Up Against It
Posted: December 2nd, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 212 Comments »The Eagles defense just had a pair of historically bad games. Now they get to face Tom Brady and the Patriots, not exactly a recipe for success. Can this group get things turned around?
Chip Kelly has faith in Bill Davis and his players. I’m an eternal optimist, but this is one heck of a challenge.
The good news is that the Pats are coming off their 2 worst games of the year. They scored 20 points against Buffalo and then put up 24 points on Sunday night (pretty nice when 20 and 24 points are your bad games).
The bad news is that the Patriots lost, and that will have Bill Belichick and Tom Brady laser-focused and motivated like they’ve never won a game before.
Patriots 38-4 since 2003 coming off loss, won last 11 after loss. Eagles getting ready for angry Pats team. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/rAWXQZIQEu
— John Clark CSN (@JClarkCSN) December 2, 2015
The good news is that New England will be without TE Rob Gronkowski and WR Julian Edelman, their 2 best weapons. Danny Amendola has a bad knee and might play. Even if he’s out there, he won’t be as quick as usual, which is a big help for the Eagles and their bigger DBs.
The bad news is that the Patriots still have Tom Brady. And their OL is getting healthy. Give him enough time and he doesn’t need great weapons.
If you have to face New England, this is the time to do it, in terms of personnel. It would have helped if they won on Sunday night. You never want the Pats in a bad mood, and you can bet that’s how they’ll feel after blowing a lead and losing in Denver.
Davis has the challenge of convincing his players they can control Brady and win the game. That may seem darn near impossible, but it isn’t. The Eagles were playing good defense up until 2 weeks ago. Both the Bucs and Lions had #1 overall draft picks at QB and they both threw the ball a lot to 6-5 WRs. It also hurt that Mark Sanchez was on the field for the Eagles. He had trouble sustaining drives and that meant the defense was heading right back to the field.
The Patriots don’t have any daunting WRs. The small, quick guys they do have are banged up so that cuts the Eagles a break. If you thought Cole Beasley was tough on Eagles slot guys, imagine Edelman. Brady might not be a former #1 pick, but he’s one of the great QBs in NFL history. Still, he is human. Davis can show clips of him getting frustrated in the last 2 weeks and throwing the ball away.
Rex Ryan had a creative, aggressive gameplan 2 weeks ago. The players executed it brilliantly and Brady struggled. He wasn’t finding receivers open quickly and got hit on a regular basis. Brady struggled with getting into any sort of rhythm.
Davis is no Rex Ryan when it comes to gameplans, but the Eagles do have some front seven players that can win battles this week. Fletcher Cox needs to be huge in this game. Bennie Logan needs to be disruptive. Vinny Curry can be effective. Mychal Kendricks is a very good blitzer. This could be a chance for him to shine. Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham need to bring heat off the edge.
I wonder if the coaches would consider playing Brandon Bair over Taylor Hart this week. Hart is a young guy and is developing nicely, but Bair has a nose for deflecting passes. And that can be a big help when going against Brady, who tends to get the ball out quickly so as to neutralize the pass rush.
The Giants have bothered Brady over the years by having tall DL that got into the passing lanes and bothered his vision. The Eagles do have some big guys who can do that type of thing.
As to the back end, Davis and the players have to sort out all the errors and find solutions. A lot of it looks like sloppy football. Players lining up shaded inside instead of outside, or vice-versa. Guys taking poor angles to the ball. Defenders playing too fast and leaving themselves vulnerable to cutback moves. Missed tackles. And so on.
The players don’t have to magically become Troy, Dawk and Bobby. They simply need to watch the Giants game. The back seven covered very well in that game. This group is talented enough to play well and get the job done. They just aren’t good enough to overcome mistakes. If they can play a reasonably clean game, they can make things tough for Brady and the Patriots.
One thing that should give the defense a boost is getting Sam Bradford back at QB. I’m not turning him into Aaron Rodgers just yet, but he’s better than Mark Sanchez and his return should help the offense be more productive.
There is some precedent for the Eagles coming off a bad loss and beating a Hall of Fame QB.
Back in 2010 the Eagles lost to the Titans 37-19. Kerry Collins threw for 276 yards and 3 TDs. His primary target? 6-4 WR Kenny Britt, who got the best of Dimitri Patterson and anyone else that tried to cover him (7-225-3). That was such a frustrating game.
The Eagles had a bye week and their next game was the Colts with Peyton Manning. Peyton had never lost to the Eagles. They had never held him to less than 35 points. The Eagles played an inspired game and won 26-24 over Peyton and the Colts.
The circumstances aren’t exact to be sure, but the point is that you can go from a terrible game to a really good one if the coaches and players have a short memory and focus on the task at hand.
I’ll be interested to see what Davis and his players do on Sunday in such a critical test.
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after two historically bad losses, instead of chip and his veteran “leaders” coming together to really make it a point to try and unite this locker room, and have a great week of Practice to get ready for a pissed off Patriots team, the locker room continues to unravel, instead of uniting the team, it’s becoming more and more of “every man for themselves”, “Finger pointing” CULTURE that chip is continuing to lose control of…
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Why would anything change when our head coach has failed miserably to hold anyone accountable all year?
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I am Losing all faith in Chip Kelly, and that’s a terrible feeling for a diehard Eagle fan that assumes chip will get another year to either improve the team, or make an even bigger mess.
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I do believe that chip is a very bright offensive football mind, who is smart enough to fix our issues, learn from his mistakes, and do a better job for us in the future, but I’m so afraid that his ego will keep him from making the neccessary changes needed to be better in the future… I HATE that it’s not as simple as wins and losses with chip, and there is this is extra added element of needing to prove that his unorthodox philosophies will win at this level. I hate that it seems like he views making Changes to his approach as a FAILURE… yes we hired chip because he had a different approach to the pro game, but I hate that he seems to view changing his philosophy as Failure…
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I want A very bright football mind who will use his entire Rolodex of football knowledge to make whatever changes need to be made in order to win games.. my biggest Fear is that it’s not ONLY about wins and Losses for Chip, and that he is too Concerned with proving he can Win with His unorthodox pro philosophy… I’m scared that he cares too much about HOW WE win, instead of ONLY caring about making whatever adjustments are required to win..
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It feels like slowing down his tempo, implementing plays that aren’t run out of shotgun, admitting that at times, TIME OF POSSESSION REALLY DOES MATTER in the pros and doing things the traditional ways, in Chips mind is admitting that his entire approach to pro football is a Fraud and a Failure… And I REALLY HOPE that I am wrong about this and he proves that he is more concerned with doing whatever it takes to win games instead of being so concerned with proving that he can win games using his unorthodox pro philosophies..
What has come out since preparation has actually started?
Nicely put.
If the Eagles are in a position to win the game, that is, if it’s a competitive game, I really don’t care at all who wins. A fluke win will not be very satisfying.
Wouldn’t a fluke win mean they were in the position to win and got a little lucky?
To me, a fluke is a game you were destined to lose because you were outplayed, but an unexplainable turn of events grants a reprieve. Everybody can use a little luck, even great teams, but a “little” luck can make a difference only if the game is a competitive battle. I hope it is.
9 minutes ago
Re ‘decimated Patriots’:
in my honest and humble opinion the Eagles would benefit more if both Donta Hightower and Jamie Collins wouldn’t play on Sunday rather than Gronkowski…
I respectfully disagree. Gronk is a huge matchup problem and Bradys numbers go from top ten QB to bottom ten QB when he’s been without Gronk the last few years.
I see what you’re saying. But my ratio was based upon the fact that our offense seemed to struggle the last few weeks, especially in the running game. It’s nice to shut down Brady in a way, but at the same time we need to sustain drives and more importantly score points. We won’t win a low scoring like 10-7 I’m afraid.
Yea I feel ya, but our defense has been terrible too. I feel like with Gronk the Pats would put up another 45 points on us easily and our offense, no matter who they play, won’t be able to keep up with that.
Without Gronk, if we play like we did prior to the TB game on defense, I see us possibly being able to hold the Patriots to somewhere between 20 to 27 points. I like our offenses chance to suddenly awaken a bit and put up 24 on the Pats (even if their D is at full strength) a lot more than I like the idea of our offense suddenly being able to beat Brady in a shootout to 40 some points.
Got ya. Let’s hope the Eagles pull an upset somehow. If it’s 44-42 or 2-0 I really don’t care. 🙂
Dion Lewis, Edelman, Gronk, and maybe Amendola… Plus their OL is still pretty makeshift.
If there was ever a time for this defense to shine… This would be it.
Also, why wouldn’t Bair be ahead of Hart all the time? I feel like he’s earned it.
or just show up
Brady, Billichick. Nuff said.
Bellichick is a Master in preperation who specializes in Defense… I’m scared to death of seeing what happens when Bellichick has to prepare and gameplan against an offense with a thin pamphlet sized playbook, that lacks variation, and has been called predictable by inferior opponents than Bellichick’s Patriots…
CK is an offensive guru?… Good D beats good O?
Being an offensive guru doesn’t mean anything without the horses to run the offense…
So my official prediction for the game: The defense comes out fired up and we’re all very excited about that, but bradford regresses and the offense stalls out as we lose a very winnable game 24-14.
“bradford regresses” —to what a zygote? From slurpuff to swirlix?
Are you calling Bradford a fairy? Love the pocket monster reference.
dude always looks like he just saw a UFO
In this one, I think he looks like he just floated a really nasty air biscuit & he’s downright giddy that it’s wafting your way. lol
Sounds like an unfortunate game of Baloophi Bingo.
Bair Necessities
It’s come to this.
