Good Enough For Now
Posted: October 20th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 375 Comments »The Eagles are now 3-3 and atop the NFC East. That’s great compared to where they were, but even the recent hot streak hasn’t solved all the issues. The Eagles have won 3 of 4, but they are still playing very sloppy football. They have been good enough to win. That’s not going to be good enough to get them where they want to be.
Chip Kelly didn’t build this team to win the NFC East. He wanted the team to be a championship contender. Obviously the level of play right now looks more like “Hey, if we get lucky we can win a wild card game!” than anything close to championship level.
But…
It is still October. There are 10 games left. This team is improving a bit week by week. Think about where the defense is now compared to the opener. Julio Jones and the Falcons piled up 26 points and almost 400 yards of offense. In the last 2 weeks, the Eagles faced Drew Brees and Eli Manning. Those QBs combined to lead their teams to just 24 points.
The Eagles defense is 6th in the NFL in points allowed. 6th!!! That’s crazy considering Chip Kelly is an awful coach that hates his defense and won’t slow down to help them out. Imagine how good they would be if he actually knew how to run a team. The Eagles are 4th in the NFL in yards per play, which is a crucial stat because of the up-tempo style. Only the Broncos, Jets and Panthers are better. If you just want conventional numbers, the Eagles are 15th in yards allowed per game. And consider that they’ve faced Ryans, Romo, Brees and Eli in that stretch. That’s four pretty good QBs.
The offensive line is coming together. They allowed one sack in the last 2 games (84 dropbacks). They are starting to get some push up front. DeMarco Murray had…hold your breath…room to run. He then ran for 109 yards. The Eagles have averaged 138 yards rushing in the last 4 games.
When you control the line of scrimmage, good things tend to happen.
Sam Bradford has jumped to the front of the line as the biggest question on the team. I’ll write a full post on him and the QB situation. Suffice it to say, he must play better. The Eagles were able to win by 20 points on Monday night, but that was in spite of Bradford and not because of him.
The defense has gotten better. The O-line is improving. Bradford remains a work in progress. He can get better. But will he? That’s the tricky question and something Kelly has to be thinking about.
The Eagles won last week by 22 points and last night by 20. You can see the potential this team has. The projected starting ILBs, Kiko Alonso and Mychal Kendricks, haven’t played recently. DeMeco Ryans and Jordan Hicks were keys to victory last night. They combined for 15 solo tackles, 1 TFL, 1 INT and a FR. Not bad for “backups”.
Ryans looked terrible on the opening drive. He was lost in coverage and looked slow. Ryans came alive after that. He broke up a downfield pass to TE Larry Donnell. Ryans was beat on the play but got his hands up at the right moment and kept the TE from making the catch. Ryans made a huge play when he came up with a strip-pick off Donnell. The TE hadn’t secured the catch and Ryans stole it from him as they went to the ground. That happened when the Giants were up 7-0 and on the verge of getting into the Red Zone again. If not for that play, the Eagles likely go down 10-0 or 14-0. That was the turning point in the game.
The offense got off to a slow start, again. The defense not only kept the team in the game, they changed it. After a TD drive by the Eagles tied the game at 7-7, Nolan Carroll made a huge play. He jumped an underneath route, picked off the pass and ran it back for a TD. The Eagles now had the lead at 14-7.
Ryans takeaway was like a punch that staggered the Giants. Carroll’s pick-six was a shot that knocked them for a loop. Brandon Graham may have sealed the deal when he stuffed the runner for a loss on 4th/1 late in the opening quarter. After that play, the Giants only had 112 yards the rest of the game.
The Eagles defense seemed to wear the Giants down. Eli was under pressure for most of the game. The running game was limited. Receivers were tackled quickly after making a catch. The Eagles got stronger and stronger as the game went along. The Giants looked hopeless after the 1st quarter. And they were only down 14-7. It wasn’t like the Eagles had some huge lead. Actually, the way the Eagles defense played, being up 7 points was a huge lead.
Connor Barwin, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham were relentless in attacking Eli. The Eagles “only” sacked him 3 times, but there was constant pressure on Peyton’s little brother. They got Eli out of his comfort zone and suddenly the red hot QB became the guy from recent years who had that deer-in-the-headlights look. Vinny Curry was disruptive. Even Cedric Thornton got some pressure. Barwin seemed to be in the backfield constantly. He drove RT Marshall Newhouse crazy with power rushes. Barwin lined up wide and ran straight at Newhouse, putting him on roller skates and driving him into Eli’s lap over and over.
The Eagles offense did come alive in the 2nd half. My favorite drive came in the 4th quarter. The Eagles were up 24-7 with 13:35 on the clock. They had a 10-play, 40-yard drive that ate up more than 8 minutes. That resulted in a field goal and sealed the game. That was tough, physical, methodical football. The Eagles ran and then mixed in a couple of passes. That was winning football.
DeMarco Murray had his best game as an Eagle. He started slow and then had 97 yards after halftime. It took a while to wear down the Giants, who had the #2 run defense in the NFL going into the game. Murray’s TD run in the 3rd quarter was a thing of beauty. The OL got good push. Safety Brandon Merriweather came up to make the tackle. Murray put him on the ground with a stiff arm and then ran for a 12-yard TD. Beautiful. Merriweather is a tough guy when it comes to hitting defenseless receivers in the back, but he’s not so tough when big RBs see him coming.
The Eagles won a sloppy, ugly game last night, but did so in convincing fashion. Kelly and his staff have plenty of issues to address, but the Eagles are now winning and there are a lot of positives to build on.
*****
Good note here.
Combined record of #Eagles foes is 18-15. Guess that shows schedule tougher than some might think. Conversely, unbeaten Carolina's is 9-20.
— Ed Kracz (@kracze) October 20, 2015
The Eagles have actually played a tough schedule.
_
For how bad Bradford looked, I didnt mind the throw to Ertz for an INT in corner of end zone just a good defensive play and other one Cooper broke off his route. The worst one was with a good pocket and just a bad overthrow to Ertz in middle of field. That one was terrible. Im pretty much a Sam Bradford hater but Id have to say this WR corp leaves a lot to be desired. They just arent very good, esp considering Cooper is almost the best option at this point. Looks like more 2 TE sets, CK really being forced to change up his coaching and adjust to what he has or doesnt have for that matter. .
I thought the throw to Cooper sucked even if he stopped his route. The corner was way ahead of him, and he probably broke it off because he figured there’s no way Bradford would throw it and maybe was looking to start a scramble drill or something. Maybe if Coop kept going he might have broken up the pass or something but he was well behind the corner playing him and the safety was over the top too. Just a really poor decision to throw.
The Ertz one is more defensible but even there the safety was step for step with him, and as good as he is he isn’t Gronk, you can’t just toss it up to him and expect him to out-muscle the coverage for the catch.
Really surprised by how poor Bradford’s decision making is. All the accuracy in the world doesn’t help if he makes terrible decisions about where to throw it.
I actually liked the decision on the Ertz throw. 6 inches higher and it’s a TD. Collins is a liability in coverage. Gotta attack him. Great concentration by him.
The two Cooper throws were bad. It did seem that attacking with the deep ball was a big part of the gameplan.
We’ll never know how this strategy opened up things underneath.
It was aggressive, but still, Ertz isn’t that guy you just toss it up and hope he bullies the defender. I’m not sure I think a throw with that small a window to be completed could be considered a smart throw. Aggressive, but not smart.
It did look like he had both hands on the ball. I think he makes that play more than not.
I think that INT was almost all on Ertz. That is the second time he has helped a defender come up with an INT (Sean Lee), he can’t try and pull the ball in with the defender in front of him. He just makes it easy for them to grab the ball. Also Collins while a very good athlete shouldn’t be out jumping Ertz. He needs to work on flipping on the “now I am the defender” switch.
At the time, I wondered if there couldn’t be an issue there – Say it is even more clear than that play, and Ertz clearly makes a “hands” catch with control on the other side of a defender’s body and clearly sustains it for a second before they both go down and the defender clutches Ertz’s hands to his body, pinning the ball to his body, but with Ertz still maintaining his hands on the ball.
I guess that’s still an interception, but the lawyer in me wants to argue it.
ya good point on the cooper throw, probably still not smart but I dont mind him being aggresive and making mistakes. Only one way for this guy to get confident because his track record is really the opposite, dink n dunks. Just dont like this many mistakes, 9 tds to 9INTs on season, thats just bad. My point being more that this WR group stinks
I think that throw is incomplete or a big gain to Riley if he didn’t stop. You can’t discount the importance of his big body being in the play.
I think more 2 TE sets is a good thing as it disguises the direction of the run, Ertz’s blocking has improved enough to where the opposing defense can’t just key on celek
Yeah I was thinking about that last night. How the receiving core is just stinking the joint up. Ertz has been doing pretty darn well, and should be more involved. Think Austin and Huff need to be more involved too. Matthews must stay involved. That guy is going to develop into our home-grown T.O (that ins’t BS Crazy).
I can’t help but laugh when I see how the passing offensive is Cooper centric. Speaks volumes about a few things.
In a vacuum sure it’s not but terrible, but you add those picks with taking the sack right before half, or a safety on a free play, consistent bad ball placement. It leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least.
Panthers are the weakest of the undefeated teams, but still will be a good test for us, especially on offense. Winnable game, but toughest test yet for us.
Sunday night. Lovely.
ya another prime time game. Maybe SB is a bit more careful with his throws this game. He has to be vs that D, just cant toss it around willy nilly or it can change the game.
Concur. Jury still out but an optimistic outlook and a win vs CAR, 4-3 into bye is outstanding after 0-2 and that dallas beat down.
youre not kidding, it would be pretty good all things considered
The Panthers are sneaky good. Pundits have been waiting for the Panthers to lose and, so far, they’ve waited in vain.
Sounds like how they are with our team.
Waiting for them to lose? Against who, the Jags/Texans/Saints/Bucs? Seriously?
The pundits have picked against the Panthers in many, if not most weeks. I’m not saying the Panthers are good. I’m saying that everyone keeps writing them off and the Panthers keep proving them wrong.
I’ve noticed that, and i was with the pundits because i initially didn’t think this was a good team, pretty solid D but didn’t believe in their Offense.
I have noticed a lot of the same pundits dial it back and say okay this Carolina team may be for real after their win in Seattle Sunday.
I still think they are a mediocre football team, a lot of close wins against bad teams and a couple backup Qb’s. I give them credit for finding ways to win, but i still don’t think they are a solid team
Bradford looked awful last night, but there is no way I would replace him with Sanchez. We know what we have in Sanchez — an excellent backup and a mediocre starter. We still don’t know what we have in Bradford.
Maybe what we’re seeing now from Bradford is all we’re going to get. Or maybe he’ll improve. It only makes sense to let him play and see how good (or how bad) he is so the Eagles can decide whether or not to retain him (and pay him) at the end of the season.
The good news is that the areas where Bradford has been weak — touch and accuracy — were previously his strengths. Bradford isn’t at his ceiling (like Sanchez) he’s at his floor. Hopefully he can regain the his touch and his accuracy and lead the Eagles for this year and many years to come.
why do you think sanchez was at his ceiling? it’s not like bradford has had a more successful career
I think it’s clear that Bradford has better tools than Sanchez. His arm is stronger, etc.
Sanchez is a known quantity. He played for some very successful (and some very unsuccessful) Jets teams and he started for the Eagles for half of last season. While he has many strengths, he has at least two major flaws. First, his arm strength is sub-par which makes it hard for him to throw to the perimeters. Second, he throws a lot of picks. This is a consistent pattern and it seems unlikely that this will ever change.
