Here Come the ‘Hawks
Posted: December 7th, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 70 Comments »Seattle comes to town for a big game on Sunday. I’m having a hard time figuring out what I think of this game. The Eagles have the better record and have been the better team this year, but Seattle is hot and they have the #1 defense in the league. You can really make an argument for both teams.
I think the Eagles defense could be the key to this game. They shut down Dallas last week. Can they do anything close to that this week? Tony Romo was a mess in that game. Russell Wilson is healthy and can be a dynamic playmaker at times, but most of that comes on broken plays. Take those away and make him play from the pocket. Wilson suddenly isn’t the same level of player.
The only QB to really shred the Eagles recently was Aaron Rodgers. He’s arguably the top QB in the league and can beat you from the pocket or on the run. He also has some terrific WRs. Seattle has limited weapons. Make Wilson sit between the tackles and make those WRs beat you on conventional plays. Don’t let them be creative. That’s when you’re in trouble.
How is Eagles Nation feeling about this game? Confident?
I’ll post my game preview on Sunday morning.
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Honestly, I do fear the Seahawks. But I also truly believe Chip knows his adversary well. Hopefully, Eagles’ players execute Chip’s game plan effectively.
Look for lots of repetition of the same effective run play. Then misdirection for a touchdown. On defense, look for lots of innovation on secondary coverage and DL stunts.
Eagles absolutely have to establish the run game. To do this, Chip must show some new run schemes. I like a 22 formation with one RB rolling to the flat and the other either getting the ball or blocking for a pass to Coop or Matthews.
I expect to be hoarse and more than a little drunk at the end of the first half. Hope I can survive the game…..
Great post and thanks for providing that article.
I really need some fantasy advice for the fantasy playoffs. Which 3 do I start in a standard 14 team league. Kenny stills, Jordan matthews, Fred Jackson and Jeremy hill?
JMatt. Why? Because I am starting him too. Hope that’s enough of a reason.
JMatt will be our leading WR today…book it
I’d sit Jackson of those four. Matthews would be the next I’d sit.
This is out of the Philly-Dallas sibling rivalry and hosting the World Champs, who are starting to play like the World Champs again.
I’m more concerned with the O than the D because of the opposition. Football Outsiders pass pro ratings suggested the Hawks (like the Iggles only more so) are best on the no. 1 receiver and worst on the TEs, which may change for the Hawks with Bobby Wagner getting back. That may mean getting Ertz on the field more for this one for vertical routes, and Sproles more screens. The line and Shady have to do their best with his touches.
GAME DAY MOFOS!!!! LETS DO THIS!!!
“confident?”
kind of (this is said with confidence).
line’s at -1. feel the hawks haven’t earned that line with their body of work this season. you can’t say for sure that on a neutral field seattle is better than philly.
that being said this is one hell of a test for both teams. you’ll really learn a lot about both teams after this one. a very good measuring stick game.
Yes, it would be the best to see the CB and the defense lead this win by forcing three and outs and getting off the field frequently and let Sproles PR a few. We win if we keep SEA under 20. Use Sproles to open the inside of the field for Shady
My family in the NW is worked up for this game. My 49er fan neighbor will cheer the green today. Honestly if I was given an option of loosing one of the last 4 games I would pick this one.
It just feels like Seattle is more desperate.
That said, I think our defense can limit the run and keep Wilson in the pocket and force him to win the game in the air.
The key to this game will be ST and limiting the turnovers.
The coaches played each other once in the Pac10, and Kelly whipped Carroll 47-20. The Seahawks run a simple scheme and win with better athletes and good execution. That’s USC.
Carroll wins by taking advantage of a talent disparity. There is none today. Chip wins by out smarting and adjusting. Birds at home , 30-17.
I hope you’re right. I still give Seattle’s back 7 on defense a slight advantage talent wise. ST need to show and prove this game. I live in the Northwest and can’t wait for this game.
Well said. Truth!
I just tossed a German coin and it landed on its Eagles head. Guess that’s a sign…?
Fliegen Adler fliegen!!!
i just flipped a coin also and it landed on an idaho state quarter tails, not sure what that means.
I just faked like I was going to flip a coin. Sherman had his eyes on me and Maclin ran right by him when he flinched at my fake.
Hall of Fame post.
