The Morning After
Posted: December 21st, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 233 Comments »I’ve tried to write something for a while now, but I’m really struggling. I’m very down because of the loss, but there’s also this weird feeling of disbelief. Did the Eagles really lose? Is the season really over?
If Dallas loses both today and next week…and the Eagles beat the Giants, Philly will win the division. But we all know that even Dallas, king of December debacles, isn’t going to lose the last 2. Just won’t happen.
So the Eagles play next week to figure out if we’re a 9-win team or a 10-win team. Barf.
I’m not filled with rage and screaming “Cut Bradley Fletcher, cut Mark Sanchez”. I’m just sitting here disappointed that this team with so many good players and so many likable guys came up so small in such big games. A lot of this is on Sanchez and Fletcher, but they are far from alone.
Please don’t fall into horrible cliches about how this team lacked toughness or heart. The Eagles made mistakes. Being off-target with a pass or field goal has nothing to do with heart. For all of Bradley Fletcher’s issues, there is no lack of toughness, either physically or emotionally.
It is like the 2014 Eagles were infected with sloppiness sometime during the summer and it plagued them all year. The problem is that I don’t know how you fix that. Obviously the coaches don’t either. No matter what they’ve tried, the mistakes keep happening. Maybe the players tried too hard. The Eagles established themselves as a good team last year. They wanted to take the next step and be a great team this year.
You try to make plays that you didn’t the year before. You’re more comfortable in the schemes so you feel like you can relax mentally and be more aggressive. Whatever it was, the Eagles lost their edge and the mistakes came every single week. They overcame the mistakes most of the year, but not the last 3 weeks.
I still fully believe in Chip Kelly and the core of this team. Obviously changes will be made in the offseason. Heck, if Dallas wins today and officially eliminates the Eagles, you could see some changes next week. Would you consider playing Jaylen Watkins at CB to see what he could do? Let Josh Huff start over Riley Cooper. Or put Huff in the slot and slide Matthews outside. Get Marcus Smith some reps as a backup OLB. And you also have the possibility of playing Matt Barkley. Do we need to see more out of Sanchez?
Kelly may stick with the current starters as a reward for the fact they earned those jobs. Even with nothing on the line (for either team), you want to stick with your best so young players know nothing will be given to them. That will all be determined this week.
* * * * *
I’ll discuss the actual game later on. That seems less relevant than the state of the team right now.
Here’s my attempt at dark humor from Twitter last night.
I'm seriously starting to doubt the Eagles will win the Super Bowl this year.
— Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) December 21, 2014
_
yup.
thers less than 10 comments total on all the regular ..ah ill just shat up also.
don’t feel so good/lost job and wife having an operation.
fu ck life.
Disappointing, very much so. Buy I don’t see how one can continue to “fully believe in Chip Kelly.” Believe he’s capable, sure. But the past 3 games raise a lot of questions about his ability to successfully coach (meaning win a SB) in the NFL.
Pete Carroll was 7-9 and 7-9 his first two years as HC for the Hawks.
Yeah. Carroll needed time to get his players and build his team. Same thing here nothing different. We were just spoiled sooner than usual because of the first year success. Honestly what difference does it make if we are a 10 win or 9 win team this year. It is still a failure in my eyes. Same as winning 11 and not making the playoffs. Doesn’t matter either way. Hopefully year 3 of Chip Kelly we will see more roster turnover and there will be more positives out of the 2014 draft class.
Agreed. Finding that QB is the key, prior to Wilson it wasn’t looking too hot in SEA. We’ll see what they decide to do this offseason at that position. Does he still believe in Foles, or is he convinced that Mariota is the guy – if so then you may have to do whatever it takes. This year will be a crucial draft either way.
I can’t make anything close to that call until I see how this off-season and next season go. If I need to give a rookie 3 years to fully mature, I’ll have to do the same for Chip. There are mistakes there on his part for sure, but I want to see how he adapts.
Not really… Yeàr 1 and 2, we are playing with house money… Chip had more instant success than he should have ever had, and it FOCKED up fan expectations… YEÀR 3 is when you start holding head coach accountable and expect him to produce,
.,
Even if we didn’t make the playoffs umder chip the first two years, it’s ok, new coaches need to start producing in year 3. I believe in chip as much as ever, but he needs to be treated like every other head coach, which means year 3, you have to start producing, and by year 4 and 5 you should have built a Super Bowl contender that ATleast gets you to a conference title game… No matter how much we love and believe in chip, it’s only fair to hold him to the same standards as we would any coach
I’m pretty sure Chip wasn’t on the field missing field goals or getting torched by Jackson on the corner. But maybe I’m wrong.
Interesting that you bring up Jackson there.
Interesting that you still are crying about Jackson – how much has he helped DC this season?
I do wonder why I havnt seen any cut Parkey tweets or posts yet? Had it been Henery who missed two FGs who essential eliminated us from the play offs, I think he would have been lynched on the parking lot
Rookie gets slack.
Do Huff and Marcus Smith gets slack?
Huff does for lack of production, but not for fumbles. No player at any stage of their career should be fumbling.
Smith didn’t choose to be drafted earlier than he should have. I don’t rip him for not contributing as a first rounder should in year one because he wasn’t really a first round draft pick. And I’m a fan of Smith, but I liked him better at least a round later. So I won’t rip his lack of contribution either.
Any Parkey has hit big kicks all year, yesterday was an abberation, Henery was non-stop with limp-legged kicking.
If a fan is stupid enough to rip a first round pick for not playong, he should be dumb enough to rip second and 3rd round picks from not playing… People treat 1st round picks like they are gold, but In reality, you should be draftng Serious NFL starters with all your top 100 picks.
..
Marcus will be fine, no reason to be down on the young man..l. But whatever, My Mission to civilize is over, people want to be jackasses, have at it, I promise not to infringe on any more fan rights to be stupid..lol
I was wondering if the groin injury was bothering him.
He was totally healthy from what I know.
Kickoff depth has been lacking for a couple weeks now. He’s clearly not 100% yet.
Non issue according to the head coach.
http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/update/24862260/chip-kelly-says-cody-parkeys-groin-problem-a-non-issue
Rookie with a groin injury who had been automatic all year gets a pass for one game.
Parkey has been great all season and made some big kicks. He had a bad game at a bad time (maybe due to injury), but he manned up and took responsibility. Henery had established a track record of missing big kicks and hurting the team when it mattered – it wasn’t an anomaly.
It’s stupid and shortsighted to call for a guy who’s been consistently excellent to be cut based on one lousy game under possibly mitigating circumstances, and even Eagles fans aren’t that stupid and shortsighted. That’s why you haven’t seen such tweets or posts.
“It’s stupid and shortsighted to call for a guy who’s been consistently excellent to be cut based on one lousy game under possibly mitigating circumstances, and even Eagles fans aren’t that stupid and shortsighted. That’s why you haven’t seen such tweets or posts.”
Thats why we are seeing posts about Kelly is worse than Kottie, why Davis should be fired or how Smith is already a bust, because Eagles fans are never shortsighted?
Fair point – the “Kelly is worse than Kotite” posts are just as stupid, and I think the “Marcus Smith is a bust” ones aren’t far behind.
With Davis, OTOH, it’s getting to the point where his failures are becoming patterns. I don’t think it’s out of bounds to question whether he should still have a job given his handling of the secondary.
I don’t think anybody said Kotite Kelly is worse than the original, just that they both led the Eagles to epic collapses. I will continue to call the coach Kotite Kelly until he redeems himself.
Yup. And Henery rarely took responsibility, saying he thought he did well or blaming the wind or something.
Parkey can do know wrong in my eyes. After what we had to endure year after year with Henery. Parkey is G.O.D.
Well there you are: Doubting Thomas!
E-A-G-L-3-S IGGLES!
