Chip Has a Stalker
Posted: September 26th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 163 Comments »Chip Kelly did a terrific job at Oregon, going 46-7 and taking that program from good to great. He came to the NFL and delivered consecutive 10-6 records. Even the most reasonable detractor has to see that he’s a good coach with some interesting ideas.
For some reason, Kelly drives some people nuts. I don’t mean disgruntled Eagles fans, but rather outsiders who don’t normally care about the team. Heath Evans likes taking potshots at Kelly and the Eagles. I think he does that because he was critical of Chip early on and simply isn’t smart enough to actually adjust his opinion.
Bart Scott hates Chip Kelly. Really hates Chip Kelly. Luckily Jimmy Bama got the comments for us from a radio show.
“I’m rooting for the Jets,” said Scott, “and not just because I played for the Jets, but because I love a good car crash. I love a good accident waiting to happen. You have one guy who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the world. Trust me, I played for Brian Billick, so I’m used to being around guys that believe that they’re really smart, and Brian was. But come on now, are you kidding me? This guy needs to figure out what time to get a protein shake because obviously he’s giving the protein shakes at the wrong time, with his scientists and stuff that he has back there, because his teams aren’t ready to play in the first half.”
And
“He can’t win. You know why he can’t win? Because you can’t win and tell people that you devalue great players and get rid of them just because you want to. So I think there’s a little bit of karma coming back to him. Nelson Agholor hasn’t replaced Jeremy Maclin. Jeremy Maclin was a class act guy. You can’t just replace people like they’re things, you know what I mean? Like they’re toys that you’re tired of playing with because you want something new. So I hope that he loses. I hope he loses every game.
Ugh. As Jimmy pointed out, Kelly wanted Maclin back. Kelly wanted to pay him a boatload of money. KC just happened to pay more.
If you want to get on Kelly for cutting DeSean Jackson and trading Nick Foles and LeSean McCoy, that’s fair game. Kelly clearly wanted to move on from those players. Maclin does not fit that category.
It just seems that some people see Kelly to a bunch of weird extremes. They think he is a finesse coach that needs a mobile QB to run his offense. They think he chooses science over football. They think he is all about gimmicks and doesn’t understand real football.
Kelly’s offense is built on being physical.
“The inside zone is our “go to work” play. It has become our signature play. We want to get off the ball and be a physical, downhill-running football team. This is not a finesse play. We teach our offensive linemen a block we call the “bust block”. The idea is to bust their sternums up against their spines on every play. We want to come off the ball, create a double-team, knock the crap out of the defender, and deposit him in the linebacker’s lap.”
That sounds like something Buddy Ryan would say. That’s physical football 101. But somehow Kelly is still seen as Mr. Finesse, Mr. Gimmick.
You would think Kelly would want a 1-gap, attacking defense. Nope. He comes in and preaches the need for size and strength. Kelly wanted a 2-gap, 3-4 base defense. No finesse whatsoever.
Kelly does embrace technology. These days, a lot of coaches are doing that. He gets a lot of publicity for it, but don’t think the Eagles are the only team to give smoothies to their players and mix science with football. Every NFL sideline now has tablets for the coaches/players to check out what the other team is doing. Technology is slowly taking over our lives. How is football supposed to be different?
I understand Kelly isn’t going to appeal to everyone. No coach does.
The funny thing about Kelly is that while he’s an outsider to the league who has come in and changed things, I don’t see the arrogance with him that guys like Steve Spurrier and Jimmy Johnson had. Spurrier turned out to be a major failure. Johnson backed up any of his talk with all-time great results. Both came to the NFL with the attitude that the league needed change.
Kelly came to the NFL and hired NFL coordinators. His offense is a mixture of the Oregon playbook and some West Coast Offense stuff. His defense is as conventional as it gets. Rather than thumbing his nose at the league, Kelly’s attitude was to take his ideas and combine them with those of NFL coaches. The hope was to get the best of both worlds.
Chip is arrogant in the sense that many successful people are…he believes in himself and his ideas. But I don’t get the perception of Kelly as this jerk sitting on top of Ego Mountain looking down at the rest of the football world and laughing because they are too stupid to copy all of his ideas.
Kelly does nothing but praise other coaches, teams and players. In college, he traveled to different teams every summer so he could learn new schemes and pick up ideas from other coaching staffs. Does that sound like a guy who is sure he’s got all the answers?
Right now Kelly could use some answers. His team is struggling in a major way and the detractors are out in full force. Kelly is fair game. He is a big name coach (making big money) and does things his way. That opens him up for criticism.
I guess I just don’t get the over the top hatred for Kelly. Ray Rhodes was as NFL as it gets and led the Eagles to a 3-13 season in 1998. Anyone who thinks this team is bad should go watch some of those games. After the first three weeks, the Eagles had been outscored 72-15. That team had no hope. I watched Bobby Hoying throw to Irving Fryar (age 36), Jeff Graham (age 29) and Freddie Solomon (4 career TD catches).
The current Eagles do have hope. Sam Bradford, Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor and Josh Huff must play better, but they are infinitely more talented than the 1998 bunch.
Kelly can shut up Bart Scott and the doubters if he can get this team to win on Sunday and start turning the season around. If that doesn’t happen, More guys will come out of the woodwork, telling us how they knew Kelly was a fraud.
Because, you know, he’s too finesse and gimmicky.
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PERSONAL NOTE
You may have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet recently. The Eagles have played 2 games and I haven’t written a DGR for either of them.
My mom spent some time in the hospital in the past week or so and that threw my schedule out of whack. The good news is that she’s back home.
Hopefully I can get back on schedule with my writing. That just had to take a backseat for a little bit. I can’t tell you how miserable Sunday was. I desperately needed the Eagles to cheer me up. Ugh. Not even close. As bad as the game was, it was still the highlight of the day.
Sometimes we need life to help put sports in perspective. But as the guys in Spinal Tap will tell you…
Luckily mom got better during the week and I can go back to my completely unhealthy obsession with 53 guys that dress in tight pants and run around hitting each other for 3 hours on Sunday.
And who knows…maybe the Eagles will actually win. I’m probably being greedy. At this point, I’ll just be happy to see a 1st down before halftime.
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Just wanted to say that I am glad your mother is feeling better and is home. Wishing her good health moving forward.