Nice one mate.
Do not let Lynch get into the secondary. Tackle him at the line of scrimmage or it’s gonna be a long day.
some good secondary talent in this years draft. 6-7 really good db/s should be 1st round picks.too bad the iggles will be picking at no. 32.
go eagles!!
When people talk “matchups” why is it that the most important matchups barely ever get talked about? Battle of the trenches is EVERYTHNG. last week I promised that a Dallas OL with two Pigeons, Free and Ronald leary was going to get its ass kicked by our DL, and I expect a similar outcome today…
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Seattles OL also has two pigeons, which means we will win this battle all day, rookie RT Justin Britt and backüp center Lemuel Jenpierre, who should really struggle with presnap communication and protection at the noisy Lincoln financial field…
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Seattle pass rushers Bennett, Bruce and Avril should have. Tougher time against JP and Lane, than Barwin, COle Nd BG have against rookie Britt and Russel Okung…
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But our biggest advantage is smack in the middle of the trenches which has a trick.e down effect on the rest of the play, the battle of center vs. NT is very important especially when two potent Run games are squaring off. Kelce and Mathis should dominate with red bRyant gone and Mebane injured… Where as on the other side, Bennie Logan is going to dominate Lemual JeanPierre all game…
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Who cares about RBs, WRs, QBs, when we have the advantage at the Line of scrimage? Win the LOS, and we win the game…
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We also have the most Discaplined pass rush in the NFL, that do a great job at rushiñg as a unit, I’d bet we have one of the DLs best equipped to keep Wilson in the pocket like we did to Cam and KAp…keep wilson in the pocket,
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We win comfortably today.. eagles score in the 27-31 Range, seattle scores in the 16-23 range,,, Eagles win, thanks to our Ol and DL stepping up and whooping the defending champs In the trenches
I just have to say, the random umlauts and tildes in your writing are amusing typos, but I have seen Discaplined at least three times now, and it is my favorite typo.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=discaplined
I have no idea why all of the sudden two weeks ago, my spell check adds them all them time. It does it so frequently and I have no clue what happened to make them all Of the sudden start popping up in all my posts… Weird
You’ve been hacked by a Seattle fan who works at Microsoft but moonlights with Apple.
I see today as a loss. Not a crushing defeat, but a close one. I see an upper teens / low twenties type game. Maybe 20-16 Seattle or something of that nature. Here is what I’m afraid happens today :
– Shady isn’t content with getting 5 or 6 yards as our line beats Seattle’s line and starts dancing early and has way too many 1 or 2 yard efforts.
– Sanchez gets baited into a really dumb INT by Seattle’s DBs
– The D plays really well, but the Seahawks get Lynch isolated on Matthews or Allen on swing passes on multiple occasions resulting in some big gainers down the field and/or for TDs
– Wilson extends a few plays with his feet and finds Bradley Fletcher’s or Nate Allen’s man downfield wide open for a long TD.
Now I don’t see all of this happening, but I think two or three do and costs us a close game.
Biggest difference between this seattle defense and last years was this defense lost a lot of its depth… They don’t have as many DL to rotate into a game like they had last year, so if we can move the chains early, not rack up penalties we will be able to implement our tempo in the first half which should really hurt a team that lacks bodies to rotate into the DL… Move the chains in the first half, keep the penalties down on offense and our tempo will destroy this front line by the second half and we can really pull away…for the win…
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Important that we are able to sustain first half drives so we can use our tempo..
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A gassed and worn down defense in the second half will press too hard to make plays, that our boys in “Eagle shape” can take advantage of and blow the game open in the second half
You cannot allow Seattle to substitute D linemen. Make them run their asses off horizontally and by pass rushing in the 2nd qtr.
Let’s see hands on hips and barfing!! You know, like in the Duck game Friday.
That is SO the key point in no huddle. Not that it’ll confuse Seattle, but rather it will fatigue them and not allow them to match up with substitutions.
On a positive note; here are a few things that could win the game for us today:
– Matthews destroys Seattle up the middle if they’re down a CB
– Sproles / Shady 2 RB formations stress Seattle’s LB / S group in pass coverage
– Sproles goes bonkers in the punt return game
As good as the seattle defense is, I bet we see chip scheming our weapons open running down the field… The OL should give Sanchez the protection to find the open Weapons chip “schemes open”…
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Seattle offense on the road is nothing special.. I bet our Offense can do a little better against their defense, then their offense can do against out defense..and if it’s close, our big advantages in the special teams should tilt things in our favor… Punt return for TD is coming this week!
