Identity
Posted: November 17th, 2016 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 182 Comments »The Eagles defense loves to attack. They use the Wide-9 front and then attack gaps with LBs. Jim Schwartz wants aggressive DBs who will take some chances. He has developed this system over years and has definitive ideas on what he is looking for.
There isn’t necessarily a style that the STs units follow, but Dave Fipp has shown the ability to find the kind of players he wants and then use them successfully.
Those are two veteran coaches who know what they want and how to get the best out of their players.
Doug Pederson is a rookie coach. He was the offensive coordinator in KC the past two years, but he was running Andy Reid’s system. Pederson got to call some plays and had a hand in gameplans. He helped to evaluate draft prospects and offered his opinion on free agents. Still, at the end of the day, it was Big Red who ran the offense and made the key decisions.
Any time a new coach takes over a team he has to figure out the players. This goes beyond simple evaluations. Tape shows you part of the equation, but you need to be around players every day to get the whole picture. You need to see which guys practice well. Who is great in the classroom? Who can play through pain/injury? Which guys are selfish and which ones are great teammates? Coaches need to know all of this (and more) as they try to figure out their new players.
Pederson is dealing with the double whammy of learning his new players and trying to figure out what he wants to do. You can really see that at times.
In the first 6 games of the year, Pederson kept Carson Wentz to 34 passes or fewer in all but one game. The Eagles ran the ball well (112 yards per game) and that kept the pressure off the OL and Wentz. Then Pederson had Wentz throw 43 and 47 passes in road games against NFC East opponents. The Eagles only had 44 carries by RBs in those games and lost both.
On Sunday Pederson got back to the run game and the Eagles ran for 208 yards. Wentz threw 36 passes, but the emphasis in the game was running the ball. That helped the Eagles to keep the Falcons offense off the field and they had their worst game of the year by far. Pederson had a terrific gameplan and it worked very well. Why he ever got away from that formula is crazy to me. I understand Ryan Mathews wasn’t 100 percent in Dallas, but the beauty of the Eagles RBBC situation is that no one player is so good that he can’t be replaced. Wendell Smallwood was great against the Steelers and Falcons. I have no idea why he was used so little in the 2 losses.
I’m not trying to get into the old “Andy Reid hates the run game” argument. This is different. Pederson has shown that he will run the ball. I think he generally does a good job of having balanced gameplans. The overall situation points to more running. The Eagles had a backup LG and RT on the field. They have a rookie QB. They have a group of WRs that is really struggling. The best pass catchers are the TEs, and they benefit as receivers when there are lots of running plays so that play-action passes get them really open. So why throw the ball so much in the 2 losses?
Pederson is trying to figure out what he wants to do. He’s also trying to figure out his team. As much as we’d like Pederson to stick to simple logic, he does have to take some chances and try some things to find out what works and what doesn’t.
Back in 2002 the Eagles passing attack really took off, despite Donovan McNabb’s injury and absence. James Thrash and Todd Pinkston combined to go 112-1433-13. Slot receiver Antonio Freeman was terrific as well. Veteran TE Chad Lewis started to show his age, but still was effective. Reid was very excited for 2003. He had his key WRs back and both were seen as players on the rise. Freddie Mitchell was finally ready to take over in the slot. Rookie TE L.J. Smith would add athletic ability to the middle of the field. The RBs were less impressive. Duce Staley was slowing down. Correll Buckhalter was coming off injury. Brian Westbrook was completely unproven after a nearly silent rookie season.
So how did 2003 go? Thrash and Pinkston regressed, for no apparent reason. They combined for 85 catches and 3 TDs. Lewis was effective, but older. Smith was athletic, but highly inconsistent. Mitchell actually did a good job in the slot, but wasn’t anything special. The RBs were great. They scored 26 TDs, with more than 1600 yards on the ground and more than 800 yards through the air. Reid was able to change on the fly and turn the Eagles into a RB team. And he was a proven coach with a veteran team. Things didn’t go as planned, but he found a way to still get the best out of his team.
We don’t know what Pederson’s vision is for the Eagles. He talks about big, nasty OL. He talks about throwing the ball downfield. He seems to prefer size to speed when it comes to skill players. We just don’t have enough of a track record to know what he ideally wants this offense to look like.
For the most part, I like how he’s handled the players. I know some people get frustrated with his patience, but I think that’s a good thing in the NFL. Pederson took a chance on starting Halapoulivaati Vaitai at RT. The first game did not go well, to put it mildly. Pederson saw enough ability that he left the rookie in the lineup and that move has worked well. Vaitai isn’t headed to Canton anytime soon, but he’s been effective. Wendell Smallwood fumbled in the 4th quarter of the Dallas loss. Pederson gave him 13 carries on Sunday, including some with the game on the line in the 4th quarter. Smallwood was terrific, running for 70 yards and helping the run game to control the clock.
Let’s talk about Nelson Agholor, a far more complicated subject. He didn’t impress in the spring or summer. He’s been more down than up this year. It would be easy to make him inactive and just close the book on a bad pick. But that’s not real possible. Jimmy Bama explained that due to the cap, Agholor will be here this year and almost certainly next year as well.
If Agholor has to be on the roster, then you need to get something out of him. Pederson seems to be of the thought that Agholor can still be saved. I say that because Agholor continues to play a lot and the Eagles throw him the ball in some key situations. Late in the Falcons game, the Eagles faced 3rd and 1. They lined up with Agholor out to the right. Darren Sproles left the backfield and went outside of Agholor. The CB widened to cover Sproles and a LB came out over Agholor. This is exactly the pre-snap look the Eagles wanted. Agholor ran a slant and was wide open. Wentz put the ball behind him, but still catchable. The ball was dropped. This happened with the Eagles up 21-15 and the game in doubt.