I’m still in favour of “The 2nd Amendment” as a nickname, after all the blocked passes Bair made.
He has never done anything but play well for us.
Accountability – just might be Chip’s fatal flaw. Hate to be paraphrasing Heath Evans, but earlier today he was talking about Belicheck, how he would quiz players at random times about random scenarios and what a player should do. As head coach, players I could see, would think Belicheck knew the details of what they were supposed to do and would hold them accountable for them.
Chips seems to not get involved with the defense, saying it is Davis’ responsibility when players make mistakes. For Chip to get involved on a mistake to mistake level would in his words be “inefficient.” Then Davis to be most efficient would pass the buck to position coaches to hold players accountable. So it goes from position coach to position coach how much fear players have to get every detail correct.
Kelly is trying to make Jenkins comments about accountability being about whether or not the team meets as a whole team and calls players out. But i think Jenkins was talking about the attitude of the head coach and coordinators to how much they will “accept” mistakes. And having a position coach quietly talking to a player one on one with some film on about how maybe Kelce should hold his right hand in more when snapping the ball so it does not go over the QBs head is not “holding player’s accountable.”
and this might be why team has gotten worse the past two seasons as the season goes on. The players learn that there will be no consequences, – be it benching, or being cut, or being laughed at, or having veterans follow coach’s lead and calling them out, or having coaches in a team meeting embarrass them or having the head coach or coordinator either yell or send them the evil eye on the sideline – to mistakes. You’ll be told later in the week the correct technique you should have done and that is it.
This might be most efficient in terms of time use, but dont think it is most effective in keeping players’ maximum concentration throughout the week and in game on not making mistakes.
I saw Heath Evans and had to stop reading.
i heard this interview on the way to the dentist, double trouble. But i got the feeling even Heath feels bad for Chip right now. He didn’t take any potshots really. He did mention that he tried saying hello to Chip at the Super Bowl last year and Chip ignored him
I saw Chip in the hallway and said hello. He just looked at me strangely. Later, I was told that I was never to address Chip directly, that I should avert my eyes from his gaze, and that I should never turn my back to him, but only back away with my head bowed.
him and boykin starting a club lol
It is a shame it wasn’t on the way home from the dentist. Heath probably makes more sense after being gassed.
Chip, who seems like a very intelligent person, does this an awful lot. I’d like to think he’s just blowing off media personnel and doesn’t really believe what he’s saying, but I’m starting to wonder if maybe this is a flaw in the general sense how his brain functions.
When asked about a player saying the team has no accountability Chip justifies his process and how and when people meet, but doesn’t address the overall point of what Jenkins said.
When talking about the amount of media scrutiny that this team has, he talks about how KC fans fill their stadiums and have a bunch of people that care about the team, but fails to see the simple answer that Philly is a much huger market with fans that demand constant Eagles material to read and talk about.
When talking about how his scheme is becoming predictable he ignores all the obvious ways that it is and rather talks about some very specific instance where he calls sweep sometimes from the formation he usually calls inside zone. Is that really the most unpredictable you can be? You always run inside zone from a certain formation, but every once in a while you switch it up and run one other type of run, a sweep, therefore nothing to see here we’re not predictable?
I could go on and on, but we all probably remember plenty of times that Chip has been asked a legitimate question and responded by ignoring the overall general point of the question and instead seems to focus on one out of context specific way that things invalidate that question completely. Seems like blinders on to me.
“I could go on and on, but we all probably remember plenty of times that Chip has been asked a legitimate question and responded by ignoring the overall general point of the question and instead seems to focus on one out of context specific way that things invalidate that question completely. Seems like blinders on to me.”
Every politician does this every day.
Agreed. It seems very politician-like. However, it’s lacking in one area that’s pretty ubiquitous to politicians. Whenever you hear politicians do this you usually can watch their actions and clearly see that they’re doing the opposite of what they’re saying. With Chip…I’m starting to question whether he’s just being a politician during these press conferences or if he really believes the excuses he’s giving. Because, he backs up those statements with actions that support them.
Chip seems to have so many “fatal flaws” that it’s impossible to identify just one. Bottom line is it’s not working – on any level – and I can’t help but think that Jeffrie Lurie is experiencing some serious buyer’s remorse.
1,000,000,000 to 2. I know I know, this isn’t realistic. No chance we score 2… but a guy can hope.
If Bair doesn’t dress this game I will chop off Bill Davis’ little balls.
Be careful if you do, Bair might just swat them back in your face.
It’s Tea time!!!
Question:… Would anyone view Chip as a failure if we see the Eagles beat the Patriots by putting a lot of chips offensive philosophies on the shelf and see the Eagles come out against the Patriots huddling, Linning up in all kinds of other formations instead of ONLY using shotgun, seeing Bradford audible into diffrent plays at the line of scrimage, and use a ball control, time of possession approach to keep our defense and Brady off the field by slowing it down and caring more about time of possession than we care about how many plays our offense can run?….
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All I care about is winning football games. You Won’t ever see me complain about a win. if we play Horrible and squeek by a team like the Jags by 1 point at the end. I understand that it’s very difficult to win games in this league and we should never take wins for Granted..I can’t help but worry that Chip would view making drastic changes to his style as a failure because he is concerned with not validating all the people like Heath Evans and Bruce Arians who took shots at his “college approach” to the pro games. And if my concern is legit, for me that would be a FATAL FLAW that we will NEVER be able to overcome. This really scares me, especially since I think there is no chance Lurie fires him after this season…
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It has to be ONLY about winning. By any means necessary, it’s too hard to win, that you can’t add an element of caring so much about HOW you go about winning, For me, This is what will determine how successful Chip will be at this level…. If he sees that at THIS level there are times where there is a better way of doing things than the contrarian beliefs he came to philly with, I would give him a 5 year extension Today. because I do believe that he is a very bright football mind, who preaches a Growth mindset and always NEEDED to LEARN and evolve in the Pros before he could really become a top notch pro coach. I think Lurie gambled more on what this man could become, instead of hiring him because of the coach he was at the moment. Growth ISNT always linear, so you can’t just fire the guy at the first hint of adversity… What he does with this Failure will lead To whether he succeeds in the pros or has to eventually accept limitatipns of a college coach… Does he LEARN from this face plant and makes signifcant changes in all areas across the board? Or does he prove that his ego can’t allow him to alter his approach to the pro game because he is too concerned with not validating all the people who said his unorthodox pro methods WOULDNT work?
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Chip claims that he isn’t governed by what people say.. And I do Think there have been some flaws in the way this roster was built.. So what Im saying is that I DONT KNOW that his Offense WONT work, I don’t know that he does need to make changes to approach yet, simply because I feel we aren’t good enough in some key areas that is keeping us from really finding out what NEEDS to be changed. I don’t believe we lack as much talent as many seem to think, but There are some serious lack of talent at key positions that makes it hard for me to reach a conclusion of what chip ideas don’t work and NEED to be changed? And what would work if we just had better players?
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Because of the lack of talent in key areas, I can’t sit here and proclaim that he needs to change Everything and abandon all his beliefs to be successful, but I do NEED to Know that he is willing and Capable of admitting that he needs to make changes to his unorthodox approach and do what’s best for this team, instead of feeling like he cant make signifcant changes without feeling like he is a failure validating all the people who said his “way” Wasnt going to work..
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Like I said, we aren’t good enough to really be able to conclude that the Chip way just isn’t going to work at this level. So I’m not calling for change across the board immediately… But what I do feel pretty certain about is BALANCE is more important Than EXTREMES.. I don’t know WHAT WONT WORK, but What I think I know is that:
1) there will be times in chips pro career where there are better ways of attacking opposing defenses than using shotgun. all those great coaches that used plays where the QB lined up under center Couldnt have ALL been Morons. Im not suggesting we comletely trash our offense, but you can’t convince me that Linning up in Shotgun is ALWAYS the best option regardless of who we face or what schemes they are running
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2) I LIKE that tempo is a big part of our ATTACK.. But you can’t convince me that Time of Possession NEVER MATTERS and Running as many plays as possible is ALWAYS going to be more important. If your offense struggles to execute and your defense is the strength, why do you want to run 90 plays? Struggle to execute more? Is Quality NEVER more imortant than Quantity? I need more balance, less extremes… figure out a balance to use the tempo to our advantage and minimize the flaws of Tempo, for example, slow it the FUCK down when you keep going 3 and out since all you are doing is rushiñg back to the bench as possible
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3) you might believe that being calm and level headed is the best approach, but you can’t Convince me that there is NEVER a Time when a football coach NEEDS to yell at an adult player? If the reserved, quiet, Todd Bowles can flip out on his locker room when needed, chip can’t tell me that there is NEVER a time where he needs to kick his players asss and chew them out..
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4) again, a Lack of Balance. There are times when you have to allow a player to work his way thru a slump, or work his way thru struggles of learning an offense and not be quick to make changes. but you Can’t EVER convince me that there are never times when we have to hold guys accountable and Bench a Starter, or make a high paid Running back innactive on game day as punishment for sliding to avoid contact. And you can’t convince me that there is NEVER a time Where you need to hold guys accountable, and Cut a guy like Miles Austin mid season who is dogging it and get the attention of your locker room… I thought we learned our lesson from the mistakes we made letting Bradley Fletcher Kill us all year without holding him accountable and benching him even if it’s just for one week
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Jeffrey Lurie ISNT going to fire chip after his first losing season. We know Lurie enough to know that it’s not his style to fire chip after this year. but after an Embarressing face plant of a season, if I were Lurie, I would NEED chip to convince me, that Chip won’t allow the fear of proving his many Haters Were right about his methods not working at this level, from doing whatever gives us the best chance of winning.. chip is NO LONGER a college coach. He has Full Control of a major Pro Franchise in one of the biggest markets, next year will ne 4 years since he has been a “COLLEGE COACH”… I NEED to know after a Horribke season like this, when Chip evaluates everything after the season and figures out what was a lack of talent and what was a mistake in scheme or philosophy that chip ISNT afraid to win games, if how he goes about winning games is also an admission that his style and offense doesn’t work in the pros…
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I really do trust Chips football mind to learn from mistakes. but Im scared to death not knowing if his ego would allow him to make neccessary changes, if those changes validate the haters who told him his style WOULDNT work in the pro’s… This is the ONLY thing that scares me about chip going forward.