“You try to make plays that you didn’t the year before. You’re more comfortable in the schemes so you feel like you can relax mentally and be more aggressive. Whatever it was, the Eagles lost their edge and the mistakes came every single week.”
Those types of mistakes come from a a lack of effort, focus, heart, drive, attention to detail, etc. Teams that want to not stay in that type of rut don’t stay in that type of rut.
I always admire your strength of being humble and down to earth after such embarrassing Eagles losses.
However what I would like you to do is re-assessing your take re our current DC because his stubbornness is one of the biggest culprits of this meltdown. I am in the ‘upgrade Billy D.’ corner, also after sleeping over this loss from last night.
Can Davis be upgraded? Yes, but is it realistic? No
Would you take Ed Donatell from San Fran? He’s their LBs coach, but wasn’t allowed to talk to us by Harbaugh when Kelly was looking for DCs.
DBs coach, sorry.
I do not know enough to say anything about that.
He was a name on our list prior to Davis and is well liked by a few NFL guys (Pat Kirwan especially) who I trust.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2013/2/6/3960476/eagles-defensive-coordinator-search-49ers-blocking-ed-donatell-from
This does a nice job.
My point was that even with all that info, do we have any clue how good he will be a calling a game?
At least half the battle as a DC is calling the game.
I think he comes from a better track record of success at moving players in and out of a lineup to continue to breed success than Davis ever has. The Niners continued to play a ton of great D for the past 4 years even though they had a lot of guys go in and out of that lineup and roster.
Davis learned most of his stuff from Dick Lebeau and Dom Capers.
“Learned” or “worked under?”
any difference?
I think so because Lebeau (usually) and Capers (some times) had units ranked way higher than those put out there by Davis in multiple stops. He just might be out of his depth as a DC.
My point, we cant expect any assistant to be good just because he learned from good people
Only one way to find out.
Donatell is not responsible for those decisions in SF, though. Vic Fangio is. And Donatell’s track record when he does have that level of responsibility isn’t great (he was the DC for the Packers when the Freddie Mitchell 4th-and-26 catch happened). Buyer beware.
Why is it not? Do you think it’s because of the lack of alternatives or because Chip won’t fire Billy?
I wouldn’t confuse Chip not ripping people in public with Chip not firing people if need be.
We will see how loyal he is. He did hire Davis in the first place.
Combination. Remember this defense did actually improve a lot since last year. So are we really basing his firing on 2 games?
Next week we will be talking about 4 losses in a row.
I haven’t seen anything from Davis to change my position on him from when he was hired that he is a mediocre coach
Do you think if Rex were canned from the Jets (as is rumored) that 1. Chip would have an interest or 2. Rex would have an interest in coming here as DC?
I think Rex wants to stay as a HC if possible and some team like the Dolphins could 100% hire him.
We lost a game where mark sanchez threw for more yards than the entire skins offense raćked up…. If I were to tell you sanchez is going to throw 53 passes today, raise your hand if you think there is any chance he won’t turn the ball over?
…
I understand the Secondray is infuriating to people, but people also have to understand we are watching a stop gap secondary, that we put in place so we could dump real assets into building the front 7. Fortunately we are only an ILB(Erik Kendricks away from our front 7 in place) so they can focus on building the Secondary this offseason. I hate watching the secondary sodomize us all season, but I understood we didn’t get to THAT part of the PROGRAM BUILDING yet….I’m way way way more alarmed and dissapointed with the Offensive Line…l understood why they would struggle with all the injuries early, but Kelce, mathis, have been back for weeks. Our OL was supposed to be a strength, they needed to step up and play that way down the stretch and they shit the bed. I’m PRAYING Gardner losing his individual MATCHUPS had trickle down effects that screwed the rest of the linem but I haven’t been watching close enough the last few weeks to really know..
..
I see people complain about the WR position, and while it certainly looked like we missed Desean, we aren’t done the reconfiguring of the WR position left. Chip was always going to transition from Andy era WRs to Chips own WR’s, I suspect that after this offseason we will start to get a better idea of chips vision at WR
…
Brandon Graham had a much better game than fans think yesterday, fortunately he didn’t have the sexy stats to match…
Agree with you on oline, that is biggest area of concern to me. Can only hope that Kelce injury was something that still held him back, but with the surgery and a full offseason he will come back big time. I remember him saying it had bothered him for awhile before it finally tore.
From what I could tell it just seemed like every play a different guy would screw up, it wasn’t all Gardner. There was a real problem getting to the second level.
I think what has not been talked about enough is McCoy. He made one cut last night that looked like vintage McCoy. I can count on one hand how many times this year McCoy made a cut like that. Last year it was almost every other play, even if it was just to get back to line of scrimmage. Perhaps it was vintage McCoy making the oline look great last year and not the other way around. If vintage McCoy is never coming back then the oline needs to be improved (right up there with the secondary).
Jesus Christ people.. Bill Davis isn’t being fired… WTF is wrong with people. Please don’t respond to this post, Im not going to engage in a stupid discussion that isn’t at all realistic… As if chip doesn’t know that Billy is playing with stop gaps Nate, Bradley and a bunch of young 4th and 5th round picks in the backend . You get what you pay for in life. Nate hit the open market, NO ONE WANTED HIM, so we brought him back, why would you expect anything special from him?
…
When you are given lemons, best you can do is make lemonade. You can’t squeez lemons into Champaign…smh
You are right, Billy was given lemons and the best you can do with that is make lemonade. To me, that means giving someone like Fletcher help and not letting him get exposed in press man w no safety help against faster WRs like he always does. I feel like Billy took lemons and instead of making lemonade just made the main course for the meal be toasted lemons. And, that’s not the best you can do with lemons.
Brad has gotten plenty of help.. The problem is that Russel Wilson and Romo had good games and burnt us away from the double team, so when we stopped doubling, that’s when they came back and took advantage of single coverage of Bradley
And that’s when you have to win your one on one. You can’t get help the entire game. Have to step up and make a play on your own every once in a while. If you can’t, then you will be replaced.
I see what you’re saying. And, Davis said the same thing after the Dallas game. He started out giving help to whoever was covering Dez and Witten started to kill them so they adjusted and Dez killed Fletcher one on one. I get that. But, the execution of the logic left some to be desired. It’s not all or the other. You can go single high, but that safety has to know that his main concern is helping Fletcher not get torched by Dez. Dawkins said the same thing. And, he called our defensive strategy “completely baffling.” He went on to say that of course you have to mix up coverage and your CBs have to go man to man every once in a while, but that in his time they would never have continued to let Fletcher get torched one on one with no one coming over the top to help him.
We do have to be realistic here. It’s was painfully obvious after the Seattle game that we were not capable of beating good teams.
If Foles improves next year and we upgrade at CB and LB, maybe we’ll have something.
It may be best to miss the playoffs. It would be really bad to host GB in a playoff game and get embarrassed on national TV (again).
True, we aren’t good enough to beat good teams. But we were 9-4 and poised to go 12-4 with wins over a Dallas team we just waxed by 22 and putrid Washington and NYG squads.
We were on pace to beat Arizona or Detroit in a wild card game here before losing at Green Bay in the division round.
And that would have been a perfectly fine level of progress from last year’s 10-6 division title.
“Good” in the NFC stops at Green Bay and Seattle right now.
“If Foles improves next year and we upgrade at CB and LB, maybe we’ll have something.”
I agree these are the keys.
The QB job needs to be earned in camp this year. I don’t know who the cast of characters they’ll put out there to compete with Foles will be, but the job must be earned rather than given.
If FOles isn’t playing, no point in going to playoffs with sanchez. ATleast if Nick lost in the playoff he would get such valuable experience… Rather not risk any more injury to important young players playing games that don’t really matter.
..
We were never good enough to beat all the top teams straight up and go on a playoff run, but if we could gain enough momentum in Defember and go into the playoffs hot, maybe we could have gone on an impressive run…..but no point in limping into the playoffs like this..
