable to the ‘Hawks – they hardly ever are in 3rd & long except when they have a Reid moment and abandon the run completely.
So in your assessment, there was nothing the Eagles could have done last night to sway your opinion other than run the ball effectively against a gameplan designed to stop the run? If Chip had gotten adamant and continued to run the ball and get stuffed, would you have decried his lack of adjusting and allowing Carolina to stick around? Your premise makes no sense in the context of winning the game.
Eagles are 14-3 in last 17 regular season games, with 2 of the losses winnable at the end. Defense and Special Teams are playing at their highest levels yet. Offense has battled through injuries and turnovers, and now a new QB.
Say what you will, I’ll take this coaching staff, this front office, and this TEAM over any other in the league today. This year is wide open and the Eagles have as much a chance at winning it all as any team.
76Mustang . . .
You’re missing my point entirely.
First, I’m talking about the PLAYOFFS.
So your regular season numbers mean nothing.
I’m saying the Eagles need to be able to run the ball against 8-men in the box formations EFFECTIVELY.
Not just run for run’s sake.
San Francisco totally shut out Kelly’s offense this year.
Run. And. Pass.
The Eagles need to figure out how to run. Because teams like the 49ers are out there in the post-season.
You’re right, sped read and missed the playoff reference…sorry…valid point, and why I like the returns of Polk, Kelce, Mathis, and the measured use of Sproles going on right now. Seems like it would help to add a lead blocker in the red zone and use Polk to pound it in…maybe Chip is saving some things for the playoff run?
Yeah that’s why i’m saying something’s going to happen in the offseaon. He’s going to have to take a huge cut to remain with the team. It’s not his fault he’s just no that type of guy. Now if we could bring in Marshawn Lynch for an incentivized $7m a year that’s what i’m talking about/
Shady is built for speed and quickness in fact he said he lost weight in the offseason so he’d be quicker – he’s never going to run over a guy, just like Jackson wouldn’t.
To my eye he’s not great in pass pro either, usually just tries a cut block. Wonder if the Colts would move on from Bradshaw, that’s the type of guy you need. Great pass protection, great catching the ball, great YAC.
Yes AC, I agree we need a running game even with 8 in the box. Chip’s legitimacy of play-action will make the offense work against good teams. If we are playoff worthy, the run game needs to get on track.
Reading the Charlotte Observer’s comment section, I don’t troll, just like reading the other fans when we beat up on an opposing team. So anyways, here’s a good comment:
“Folks, I’ve never coached in the NFL, but I play one every Monday
morning (or Tuesday in this case), but when NFL lineman are getting
FLAT-BACKED regularly throughout the game, there is very little any QB
can do about that…”
Look at Mat Ryan this year, Romo in past years, AR in past years, Jay Cutler in past years, any QB without a line is going to be ineffective. What I do blame Cam for is his attaitude — gotta try to put some life in your guys he gives up and the team gives up.
That said Ron Rivera’s comments about Cam just not hitting open receivers makes me think they don’t have a great relationship in Carolina right now. Be interesting to see what his money looks like next year.
A:
Newton’s battered this year. I give him credit for showing up.
That said . . . I agree with you.
He’s still a prima donna.
When things are going well, he’s a great “leader.”
When his O-line is allowing the 2nd-most sacks in the NFL . . . not so much.
I agree, Brady’s year when the Pats went undefeated and he set the then TD passing record. In the Super Bowl, the Giants made him look average at best.
Also, Rivera’s comments. stupid.
Yep.
When Chip Kelly got the Eagles job I hoped he would either draft his style QB or a wonkish, athletic journeyman would buy into it. Sanchez wanted to play for Kelly, developed a wonk bond with Jordan Matthews and didn’t have any interest in starting in St. Louis even though Foles was under contract for two years and had played so well in ’13.
Sanchez is not Superman and he’s learned that after declaring for the draft with only one year as a college starter and getting drafted in the first round. But what he did last night is show what the Kelly hurry up offense can do. Vick, another journeyman who thought Kelly would revive his career, did that opening day of 2013 but couldn’t adjust to the league’s adjustments to the pace. That will be a test of Sanchez.
Before 2013 I wanted the Eagles to trade Foles because I didn’t think he fit Kelly’s offense. I was not only impressed with his decision making last year, but wondered if he somehow balanced out Kelly’s college strategy in some way. Again, though, I’m starting to wonder if Foles is suited to Kelly’s offense because he never got it running as fast as Vick and Sanchez in their first games, which doesn’t mean Foles is not as good a QB as Sanchez. Kelly needs a QB that can study how teams are slowing them down and make adjustments to keep the pace up.
All great stuff.
Just wondering, though, what if — assuming Sanchez displaces Foles — in Year 2 of the Sanchez regime, the league-wide adjustments push Sanchez’s production back toward Foles’s numbers this year.
In other words, Sanchez v.2 has the same experience under Kelly that Foles v.2 has had this year.
No way to know those answers, obviously. Which is the point I’m driving at.
lets just hope that Sanchez plays well enough for us to even consider there being a v.2! : )
Very good point. Playing great for a half a season is one thing, but then being the full-time starter the next while the league has film against you, is another.
Welllp, next up, the Matthews Bowl.
oh dear, the headlines!
Clay vs. Jordan?
What if Casey outperforms Clay? Surely the world will explode
it’s possible, they played him on the inside on Sunday.
Bowl of Soup or Bowl of Cereal? gotta be soup. these are dinner conversations we’re talking about, not breakfast..