Tommy, glad to have you back, but more glad your mom is doing well.
Glad your mom is back home and hopefully feeling better and recovers quickly. I don’t think I could have survived haveing to read a DGR on these last 2 weeks games…those pictures were worth 10,000 Words…all bad!!
Glad your Mom is getting better! Hope the trend continues to go upward for both her and out Eagles.
Enjoy the ride
Wishes for good health and happiness for your mom! Thanks for all you do.
Same feeling about Kelly here.
And for the haters: how many years took to all successfull coaches to win big in the NFL? And the ones who came directly from the college? No more to say.
Wishes for good health for her from Brazil, Tommy.
Glad your mother is doing better now!
My mother got an infection and was unresponsive/in a coma for several days back in 2013 but it was the day after she finally woke up that Nicky Foles went on to beat the Bears 54-11. We had the game on in the hospital room and we weren’t really paying too much attention to it at the time but if I go back and watch any of it all the memories come back.
Nobody really knew what was wrong so the doctors had prepared us for the worst case scenarios that she wouldn’t wake up or that she would have permanent impairment but she was recovering enough that we could finally tell that she was going to be just fine.
Probably a little too much perspective…
No, it’s cool. I think at some point we all have memories that touch on these games, even though the memories are far more important than the games themselves. It’s sort of why sports matter to us. It’s not the sports themselves so much as the signposts in our lives.
I can vividly recall my grandfather getting ready to pass as the Eagles were getting ready to face the Bucs in 2003 in the championship. After that game, I was very much along the lines of “Dammit, can’t you give me JUST THIS!” The man was sitting there in his hospital bed with an Eagles jersey on.
But as with all things, what is important is the man, the person. These games are fluff. But, no matter what, they can give us solace in hard times, and they certainly serve as touchstones to remember the moments and the people that meant something to us. Living so far from where I grew up, that’s what these Eagles have always meant to me. A lifeline to what I knew back home.
Dammit, I feel like I’m writing for Lifetime.
Spoiler alert: big fist-shaped hole in my wall after the 2002 championship game.
Mine was in the dining room wall in 1992 after the 4-0 Eagles gave up one too many deep passes on play action passes to the Chiefs in a loss at arrowhead.
But it was a great punch for a 15 year old.
Nice. Never punched a hole in a wall before or since. But that one year. Man. That just got me. It was all too much. We owned that Bucs team. And then we didn’t. And Warren Sapp. And my grandfather. All too much. And the poor wall paid the price.
I grew up in a log cabin house and live in a house that is a mix of log structure and plaster a lathe. Punching wall would mean a broken hand.
Ah, I remember that game. I think the first play of the game was a play action that hit for deep. I can’t remember the QB for KC, maybe Steve Deburg, but he was deadly with the PA, in that game at least. Even the cameraman was getting confused.
Glad to hear your mom’s health improved
Troll.
Pretty inappropriate right there.
Get a job.
I can’t believe I responding to such a complete and utter dumb fuck pussy.
“It just seems that some people… think [Kelly] is a finesse coach that needs a mobile QB to run his offense. They think he chooses science over football. They think he is all about gimmicks and doesn’t understand real football….
He’s too finesse and gimmicky.”
Well that about sums it up for me. I think Chip is pretty much all those things. Doesn’t mean he can’t win, but – “gimmicks” aside – that’s pretty much who he is.
His biggest challenge for now, IMO, is his need to adapt and adjust – to the talent and skill set of his personnel, to the competition in the league, to the specific circumstances on the field on game day. He doesn’t have to abandon every tenant of his philosophy, but he has to be able to reevaluate and change. If he doesn’t, he’s gonna find the sledding very difficult going forward.
Best wishes to your mom, Tommy.
Don’t worry, the words you would have used to write those DGRs are glad they never had to be assembled to describe all that.
Thanks for taking the time to post during hard times. Glad to hear the situation is improved, and hopefully continues in a positive direction.
Good to hear your Mum is doing better!! It’s the only thing we’ve got to be positive about around here….
Just pretend those games didn’t happen, no need for any DGR’s….
All the best to your mom, Tommy. So glad she is home again. Moms are a tough out.
Sorry to hear your mom had some bad health things going on. Glad to hear that she is back home and doing better.
I will never get over cutting DeSean Jackson for no compensation, but the stuff on Kelly from the national media is flat out stupid.
I know losing Maclin was rough, but Jordan Matthews is on pace for a 128 / 1456 / 16 season.
Losing McCoy was rough, but DeMarco Murray had 2200+ yards from scrimmage last year and 13 TDs.
THE PROBLEM ISN’T THAT WE LACK SKILL POSITION TALENT
Our line sucks right now. Can you blame that on Kelly, sure. But on “scientists”, McCoy, and/or Maclin; NO SALE.
Such lazy reporting on the national stage.
jordon has 1 touchdown but he should have two. he scored against atlanta but we didnt challenge
It’s not just skill positions its all positions
Trouble is that people take guys like Bart Scott seriously…
As far as intelligent questions of what the Eagles are doing, I head two good ones from Pat Kirwan this week on Sirius.
His question on our run game was on how to get Murray, a downhill runner, with his shoulders more square to the LOS as he’s handed the football and heading upfield. It came from a conversation Kirwan had with Petyon Manning about running from shotgun a few years ago.
Kirwan’s other comment only part included the Eagles. He was talking about projecting guys from one system into that of another when they’re added as a free agent. His Eagles based comment concerned using Maxwell, a cover 3 / zone corner in Seattle, to play man in Philly. That got me wondering if Maxwell has looked extra poor simply due to not having adjusted to what Billy Davis is asking him to.
I’ve listened to Kirwan for a long time now. Long time subscriber. I even called in once to the other show, Rich Gannon’s show, to give him shit about having gone to St Joes (as any sane person would, I did not go to St Joes but rather La Salle). I appreciate his perspective and love what he’s doing in trying to raise the football awareness of the average person.
That said, Kirwan was DEFINITELY one of the old guard guys calling into question every move Kelly did in his first year, acting like “that college guy will never get it going here”. Glad to see he changed his tune and is dealing with reality rather than the perception of “scary new guy threatens us”. Because “scary new guy threatens us and must be an idiot” was definitely Kirwan’s approach in the first year of Chip Kelly.