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If Im Lurie, I NEED to Know that once Chip fully evaluates this mess he created, his ego won’t keep him from Doing whatever gives us the best chance to win.. basically I need to know that chip would be willing to open next season In a traditional west coast offense, Huddling, allowing QB to audible at the line of scrimmage, with a new focus on time of possession, if making these changes is truly what gives us the best chance to win… I’m not suggesting these changes NEED to be made, but ido NEED to know that his ego will allow him to make such drastic changes if it’s whats best for the Eagles, even when doing so validates his outside haters…. I don’t Expect to NEED such drastic changes for us to be successful. but I do NEED Less EXTREMES, and more balance and VARIATY
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I do think better QB play, better OL, young WRs being a year more developed some added Defensive talent can solve a lot of our issues, so I don’t think we have to drastically Change EVERYTHING… But some changes NEED to be made, and some lessons need to be Learned from such a disaster of a season
No I wouldnt and No he won’t. By the way I think this might be the longest post I have seen from you.
I’m sure I wrote longer before,,, im on a train to Madison Square Garden, getting Lost in a long post is a great way to kill time,,.
what were the questions again?
which, honestly, puts it in the running for longest post ever in the history of igglesblitz. Can’t really disagree with much of it though.
And that’s saying something. Did you read the whole thing?
Pretty much yeah lol
I have a policy that I never read comments that are longer than the original article. I experience that enough in real life, being married and all.
Hard to get all that stuff implemented in one week. One good things about continuity, is that you have time to build / expand the offense, but do you want players that can’t execute basic scheme to try something else that they haven’t practiced? I don’t know enough about football to know if it’s plausible or not plausible to implement.
Absolutely not. If he’s willing to scrap something and try other things to win, that’s the mark of a good coach. Willing to move on from failed plans is what I’d prefer to see. As a team you have to mix it up and get the other team thinking.
Absolutely well said
Like you I still believe that Chip’s up tempo offense can work, Heath the idiot Evans be damned. It worked briefly when the Online played as a cohesive unit, but then Peters went down and the oline was shuffled. A lot of the blame is on Chip for letting Mathis go after failing to draft Olinemen for two years. That is Chip’s fatal flaw. All the analysis of Chip’s mentality that you find on these boards is so much psychological mumbo jumbo. Andy Reid’ s responses to reporters’ questions was equally disingenuous. Kelly will be back next year. We, and Lurie, will see if be can learn from his mistakes. As a very long time Eagles fan, I hope he can. It is too early to jettison him.
is there a shorter version somewhere? Maybe someone took notes? :).
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I do think, with a few(yes, only a few) talented people in place, that would turn this team around. After reading weeks of “this team has talent”, I’m glad to see someone write that this team does not have the talent needed….
I wonder if the coaches would consider playing Brandon Bair over Taylor Hart
Adjusting scheme to fit the strengths of our players? Giving more playing time to players who have performed well in limited snaps?
If you think Davis or Chip will do either of these things, you haven’t been paying attention…
How else are you going to justify the idea of trying to take Hart in the 3rd round?
But hey, we got him in the 5th round, a steal?!!
I hereby kindly ask you to not quote or mention Jimmy K. here any more. He’s now wanting Neither Bradford, nor JP nor Brent Celek back with the Eagles any more.
I mean, how can you not want Celek the ultimate fighter be back with the Eagles, even in a backup role?! Lol @ Kempski, he’s turning into a total douche bag, and a bitter and grumpy one that is!!
I’d take them all back at reduced salaries.
Bradford. We have no viable QBs on the roster. At least he’s shown improvement and has all the necessary skills. I doubt the market for him will be too price. I’d gladly take him back on a 3 year deal at a reduced salary that’s structured like Kaepernick’s where it’s essentially a series of one year deals, while we try to groom his replacement.
JP is getting old and starting to wear down physically. But, do you really want to go into next year needing to replace 3/5s of the oline. Slide him inside to LG, move Lane over to LT permanently, reduce his salary, and have a pretty decent left side of the line next year so we can work on just fixing RG and RT. Then next offseason you can worry about replacing JP.
Celek needs his salary reduced, but he’s easily the best #2 TE in the league. No reason to outright cut him.
Thank you, sir. For your common sense.
I really want JP at LG to happen. Draft our next RT, RG in this draft.
Even if Peters halved his salary for next year Chip cut Mathis b/c he didn’t wanna pay a guard $5.5 mil. Prob not gonna happen.
Bradford improved from playing like the 32nd best QB in the NFL to the 22nd best. That’s still no where near good enough for anything. That’s just a waste of time at QB.
clearly. But, the other options are Sanchez who’s even worse and has not shown any improvement, another FA who’s probably even worse or a rookie who’s well you get the point. Plus the important part is the improvement. The hope is that he continues to improve and maybe if you give him some legitimate receivers, a functioning oline and running game that maybe he continues to improve to the 10th-15th best QB and gives you some decent play while you find and develop our next great QB. If you have a better idea of who that placeholder should be I’m all ears. But, saying, “just draft someone”, isn’t a good enough answer. We’re not even sure if that someone exists or will be available or even competent if he is. Someone’s gotta play QB until we find our next franchise QB, I’d rather it be Bradford over Sanchez or Kaepernick.
He basically had no offseason work b/c of re-hab i think that set him behind. I’d do the re-sign for cheap, I think he’s accurate enough to be what you need if he’s got weapons around him and an OL, though not sure if he’ll get the RO portion of the offense going..
Check out the last play on this video about Agholor, but focus on the pass Bradford makes while rolling out and everyone of his receivers is covered. This is a largely forgotten 9 yard completion, but tell me that’s not an elite throw. Not long afterwards Bradford got injured. But, it’s very possible that we were just starting to see him round back into form.
http://www.flyeaglesfly.com/media/Rookie+ReportA+Nelson+Agholor/1_t9rof804
I personally think having an Average QB is worse for a franchise than having a bad one. At least a bad one gives you a chance to get a good one.
Committing to an average QB IS disastrous for an organization. You give out big guarantees to a guy like Alex Smith and you basically sign yourself up for perpetual mediocrity. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a contract structure like Kaepernicks where IF Bradford suddenly becomes elite (about close to equal likelihood of that happening as hitting on any draft pick) he gets paid that way, but if not he’s relatively cheap and easy to cut at any time with no dead cap space hit. That gives you the freedom to keep looking for the next franchise QB while giving it a decent shot with Bradford.
Losing out for draft position is extremely risky in the NFL. There’s no guarantee at all that you find a QB that way, but you do put your fans through years of painful football. What happens if you lose out in the wrong year and there’s no quality QBs to draft like we did when we went 4-12. What happens if you lose out, have the worst record in the league but end up with the second overall pick on a coin toss because you were tied with another team, and that draft has two elite QBs and you end up with the Ryan Leaf of the two.
Here’s the list of the better starting QBs in the league and what draft pick they were taken at and then how they ended up on their current team.
Carson Palmer – 1st overall – traded to Cardinals from Raiders for a 6th round pick and a swap of 7th round picks after looking like he was completely washed up.
Matt Ryan – 3rd overall
Joe Flacco – 18th overall
Cam Newton – 1st overall
Jay Cutler – 11th overall – traded to bears for Kyle Orton, 2 1st round picks and a 3rd rounder
Andy Dalton – 35th overall
Tyrod Taylor – 180th overall – signed as an afterthought UFA
Ryan Tannehill – 8th overall
Tom Brady – 199th overall
Ben Roethlisberger – 11th
Andrew Luck – 1st overall
Brock Osweiler – 57th overall
Derek Carr – 36th overall
Phillip Rivers – 4th overall
Tony Romo – UDFA
Eli Manning – 1st overall
Matthew Stafford – 1st overall
Aaron Rodgers – 24th overall
Teddy Bridgewater – 32nd overall
Drew Bree’s – 33rd overall – signed as FA after brutal shoulder injury.
Russell Wilson – 75th overall
So how bad do you need to be to get an Elite QB? Sure there’s plenty of number 1 overall picks on that list. But that’s because there’s more QBs drafted at that spot than anywhere else. Since 1998 13 of the last 18 No 1 picks have been QBs. But, there’s still an over 50% fail rate for QBs drafted in picks 1-5. Sure that’s a better average than other spots but a second round QB still has over 35% chance of making the probowl in their career.
Here’s the stats on starting QBs in the league:
Mean Draft position of starting QBs: 53rd
Median Pick: 17.5
The interesting thing though since some of the best QBs, Brady, Rodgers, Brees, were later picks the means and medians are actually even lower picks than when you just look at starters.
So while you’d prefer to endure multiple horrendous losing seasons in the hope that you get high enough to draft a sure fire elite QB number 1 overall, and seem content to put all your eggs in that one basket, I’d prefer to approach this like Seattle did before they found Wilson and exhaust every possible means of finding that guy, including giving the former #1 overall pick who was previously the consensus next elite QB in the draft, every opportunity to succeed. It’s silly to give up a high 2nd round pick and then after 8 games behind a back up Oline with no running game and no WRs in a new system while he’s coming back from 2 consecutive ACL tears, just give up on that asset and try to lose out to get another high lottery ticket.