Dumb.
I have no problem with Pederson playing Agholor. You keep hoping the light will go on and he’ll make some plays. If he’s got to be on the roster, you need to try and build his confidence. But you don’t do that with the game on the line. Why on earth would you design a play to go to Agholor on the most critical 3rd down of the game? That’s very Andy Reid. Do something the opponent will never expect (because it defies logic).
I think Pederson is smart to still try to get the ball to Agholor, but I wouldn’t have him there on critical plays. Throw the ball to him in the 1st half. Heck, hand him the ball on an end around. Get him opportunities, but not with the game on the line. That’s just asking for trouble.
One of my favorite football sayings is “think players not plays”. Pederson needs to do a better job of this. The Eagles had 3rd and 4 at the 2-minute warning in Dallas with the game tied at 23. If you go kick a FG, you likely win the game. Pederson has the break to decide what he wants to do on that critical 3rd down. He has Trey Burton line up out left and Wentz tries to hit him with a slant. Say what???? Burton had 13 career catches at that point. He had caught a pass in the 1st quarter, but hadn’t been targeted since then. So you decide to feed him the ball at the most critical moment in the game? Dumb.
Burton is a good young role player. I’d like to see him get more touches on offense because he is athletic and has an interesting skill set. The Eagles did have a favorable size matchup on that play, but you have to seriously question the wisdom of having the rookie QB throwing the ball to the young TE with the game on the line while Darren Sproles, Jordan Matthews and Zach Ertz were available. We’ve seen those guys make big plays. We’ve also seen them make mistakes, this is about the odds. I trust them more than Burton.
No one is saying Pederson has to play it safe on every 3rd down or Red Zone play. You have to take some chances in the NFL. At the same time, when the game is on the line, you need to get the ball to your reliable playmakers. If they fail, so be it. You want to get your best guys the ball in key moments. If the other players start to make more plays during the rest of the game, they earn a chance to get the ball. Or if a guy is just red hot some day, feed him the ball.
Pederson is doing a good job with this team. The Eagles have put up 20 or more points in every game. The Eagles did that 13 times in 1999 and 2000 combined. The Eagles are scoring more than teams led by Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers, Big Ben and the great Kirk Cousins. Doug Pederson is doing this with a rookie QB, poor WRs, rookie RT and no elite RB. Pederson can coach.
We just need him to find an identity for his offense and to develop a better sense of how and when to use his players.
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[…] Tommy Lawlor The Eagles defense loves to attack. They use the Wide-9 front and then attack gaps with LBs. Jim […]
Sign Benny. Thanks.
I am pretty sure he will be back, but it will run probably into free agency. Problem is the market for 1 tech DT’s is hard to evaluate, historically it has been the least well paid position on the DLine and i am sure Howie is pitching a price in the $6-7mil range because of that. Benny i am sure thinks he is worth more and in these kinds of situations Howie tends to let the player go test the market if he feels he will given the chance to match any offers – which i think Logan probably will be willing to do.
Will be interesting to see what the Eagles do in 2016… they can pretty much bring back the same squad if they want, but then will be pretty much capped out, or they may try and get more agressive and look to chase a CB or WR and then people will need to get cut to make cap space. Doubt there is any scenario where Benny is not back however, think team will walk away from a Barwin/Kendricks/Peters first if they want to chase a big ticket free agent
Again JP is not going anywhere. Same with Barwin.
I disagree.
Atlanta game was the benny show. I rewatched it and he was in full beast mode.
Couple of plays he was doubled and cox wasnt.
I think the approach was fine with Dallas – dink and dunk worked well for 3 quarters and helped control the game. Dallas although it makes me want to vomit are a quality team and we had them dead at their home stadium with an extra week to prepare… and then we fumbled away the game.
The game where there is a lot to criticise Pederson was the Giants game. Wentz threw 2 picks and suddenly we were 14-0 down minutes into the game. Pederson panicked and tried to chase the game – going for it multiple times on 4th down rather than taking points, abandoning the run game, not trusting the fact that the Eagles are probably a 14 point better team than the Giants and could just slowly reel them back in.
Think we would be looking at this team and Pederson differently if running backs did not fumble away the Lions and Cowboys games, and frankly i am not sure you can put that on a head coach.
“Think we would be looking at this team and Pederson differently if running backs did not fumble away the Lions and Cowboys games, and frankly i am not sure you can put that on a head coach.”
How differently? Most rational people already recognize that we are good enough to compete with anyone on our best days despite our record. However you can’t just excuse the fumbles because then you have to go back and excuse key mistakes from every other team and you end up where you started
“the great Kirk Cousins”. I enjoyed that jab! 😀
So what you’re saying is, “you like that”.
Everyone shits on Cousins but he’s been pretty decent in every game of his I’ve watched. Also Gruden has been owning the Eagles since he’s been hired. Gruden is probably the 2nd best coach in the NFC right now.
I can see the logic here, but at some point you have a guy on your roster because he is a WR and is expected to catch the ball. There really isn’t a reason to have a WR you’re scared won’t catch the ball. It’s absurd that that’s where our group of receivers is currently at.
I know the drops send people nuts… but i have a bigger issue with them… actually getting open and running proper routes. Agholor did not get only 7 yards last week due to drops… he got that much because he did not get open.
If they actually got consistently open i wouldnt care about the hands – at least they would demand attention opening up space for the rest of the teanm. Currently most teams just single up on the outside, maybe have a single safety deep in case something goes horribly wrong and just focus on covering our TE, slot and RB options.
I’ll defer any judgment on that one. Sometimes I think receivers are wide open and the QB pitches it to the RB for a 1 yard gain, other times people do not look open at all and the QB threads the needle perfectly.