…
I don’t agree. QB be damned; winning begets winning. Having this division being won by the Eagles each and every year is an appropriate starting point for future growth.
Great point. The only way a playoff loss is helpful is if Foles learns from it. Sanchez losing would just waste our time.
I don’t see it that way. There are 45 other guys who need to learn how to play in the playoffs.
Your point is valid, I’m not going to argue.
As is yours about Sanchez being a dead end.
You aren’t wrong… I’m just emotionally drained and look forward to seeing Sanchez never QB an eagle team again….. Lol i should go back and cut n paste archives from all the overeactions Of Eagkes fans to sanchez after the Texans win..l shame on anyone who ever thought he could possibly be a better option than Nick….
..This is why being a prisoner or the moment most likely means your viewpoint Will prove to be incorrect. You don’t overreact to a game or two
Technically other young players can gain experience, but that’s not worth watching our beloved team get Embarressed at home…mrather go home, lick our wounds and let these players go into the offseason with a bad taste in their mouth
But I don’t think we would have lost at home to either Detroit or Arizona. The loss would have been in Green Bay in the division round.
Megatron and Golden Tate against this secondary would be a disaster.
Bad o-line. Bad road team. Also have a turnover prone QB. No run game either so we’d be selling out to stop the run less.
Even if we win a game with sanchez, a gruesome end to this season is inevitable. ATleast FOles has that IT factor to where he can get hot and who knows what would happen… Sanchez is not Nick Foles
I know people don’t see it, but I’ll bet you any amount of beer Nick proves to be one of the special ones
I’d take a 82-2 loss at Seattle or Green Bay on division weekend over where we sit right now.
I’m not yet totally sold on Foles – this season was clearly a step back for him. But there is no question he has more upside than Sanchez. Sanchez’s ceiling in a game is “he did a good job managing the game and made some nice throws”. Foles’ ceiling in a game is “WOW.” He just needs to get more consistent (and stay healthy).
If Nick doesn’t grow into our franchise QB, I owe you a beer. He has THAT IT FACTOR… He will be fine
I agree. His mental resilience and leadership qualities are very impressive (and rare). Even when he played like crap this season (SF, Arizona games) he got his **** together to lead what should have been game-winning drives at the end and made big time, clutch throws. That’s something that not everyone can do, and certainly not something a journeyman like Sanchez can do.
He needs to fix the bad habits, though.
Agreed.. But a lot of the bad habits im sure we’re a result of being too injured to withstand the hits he has been willing to take since colleges and not trusting his Ol
..
No coincidence some of his best throws this year came out of Max protect when he expected to be protected..
I don’t know that is a tough line up. Especially after we made Cousins and the Rams QB look like all pros. Oh yeah Mettenberger too.
Everybody learns from playoffs not just your QB
Ready for Dallas to lose so we can be further mind fucked? I’m not going to get crazy over a cowboy loss today, but I damn sure don’t expect the Cowboys to beat andrew luck
ha ha ha ha. I agree.
I love it how you keep guaranteeing wins and losses for certain teams.
Yeah yeah, you said the same thing when for weeks I looked forward to the bills beating the Packers. I don’t even try to predict all the NFL games each week, but I do pretty well in the non Eagles games that I do choose… Of course I’m smart enough to know that as soon as I try to make money off of it and bet on a game, it will all go to mush….most fans will just offer any prediction on every game played.. I don’t do that, just pick a game or two witj no eagle emotion involved that Im confident in…
..
I honestly don’t respect or acknowledge the Cowboys as a top team, I don’t see the cowboy secondary being able to stop Luck, where as I think Vontae Davis and the colts can do a little better against Dez than the dallas secondary can do against Luck.
..
The RT and RG have screwed up ankles, the running back,has a broken hand with 11 defenders focused on putting that helmet on Murrays hand…. Why wouldn’t I like Luck against a cowboy team
…
Every single football fan in the history of football makes predictions on every single game, yet you feel the need tI have a problem when I do it?… Interesting
If the NFL ref-conspiracy thing is real, Dallas will lose today so they can be the Sunday night game next week.
Take the emotion of Eagles games out of the equation. All year, watching games that don’t involve the Eagles, the refs have been really really bad to the point that if they don’t get it together this offseason it’s starting to really turn me off.
..
I watched almost every SEAHAWK game this year, it’s friggin despicable how many times ref extend Russell Wilson’s crives when defenses make the stop on 3rd down…and that’s just Russel Wilson games. I have never blamed games on refs, but it’s getting to a level where I can’t help it, it’s starting to really turn me off,.,. Every year it gets worse, it can’t get any worse than this, or the game is playing with fire..
Dude, what’s happening?!
Bradley Fletcher played a huge hand in us losing the last two weeks. However, it’s not like he played out of character, he didn’t self destruct. He got beat deep in one on one press man situations with no safety help because Bradley Fletcher always gets beat deep when he’s put in press man with no safety help…ALWAYS! And he always gets beat in that situation because he has a deficit of speed and athleticism that is unchangable and obvious to even casual observers. So if he was going to be our LCB for better or worse then the DC has to scheme to limit or hide that weakness. Instead his plan is to put Fletcher in press man with no safety help against Dez Bryant and DeSean Jackson two weeks in a row with predictable results. Sorry, I know you like Billy Davis, Tommy, but that decision, especially after seeing how spectacularly it failed last week is astounding. To come back the very next week and change nothing about your plan and just tell your physically limited CB to just execute better is the problem.
As for Chip, he’s watched yrs of tape of Sanchez turn the ball over. We needed to burn clock and pick up 15 yards to have a chance to win the game w a FG. RUN the ball! Why is Sanchez asked to throw the ball 50 times and told to just execute better when all evidence points to the fact that he will inevitably turn the ball over if you ask him to drop back that many times?
Both very valid points that I expect Chip to learn from when going to make decisions headed into next year.
OK, here’s one: Dallas loses to the Colts. Then, next week, they choke and fall way behind against the Redkins. The Eagles see the scoreboard, and know if they beat the Giants they will win the NFC East and enter the playoffs as the #3 seed. It’s the fourth quarter of a tight game. What happens…?
We win obviously………………. or I freak the F out again about a lack of heart.
I would bet on Dallas losing today, but the problem is that the skins already beat dallas this year, asking them to beat dallas twice is a lot to ask for.
..
Our only hope is that Dallas is dumb and short sited enough to play Demarvos Murray, Zack Martin and Diug Free who are all injured today. If they were smart, they would realize that even if they play, it’s very possible that they lose to Luck, and that the skins are a more beatable opponent for them, so if they had a brain they would ask Free and Martin to play on their sprained ankles, and they wouldnt risk colt defenders putting a helmet on Murrays broken hand.,,,
…
If Zack Martin, Free and Murray all play today, and they Lose…. Next week becomes interesting.
…
Of course, lifelong Eagles fans know that the gods won’t allow us to just take our heartbreak and let us start the healing process… We will continue to be mind fucked, have our emotions toyed with us, only so we could relive the heartbreak again
..
“Dallas Loses, RedWood Bleeds”-Otto sons of anarchy
“Of course, lifelong Eagles fans know…”
Sisyphus is the original Eagles fan.
The Colts have not been playing well recently. On top of that, they don’t have a ton to play for right now with both the Patriots and the Broncos effectively two games ahead of them, so you can definitely imagine them coming out flat today. I would not be surprised at all to see Dallas beat the Colts today.
I wouldn’t either, and in a way, it would only be just. This Eagles team doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs and playing a meaningless season finale in that hellhole in the Meadowlands against the stinking Giants would only be a fair punishment.
Dude, I been checked out emotionally, and IMO a team that played its worst footbal in December doesnt deserve a play off birth….. That has nothing with me feeling that a Cowboys team with 3 key players playing thru significant injuries and a shitty secondary, that NEVER wins at home can’t beat andrew Luck
I’m not convinced the Cowboys will win, just that they can.