I would add a third flaw in that I don’t think Sanchez sees the field well. Last year, there were receivers running free on many plays and Sanchez did not throw the ball to them.
In some ways, Bradford is the opposite of Sanchez. We don’t know what we have in him. In the past, Bradford has shown touch, accuracy and an ability to process information quickly. This year, Bradford has been bad at all of those things. Does that mean Bradford has permanently regressed or does it mean that he has yet to round into shape? The only way for the Eagles to find out is to play him for the rest of the year and make a decision on him when the season is over.
Bradford at his worst is only slight worse than Sanchez at his best. Bradford at his best is far superior to Sanchez at his best. We’ve already placed our second round bet on Bradford. Let the roulette wheel finish spinning before we cash in our chips.
when has Bradford at his best shown he was “far superior” to Sanchez?
Preseason for starters.
preseason is for back ups
College; First year in NFL; Game tape of Rams, Eagles OTA’s and Training Camp.
If you haven’t yet concluded that Bradford has far more potential than Sanchez, that’s your opinion and it’s unlikely that there is any evidence that would change your opinion. However, I think the overwhelming consensus (for what it’s worth) is that Bradford has a much higher ceiling than Sanchez does.
Never.
Like Jeff f. Said he’s great in tc and preseason but he’s never put together a great season outside of maybe rookie year and whats worse is that he’s throwing bunches of picks . Gotta remember Sanchez was rehabbing shoulder injury last year . Couldn’t make every throw but could move the offense .
Bradford has a better arm he just wont use it correctly
Bradford HAS used his arm correctly in the past. We can only hope that he returns to that form again (and sooner would be better than later).
Murray is starting to look better, but I still prefer Mathews who fights for every inch. When Murray is running behind the line he looks like he is shoe shopping, there is little aggression or burst like we see from Mathews.
just got an image of Demarco Murray running half-heartedly through a Payless in full gear browsing for shoes.
It’s a bad sign that we won by 20 and I still think we should bench Bradford. I was an apologist of his before the season but with as good as our defense and special teams have looked, I think we’d be in a much better position with a competent QB.
I hope I’m wrong, but Bradford looks like a dumpster fire.
Bench him for who? Mark Sanchez? That’s a joke in itself.
Exactly. People just need to come to grips with the realization that we have no better option. Bradford or Sanchez, they’re both going to do a lot of bad things. There is still a minuscule amount of hope with Sam at least.
Mark isn’t that bad.
Or that good.
I think if Bradford gets injured, it’ll be like when Foles got injured last year: a collective shrug from the fan base.
What’s Kyle Orton up to these days? :cracks open, “so you’ve hit bottom as a football fan” pamphlet:
So I am sort of a member of the bench Bradford camp. Let’s say I have a reservation and plane ticket, but if the weather changes I will cancel my trip.
In the games where the offense looked the worse Bradford wasn’t turning the ball over. Honestly it didn’t seem like he made bad throws either. Run, run, drop seemed to be the theme of most drives. As the rest of the offense has played better, his flaws have started to show a bit. The thing is that the team is winning, and the overall offensive production is increasing.
As many have said Bradford does have the most potential of the QBs. If he isn’t losing you games now, and he has 2 years of catching up to do, why not let him try to work through it? If he loses us the game this week I may need to call for an earlier ticket to Bench Bradford Camp. As of now though I think he needs a shot to work through it.
We see how well musical QBs is working out for the Texans.
I’ve discussed this in detail, elsewhere in this thread, but I see zero upside in benching Bradford. Sanchez is not going to lead the Eagles deep into the playoffs this year and Sanchez is not the Eagles’s future. Find out what we have in Bradford now.
There could be. If Bradford is going to throw multiple picks a game with a low completion percentage, you could turn the ball over to Sanchez and hope for more ball protection. This would allow you to play to your strength: the defense.
Its a possible future scenario is all.
True. But here’s my concern: in sports if you can have a flaw but it can’t be fatal. Phillies in ’09: couldn’t count on Lidge (he blows Game 4 and if he doesn’t do that they have Cliff Lee going in game 7), Phillies in ’10 & ’11 couldn’t score runs: that’s what killed them. Eagles in ’13 couldn’t stop a drive when it mattered most, that’s what ended the Saints game. Last year? It was Sanchez throwing killer turnovers.
That’s my concern with Bradford. It’s going to be do or die and he’s going to throw a pick-six.
That is everyone’s concern. I share it completely. I just think the guy deserves more time before we call for his head. Let him prove he isn’t the guy. Sanchez already has.
They are paying a lot for him this year and he will play. They gotta figure out if he can turn it around and if they need to move on next year. They can’t figure that out if he’s on the bench.
Oh man, how thankful should we all be that Bradford bet on himself to play into big money this year?
“The Eagles are 4th in the NFL in yards per play, which is a crucial stat because of the up-tempo style.”
Exactly! I have been one of the ones questioning if we should slow down the attack and play to our strength (the defense). If the offense ran a conventional tempo, would this be even better? I don’t know. The defense seemed to really thrive against the no huddle of the Giants.
Either way I love this defense (shout outs to NCIII, he wanted to prove Tommy wrong). I wonder how good the team could be if they played with a defensive focused game plan. Right now this is a defensive team that plays with an offensive mindset.
Honestly, though if Chip wants to keep it up this way, I trust him. Just take away the silly picks and this offense looks a bunch better. Take away the silly mistakes and this offense actually looks mediocre. If this offense can be mediocre I think this team can be special…
— P.S I know I identified myself as one of the guys Tommy is poking fun at. While I have been highly critical of the offense I haven’t questioned coaching 🙂
You know, I realized the teams we have played were better than expected. Didn’t realize how good. Didn’t realize the panthers had played such an easy schedule either.
Makes me feel a little better about the game. Still think we probably lose, unless we can get those skill position guys to cough the ball up a couple times.
We’re a bad matchup for the Panthers. Their offense isn’t very good and our defense might get another score next week along with shutting them down. Our offense doesn’t have to be world beaters, they just need to move the ball on the Panthers D to give our D a rest.
You could almost say the exact same thing about their team though right? Only they have Cam Newton playing out of his mind. Not to mention as Ark87 said they have Luke Kuechley, who I think is way better than Sean Lee.
Not really. We’ve moved the ball against good defenses (Jets), and our weak spot isn’t necessarily scoring points. It’s getting in our own way. I thought the Giants presented a harder matchup because they have a better offense.
I’m sure Seattle said the exact same thing last week…
Seattle’s offense is overrated. And now it seems, so is their defense. Thank god they got Cary.
They’re a bunch of head cases now though. They looks like the Seahawks, until the 4th quarter. And they know it.
I watch…way too many Panthers games living in NC. Their O isn’t good. Luke Kuechley does scare me a little. He’s a Sean Lee clone, but 3 times bigger. Unless he’s drugged, he should be all over our run game. Time to break-out Sammy!
Not only has CAR played a cupcake schedule, but virtually all of their games have been very close.
Is it just me or did ESPN really half-ass their coverage last night? They really didn’t seem to have any idea on what the narrative of the game was, what had been going on prior in the season. Didn’t seem to know anything about the Eagles defense. Don’t think they sat down with anyone prior to the game for fun anecdotes or any of that. The play by play was lack luster. Just a whole bunch of whining that there wasn’t a lot of offense.
Post-Game Steve Young whined that there was no professional football played. Then Ray Lewis came on, and I’m like YES. Someone who will appreciated a strong showing from the D. Nope. Don’t think he watched. He started to roll with Steve’s narrative, and the B roll of all of the Giant’s offensive miss-cues , he would just be, ” yeah the picks and- oh that’s good defense- just sloppy with fum- oh that’s good defense”.
the steelers cowboys patriots and peyton manning were not playing; therefore espn doesn’t care.
Packers, too.
Their fluff coverage was very very good. Their football coverage (other than live) was as it usually is when national media commentates for us.
I actually remarked a number of times how nice some of their fluff stuff was. It wasn’t just the material. The graphics they used, and the timing was amazing. The pre-game piece on Cox.. list goes on and on. At the end of the day MNF is the most watched thing on TV for the entire week. They have you and me locked in as viewers. They need to appeal people that aren’t you and I.
When it comes to watching a game covered by fox on a random Sunday.. the coverage was amazing.
I missed the pregame fluff. Damn
I’ve been overly apologetic towards Bradford in the first month of the season. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I expected him to be way more rusty than most and saw some glimpses of greatness despite an offense that was imploding all around him. However, it’s time to take the evaluation training wheels off. After 6 games we should see some significant signs of improvement if the problem is rust.
Right now, he’s just sputtering in mediocrity, or worse. He forced some really unnecessary throws that resulted in INTs last night. The one to Cooper, where Coop stopped his route and there was no WR within 20 yards, wasn’t really Coopers fault. The CB had great coverage and was actually a yard ahead of him when he stopped and there was deep safety help over the top. To make matters worse there was a wide open Ertz streaking down the seam.
The INT to Ertz in the end zone was the same pathetic under throw we’ve seen a 4-5 times in the end zone this year already. When are you going to actually put that ball on the back pillon like you’re supposed to, Sam? Plus there were other open receivers on that play. No reason to make that pass in FG range.
What we’re seeing right now is an offense who’s Oline has gotten it’s stuff together. The run game is functioning and the passing game is holding us back. Most of that falls on Bradford who is simply not playing well. And, we’re seeing an offense that has no playmakers. Murray is a grind it out type not a play maker. Mathews can be a play maker in the run game but is too inconsistent in the pass game. Sproles is a good complementary price but again too inconsistent and good for one or two egregious drops per game. Matthews isn’t a playmaker and drops too many passes. Austin and cooper are 4th and 5th WRs at best.
This is a passing offense of good complimentary pieces with no star and a QB who’s nowhere good enough to overcome the lack of a true playmaker.
The ball looks so pretty when he throws it, the problem is no one really knows where it’s going.
it also looks like he is taking something off it. grip it and rip it Samuel! geez
Or when he plants his leg to throw, its not strong enough to generate the necessary velocity?
Yea I was expecting a lot better accuracy from Sam. I thought that was a strength of his. It’s been anything but.
i agree with pretty much all of this, especially in regards to the poor throws to Cooper and Ertz in the endzone. I think Cooper saw he had no chance to get a step on the corner and there was a safety over top so he dialed it down and sat in the coverage, Sam has to see the coverage there and know Coop is going to shut it down, this falls under both miscommunication and failure to read coverage
And his throw to Ertz in the endzone might have been a case of liking that matchup and deciding to attack it pre-snap. To be fair, i think the Collins-Ertz matchup is favorable myself, but Collins was in his hip pocket and it would have taken a perfect throw, or at least throw it where only Ertz can get it. To make matters worse as you said, he had the first down underneath, Miles Austin sat down right at the marker. Just a bad decision and trying to force things.
Are they correctable, sure!, but Sam has to prove it, if not this team is going nowhere further than a weak playoff berth and first round exit. He also seems to try and baby some of his throws, sign that a guy isn’t playing with much confidence and is in his own head. That throw he completed to Cooper where he got hurt was a duck, and he had another to JMatt after he did a solid job of avoiding defenders, that he just tried to lay in. Has to start throwing with conviction
Re: Sam.
He’s not playing well. But what option do we have. We have no choice but to ride with him. No thank you to any of the Sanchez talk. I’d be happy never to see the Sanchize under center for us again.