Ertz with a hammy: question is… is less YAC even possible?
to quote Luke skywalker, “thats not possible!”
Hopefully Ertz suffers from injury opposite day. Bad hammy? Career YAC for him! Feeling 100%? Normal Ertz to the “rescue”
Another injury for Ertz, geez…
I don’t understand why Carolina is so much more shitty this year. Super bowl hangover?
They are experiencing our 2005.
Kurt Coleman lucks into more interceptions than the best players get on purpose
Give him credit, at least he catches it.
I know who you’re talking about
I would never directly say anything bad about the person in question.
haha, they threw 3 flags on that late hit.
Legit call he was way out of bounds, dumb play.
they had to throw that many, cam would be all over goodell
I don’t know who Marcus Murphy is, but I’m guessing right now they want to strap him to Jimmy’s rocket and launch him into the sun.
was an awe inspiringly awful play. I would genuinely consider cutting him tomorrow.
你的博客就像冬天里的一把火！
When your defense gives up 21 points in first half, your run pass ratio, time of possession are gonna get screwy. I think Doug had same game plan, had to adjust when OL want getting push and was down a ton of points.
Seems football can be about matchups, ertz running that route would have brought a better defender, burton a lb that isn’t good at covering tight ends.
That reaction by Luke Kuechly was absolutely heartbreaking b
Yes agree.
I thought both sides were going to lose entire team to concussion 1 at a time .. sport is in jeopardy.
What’s worse is, I believe, that reaction is not intentional (ie he wasn’t crying because he was sad he got hurt). It’s a side effect of brain injury called the pseudobulbar affect. Hopefully he’s OK
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I can’t find any evidence that PA is related to concussions–do you have any? That is absolutely horrible if it is true. My wife used to work with people who’d had brain injuries from car accidents, and they tended to deteriorate severely–their personality changed for the worse, and their lives usually fell apart.
I was looking into it, most information just relates it to brain injury, not specifically concussions. I knew someone who was in a boating accident that had it for a few years but she is much better now.
Now this is freaky. Some other guy on a comment board thought it looked like Commotio Cordis.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/902504-overview
I read about that. Scary.
Chris Maragos got a three year extension. He’s one of the main reasons special teams is so great.
SO did Jon Dorenbos.
LS must be the best gig in football
No. #AGT is.
It’s a difficult skill set. It’s a situation where a player gets little notice until he screws up.
Awesome. Two guys who don’t sell a lot of jerseys but deserve a ton of credit.
Last year, I got my son an autographed photo of Maragos for his birthday.
With Jordan Matthews back spasms, the team is bringing Paul “The Burner” Turner with them to Seattle just in case a Saturday roster move is necessary. Some of you may get your wish.
like IR?
No, I’m guessing they’d release someone. Taylor Hart….someone bottom of the roster. I don’t think Matthews is in danger of IR.
We don’t know what the HC sees during the week, but he sees and possibly learns more about players and plays than those of us watching game day. To label the decision to throw to Burton as “dumb” is over the top, I think. Burton was reputed to have the best hands among all receivers two years ago. I haven’t checked the stats, but Ertz and JM have had some glaring drops and DS is a magnet for attention on precisely 3rd and 4. The fact is the Cowboys were playing press on all 3 receivers, and the LB’s were cheating toward the box. It’s like Dallas knew our WR’s are slow and daring CW to throw. Burton was never open, but that play didn’t appear to have a check down that had a chance of going 4 yards. I like CW’s gameness, and he made a good throw, but the play design didn’t offer him a better option. The argument could be made that Ertz or Celek could possibly have out-muscled the DB better than Burton, but it’s still a low-percentage play. I just don’t think it failed because of Burton.
Design plays to throw the ball to your best players
You guys know me that I am a rather ‘half full glass’ kind of guy but I am really struggling to stay positive for the game against the Seahawks.
I can honestly only see an upset victory in case the following happens on Sunday:
– One or two long returns by our special teams to set up short field position
– Winning the turnover battle, a pick 6 would help big time
– Holding Russell Wilson and his offense to 15 points or less
– A trick play (flea-flicker anyone?!) to score a TD or set up short field position
– No FG miss by Sturgis
If all of the above (big IF though) come through then the Eagles may escape with a close W.
We win the games we’re supposed to lose. So…. we will win this game. Don’t overthink it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
They’re probably a better team, but we have a nasty DL and a few playmakers on D. Remember that we’re still #1 in DVOA–we’re definitely as good as our record, probably better. And Any Given Sunday.
I disagree. Our special teams are better, our defense is on par, if not better, and the offense is a toss up. Our OL is definitely better than their OL. The only thing I’m worried about is the mechanics of calling plays in the loud SEA noise. It will be much much easier if we can get an early lead and shut the crowd up.
If this were the 2013 or 2014 Seahawks, I would agree. However, the 2016 Seahawks are a much different team without Marshawn Lynch. They’ll have home-field advantage for sure, but I honestly think the keys to the game will come down to two things:
1.) Can the offense eliminate stupid penalties (I’m looking at you Kelce and Ertz)?
2.) Can Doug design a game plan that limits the involvement of the outside receivers and emphasizes the running game coupled with Ertz/Celek/Burton and Mathews being the primary targets in the passing game.
Good input, mate.
The only thing I’m worried about is the fact that they have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of our passing game, so we can expect plenty of stacked boxes to take away this newly-rediscovered rushing attack. It’s hard to envision how we move the ball.
On the other hand, I do remember Ertz having some success against their linebackers two years ago though.