I think they’re going to be roadkill come playoff time, because Rodgers/Nelson/Cobb will absolutely annihilate
that garbage secondary of theirs, if they even get past Detroit or Arizona in the first round.
Well sure…anyone can win, they even made an “any given Sunday” movie lol
Odell Beckham burns Bradley Fletcher, who’s in press man coverage against him with no safety help, for two 50+ yard TDs in the fourth quarter and the Giants win. After the game, Billy Davis says “we thought Bradley could handle that matchup one on one. Unfortunately Beckham got vertical on him a couple times.”
says some nice words about instilling confidence in your players, etc.
I’ll punch a baby in the face…i swear to god, haha
Hopefully we can IR Foles and Cole and poach some practice squad guys.
If Dallas wins I’m all for those types of move on Monday.
That could start a league trend and a new rule.
I’ve been emotionally checked out for a while now, had some heavier real life issues going on for the past couple weeks, but just yesterday it finally hit me that we lost to Dallas and we had to watch Jason Garrett with that shit eating grin walk across the field in victory.
I hope Chip seriously re-assesses some of the decisions he made this past season, such as keeping one of the best young DB’s in the whole league off the field most of the season (Boykin) in favor of the human torch, Fletcher. Or why we decided to wait until this past week to really unleash Ertz. Or why Josh Huff was allowed to keep bumbling his way through the year (did he really earn his way onto the field? Quack quack). Or whether it really was worth it to cut Desean. Or whether that goddamn outside stretch run is really necessary, like ever. Or why in the holy hell we let Fletcher single cover Dez Bryant all game.
I love Chip, but he isn’t perfect, and I hope he really takes a close look at some of these decisions in the offseason.
Hope your real life is more succesful than our Eagles.
The lack of playing time given to Ertz is a real head-scratcher. And I’m also concerned there’s a bit too much Quack-Quack going on. It may be true in college, but I’n not sure culture trumps all in the NFL.
I think culture is really important. I think there is a lot that goes on psychologically with a team that is difficult to quantify and discuss, but is still very important. I just think Chip might be more biased towards some of his guys than he is allowing himself to be honest about.
Exactly. The nature of a psychological blind-spot is that one is blind to it. That’s why we need others who will challenge us and our assumptions. There’s no way for me to know how the Eagles brass relate to one another, but I sure hope there are some kinds of checks and balances.
It seems from the outside that there is a good balance between Howie and Chip but you never know.
Seems like the Eagles coaching staff relates well to each other as well.
Should be a very interesting offseason.
There is a phrase purported to be a Chinese curse that goes something like, “May you live in interesting times.
I think you’re being unfair to Huff. He has made some costly rookie mistakes this year for sure, but he’s also shown the ability to make big time NFL plays (KO return for TD, long catch and run against the Cowboys). I don’t think the fact that he’s a Duck means anything. If it was some guy who had no business on an NFL field a la Andy with Reno Mahe you’d have a point but with Huff I don’t think you do.
He’s made more negatives than he has positives. I’m not sure a non-duck gets the same slack he does.
b. fletch, williams, r. cooper, n. allen — all still play despite a bevy of mistakes.
Ertz is not a good blocker. He gets tossed around like a rag doll in the running game. He’s going to have to improve to at least passable at that aspect of the game before he gets more PT. (Fortunately, I think he knows this and will work hard at it).
I had forgotten about the blocking problem. Considering we now know he is capable of 15 catches in a game, I sure hope he improves his blocking and/or the coaches can at least figure out a way to rotate him in some more.
Getting Watkins’ feet wet would be a #1 priority of a meaningless game; I would also like a look at the backup safeties, all of which have NFL game experience. Also Hart, Dennis Kelly, and Huff, who has raw ability. If I wanted you-know-who back in 2015 in a backup contract I might ask him ‘hey I was thinking of giving Barkley a shot, what do you think?’
I’m a little disappointed Tommy. What are you basing your unwavering support of Chip on? EVERYBODY knew our biggest weakness was our secondary last year and, while Jenkins helped, it is still a glaring weakness. Partially addressed, not fixed.
And now, Chip “We are a run first offense” Kelly, channels Andy Reid for the last drive and DOESN’T EVEN ATTEMPT A RUN. We only need a field goal to win and have plenty of time and 3 time outs so he decides to put the ball in the hands of Sanchez?? The ONLY thing that would hurt us would be a turnover. THAT IS ON KELLY.
It appears that our offense has slightly digressed his year–perhaps partially because D-Jax left (for nothing, by the way–100% Kelly). And don’t start throwing out stats. Take away special teams points and we’re just average. All you need is the eye-test.
Coming out horribly flat in the last two must-win games?? Silly, ridiculous penalties?? Don’t we usually attribute this to coaching??
This is year two. How many years does a coach get to instill discipline and fundamentals?
I don’t mind that we didn’t attempt a run there, the clock was not completely in our favor after all.
Bracing myself for Dallas to beat the Colts. Next week is purely an experimental week. Let Barkley play QB the whole game. Give the rest of the offensive starters the first half to play with Barkley. Second half: QB Barkley RB Polk WR Matthews-Huff-Smith TE Ertz-Casey OL Gardner-Tobin-Molk-Vandervelde-Kelly. Give the defensive backups the whole game: DL Curry-Allen-Bair with Hart sprinkled in. LB Graham-Matthews-Acho-Smith. CB Carroll-Watkins-Boykin. S rotation of Couplin, Maragos, and Prosinski.
I would really like to see Maragos on the field as a S. He’s been such a beast on ST.
I wouldn’t mind Maragos getting some playing time at S, but I remember how great Colt Anderson was on STs and how awful he was at Safety, so I can’t say I necessarily have high hopes for Maragos based simply on the fact that he has played well on STs.
He’s not good. Could see that in the summer. Great effort, but skill limitations.
Thank God I’m not the only one who noticed. Also, much as I loved our great special teams this year, does anyone else feel we hurt our depth by keeping special teams first people as key backups? As much as we complain about Nate, it would have nightmarish if we had to play Maragos for an extended period.
This isn’t preseason, they can only have so many guys active on gameday. So either you deactivate a handful of core starters or a handful of backups.
I understand playing the starters if Dallas loses and we have a shot at getting into the playoffs still, but if we get eliminated from the playoffs, it would be silly to sit some of those guys. I’m not saying they have to start or you need to bench all the starters, but guys like Marcus Smith or Matt Barkley absolutely should get significant playing time.
You gain nothing by continuing to play Sanchez. We know what he is. We have enough tape on him to make a decision on extending him or not this offseason. Playing a great game or playing a terrible game will not change anything going into next season. With Matt Barkley, at least there is still some unknowns about him. He would have a week to prepare with the starters and wouldn’t be coming in cold like he would in most other situations where he gets a start. One game alone is not going to determine if he can be a solid backup, but it could get us closer to that answer and may show us if we need to go after another developmental QB in the offseason.
As for Marcus Smith, he doesn’t need to start, but he needs to get some playing time, and heck, maybe even get his first tackle of the season, so he can build off it for next year. I agree calling him a bust is premature, but you can’t argue the fact that he could not have had a more disappointing rookie season. The coaches themselves have expressed that they have been a bit disappointed in Marcus Smith (http://www.csnphilly.com/football-philadelphia-eagles/chip-kelly-marcus-smith-needs-be-better), so while Graham, Cole and Barwin have played well, clearly the coaches don’t feel it is as simple of an issue as Smith getting lost in the shuffle. Let Smith get some playing time so he has some film of himself to watch in a real game that he can build on for next season.
You’re 100% correct about the stupidity of cliches about heart or toughness. Those aren’t issues for almost anybody who makes it as far as the NFL.