Even in the offseason, what option do we have? QBs dont become FAs. Then it falls to the draft. I doubt we’ll have a top 10 pick so then you have to go with more of a project guy. Unfortunately, it seems this ship will sink or sail with Sam for the foreseeable future.
sanchize never threw 4 picks in a game.
not sure what that means but Bradford hasn’t thrown 4 picks.
ya Im kind of amazed how fans give Bradford so many outs and excuses and at the same time completely diminish Sanchez. Im thinking he is what we are seeing. I guess a half a season to sort of ramp up sort of makes sense but Im not so sure it should take that long. This isnt that confusing of a scheme. I do get not liking Sanchez but his mistakes are less at this point. Id give SB a few more games and then yank his ass if it continues. WRs arent helping thats for sure.
considering sanchez was out for a year came in as a backout and showed a pretty clear command of the scheme from day 1.
If the D looked last year like it does this year I think we would have made the playoffs.
I don’t want to make the playoffs, I want to win the Super Bowl. That’s not happening with Sanchez. Let’s find out if Bradford has upside.
The thing is he’s played 6 games and Sanchez is a lateral move and we’ve won 3 of 4. You may as well give it a week because then there is a bye week.
agree but that lateral move could be a bit of a step up, it really could. Id still give Sam even a game or 2 after bye.
No, no, no no………Sanchez didn’t show the year two growth I expected to see from a veteran QB in year two of this offense,, truth is, in year two of this offense, Sanchez performed worst in the preseason that a QB whp hadn’t played in two years who just started practicing in this offense August 1st, which was like two weeks before the first preseason game..
….
Acting like we seen the best SAM is capable of is Absurd…. As bad as he has been, SAM staying Healthy the next few years is the best thing that can happen for our franchise,., be Patient, stay the course… I’m not telling you Bradford is capable of being the next Aaron Rogers, but he is capable of much better than we have seen…
Well said. This is Sam’s 3rd MONTH of actual action in this scheme. Think about that, compared to the Foles we saw last year in his second YEAR. No it hasn’t been pretty to this point. but it would also be ridiculous to expect instant chemistry between QB and receivers. As Sam gets more comfortable, the plays will come. Chip is still evolving and players are still getting open. I was a little down about the running game but the same thing, building chemistry so RB’s can trust what they see. Of course things can improve, but all teams can say that, even N.E., G.B. Carolina etc. Good call earlier in the year about the defense Geagle. I am pleasantly surprised by the defense.
I think you’re way ahead of yourself. If Bradford continues to be sloppy, then you might reallocate resources anyway. You cut ties imo if he doesn’t get straightened out.
What purpose does it serve to “cut ties” with Bradford during the season? You think Sanchez will win more games this year? Great. Then what. We’re stuck with Sanchez at quarterback.
Let’s roll with Sam and see just how good or how bad he is. If he’s bad. We let him go. If he’s good, we have our quarterback of the future.
The point was in reference to:
Even in the offseason, what option do we have?
If Bradford isn’t the answer, we look elsewhere although where that elsewhere is, I have no idea. We have to hope that Chip gets creative like he did with Bradford or lucky like Belechik was with Brady.
Agreed, that’s what I said in the first place. You go with Sanchez, rookie (maybe Carson Wentz but college season is still playing out), Morris, and look under rocks. Then re allocate money you were going to spend on Bradford.
The Eagles are in quarterback limbo. They’re too good to pick a quarterback in the draft and there are no obvious ways to obtain a franchise quarterback via trade or free agency. I think that’s why Chip gambled on Bradford. Chip may lose the gamble, but I think it was well worth the risk. Downside is loss of second round pick. Upside is franchise quarterback for years to come.
I agree. I’m not happy with Bradford but you have to give it more time since we’re winning however the season and Bradford is very fluid.
No, we have to hope he gets creative, but not like he did with Bradford. Giving up a 2nd round pick for a step down.
If Bradford becomes a starter, a second round pick is cheap. If Bradford leaves after the season then Kelly gambled and lost.
Like I said, above, Kelly has no legitimate options available to him that don’t involve risk. I’d rather he took a shot at a potential franchise quarterback than maintain the status quo with two mediocre quarterback like Foles and Sanchez.
Yup, not all gambles work out. It was a good play to get Bradford. Verdict is still out, but it showed courage to make the attempt. Otherwise, as you say, what options do you have?
This is a lot like the early days of McNabb when everyone was bitching that we didn’t have quality receivers. But there were never any available in FA. All of the names people got excited about (who were available), then angry because we didn’t sign them, they all turned out terrible. Without exception. The second a quality guy became available, we bent over backwards to sign him.
“Great. Then [we have the privilege of having] Sanchez at quarterback.”
fixed
The PRIVILEGE of having Sanchez at quarterback? I’ve got news for you, anon. The only opinion that matters is Chip Kelly’s and he’s already expressed it by trading for Bradford instead of promoting Sanchez.
YOU may think it’s a privilege to have Sanchez as the Eagle’s starter, but Kelly clearly does not.
great game great win giants suck etc.. (and they do!)
but, has Bradford made any passes, done anything at all, that looks better then Foles did? underthrown passes, INT’s, and more underthrown passes…
I like Bradford and think he can be better, but I’m waiting. he has a great arm but doesn’t really let it rip at all.
i’m not questioning the trade at all, just curious if anyone “SEES” him looking better then old St. Nick.
right now no, he has shown flashes of a solid qb and then too many flashes of stupidity, miscommunication and a lack of confidence
It’s nice that Sam decided to bet on himself, because he is really damaging his bargaining position towards another nice contract with the Eagles.
Wonder what happens to him next season if he continues to play this way.
we trade him for foles
Ha! Great answer!
Seriously though, even if Bradford continues to play poorly, someone will take a flyer on him next year. The league is starving for quality quarterbacks.
I’d like to hope that Bradford improves and makes that scenario moot.
I doubt he gets many good offers — we’re known as a QB favorable system, if we can’t get it right here we can’t really get it right anywhere (that’s the guess).
I hope we never find out (because he plays well and stays in Philadelphia) but I’d be willing to bet heavily that he will do very well in free agency.
it would be nice, hopefully he can fix it during the bye week.
Bradford,will be our QB next year as long as he stays healthy
I have to keep believing he’ll break out of this funk. I think this was his worst game from start to finish this year. Maybe he’s taking a step back to take two steps forward. I thought he was much more sharp in the last 2.5 quarters vs the Saints, and looked pretty good versus the Skins.
Sunday looked terrible for him comparatively to the 1st 5 weeks. I feel like he has to hit the reset button and try to string together a couple good games starting this week.
Bradford’s stats have been better up to this week, at least. That’s a big change, because Foles always had better numbers than Bradford, and the “eye test” and fallible conventional wisdom has always been the only thing SB had over Folesy. I have a feeling Foles would be playing better if the trade had never happened.
I think you might be right… but here we are.
but seriously what are the traits that Bradford has that are better then Foles?
more accurate?/decision maker? smarts? better arm?
I can’t check nay of these boxes as of right now
AFAIK, better practice player, better technique, and better college performance. Beyond that, I am mystified.
Bradford must look like a monster in practice.
I don’t see the point of comparing him to Foles now. Foles is gone. Different team. Different system. Are you happy with the price that Chip paid for Bradford?
the point? yeah what’s the point of any of this?
I mean Foles here compared to Bradford here. same system.
First, Im not attacking you. Second, Foles would be playing better. I think a lot of the Foles hate came from the idea that his progress would be line always pointing up.
I didn’t think it was an attack, no worries.
yeah maybe that’s it Foles is at his ceiling and Bradford is a possible untapped killer
That may or may not be true for Foles but I see no evidence that Bradford’s ceiling is any higher. Also, I see no point at all to playing Sanchez.
Think Foles would be the same, maybe worse, his pocket presence was horrible, he lofts balls under pressure all the time instead of taking the sack or throwing it away.
I don’t think Bradford’s throwing is better than Foles so far, but I like his movement in the pocket better. He still takes the occasional dumb sack when he holds it too long, but he steps up to avoid pressure where Foles had gotten into the bad habit of drifting back and to the right – often straight into more pressure.
Yes! there it is, a positive. his pocket movement is better. and he throws well on the run. nice work. he really does.
Coming into this game, PHI ranked 12th in DVOA and CAR ranked 11th. Their O and D are both ranked better, but they have apparently had awful special teams.
PHI, NYG, ATL, WAS, all ranked in the top 15. SEA was only ranked 9th, so it’s not like CAR pulled off some sort of major upset here. Will be interesting to see if there is any significant jostling in position. NYG was ranked 8th but should drop.
Check out @FO_ASchatz’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/FO_ASchatz/status/656522573019222017?s=09
I guess that means there are a lot of bad teams in the NFL?
Putrid
ugly season all around and the refs are adding to that ugliness
It’s been a very ugly football season so far. It might be hard to believe but what we have seen from our team is pretty much status quo throughout the league, cept for maybe the Packers and Pats, Even some undefeated team have played poorly just ended up on the right side of the scoreboard
That’s the thing that most people are missing. We’re complaining about poor play, but so many other teams are seeing the same thing. We’re complaining about disappointment, but look at teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New Orleans, Dallas, and (!) Seattle. High expectations for them and they’re all in the same shit pile, pretty much.
We’re rightly disappointed in how things have worked out, but it’s still early, we’re not alone, and most importantly, we’re 3-3 instead of 2-4 or 1-5.
I imagine Eagles D must be top 3
After the game, Steve Young said the only thing professional about the Eagles was the D line. Pre-game he had pretty much described Eli and OBJ as being unstoppable. They raved about the Giants hot offense, Eli’s second year in it, etc. Let’s give credit to the secondary and ILBs for shutting down the WRs and RBs. Had the Seahawks forced the TOs our defense did, it would have been a very different narrative. Even if OBJ and Randle were limited, the D was still impressive.
As for the offense not being “professional,” that’s a stretch too. Let’s say Bradford doesn’t throw the RZ pick to Collins. Its very likely the Eagles would have gotten 3 there. They were on the 23 yard line. That would have given the Birds 23 offensive points. Murray had 109 yards as well. Young complained that it still didnt “look” right. Chip’s strategy is to make opposing defenses cover the entire field. That means several sweeps in the firet half. By the time the fourth quarter rolls around, opposing DLs are exhausted. Murray had 97 yards in second half! That is no accident.
The other two picks Bradford threw were disgusting and say nothing about the “professional” nature of Chip’s offense. Those throws had nothing to do with scheme or asking Bradford to do someing unconventional or collegey. They were bad throws.
The Eagles D held a hot Giant offense to 7 points, and the offense scored 20 points, and could have had 23 points.
There are a few serious holes on this team, which may or may not get filled anytime soon, but there is a plan and it’s working imo.
So by not professional, he meant college?
I didn’t listen to the announcers, but it also struck me that our O is unprofessional, not in contradistinction to college, but just in terms of mastering the elements of the craft.
The receivers have been awful. That’s not an excuse for Bradford but another problem.
I think it’s pretty clear to ask a 2nd year player in Matthews to be the number one WR—with a new, struggling QB as well. There were many who thought this young WR core would struggle. It doesnt help that the run game hasnt been as dominate as hoped/expected.
Even so, the future for Matthew, Huff, and Agholor is bright, especially if QB play stabilizes and run game solidifies.
plenty of players do it, it’s not like we’re asking matthews to produce against revis every week. We’re asking him to be 5’10 slot corners.