We didn’t give the Eagles much of a chance going into Foxborough last year, and we found a way to overcome the mess chip made last year and steal a win in Brady’s house
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Whenever we go into these games that are difficult to envision the Eagles winning, I try to remind myself that this game WOULDNT be anywhere close to as popular if the better team on paper won every Sunday
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It was hard to envision how the Eagles and their 7th round rookie CB were going to beat Rothlisberger, antonio brown and the big bad Super Bowl contending Steelers, yet they ended up getting curb stomped and left philly talking about meeting us again in the Super Bowl (lol we wish)
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How the hell were the Eagles and rookie RT going to find a way to beat the undefeated “Super Bowl contending” Vikings and their elite defense? That vikings team hasn’t been right since we ripped their hearts out
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Most of us worried about how we would handle going up against the Falcons #1 offense. Not many would have bet that we would be able to hold that offense under 17 points but they got smacked around in philly too..
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Now I wouldn’t advise anyone to bet on the Eagles this week, but scary MATCHUPS that we can’t envision winning can also be HUGE opportunities for a team like the Eagles… This is an opportunity to finally excersize our “Road Deomons” against what looks like insurmountable odds to many. To find a way to get a road win of this caliber, against one of the big dogs of the NFC, the week after smacking atound the #1 rated offense can springboard us into a wave of momentum that could help us get hot at the right time and successfully navigate this difficult stretch of games all the way to the playoffs..
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As long as we come out of this game healthy, a loss against Seattle probably isn’t that big of a deal.l but a Win IN Seattle could be a game changer for this eagle team. it’s going to be a dog fight. There will be adversity, there will be ugly moments in this game where we feel we can’t win this game, but if we can keep fighting and find a way to perserver to a win, it could become the pivotal moment of the season where we look back and realize that this was the moment this group became a playoff team.. Stay Healthy and there is a lot more to gain, than lose this week. Hopefully the desperate GB Packers put a stop to their implosion and find a way to beat washington
We have all the match ups favouring us to be honest. Their offensive line is awful, and we have 4 guys who can genuinely punish bad OL. They will be able to get home often and fast.
Seattles main strength is their secondary – we dont have a WR group to cover and still manage to score 20+ points meaning Seattle will not be able to leverage their great strength.
Need a score from special teams/defense probably to win… but i think there is a decent chance we can get that. I genuinely think this game is a toss up – and will probably be decided on how careful Wentz is with the football.
The longer I think about this matchup the more I happen to believe that it will come down to a late FG try by Sturgis.
Neutralize an elite secondary with WR corpse. I like it.
I’d be a lot more concerned with Pederson’s choice of players in critical situations if he was blatantly ignoring other better options. If this team had even one reliable playmaker then yea, sure, feed him the ball. But, I just don’t see it.
Who do you trust more in those situations, DGB who hasn’t done anything to really earn that trust, Matthews who has the worst hands on the team, even worse than Agholar’s I’d argue, Ertz who has not gotten open much this year, hasn’t developed a good report/timing with his QB and has been largely invisible since returning from injury, stone hands RB Mathews, largely invisible Celek, or Sproles who has dropped his fair share of 3rd down passes and who every defense keys on in third down situations?
Gotta play with the players you have and a quick slant that got a WR matched up on a LB and thus wide open isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard of even if it’s a struggling Agholar, because all the other WRs are struggling too. A slant to Burton against a LB is a little more egregious, but he’s shown to have some of the most reliable hands on the team in his limited action.
This team just doesn’t have the reliable players to feed the ball to in those situations. When your main options keep struggling to declare themselves as such you need to keep trying other players until you find that guy that can be that reliable player for you. The growing pains suck, but I fail to see the alternative. Should we keep watching Matthews drop the ball because he’s our biggest name wideout? Should we keep watching Sproles get tackled short of the sticks because every defense knows he’s our go to 3rd down converter? Or do we give the other guys a shot to see if someone wants to step up and become the type of guy we need?
Save us Jason Avant!
Scary Match up… But just a year ago, we were going into Foxborough in a game no one gave us a chance to win, and we inexplicably managed to overcome the mess chip made and found a way to beat the Patriots in their house. Every time we are a big underdog I try to remember that this game wouldnt be so popular if the better team on paper won every week.. But to find a way to win sunday, a lot needs to go right
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Eagles Special Teams is NO JOKE, and you never know when ST will play the role of the great Equalizer. The Saints pissed away their last two games because of their poor special teams play, and the Seattle Kicker ISNT used to struggling as much as he has this year, hopefully our ST plays a huge role in giving us a chance to win this game. In a close low scoring game, kick/punt returners who can provide us a few short fields can be huge this week. Never know when sprolesy, smallwood and Barner will take a kick to the house. Heck, a big return that gets us into field goal range can be huge in a defensive struggle type of game
Eagles DL needs to put the team on its back and completely dominate the suspect Seattle offensive Line.. Advantage Eagles. The Eagles DL needs to kick Seattles ass so bad that Jimmy Graham becomes irrelevant. We do a good job of coordinating our pass rush as a unit, cutting off escape routes so hopefully we don’t allow the hobbled Wilson to escape the pocket. because of our DL advantage against the Seattle OL, I would be feeling great about this game if it was in Philly. I’d expect us to have similar success to how we dominated the Vikings OL.. Hopefully the DL can duplicate that type of Herculian effort on the road. the Falcons OL was much better than Seattles, and we kicked the Falcons OL’s ass last week. Time for that level of ferocious defense to start showing up in big road games. BG, Cox. Logan, VINNY, Barwin, Vaiao, Beau have an opportunity to be a major factor in a big upset win. Nothing will fix our road troubles faster than going to Seattle and kicking their ass in their house.. This is an opportunity to get that road loss monkey off our back and gain some serious momentum going into late November/December crunch time.