Keep Bradford, AND keep looking for QBs, through the draft, trades, FA, until you find the one. But if you design a team to lose just to get a QB the only thing you guarantee is that you’ll lose. After that a lot of things have to fall into your lap due to pure luck to end up with an elite QB from that method.
I’d dump all 3. Wanna draft a QB and line needs an overhaul anyway. Year early rather than a year late with Peters. Celek gives you nothing at receiver and is old and expensive.
Why do you continue to follow him? Wouldn’t it make more sense to take the Brandon Graham approach?
Because I couldn’t find the mute button. 😉
This feels like the awkward point in a relationship where you have a good friend over years, then he gets married, and down the line you find that his old lady is a hormone-craven bitch.
Well played, sir.
It’s just an opinion. Hell, considering opposing opinions is good for you.
the internet has turned us into a bunch of psychos constantly in search of insulating ourselves in a fake world where everyone’s opinions reaffirm our own, thus becoming truth, and anyone outside is some ignorant Mongolian villain looking to break the wall.
Dude, I may have 3 beers already, but still I had to read your post three times!!!
I don’t dismiss opposing opinions because they disagree with me, I dismiss them because they are obviously wrong.
If what likely will happen does happen – a Pats blowout because Brady and Belicheat are super-PO’ed after that Denver loss – then Chip might as well pack his bags and slip out quietly afterwards because that will be it for him in Lurie’s eyes, no question about it.
Lurie has always fancied himself to be the NFC version of Bob Kraft and after this string of 3 embarrassing losses plus all the other stuff (players talking/sniping, various Chip-back-to-college rumors, Chip’s simplistic offense and general coaching approach being ripped to shreds in the media, etc.), an embarrassing loss to Kraft’s team will be the final nail in his coffin.
(It also hurts Chip that AR has staged a remarkable comeback with KC, going from 1-5 to qualifying for the playoffs if the season ended today.)
I don’t believe that for one second that Lurie would fire Chip over losing 3 games consecutively even in embarrassing fashion. You mention Reid yet Lurie stuck by him in his last season here as a lame duck coach with the team failing tremendously and everyone knew he was gone but yet the owner waited until the end of year. What precedent has Lurie set for you to really believe what you just wrote?
I just couldn’t live with myself if I let GEAGLE have the longest post of the day…
When Chip took over this team, the offense had great WRs, a great, but aging offensive line with little depth, a decent TE, a great RB with little depth and a big fat question mark at QB. As far as needs were concerned, we needed a QB first and foremost, we needed to replace Avant with a younger playmaker in the slot, we needed to groom a playmaking/matchup problem at #2 TE behind Celek, we needed to invest in oline depth to prepare for our aging oline’s imminent decline and we needed a back up running back.
In the first draft we took Lane Johnson and Zach Ertz and after his first year here Chip traded up to get Matthews and traded a 5th round pick for Sproles. Check, Check, Check and Check. That accomplished much of what we set out to do. WR should have been a huge strength, TE was now a huge strength, RB was a huge strength and only really needed a downhill back to spell Shady which are a dime a dozen, and we had invested a premium resource in Oline.
However, we still needed to start replacing or at least spending resources that would eventually replace, JP, Mathis and Herremans. And, we still needed a QB. Neither of these two areas were addressed properly. But, otherwise the offense was loaded with talent. Unfortunately, we decided to weaken our strengths by cutting Jackson, letting Maclin leave in FA, and trading McCoy. Suddenly, WR and RB were weaknesses rather than strengths. That leads to locking up huge amounts of guaranteed money in Murray and Mathews, signing Miles Austin and being forced to use a 1st and 3rd, respectively, on Huff and Agholar.
While you can justify each move individually, when taken as a whole, you see how those cuts forced us to use significant resources to fill in for those departures, while continuing to ignore the needs that required addressing from Chips first day on the job. If you don’t cut those players you have an extra 1st rounder and possibly 2 3rd rounders (if you count the one we used to trade up for Matthews because we were desperate for WR) to address Oline, back up RB, QB, defense. That has a domino effect that leads to huge wasteful contracts for people like Maxwell and Murray. Whenever you cut playmakers in their prime and then are forced to use premium resources to replace them, you’re doing so at the expense of other positions of need. This sets the entire operation back even if the people you find to replace the Jacksons, Maclins and McCoys of the world are of similar or even better ability. You still had to waste resources to make a lateral move, which is deadly when building a team with limited resources to begin with in a league geared towards parity.
As far as positional misallocation of resources, look no further than our bloated backfield. We spend the most amount of money on RBs in the league with Murray (Cap hits of $5mil, $8mil and $9mil in his first 3 years here), Mathews ($2mil, $4mil, $5mil), and Sproles ($4.1mil, $4.5mil). That’s the 8th, 10th, and 22nd highest cap hits at the RB position in the entire league for 2015. All on one team. And, notice, their cap hits go up each successive year. In terms of cash value, Murray and Mathews have the 4th and 15th highest totals respectively when compared to all RBs in the league. That’s an insane amount of financial capital placed into one position.
What makes that even worse is that RB is a position, in Chips scheme in particular, in which it is difficult to have more than one of these guys on the field at any given time. So every time one of our over priced backs are in the game, the other two are sitting on the sidelines giving you no value at all. When combined with the fact that RB is the most plug and play position on all of football this just seems like an insane waste of cap resources.
Compare this to WR where we undoubtedly went very light with our cap hit. Miles Austin has a cap hit of $2.25mil (ranked #54 in the league for WRs), Riley Cooper: $4.8mil (#23), Nelson Agholar: $1.7mil (#70), Jordan Matthews: $1.125mil (#83), Huff: $663,986 (#110). On the vast majority of our plays we trot out 3 WRs and only 1 RB. Yet, we spent less on our top 5 WRs than we did on our top 3 RBs. That’s completely backwards. And, what you see is predictable. Players like Austin and Cooper are on the field far more than Mathews and Sproles and have far more impact on the games outcomes as a result, yet they are being paid less while Mathews and Sproles are being paid more, but relegated to sitting on the bench and only coming in for spot duty.
To compound this we went extremely light on offensive line. We essentially cut 2 larger contracts for starting, but aging guards and instead of replacing them with equal quality (even if we’re talking former quality not the aging vets projected quality as they decline), replaced them with 2nd and 3rd stringers. Again, MAYBE you can justify each of these moves independently, but taken together they seem asinine. Why invest so heavily in RBs and so poorly in the oline that’s going to block for them. This is football 101. If you invest heavily in oline, RB becomes extremely easy to plug and play (see Denver teams from 1996-2006). If you invest heavily in oline, you can skimp at RB and get good production. However, if you skimp at Oline, it doesn’t matter how good your RB is or how much you invest in the position, the result will be poor production.
So just by choosing to invest in certain positions over others you set up a situation where things are extremely inefficient when it comes to getting a return on your investment. On any given play you’re paying 2 RBs large comparative sums of money to sit on the bench. And, regardless of who you put in, the production is lacking because the line is so bad. So you’re largest relative investment on offense is giving you terrible return. You’re now in positions where you need to throw more than you’d like and you have Riley Cooper and Miles Austin to help you make up the difference with an injury prone QB, who’s coming off two consecutive ACL tears, learning a new offense and isn’t comfortable with anything (scheme or personnel yet), playing behind a shotty offensive line trying to get the ball to terrible WRs.
Furthermore, all the playmakers you have are essentially relegated to the same role. Your best WR is a slot WR that excels at working the middle of the field, your next best receiving target is a TE that excels at working the middle of the field, your best RB in the pass game is a 5’6″ scat back that excels at attacking mismatches against LBs in the middle of the field with option routes and screens, and the only other potential playmakers you have in the passing game are Huff (more of a slot type half RB/half WR slot guy) who excels at working the middle of the field, taking screen passes and breaking tackles, and a rookie who’s not ready to play.
They all can’t attack the middle of the field at once, which leaves you with Cooper and Austin on the outside, and a situation where defenses know whats coming when certain players sub in. When Ertz comes in (especially early in the year), it’s a pass, same with Sproles. Since we have an over abundance of speciality skill players that all either play the same position as other starters or excel in similar areas of the field, we can only play them so many snaps a game. And, since we’re paying them a good amount of money we want those snaps to count. So when they come in, it’s because they’re about to do what they excel at. Problem is, the defense knows this. They know where to place their defenses and where they need to be strong and where they can afford to go weak.
The results are a stagnant offense that can’t run, can’t pass, is constantly playing behind the sticks, is asking a skiddish QB to make downfield plays to Miles Austin and Riley Cooper behind an offensive line that never gives him enough time to let them get open down field and a predictable offense the can only really attack a very limited part of the field and tips it’s hand far too often based on the personnel that it puts onto the field. And, this all comes back to how the roster is constructed.
That is a goodass negative post. I now unfollow you.
I think the case that Chip mismanaged the offseason is compelling. But it is doubly damning that he has failed to adjust during the year when it became obvious things weren’t working. Three of the best players on the team are RBs, but two of them at any given time are grabbing pine. Is there no way to use two at a time? If the same running plays are not working, are there no other possible plays that could be run? If certain WRs are dropping everything, can’t we put the next man in there and give him a shot? If Huff has moves but no hands, is there no way to get him the ball anyway and let him try something?
Like in baseball, you may not have a home run hitter but you can still try to “manufacture runs”.
You’re spot on with asking how Kelly could change his scheme to fix this.