Kirwan ended the “college” stuff very early into Kelly’s tenure as the coach of the Eagles.
I can’t recall Kirwan throwing any shade towards Kelly once regular season 2013 got rolling. Most of Kirwan’s stuff that was against Kelly was more questions / warnings as Kelly came on board.
And in either case, Kelly isn’t really doing the “college” stuff here anyway; especially with the brain-dead / career-killing running of the QB on every play which was Kirwan’s biggest worry.
I think most of the “college” criticism is from people who don’t take their analyst jobs seriously, who report based on what they’ve read on the internet rather than what they’ve seen themselves. Which, unfortunately, is 90% of the NFL sports media on the national level.
Agree completely. I just wouldn’t paint Kirwan with that brush. Much like Greg Cosell, he understands that you don’t win long-term in the NFL by using your QB as a running weapon.
Oh no, i agree. Kirwan is VERY reasonable, and one of my favorite hosts on radio. I was surprised by how conservative he was with Chip at first is all. But he always comes back to looking at film, and talking about things from a reasoned, evidence-based point of view. He is not one of those shitty, whisper down the lane analysts. Guy does his work and is pleasant to listen to. Hell, guy does more than his work. His passion is explaining the intricacies of the game to people like you and me.
And i miss Tim Ryan as his sidekick. Jim Miller is a quasi-hack unless he’s talking passing technique.
T-Rock was great. I always appreciate him calling games now. But Miller is better than their alternatives. So glad they dropped Schein from the Blitz prior. Only so much of that guys voice I can take.
Tommy: actual life will always be more important than entertaining or wrangling us. That is a truism. All the best, my friend.
I was wondering what was going on. Glad to know she is doing better.
If someone told me Heath Evans, Bart Scott, and the Iggles Blitz troll were on one side of an issue, I would confidently take the other side without even knowing what the issue is. That’s why I have faith in Kelly’s ability to right the ship.
And that’s why you have no money. I’ll pray for you today when the pope drives by
Monetary status holds no weight when its clear none of those names mentioned are not rational and spew pure hate. NEXT!
We spew hatw because we recognized a long time ago chip kelly was going to majorly damage this franchise. They won’t be out of this malaise for at least another three years
A possible decade of being dog shit… Because of this conceited little twat! . They don’t even look like a freaking nfl team right now.
Can you imagine Andy Reid drafting one offensive line in three years then cutting his two starters? Good COACHES don’t just flush talent down the toilet because of personal relationships with those players. It’s not crazy its obscene
A first down before the half would be so legit. I think 10+ Rushing yards in the first qtr would be too legit to quit. A healthy mom and an Eagles win on Sunday would be 3 legit to quit.
Glad you’re back Tommy and glad to hear your mom is feeling better and home. I don’t post here much, but I check your site 6 times a day for an update. You’re my goto Eagles update and opinion outlet and I appreciate all you do. Keep on keepin on! Thanks!
Parents always have their children at heart. Your Mom was probably thinking of you when she got her illness and recovery out of the way during the slow start to the season. That way, you can relax and focus on what is about to come.
Sorry to hear that your mother was ill, but glad she is back home. Let’s hope the Eagles can turn things around too!
I glad your mother is feeling better and is back home, Tommy.
People dislike Chip because the media, and fans have helped spread this, has crowned Chip this innovative, NFL changing genius before he has won anything of note and that causes some coaches, players and even some media to hope he fails and, now that his team has lost 5 out of the last 6 games and continued to struggle against defenses that employ man coverage, pack the middle of the field, crowd the LOS and attack the scheme aggressively, those folks can come out and dance on his proverbial grave. The rest of the media of course turns tail as well and tries to convince their viewers they doubted Chip all along and always knew he was a fraud. It is sickening they are such cowards and rating hounds, but that is the way it is unfortunately.
Chip is a good coach and the season can still be salvaged, but they need to win consistently, beat good teams consistently and win in the playoffs. Chip also needs to take accountability himself and stop pushing it off on his players. Stating over and over it is execution that is at fault and that his scheme is fine is, one, not totally true and, two, may cause the players to start tuning him out especially if the losing continues. Chip needs to figure out how to get his players to execute better and bring in more talent during the off-season. The drafts so far have been ok, not great and we’ve lost too much talent for no return.
How Chip adapts and adjusts will tell the tale IMO. If he continues to run the same plays from the same formations with no counter elements involved, then he deserves all the criticism he gets. That would be pure stubbornness or a lack of any creativity. If he shows innovation and gets the offense performing again, he’ll get credit and deserve it plus he’ll keep his players with him in the locker room.
You speak truth my friend (see my comments above)… The Chip Ship is in a very precarious position right now. They need a win badly, but considering how poorly they’ve played, I’d settle for them simply being competitive this Sunday.
Glad to here your mom is feeling better Tommy.
Health of a loved one always takes precedence over anything else; thanks for sharing your news about your Mom and also reminding us of the definition of perspective. Great to have you back.
Here is to the continued health of your mom Tommy.
Best wishes to your mom, Tommy, and good to hear from you.
Sorry to hear about Mom and hope for her continued recovery and good health.
If I hear someone else make a big deal about a fuckin smoothie I will scream… It’s friggin Ice, fruit and a specialized ingredient or two tailored for each person like Peanut butter…. Hardly ground breaking stuff. Athletes eating fruit? What a crazy new concept.. 3 years later and people still talking about fuckin smoothies smh..
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Bart Scott doesn’t deserve more then one sentence written about him
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Sarcastic: Well, Concrete Charlie didn’t need a smoothie, football players are getting soft!
http://cbssports.com/images/blogs/Chuck_Bednarik_Dies_Eagles_Legend_Pictures_Video.jpg
Sorry, just wanted an excuse to post this picture
I’m sure,concrete,Charlie consumed Ice, Fruit and Peanut butter
I prefer to believe he fed off the blood of the opposing players he destroyed!
I did write sarcastic but should have wrote: “likely argument in the article”
I like that he’s consuming 2 forms of tobacco. Maybe he has a dip in for the trifecta!