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I hope Ryan Mathews understands that the Seattle defense is foaming at the mouth to try and strip him repeatedly every time he carries this ball. We DO NOT WIN THIS GAME if we turn the ball over.
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agholar/DGB vs Seattle corners makes it pretty safe to assume that SPROLES has to be a huge part of our passing game this week if we are to have any success on 3rd down sunday… Seattle are the most physical corners. Who will grab our young Wrs and try to Ragdoll and manhandle us at the line of scrimmage while talking a ton of trash the entire time. hopefully this lights a fire under DGB or Nelson to start fighting back, don’t hold your breath tho… Agholar so desperately needs a big game in hopes that it sparks some positive momentum for the kid who is clearly stuck drowning in the quicksand caused by his lack of success.., Richard Sherman is the last CB you want to face in This situation…
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One thing is obvious… If we ask Wentz to throw 40 times on Sunday, we are going to get killed, so we are going to have to really commit to the run game, and try to chip away at a stingy run defense using extra OLineman again(Seumalo), Celeks blocking and multiple TEs,,, heck we might have to go with two TEs (Celek And Tobin) plus an Extra OL in Seumalo to try and chip away at the Seattle run defense. Fortunately our defense should be able to keep this a close game which allows us to not have to abandon the run even if we aren’t having much success early on. We CAN NOT put Wentz in 3rd and long all day against Seattle. So im fine with getting 2 yards per carry on 1st and second down putting us in 3rd and 6… With all the crowd noise, we are probably more susceptible to false start penalties when we are pass blocking… So Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, and when the Seatle defense stops us, Run some more.,, need to be patient and play the field position battle, keep the game close and hope that the special teams, or a defender like Hicks, McLeod or BG eventually make a huge Gamebreaking play that puts us in control.
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This should be a close, low scoring battle… Hopefully Sturgis has a really good game, against a seattle Kicker (Haushka) who is having a lot of issues this season…. Our Special teams has to kick its counterparts ass and give us a big boost this week. Lol trying to get Maragos extra jacked up with an extension before this game.. SEATTLES recipe to success is Stingy defense and an offense that doesn’t turn the ball over so Our defense has to be just as stingy and our Offense can’t have any turnovers this week if they are to give us a chance of pulling off an upset. Doubt we can overcome turnovers and still win this game
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At least our offense got a good warm up game last week against a Falcons defense that isn’t as talented as Seattle, but the Falcons Defense was built in the image of that Seahawks Defense that Dan Quinn coached before becoming the Falcons HEADCoach so Stylistically there will probably be a lot of similarities to the type of schemes our offense faced last week against Atlanta
Dallas won against the Eagles because they won special teams.
And VINNY(!!!) has been AWOL this year for all intents and purposes.
Could it be he is better suited to line up closer to the ball? It seems like every time I see him make a real impact he is sliding in.
facts v. narrative.
Seattle’s kicker — Steven Hauschka — has been perfect the past 5 weeks.
And perfect all season at home (5 games).
There ain’t a perfect marriage. Next…
But, he’s on my Fantasy football team. So…
…so, your fantasy team sucks! 😉
i might be able to jinx him
Do it then. Just ask Nike.
Well, after the night Drew Brees had, and the lack of success by J Stewart against an inept Saints Defense… I could use an amazing game from my kicker, which means… he will probably suck as well.
Thank you. This means because we’re mentioning it, he’s going to miss 2 FGs in that game. Hold on, now I need to go rub the rabbit’s foot a few times.
So, just like when Jim Palmer brings up Machado’s hit streak, you have laid a curse upon that young man.
I was not at all concerned about Atl. This one I could easily see us stomping them, but could see Russle getting loose and causing havoc with JG as well.
This should be a fun game. Excited.
Need to win the line of scrimage the way we did last week. If we can accomplish that while Wentz takes care of the ball we can give us a chance to win.
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It’s also important that our special teams flexes its muscles and plays like the elite unit we are capable of being. This is not the week we can afford ST letdown like allowing the Lockett kid to have a big return against us… The Eagles may be an underdog sunday but our Special teams unit is the “favorite” and they need to step up have a big game showing what Fipps unit is capable of. Can’t have special teams letdowns as a road underdog and expect to win
Asked about Bennie Logan, who has 1 year left, possibly getting in-season extension, Howie Roseman said, “We would love to keep Bennie.”
Get it done, Howie.
It’s only a question of “When” we extend Bennie, not “if”..
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When HOWIE says “We would Love to keep bennie”… I interpret that as:
“We would love for Bennie to accept the current extension THATS on the table because it is cheaper than what it will cost us to extend him after the season”…
That’s woman sitting right next to me at the bar just said ‘like’ 127 times in 45 seconds. #like ?!
like, she like-likes you?
Or like, like?
Nah. She’s a) not my type (like) and b) she seems to be on a first date. Like?!
Where are you? City and bar?
Manhattan. Midtown East. 50th and Lex. You coming?
Give me 6 hours to get there. I could use a drink.
Oh Em Geeeee first dates are the best!
This one. Not. So .. Much..
Ah man… the scene: 24 Carrots, a vegan cafe. At the next table over in the otherwise deserted patio, two girls–somewhat attractive girl with long black hair and fat friend. What follows is 30 minutes of somewhat attractive girl going through every mindnumbing detail of her date and going to his room and how she decided not to have sex with him and how much money he spent on her, all in her loud, like-littered monotone. The effect was similar to a close talker… enthusiastically telling you, your wife, and your 7 year old about her agonizingly uninteresting lovelife. No, actually it wasn’t just similar, that’s what it was.
Damn Millenials. Does she do that thing where she doesn’t give her words enough breath, so the vocal folds flop together at the end of them? Yoh, I was like, O. M. G.
vocal fry… god I hate it with a passion.