I heard we are playing for pinks.
lol
Almost felt sorry for Cam Newton on Monday. No one could have been effective under the pounding he took.
Fantastic game last night. The defense and special teams show up yet again. This is a complete team with heart.
Next week will be super tough, but we need a statement win. Lambeau is the perfect place to make that statement.
There was a comment to which I wanted to respond. Now I can’t find the comment or the author.
Somebody on here noted that Barwin was engaging linemen as they were on one foot. I found that observation interesting, and it got me thinking.
He was obviously very successful last night, and put a lot of guys on the ground instead of just getting past them. So, I was considering some possible reasons:
Is it likely that he noticed something on tape that he was exploiting? The linemen taking too big of a first step and having their foot in the air too long, or something along those lines?
Is this something rushers always try to do, and he was just nailing it last night?
Was Barwin just on last night, and so it looked like all the linemen were standing on one foot?
Any thoughts? Also, whoever made the observation, please step forward, it was a good one.
I think it might be tape. These guys study it quite a bit and look for anything that might give them an advantage. It just seemed to work for him last night. Kelly talks about stats coming in bunches and this might be why. Tape and everything falling your way.
A lot of edge rushing is getting the big 300lb OT off balance so you can use your leverage to overcome the 30lb weight advantage he has on you…think Reggie whites “Helmet slap”
..
That’s pretty much what pass rushing is all about, Barwin just put on a technical clinic last night.. What’s real impressive is he dominated multiple Lineman. It’s not like he just outclassed the same “pigeon” all day…he was Beasting whoever was lined up against him..get the OT off balance, convert speed to power, leverage him out of your way and go make a play. Kevin Greene would have been proud of Barwin last night
The one against the left guard Sialtolu, looked more like the guard was late to diagnose that Connor was coming, and was more concerned with getting in Barwin’s path than anything, and just got off balance. Barwin converted speed to power and just tossed him.
The one with the RT was likely film work. The RT makes a ton of mistakes.
-He never gains any width with his kick slide and ends up going almost straight backwards.
-When he turns laterally, he starts hopping, and abandons his kick slide.
-His feet are entirely to close together, they should be at a minimum shoulder width apart, when Barwin makes contact they are closer to 6 inches, and on the hop before he basically clicks his heels.
-The RT is entirely too high. He has no base, and is therefore wide open to bull rushes or a counter move.
-The RT is swinging his arms wildly while retreating, and gets absolutely no punch. At the moment of impact he looks like he wants to hug Connor (can’t blame him, I want to as well) not block him.
Essentially everything after the first kickslide step was utter garbage from the RT.
At least a couple of Barwin’s blitzes were delayed pass rushes. After seeing Newton hemmed in, Barwin rushed between the tackles.
Here’s some highlights from the game last night.
Check the 1:37 mark for an example.
(It’s the clip on the Eagles’ defense)
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2014111000/2014/REG10/panthers@eagles#menu=gameinfo|contentId%3A0ap3000000426515&tab=videos
Yeah those delayed rushes came when Barwn was spying him. He made sure Cam wouldn’t take off, and then he would start his pass rush…gotta credit the DBs to cover long enough for Barwins to delay his rush two or three seconds before taking off after Cam…. No surprise he was giving so much praise to the DBs afterward…
…
Love this team, it’s like no one wants to take the credit, whoever makes the play is always crediting someone else for it. Ask a running back why he was so successful, he will quickly give the praise to the OL..ask a WR how he was able to make such a great play, he will credit the QB,..linebackers always credit the DL, the DL and the DBs credit each other…
…
I also liked seeing the guys walk to the locker room, no one was going crazy celebrating. Big dominating win on natipnal TV, but every playërs was just acting as business as usual…no wild celebrations..stay hungry!
..
Btw, Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry are starting to force a fumble ATleast once a game between those two! We haven’t recovered all of them, but they are practically forcing one per game ATleast, for like the past month
Bingo!
Full concurrence
LOL Broncos are getting desperate!!! No one had more OL issues to overcome than us this year. All the crap we had to overcome on the OL to get to 7-2 and we NEVER stooped Low enough to invite Ritchie Incognito in for a visit. What does this say about the state of their OL? Wow…..sucks our front 7 doesnt get to test themselves in early December against Denver. I would love to get as rematch with Peyton with the way our front 7 looks now
GE:
“we NEVER stooped Low enough to invite Ritchie Incognito in for a visit.”
________________
Never a big Elway fan.
But this is almost criminal (in a non-legal sense, of course).
Has Elway no shame?!
After watchin “30for30 Elway to Marino,” it is clear Elway has none.
It really wreaks of desperation. Not to mention you are pretty much waving the white flag and announcing to the world that your OL is a major liability…it’s no secret that only the desperate would even consider this known career long scumbag. What’s funny is im sure Peyton would have to sign off on adding the scumbag, no?
Patrick Willis out for the year as well. NFC teams have really worn down this season.
Whether FOles or Sanchez were playing last nights, either way, THATS what this thing looks like when we play a clean game and dont turn the ball over. Which QB really didn’t matter last night…don’t turn the ball over, and this is what our games look like….. Heck, we had to turn the ball over 300 times this year to make the games competitive and we were still 6-2 with the turnovers lol
…
That’s a scary sigń. Not every team can say listen idiots, take care of the ball and you are guaranteed tp score 45 points and win by 30 lol
Plus red zone efficiency
Red zone issues really tie into the turnover problem. We had issues in the redzone because we were turning the ball over once we got down there…
And even afterwards the line and coach weren’t satisfied with their performance and run production – stating that they didn’t perform up to potential… Scary how devastating this team could be.