A simple question: Given two consecutive abysmal season-opening performances, is it a low emphasis on contact during TC? Or is there something that anyone has observed that Kelly and staff are doing or NOT doing that would contribute to The Eagles being soooo unprepared to play football? The criticisms from every corner and quarter are all predictable noise in today’s media culture. Piling on about personnel changes and arrogance of the coach is par for the course for the likes of Bart Scott, but, Kelly IS the most responsible individual for the team’s out-of-the-gate readiness to get to work, and two years running, Eagles have not been close to ready. Anyone?
I don’t think our OL and DL “cooperating” with each other every day at practice is the best way to have your OL ready to roll for the start of the season, but it’s hard to rip chip for it when he is basically just prioritizing getting to the regular season healthy, and I can never rip chip for that..
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This is a league wide problem. Teams aren’t using the preseason to get its starters ready, basically September has become the new preseason, which is why you can’t make too many definitive observations off of what we see in September, Especially for a team with so many new faces.
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Going into last year, I thought the Giants would have a tough year simply because they had to incorporate 27 new players.. I thought THe Giants would struggle last year but that we would start to see them come together this year… Hopefully it doesn’t take us an entire season to get it together… In 2013 we only needed like 4 games and after the Denver loss we were ready to roll..
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No matter how good or bad the September Eagles would look like, what we see in September probably isn’t going to be what we see in November;,
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Clearly chip valued getting to the season healthy, instead of getting to the season prepared, and with injuries being such a big part of the game it’s hard to rip chip for that.. Chip basically gambled that getting to September healthy was most important and that we had the talent to stay afloat and win enough games in September while getting ready for the true season October -January…., Most NFL execs won’t even talk about what a Team is until they get to see the first 4 games..
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There is no doubt that chip could have prepared us more, for example, our OL is finding that opposing DLs aren’t “cooperating” with us the way the Eagles DL did at practice.. All teams need September to grow into the team that they will see all season, some veteran teams who been together for years are able to get off to a better start in September but teams with a tone of changes are going to really need September to work out the kinks and get to where they need to be as a team…
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There is NO doubt chip could have prepared us more, but I can’t ever rip chip or an Eagles coach for prioritizing getting to The regular season healthier then most teams,,, if we can rebound and get it together like we did after the Denver loss in 2013, no one will argue with our style of training,,if the season snowballs out of control, everything is going to be questioned…
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The OL and the DL need to be allowed to get after each other if you want to beast prepare them for the season… But if you end up losing two starting lineman in camp, then we will all complain that chip has guys practicing too hard… A catch 22
Then explain the way we jumped out on Wash the first year. One good, two bad=no correlation.
The bad news is we were pathetic last week… Good news is we were so horrible that there are so many small correctable mistakes that can add up to a big difference on game day…. I would feel helpless if the Eagles played good discaplined football and still got dominated… As bad as we were against Dallas, I have no doubt that we are capable of so much more then what we saw against Dallas.. So many small correctable technical mistakes, correcting them should make a real difference in what we see tomorrow.,, will we correct enough of them to beat a tough jets defense? Beats me., sure hope so…
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1) the dumbest mistake that needs correcting is Bradford calling the same exact cadence every play during the Dallas game.. “Down, set, Go”.. Something so small and stupid put our OL at a big disadvantage. OLIneman love to run block more then pass blocking because they get to explode out of their stance and attack the DL. The OL has the advantage of knowing when the ball will be snapped so the DL has to guess or react to our OL. Allowing the OL to get off the ball first and hit a defensive lineman before he can fire out of his stance makes such a big difference. This was so bad, it is such a big deal that I feel guilty having ripped the OL for their run blocking all week… This was a dumb pee wee football level mistake and I better NEVER see this hurt the Eagles again. Bradford and chip should apologize to stoutland and each lineman for this ridiculously boneheaded mistake..
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2) Better have a double team bracket coverage on Brandon Marshall for the entire 60 minutes. Force someone else to beat you for crying out loud,
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3) we know Devin smith is only going to run go routes every single time he is in the game. The kid is fast, I better not see Thurmond let Devin smith get behind our defense. Keep the rookie in front of us and he will be irrelevant
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4) be foolish to expect a breakout week from our outside WRs against Jets corners, but you have to find other ways to use our WRs so they can make an impact.. let Agholar or Huff run a reverse.. Split Lane out wide with a WR stacked behind him and let Lane lead block on a WR screen
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5) forget throwing outside the numbers this week, it’s imperative that we by their LBs and Safeties matches up man to man against Sprolea or Ertz, they have to have big time games for us to win
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6) line up Wrs in the backfield and have them run routes out of the backfield so they can’t be Jammed
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7) show some semblance of a Heavy, Max protect package, do NOT abandon the run everytime we see 8 defenders in the block.. Just once counter it with 8 blockers in the game and run right at them.. Put those 3 fingers up in the air and get 3 TEs on the field, even using an extra lineman as a blocking TE..
Stop allowing the number of defenders in the box to dictate whether we run or pass on every friggin play.. Not to mention it makes us very predictable
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8) if we turn the ball over we will lose.. Gotta win the turnover battle this week. If Fitzpatrick isn’t helped by the defense getting so many turnovers, if we shut The run down and force him to throw every play and take Brandon Marshall away him they will turn the ball over.. For the love of god please force someone other then Brandon Matshall to beat us
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9) we lit up Bowles quality Cardinal Drfense the past two years, we know he will blitz us like 90% of the time..we need to use that too our advantage, use their aggression against them, Dail up some screens, draw plays, most important, we need Bradford to see the field not be fooled by their disguise and make them pay when they blitz us
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10) abandon the run and not only will we lose but Bradford will get knocked out of the game.. Stick with the damn run, our lineman were embarrassed last week, this is a gut check game, let our OL get some pride back allowing them to attack the Jets defense in the run game..can’t win this game unless we get the run game going, and we made so many stupid fixable mistakes in the run game that there is no reason we shouldn’t get it going this week even against a quality defense,,,
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Most important, you can’t shit the bed all first half an expect to comeback On the Jets in the second half.. Absolutely need to start strong. having success on the first two drives would be huge this week!!
I only read your first point, but that’s been going on ever since Chip got here, no matter who the QB is
Glad to hear your mother is doing better Tommy, all the best to your family!
It does give one pause to see that so-called experts can be so clueless and unprepared. It also makes one appreciate this site even more, as well as some guy named Tommy. Thank you!