With a new QB who can’t hit the broad side of a barn? The passing game has struggled. Having a new, struggling QB and young WRs has to be a factor.
see hopkins in Houston, Robinson/Hurns in Jax, Cooper in Oak – not a ton of NFL examples but it happens.
Hell, we’re just asking him to catch the football. He’s beating slot corners regularly.
I too like their future while thinking that as a whole our WR corps is pretty terrible in the present.
In what way, is what I’m asking. We’ve got a QB who is struggling. We’re asking Murray to run sweeps. We put up 20 points on the Giants D. Kelce has had several bad snaps this year.
Other thanthat, haha, what has been so “unprofessional?” Honest question.
Other than that, huh? 🙂 Well, there are a few things. The things that gets me are the handoff snafus and the bad snaps. That is $hit that should just never happen. There are also miscommunications/misreads between the receivers and SB that are causing interceptions. When you add SB’s inaccuracy, the WR drops, the ridiculous run blocking early on–that is just embarrassing.
gotta agree, Kelce man, wth, hes played poorly in a bunch of games. That snap 20 yards back was so bad
Ugh
Right, but Steve Young’s argument is that the scheme is flawed and “unprofessional.” Yes, players have not been sharp.
However, I’m seeing a scheme on both sides of the ball that has worked for three years now. The narrative that its unprofessional and can’t work is bogus. If Sam plays better (and he may not), if OL continues to gel, and young WRs can put it together (and they may not), this offense can score 21-24 per game. Defense can hold teams to 14-17. That’s a good formula.
yup, I agree with you there. I dont buy that stuff most of the time anyway. They constantly change their narrative since they have to come up with stuff every other day
I’ve never understood how people treat Chip’s offense like it’s some new fangled thing. He’s been in the league over 2 years now, and his first 2 years, his “trick offense” was among the league leaders (top 4 at least), by any metric.
But hey, never let reality get in the way of a shitty story.
funny how? funny like a clown? I’m just asking.
To add to that we’ve seen lots of penalties for illegal formation, players not being set before the snap, lots of dropped passes, lots of wrong routes run, fumbles, INT, offensive interference, missed blocks…the whole damn thing looks like a bunch of guys who’ve never practiced.
Agreed…I thought it looked like we never practiced.
3 picks in the end zone in two weeks. Not good in the redzone which hurts if the D has an off day.
What’s incredible is that the team does look so off in many ways (though not as bad as during the first few weeks obviously), but we’ve put up two convincing wins. And we’re not talking about winning because of luck. If the world defense can just cut down on some of the turnovers and a couple three and outs in the first half, this team is scary.
That said, I have no idea if that’ll happen. I have no idea about Bradford. I think Kielce will get better. The run game looks like it’s improving every week. Matthews may just not have good hands and may be a solid number 2 in the end. And I have no idea what we have in huff, not even mentioning agholor.
Brees is banged up and his team stinks on ice. Eli has always been carried by his defense and whenever it is bad, like it is now, the Giants lose. Romo was knocked out of the game and we still lost by a country mile due to our terrible offense. We lost to Kirk Cousins and the Skins. Kirk Cousins! We almost lost to Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Jets as well. I’ll give you Matt Ryan and the Falcons since they could be described as a good team. The others are not.
We are a mediocre flawed team that, right now, only has a chance at the playoffs due to the poor division and mediocre teams throughout the league. We are leading our division with a .500 record! That is pathetic. Parity, baby, it cuts both ways. I hate it as a fan of football since most games are unwatchable slop full of penalties, standing around, commercials and total blather from the announcers. The NFL product is bad, but as an Eagles fan it helps us stay in the race so I deal with it.
Eagles have a ton of issues to work out and need to play light years better in most areas to make any noise. Chip was hired to win a SB and that should still be the standard. We are not good enough IMO right now, but there is more time and games to play.
someone gets it
Hold up, next week do we have to root for Dallas??
I don’t know the most immediate threat is.
I’m rooting for the giants. I want Dallas out of the picture. They are our biggest threat once Romo and Dez are back.
yep, they need to get buried.
Dallas ultimately is the bigger threat if they get healthy
Eagles already have one head-to-head up against NYG. The farther Dallas is from a tie-breaker the better for Philly.
I’ll be rooting for the meteorite.
I’m rooting for the Giants, just out of pure Dallas hate. I also still think that NY just doesn’t have the talent and are an 8-8 team at best, and Dallas is still the biggest threat so i want their losses to pile up….remember what happened last time we faced Matt Cassel on the road?
Gus Bradley fired
the gus bus has left the station already?
Never mind, it was a joke tweet I took seriously
The thing is, so many people are down on Chip, but just compare him to the guy we almost hired three years ago. We should be thanking our lucky stars that Chip Kelly, not Gus Bradley, is the Eagles head coach.
https://twitter.com/LRiddickESPN/status/656533564348104704
Yuk
If only Chip wasn’t running this silly college scheme.
yeah but how easy is that?
Check out @DerekBodnerNBA’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/DerekBodnerNBA/status/656412139469434881?s=09
It’s going to be a shame to waste the best D we’ve seen in this town in a decade.
If Id have told you 2 yrs ago the D would be good and the O would stink youd have thought I was crazy
If you would have told me after week 1 we’d be playing this well by week 6 i’d have given you the side eye. But difference between D and offense is that D is improving whereas O…
The O has improved dramatically from Game 1. The Oline is playing much better and the running game has improved. While the QB play is still terrible, there is still progress on the offensive side of the ball.
has the O improved from the second half of game 1?
it won’t be wasted. we are going the distance
We’re going for speed.
Lombardi is all alone, all alone in his time of need.
On the bright side the guards were solid last night
Except for Kelce’s 3 miscues, the whole OL was solid. Giant’s rush is terrible though.
They miss Jason Pierre-Fourfingers
More like Jason Pierr-two-and-a-half-fingers from what I hear..
..
JPP is meeting with the Giants on Wednesday to show them his progress (I think they are,hoping his fingers magically regenerate) and to show the Giants what type of device he came up with to put on his hand, cast, club, prostetic hand, who knows what contraption he will show up with to cover his hand….I doubt they will want to pay him that franchise tag super pay day for a pass,rusher that’s essentially handicapped… My expectation is THAT his days with the Giamts are over, he sits the rest of the year and looks for a new team in free agency”……
..
Although Giamts have the worst pass rush in the league, so maybe they are desperate enough to pay him a ton of money to take a Flier on him and hope they can get some pass,rush out of him…but thats a a ton of money to pay for a flier
If JPP signs a reduced contract because he needs to wear a contraption on his hand would we call that a Club discount?
BRILLIANT
I’d agree. I have given those guys grief all year for poor play, but it was good last night.
Once again, let us praise Jordan Hicks for giving the Cowboys two losses by taking out Romo.
When the Eagles win the division they can thank him.
Wait, did GM Chip make a good move?
got lucky this time
The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s butt everyday.
Particularly Coach Norman Dale’s sorry ass.
It was a Howie pick, right??
Cardale no longer the starter at Ohio State
That cant be! He was supposed to go to the draft after last year! He was amazing! Didnt you see him? In all of his 4 starts!?!?!
His 90 passes meant he was a surefire first round pick!
You gotta sell (go into the draft) when your stock is high. How many millions of dollars did that extra year at USC cost Barkley?
People also forget that QBs that everyone loves in January get picked apart to the point that everyone thinks they shouldn’t be a UDFA by May.
That’s an excellent point.
And then 3-5 go in the first round anyway, even with the weakest of QB classes, because football.
Haha (insert picture of Nelson).
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jW5zv9UXncM/hqdefault.jpg
The 2012 QB class seems to have really changed how front offices view taking a first round QB.
There’s only been 5 in the three years since that point. Mariota, Winston, Bortles, and Teddy were all blue chip QBs. Manziel was a product of “It’s the Browns!” and “he’s so different he could change the game” (aka the Tebow effect).
not to mention the eagles
True, there would have been an excited fan base somewhere after Barkely’s theoretical Jr year draft.
At least we didn’t try some lame fake punt crap.
Ok so this is the question I have about Bradford – How much of this is him still not acclimating to the speed of the game and specifically the speed and athleticism of defenders? A lot of his INTs (of course I’m a just a fan so what do I know) look like he doesn’t realize that defenders will get to the ball he just threw. (Both INTs last week and the throw to Ertz in the endzone felt that way to me.)
The other thing (and this is definitely me with the Eagle-green glasses on) is that I’m not sure what the line is on how long Bradford gets to get himself acclimated. The article says 6 games is enough, but who determined that? Interestingly, today is the 2 years anniversary of the last time Bradford played a regular season game before this season. Maybe when you haven’t played in almost 2 years, you need 8 games to get all the way back in terms of getting your mind and body on the same page to make some of these throws…
Eli manning needed more than 6 games last year Til he could run his new offense, and that was just a new offense eli had to get used to… SAM still getting acclimated to NFL speed, he is still getting acclimated in the offense,and he is still getting acclimated with his new teammates… To trash Bradford because he isn’t lighting the world on fire after 6 games is ridiculuos…
…
Before our defense kicked Giants ass, Eli was raved about by every analyst, all I heard about for the first month n a half is how great Eli is because he is in year two of this offense, yet do people really remember just how bad eli was last year in his first 6 games of a new offense? And unlie Bradford, Eli hadnt sat out two years, Eli didn’t have to overcome the mental aspect,of getting over the injuries, and Eli was playing with a lot of the same coaches and teammates he already had chemistry with…
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I know Patience isn’t our thing, but way to soon to condemn Bradford and give up on him…talented and smart kid in the hands of a good offensive coach, is going to improve, even if it’s not at the quick rate we would hope…. I don’t know just how great SAM can be in this offense, but I have no doubt that he can be a much better QB than what we have seen so far…….this kid has only been playing football on this team,since August 1st, absurd to see people crap on him and want to give up on him like this…
..
I think a bradfords development was also hurt by the OL being in bad shape to start off the season..instead of leaning on the run game and our defense early on while Sam knocked off the rust, our OL couldn’t get the run going, so instead of easing SAM into this offense, we had to throw him in the deep water and rely on our passing sooner than we would have liked…..
..,
Hopefully the run game keeps getting stronger each week, so we can take some off Sams plate, and let him play a complimentary roll to the run game, as he gets more and more comfortable… With a QB who didn’t start practicing Til August 1st, he has been asked to do too much, too soon, but we really didn’t have a choice with how bad the run game was playing to start the season, hopefully as the run improves, so will SAM…. While asking him to compensate for a lack of run game was not very conducive to early season success, Bradford should be better off in the long run having been thrown into the deep water the we had to do to overcome the poor run game..
..
At this point, im really not down on SAM at all…. I would have liked to see the gIants game be his true coming out party building on his play from the saints game, but that didmt happen, but not following my ideal timeline, doesn’t mean he can’t get where we need him to be, where we thought he could be… Just need to keep working on improving.. He will get there…. But making full judgments on this kid after 6 games is extremely flawed thinking,,
,,
No clue why anyone would think that we are seeing the best SAM will or can ever be in this offense…
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As bad as SAM has been, I still completely believe that SAM putting together 2,3,4 years of good health is the best thing that can happen to this franchise,,,
…
If people are in the middle of seeing what looked like the worst OL in the league, with Guards who looked Terrible starting to improve and play better in a short period of time, not sure why anyone would think Bradford is some lost cause who will never be more than what we are seeing
I haven’t given up on him, but I’m concerned. I’m also concerned about Kelce. Not sure why he’s having so much difficulty this year. Seems like mentally he isn’t there this year.