If it were me, once Agholar showed us that he wasn’t ready for big time, I’d realize that I had an over abundance on inside threats and a lack of outside receiving threats. I would have played Matthews outside more often and put Sproles in the slot a lot more. Sproles would get a lot more snaps this way, and could be a guy that demands a lot of attention, but can be moved around a lot and pose a lot of different looks and confusion for a defense, especially when we go tempo and they have to figure out where he is all the time.
The way we use Sproles now, whenever he comes on the field, 90% of the time, the play is designed to go to him and then he’s back on the bench. The defense doubles him, they aren’t fooled by our screens to him, the clamp down and take him away. He isn’t all that effective and then we sub him out.
Imagine if he was a threat to run an option route or a wheel or a screen on every play and the defense had to defend him without KNOWING the ball was coming his way, so they also have to cover a bunch of other things and can’t divert all their resources to stopping him.
You could even run screens to him where he starts out in the slot and runs behind the line at the snap to catch the screen. You could use him as a decoy like we used to with Jackson on orbit motion and fake reverses to hold the backside defenders that no longer respect our QB keepers.
We could still exploit Matthews mismatches against slot corners by running a couple plays with Sproles in the slot and then going tempo and throwing Sproles in the backfield and Matthews in the slot.
I’d go a lot more 2 TE sets, which Kelly has done although it took way too long to make that an obvious addition to our offense.
I’d throw in some looks with Matthews and Murray in the backfield together on either side of Bradford. Have them cross in front of him so the defense doesn’t know where the ball is going. Have them both run circle routes down the sidelines or run crossing patterns across the field. Have one sprint out in motion at the snap to draw a defender and then hand to the other on an inside zone.
Almost wore out my battery reading all this…
you’ll be ok…they recharge
“which leaves you with Cooper and Austin on the outside, ” say no more. i am thoroughly depressed by your solid reasoning.
I admire your buildup to a crescendo of negativity, but I am a little troubled that you leave the gains on defense out of your deduction, and I am wondering if it is fair to expect everything to be addressed in one season. It is easy to find fault, particularly when the defense has looked horrendous lately, but I think you can appreciate that some of GM Chip’s reallocation of resources looks sound when you don’t use it as an explanation for a disappointing season. There are a plethora of factors that contribute to Eagles sorry play, and your argument is not totally lacking merit, but I think it approaches oversimplification by distortion.
Chip created those holes that he then had to fill, for no supportable reason. The “everything to be addressed” you use to defend him was caused by him.
This is a good point. One of the reasons the defense isn’t truly elite is because we had to spend so many draft resources on offense to cover up the holes Chip created. If we didn’t need to spend a first round pick on Agholar, a 2nd AND a third on Matthews and a third on Huff, those resources could have been used to address some other areas that have now been plastered over with FA like Graham, Maxwell, Carroll, Thurmond. It’s conceivable that better resource allocation earlier in his tenure would have made it less imperative to trade up last year for a CB. That’s yet another 3rd rounder used to trade up to fill a specific need.
Had we addressed QB in the 2014 draft where Bridgewater and Carr were available instead of reaching for MS2, we most likely don’t need to waste a high second rounder on Bradford. It’s all connected. You can’t pay Peter without robbing Paul. But you make it really hard on yourself when you rob Paul and get nothing in return to pay Peter with.
Thanks. I appreciate your reply. And, you’re correct, I completely ignored the gains on defense in my post. Mostly that was for two reasons. The purpose of my post was to try and shed light on why the offense, Chips supposed strong suit, is struggling so much. And, two because this already way too long post would have reached comical proportions had I covered everything. Not because I don’t recognize the good that Chip has done on that side of the ball.
Speaking of the defense, though, I think a lot of their improvements have been gained by continuity and not so much shrewd GM work or scheme. Chip inherited Cox, Thornton, Curry, Cole/Graham, Kendricks, and Ryans. His first year here he hit on Logan in the draft, Barwin and Jenkins in FA and missed on Chung, Fletcher, and Williams. He stuck with the 2 CBs a year too long, but I’ll give him a hit on Carroll and an overpaid on Maxwell, while giving him a huge hit on Thurmond. MS2 and Alonso have been busts so far although I at least have some hope for Kiko. Overall, about 50/50 on his hits and misses with no real stellar upgrades. Barwin is incredibly solid and at a very good price, no flies on that signing, but it’s hard to argue he is some sort of elite, transcendent difference maker, despite how important he is to our defense. Hicks so far has been by far his best move. And, he’s currently on IR for the very reason he was available in the 3rd round.
Overall, the majority of the best players on the defense are players that were here prior to his arrival. And his biggest acquisitions Maxwell, Alonso, MS2, are his biggest flops. And the strength of the defense, the front 7, are almost entirely holdovers from the previous regime.
That being said, prior to the TB game the defense has steadily improved which Chip should get ample credit for. However, they are far from elite. Defense only wins championships if it’s truly an elite unit. A 10th ranked defense can’t carry a 25th ranked offense especially given our system based on tempo and a lack of concern for TOP. So, it is fair to question the wisdom of resource allocation that aims for a 50/50 split in spending on either side of the ball if that aim leads you to two mediocre units.
My biggest issues with the defense is with the coverage schemes. Undlin has done wonders with our DBs technique in jamming at the line and especially with how we defend deep sideline passes. But, we still see Davis’ puzzling inability to cover slant passes on third down. Why is it that every third and long I know the opposing offense will be able to convert easily with a slant pattern against CBs playing outside leverage with no help inside? Opposing QBs have a 112 QB rating against our defense on third down. The problem is clearly schematic in my eyes.
Use of personnel is also baffling. We have little pass rush, partly due to our 2-gap scheme up front, and partly due to our lack of a consistent edge rush threat at OLB. But, the criminal underuse of Vinny Curry, our best pass rushing Dlineman by a very large margin is downright silly. No reason he shouldn’t be on the field for every single 3rd down and other obvious passing situations. Sticking with Fletcher for as long as we did last year when it was clear he could not cover deep was equally infuriating. Placing Chung in one-to-one man coverage repeatedly against players like Dez Bryant in 2013 was something that schematically should never happen. Using Brandon Boykin as an OLB to rush the passer that same year was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen in a professional football field. That ill conceived experiment lasted 4 whole weeks.
So I see continuity with some shrewd, if not underwhelming GM work, as the main cause of the defenses rise instead of something involving coaching, scheme, player acquisition as the main cause.
I’d still pick the Patriots to win even if they were playing Garropolo instead.
Well sir, we will find out.
Switch rosters for the game and Pats still win
Weren’t they supposed to respond from the bad tampa game to play better against the Lions? Now we expect them to play better against the best team in the NFL? We are going to lose Tommy just come to grips with the fact this team has given up.
Actually, I think the big picture here is can Kelly get the team ready to play, and will the players respond? Whether they win or lose is not that important (I for one hope they lose for draft related reasons, but I’m sure most would/will vehemently disagree).
This group of players does not seem inclined to play for one another and for their coaches, and I’m expecting more of the same from here on out. We’ll see. I do hope all the young guys get extended playing opportunities, and maybe show us a little something to get excited about for the future.
I live near Cleveland. The Browns have hired and fired a new coach seemingly every year. I can tell you first hand that this is not the way to build up a contending franchise. If we really want Chip Kelly fired after two winning seasons and one down year, what are our expectations going forward? If you don’t win the SB in your 3rd year you are out? If the Eagles would have hired any other GM not named Chip Kelly, we would all be saying “it takes time to build a team.” Chip blew up this roster. We are rebuilding. Our expectations for building a good team moving forward started this year as soon as he got full control. Did you really think that, in his first year as a GM, he was going to wave the magic wand and contend for a SB?? Please. This stuff takes time. Do the research yourselves. It took Bill Cowher 13 years to win a SB. 13 years. We are in year 3 people. Of course nothing is guaranteed. But almost certainly, blowing up the ship every couple of years will guarantee you something and I would bet that it won’t make you happy. For better or worse, I’d rather ride it out with Chip than blow the whole thing up again.
Plus what good candidate would want to come here and deal with fans/media and real chance that after winning two years you’re gone. What message would it send to a new gm?
Exactly. What if Chip is a SB caliber coach? Do we want to get rid of him, like the Browns did Belichick, before he came into his own? I dont. I hope Chip does some soul searching this offseason and comes back ready to tweak some things within his philosophy.
I wonder how involved chip is in the day to day. Game planning, etc. Does Shurmur do a lot of game-planning? He’s a pretty vanilla coordinator based on what people have said. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of creativity in his routes or passing concepts, or run scheme, it’d be interesting to see how this offense compares to chip’s college offense.
Sorry but the chances are against that.
they are always against that
Yeah, by that argument you should never fire a coach ever, because, hey, next Belichick!
Ken Whisenhunt should be like Bill Walsh by now
But but It took Cowher 13 years! Well unlike Chip he had very early playoff success in his career..but wait there’s more!! We had a coach like that too before Chip that earned just as long as a career as Cowher.
Yep. And chances are heavily against anyone they hire to replace Chip being a SB caliber coach, let alone Belicheat level. So that argument doesn’t hold much water for me. Unless we really see the team quit for the rest of the year, the best chances for franchise relevancy in the next five years is Chip/Bradford, even if they are fairly low chances.
Ok what has Chip ever done to make us think that he can win a SB recently?
He can’t adjust his game plan.
He has questionable talent evaluation for players and coaches
He has beaten like what? 2 or 3 playoff teams in his time here?
If the grass isn’t greener on the other side then whatever. It would be better to start rebuilding now with better talent than talent just built for Chip’s philosophy.
Who’s to say that getting fired made isn’t what made Belichick what he is? Same for Pete Carroll.