Glad your mom is feeling better. Family first.
Its a shame the start of this season has been so ugly that it’s hard,to appreciate some of the good we are seeing…The Defense didn’t get the credit it deserved for their performance against Dallas. If the Defense keeps growing from one week to the next, we wI’ll arrive as a top defense by the end the season..
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malcolm Jenkins has been balling.. it’s a shame we have been so terrible that we can’t appreciate finally fixing safety issues that have plagued us for about 6 seasons.. Jenkins has been spectacular all over th field, blowing up screens, blowing up RB’s in the backfield, jumping Routes, single handedly solving our nickel CB problem..
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thurmond at safety has been a pleasant surprise, but the Jets matchup provides him with an opportunity to show that he is a an upgrade from Nate.. Chan Gailey and FitPatrick are going to go 4 WR and take shots down field. And you can bet Rookie Devin Smigh will be running go routes all game. nate was infamous for letting WR get behind him when he was out last line of Defense. this matchup will preseamt Thurmond with an opportunity to prove that opponents won’t be getting Behnd our defense on HIS WATCH… That upgrade alone should go along way cutting down on the X plays we gave up last year.
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I’m a big fan of Barwin and BG, but they haven’t performed up to their ability in terms of setting the edge against the run, which we were great at last year. trent Cole helped us he so stout at setting the edge but Barwin and strong as an OX BG are more caoable setting the edge then they have shown so far this season. I NEED that to change this week!
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VINNY got some pressure on QB last week, but we need both VINNY and BG to turn the pass Rush up a notch and batter Jets QBs… but just as important will be VINNY and Bair stepping up to replace Thornton against the run. VINNY allegedly worked hard on improving his run defense tbis offseason, hopefully it will pay off tomorrow helping to make Fitzy 1 dimensional
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No better way to find out about MS2’s growth then throw him onto the battlefield on the road in an important game.. Sink or Swim? It would be great for Marcus Confidence if he can make some plays for us tomorrow. Needs to have a solid performance that he can build on..
Hey Tommy, glad your mom is feeling better. Family before everything else, and frankly as ugly as the first couple games have been, I’m happy there’s been no DGRs.
Bart Scott is an idiot. I’m surprised he landed a job on the CBS pregame show. But as far as expectations for the game against the Jets, I’d just like them to get 5 first downs in the first half. That’s not too much to ask is it? We’ll worry about scoring points later.
Bart Scott rips Chip because Heath Evans gets lots of clicks for doing the same thing, regardless of what he actually believes. Irelevant.
I am glad your mom is doing better. I wish you and your family all the best Tommy.
Is Maragos playing 50% of the snaps taking away from our special teams?
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If Jerome Couplin can’t play safety better then Maragos, why the hell is he on the roaster instead of Prosinski who was a ST Deamon? Yes Couplin can also play ST, but NOT on Prosinski’s level..
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Doesn’t help that AjiraTutu is sidelined with a concussion, and Burton is banged up…
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I didn’t take a closer look at why our punt was blocked. Not sure who was responsible for that costly mistake, but THAT can’t HAPPEN to a team that puts so much roater emohasis on ST.. Not only is our ST not making the big plays like TD returns, blocking Kicks, forcing Fumbles, but even worse is we are starting to łet teams make those plays on us, and that can’t happen. We can’t hurt ourselves with missed FGs from a KId who is a season removed from setting rookie scoring records…. I don’t know wtf is going on with Fipps unit, but if they aren’t going to help us with game changing plays, at the very least they need to NOT HURT us giving up game changing Plays…
…
Fipp needs to take the Sunglasses OFF and Chip Needs to put his Visor back ON!!!!!
..
Curious to see if we see Marcus Smith play ST tomorrow
there was a space between two of the blockers dallas ran stunts and we didn’t pick ti up
Yeah I could have guessed that someone got thru two blockers to block a punt, which two blockers was the point.. But thanks
Dorenbos missed his assignment. He turned and went to block left (where there happened to already be 4 guys blocking 3), instead of turning right where the extra rusher was coming from. The up back had his guy coming straight at him and Dorenbos’ guy coming right up the middle past the center and had to take the inner most guy and leave his guy unblocked, who ended up blocking the punt.
Thank you…and Ouch.., wonder how many times In his eagle career has dorenbos cost us a big mistake? I imagine not many…
MS playing STs, LOL
T-Law:
Continued improving good health to your mom.
Best news of the week!
Glad your mum is feeling better, mate.
Don’t worry about writing DGR about games such as the Cowboys one. I’d have to be driven to a hospital when reading this. 😉
Harbaugh already turning around Michigan. College football is just better with Michigan being good again.
Not that it matters…
Rewatching dallas game and on 2nd and 1 with 6 left in 3rd DeMarco catches swing pass and would have scored except for the missed tripping call against claiborne. Sum of All things equal the whole.
Andddddd, the hits keep coming. Josh Huff added to the injury report with a hamstring. He is questionable for tomorrow.
ouch, some big injuries on a very big game. I was gonna say we get to 1-2 after this week but with all these injuries adding up, its looking like 0-3. If we were playing a weak defense I would say we can get our shit together and work thru it, but man… looking bleak at the moment.
Huff has really been disappointing so far. He needs to get healthy and start producing
Of course… He hasn’t been disappointing enough so he figured he would turn it up and start missing games too..
Is a bummer, but does it really matter?
Yes I believe it does matter.
I believe it does not
I mean, I love to see Cooper as much as the nest guy but Huff is our 2nd/3rd best receiver. It does matter.
Nope…. Hasn’t produced squat, and his presence has zero impact on the game
Wrong again sir! You could say that about many of our recievers.
Tommy, as always appreciate the writing. Thanks for taking the time to share a little about what you’re going through. Glad to hear your mother’s doing better. Here’s to a quick recovery!
Also, having trouble figuring out 2 of my 3 positions. Deciding between Allen Robison, Jordan Matthews and Amari cooper. Any help is welcome Ive been tinkering all day and just cant pull the trigger. It is for WR2 and my flex in standard league
Making too much of a big deal about 0-2/0-3… Obviously losing to the Jets will crush me, but how we look is so much more important since it’s really no secret that we would have to grow into the team we think we could be early in this season..