Focus, on the other hand, is a major concern. As is game-planning flexibility. The Eagles’ refusal to adjust on defense as their cornerbacks (Fletcher in particular) got roasted week after week is inexplicable. I’ll go back to what Tony Dungy said after the infamous Osi Umenyiora-Winston Justice bloodbath – if you have a guy out there who’s clearly overmatched, and the coaches continue to leave him to fend for himself, what happens next is on the coaches, not the player. Billy Davis is clearly a loyal guy, which is a great quality in a friend. It can be a liability in a coach however. His job is to win this team football games, and he didn’t do it as well as he could’ve.
I don’t let Kelly completely off the hook, either. He has fallen into Andy Reid-esque playcalling funks at time this year. And the decision to release Jackson? While I still think it can be defended from a team culture-building and financial standpoint, and while I don’t believe it will hurt the team in the long run (Jordan Matthews is going to be a stud), it unquestionably came back to bite him in the ass this year. I don’t think losing Jackson hurt the offense much, but he made some huge plays for a rival in a game that for all intents and purposes ended the Eagles season. Kelly deserves to take intense heat for that.
As for next week, play the young guys. You send the message to them that nothing is given next year in training camp. Right now I’m more interested in sending a message to the Cary Williamses and Vinny Currys of this team that if you repeatedly make stupid plays that cost your team games, you will be held accountable.
We can talk about the offseason (as we inevitably will) after next week.
Here’s what billy had to say after the game regarding Fletcher on Jackson: “You can’t double him every time and you can’t [always] put [help] over the top,” said Billy Davis. “So we played our share of split safety, we played single-high, we moved in and out. And the deep balls they got [were] on single high.”
Sound familiar? Exact same thing he said last week. Clearly the dude learned nothing. We can’t give help over the top every time…why not? If every time you go single high and put Fletcher up in press man they complete a 50 yard pass I’d say you have no other choice but to not run that coverage any more.
You have to mix up the coverage, or you will get criticized for not adjusting once they keep burning you if you just stay in same coverage all the time
Really Tampa played cover 2 all the time in their hey day same with Chicago. Seatle plays solely single high looks because they have Earl Thomas. If one particular coverage results in consistent huge plays for the offense, I’d avoid that coverage.
Plus you can mix up your coverages without leaving Fletcher in press man against Jackson with no safety help. You wanna play cover 3 … Go ahead, when Jackson lines up against Fletcher I expect him to set up 8-10 yards off the ball not right up on Jackson.
First Tampa didnt only play tampa 2, they played a lot of other coverage. 2nd Seattle also play most likely cover 1 robber, but they often disguise it as cover 2, because of Earl Thomas, but last I checked, we do not have an Earl Thomas on this defense.
And against Jackson, press man is the most effective way to shut him down if the CB can execute it. Lining 10 yards of Jackson is just suicide because he will just have 10 yards head start to get up to speed.
To an extent I agree. I was being hyperbolic when, serving as devils advocate, I said Tampa played cover 2 all the time. I know you have to switch up coverages here and there.
I disagree with your assertion of the most effective way to shut down Jackson. I think you are half right. The most effective way IS press man coverage, but WITH deep safety help. The second part being my problem, if you play press man, especially with Bradley Fletcher, who sucks at it, you damn well better have a Safety shaded to that side, otherwise you’re just conceding a deep pass every time Fletcher misses and doesn’t jam him at the line, because on a straight foot race, he physically can’t keep up.
Dawkins said as much after the Dez game. If you’re going to put Fletcher in man-to-man press coverage on the other teams best WR and play a single high safety, that safety has got to be shaded to that hash mark and the moment the QB looks that way is all over the other teams best WR. You have to take away the best player on the other side. 100% can’t let that guy just beat you while you sit in the deep middle.
You saw, when Nate Allen shaded over to Jackson’s side he was able to get over there in time to effect the play and get a pick.
I just don’t get it. Maybe you can help me understand. Why are people so intent on defending the theory of doing something that has repeatedly failed by claiming that you just have to do it and concede that every once and a while and there’s literally no way a DC can scheme against that if you’ve got a shitty slow CB?
I definitely agree with that. However, I think there’s a big difference between saying, “you have to mix up coverages,” which I think everyone on this board would agree with and saying that part of that process of mixing up coverages means that you HAVE to go press man with Bradley Fletcher on DeSean Jackson or Dez Bryant without safety help on multiple occasions even as he continues to get burned.
I agree as a defensive coordinator you can’t just call the same play over and over. But, this strategy was severely flawed. I think the results of that strategy have been born out in practice these past two weeks,
Here’s what Kelly had to say: “We felt like our corners could stay with him, and obviously they didn’t.”
That’s criminal! What has Kelly seen in two years that makes him the only other person besides Billy Davis who thinks Fletcher can keep up with Jackson one on one in press man w no safety help?
I mean, that’s just a canned answer. ITs the equivalent of andy saying “I have to do a better job”… OBVIOUSLY we weren’t good enough, players and coached on the backend, but I doubt that answer truly depics chips thought on the situation.l. He just won’t share them with us…
It may be a canned answer, but it still deserves to be called out as stupid. Anybody who’s watched the two play knows that Bradley Fletcher can’t stay with DeSean Jackson.
Sadly our beat reporters don’t have the acumen to be able to ask the intelligent type of schematic follow up questions that would force chip into giving some better answers…
i mean practicing against desean all last year, “knowing” his deficiencies against man d it’s sad we couldn’t neutralize him.
This is what people don’t factor in…billy Davis goes over the game plan every Friday or Saturday with Chip. Chip DOESNT micromanage, but you can bet chip wants to know everything, and billy needs chips approval of the game plan before we can go into games.
..
Also, at any point during the game, chip can pick up the phone, call billy and politely demand “get him out of the fucking game, or put a damn safety glued over top of him…
..
Chip ISNT going to fire Davis, because Davis is doing what chip wants, and chip is in agreement with the scheme and game plan we are going into games with….. So all this overreacting to billy is pointless.
…
Facts are, is WE WERE NEVER SEEING a COMPLETE DEFENSE. It’s always been a stop gap Secondray, so we could invest assets in building starting from the trenches. We invested quality draft picks in the front 7, surprise surprise, Billy coached them into a great front 7… Billy is having to make due with free agent scraps in the Secondray, and 4th and 5th round young talent…Chip knows that he hasn’t given what billy needs in the secondary yet, so chip won’t over react to losing because of secondary deficiencies.
..
Fortunately I think I can confidently say, enough of the rest of the team has been built up so this offseason will be when we really start investing real assets in the defense…. Can’t kill Billy for not being good enough, with players who aren’t good enough… Billy Davis has to start Nate, a young safety who was able to hit the open market, and NO ONE WANTED HIM so he came back for cheap… Why would we expect him to be enough for a billy Davis? Bradkey is a free agent, his next contract will prove he isn’t a top corner..
..
You can take lemons and make Lemonade,… Can’t give Lemons to Billy and demand that he makes Champaign…
..
Fortunately I assume the secondary cavalry is on its way to help this offseason, in which case, we can hold Billy’s feet to the fire next year, if we aren’t happy with the results.
PLENTY I DONT AGREE WITH SCHEMATICALLY FROM THE SECONDARY…but I don’t think we have the horses back there for scheme to make much of a difference,.. malcolm Jenkins is the only Starting DB we have that isn’t just a stop gap piece… We could have maybe switched things around and did a little better, but there was probabky no scheme that would make this group of DBs really good enough to survive the legit playoff QBs..
…
Even this defense is in chips image, that’s why Azzinaro is here, he is a defensive mind meld with chip…. Why do you think all chip talks about isBillys 3-4 experience, and chip never mentions any of Billy’s 4-3Under experience which is probably Billy’s perferred scheme?
If we win next week, we will have two seasons at 10-6, with a coach discovering the NFL. I let other guys (I saw Anders for example) have a parallel with Pete Caroll or any other successful coach.Just a few comments to put this record in perspective:
-2 years ago, we were a 4-12 team.