Yes sir… The best part is it’s still a growing team. We still have more geling to do. Just think these guys only played 9 games with jenkins so far..so many of the young players still have another level to reach, bunch of them didn’t even get their grown man strength yet… We have like another two months worth of growth to make before the new season starts aka our epic playpff run 😉
..
And when this season ends, we will see so much growth with our young players with another offseason worth of hard work with quality coaching.. Think of all that improvement of a 53 man roster adding up, and then upgrading two positions on offense and two on defense, with free agency and the draft…
…
Chip truly is building a program, and he has some ways to go still. Amazing that we are already a top ranked team when the program is like only half built up at this point…
..
Scary indeed….
quiet as it’s kept we have probably the best all around front 7 in the league. SF just lost Pat Willis
jelling
diasagree – Sanchez is a definite improvement – he is experienced and quick – quick matters a LOT
For some laughs and more Cowboys hate here’s Michael Irvin emphatically making a prediction before the season started.
that face is amazing
Got this picture of what’s going through Sapp’s head.
I won’t click on it because I see Sapp and Irvin on the same set.
Concur. Scum and scummer.
I thought everyone knew Irving still snorts coke.
I genuinely like Kelly’s public post mortems after wins.
At his presser, Kelly said he’s not pleased with how the offense performed.
Hardest practices I remember were after big wins. Not any yelling and screaming. Just the coach wanting us to take another step forward (in leather helmets, of course).
I’m assuming Kelly’s always pushing the Birds.
But most especially after a big, dominating win.
Chip is a such a treat. The only coach in my lifetime that throws out a legitimate life lesson every press conference. Wisdom with a sense of levity. We’re really lucky guys.
Edit: Phil Jackson is the only coach I can think of that is similar. I don’t think they’re philosophically similar, but something about their general view of sports + life, demeanor….
Phil was a stiff as a player and not much better as coach – he looked the part of the wise man with facial hair, but just like as a player was blessed with superior talented players. the easiest game to coach is basketball unless its baseball and you have steve carlton on the mound. otherwise, i agree about Chip!
how many John Woodens are there?
Chuck Noll. from lancasteronline.com:-
‘Those describing Noll invariably use two words — “prepared” and “consistent.” No detail was so small as to escape his attention. Russell tells of a meeting with Noll in which the coach, after studying film, suggested that Russell “move his right foot two inches to the right and one inch back.”
One day at Steelers training camp at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Noll was instructing punt returners on how to catch the ball. When most teams’ returners were using a variation of a Willie Mays basket catch, Noll wanted his returners to catch the ball above their head in their hands. To add a little levity, Noll then made several catches behind his back. He also stressed returning all punts — “if only for inches.” During the 1977 season, the Steelers’ punt returners never signaled for, nor made, a fair catch.
One of Noll’s “Chuck-isms” was: “If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them day in and day out.” ‘
Don’t have the link right now, but he also preached practice how you are going to play.
Chip reminds me in many ways.
“During the 1977 season, the Steelers’ punt returners never signaled for, nor made, a fair catch.”
That is just amazing.
I like the Chip – Phil Jackson comparison. They approach sports as something which is a part of a larger picture.
Gregg Popovich… it’s a complete culture here in Philly now.
Kelce fired off at least 3 bad snaps last night. Perhaps that rust isn’t all the way off yet.
Run game needs a lot of work… There’s plays where it goes as planned, and then there’s plays where it everything goes to complete shit immediately. I feel like there’s never just a simple 2-3 yard gain. Maybe it’s Shady’s running style, but when there’s three defenders in his face when he starts dancing, what’s the guy supposed to do?
Pass protection was encouraging. Tobin didn’t seem especially out of place, which is much more of a compliment than it sounds.
Pass pro has looked decent all year. We totalled 37yds on the ground for a run first team — that’s sad.
tommy – please post something about the awful running game stats against Carolina – its definitely worrisome when you play a team with better pass rush/defense
Actually, his pass pro the first two games was pretty bad. He and Molk together were overmatched physically. Both he and Molk were at their best in the screen and sweep game. That’s the reason the game plan looked so different for a few games – more short, one read pass plays, and more outside runs. With Kelce and Mathis back, maybe Tobin doesn’t get exposed quite as much as he did with Molk next to him – they both struggled strength-wise against DTs.
Tobin looked good to me. I wonder what game film will show.
I am not so sure it is rust causing the bad snap issues. Foles is significantly taller and while last week the snaps were all too high, this week they were too low— over compensating?
Add Malcolm Jenkins to the list of respected veteran NFL players who claim to have NEVER FELT THIS GOOD AT THIS POINT OF A SEASON BEFORE thanks to Chips secret weapon, Dr “evil” Hulls 😉
…
Had to watch that jackass Gruden make a mockery of our smoothies
..
We dominated that defense without even wearing them down with our run game. I know Star got hurt, but our veterans, Mathis, JP Kelce put on a clinic last night completly dominating young players Kawaan Short and Kony Ealy. They were practically invisible
After watching last night, I think we can all agree: Short and Ealy is not what we want from our Cox.
I’ll laugh only if you promise to stop the jokes!
Cox getting pressure
Cox with the sack.
Oh, man, you’re nuts.