CA Valley phenomenon from the 1980s that slowly disseminated and infected much of the US.
Like MMA?
Pretty much.
I didn’t think anyone on this team could make me any angrier than Agholor and how he’s stunk up the joint and complains when people point out his poor play. Enter DGB.
What is the deal with our receiving core this year?
what did he say?
Summary:
– He’s not getting enough targets
– Film shows the ball should go to him
– Wentz is a young QB and doesn’t want to get in his head
– He’s used to playing with young QBs who struggle at times
– Wentz has “brain farts” that cause him to miss the open guy
I hope when they watch film together, Wentz looks DGB right in the eye and says, “I don’t throw to you because you can’t catch for shit and play like your smaller than Sprolesy.”
On a more serious note, I wonder how much of a problem not having the offseason to develop some sort of cohesion/chemistry hurt them? Matthews and Wentz didn’t play a lot on the field together, but they seem to work pretty well as a pair when Matthews isn’t dropping passes.
Lol he said this today? Smh
http://www.csnphilly.com/philadelphia-eagles/eagles-dorial-green-beckham-frustrated-lack-targets
Smh poor simple bastard needs to stop talking to the media until he has a big game.. Go all “Marshawn Lynch” on the media if you have to, just please stop talking, it’s not helping him
Lol….. as if DGB is some grizzled vet at this point. This is his 2nd year right? He needs to focus on his own craft. As bad as I want him to succeed here, I can see why Tennessee felt like they could trade him.
http://openbook.hbgusa.com/openbook/media/previews/9780446565103/OEBPS/images/9780446565103.jpg
WOW. Saying that to the media wouldn’t get in my head at all.
He has a point. He and Wentz aren’t on the same page but some of the things he said had to be kept internally. You angry about targets? Wentz would gladly stay late and work with you on building a connection.
Yeah he def test thru the roof of the “most infuriating Eagle” meter
.
The Only glimmer of hope for Agholar is that he is still so young in his career, and I don’t know how much we can hold a kid accountable for not being ready to be thrust in a starting role from day 1… Not all great NFL players were built for that coming out of college, and it’s unfortunate that chips plan was to get rid of starting veteran WR and replace them by starting a rookie day 1… If this was like Agholar’s 3rd and a half Season, I’d be ready to waive the white flag on his eagle career, but as infuriating as he has been, it’s still so young in his pro career
..
You know who else was on this extreme level of most infuriating Eagles last year? Josh Huff. He was public enemy #1 last year (his sophmore NFL season), but he eventually managed to turn himself into a decent contributor this year (3rd year) before pissing all his hard work and perserverence away because of his stupidity…
..
i think he does care about his craft, and works hard at it, which is why he blew up from the pressure of his poor play because it’s not from a lack of effort. But at this point, he has to be stuck in quicksand, fighting to not drown in his mistakes and failures at the WR position,,, You won’t find a young player more desperate to have a big breakout game to Take some of all the negative built up pressure on his back… Even if by dumb luck, eventually Agholar will luck his way into a big game relieving some of the back breaking pressure he is struggling with. Whenever that finally happens, I will be curious to see if he can build on a big breakout game and the confidence boost it provides, or if he immediately reverts back to sucking in the next game? There is a momentum to most things in life, it’s important to recognize positive momentum and try to ride it like a wave as long as you can and you need to recognize the negative momentum And commit to breaking it as Quickily as possible, so I understand why our Coach would continue to give a young player chances to make some big plays so that he can stop that negative moment and start climbing out of the quicksand he is drowning in. Hopefully Sherman smack Agholar around while talking endless amounts of shit to Nelson, TIL he gets pissed off and starts fighting back by making a play or two
I think that’s his biggest problem, he’s not aggressive enough going after the ball. If he could learn to lose the passivity, he could be far better. But I think in high school and college (like DGB) you can use your talent to just beat lesser talented players. In the NFL you can’t do that.
Another aspect of this match up that gives me hope is that for the most part this Eagle team seems to really get up for big games and elevate their play to the level of competition, and play down to the level of underdog opponents like our loss to the Lions at a time when they were a bad team, and I was disgusted at how our DL played down to level of the Giants OL, sleepwalking thru that game even after PUGH got hurt although our DL have been dominating those same Giants OL for Years… Yet most of our most impressive performances came when we were underdogs: steelers were considered Super Bowl contenders at the time, Vikings were an NFC Juggernaut at the time, Falcons came into philly averaging 86 points a game(exaggerating). We elevated our game to beat the Dallas OL for most of the game before unraveling at the end
..
Seems like we respond well to the fear of getting our asses kicked when we are underdogs, when “Fight or Flight instincts” kick in, this eagle team has chosen to “Fight” more times than not
.
EVERYONE knows we are an underdog this week, everyone knows playing in Seattle is no joke, and im sure the team understands that they can get embarressed making sloppy mistakes against this Seattle defense which will be talking shit to us the entire time, while their corners push the boundaries of legally grabbing our WRs and trying to Ragdoll manhandle us at the line of scrimmage… Sometimes the victim gets mad and punches the bully in the mouth.
.
Seattle is a flawed team, and you never know when an underdog will expose your flaws and find a way to win…. Lol their is a billion dollar NFL betting industry Built around that principle… “Any Given Sunday…”
Sort of disagree with ya here Tommy. I think Pederson is thinking players AND plays. He sees these guys in practice every week. I think he probably loved the way Ags ran that play. I must say everything before the act of catching went really well.
The next point goes to your thinking about the Burton play as well. What other guys on this team have inspired confidence to justify making the obvious play and going for them in these critical situations? To me if Nelson got the same volume JM did he would be just as successful (or unsuccessful) as Jordan is. Difference is Jordan is fed the ball.