It would be a shame if it required a good firing to get Chip to adapt to the next level…
Did Beli move(get fired) from HC of Browns to DC under Parcells? I’m not saying the firing didn’t help. Moving under parcels again for the Pats, then the Jets certainly helped too. It was a couple of years between Browns HC to his next HC stint.
I agree. Chip has certainly rattled my confidence in him with his performance this year, but that doesn’t mean i want him gone mostly for the reason you just cited. And I’m glad this team has an owner who isn’t usually a guy to make knee-jerk decisions. Sometimes coaches get it done, and sometimes they don’t, but it is ridiculous to have a carousel of coaches and GM’s every year or 2 like the Browns or Titans or Raiders do. There is a reason those teams usually pick in the top 10 of the draft almost every year. Zero Stability. The owners want a winning product right away and at the first sign of regression or trouble, they change leadership. A lot of this, especially in Cleveland i feel is done to inspire hope to the fan base because the owners feel like they will abandon the team and the money/income will decrease. It’s been a bad year for Chip, but i don’t feel as if he has “run his course” yet
Don’t forget the DC franchise.
If you don’t win the SB in your 3rd year you are out
I’m not saying we should fire Chip, but what has happened to the team in the last two weeks is a little bit more than just “not winning the SB.”
2 games, 5 days. I think the mini bye really helped, but we’ll see sunday. I think the media’s negativity hurts the team – hard to ignore constant media criticism, epsecially in that short span – “coach leaving,” “coach will be fired,” “players have given up,” “players are terrible, etc., etc.
But teams play 2 games in five days on a weekly basis without a historically bad collapse…
Besides, that wouldn’t explain the Tampa game, where they were awful on what was an otherwise normal week.
100% agree….every year it happens in the NFL.
There’s a reason Chip didn’t go to Cleveland. I’m glad that our owner is a long term planner rather than a short term planner. Chip came in with the intention of building a 3-4 defense, and has the pieces he needs to run that scheme. While building that up, the offense has taken a step back, but the offense has also taken a step back because our top QB didn’t get an off-season and hasn’t played football in 2 years. I think we are at a point where the investment is in Chip and in Bradford, and though some fans may want to jump off a bridge… as you point out we are in the midst of building something up (not at the end of a road ready to start over).
I agree with your analysis, but just want to head of the inevitable “Kool-Aid” comments – none of this is meant to imply that Bradford is guaranteed to be a top 5 QB next year. Just that it’s reasonable to assume he’ll be better next year, given all the circumstances. How much is certainly highly debateable, but giving Bradford and Kelly (if Kelly decides to re-sign him) another year is best the chance for this franchise to be competitive in the next 3 years, even if the chances are less than even.
Definitely, I’m not expecting Bradford to push the team to victory in games all by himself (like Tom) but I do expect him to run the offense efficiently and consistently score points.
This team reminds me of Andy Reids first year where they went 5-11 with Pederson at the helm. We accepted that year as a rebuilding year from the get go and knew year one would be a rebuilding year. Unfortunately, I think we’re being thrown off by the fact that this rebuild has come in year 3 after two 10-6 seasons and an offseason that saw us as almost unanimous picks to be super bowl contenders.
Truth is the team has been torn down and rebuilt on offense, while the entire secondary was rebuilt on defense. There have been obvious areas of oversight (oline, WR) and areas that we made mistakes (Murray). But, all is not lost and a lot of these issues can be corrected with some luck, young player development and a few savy personnel moves.
Folks should have expected Agholor’s development to be closer to the “norm” than to what Jordan Matthew’s was able to do as a rookie. I agree with your idea from another post that giving up on Austin and Cooper as being a help to the offense and getting more snaps for Sproles and TE #2 would help the passing game a lot.
I’m still far from sold on Bradford. I actually think it’s more likely than not that he’ll never be an elite consistent QB. But, I still think far too many people are way too ready to toss him out after 8 and a half games, with no receivers, no running game and a shoddy Oline, after 2 years out of the game, while learning a new offense with an entirely new team around him with no offseason to practice with them.
Check out the last play on this video about Agholor, but focus on the incredible play Bradford makes while rolling out, with all his receivers tightly covered. It’s a largely forgotten 9 yard completion, but it’s the type of pass that truly shows the type of talent Sam has and gives you hope that maybe, just maybe, he’s starting to round into form, because it’s a truly elite throw.
http://www.flyeaglesfly.com/media/Rookie+ReportA+Nelson+Agholor/1_t9rof804
I still think a short term, team friendly, incentive based deal to see what he can do in aless dysfunctional offensive setting, is just as much a worthwhile lottery ticket to obtain an elite QB as any draft pick. I’d still draft a QBthis year, but I wouldn’t just toss Bradford out and put all my eggs I that basket either.
Things I took away from the video: 1. No idea what the hell happened on that first play lol. The CB is practically giving Agholor the outside release. Hell, Nelson could have taken that puppy deep. Hopefully the WR coach got that play all sorted out. I think Sanchez had the right idea there. 2. On the deep crosser, that’s a td. That safety is frozen waiting on the intermediate route. The safety probably just did his homework and knew the Eagles don’t throw deep so he could give a care less about a wide open Agholor about to play the top off that D. The second play also brings to light two important points about qb play. One being it’s important for a qb to throw with anticipation or throw a wr open and two, it’s important for a starting qb to get into rhythm with his WR’s so they know what each other are capable of. Finally on the last play, you are right, that is one hell of a throw. Literally perfect. Agholor was the only one getting that ball. Also, I feel like I could use Bradford’s legs as kindling for my fire because they look like twigs.
He definitely looks like he has the legs of a new born baby deer. Very Bambi-esque. I don’t know if he’s naturally built like that or because he’s spent so much time with ACL injuries that he hasn’t been able to lift weights properly to build lower body muscle and they’ve just withered away. However, when you professionally rehab a knee injury after the initial rest and let the swelling go down period there’s intense work done to strengthen the muscles of the injured leg. I’ve heard many players say that after a season of rehab their injured leg was actually stronger than pre-injury. Bradford definitely needs to hit the squat machine going forward though.
On the deep crosser I actually think it looks like Sanchez looks that way when Agholor is coming open. Shocked a professional QB didn’t take that shot. I just think Sanchez’s arm is so shitty that he doesn’t even trust himself to launch that ball 50 yards downfield. I think it’s part of the reason Sanchez will never be a functional QB. He can’t attack deep and that shrinks the field. He’s relegated to throwing mostly short to intermediate passes over the middle into a defense that knows they can flood those areas with defenders and ignore the deep passing game. Cue multiple interceptions.
Bradford needs this off-season to get his muscles built back up, which should in turn improve his skills as a QB. This season wasn’t sold to fans as a practice run, but for Bradford, it is. And even with all that wackiness we might make the playoffs.
8 games is enough time for him to trust his knee again and get general rust off and experience the pace of the game again. Maybe a two game break is what he needed to get his head right and realize it is now or never for him if he wants a big contract here or anywhere this offseason. Maybe he will realize he is no longer auditioning just for Chip and Chip’s offense, but is just as likely to play for another team as he is for the eagles next year. So he can forget about being the best Chip QB he can be, with correct zone reads, and whatever else is unique to being a Chip QB and just work on throwing the ball to an NFL open receiver. Keep it simple.
I would like to think he just needs to go back to do what he was doing before he tried to become a Chip QB, but he was not any better as a St Louis QB the past few years. So who knows.
He should just realize, I hope, that he is now a six year NFL veteran, get the scared look off of his face, go out and make completions to receivers down the field. Forget the coaching telling him to take what the defense gives him, like 3 yard completions when need 6 for a first down. And please, roll out left or right if the o-line cant protect him, whatever, seems to have done somewhat well when rolling out.
Yea 8 weeks is definitely enough time for rust and trusting the knee to at least start to no longer be an issue. And, I think we started to see that. His last few games before getting injured were definitely his best. He was completing almost 70% of his passes and averaging over 8 yards per attempt. Those are great numbers. Plus he had no interceptions since the giants game. So things were starting to trend in the right direction. And, that was with Cooper and Austin has his main outside WR threats.
I don’t think he needs to drastically change his approach or mentally, just more steady improvement. Even though his trust in his knee and his rusty mechanics should be a non-issue it makes a huge difference when you have a year plus in one system to get fully comfortable with everything. It’s why someone like Brady or Manning look in such command within their system. They’ve been playing in it for over 15 years.
I’ll tell you who isn’t Up Against It, the goddamn Golden State Warriors.
Steph Curry drops 28 points in the 3rd quarter, and finished with 40 points on 18 shots, including 8 of 11 from 3.
http://deadspin.com/steph-curry-does-some-steph-curry-shit-scores-28-in-th-1745881049
Nasty.
remember when AI dropped that in the 4th quarter of game 6 against the bucks in 2001 playoffs?
Hmm. AI was tougher and cooler and more athletic, but Curry is basically the best offensive player in history this season.
Just watch a little bit of Goff and I came away with some questions and some observations. First the observations: I think the accuracy on the short and intermediate stuff is good. Nothing eye popping but good. The problem is his long ball accuracy. My god its terrible. Particularly the game against Utah. He must have threw and missed 5+ deep balls and while it’s great to toss a few now and again, I just feel like he slung them willy nilly. Arm strength isn’t a concern as far as tossing the ball 50+ yards but I think velocity is. You can tell by the ball rotation. The white stripe on the ball seems to be moving really slow IMO. I thought the foot work looked pretty good and while the offense does require many single reads, he is definitely able to move on to his second option. Now for some questions. I noticed Cal was ranked at one point and I’m not sure if it still is or not but I would assume they have some pretty decent recruits over there. Even with, and correct me if I’m wrong, the perceived talent “surplus” there, Goff didn’t seem other worldly but rather pedestrian. Of course his receivers didn’t do him many favors with the drops and his O-line looked porous, especially during the Utah game. In summation I will put Lynch substantially ahead of Goff in terms of accuracy, pocket presence, athletic ability, size and touch. Although they both showed great poise and don’t seem to get rattled. I would argue Goff’s footwork is better as well.