It’s getting hard to take this seriously.
So….shall I start Jordan Matthews in my FF team going forward?
NB: I got Megatron, Fitzgerald, Steve Smith and Mike Wallace….
I’d say yes. Steve Smith seems done. Mile Wallace — is he good — i only follow Landy on that team. And then Fitz is unpredictable. Jordan and Sanchez could be Mac and Foles, or Foles and Riley or Vick and Djax
I am starting 3 WR in my league cause my RBs suck. 😉
I have maclin and I’m trying to think of a way to get Jordan instead. I had foles and now I have Sanchez and I think his chemistry with jordsus is legit. Right now my team is Sanchez – Charles – Jeremy hill- cobb-maclin-rudolph/clay-demarius-eagles d and parkey. I traded gates Lamar Miller odb and sanu for denarius and Jeremy hill. As long as I have no injuries I’m looking good. 14 team league. I’m 9-1
With those WRs you have i think it realy depends on the matchup. Im not sure who.yourother guys are playing next week, but tannehill is hurt and the birds are probably going to need to put up a good amount of points next week playing GB. Maybe Mathews over Wallace depending on Tanehill injury. Also, Carson Palmer is out which will effect Fitz, and he is already having a down year. Goes without saying that you should never sit Megatron.
Considering his chemistry with Sanchez.. I would give Matthews a shot.
Random, but anyone else think with Coles cap hit next year he will be gone and Graham will be resigned. At the start of the season we all assumed Graham would be gone after this year, but he has been looking pretty good recently.
I’m sure they’d love to keep Graham, but I’m not sure we can offer him what a 4-3 team will. That being said, I think Cole gets restructured and sticks around, and Graham is out the door.
..
I’d be willing to bet whatever that BG will sign an extension with the Eagles before he ever makes it to the open market and a 4-3 team even gets to make him an offer…
…
COLE is the question.. BG has played his way into no BRAINER status… It’s one thing to set the edge really well, and get to the QB! It’s another thing entirely to be forcing fumbles every week, balling on SPecial Teams, and finally understanding how to drop in coverage from the Linbacker position. I know the coaches noticed him beautifully drop into coverage and successfully defend Kelvin Benjamin,,
..
BG will be here next year, what his new contract will look like, your guess is as good as mine.
,,
I don’t believe a team that has been rolling over 20mi. In cap space the past few years, planning on resigning its young players is going to let a beast outside Linebacker walk away. Too important of a position and BG is playing it as well as any OLB
..
I have to see us lose a quality young player we drafted and groomed to believe it… Howie been setting himself up for years now, to be able to Extend all his young players… You won’t see too many occassions where teams draft a pass rusher, he plays well, and that team lets him walk. Pass rushers too valuable, cost too much to sign another teams pass rusher. BG not going anywhere. He wants to remain an eagle Badly from my undstanding of it. He is convinced chip will win a Super Bowl and is busting his ass so he can still be here when chip finally delivers the Lombardi…his words, not mine
I think the problem is that we don’t have an OLB that can replace Cole *or* Graham, given where Smith is currently. Maybe he steps up by next season, but as it stands, a FA OLB somewhere is going to get paid to play that spot– Might as well be Graham, if that’s how the market plays out.
Eagles want like 4 quality OLBs, not two…
..
Eagles also have a healthy cap to where they shouldn’t lose anyone they don’t want to lose…
..
Barwin and BG will be here next year, while we pay Macus rookie money. By the time marcus grows into a beast and we have to extend him, BG and Barwins money will be ready to come off the books…ATleast THATS how I see it…
…
I’d be completely SHOCKED if Barwin, BG and Marcus arent all here next year… Possibly even trent Cole or Dion Jordan as a 4th OLB..
..l
If you have two quality OLBs, that’s just not good enough. Too important of a position. Even if our two starters stay healthy all year, you still need ATleast 3 starting quality OLBs…
…
Cole is the question IMO
I think cole looks as young and fresh as ever though.
I know he is old but he is a monster out there I hope we don’t boot him just because of his age number..
I expect us to try and work it out so that we keep COle, but he would have to agree to a renegotiated contract, while also understanding that young players will start eating into his snaps more and more… But it’s not out of the question to see him agree to restructuring so that he can finish his career where it started, competing for a Super Bowl on an elite team..
..
It’s not a lock in my mind that COLE will be here, but I think it’s a lock that we try and work it out with him.
…
Personally I’d like to see COLE/BG Barwin/Marcus all here, rotating fresh bodies next year. I Also believe our front office would like this as well…just need to see if we can pull it off.
..
Marcus is locked into a rookie contract for 4 more years, I’d pay BG, sign him for 4 years, so when it’s time to pay Marcus and give him a new deal, BGs deal will be expiring and his money will free up and we can give it to Marcus since he will be developed into a quality OLB…
..
Even if everyone stays healthy, you need 3 high caliber OLBs..and we have athletes like Barwin and Marcus that can move around, so we can even get all 3 on the field in some subpackages
Our defense is deceptively good. As of now we are holding qb’s to the lowest completion percentage in the league at 57 % which is crazy! We are 21 in total defense but that obviously doesn’t tell the whole story because we have the 3 most plays run against us do to our fast offense. The good news is I think we had the most plays against us by far last year. Finally we are 11 in scoring defense! Can we crack the top 10? probably.