I have faith in no one that catches passes on this team. Not Ertz, not Celek, and certainly not Jordan. I like them all to an extent, just don’t trust them.
Agholor has the 2nd most targets on the team, and going into last week had the most RZ targets of any WR in the league.
That is quite interesting, probably more involvement than I thought. However, he has about 30 less targets less than JM over the season. JM has a better catch % at 63%, than Nelson at 56%. I would be pretty inclined to think when you get fed the ball you get into a groove and make with similar usage Nelson would probably boost his catch % enough to probably match Jordan. Not to mention slot routes are probably, in general, completed at a higher percentage than outside routes.
Look I am not defending Nelson. I think he is pretty poop. I do think he could “look” better though. Perhaps that “look” would be artificial. Maybe the little bit of credit we give to Jordan is undue…
Good find, but the information you provided made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. If only Doug thought of Ertz and Burton the same way he feels about Ags, we might not have as many losses.
https://twitter.com/Mfranknfl/status/799632030963302400
Ertz and jordan Mathews practiced today and are both expected to play
Shame, I’m still in Paul Turner’s corner and would love to see him get a shot in a real game.
That’s fine, just do it at someone other than Jordan Mathews expense 🙂
They wouldn’t cut Matthews, but they seem to be in love with Agholor and don’t want to give him less snaps. I think Treggs should get more snaps this game, since he’s shown the ability to get deep. They will need that against Seattle, the game plan they had vs Atl won’t work against this defense. If he wants to keep it short or horizontal, that defense is going to stifle this offense.
I will say this about Doug, he seems to not make the same mistake twice. Dallas’s defense isn’t nearly as good as Seattle’s, so he’s going to have to open up the field somehow.
No, they are defo NOT in love with Ags, but his contract makes it imperative that he will be back next season.
What Waste hurts the least: money or roster. .. if they cut him and someone picks him up wudnt they … ah who cares
No, they are defo NOT in love with Ags…
His 92% of snaps last game says otherwise.
As much as I’d like to see Paul Turner, I’m not sure I want Ertz or Mathews missing in this game. I can’t even imagine our WR’s against that secondary with Mathews out, they might finish with 2 or 3 catches the whole game.
First of all, fuck DGB, I can see why Tennessee wanted nothing to do with him. I hope someone sat him down and gave him the strait truth about his shit play.
Second of all, fuck DGB, I hope Paul Turner takes his spot this game and he rides the bench.
Third of all, PT Cruiser should be Paul Turners nickname now and until he’s out of the league in 2 years.
Give him one full off-season with the Eagles before you will f==== him.
While DGB hasn’t been all that good, Wentz hasn’t thrown a decent fade pass to him in the endzone so far (from what I can recall), we may have been less satisfied with his performance otherwise.
Agree.
That’s one play that Bradford would have exploited with DGB.
That third preseason game . . . Bradford made it look like stealing on the fade to DGB. Absolute theft.
Damn shame since that would have helped us win 2-3 games.
Any red zone play that help this team would be huge. Biggest issue I see this week.
I do see the Eagles have some success moving vs Seahawks but having huge problems in the red zone this week.
The RZ problem isn’t just parts right now, it’s a whole. Ertz is a big guy but he’s not a threat at all. DGB can’t get open and if he is, Wentz doesn’t do him any favors with his bad throws. Celek has to block. You have guys like Matthews who can’t catch the ball or win any sort of contested catch. Agholor who is a bust. Now you have to rely on Mathews/Sproles to try to punch it in with our weak interior OL. So really, we don’t have any RZ threats at all.
DGB is our only hope for a RZ threat this season..yea I’m not sure if Wentz is going to throw another TD within the 5-10 yard line this year.
Ok new narrative. . What wud wr be with Bradford ??
Ssssh don’t kill the narrative with facts. The popular thing right now is to hate him.
How many fades has he even thrown, and how open was DGB actually on those throws? I can only remember 1 true endzone fade, and I remember a jump ball near the endzone that DGB dropped.
I also remember DGB being targeted 3 times in the Giants games on sideline throws, and all 3 times he failed to get off Janoris Jenkins’ jam, which is sad because Jenkins gives up about 6 inches and 50 pounds to DGB.
The guy hasn’t done shit so far, I hope to god he wakes up and starts playing to his size and playing fast, but tossing your QB under the bus like that to the press, especially when you’re trying to say how amazing you’ve played, is just a giant pile of shit.
To be fair, Wentz can’t throw a fade for his life based on his sample size so far.
https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7080593/wentz.0.gif
He has to do more of these. He’s like 1/5 so far.
Between DGB and Ags, I’m very conflicted about who to hate more. I need some Play-Doh.
Someone on the radio today had a top tier strategy idea. If Richard Sherman is going to stay on the left side of the field all game, line Agholor up against him every single snap, that way we can occupy their best corner with our useless WR and leave Mathews or whoever to work on #35, I forget his name, on the other side.
Shead. That’s his name. However the real weak spot in their secondary is slot corner Lane. So I would hope that both Ags and DGB neutralize their best corners while JMatt is going to go BALListic with 15 catches for 249 yards and 4 TDs.
I traded Matthews away in fantasy last week, and given my track record, this stat line for Matthews is absolutely possible.
They’ll probably counter by leaving him uncovered and play the odds that Agholor will drop the pass anyways.
#winning
Imagine if they really did leave agholar uncovered a few times!!!
*In Joe Bucks aggressively monotone voice*
It hits him in the hands, and he drops it. He was wide open, nothing but open grass between him and the endzone, and he dropped it.
Sherm does follow at times. Have a feeling this week they will see no reason to follow.