You might see Huff make some big plays. This could be his day.
Can he avoid fumbling please.
I’d love to see him bust Chancellor. He’s a real tough kid who stands up to “big meanies”. I expect him to rise to the occasion today as he has many, many times before his pro days. It is time for him to make a statement.
Right with you. These are the keys.
What I like about this game, is we can probably count on our young defenders being fired up for this game. They barely get any respect, going up against the most respected defense in the League…our young defenders know that if they outplay the seattle defense TODAY, respect and Noteriety is THEIRS!! Expect a hungry, jacked up defense that will use the Super Bowl champs as their coming out party…. We can kick all the Titans, and Texans teams ass we want, but these are the opportunities to take that next step, and I expect some hungry youñg players foaming at the mouth for some respect today..
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Our Special Team unit is going to score today, seattle special teams coverage is pathetic.. Besides Sproles scoring a punt return, hopefully we can continue to win the field position, give us short fields against Seattle Defense, and make the struggling SEAHAWK defense go the length of the field all game
Seahawks may be hot, but the Eagle’s lines are hotter.
“Hot” for the seahawks is like scoring 17 points and holding their opponent to 9… Doubt that happens to an Eagles team whos Special teams will probably out score the offense of Seattles last two opponents that they got “hot” against…
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I’d be worried in seattle… But it’s pretty clear that the eagles have been better at home, than seattle has been on the road…
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Sure Bobby Wagner is a nice MLB, but who cares who the LB is if they don’t have Mebane to occupy Kelce and keep him from going to hunt linebackers at the second level
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Wagner is a stud LB, but I’d take our stud center against any LB…wagner is no exception. We handle Keachly just fine..
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Sure KJ is an awesome LB, who can run and cover as well as any LB, but no LB is really any match for Sproles when he is going out to catch passes… Ertz also should be able to do some damage down the seam this week.
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Expecting to see Sproles and Ertz get a lot of snaps this week, wonder if Cooper will see decreased snap count this week
As a fanbase, you would think we would have learned how important the center position is, and how hard it is to overcome injuries at the center position, considering it Practicalky cost us the Niners game..
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Bennie Logan is one of the best young NT in the game, today he faced the 4th center to start for seattle in the last two months, how is the 4th center going to stop a beast like bennie at the Linc, when the noise will make it hard for the inexperienced center to communicate with the starting seattle OL
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I haven’t seen too many effective RBs overcome their center getting his ass kicked by the opposing NT all day.. Lemuel JeanPierre will be outclassed by Bennie, then he will start to press, the noise will effect his communication and that’s when home starts committing false start and holding penalties that should really hurt an offense that struggles to score,,,
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Our NT will be too dominant IMO for seattle pffense to overcome it and put up enough points against the Eagles..
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And we haven’t even talked about the pigeon rookie Britt, starting at RT against BG/Barwin or the fact that LT Okung is scheduled for surgery after the season…
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Our DL/Front 7 and our Special teams should be the difference between these two playoff teams, especially when we are a much better home team, then they are on the road
These are the matchups to watch. Bennie will be a monster today.
Today’s GAMECHANGER, none other than B Dot Grizzle!
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With Earl Thomas in the building and all the crap BG had to endure over us not drafting Earl, BG puts his middle fingers in the air today, goes out and DOMINATES, forcing ATleast 1 fumble
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NFL sack leader Barwin vs, Rookie NT Britt, Barwin going to put on a show,
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Bet Seattle will miss probowl center Max Ungar today, when the 4th center to start for them the past two months Lemuel jean pierre gets completely dominated by bennie logan
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Cox and Ced will outclass Carpenter and Sweezy
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COLE will face the most resistance against Okung, but he made an impact against Tyrn Smith, you can bet he will make plays against theLT playing thru injury that needs surgery after the season….
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Our DL is so much better than this current Seattle OL. Not only do we win most of the individual matchups but we are scary good at home and the noise will effect this banged up seattle OL….. And Seattles DL does not have this type of advantage against our OL
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The trenches are thie difference in why we are the better team today..