Thought KELCE was sharp against the saints.. Certainly wasn’t pleased with his play last night, he may have been our worst lineman yesterday… But its hard for me to be too worried about KELCE.. He snapped the ball like 20 yards over Our QBs head, how many times have we seen that happen? 5 times in 4 years, if that?…shit happens, we just really ARENT used to seeing it happen to KELCE… It’s hard for me to really be worried about him, Im sure he knows how to properly snap the ball and not make these erratic snaps a common occurence…
..
All I really ask for from this OL is one simple things, keep these current 5 lineman healthy so they can gel and improve a little more with each week. I’m at the point where I don’t even care which 5 lineman we are playing, I just care that whatever 5 we play, stay healthy the rest of this season. Give them that type of Continuity and I have faith in Stoutlands unit..
..
lane Johnson had to play next to 3 different Guards in the first 5 games, but the same thing goes with KELCE..Tobin isn’t my favorite option at RG, but I’d rather have the continuity of keeping him in the lineup, instead of playing someone I think may be a little better…
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FOr all our run blocking struggles, they been pretty solid all year in pass protection, and KELCE is a MONSTER part of our pass blocking, needing to read all the blitzes and make sure SAM and the other Lineman are all on the same page…. It’s not like KELCE has played like Crap for all 6 games, he has just been more up and Down than I would like, and His “downs” have been pretty noticeable… I don’t think KELCE was ever over rated, I don’t think he has forgotten how to play the game, i would prefer him to provide stability instead of this up and down start to the season, but I feel like he has earned the trust that he will settle down, get it together, and put this ugly start behind him….. Even Last night, it’s not he was a liability all night.. Killed a drive with the erratic snap, and was called for a holding penalty, other than that he was a main component to our passrotection which was as solid as,we could ever hope for, and he helped contribute to the improving rushng offense…. He has played at a high level for years, and isn’t dealing with some bad injury that I know of, so I have to belive that he will clean it up at this point, because it’s been pretty out of Charechter for our pro bowl center..
..
I’d say my biggest concerns today are our WRs, just because,we are dealing with a ton of youth…. Riley Cooper, Miles Austin won’t be good enough to carry the WRs all year, we need our young WRs to grow and contribute more than they have up to this point…..
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I hope to see the Wrs turn the corner soon, ultimately I think what we need from our young WRs, is that Huff, Agholar and Jordan combine for 15 catches per game.. If they can grow to be able to count on them combining for 15 catches a game, we should see a potent offense… Figure we get 15 from them, 5-10 catches from our 3’RBs, 5-10 catches from the TE, an occasional 3rd down conversion, or big catch down field from Coop and Austin and we should see the full potency of this offense.. Problem is we are dealing with Kids, who we need to grow up in a hurry, so for me, the WR position is my biggest concern for this year.. Longterm, I think those 3 young WRs will be just fine for us, but we need them to step up, and start showing up consistently…
,,
What’s a shame, is I thought Huff was going to score a TD on that screen had Tobin not gotten in his way,,.. If that 10 yard screen, turns into a 40 yard TD, we probabky be looking at huff today in a different light
the problem is that he looked worse this week then last week, so that sounds like he is not getting better, but stuck right now in neutral. and underthrowing so many passes is not a matter of needing more time, its a matter of throwing the ball better.
the kid has talent, I think, because how would I know so far from what we saw?
he was throwing lasers and too hard to start the season, now hes trying too hard to finesse throws. Almost likes hes trying to find that sweet spot. I hope thats the case because I want it to work but as each game passes, I feel less confident. 9 int with 9 Tds isnt good any way you slice it. First it was poor oline play, now the WR group stinks so he isnt getting much help there. I see glimpses in between the 20s so something there but the mental errors to go along with poor throws compounds
Growing and improving doesn’t mean that there won’t ever be some rough games,. Growing doesn’t mean smooth sailing for the rest of the way.. There will be some rough patches, what’s important is how he bounces back from a mistake, and how he bounces back from bad games, and he has been solid so far in those areas… Next week, he will have a chance
To do better against a much tougher defense..
Oh boy! Was just sitting down to watch replay of the game. I recorded Monday night countdown, not the game. Had to work last night.
, Would some good person tell me where I could get to see the game. ty
If you have NFL Network, you might be able to get it on-demand. If not, it should def be available tomorrow.
Thanks guys, have nfl net will look.
Damn dude, you literally just missed NFL network replaying the game. It ended like an hour ago….. For the future, Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon, NFL network replays the Monday night game…. Over the course of the rest of the day, NFL network shows condensed replays of this past weeks games.. It doesn’t say that the Eagles are one of the games being shown, but they often show a different game than what it’s saying they will show….
…
I’m looking forward to 9pm tonight, condensed 1’hour version of Panthers vs Seahawks…
…
When I want to watch a game I didn’t DVR, I download the Torrent…
It was a pretty unique experience live, not knowing the outcome. D played a heroic game. Then the offense would squander nearly every opportunity our defense gave them (but not the opportunities the giants gave them via penalties interestingly enough). Offense was generally dreadful. Felt like it was all going to come back and bite us the whole time. Turns out the Defense never let the Giants get even close to back in the game and, hey! a blow out!
That was an interesting distinction. The defense would save them, get them the ball and they would stall of three downs, then a penalty got them a free set of downs and, boom, down the field they’d march. It was almost like they were waiting until they could goad Coughlin into firing someone.
That’s hilarious! Surely every human being appreciates outraged Coughlin reactions, why wouldn’t the Eagles maximize this phenomenon? How many penalties do you think are actually the refs trolling these reactions out of him for their own amusement? Probably did the same to Harbaugh.
Conversation recorded during an officials’ huddle:
Back Judge: Watch this, guys. I will throw a flag after the play is over and call holding. But it will be defensive holding.
Side Judge: Wait for a running play to do it. That won’t even make sense.
BJ: Yeah, okay. That’s good stuff.
Umpire: Call it on a number that the Giants don’t have.
Other Side Judge: No, no, call it on a number that only the Eagles have…like 71. Call Peters’ number, but defensive holding, on a running play.
Umpire: And do it really late, like when people are starting to get up off the pile.
Back Judge: We will correct it then, right?
Umpire: Oh, of course. No one would believe that shit.
Side Judge: This is going to be so epic. I am going to stand right next to him.
hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m pretty sure Cooper was running a hook route. He got the dbs turned and beat then cuts back. F9r some reason Bradford threw a post route.
I also think it’s a pretty reasonable point right now, with Bradford being on the team for 6 games in a new system.
Hopefully the ball security gets better as the year goes on.
It better get better this week. Carolina has a legit defense.
I agree in his PC Chip said basically that.
yeah, looked to me like and Option route, and Cooper made the correct read. Who knows though. Either way they weren’t on the same page, regardless of who was on the right one.
If true then it was a hell of a route too.
They both are supposed to make the same read and adjust what they do based on that read. If they make different reads it is guaranteed to be a really ugly play.
I felt like we looked at two bad teams and it was mostly Bradford that was the problem. However, I’d also say we are seeing improvement every week and feeling things out.
The pundits aren’t seeing the long term positives and potential. I’m sure Sanchez would be an immediate improvement but would fade again. S9, let’s not go there.
“I’m sure Sanchez would be an immediate improvement” could have put the period after that phrase.
Not…
Yea really why does anyone think Sanchez is an upgrade? Eagles fans on here are getting unbearable. 1st it was complaints that Bradford doesn’t throw the deep ball, now he is throwing too many picks throwing the deep ball, lets bring in Mark Sanchez who refuses to throw a deep ball and refuses to throw the ball away and constantly takes sacks, oh and not to mention that Sanchez doesn’t throw to anybody outside of Jordan Matthews. People are ridiculous with all the pissing and moaning about nonsense.
Usually stupidity..
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Truth is, Sanchez didn’t come close to showing the growth I hoped to see from a veteran who not only was in his 2nd year in this offense, playing with these players, but he also benefitted from taking starting reps most of the offseason.. When you think about, Bradford didn’t start practicing in this new offense til August 1st, about two weeks later was the first preseason game. Kid hadn’t played in two years and had only been taking first team reps full time in this offense for two weeks, and Sanchez still couldn’t look better than Bradford in the preseason games..
.
Maybe if Sanchez actually showed some year two growth they would have a point, but neither Sanchez nor Barkley showed the growth I hoped to see from players who had been given continuity in this offense…
,.
There is NOTHING better for this franchise than Bradford staying healthy and be given a few years of continuity under chip.. You won’t be able to trade for a more Talented QB, and if you get lucky drafting a QB, he will need more time to grow, then bradford will need to get comfortable.. SAM is WHATS best for this franchise, and what will give us the best chance to contend these next 3 years, IF, BIG IF, he can stay healthy…
its not that hes an upgrade, its that he may make less mistakes then Bradford. Yeah, how bout that, less mistakes and were talking Sanchez. Seriously bad when thats an option. I want to believe it can improve, SB shows some things between the 20s but cant have that many red zone turnovers. Ill give him 2 or 3 more games but if its the same with the picks and bad decisions, I hope Chip is ready to pull the hook. Some of the throws are bad, that one overthrow to Ertz in the middle of the field, had all day and completely whiffed on that throw. Sure, that happens in games to all QBs, but is it getting better? Saints and Giants arent exactly stud defenses. Cmon man, the backup is always the most popular player haha
Totally agree. Fans want to have a 3 game leash when realistically is a 24 game learning curve. They want to complain about the picks but forget the absolute dart he threw to Jordan Matthews on 3rd and 11 while be jacked up my a converted FB…in which Jordan fumbled away…but an amazing throw. I see the potential.
We already saw enough of Sanchez to know what he is. I’d like to see 16 games of Bradford to know what he is.
I can understand being down on Bradford, but people are actually clamoring for Mark Freakin Sanchez. That I don’t understand.
Yeah, I don’t get it at all.
that was a good throw.
he makes plenty of good throws, and then bad ones.
Hoping he can fix the bad ones.
me too
yup, its okay if Sam Bradford does it but not Sanchez. He gets no more chances even though he also played with that horrible o line last year and a coach/team that all fumbled it away.
24 games? chip Kelly will coaching in north texas by then and Bradford will be in the pro bowlers league
Chip is going nowhere.
he’s going to Carolina next week.
The limit of Sanchez is a .500 player. We say that last year. There is no reason to pull Bradford at all.
he’s .500 too
For now, but I need to see more. Bradford’s ceiling hasn’t been established, but Sanchez’s has.
well, that’s not really fair, sanchez was coming off injury to his throwing shoulder last year and he looked good in pre-season, but who didn’t?
I would rather see Bradford play better then see IF sanchez can absolutely.
I will never be fooled by preseason again…..ever. I know I told myself this long ago but man, this preseason was a fan changer
JMATT is killing me in fantasy, Bradford too.
“1st it was complaints that Bradford doesn’t throw the deep ball, now he is throwing too many picks throwing the deep ball,” True
I think Matthews problems are fixable but yea as for fantasy him and Sammy not been good. I lucked out because I was targeting too many eagles but the way everything feel for me I got murray in the 2nd with pick 6 and he’s starting to finally be contributing.