..
I don’t want to make light out of an 0-2, 0-3 start, but didn’t Chip get off to a 1-3 start, with a beat down at the hands of the Broncos as the cherry on top in 2013? If a 1-3 chip Kelly team made the playoffs his first year in the NFL, I can’t make an 0-2, 0-3 start be the end of the world.. Especially since the 2013 defense was a wimp Compared to this years defense..:
..
If the 2013 Eagles could make this playoffs after a 1-3 start, then we shouldn’t even be close to feeling like we can’t win this putrid division this year. Last year 11-5 wasn’t enough to make the playoffs.. This year you don’t need close to 12 wins to win this division..
..
I’m guilty of over rating September losses like everyone else, but enough… Last week was so terrible that tomorrow i need to see this offense take steps towards correcting last weeks rock bottom performance… This team needs to focus on improving, gelling and staying together.. Take care of That, and the wins will take care of themselves…
While I want to see them get out of their funk, 0-3 is devastating and I don’t see any playoffs with that start. Thats a lot of hoping and praying, yes the NFC is bad and hurt but they will also get their upset games in too, lets be honest.
0-3 is a pretty disastrous way to start the season. And, in most years, I’d agree, we’d be toast. But, while still, a huge hole to dig out of, leavind us with almost no margin for error, I don’t think it puts the nail in our coffin this year.
With Romo and Dez out for most the season, the Giants looking like a total dumpster fire and the Redskins, well, being the Redskins, 9-7 could easily be all that you need to win the division. And we have a pretty cake schedule the rest of the way.
Disastrous? Putrid, far from ideal, but I wouldn’t call it a disaster when we just overcame a similar terrible start to the 2013 season and still made the playoffs when the division wasn’t as terrible as it is today.. We overcame this two years ago.. Actually today resembles the last year we made the playoffs and its the opposite of last year when we didn’t make the playoffs… Last year got off to a 9-3 start and crumbled down the stretch to miss playoffs, in 2013, we had a 3 game losing streak and finished September 1-3 beating only the crappy skins, if we lose tomorrow and beat the skins next week, we will be 1-3 having gratin only the crappy skins.,,
..
We are on pace to be warily similar to our last playoff year and wifh the division being more pathetic then ever, acting like we won’t make the playoffs in September is foolish
Dude, read past the 4th word of my post. After the word disastrous it pretty much says, “however…[everything you just replied to me]”. So I think we already agree. Even if you don’t like the word disastrous.
You can’t sugar coat a 0-3 start, it’s Putrid!!.. As for “I don’t see any playoffs with that start”, I’m not even close to being ready to go there… Say we lose tomorrow, I don’t really view that as much worse then beating the skins to open the 2013 season and then lose the next 3 games, the last loss being an absolute ass whooping to the Broncos, yet we went on to make the playoffs… Saw we lose tomorrow and then beat the skins next week, that’s the same as the 2013 start, beating the skins and losing to 3 other teams.. How can I call losing 3 games the end of the world, when I already saw this team go to the playoffs after losing 3 games in a row in setember? Not to mention this years division is undoubtably weaker then the 2013 year.. How can I call a 0-3 start the end of the world when I have already seen chip coached eagle teams endure an ugly 3 game skid and then go on to rattle off what 5? 6? 7 wins in a row?(forget the exact number)… Lose tomorrow and beat the skins the week after and we are basically In the same exact situation we were in 2013, and we have much better charechter then we had on that 2013 team..
.
If people want to go crazy over chips offseason and say that they never seen a team make so many changes, maybe we should have expected not to be able to start the season clicking on all cylinders.. We talk about all the change and then can we really be this surprised to see that we ended up needing the first month to grow into the team we thought we could be?
…
0-3 is terrible, but a 3 game skid to start the season is something we overcame before, and I think our defense and ST is significantly better then the 2013 team that overcame the putrid start to make the playoffs… Not to mention the fact that we aren’t even 0-3 yet..
..
So no offense, but I call bullshit on the NO shot at the playoffs narrative… But last week we were so bad, that I need to see dramatic improvements before I can even care about The wins and losses, because if we don’t drastically improve but end up winning this game, the win isn’t going to mean anything…yet if I see big progress, a hard fought game and we lose, at least I can feel that we are finally on the right track… I think we can afford to go 1-1 these next two games, even tho I would obviously much prefer 2-0…, but if we lose to the Jets and also lose division game to skins, 0-4, then I’ll be ready to concede that the sky has completely fallen and we can forget playoffs.,. But if we go 1-3 in November and start playing better and better, there should be no reason to lay down and assume we won’t make the playoffs
Glad to hear your mother is doing well again, Tommy!
Bart Scott is only on TV to say things like he said about Kelly. He’s not to be taken seriously and I never watch any pre-game show because of the collective networks continued effort of hiring the loudest and most obnoxious ex-jocks they can find. None of the shows are the least bit entertaining nor are they informative.
On the contrary, I don’t know if there is many College fans here, but Holy Cow, Matt Leinart is a great addition to Fox Sports. Very informative, without an agenda and doesn’t talk like a mush mouth just yelling at the camera. Danny Kanell is the only guy i liked (ESPN), but Leinart is right up there with him for being one of the most composed, thoughtful analysts on TV. I can’t think of one i enjoy for the NFL on any network
I caught Leinart last week, he is really good so far, I agree.
Bart Scott only has a job to say shock jock crap that will provide a controversial sound bite… When we take the bait and give any credence to his silly statements we fall right into the troll trap.. Why we stop letting the Bart Scott and Heath Evans donkeys push our buttons, that’s when they will dissapear from off the air.. They certainly can’t provide any quality an analysis so when they can no longer push fans buttons, they will have nothing else to add to a show
God damn that boy Fournette is a beast!
That boy good
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/62283682.jpg
Nailed it! Glad someone caught that.
I was doing the “my name is Peaches” rap this morning.
That movie is still an all time classic
It’s really funny to me how things work in our society these days. Chip has had a fairly unprecedented rise through the college ranks and into the NFL, he’s been massively successful at every stop. Yet, he has never once referred to himself as a genius, or really boasted about himself or his scheme at any point during the journey.