Who cares about the secondary when you get your ass kicked in the trenches all day?
Barwin is not the NFL sack leader.
NFC
Unrelated to our game today I’d like to thank Fox 29 FOR NOTHING in terms of the 1 PM game. We’re being compelled to watch the dumpster fire Titans vs. the apex of human scum New York Giants.
STOP SHOWING NY GAMES IN PHILLY! For playoff considerations (and for WAY more people’s fantasy rosters) the better game to show on Fox would be New Orleans / Carolina.
Any deference paid to the New York fan base if Philadelphia is wholly unacceptable and needs to be stopped immediately. New York fans literally are the worst people in the sports universe and their only role in life is to watch their team lose, get knocked out when they attempt to act like Philadelphia is New York when they’re down here, and hopefully die miserable deaths.
In either case, I’m sick of CBS and Fox not showing the best game and instead taking a illogical “regional” approach to broadcasting.
Hopefully Eli is rewarded with a neck breaking chop to his spinal column by a Titans defender today.
I think the key to the game will be whether or not our defense can bring down Lynch. The penetration will be there. We need our LB’s and safeties to come up big and stop Lynch. If we do that, I think we can win. There is money to be made for our offense in the run game and in coverage with JMatt/Ertz vs their linebackers.
I’m more worried about you missing tackles on Lynch on swing passes.
We seem to be suckers for wheel routes. I think our pass rush will make a difference though.
A few weeks back, i had a strong premonition about the Green Bay game that it would, unfortunately, look a lot like last year’s Denver game – all our weaknesses exposed, blowout, embarrassment. (There’s a post to prove it somewhere).
This week, for whatever reason, I have a similar feeling but the other way. We are going to blow the Seahawks out of the stadium on the order of 45-17. Seattle will kindly cough up about 4-5 turnovers for us. The Superbowl hype will reach extreme proportions for a week or so.
And, yep, that premonition is guaranteed (or your money back).
Hey, that’s good enough for me
I really hope that happens my friend.
Yeah I don’t think this will be a close game… Expect to blow it open and pull away in the second half…
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Seattle has the better defense, our offense, special teams is much better than theirs, and our Defense is also pretty damn good at home.
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Eagles win by double digits
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No team on our schedule the rest of the way can beat us in the trenches so I expect to run the table… A big win today should launch us into. Nice late season run
Teddy Bridgewater is having his best game so far. Gotdam, I wish we had got him instead of Marcus Smith, now. Second TD throw was a beaut in terms of pocket working, fast trigger arm, and standing for that bit hit.
I dig Bridgewater’s game from the neck up. He has a great fundemental understanding of football.
Remember I’m sort of lukewarm on him, because he doesn’t have a huge arm, just enough like Ryan and Luck. But he’s really really, technically proficient, and more so than Luck, it seems to me.
Got some good news boys!
IT’S BLACK SUNDAY!
That is good! What is not good is the score of some of these games so far.
The NFC South is a joke. There will be a team in the playoffs with a losing record.
But it had better not be Carolina. I f-ing cannot stand Scam Newton.
Same here. New Orleans has been hard to watch this season.
Rather face Cam in the playoffs than Brees or Ryan.
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What I like about the pathetic south division, is that the one time Dallas will finish better than 8-8, they still won’t make the playoffs because of a six win team in the south bwahahahaha
Dude!! Yes!!!!!!!!
Hype!!!
ODB. What a beast.
F him. F the Giants.
Ahaha I know but I get shades of Marvin Harrison when I see the guy.
I hope Malcom Jenkins gives him shades of B-Dawk and Ike Hilliard when we play the Giants in week 17!
hell yea!
That hit has been scrubbed from the internet. I really cannot find it anywhere.
Seattle will really need big fat Kevin Williams against our run game with Mebane out.. Kelce and Mathis handle the big man, and he is a prime candidate to succumb to our tempo,.. Kelce and mathis need to move him in the run game early on in drives, but don’t let him sub out and by the end of the drive he will be gasping for air and we can easily run him over late in drives that we used our tempo…. Have a feeling we will have a second half offensive explosion and this games wont be close at the end… Big win, while the we want dallas Chants fill the stadium