I don’t know how may people here are locals in the philly area, but did anyone watch the post game show on comcast? Was “The Guv” Ed Rendell Drunk? i’m rewatching it now and he’s slurring his words, looks disheveled, and just saying a lot of inaccurate things….guy looks toasted
I didn’t see it last night, but I know exactly what you are talking about, he has sounded Horrible on TV all year, almost sounds like some punch drunk old boxer, stuttering, slurring, forgetting his train of thought, mixing up players names..
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Why a governor has a role as a football analyst, I have no friggin clue to begin with, but now he is starting to sound terrible, get him off the post game show, why would anyone care what he has to say about football to begin with? It’s like CSN Purposely trolling eagle fans giving analyst jobs to Elliot Parker, RENDELL, and the worst analysts they can possibly find..
oh i have a feeling it’s either ESP or Gonzo’s job once Rendell starts cursing up a storm or tries to pick a fight with Seth Joyner because he tipped back a few too many during the actual game….btw i like the addition of Seth Joyner
Sounds about right …..
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LOVE SETH!! Brutally Honest, pulls no punches, isn’t afraid to rip chip or our Players, so that when he raves about a kid like Hicks, it means more than it would from someone who won’t ever criticize this team..
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I like Barrett too, but Seth is a breath of fresh air in this city, someone who played the game the way this city Loves, who knows the game well, Loves the team, but isn’t afraid to call it like he sees it…
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I’d rather listen to Seth right now, than just about anyone,.. I like Seth more than Ike, Barrett, or westbrook…. DAWKINS is pretty damn good also, but he is usually busy with the National media, so you can only hear him locally like once or twice a week on the local radio..
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Seth has been such a great addittion… Speaks pretty well too.
Is there a time where he isn’t drunk?
why is he even on the show?
that guy brings nothing to the broadcast
The bad news is that Sam Bradford was horrible last night. He’s either just plainly not playing well or he’s not on the same page with his receivers (depending on who you ask). The good news is that we won anyhow. The better news is that the defense is playing well and the running game is coming alive which should buy us enough time for Bradford to fully pull his head from his ass (hopefully).
Erik Flowers is the guy i thought he was last night, Brandon Graham whooped that ass!
I love that our Front 7 for two weeks in a Row, treated Rookie OLineman, like ROOKIES and completeky dominated Flowers and Peat from the saints..
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As much as we kicked Flowers ass, he may actually be the best player on that Current Giamts OL, and that’s not really because I think highly of Flowers, but because of what a joke I think PUGH, Newhouse and the rest of their Lineman are….
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I was sick to my stomach when we lost the playoff game to the saints when instead of stepping up, Trent Cole was completely shut down by a rookie making his 2nd start at LT… These past two weeks, Cox, BG and Dogs up front showed EXACTLY how you should treat a rookie LT, completely dominating both, and making opposing QBs, Brees and Eli pay for their LT’s inexperience,,
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it’s a shame this front 7 and Defense doest get the credit they deserve, but we have 3′ primetime games in a row, defense put on a show for the country to see last night… When the front 7 is the story in our win against the Panthers on Sunday night Prime time, and then our Sunday Night ass whooping of the Cowboys (which will be our 4th win in a row)… After these 3 Prime Time games EVERYONE will Know how good the Eagles defense is, and just how dominant our Front 7 is… Two more big wins, and everyone will know just how good Cox and the boys are,,,
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Should be fun to see how Hicks and our LBs play next week, in a game against WHATS probably the top rated ILB tandem in the game, Keachly and Tommy… You know sunday night prime time Keachly and the Panthers LB will get so much attention, can’t wait to see Hicks make some noise of his own during the Pathers game…. It would be too funny to see Hicks knock another Cowboy QB out of the game after the bye week..
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I’m hoping Dez BRyant wants to play this week and that the desperate cowboys allow him….probably would be at a risk to suffer a setback that ends up costing him a few more weeks…. Doubt he makes enough of a difference without Romo
I think it’s a bad move for the Boys to rush Dez back. He has a Jones fracture which is pretty serious if you follow the NBA, granted those guys are on the floor 3-4 nights a week so they get less chance to rest in between games. But if that thing isn’t fully healed and your rushing a guy back out there who you just paid handsomely, i think you are asking for trouble, not just for this season, but the rest of that guy’s career
That type of bone break in the foot is a 2 year injury……….or F Sam Hinkie and Embiid. Dez should be required to be out as long as Emiid is.
He very well may be. I think JoeBlow is right. They are panicking and rushing him back. Not going to be much use if they lose him a year or more in the process by rushing him back.
Good.
Soooooooooooooo not an NFL quality LT.
And Justine Puke getting beaten all night was awesome as well.
i dont think he should be protecting a QB’s blind side, he has concrete feet and therefore doesn’t move well laterally. He is forced to rely way too much on his size due to this, and also over extends himself a lot, just a sloppy tackle in my estimation. Last week against Aaron Lynch, Lynch just went around him and Flowers kept wrapping his left arm around his neck because he couldn’t keep up with the speed, somehow it never got called. Last night, i saw Graham bull rush his outside shoulder and then quickly focus on his inside shoulder because Flowers is never balanced and over-extends. On one play Graham, who is like half the size of Flowers, literally walked him back right into Eli. Brought back memories of Winston Justice
You have a lot of unreasonable anger. It would do you good to just let it go.
When you start making up weird names for players you unreasonably hate, it should be a sign that you might need to relax every now and again.
We’ll just have to chalk that up to stylistic differences. The fact that we’re stuck hearing from all types of fan bases about our team’s lack of a Lombardi Trophy is fury inducing to me. I’ll be good letting things go and/or relaxing once we’ve all spent a few Tuesdays in February on Broad Street watching a parade. I’m not looking back to double check if you’re going to join me headlong into the melee of putting things / players I hate on blast, but I don’t begrudge you your chosen manner of following the team.
Fair enough. I share because I care. And I’ve been there.
About 7-8 years ago, in the midst of our Andy/Don years, I remember being so angry about everything related to Philly sports. Two things made me stop and rethink my approach.
1. I got really pissed off when Smarty Jones failed to win the Triple Crown. Like, punch the wall pissed off. Phrased another way, I actually had emotions about a stupid fucking horse. That was a sign that maybe I was investing too much into things that didn’t matter.
2. Around that time, I had some friends over and had the xbox on in the background. It had Madden on and was doing the whole demo things it launches into after a while with no one playing it. It picks two teams at random and has the computer play them against each other, like an exhibition game. One of the teams was the Eagles. After a while, I found myself drawn into the game despite the fact that I had friends over and was supposed to be talking to them. I would eventually get royally pissed when the computer-led Eagles failed to get first downs, failed to score, etc. “THIS IS SO TYPICAL!” I sort of scared the friends I had over because I was getting emotionally involved in a completely fake game that meant absolutely nothing to anyone in the universe.
After those things happened, I had to stop and think about why I was getting so angry, and what effect it was having on me. We all wish we had a championship to celebrate. But at some point you have to put things in perspective. It’s not worth getting THAT angry about things that don’t really affect your actual life in any measurable manner. Do I still get angry? Sure. But it’s not out of control.
Just food for thought.
Well thank you for sharing that, it provides some context to your comments. To be perfectly honest, I usually take them as you ripping into me personally rather than what you just explained as your point of reference.
On a personal note, I use this (or yelling at the TV when hanging with friends watching the game) as a vent. I haven’t punched the wall since the loss to the Chiefs in 92; but we all can’t stay 14 forever.
On a final note, I guess you won’t be giving Stewart Elliot a Christmas card anytime soon for that horrible ride he gave Smarty in the Belmont.
Bradford few INTs but they looked to be premeditated throws.. One to Cooper n one to Ertz.. Both throws were or would of been on target.. INT thrown Cooper way it was the same play Cooper got open on so Bradford threw to the same place with out looking if it was open first.. The one Collins got when ball was thrown to Ertz previous play Ertz was open the ball went over his right shoulder.. So Bradford went straight to him thinking he had step on Collins.. Should of taken the first down there coz dont remember who was open on the first.. Overall i didnt mind his game
yeah? wait to you see him against Carolina! you’re going to love it.
New team new start. See how it goes.
i’ll take a crack.
we win that game.
Bradford throws for 2 td’s and 2 ints.
Did you see the replay of the Ertz INT? Ertz actually caught it by reaching around Collins, and they were in the endzone no less! But then when they hit the ground Collins was able to jar it loose and come up with it. Bad throw but a weird play.
https://i.imgur.com/99UCZ1x.gifv
Wow. Ertz pretty much caught that, but didnt control through the ground. In hindsight, would have been better off batting it away. Damn. Hes clearly got the best hands on the team right now. Need to get him way more active in the red zone.
Very bad thrown. Gifted in INT to a guy who isn’t exactly good in coverage.
Ironically he wouldn’t have intercepted it if Ertz hadn’t caught it, it went right through Collins’ hands.
That is quite true.
how’s this for ironic, if he threw it better it would’ve been a TD.
also a good point
I do see what you mean though yes. that is weird….
enh, I dont mind an aggressive throw sometimes and that one wasnt really bad. He made a good play to recover and make that grab. Id rather that SB figure out the game then dink n dunk for 5 yds when its 3rd and 8.
I don’t mind the aggressive throw either, I was just pointing out Landon Collins isn’t good and the Giants are a shameful bunch of reach drafters for trading up for that dude in a reach pick.
So how many more games does our D need to play this season at a high level before I can count it in a manner as valid as the war crime vs. the Saints in the playoff game and the garbage choke efforts vs. Dallas and Washington down the stretch last year.
I’ll fully admit to really not liking Billy Davis due to what we saw here in 2013 and 2014, but there is no denying the D is showing signs of having turned the corner in the pass game.
So I’m not sure exactly what I need to see from this D to really embrace it; I’m thinking a strong effort at home in a playoff game will get Billy Davis back to even in my book.
That really is the only thing left. Regardless, they stopped 2 offenses that were doing well 2 weeks in a row. They put the clamps on Atlanta in the 2nd half of that game. Really, besides the 1st half against Atlanta, this defense has been dominant.
I’ve come around on Billy D, and he’s doing this down 2 ILBs. I think it’s clear that the issue last year was 3 weak points in the secondary. While they may have overpaid for Maxwell, we can see average play means a huge upgrade over what we had last year. Or maybe it’s just addition by subtraction, but the secondary got burnt last year and this year it’s just the opposite.
I guess I’ll need to get a few deep playoff runs removed from that burnt toast secondary situation from last year before I can have enough coaching evidence to counteract it.
I agree about even average play being a help. We needed a new CB no matter what this offseason. There wasn’t anyone better than Maxwell. So he’s not the second coming of Richard Sherman, but so what. He’s good enough and fills a need. You can say we overpaid, but we really had no choice. We needed something and he’s giving it to us. The argument about overpaying only works if you can find a CB who was on the market this offseason who is playing noticeably better than Maxwell. Otherwise, the “overpaid” argument is null and void.
I totally agree.
not benching fletcher for carroll last year looked really bad at the time and looks even worse now. probably cost them a playoff berth. still would love to know exactly wtf went on there.
I’m waiting… Let me know when you get there Bud..