Brings me great joy seeing fans realize our D is not to be messed with. Regardless of what the silly media and rankings tell us
Got to give you props here, GEAGLE, you were the guy saying this D would be strong. I had my doubts. Glad I was wrong.
cheers mate, im just happy fans are getting true Intel now and our young defenders are starting to get the credit the deserve. Drove me crazy hearing such false BS about our defensive personel when I friggin knew better. Nice to be able to have real convos and read real analysis about our defense finally. What’s really absurd is people praise the fraudulent bullshit dallas defense, but don’t give our defense it’s respect. I can’t put into words how much better ouf defense is than Dallas
..
My only regret is I had no idea how antoine Bathea was still capable of such stellar play. Not sure how much the Niners paid him, but he has been one of their best defenders. Had we signed Bathea and Jenkins, we would be scary right now…. But I understand why they wouldnt sign free agents over the age of 30…
…
Youñg defenders keep growing, improving, getting stronger, getting their grown men strength… Upgrade a defensive position or two, and we will go into nexty season with a true philly style defense THATS been missing since then rear Jim Johnson passed away
..
I wanna know who is the eagkes fan with the sick jim Johnson portrait tattoo that you see used in eagkes commercials.
I think they wanted to see Wolff and Allen for a 2nd year thinking Wolff would make the step to the next level. he didn’t and it’s obvious they are moving on from him after the season. So I think we def see a new safety here next year.
We disagree on our CBs, but if they just keep things in front of them – the front 7 will do it’s job. I was reading an article from GB about our team and all they wrote was that our front 7 is doing well, but are undersized. The media and fans in GB think this should be an easy win, and that Sanchez will choke away the game. Not giving us much respect, like the national media.
I think they can go in and take this game. GB is vulnerable and I think our D can get to Rodgers.
We will win on Sunday. They can have the better QB, Im comfortable Goimg into GB as the BETTER TEAM!
..
This is going to be a nerve wrecking high blood pressure battle, but in the end, learning how to overcome adversity and finding new ways to win early in the season when everything was against us, should have us prepared for this battle….going into GB, we won’t win by much, but I’d bet we will no longer be flying under the em radar Monday morning
i’m banging the drum for marshawn if he leaves Seattle. See evidence https://vine.co/v/OiZIzThhwPu. This is every week. SEA is the most efficent run team in the league apparently — they do it with one guy…
Lynch will first leave Seattle when he is done
You can 100% still see Sanchez is more the be in the spotlight guy than Nick
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11860174
I just hope that he will keep on grinding and not let it get to his head (If we go deep in play offs with good play from Sanchez, fans are gonna love him)
He can have the spotlight as long as he wins and doesn’t turn the ball over.
thanks to Fox, really appreciate them vetoing the flexing of the Eagles/Packers game, they tried to get that game flexed to Sunday night, but Fox said no way will they give up Eagles vs. packers…. Soooo didn’t feel like waiting for another night game,,thank you FOX!!
…
If the pros worked the way the BCS does, the winner or Packers vs Eagles would leap frog the Carfinals even if they have 1 fewer loss…. This is a big game this week…homefield advantage implications along with our NFC east race with Dallas…. But more importantly our boys get to measure themselves at this point in the season against anotner powerhouse. Winning this game coulda really spring board us to ending this season on a hot streak like last year
..
Quietly our secondary has played really well this last stretch of 3-4 games… Being able to beat the Packers would be a great confidence boost, and an opportunity for growth for our maligned secondary….. I don’t worry about our outsideCorerbacks. I expect them to play theirs best when the games matter most. …
…
cary Williams, Mr. DECEMBER/January!!!!
wait, wait…. what time is the game now?
i’m kind of hoping for a later game… i might have to miss the first half if it starts at 4 : (
4:25 You get spared an extra 25 minutes which is over a half a quarter, so that’s good
Not so good here. Seahawks are playing late game. Guess which one the local (Seattle) Fox station will be carrying.
4:25 but they wanted to flex it to the night game which I hate. Thankfully Fox wouldn’t give this game up
If the pros worked the way the BCS does, the winner or Packers vs Eagles would leap frog the Carfinals even if they have 1 fewer loss.
Hey, let`s give the second place team 1st!!!!
Works for the second place team!
I think the Cards lose to the Lions this week. I hope not. I want them to get the #1 seed and us get the #2 seed, and if we make it, beat them on their turf in the NFC Championship game.
Yeah thats another BIG GAME. I definitely favor the Lions in that one.. I totally agree about being more then happy to go to arizona in the conference championship, but if we can beat the packers this week, we will be in good position to win #1 seed.
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Eagle-Eye-A-Violent-Display-By-The-D/b0c1cb96-b021-4fd9-88ce-ab87903b07f7
Amongst other things in this article, there’s some glowing praise for Casey Matthews. Shield your eyes.
I went back and looked at all the available plays to watch Tobin. Admittedly, these are all successful plays that are highlighted, so of course he did well, but it’s interesting how they used him. On at least two of pass plays, it appeared that he would initially double team a defender with Kelce, and then instead of firing off to the second level as he would on a run, he darts back and crack/wham blocks the outside speed rusher behind the quarterback. Anyone have insight on if this is scheme, or is this Tobin freelancing?
It did seem like Matthews had a good game. Did you notice he cut off his long hair and is now sporting some kind of crew cut? Maybe he’s a Samson in reverse.
Nosmas?
Took me a minute. Good one.
Roberto Duran?