-we played with a backup QB for most of our season. For any other team where offense should be the strength (e.g not the Cardinals), it would ruin a season.
-we have no talent in the secondary, besides maybe Jenkins. You can have any scheme you want, that won’t change Fletcher, Allen and Williams. Finishing the season at 9-7 or 10-6 is a miracle in itself.
-We have a turnover ratio of -8, 25th in NFL. Our neighbors in this ranking are the Saints (-7, 6-8), the Jaguars (-8, 3-12), the Bears (-8,5-9), the Redskins (-8,4-11), the Titans (-9,2-14), the Bucs (-10,2-14) and the Jets (-11,3-11). By the way, this is related to the two topics above.
I am convinced that with one good CB and Foles all the year, it would be enough.
I am not convinced by Foles, but at least he was making more good decisions than Sanchez over a game.
By the way, I still believe in the Playoffs until we are out. Why? I remember 2008.
I did think about that this morning. I was visiting a friend in the mountains, and I was back in radio range on the turnpike when I found that JaMarcus Russell put away the Skittles and had the game of his life, knocking off the Bucs which no one expected and then got home for the 44-6 against the Boys.
You are absolutely right, and I fully expect the colts to win, and if any team could have a laughable collapse like that it’s Dallas….I just feel like a team that played its worse football in December, doesn’t deserve to go to the playoffs. , .. But I doubt any of us, would be boycotting any eagle playoff appearences no matter what the situation is
I still have hope that this is just the football gods wanting to really f with Dallas.
I firmly believe that they will lose today and then the pressure will be on them to go into FedEx field and take care of business next week. And we all know that:
Pressure + Dallas = Loser
Keep the faith!
We are about to see the defining choke of Romo’s career.
We’re the last ones that have a right to be calling anyone out for choking right now.
I don’t really know what to say…
The last two years, we’ve been just a little too reliant on the opposing D to make errors–pretty much the way most teams with spread-ish inclinations are. Most of them aren’t like Belichek’s system, in that it has managed to stick around, and now it’s capable of simply beating a working defense.
On offense, people are just way too casual about Foles’ likelyhood of staying healthy throughout the course of any year, his ability to make do with mediocre pass blocking, or that his actual passing ability is mediocre at best. Okay…guys, what’s wrong with the offense is that nobody is managing to tilt fields. It’s important to tilt fields because you make the opposing defense the way they don’t feel comfortable playing, such as Bill Davis not wanting to give Fletcher safety help all the time, and willfully disbelieving Jackson’s ability to tilt the field. A big part of why, is because the better players are spending talent to help along the weaker talent. And the major sucks are at QB, S, CB, and perhaps Cox can use someone a bit more imposing from the other DE as far as pass-rushing is concerned.
Again, talent is talent is talent. The primary thing that is getting soaked up are long RB runs. In a triple option style offense, these long, break-the-defense plays are a requirement for success. As much people valorize the large number of play drives that eats up huge time, that is best done when you have a lead or finishing a game. The ability to generate huge plays at will, even with a functional defense, is what makes a defense easier to play against, when the stakes are high. The lack of a true rushing threat at QB, especially at the NFL level, has meant that everyone can play assignment football on run downs, and the passing game is harder because of no spies. If you’re going to be like Kelly and insist that you don’t need a running QB, you had better be plugging in a QB that can really *pass*, and shade the system to something like the Patriots.
The issues are somewhat the same in the defensive backfield, only that there are *no* high quality defensive players back there. Whatever magic Fletcher had that made him not a liability last year, is gone today, and Cary Williams is Cary Williams. They get no real help from the safeties most of the time, if that QB decides to challenge that CB, sort of like 2012 when we were getting all those pressures early on, and getting the QB to throw early, until they realized, as a group, that we couldn’t actually get that sack. Then the inevitable happens and QBs starts to hang onto the ball and looking for the play downfield. Yup a couple extra sacks, but a lot more big plays downfield against our tired out secondary.
Another shah8 post with a “see more” tag at the end that meanders for three paragraphs before somehow finding a way to inevitably blame everything on Foles, despite the fact that he was 6-2 as a starter and hasn’t been on the field in eight weeks.
Another shah8 post I didn’t find it worth the trouble of reading to the end. This is an even clearer pattern than Bradley Fletcher getting toasted in man-to-man coverage.
Even if the original starters start I would still love to see a heavy helping of the young guys. Especially Watkins. We need to know what we have there.
Going into this season, no one expected this defense to be any better than it became. Everyone expected our offense to be much, much better than it was.
And yet most people seem to be focusing on the defense as what needs the most fixing.
Last year we were keeping teams under 20pts a game for most of the year. If we did that this year we probably win all of our games.
We had 500yds of offense and 3 tds, that’s a monster game. Cody Parkey makes those two chip shots we win. Ertz catches a TD in the end zone we win. Sanchez had a romo like pick, what are you going to do? How many QBs throw 50passes in a game without a pick?
It’s the defense (specifically the secondary) that cost us the season. Bradley Fletcher is the worst starter on this team, and Cary Williams and Nate Allen are in the bottom 5 (even with guys like Casey Matthews and Andrew Gardner starting elsewhere due to injury).
The offense has had its issues this season but at the end of the day is top 5 in yards and averages close to 30 PPG. The defense is nowhere near as competent (the front seven is above average, but the secondary is so far below average that it doesn’t ultimately matter).
Talking about billy being fired is such an epic waste of time. Even worse is throwing around Rex Ryan’s name…. That’s like a step below fanboy behavior of hoping we trade for Tom Brady…… Just not very realistic. billy ISNT going to be fired, because he is running the defense chip wants, and we haven’t given him the horses at DB yet.
..
Anyone ever stop to wonder why when chip talks baout billy he ONLY mentions all his 3-4 experience? Not once has he ever mentioned any of Billy’s extensive 4-3under experience which is Probabky his preferred scheme? And a much more natural transition from a 4-3 than trying to go to a 3-4?
..
Azzinaro is Here because he has a densive mind meld with chip. Azzinaro knows everything chip wants and believes in on defense…. Chip doesn’t micromanage, but he does approve all the defensive game plans before every game, and at any moment chip can demand Bradley being benched
…
PLEASE READ THIS because I can’t take an offseason if Kindergarden level football acumen. BRADLEY FLETCHER HAS GOTTEN PLENTY OF SAFETY HELP. The problem is when we doubled WRs the last few weeks, wilson and Romo did a good job of attacking away from the double team and doing damage else where, and as soon as we didn’t double, they licked their chops and go after Bradley whenever we don’t give him help.. Problem is that if the rest of your DBs are giving up passes, you can’t just continue to double team away from where the damage is being done, so as soon as we take the safety help away for 1 play, you see QB’s lick their chops, romo give DEZ a thumbs up and we go after Brad every time… Another problem is sometimes Nate Allen’s over the top safety help has been worthless.
…
This isn’t a scheme issue. This isn’t coaching issue, it’s strictly not having the HORSES In THE SECONDARY..building this program was never going to happen overnight. You see how well our front 7 has been built, so you really can’t complain THAT we didn’t get to building up the secondary yet. Fortunately all we need is an ILB, and we can invest in getting the horses to compete on the back end
so why remove safety help? I’d rather get cut down by 6 60yd plays then have 2-3 x plays a game. Those two djax bombs changed the whole game.
Agreed nate allen has been worthless over there. If I was the deep safety i’d know they are going to target fletch, i’d have like 5 picks b/c it’s so obvious.
Dude.. Romo and wilson,did a good job of doing damage away from the double team. We can’t just keep letting them kill us elsewhere and keep two players on a guy they aren’t throwing to, when they are having so much success elsewhere..so as soon as we moved the safety. The went back to Fletcher…
..