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I’m sure the front 7 single handedly delivering the panthers win, will get you a step closer to accepting reality 🙂
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What will beat Cam Newton is how selfless our pass rushers are, and how Billy has them very Discaplined in their gap assignments and has them rushiñg as a cohesive Unit,,..this isn’t a case of 4 good pass rushers Linning up and doing whateverl to takes to beat their man so they can go get the sack, Billy has our boys rushiñg as a cohesive unit, you will see a front 6 keep Cam sorrounded in the pocket, cut off all his escape routes with our Gap discapline, and then tighten the pass rush noose, and strangle Cam… I’m sure he hasn’t forgitten what our front 7 did to him last year, it’s not going to be any easier for Cam this year,…our Front 7 is going to frustrate Cam all day, and win us a road game against an undefeated team befire we go into our bye week
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Last night, we started to see the effects of our tempo combined with a run game that’s starting to click… Demarco Murray and the OL took the Giants DL into deep water (4th quarter), and then we Drowned them as Murray ran all over them in the 4th…
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This is just the beginning of our Nasty defense,. It will get more and more evident that they are a group of bad mother shut yo mouths as each week passes…
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FYI, to those who think Billy just figured out that he can double team Wrs, this is what happens when our Front 4 is getting pressure, if we have to blitz, you can’t complain when you don’t see a double team on a WR
If they bust up, embarrass, expose, and knock Scam off of the pedestal national reports have put his 23rd QB rated rear end up on………………..that’ll help my process.
It’s coming…Cams about to get humbled at home…
That would be Godly.
Panthers fans are pounding their chests over that win in Seattle. They are a bit overconfident going up against us. I’m in no way worried about their offense.
Sam has to be better on Sunday for us to win on the road against a pretty good defense.
Totally agreed.
I’m going to watch the replay of their game against Seattle tonight on NFL network replay just to get a better sense of what they are doing. D3FB posted last night saying that we match up very well and i agree. They have been beating bad teams and back up qb’s. not saying the birds are a juggernaut, but neither are the “undefeated” Panthers. Very winnable game Sunday night
trap!
Front 7 is going to torture Cam all night…
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But it won’t be the cake walk that the Giants were.. Jonathan Stewart is healthy and running real hard, but no RBs run on our wall.. We haven’t played a running QB This year, but the way we pass rush as a cohesive Unit, extremely disciplined we should see us keep Cam In the pocket and then batter him..
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Going to have to have a strong game against Olsen… I don’t see the Panthers having enough fire power in terms of pass catching weapons to be able to hurt us via the air… And I don’t believe anyone will score enough time beat us using their run game..
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One challenge will be we need to have another solid day against X plays… I doh t their offense can methodically walk up and down the field on us, so taking away their X plays will really cripple their attack… Don’t let Panthers behind our defense and shut down the run game like we been doing almost every single week in the past 24 games..
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Should be a tough, hard fought game… But their time as an undefeated team has come to an end..
“I’ll fully admit to really not liking Billy Davis…”
Also, the Hatfields didn’t really like the McCoys.
I respect your public reconsideration after your public criticisms, though. That takes class.
I’ll take your respect as sincere in that case. Thank you.
I was just as critical of him, so don’t feel bad. Few things I’m eating crow about this year with Billy D.
nobody likes the McCoy’s anymore
They were hamstrung in their pursuit of redneck glory.
don’t think davis has really changed much, he just has better players this year compared to 2013/2014. that and upgrading to a secondary coach that actually teaches proper technique
I would LOVE to hear the Denver guys who are killing it talk about what Undlin did with them out there.
The D was good last year, too, just had some highly visible and unfortunate breakdowns. They are playing better this year, but against who? We should probably let them do something against some good teams before we “crown em”. I think most here are greedy and not really satisfied with beating down mediocre teams. An elite D makes even really good offenses look bad. Can we do that?
So, moving on to a different subject. Can we stop with the ripping of Chip the GM? Everyone he has gotten rid of hasn’t exactly set the world on fire and interestingly, McCoy, & Mathis are all hurt. Fletcher got cut. Herremanns got benched. Cole isn’t what he was here. I wouldn’t say that Allen is lighting it up in Oakland either.
On the other hand lets look at his pickups.
Murray – Jury is still out, but he’s now strung together 2 good games in a row.
Mathews – Great in spot duty and picks up yards.
Austin – Last couple of games he’s been solid.
Alonso – Hurt, not sure when we’ll see him. I figure sometime near Thanksgiving, I don’t know.
Thurmond – He’s been a huge upgrade at Safety.
Bradford – Well we’re still waiting.
So out of 6 players, 4 are panning out well. Alonso we won’t know about and yes he was injured. In hindsight, maybe the injury was a red flag. Bradford still needs to figure it out, but after 6 games it looks like he hit on 66% of his off-season acquisitions. Every team wants that out of their GM.
Lesson learned I think is that we can’t make snap judgments and call him a failure after 4 games. Can’t say he’s a success after 6 either, but I do like where this team is headed moving forward. If they keep improving a little each week, we’ll be playing for something more come the end of the season.
Mostly.
I’ll never get over cutting DeSean. That was one of my guys.
I think the way he’s been down there is one of the reasons why he’s gone. He’s got talent, but not willing to put in the extra hard work to be great. I can’t stand players like that. I was sad to see Mac go, but everyone else I can see a good reason for.
There is no reason to think you’re wrong, but my wish would be that there would have been a way to compel him to have gotten with the program.
My mom and great aunt used to always say to me, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
I don’t know that he wanted to be reached, and part of that is who he surrounds himself with.
Clearly, your mom and great aunt never met the horse that lived at the house across the road from me growing up. You couldn’t lead that stubborn thing anywhere. It might as well have been a mule.
I think it is far too soon to come to any conclusions about ‘chip’ the GM.
This last draft was conducted with Howie’s scouts and scouting system – will take time to ‘change’ the system to Chips needs. Chips Drafting will be known from the 2016 class onwards and so we wont have clear results until 2018/2019….
FA and its impacts will have to be seen down the road but with the performance of key ‘free agents’ like Thorton, Curry, Thurmond, Carol, as well as the Probowl level play from Cox/Logan will make some very hard choices that he has never had to make before, with plenty of cap space and young talent on cheap deals.
As with most GM’s he will be defined depending on if he can find a franchise QB… and that is very much in the air at this point.
Well, if it is far too soon for any conclusions (and I agree) then I think that means AG is right: we shouldn’t be ripping on Chip the GM.
Remember when everyone was pissed when they picked up Jordan Hicks?
Remember?
Yup. The same all-knowing folks who complained about keeping Carroll.
I was ambivalent about that pick. But sometimes people need to let things play out.
Yeah, BPA is a great storyline, until the team takes a LB when you wanted a guard. Then BPA is some lame excuse the coaches used for screwing up the pick.
Was that what happened when Reid took Watkins and Jarrett ?
In my opinion, no.
Ironically, on the day of the draft, none of us have the knowledge or information to see the two events as distinguishable. That is why hot takes are silly.
With the perspective of time, it looks like the two were exact opposites. Reid wanted a guard and a safety and took the guard and safety he liked best, BPA was merely an ideal to receive lip service.
From our position (with less perspective) it is already clear that Kelly was not in a position where he was desperate to get an ILB. The motives appear to actually be BPA. Now, we all pray he was right.
From your question, am I to infer that you see the three draft selections as the same thought process?
Think people were pissed that they took another dude with injury history, but i thik it’s like taking a dude with character concerns, may pan out may not.
biggest issue for me was taking a player in a spot that was supposed to be stacked when we OLine was a position of need. Obviously now with the rookie playing lights out and our top 2 (possibly 3 depending on DeMeco’s status) ILB out, the pick looks a lot better.
Well said…
Judging new players after 5 games is dumb enough to begin with… It really sounds stupid when the guys we got rid of are doing nothing..
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Cole looked Old against the Pats
Herremans been benched for a few weeks now
Matbis dealing with hamstring
Fletcher was cut
Cary not looking so great in Seattle
Maclin plays for a QB who is allergic to WRs and Maclin has become the King of garbage time stats also known as “the prevent defense slayer”, where defenses just let you catch passes in front of them because they hold a big lead..
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Desean has barely played yet
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sHady gave his team one solid game
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Nate Allen out for the season
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Earl Wolff isn’t in the NFL
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Takes some serious audacity to complain about chip losing these players who aren’t giving their new teams anything, especially when we replaced them with talent like Thurmond, Ryan Mathews, Murray, Kiko, Hicks, Agholar, Rowe, BIGs who is playing better than I imagined.. And believe B-Max will be fine, his best has yet to come..
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And not for nothing, but we haven’t missed Mathis AT ALL in pass protection where we been solid all year, and the past two games I have started to forget all about our guard problems with how we have been improving..
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Even if you want to rip chip the GM, it’s pretty stupid to think we have seen anything yet in the first 6 games..
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Chip is also building a program, not looking for 1 year fix, so in some cases, we may not see the real value in a few of the new players til next year, for example we signed Nolan last year, kept him on the bench to the point where 90% of people said he would need to be replaced as an outside corner because he wouldn’t be good enough.. People didn’t want the believe that he actually had some real talent, And 6 weeks into the season fans already see how they misjudged Nolan… There may be guys we added who don’t look like great signings this year, but will become great signings for us next year..
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I actually think extremely highly of the job GM chip did in his first year as gm, I really believe we have a roster with depth and high level of talent.. As of today I think Chip the coach has more to prove than Chip the GM, at least in my eyes.. I completely believe in the talent of the roster chip built, I’m just waiting for chip the coach to whip us into a team who’s play is a accurate depiction of how very talented this roster is
“Judging new players after 5 games is dumb enough to begin with… It really sounds stupid when the guys we got rid of are doing nothing..”
For the love of god, recognize the irony in this statement.
Fair or not, the Murray contract and Bradford trade are the two transactions that he’ll be judged by.
The Thurmond / Austin type deals get lumped with the Brad Jones type ones – low risk, depth signings that you get lucky on here and there. The Thurmond pick up ended up being GREAT, the Austin deal is whatever. Good job Chip.
But Murray and Bradford deals both required real assets, and both are looking real shaky right now.
I like Chip with full control, but doesn’t mean I’m blind to the fact that Murray is getting paid $8 MM this year to be a run-of-the-mill RB.
People will stop ripping him if/when he can win as many games with his players as with the ones that were already here and he dumped.
Talking about how the players he let go are doing can only go so far. Just because they’re not doing anything there doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be valuable contributors here.
QB, is of course the main thing in this league.
Have to throw some love and accolades to coach Azzinaro and the fine work he’s done with these D Linemen. That daily sled work is paying dividends.
And coach Minter has the LBs playing solidly.
Bennie Logan getting better each year has been really fun to watch.
going to be matched up against Ryan Kalil sunday night, Kalil is a damn good run blocker so it should be an interesting battle
I like Logan’s chances against any center in the game… Kid rag dolled Mangold
And to think, 2 years ago after the saints playoff loss the radio was ablaze with discussion of who should replace Logan at NG. Those calls would sound so absurd now, I kinda wish we could retweet them at the hosts when ever Logan makes a play.
And as a bonus, he is a great interview.
How do you rip the hosts, when 98% of the people commenting one this site wanted tI draft Logans replacement? I have No idea how it wasn’t evident that Bennie was on his way to being a monster… It was pretty obvious for those that don’t overreact to one play off loss
I’ll give you an example. I remember Gargano specifically droning on and on daily about drafting a big NG and how Logan was too small blah blah blah “I don’t know anything about football cuz”. That last part might not have actually have been said though. The point is, I feel like he was a major cause of the spread of that belief system.
McGovern and Undlin are also doing a fantastic job…
Funny on so many levels
https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/656603653827108864
You know the FFRF (I think) did a story not too long ago about praying on high school teams. This doesn’t surprise me.
Regardless of our personal beliefs, most of us take comfort in knowing that there is Somebody greater than ourselves, Who has our lives in His hands. Of course, this is not always comfortable in the ways we expect.