It’s scheme. Remember Todd blowing up the Giants DE a couple times? Same concept. If it’s only a 4 man rush, the guard who is part of the double team can leave the block if the center has the DT secured. He’s allowed to backtrack on the DE. Alot of times he gets to earhole an unsuspecting player. This serves two purposes. One it provides the T some extra security against an inside move. Secondly it’s going to put the pass rushers head on a swivel and slow him down a half step.
Is this a common thing for guards, or is this a Stoutland/Kelly/Shurmur thing? Can’t say that I’ve spent much time observing guard play before recently.
It’s a fairly common thing to do against 4 man fronts. Especially those without a true terror at DT.
Love Monday night games. National talk about nothing but birds. Problem is all they are talking about is Sanchez. Sanchez was great and I hope he plays lights out, but I don’t care about the jets/eagles and Ryan/Kelly angle.
9 sacks 5 takeaways, complete defensive domination…Sanchez…grrr.
I don’t know if it is optimism, disappointment in Foles, the desire to have a top pick at QB, or what, but an awful lot of people seem pretty eager to crown the new king.
Sanchez is a vet that came to league with great fanfare, Vick 2.0. All NY and ny media thought he was the second coming, then 2 afc championships, people like their previous hope in him to be redeemed, see Mike Green.
Foles is no Kolb though and he will win job back. Sanchez will go to a loser franchise with big bucks, doubt even success could land him a $100 mil contract with eagles.
See Vick 2.0
`Sanchez will go to a loser franchise with big bucks`
Another way of looking at the situation is
think SF with Montana and Young,
possibly that`s what Kelly has in mind,
if one goes down,no worry cause
the backup is just as good.
Walsh twice benched Montana in favor of Young.
Lots of head games went on in SF.
For reasons that seemed to escape outside observers, despite Montana having won 3 SBs, Walsh appeared to prefer Young.
Still was a good problem to have.
and
Montana won 3 SB MVP`s,4 SB`s
So, my question for us all is, if you were doing a power ranking of just defense, where do we stand now?
FO has us 6th in DVOA (defense) after DET, DEN, MIA, BUF, ARI
We are 6th in the NFL based on DVOA
I don’t know the numbers just eye test. I’d put them behind det, SF, seattle, buff, miami, arizona, KC, baltimore, denver might be missing few but around top 10 and trending up.
(Pre rodgers ranking)
Seattles defense is about to take a nose Dive! Running on them was always their Achilles heal, losing Bobby wagner didn’t help, but now the loss of MEBANE is going to cripple them.
..
IMO Seattke losing Mebane, is one of the biggest losses by injury this year. he is only a two down player, but he is crucial to their run defense, especially when Red BRyant decided to leave for Jaxonville…. Good offenses should be able to run on them much easier now, which opens up play action, which will make the aggressive Legion of Boom more vulnerable than they are used to being,…. I can’t wait to go after that team!
do you really think Kelly was not pleased with the offense performance or was he saying that so Nick wouldn’t feel bad.
I mean yes there were yards left on the field but we scored what 31 points?
he couldn’t come out and say hey the offense looked great could he?
that would be bad
I tend to think Kelly says what he thinks. There were some struggles in the run game, and I’m sure he didn’t like the bad throw to Mac.
I think the offense even thinks the same way. Kelce said after the game (before Chip said anything) that he had to play better as well as the line.
This is weird, with the little interaction Lazor had with the media during his time here he came off as a pretty good communicator, then it came out that he and Foles butted heads a bit. I just wrote it off since both of them come off as pretty chill. Now the same thing is coming up in Miami, apparently (not even being linked to previous rumors/”reports” from his time here). http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000427213/article/dolphins-frustrated-by-lack-of-identity-on-offense
“Some weeks, the team is able to air it out and put up almost 40 points, and some weeks they revert to a run-first philosophy”
Sounds like he’s trying to by chip in terms of exploiting matchups but without the foundation of chip set as a running team here.
Supposed to be freezing in GB sunday… Time to rev up the run game, and trample an inferior defense,
..
We should win this game Sunday. Aaron Rogers is a Bad man, and they have a scary offense when it’s clicking, but there is more to football than just offense, and no chance in hell that GB can be considered a better football TEAM than us!.. GB lives and dies by Rogers and their offense.. We are a high caliber team, no one player makes or breaks us, we have proven that we can overcome injuries to important players and still find a way to win.
…
Even if GB offense is better than ours on Sunday, it won’t be by some HUGE margin that we can’t overcome with the help of our superior defense and special teams.
…
We also matchup really well against them on both sides of the trenches, and the past few weeks, game tape shows that we really starting to kick ass in the trenches…
…
GB has the better QB, we have the better TEAM… Going to be a big statement win for the Eagles this week. No more flying UNder the radar. It was nice while it lasted, now it’s time to start bullying our way to the top of this league.
Green Bay’s Run Defense is:
— 30th in Yards Per Game
— 29th in YPC
— 28th in Most Carries Allowed
— 24th in TDs allowed
On the flip side, GB’s Passing Offense . . . Highly Productive only begins to describe it.
Yes sir.. We are much more equipped to stop Lacy than they are at dealing with our run game when it’s clicking…. And when Sanchez gets to play off of a run game, and play action starts working, we,can light this defense up…. mark didn’t get to play off our run game against Carolina and he still did well….run game should provide a big boost to Marks play.
….
I am a firm believer that if you can win the majority of the individual Battles on both sides of the tranches, you win many more games than you will lose….and our DL should give this packer OL some problems, while their DL shouldn’t be too difficult for our OL to handle, just keep Datone Jones in check.