If they are completing the ball against us, I don’t give a damn if it’s Dez bRyant doing the damage or someone else.. If someone else keeps doing damage, you can’t just keep letting it happen because you want to keep a safety pver Dez… Not to mention you have to switch it up. Good QBs often hurt you when they know what you will do on every play
If we don’t have a CB that can cover a WR2 that’s a whole nother issuer. Just contemplate the issues with what you’re saying.
But yes, i’d prefer to get beat by terrance williams than dez bryant. More chances there’s an issue trying to get terrance williams 150yds than dez bryant,more optomistic about the chance to make a play.
Agreed completely! GEAGLE seems to have over remembered the vast amount of damage that Russel and Tony did prior to torching Fletcher. And, there’s more ways to combat that than to leave fletcher on a complete island against some of the best WRs in the league and just watch the predictable big plays and long TDs start to add up while patting yourself on the back that Cole Beasley and Terrance Williams were held in check.
It’s not Billy Davis’ fault that he can’t change shit into gold.
yeah but he could at least paint it and form it into bricks. he just lets shit be shit and says do your best.
Can’t make bricks without straw.
It is Billy’s fault that he sticks with the same shit week after week. He had options and gave the same cop-out answer whenever asked about playing them instead.
It is Billy Davis’ fault that he keeps taking shit and trying to serve it up as chocolate ice cream (i.e., putting Bradley Fletcher in one-on-one coverages against guys like Jordy Nelson, Dez Bryant, and DeSean).
But dang, Teddy is pretty danged good.
No way we were taking a qb so high last year. if he came out this year and slipped to round 2 possibly. I don’t think RGIII will be available, i do think Colin K will be.
Mostly that TD throw was really good. Still a tendency to be micro-inaccurate at times.
Xavier Rhodes is also really good.
And Manziel is not good.
No idea what Manziel will develop into, but I don’t like his situation. Question whether any QB would develop there, especially when the coaching staff clearly doesn’t really like him.
He would have been perfect here.
We had no shot at him, without a trade up. A trade up probably would have been a good idea.
I wanted us to trade down so badly that year and grab Rhodes.
Question why is nate allen playing deep safety at all? Why not put jenkins back there every time?
I think Nate might actually have better strait line speed than Malcom. I remember the reason Malcom was switched from CB to safety early in his career in the first place was his lack of strait line speed.
I trust Malcom more in the box than Nate anyhow. Nate has an interesting history with contact.
Nate’s gotten a lot better in this area under Davis and Kelly as well. He’ll never be Dawkins, but his tackling has been much better the last two seasons.
The biggest area Nate still struggles with is biting on play fakes. He tries to be aggressive and jump routes and gets torched regularly. This leads to passive play and we complain about that even more.
Because Jenkins really doesn’t have great feel for playing the ball in zone. Nate has a horrible habit of biting on fakes, but when he doesn’t (rare as that is) he can play the ball in the air. Jenkins, the few times I’ve seen him playing the deep half, has looked uncomfortable and failed to make plays on the ball. There was a play in the SF game that put an exclamation point on Jenkins struggles playing the ball in zone. It’s why I think most of the forum is too hard on Nate.
Just watched Patrick Chung get burned for an easy TD. Haha. Some things never change.
Would converting Riley Cooper to cornerback be an option, or is he too slow to stay with NFL wide receivers?
We’re you the fan that called sports radio suggesting the convert Cooper and then Josh Huff to corner? If not, we found someone to second your notion,,
Regarding Dallas v. Indy . . .
The Colts are 0-4 in games where the opposing team gained 100 yards-plus rushing (excluding QB scrambles) and 200 yards-plus passing.
Two at home: Patriots (Brady); Eagles (Foles).
Two on the road: Steelers (Roethlisberger); Broncos (PManning).
________________
The Colts have played only 2 other quality QBs (besides those above):
– Colts beat the Ravens in Indy (Flacco and Forsett) — giving up 90 yards rushing and 197 passing.
– Colts beat the Bengals in Indy (Dalton and JHill/Bernard) — giving up just 103 passing yards and 32 rushing yards.
[There’s an argument to be made that Dalton’s not a quality QB, certainly below Flacco. Based on his career W-L, Dalton’s good enough.]
________________
The way Romo’s played in games with at least a week’s rest suggests the Cowboys have a much better than even chance to win this game.
If Murray wasn’t hurt, I’d say the Cowboys were about as close to a lock as the Eagles v. Washington.
_________________
But that’s why they play the game.
Because on any given Sunday in the NFL . . . anything can happen — and usually does.
(Has to be the dumbest truism. Just by playing the game, “anything” — defined by Webster’s as “a thing of any kind” — must, as a matter of physical law, happen.)
It’s not just murray, the right side of the line has badly sprained ankles. free and Zack Martin missed multiple practices,.. What happens if they lose today, and their ankles get further injured, or a few helmets hit Demarcos broken hand and they lose today…. Then they go face their hated rival, in a clutch situation Romo hasn’t historically handled well, against an opponent that would love to play spoiler.
..
If it were the raiders or some other bad team, it wouldn’t matter, but crappy teams can still be a pain in the ass if they are division rivals..
…
This is the best the Cowboys have performed in years, but I can’t say them finding away to choke and screw this up would surprise me very much
GE:
I think Dallas’s mindset is, “you have to play to win today — can’t wait for next week.” You just don’t know who’s gonna get hurt today . . . so go for the win now.
Not saying I agree. Only that the uncertainty created by injuries is crazy.
But today’s a play-off game for Dallas — who has a chance to clinch 1st seed.
That said, from what I’ve heard about Murray, seems like a tough call to put him out there if he can’t block a blitzer, brace his fall, straight-arm a tackler, or protect the football.
As for Free, is he projected to play today? His ankle looked awfully bad.
But these NFL players are warriors — crazy, insane warriors.
“Shoot me up today . . . and I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
_____________
Not disagreeing with you. Just thinking that these guys realize they’re so close and who knows if they’ll get back to this point.
That is clearly their mindset.. Time will tell if it was the right approach.
Dopo Foles e stato ferito, ho perso un sacco di entusiasmo
Read a ton of posts about Billy Davis from people on both sides of the debate. My two-cents:
1. People are understandably upset with Fletcher, yet it is the coaching staff, both Billy and Chip, that has insisted on putting him in this position.
2. Geagle pointed out that Chip has final say on game plan, in which case we need to be more upset with Chip for putting his player in a position to fail.
3. I love that Billy Davis is a good interview and gives forthright answers to questions instead of hiding behind coach speak. Despite this, someone must be held accountable for the results on the field, and frankly I believe the coach holds even more responsibility when a player has clear limitations but is continually put in a position to fail.
Ultimately, Billy SHOULD be fired. I have no idea what Chip and the Eagles actually will do.
A reasonable post. Couldn’t agree more. Chip might sign off on Billy’s game plan, but calling the plays, putting people in those positions mid game probably wouldn’t be something that would be discussed during the week. There’s a lot of ways to help Fletcher not get burned deep. Play calls, strategy in how we line up, moving players around, telling the single high safeties to cheat over and protect against that. Million ways. None of those things happened and that’s a coaching failure.
Tommy, I still see progression, I still see a team getting better. Sure some bits are a bit too broken, but did not Arizona’s 2013 season help mould this one?
I saw a regression towards the error prone turnover filled year of 2012. The defense has been much better than that train wreck of a season despite Fletcher’s woes. Despite this, I must admit to concern.
Why is Hoyer in the game in Cleveland? Did they give up on Manziel already? lol.
injury. who would have thought.
yeah, manziel has suckitis
boy i hope you guys are watching the chiefs/steelers game. CLASSIC BIG RED! didn’t challenge on an obvious strip sack fumble on roethlisberger and went for it on 4and1 instead of taking the points before the half.
nice reverse jinx on dallas, that was clutch. also, when did the 2014 eagles turn into the 2011 eagles. i swear im getting flashbacks.
Depressing to lose against washington all the shit we talked about them. Even more depressing is that after 2 bad losses we coudn’t put together a clean game.