I think general thoughts on both are Goff has the brains / reads Ds, etc., Lynch has athleticism / arm talent, Cook has a little bit of both. That my no nuance understanding.
I’ve watched USC, UCLA, and Stanford. Haven’t watched Utah but I know it was considered his low piont in the season. Several people who have kept a close eye on him have noted extreme improvement from then to now.
Cal finished the season 7-5. That’s a pretty decent year for them. They actually have a comical lack of talent. Colorado is probably the only team in the Pac 12 with less talent
2014 draft- 5th round Richard Rodgers (decent flex TE for Packers), 5th round Khairi Fort (undersized athletic raw LB, out of the league)
2015 draft- UDFA Chris Harper (aka the WR that Bellicheck cut last week for the muffed punt)
The defense is really bad from a talent standpoint. His OL is about on par with what Hundley had last year (tirefire) a couple of his WR and backs will be UDFAs, that’s about it. They lost all their talent when Tedford left.
I’m a pretty big fan of Goff. I’m not sure how he has been lately….but through the first half of the season or so on Oct. 22 (this includes the Utah game also UCLA) he was 19/26 on throws 20+ yards for 596 yds, 5 TD’s and 1 INT…..73% completion percentage for those throws.
The Utah game was ugly but the first pick was all on the receiver and i would argue another one wasn’t because it was batted at the line, but all in all it was def his worst game. He also made some bad decisions in the game against Wash. st. because they dropped into zone coverages which he sometimes will struggle to recognize.
If that stat is true about throws over 20 yards, I could argue literally all of his misses came in the Utah game. I wonder what the criteria is.
Im definitely going to watch more especially with the consensus that Utah was his worst game.
yea i think you will come away a bit more impressed, although i do agree with you that his arm strength is a concern. I agree with D3FB that his team stinks, outside of WR Kenny Lawler there isn’t much talent and Lawler for as athletic as he is does have some dropsies (Chip will take him in the 3rd round). Their are more talented High School defenses in western PA. His last game against Arizona ST. was really good, down 27-10 at the half he stormed the team back to win 48-46, he was outstanding.
https://twitter.com/DraftOrtiz/status/668279600758288384
To take the comparison to 2010 a step further, the Eagles started Kevin Kolb in the loss to Tennessee before the injured Michael Vick returned to spearhead the win against Peyton. Obviously, like you said, not a completely similar situation, but now we get to put Bradford out there instead of Sanchez.
I haven’t seen much from Bradford. I will say that players seem to respond to him much better.
man if we could just combine vick’s athleticism and bradford’s crazy facial expressions we’d really have something
Best line of the article -“Davis is no Rex Ryan”. And, if he was, the Eagles would have 3-4 more victories and be sitting atop of the NFC East. With the same personnel, injuries, and lack of roster depth.
I wouldn’t want Rex as a HC. I’d welcome him with open arms as DC.
idk about that…..a lot of complaining this year from Rex’s defensive guys, and IMO their defense has more talent than ours does. Rex hasn’t been the defensive savant he’s proclaimed to be in years
[…] Up Against It – Iggles BlitzThe Eagles defense just had a pair of historically bad games. Now they get to face Tom Brady and the Patriots, not exactly a recipe for success. Can this group get things turned around? Chip Kelly has faith in Bill Davis and his players. I’m an eternal optimist, but this is one heck of a challenge. The good news is that the Pats are coming off their 2 worst games of the year. They scored 20 points against Buffalo and then put up 24 points on Sunday night (pretty nice when 20 and 24 points are your bad games). The bad news is that the Patriots lost, and that will have Bill Belichick and Tom Brady laser-focused and motivated like they’ve never won a game before. […]
“but he’s better than Mark Sanchez ” — say it loud, say it proud. Hoping its finally setting in to those “we must start Mark” posts….
….
You can play well, and lose. I wish the Eagles were in this category. They’re not playing well. Each week has been a different battle cry: Eagles need rally around Mark to Eagles need to show character n grit to win. Now we’re at the – hey, a blind squirrel finds a nut battle cry. Imagine the look on Beli-cheaters face if they lose this one. I’ll play the lottery that day, I figured I have as much chance as winning as the Eagles…
Better
I am getting kind of tired of all the pseudo-psychological evaluations of everything from the coaches friendships with players to the players desire to win games to the collective mental make-up and cohesion of a group of 54 grown men, when it seems plainly obvious to me that the issue is one simply of talent. If the Jaguars were starting Cooper and Austin at WR, were missing half their starting offensive line from the season before and down two starters from the beginning of the season due to injury, missing their two best playmakers (Ertz and Mathews in our case), had signed DeMarco Murray after his historic overuse last season and saw him predictably averaging less than 4 yards a carry, and were starting Mark Sanchez at QB, we’d all laugh at the notion that they’d be able to put up points on anyone, let alone win games consistently.
Here we assume it must be a player revolt due to Chips unorthodox methods that’s keeping them from succeeding or that defenses have caught up to his scheme. Chip has proven he’s a very effective offensive coach and gameplanner/playcaller when he has weapons to work with. Isn’t the much more likely scenario that the team just lacks talent.
(the collapse of the defense these past two weeks is still shocking, but let’s hope that’s more of a blip than a trend)
Part of the problem is he has weapons to work with but just doesn’t use them. Austin and Cooper should not see the field. Huff and Ags need more touches. It wasn’t until Sproles complained that he got more touches. Chip needs to scrap this receiver rotation and let the kids play.
Couldn’t agree more. Austin’s continued presence on the field is inexcusable. He’s made precisely zero good plays this year. Cooper has at least one or two games where he made a decent play, but him too should be relegated to the bench.
No reason not to get the young kids a lot more practice in real game situations. Huff and Agholor strike me as the types of players that would see dramatic increase in their effectiveness with more consistent playing time. They both have the necessary skills to flash that ability on screen when they get an opportunity. Time to let the young kids develop.
Austin is assuredly gone next year and has not flashed anything worthwhile, not even once, throughout this entire year. And, I’d argue he’s done far more tangible negative things to the offense than he’s done good. What’s to lose by just starting Huff and seeing if the light suddenly switches on?
Exactly. Opposing CBs don’t even have to gameplan for Austin or Cooper. I would love to see Huff in a Percy Harvin type role.
Yeah it’s clear austin is not intersted in catching the ball.
I’ve honestly never seen a WR run so many of his routes entirely to completion without once even looking towards the QB.
He and coop are good blockers, help spring runs on the second level. That said for $6m a year you can get someone that can block and catch the ball.
Huffs a good blocker too. I get the benefit of WRs that take pride in blocking as they can turn a 10 yard run into an 80 yard TD, which is huge. But, that should be secondary to their ability to run routes and catch the ball. Otherwise, let’s just split TEs out there.
The weird thing is that Chip did well when he had players he didn’t pick. Then he got rid of players that did well but didn’t “fit his system” (DeSean was too small and didn’t block well, Shady danced too much and wasn’t enough a “down hill runner”) and brought in players that were supposed to fit his system, but have not been nearly as good because they are not as talented. I wonder if Chip dwelled on certain players’ weaknesses, and thought that if he could just improve those weaknesses the offense would run more consistently, but didn’t realize how important those players’ individual talent was to their success in Chip’s system?
That seems to me like that’s exactly what happened. The other thing that I’ve been wondering about is this. When Chip had a bunch of mismatched pieces, Jackson, McCoy, Foles…it seems like he was forced to be creative with how to use them because he wasn’t exactly sure how to make the pieces fit right. So he seemed to scheme a bit more and create new looks to make them fit into his system.
Now he’s got the guys that he thinks are perfect to make his bread and butter work, and he’s lost all creativity and is just rolling out the same bread and butter plays every single drive.
I wonder if having odd fitting pieces forced Kelly to come up with more creative ways of using them and actually had a weird side effect of making him a better, less predictable play caller.
Jackson and Shady are the best at what they do though. When Djax wants to play, he’s the best deep threat in the game. If Shady can get around the edge, he’s going to make people miss and get those yards to get drives going. Now Foles was just some once in a blue moon year against weak teams.
Oh I completely agree. McCoy and Jackson were incredible talents for us and had really unique skill sets. But, they obviously weren’t the type of skill sets that Kelly was looking for. Otherwise he wouldn’t have released/traded the two of them. So clearly he felt that they didn’t fit in his ideal offense. (Sure some of that was off the field character stuff, but I actually believe Kelly when he said that those were football decisions). He clearly wanted north south runners instead of shifty backs that made their living juking defenders and he wanted bigger more consistent WRs rather than small electric homerun threats.