…
If our lineman are winning the battles in the trenches, I assume we will win the game. It’s really THAT important
When this year has our run game been clicking? I hope this is the game.
Sure seemed to click when we pounded the ball up JJ Watts ass during the second half of a game that just happened 2 weeks ago.
..
I don’t know about you, but personally I still view Mathis, Jason Peters, Kelce as ELITE PLAYERS at their position. I think Lane is one of the most promising young Tacles in the game, I think Lane is better then Bahkatari the second year LT of the Packers…that’s 4/5 of one of the best OL when healthy… Tobin is the question mark. Tho he has been growing nicely with every bit of experience he gains…..I also would NOT trade our stable of RBs, for any teams 3 RBs…
…
It’s not like our healthy starting OL hasn’t been able to run the ball. When elite players get hurt, and are replaced with inferior inexperienced young players, probably not logical to expect the same effective run game… Our OL right now is healthier than its been all year, and as long as no more injuries occur, I expect to see this run game get back to elite status this second half of the season…
Green Bay’s Pass Defense — much better than the Run-D (though it’s unclear the effect the run defense’s struggles have on the PD):
— 5th in Interceptions w/ 12
— 6th in Opposing QB Passer Rating
— 8th in TDs Allowed
— 10th in YPG Allowed
— 13th in Completion % (note: abt 10% worse than Birds!!!)
— 14th in Sacks w/ 22 (note: Birds 2nd w/ 32)
Not quite a “Frozen Tundra” Game.
But a game where the Birds should impose their will and pound the rock until GB yells “Uncle Viking”.
YES!!!! LOL Zio VIKING!!!!!!!
Almost though. Weather pic from Wisconsin.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2bKuLXiaX4_ufvvbhyj7uJ_3yc5Rjs767uxb1eU2cGMtQp7h2
The annoying part of this weeks game is Thor. These jerkoffs had to pick the week before they play us to move him inside after all these years? Now we have to spend time preparing for him lining up inside and outside..
…
Did Casey mathews force that early fumble against the Panthers?
…
Thought it wasnt permanent thats what McCarthy said wasnt it?
Yes
Really interesting read, both Adam Caplann and Joe Banner recommended to read it on twitter. Enjoy! Don’t be scared its from the fanatic. Really cool info.
http://www.975thefanatic.com/teams/eagles/2014/11/12/fanatic-blog-joe-decamara-breaks-down-the-eagles-panthers-coaches-tape-after-viewing-it-at-nfl-films
not letting me open link, but I assume this is the article about the past few weeks us starting to dominate in the trenches?
..
We really starting to own the line of scrimmage recently, and IMO, the battle in the trenches is even more critical than the turnover margin.
..
When I look at a matchup, the first thing I do is write down our 5 Offensive lineman, then I look up who the oppoment will mostly lineup across from each of our offensive lineman…. Then I do the same thing with our defensive line. I write down our players, then across from them I write down the offensive lineman each of them will usually find lined up across from them, and I look at every individual matchup in the trenches… If my expectation is that we should win 7,8 out of the 10 individual offensive and defensive lineman matchups, I expect us to kick ass that week…
..
When we face a team and its like a 50/50 split where 5 of our OL have an advantage and 5 of their linemen have an advantage, those for me are the toss up games…
..l
If you are facing a team and we only look like we should win 3 of the 10 matchups, that would make us q bad team.. I don’t think there is any team out there that can win 7/10 individual matchups against us…that’s why I so strongly believe we will grow into an elte team. Our foundation is really sound…lthe trenches are crucial. There is a reason all those big fat guys up front are getting paid millions and millions of dollars
Yes, that is what the article was highlighting. And I agree everything starts up front for Chips offense and defense. Funny how he flat tells people that in coaching seminars and everyday in his press conferences but people just cannot seem to understand him.
According to NFL Network 2 of the Packers’ O linemen did not practice today. For whatever that means. Don’t recall names.
And against the packers?
We have some pretty nice advantages against them, I. Need to look at a few more of their offensive lineman most recent games before I want to speak on it, they have young players who are growing, so I want to take a look at their last 4 games….. I like that we use so many different fronts, with all types of twists, stunts, In addition to A gap blitzes…because we throw so many looks at offenses, we should cause some problems for their rookie center. The Guads TJ Lang, and Josh Sitton aren’t anything special..its a unit that has been playing better its last 4 games, but not a unit that should be able to outclass our extremely under rated front 7
..
They don’t have many elite offensive lineman, and the defender I most respect on their line is Datone Jones…
julius Peppers still has some juice in the tank, Lane will Need to get the best of him like he did vs Kiwanuka…peppers/Thor nice edge rushiñg tandem that should be respected, but by no means should they dominate Lane and JP
..
ill post about the trench matchups in detail tomorrow or Friday, depending on what I get done tonight…
…
Yes, great read. Disagree with the last paragraph though. Imo the Eagles are already legit Super Bowl contenders, no matter win or lose in Lambeau field.
Curious would any of you take trent Murphy over Marcus smith?
Murphy Current Season Stats
Tackles Sacks fumb rec Pass def
14 1.0 1. 1
I would be Soooo against THAT!
OLB or ILB? Because it seems more like the latter than the former which i’m fine with. It’s great to be in a position where you don’t need contributions from your first round pick. And actually Casey Matthews deserves a game ball for what he did in Meco’s absence quiet as it’s kept.