I think Mark had a really good game all things considering. He wasn’t responsible for 100+yds of penalties. He wasn’t getting beat on x play after x play, he was running RO keepers.
The last throw was terrible. TERRIBLE you just can’t do that, mac was covered, take the sack, throw it away, etc. BUT after thurnover the D just let them into the redzone.
yeah you never want to have one of your late game mistakes referred to as “romoesque”
Did you see the video of Desean celebrating after the game and talking shit about us?
what would you expect? see shady’s pre game video? see all the shit we talked about djax — i mean you know who he is — you expected him to be classy?
That $7m is the best contract they have.
I’m not mad at him for it…. Doeamt mean it not going to make my blood boil… Of course I wouldn’t expect anything less, doesn’t mean it can’t infuriate me
Whatever. He’s on a 4-11 team going nowhere, with a crappy owner, a crappy coach, and a crappy QB situation. Let him gloat, the Eagles will be back playing meaningful games next year while he’s focused on piling up stats for a bottom 5 team.
On a positive note: my Sunday is much more productive without football. Sigh, but I miss it…
Here’s a stat line for you: Joe Flacco, 4/22 for 35 yards, 1 TD and 3 INTS.
yea was just thinking about that. And that’s @20m a year. That said i wouldn’t care since he just took me to a SB win 2 years ago.
35-1-3 sounds like a basketball stat.
Desean is a dangerous weapon, but he isn’t a legit smaller WR you can count on to be your work horse… He isn’t ANTONIO Brown or Randall Cobb… Nice weapon tho that you can pull out 4 times a game..
..
Can’t imagine the year Maclin could have had with a QB who played well, good ball placement, and defenses who also had to worry about Desean..
…
But Riley Cooper is a KNOWN JACKASS, I cant imagine what an asshole, and headache DEsean was, for us to prefer to pay Coop, than to pay a little more for DEsean…
i mean you see what djax is doing with QBs that we wouldn’t wipe our ass with.
Problem is we win this game if djax is not on the skins, hands down. that’s why you don’t let people go in the division in the prime of their careers.
Agree on coop.
I’ll judge the desean decision after I see what “reconfiguring the WR corp” really looks like. And that doesn’t get accomplished in one offseason. The development of huff, jordan, what other pieces we add, will dictate if it was a good more of not…
cmon man, then lose coop and keep djax. i’m sure coops blocking has led to a handful of tds. but djax is a straight game breaker. mac and djax is probably one of the best WR tandems in the game, i would have tried it for a year. At least a full pre-season, no guaranteed $$.
Could have cut jeff maehl.
Djax said something about eagles being naive — any thoughts on that?
A) neither of us know the entire story
.
B) neither Coop nor Desean are in our Longterm plans.
..
C) coop was prob just retained as a stop gap bridge, help the comfort of our young developing QB
..
Both were stop gaps, neither are in chips future, that’s why Coops contract is just a suped up two year deal
..
So no, I’m not really going to cry about keeping Coop over Desean for one more insignificant year, when both will be out of here shortly . I assume Coop is better for jordan and Huff than Desean would be
How can you say DJax isn’t a legit #1 or #2? Look at Brown n Cobbs QBs.. DJax was balln out for Eagles no matter who was throwing him the ball.. The guy goes under appreciated coz of his attitude.. Look what he did to this Eagles team yesterday?? Always said WRs mean nothing if you don’t have a QB throwing to him.. Eagles win more games this year with him on this team.. Eagles spread teams horizontally but vertically its just not there anymore.. Thats either from lack of QB or no deep threat anymore
put up 100+ and a TD against seattle, with cousins playing. where were our receivers?
Exactly!
What has he ever put up in playoffs?
What has any other Eagle on that team done during the playoffs?
Haven’t been able to count on him for much in the 4th quarter historically… 4th quarters are EVERYTHING in the NFL. That’s the difference between players like Luck, Wilson, and FOLES, and the other young QBs… No matter what, the top players play their best in the 4th…. Desean has NEVER been a volume WR. I just don’t think his 70 yard Bomb in the second quarter is worth more than two work horse WRs like Maclin I can count on to make monster catches on 3rd down in clutch time and keep the chains moving
..
Too many times, I seen Desean disapear like in the Saints playoff game…
..
And if you are going to have a young roster, trying to build from the draft, probably not a good idea to let him set the example of what high paid Eagles should be,,
..
“A great team is when your veteran teach the young players how to take their jobs”… Desean doesn’t fit THAT mold..
..
I’d rather give that type of money to Randall Cobb, emmanuel sanders last year!!
Making plays in the 4th Qtr means Eagles are behind right? That shouldnt be the case in the first place with the weapons Eagles have on this team
That Saints game lol Who was throwing him the ball? How come no one else stood up on that game?? People say where was DJax in this game? Ask those people where was everyone else?? Its a team game but everyone always asks where was DJax.. Its a team game but its where was Djax??
Culture scheme mean jack if it aint getting you the wins.. 2 years in a row now Eagles are a team that cant beat team with winning record
Cooper signed coz he a better blocker they say.. Well Shady got rushing title with DJax on the team last year so WR being able to block is a good quality but it shouldnt be your only quality.. DJax over Cooper every day n any other team other than the Eagles would do the same thing
This team will benefit heavily with a WR that excells at winning jumpballs.
Its about how you are towards the coach and how you train, not if Cooper is a racist or not.
GE:
Dion Jordan got a sack today.
Does that now justify Miami drafting him and playing him out of position?
(I’d still rather have DJ, with suspension and all, than LJ.)
hahahah
I think next year is the year we decide if we shouldn’t believe in Chip or not. I, for one, am praying for Brett Hundley to fall to us.
On the other hand, my fantasy is that we make the playoffs and make a run to the Super Bowl.
GEeagle . . .
By the way, hope your night ended with a “yes” that will make you happy for many years.
I don’t understand all of the soft talk. This wasn’t like watching Nnamdi and co avoid tackles. I do understand the questioning of Davis for leaving Fletcher in lieu of Carroll, but overall I thought Davis did a pretty decent job with what he had. With Fletcher, Allen, and Matthews on the field, you cannot cover up every flaw without exposing yourself in another area. There was no way we were going to make it deep into the playoffs with a team that had some pretty glaring holes.
But for the Reid-like coaching of Mike Smith . . .
Atlanta would have the NFC South locked up.
Winner take all next Sunday, with the 6-9 Falcons hosting the 6-8-1 Panthers.
NFC South winner will at least have, like Seattle a few years back, 7 wins.
Unless they tie. Oops.
On a positive note, we won’t have to spend an offseason hearing what could have been if we had just given Sanchez the reins sooner. You could have a worse backup, but he is not good enough to be a long term starter.
Dallas is currently already destroying Indy
Did you see the perfectly executed fake punt… and the dropped ball. I’m starting to feel like my cheering for a team is a jinx.
Part of me wants to say “good”. As I said, the Eagles don’t deserve to be in the playoffs, and I think having to spend a week preparing for a meaningless game nobody wants to play knowing they choked away their season is just desserts.
Also, either is Dallas better than we thought or Indy and us is worse. 28-0 zero
Indy has zip to play for, and it shows.
They have a potential first round buy and keeping the 3rd seed over the 4th.
Thanks for writing what I was thinking. Ike Reese said the Eagles of the last 3 games were not the Eagles of the first 12. I don’t know if “what happened?” is the correct question. Clearly the QB position seems less settled than it did prior to the Jacksonville game. But, as you wrote, there is blame all over the locker room. I am hungry for some insight, but the question is, who has it?
stop pretending chip kelly is something special…he has proven he doesnt’ know what he is doing…cutting desean….playing fletcher…drafter mr nobody in the first round….not doubling top receivers over and over…..this aint oregon or new hampshire…..plus his boy billy davis is like a defensive version of kotite.