But, go back and look at some of the all-22 analysis from 2013. Every week there were all these different wrinkles and packaged plays and he was using DeSean in really interesting creative ways. Orbit motion, reverses, moving him all over the field. He did some really creative things with Vick as a runner. He even trotted out the old Emory and Henry formation with only 3 lineman and had McCoy run for a first down. He mixed in sets with 4 WRs and then 4 TEs. He was really creative. Now, look at the all-22’s it’s the same 4 concepts over and over and over again with little variation and all basically out of the same formation. It’s weird.
http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2013/08/chip_kelly_unveils_never-seen-before_formation_with_the_eagles.html
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2013/9/10/4715606/chip-kellys-insane-and-predictable-formation-eagles-redskins-lesean-mccoy-chip-kelly
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-power-of-the-chip-kelly-offense/
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/red_zone/Chip-Kelly-2-point-conversion-GIFs.html
http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/2014/06/16/22-resources-chip-kellys-playbook/
http://www.businessinsider.com/chip-kelly-offense-could-change-nfl-forever-2013-9
http://chipwagon.typepad.com/eagles/2013/11/chip-kelly-offense-part-4-the-packaged-plays.html
Somewhere along the way Chip’s offense became boring and predictable. And, not because defenses figured it out. But, because he stopped mixing in creative package plays and started relying on the same 5 bread and butter plays week in and week out, on every drive. I’m not sure why that is.
That happens when you start adding guys of the similar skill set. The plays start becoming “normalized” and too similar to each other. Chip’s offense kind of became industrialized when he shipped out guys that could make something out of nothing a.k.a guys with elite traits.
Think when picking in the 20s chip would take a little less “talent”, but a person with measurables + attitude on the theory that those people will maximize whatever “talent” they have. I think that’s logical.
WRs aren’t going to look good if QB getting sacked 4 times a game, and you have no run game so no play action. Really all starts w/ the line.
“Logical” is how people outsmart themselves, though. Projection is very hard, and it’s even harder when you focus on odd, arbitrary physical and mental characteristics instead of proven production.
That is a really interesting thought. It makes sense.
The fact that Chip’s offense lacks creativity and is so predictable is perhaps the most surprising part of this season. They had all kinds of interesting formations with different reads and packaged plays in 2013 and two years later, we see none of that.
okay, how many td’s will ol tom throw, im not gonna say he throws 5, maybe 2, and they rush for 2,
8 and he does a drop kick conversion for 2 points, even if that’s not a thing the refs will give it to them anyway. Why not?
You can pretty much trace the decline of the Eagles’ defense to the moment I picked them up for my fantasy team.
If it is confessional time, I drafted Bradford and Matthews.
LOL you guys suck.
And, yet, here you are, seeking our attention.
Im not seeking your attention. I just laugh at how dumb you are.
Excellent. I am glad I can return the favor then.
Oh no! I hope you had Sanchez on the bench as a handcuff 😉
I drafted Bradford and BOTH Matthews!! Ha
i drafted both J matt and Rmat and the Eagles D….J Matt has killed me, but Rmat and the Eagles D has come up huge at times for me, im in first place in my league
Lucky you. I’m last after losing 9 in a row.
We have identical fantasy football stories. Bradford, both Matthews and a 9-loss streak. Man, was I glad to get my first win on the board in week 10.
And Sproles…I suck.
I drafted Murray and Bradford. Oops.
Where’s my tar and feathers?
Me too!
OT:
The first cousin of my real estate agent’s mum happens to be Doug Marrone.
He also said that Marrone was so close to signing with the Jets in the off season and that if Coughlin is out watch out for Marrone being a hot candidate for the NYG opening at HC.
Wasn’t impressive at Syracuse or Buffalo, so the Giants can have him. I am in the belief that they will stay in house and that Ben McAdoo will be the head coach after Coughlin is gone.
When you’re up against it, you need to bring help.
Your score is: 7046 (GRADE: A-)
Your Picks:
Round 1 Pick 9: Ronnie Stanley, OT, Notre Dame (A+)
Round 3 Pick 9: Shawn Oakman, DE, Baylor (A)
Round 3 Pick 12: Shon Coleman, OT, Auburn (A-)
Round 4 Pick 9: Gunner Kiel, QB, Cincinnati (A-)
Round 5 Pick 9: Ricky Seals-Jones, WR, Texas A&M (A+)
Round 5 Pick 18: Jordan Lomax, FS, Iowa (A)
Round 6 Pick 9: Kyler Fackrell, OLB/DE, Utah State (B)
Round 7 Pick 9: Donnel Pumphrey, RB, San Diego State (A+)
Round 7 Pick 28: Willie Beavers, OT, Western Michigan (B-)
Just think about how different this season would’ve been if Camp Superstar™ Jacorey Shepard hadn’t torn his ACL.
Unless he’s some damn jedi knight and uses the force on the football every damn time. None. Nothing. The preseason hype is what it is.
not sure if anyone is watching the lions game but CJ is back to being unguardable in the red zone. it’s not just us.
I dont blame Rowe for giving up the tds last week because overall his coverage was decent to good. I blame the ignorant play calling of Davis for leaving Rowe on an island with a monster.
He wasn’t left on an island.
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Eagle-Eye-In-Defense-Of-Eric-Rowe/dd73afee-68b9-417e-9ecb-77888a72eb0e
Maybe not but there still a lack in communication from coach to player or something. You cant really give a pass for Johnson scoring 3 tds. Perhaps there should have been a convo like, ” Johnsons a priority especially with Rowe on him. Make sure you shade that way because hes the biggest threat.” to say he was on an island is unfair but to say he didnt get enough help isnt.
Two things about our upcoming matchup against Brady and the Pats that lead me to one conclusion.
1) Brady neutralizes opposing team’s pass rush by getting the ball out very quickly. Which causes problems for any defense. He’s so good at marching down the field 5-10 yards at a time without making a mistake that if you let him just pick you apart piecemeal he will do just that. But, if you blitz, the blitz rarely has time to get to him since he’s so good at diagnosing it and getting the ball out early. It’s a true catch-22.
2) The Patriots barely run the ball. They have the most lopsided pass:run ratio in the league and they lack the type of elite back or punishing offensive line to consistently beat you with their rushing attack. They can do this because Brady is inhuman as a QB.
Therefore, the only way to beat Tom Brady and the Patriots is to find a way to get quick pressure on Brady without blitzing and have tall defensive lineman get in his passing line and block the balls trajectory to the receiver.
The good news is that the Eagles have a defensive lineman who has freakish quickness off the ball and generates a ton of pressure (2 sacks on 15 snaps last week). His name is Vinny Curry. Perhaps you forgot about him because he’s been criminally underused on a team that can’t seem to generate pressure on the QB. Curry should be able to feast off of the Patriots battered/shitty interior offensive line. And, since his main drawback is his lack of ability to 2-gap against the run, that’s mitigated by the Patriots complete lack of a run game and almost total reliance on passing with Tom Brady to win.
If Curry doesn’t see 50% plus of the snaps this week, I want Billy Davis fired.
We also have a freakishly tall DE that has a knack for batting balls at the line of scrimmage, Brandon Bair. He should see a good amount of snaps as well.
The bad news is, I have almost no faith that Billy will implement this completely obvious strategy in the Eagles favor.
Assuming the Pats ACTUALLY do not run the ball…
Well yea…if they come out running the ball and Vinny doesn’t hold his own then we have to adjust. But, if Brady predictably comes out throwing and we can’t get any pressure all game and Vinny stays on the bench all game, except for a few opportunities in which he’s consistently getting pressure, then I’m going to freak out.
Understandably so.
Great point about using Curry to try to get a quick pass rush. I hope they use him more this week, but I agree with you and have no faith that they will implement any type of game plan that is specific for the particular opponent that they are playing.
I think Belichik comes out and runs against this team. If he thinks we are weak there, he will exploit it.
Lately, we have been weak everywhere on defense, so he can exploit anything he feels like.
It wouldn’t shock me, but we’ve been pretty good against the run (the last two games withstanding), however, our ILBs have been atrocious in coverage and we’ve been giving up short slants and things of that nature for about 3 years now, so I could also see them liking that match up.
I’m fine if Curry doesn’t start. But, if Brady is sitting back in the pocket all day picking us apart and Curry is sitting on the sideline doing nothing I’ll be on here calling for Davis’ head on Monday.
I think Belichick will embarrass us in more ways than one. The only thing I even care about for this game is how much Chip will look like Andy Reid against him.
So you are saying that there may be an advantage with Curry? Then Davis will be sure to do the opposite. Excellent point though.
Lots of slants. Billy Davis is completely confounded by slants. It’s going to be terrible.
Really liked this kid Crockett in the game now for Green Bay. He was a solid running back behind Carson Wentz at NDSU.
Davante Adams has been just as disappointing for GB as Jordan Matthews has been for us. Both were expected to step up and have dropped the ball, literally.
Adams Career numbers: 74-789-4
Matthews this year: 58-625-3
We give Matthews a tough time for his play but the vaunted Devante Adams scored his first, yes first, td tonight and seems to have a terrible case of the dropsies. Honestly, his hands look worse than Matthews.
OMG!!!
Holy shit!!!
Nice job by Davante Adams, although i’m not sure he entirely mean to, but he got in a lot of defenders way
As much as I hate the Packers and that face mask call was bullshit, the Lions losing is great for the Eagles. Keep pushing that 3rd rounder higher Detroit 😉
It hooked the mask, moved his head. Legit call.
Even if you only call incidental, it’s still a penalty, game goes on.
Even if you don’t call it a facemask, it’s contact to the head of the QB, it’s still a penalty, and the game goes on.
Re: the last point, he was a runner. Just like they could have gone for his legs without penalty, incidental contact to the head is a non-penalty against runners.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Well, for officiating in 2015, it certainly wasn’t the worst.
Gotta say not disappointed to see the lions hearts ripped out after last week. Even tough the birds deserved that smack down.
Damn, it’s stuff like that that reminds me why I love watching this sport. That was good play by Detroit, too. Just better play by the Packers at the end, and an unfortunate unintended (but legitimately called) facemask. Those two other Detroit PBUs before that were fantastic.
What a game.
Bad call, gotta be kidding me on that facemask.