No. Their ceilings aren’t in the same neighborhood.
I get a kick out of chip.
..
Reporters were talking about how Sproles has been so good on punt returns that every team will start kicking it to him on the sodeline,and he won’t be getting any more punts down the middle….as if this is some Giant problem that no coach has ever had to deal with before…Chip calmly responds: “we have schemes for that too”
…
Philly and the Eagles need to campaign to get Sproles his first probowl invite even if it’s just as the probowl ST player. He has been too good for too long, to have never made it to a probowl. We need to get him to the probowl this year!!
..
Special team player of the week, not sure how he doesn’t win it every week
He should be a lock in as punt returner
So disrespectful that he has never been invited to a single probowl. It’s really overdue, our special teams units are so nasty, that they are going to have to give one of our special teams players a probowl invite. Special team is too good to not have it represented in the probowl
..
Did Ike Reese ever get a probowl invite?
2004 PB for I.R.
Which probably means he didn’t play in the game since that was the Super Bowl year.
…
I want the Eagles to campaign for two injustices!
..
Harold Carmicheal being inducted in the hall of fame while he is still alive to witness it, and Tiny grid iron Gangster Sproles finally gets recognized for the elite weapon that he has been for YEARS and gets a much overdue pro bowl nod
Back then, the Pro Bowl was the week after the SB.
So everyone voted in, and not too injured to fly, got the trip to Hawaii — along with wife and family; and even wife, family plus girlfriends
Gotcha…
..
Let me ask you something that’s been bothering me uncle VIKING….Randy Moss was talking about this awesome play with crazy YAC yards he made back in his Marshall days, he said that actually the play shouldn’t have counted because back at those times, you werent allowed to hurdle(jump over) defenders?
…
I Guess I was younger, but I never recall a,time when you weren’t allowed to jump over a defender, what’s up with that?
Was this weird rule just in college, or was it also a rule in the pro game?
http://football.refs.org/rules/NFsummary.html
9-4-2dHurdle an opponent15 yard penalty
Note to self: do not do
yeah 2004 i think
this is probably sproles most impactful year and people thought he was declining and wanted a rookie. People are so quick to jettison veterans when they have all the knowledge and experience. I haven’t heard about any of the rookie guys doing nearly as much as sproles this year. Jenkins is having a career year, barwin, the list goes one. I’ll take old guys all day.
Very much anxious for Sunday. Big opportunity on so many levels.
..
Anxious to see how our Nasty front 7 can effect an elite QB like Rogers. Probably the best test for our front 7 because he is more mobil than BRADY and Peyton. If your front 7 plays well enough, you can make any QB look bad… Should be a great barometer to see where we are at with another month n half worth of growth still ahead of us..
…
It’s also a BIG opporeunify because the conference is as wide open as it will ever be. A win Sunday would mean we own the tiebreaker over the Packers, and no one is enthusiastic about going to the frozen Tunda in January for a playoff game. I also view the Eagles and GB As the two most dangerous teams in the NFC. I didn’t fear the Cardinals even when they had Carson who was having a great season, how can I fear them now that they are counting on Drew Stanton? nice run defense, but they can’t generate any pass rush without blitzing.. I don’t know that you can sustain winning defense if the only way you can generate pass rush is by blitzing…sooner or later you are going to beg burned at the worst time. You have to be able to generate pass rush with 4 players to really be a serious defense… Drew Stanton, and a team that lives and dies by the Blitz IMO isnt giong to withstand the MARATHON season as a top team. seattle, San Fran, these aren’t the same juggernauts they were, I expect this division to beat up on each other, so we should have a good chance of finishing with a better record than who ever ends up winning that division….
..
So, my thinking is that come late December, we will be jockeying with the Lions or Packers for homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. We win this game on Sunday, and there will be a good shot that if we have to beat this team again this year, it will be in our house!
..
I have a feeling that sunday will be a preview of this years NFC championship game.. Win Sunday, improves odds of that championship game taking place in philly.
..
All I know is that if we are going to host playoff night games at the Linc like last year, we have to go with the BLACK OUT again! We suffered some demoralizing playoff losses thru the years in our white and green Jerseys….but the ALL BLACK EAGLES are undefeated…if we get homefield throughout, we can dictate the colors we wear, and in that case, I want to see the Eagles ride the ALL Blacks all the way to The Super Bowl… Have an all black playoff run!
Eagles are undefeated in the playoffs in their original Kelly green uniforms.
I’m down to break out the original kelly greens for the playoff run lol
Anyone else find it strange that this late in the season a Bills-Dolphins game matters?
A little. I watched a bit of the Detroit-Miami game last week. Really not all that bad. Corner Grimes was beaten by Calvin J in spite of covering him like his jersey, but not always.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P61Z6baWOXw
This was an awesome play.
D-E:
Strange may be a relative function of time.
Direct function more likely. I was thinking back to a time when it was Kelly v. Marino. But that’s the last time I recall both teams being relevant.
I have enjoyed watching the Bills defense since last year,, and with Miami improved defense, this is the first time I’m looking forward to a bills/Dolphins game… With that said, the Patriots are ultimate the only team coming out of that division this year… The bills defense is no joke tho, they would be scary if Kiko was healthy
[…] Tommy Lawlor of Iggles Blitz offers his thoughts on Sanchez: […]
[…] Tommy Lawlor of Iggles Blitz offers his thoughts on Sanchez: […]