As you said, Tommy, he’s extremely complimentary to other coaches, he seeks out their council and advice on a regular basis; in fact, he’s been rather humble throughout. Furthermore, whenever anyone else refers to him as a genius, or even an innovator, he immediately shoots it down and reminds them that he’s invented nothing new, that these are all concepts and schematic things that have been done before and there’s nothing that he does that he hasn’t borrowed from someone else. His favorite saying seems to be, “If you weren’t in the room with Amos Alonzo Stagg and Knute Rockne, you stole it from somebody.” He says it every single time someone in the media tries to heap praise on him for being an innovator or an offensive mastermind that’s changing how the games played.
Yet, people in the media continue to refer to him as such. And, the media members that disagree with the sentiment that Chip is this genius innovator, don’t get mad at their co-workers that keep repeating it..no…they get mad at Chip because, apparently, he’s this guy that “came out of college as this supposed mastermind, with a scheme that he thought would change the league, because he thinks he’s the smartest man in every room, so screw that arrogant bastard.”
What?? Are you serious? You guys, in the people in the media, have been the only one’s saying he’s the smartest guy in every room and he has this genius, revolutionary offensive system, not him.
Tommy, hope your mom has a speed recovery! Thanks for providing us fans with an intelligent, well written perspective on our beloved Eagles. I’ve been living in Nashville for the last 14 years and finally moved back to the Philly area. Your posts have at many times been my only worthwhile lifeline to my Iggles back home! Keep doing what you do and I hope your hard work continues to gain recognition as it is well deserved.
Remember how good the Eagles were in the preseason.?everyone on this site thought they were going to go 19 – 0. Except for that one dude londDong. . Yall Kool aide drinking asssed bitches need to recognize the longdong. He all up in yo face. Lobgdong in you bitch ass face. Suckers
“everyone on this site thought they were going to go 19 – 0.”
Not everyone. Not most. Not many. Not anyone.
But expectations were for a better product than we’ve seen.
No arguing that.
Maybe things don’t change. And you’ll be proven right.
Maybe they do. And you’ll be proven wrong.
Either way — as T-Law’s post today reminds — losing any sleep over what the Eagles do is a fool’s errand.
Go look it up. I said over under on bradford starts. Someone said 19 anf got 15 up votes. So yeah probably everyone
Bradford starts vs going 19-0 is a huge difference bud.
Still is super bowl. This team is 31 teams away from super bowl
Only 30 teams don’t make the Super Bowl.
Oh you want to lose the super bowl. Ok loser
Not really bud both imply super bowl
I remember the comment.
He was being ironical.
Ironically ironical or ironic
Not losing sleep but eagles fans ran a great coach out of town for some chump. Yall drank that kool-aid
Question . . . are you an Eagles fan?
If you are, then you included yourself in the group of “Eagles fans ran a great coach out of town . . . .”
So, if you are an Eagles fan, I’m not sure what point you’re making.
And if you’re not an Eagles fan, well, your entertainment value has dropped significantly for me.
I never ran Reid out if town. He could have coached for life here with a decent gm. That’s why I hate eagles fans
He was the GM and thats the way he wanted it
I always stuck up for Reid. That’s why I hate eagles fans. Don’t know a good thing when it slaps them in the face
Pls explIn how his win loss ratio is near eaual to rich kotite?
Remember when you fucking idiots booed McNab.
u cant possibly mean andy and his .583 win loss pct
There is a huge difference between some folks here and a real Eagles fan. A real fan wants their team to win. A real Eagles fan does not gloat when the team loses. A real Eagles really believes that the team winning is more important than always being right. I’m not picking on you, just noting the difference generally.
A real eaglez fan is not being on every band wagon…ability to walk away. Empty stadiums tell owners the clearest message when they try to bullshit the fans.
Not a fan of the troll above, but Reid’s win/loss percentage is pretty good. Better than Bill Parcels, Pete Carroll, Chuck Knox, Jimmy Johnson, Tom Coughlin, and Dick Vermeil, among others.
The only thing funnier (or sadder )than fat andy in a rams uniform is seeing his philly house for sale listing
Reid was a great coach, but it was time for him to move on. Even he knew that.
How was he as GM ??He demanded to be both…he didnt care to stay
Don’t feed the trolls!
The person you are replying to can’t even get his foul mouth in good working order. I’ve always thought that if one wants to express themselves with obscenities, they should do it logically and show some originality. It seems that every pimple-faced 14-year-old thinks they personally invented the word that starts with F and ends with K. Often while clawing at their own genitalia as they gobble and drool over pictures of womens’ reproductive organs. Of course it also seems that nobody is teaching any kind of logical thought process even with English. ;~)
Damn teenagers, acting like no one has ever used a fork before!
Was looking for something else apropos to this subject. Came across this and just had to post it. A few days ago, I was actually thinking along these lines while watching out for some motorists. (I refuse to call them drivers).
Here’s a great Holtz quote;
“The difference between athletes today and twenty five years ago is today everybody talks about their rights and privileges.
Twenty five years ago people talked about their obligations and responsibilities.”
-Lou Holtz-
Glad to hear your mom is doing better, Tommy!
Allen Robison, Jordan Matthews and Amari cooper. Pick two out of three. Standard league
Robinson and Matthews.
I’d always take the rookie last.
Ok thats what I have been thinking as well
Left Robison off last week and he blew up for 30… kill me
On my bench in two leagues, don’t worry about it yet.
Jags may be playing from behind against the Pats also, so maybe a lot of passing attempts from Bortles and Pats secondary is nothing to write home about….Matthews and Cooper is interesting…Browns have given up the 4th fewest passing yards, and Mike Pettine does well against young quaterbacks (Derek Carr)….Think i would go Matthews, Good Luck!
Robinson and Cooper. Matthews is going to get manhandled by the Jets
Real world, real word — Glad Mom is doing well, Tommy. Please give her a shout out from all of us. The Eagles Team might fail to cheer you up but maybe the Iggles Blitz team can cheer her up. Seriously, all the best.
I’m glad the Eagles are on Fox at 1 because………………
Everybody working at CBS 3 needs to kill themselves.
Instead of Ravens / Bengals at 1, we get Steelers / Rams. Really? How about Colts / Titans? Chargers / Vikings anybody?