Spoiler alert: god isn’t real, nor is Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Leprechauns might have existed, maybe even elves. But a dude in the sky? (lol why is he considered male? who is he breeding with?)
Nope.
Like I said.
Sorry, I made an immature, impulsive comment that I immediately regretted and deleted.
Apologies.
unfortunately I read the spoiler before you deleted it. now what?
Please share, I’m curious to know what was said.
Some kind of typical douchery, probably.
Well if that’s the case then I’m even more curious. Touche by the way sir I like what you did there.
Now you’ve gotten me curious! Let’s try to reverse engineer it… God. Hands. Not comfortable in the ways we expect. hmm..
When it comes to religion I’d rather just say nothing lol…the things I can say right now are borderline horrible and would absolutely offend too many people here but hey me and my buddies get laughs because of it
In my comment I merely suggested an answer to AG’s comment about football players praying. The last sentence only was a personal opinion.
To get something positive out of this, how about explaining how you deleted your comment like that?
It seems ridiculous that 1 person’s personal beliefs could totally mess up 52 other people to the point they can’t or wont do their jobs. It seems to speak to an underlying weakness already present in the characters of the other 52.
seriously…
Zorn must’ve been super annoying
I never appreciated people who found it necessary to flaunt their religion. Also, I wonder what would be the reaction if someone of a minority faith were to publicaly play. Tebow may have been critiiqued, but imagine a Muslim bowing to Allah as part of a touchdown celebration.
Well, are you old enough to remember NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, aka Chris Jackson?
“Abdul-Rauf is perhaps best known for the controversy created when he refused to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games,[40] stating that the flag was a symbol of oppression and that the United States had a long history of tyranny.[41] He said that standing to the national anthem would therefore conflict with his Islamic beliefs. On March 12,1996, the NBA suspended Abdul-Rauf one game for his refusal to stand. Two days later, the league was able to work out a compromise with him, whereby he would stand during the playing of the national anthem but could close his eyes and look downward. He usually silently recited Islamic Prayer during this time.”
” Also, my house was burned to the ground when I was there. Some suspect it was the Ku Klux Klan maybe because there was some Ku Klux Klan insignia that was left there when the house burned down.”
http://hoopshype.com/2010/02/04/mahmoud-abdul-rauf-after-the-anthem-fiasco-no-team-wanted-to-touch-me/
I had forgotten about that. Good example.
Not trying to stick up for Zorn or people enforcing their religious beliefs, but those Zorn teams did lack character (also a competent QB). Neither Portis or Cooley were ideal locker room guys, in fact both guys had pro bowl seasons under Zorn, so i don’t know what exactly was happening behind the scenes but Portis and Cooley were not losing playing time over it. I read the Washington Post article on this and Portis questions Zorn’s commitment to football, yet it seems Portis was committed to developing a new “character” each week for his media interview. IDK just never liked either of these guys and didn’t particularly like a lot of guys on those teams. Zorn had the unfortunate job to coach this team after Gibbs quit and Snyder didn’t know what to do, and Zorn was in way over his head
Still a valid view, but I think you are confusing Zorn as one of the 53 players.
Zorn was the head coach, the boss, of the 53 players. That puts his faith, and the degree to which he forced in upon his subordinates, in a different light.
In a very different light.
That seems like a quick judgement to declare 52 people as all having character weaknesses.
m.bleacherreport.com/articles/2580920-did-mike-ditka-rip-a-thunderous-fart-on-cris-carter-on-monday-night-countdown
Cant stand Carter anymore. They got rid of you cause you couldn’t keep your nose clean
As well as the defense is playing, it seems like this high level of play is sustainable, not just a flash, or luck.
The great news about the D line is that they are very physically talented, experienced and are still young. They are good players on a lot of defenses, not just a scheme that is making them look good.
The great news about the current inside linebackers who are playing well, is that they are also the “backups” to injured starters. Can expect all four inside linebackers to be healthy later in the season, with Goode a solid backup.
Starting safeties are playmakers, few mistakes, with a physically talented younger backup learning.
Cornerbacks, even Biggers, playing well. The great news is that the high priced “number 1” cornerback is the one that we can say (even Davis says this) has the opportunity to learn, fail and learn, and improve while the other cornerbacks play well enough that he is not as much a liability as he was the first two weeks. And for depth they have Rowe, a second round talent learning.
So as a long time Eagles fan, dream team scarred and all, my tendency is to say, “Well, just wait until the defense come back to earth,” my more rational, less fan emotional, side can see them playing as a top defense all year.
Oh, and sure Davis gets credit as well, good news is that players today said Giants came out in an unexpected formation where they passed instead of the run they usually do. They said Davis changed right after the first drive and had them play press the rest of the game. But again, not sure why they did not play press to start the game given Giants have been a quick strike passing team.
If the offense can sustain drives, the defense will look even better.
They did sustain a good amount of drives last night…. Due to penalty.
Also stalled some drives due to penalties too.
Sam Bradford
Ertz interception: A QB like Manning, Rodgers, or Brady would have had the touch to loft the ball over Collins but be able to deliver it quick enough before the safety could provide help. I was hoping Bradford would be the type of QB that could make those throws.
I loved how he was able to deliver the ball to Matthews while getting hit by the FB. Matthews seems to be fucking up a lot lately.
There was no way Cooper would have been able to catch that pass on the Meriweather interception. I wish we had faster receivers.
That wasn’t a touch issue, it was just a mis time and mis judgement and Collins had good coverage. Poor decision. Up 24-7. Throw it to Austin for 1st down. take more time, rest defense.
I’d like to wash your mouth out with soap, moron
Can’t make those kinds of throws huh?
https://vine.co/v/e2HULLxhQLP
You remember the laser Nick threw to Jordan Matthews against the Redskins last year?
Every average QB in the NFL makes an impressive throw occasionally.
And not for nothing, Sam hasn’t made a throw as good as that yet.
And I didn’t even like Nick Foles. I just don’t see it with Sam Bradford.
Hope I’m wrong.
McAfee, making his weekly radio appearance on the “Bob & Tom Show” in Indianapolis on Tuesday, said rookie Clayton Geathers was supposed to be the center on the play, but he was out of the game with a knee injury.
Whalen is the Colts’ return specialist, so he hadn’t worked on the play with special teams coaches Tom McMahon and Brant Boyer during practice last week while Geathers was working on it.
“Griff never got the heads up this was happening because it’s not in the playbook,” McAfee said. “[He’s a] Stanford guy, reads the playbook, knows everything he has to do, but if he’s not there for an audible that’s added, he can’t know.
“Griff has no idea we’re trying to draw the guy offsides because in the play, it says if we get under center, snap it. So Colt Anderson is trying to draw a guy offsides to pick up an easy five yards. If not, we just don’t snap it. We take a delay of game. … So this is a 100 percent miscommunication. It’s literally a miscommunication.”
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13932517/griff-whalen-did-not-practice-indianapolis-colts-botched-fake-punt-according-punter-pat-mcafee
The TD from my man Nolan Carrol is killing me… it was a gorgeous play, and that’s the same exact play we needed to make to stop the game winning TD by Cousins and the skins against us.. I can’t be mad because Eric Rowe was a rookie thrust into action because of injuries, backed up in our endzone with the game on the line, you can’t expect the rook to make that play because he was probably so focused on his man not giving up the TD, but a veteran corner would have made the same play Nolan made last night… Nolan and Jenkins were playing man but they passed their man off to each other, Nolan left the man that was being passed to him by Jenkins and jumped the route for the TD…
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Can’t expect rookie Rowe In his first game action at the beginning of his rookie year with the game on the line to make that play… Nolans pick 6 was bitter sweet because that was the play we needed to make to hold on to the redskims game for a win…
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Great to see Nolan and Jenkins already playing with that type of Chemistry.. If we can keep Thurmond healthy the secondary will be balling the second half of the season… Just need Maxwell to get comfortable just like Nolan has done this year.. Although Max did have a hand in completely shutting down ODB in the second half and Odb didn’t suffer any injury setback to blame it on..
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Can’t wait to see what the defense looks like in the second half of the season when the secondary has had time to Gel
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Amazing that Hicks shut down Shane Vereen as a pass catcher all night, and for a QB that was getting killed by our DL all night, you can bet that Eli was looking for quick passes to Vereen but Hicks allowed NONE of That.. I’d bet the DL got a hit or two in on Eli because Eli would look to Vereen but hold onto the ball because Hicka was blanketing him, which gave the DL that extra second needed to get to Eli..
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You don’t see a dominate pass rush like last night against a QB that gets the ball out fast only taking 4 sacks in 5 games unless your secondary is playing Tight coverage, taking away his first read..
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loving what this defense will become over the course of this year and we will go into next season respected as a top defense..
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Jordan Hicks, Bennie Logan chip sure has done a great job drafting in round 3… I think Huff can eventually look like a good pick too
Hey, Nolan is my man, too.
Biggers not looking half bad either.
Better than I ever imagined he would be…. pleasant surprise..
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Should see an even better secondary once Rowe and JaCorey develop into the corners we think they can be
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The secondary has come a long way from the colt Anderson, Curtis marsh days
I know that most on here have become Billy Davis converts, but I wanted to see if I am the only one who thinks that when he said after the Washington game that he hoped the defense got the chance to defend a lead in the last minute 12 more times because he believed that they win every time that it was a very import moment for him and this team. I think it is a big deal to have your leader come out and show belief in you when you are facing a tough moment, and I think it inspired the D a great deal. They have really played hard and well the last two weeks. Maybe I am giving too much significance to it, but I honestly think it may be the moment that this D needed to take the next step.
So I was browsing the reddit NFL subreddit today and found this interesting comment from a seahawks fan:
Took Carson Palmer seven games in Arizona before he wasn’t terrible.
Carson Palmer
First Seven Games vs His Next 21:
1741 Yards, 8 TDs, 13 INTs, 3-4 W/L
5896 Yards, 41 TDs, 17 INTs. 17-4 W/L
He wasn’t even that bad in Oakland the year before meanwhile Bradford is coming off a season long injury. Bradford will improve but its not going to happen so quickly, its rare that it does.
Gives me more hope.
maybe chip has to be more patient w/ QBs Will also say Big Ben under Todd Haely took a LONG time to gell and then he started putting up stupid numbers
And they’re relationship was blatantly terrible and public and 3 years of all that they now have the best offense in the NFL when Ben plays. I feel Sam needs at the least 12-16 games for a man coming back from what he did. It may look bad alot but the signs have been there of him being able to thrive.
It’s taken the D years to gel i guess offense should get same latitude.
exactly. I don’t think sam is un salvageable. This can offense can thrive with some better oline play and play calling. I am a Chip homer but he tends to get too cute with the play calling. The under center 2 tight end set was great and should be used with regularity and can be used in shotgun so Chip doesn’t have to completely go away from his precious shotgun zone runs that aren’t as successful this year as years past.
Chip not the only one who needs patience…
I rewatched game. Did Chuckie really day Eli looks like Aaron Rodgers? Wow, we just beat the Pac!!
So, hey guys, I think getting to 3-3 is pretty good after the way we started. I mean, 2 wins in a row is something. I guess it’s not what I thought after the pre-season, but at least we fought our way back and are in the mix again. It’s a lot more fun when the playoffs are a possibility.
Eagles are #3 in defensive DVOA and #20 in offensive DVOA. #7 overall. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/dvoa-ratings/2015/week-6-dvoa-ratings