PITTSBURGH ISN’T IN PHILADELPHIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And at 4, we get Chicago at Seattle on CBS. That’s better than Bills / Dolphins I guess.
Broncos / Lions Sunday night and Chiefs / Pack Monday night is some good quality however!
There’s the added bonus of Foles with the Pitt game.
We are in the Seattle coverage area, but if they are not playing, we get swamped with Oakland and Denver, because, you know, the entire western half of the continent is fascinated with those teams. Whatever they are marketing in Denver must be a real hot seller in, you know, Walla Walla. Beer, motor oil, snow sports, etc.
In 2013, we beat the skins week 1 and then we lost the next
3 games.. And then went on a big winning streak that almost lasted two months and we made the playoffs,,
..
Now the division is even weaker then 2013, of we lose to the jets tomorrow and then beat the skins the following weak, that’s practically the same scenario as 2013, the last time we made the playoffs.. Both years would be 1-3 for the month of September, both years we would have endured a 3 game losing streak with the skins being our only win..
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Ideally we win tomorrow and the skins game and get out of September 2-2 in which case The bandwagon would fill up again and the silly Super Bowl talk will be back, but even if we lose tomorrow, I don’t want to hear about how it’s the end of the world, it’s a putrid start, but no reason to lay down and accept not making the playoffs, as long as we are showing growth and improving significantly on last years disaster….
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If we end up going 1-3 for September, we will be in a division that will NEVER be weaker then it is this season and we will have a defense and special teams that’s significantly better then the 2013 team that overcame the 1-3 start…
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We were horrible last week. We need to grow and improve from one weak to the next, it’s more important then our September record.. We can win these next two games and unless we are making the continuos progress and growth it won’t matter… Tomorrow won’t be easy, but I can live with a loss depending on how much improvement and fight we see compared to last year…
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The Game that we can NOT afford to lose is the skins game… Win or lose tomorrow, if we are going to endure this ugly start we need to handle our business in the division.. If we can just step up and win the division games we would need to go like 4-5 in non conference games hopefully taking care of business against the inferior teams like the Bucs, saints and Pantners..
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But the NFL is a crazy unpredictable world… When everyone thinks there is no way a certain team can win, that’s when the team steps up and finds a way to win, it’s like an NFL science… I can look at the matchups and give you 20 reasons why we will lose tomorrow. The Matchups don’t favor us… But the NFL doesn’t follow reason, it doesn’t stick to the “Obviois script”… I’m hoping for one of those crazy NFL upsets tomorrow.. In order for that to happen on the road, I assume our defense has to force more turnovers then the Jets defens and make life miserable for the jets offense worse then their defense does to ours, and we will most likely need a big boost from our ST that has underperformed the first two weeks
..
Who would have thought we would be hoping that we were the “trap game” in week 3?
Tommy, Sorry to hear about your mom, but I’m glad she’s back home and getting better.
Seahawks have waived safety Dion Bailey
Weird tomorrow…
Huff hurt. DeMarco questionable. Maybe we’ll see something different?
Each game with Chip is a surprise.
So true, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if they won or lost all of the rest of the games this season.
Eagles football is like a bag of chips, you never know how many broken pieces will be at the bottom.
Hope your mom recovers well!. We need all the cheering we can get..
Glad your mom is doing better Tommy. Hopefully you will get good Eagles news tomorrow as a bonus.
Missed your writing but many fans here covered for you. We’ve got a great supportive community here. We’ve got your back!
All the best.
Bart Scott is like a paid version of eaglesfanqq. Both irelevant and both lame.
Here’s one for your mother. Hope it’ll make her smile.
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFgd36e601ziCL0lUyfRQOAEXqemxhv_JlPPitkY49vjIOePIrlw
With no Ivory, important that we shut this run game down EARLY.. Hopefully the offense could score points in the first half because if we can get a lead, while shutting their run down making them one dimensional, it will force their average QB to throw from behind, hopefully our twist, stunts and pass rush is ready to have a big game..
..
We need to fix our cover 0 technique so we can unleash all out blitzes on Harvard boy… Since the year 2000, Cover 0 all out blitz has been a staple of the great Jim Johnson defenses especially when teams had us “bending” in our redzone, our all out, cover zero rarely let us “Break”.. The LB and safeties timed their blitz perfect forcing the QB to throw the ball quickily and the corners would make the tackle short of a first down…our cover zero technique last week was poor, hopefully it was the Fatigue. Because while Nolan and Maxwell have their flaws, they are physical corners with size and are willing tacklers, so they should be really good at it once they play with
proper Technique..
.,
What Dawkins and those Jim Johmsom teams did on the cover zero all out blitzes is that everyone would rush the QB, but as soon as you realized you would be picked up by a blocker and not get the sack, we would abandon the pass rush, turn around and start running to the corners to try and help them make the tackle because we weren’t playing for INTs or PBUs, we wanted to make the tackle short of the first down..
..
In 3rd and 10 cover zero all out Blitz, the corners don’t press, they line up like 6 or 7 yards off and they need to execute a flat footed read, basically when the ball is snapped they can’t give ground and move backwards, they need to stand still, flat footed, and the offense doesn’t have enough guys to block all the blitzers so our corners know the ball has to come out right away and they are limited on what routes to run so the CB can’t move backwards he has to remain flat footed ready to rather turn around and run, or to explode
Forward to make the tackle short of the first down, while other blitzers who were going to be blocked, all turn around and start running to try and help the corner with the tackle…. Nolan and Maxeell may not be shut down cover corners but they are Perfect for the cover 0 all out blitz.. Look back to the Dallas game and when we would mess up from cover zero it’s almost always because the corners backed up when the ball was snapped instead of staying flat footed ready to make the tackle short of the
First down or turn around if they are throwing it up like On Julios only catch in the second half of the Atlanta game., we have the personnel to be really solid on these cover zero all out blitzes, only that it will be dangerous this week because Brandon Matshall isn’t easy to tackle, but if Maxwell and Nolan trust that the blitz will get home and force fitzy to throw right away, Brandon Marshall will catch it about 4 yards short with a CB waiting flat footed about an inch away ready to exploit thru Marshall and take him down short of the first down… Hopefully Hicks, Meco, Jenkins, Barwin all time their blitz perfectly force fitzy into a dumb mistake
Ivory is out?