That’s nothing new. We even did it last year with Agholar.
On another note:
If Brian Dawkis is NOT a first time ballot HoFer I will personally drive to Canton and fart in their faces.
I’m preparing myself when John Lynch gets in this year and Dawk is left out.
Lynch was half the safety Dawk was, so you are probably right.
Totally agree.
Talk about a very good player who benefited from playing with some really great players — in a great scheme.
Stick him on the Browns, Lynch wouldn’t be what he is.
Not so, I’d argue for Dawkins. Though JJ brought out the best in him. Still think he’d have shined through eventually.
He was so much bigger to city of Phila.. incomprehensible that the dick head coach never even called him and let him walk with away
That is such a ridiculously false description of what happened that I don’t know what to say.
No unfortunately it is not. Joe nickles at least admits it was a mistake.
Dawk could do everything. He would be the beat safety in his prime in Today’s NFL. I feel like Lynch might not even make it.
But Lynch won a Superbowl, one of the main determining factors in the HOF voters minds on who is deserving. It’s the same reason Eli will be in the HOF one day. It’s also the same reason Wentz will be in the HOF too;-)
Eli is always a weird case study.
But Wentz will have every passing record, a few invented just for him.
Dawk was on another level compared to Lynch. I hope the voters don’t make Dawk “wait his turn” behind Lynch.
If he gets in.. there shud be a Dawks jersey Eagles Caravan
Seahawks have struggled at times with a 2nd TE this year. Like to see a few more targets to Burton this week. Not overboard but at least 3-4 targets to vary it up & take a bit off the spotlight off Ertz.
Deactivate DGB, activate Turner, and try to work this defense outside & underneath. Hope he can break a tackle or two with even the dreaded ‘WR bubble screen’ 1-2 times.
Can’t activate Turner without cutting someone. He’s not actually on the roster. Only reason why they brought him along to Seattle is in case Matthews’ back flared up. They were prepared to cut someone and sign him to the active roster if that was the case.
Yeah turner will not play.
Cut ags…
I think this could be a good game for Treggs
Troy P.: 770 tackles, 12 sacks, 14 FF, 32 Ints
Ed Reed: 643 tackles, 6 sacks, 11 FF, 64 Ints
B Dawk: 778 tackles, 26 sacks, 28 FF, 37 Ints
Lynch: 736 tackles, 13 sacks, 10 FF, 26 Ints
Both Reed and Dawk should be going to Canton on their first election.
The 28 forced fumbles and 26 sacks is ridiculous for a safety.
So are the 64 Picks…
Nothing against Reed. He’s the prototype for a center field type safety and he is an all time great. He’ll get in the Hall, too. But the forced fumbles, sacks, and 37 INTs shows you how versatile Dawk was.
Agreed. While Reed was my all time favourite non Eagles player, Dawk must go into the HoF. No doubt about that.
Yeah unless the ridiculous bias against safeties continues. I think Reed, Dawk and Troy P. are shoe ins, Lynch I always felt had a bigger rep than he really deserved, but he might make it… His career stats are lower across the board than the other 3, but he was definitely a hitter and a playmaker too.
…and he’s got a ring. *barf
Yeah Dawk was a prototype man, he was like Malcom Jenkins on steroids. Could play anywhere, make plays from anywhere. Best blitzing safety I’ve ever seen.
difference between him and Jenkins, was dawk could actually catch
I was about to say the same thing and then scrolled down and saw your comment.
All four of those guys were great players.
Reed and Dawk should get in first ballot for sure. Polamalu and Lynch shouldn’t. Rings be damned, those two guys weren’t as good as the other other two.
Reed yes Reid no.
28 FF .. Double the next great wow.
In the epic words of mike tyson, “he hits like a fukkkin mulekick”.
My favorite one was on Daunte Culpeper in his prime… on the goal line … Culpeper was bigger faster stronger and Dawk crushed him and i said on the spot that was the end of culpeper’s career, well ut pretty much was.
Still love the hit on MV7 when he came out from nowhere at 100 mph.
Troy’s numbers aren’t so great, but that dude was a game-changer in his prime. I think it was around 2006 or so, he was playing at a level few safeties have ever reached, all over the field. Just brilliant.
Eagles 17, Seahawks 15
Sturgis with a 49 yard winning FG with 23 seconds left.
Sounds good. How do the Seahawks end up with 15? I have them at 13 when they fail on the conversion.
5 FGs.
As usual, a nice analysis, Tommy!
WR fun from Football Outsiders.
By DVOA, a rate stat.
Matthews -10,7% (61st out of 75)
Agholor -29.4% (73rd out of 75)
Green-Beckham -20.5% (not enough targets to qualify)
By comparison:
Huff -27.9%
Julio Jones 31.9% (2nd out of 75)
DJax 1.1% (38th)
Maclin -6.4% (49th)
Also note:
2015 Djax 20th, Maclin 24th
2014 Djax 6th, Maclin 30th
2013 Djax 10th
2012 Djax 72nd, Maclin 61st
WR stats aren’t too stable year-to-year, but the current situation isn’t good.
What about TE?
Ertz -3.2% (22 out of 41 ranked players)
Burton -4.1 (24 out of 41–so about the same as Ertz)
Celek -5.4% (not enough targets to qualify)
By comparison:
Jimmy Graham 35.8% (4th)
A. Hooper 54% (1st)
How much of this is based on lack of talent at catching and how much lack of talent at throwing? Well, QB does appear to matter in terms of receiver stats, but I don’t see a lot of study on how much or in what way. Football stats are complicated and noisy and more than half-useless.
This article found rather extensive projected differences:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/without-drew-brees-jimmy-graham-is-a-good-but-not-great-receiver/
Re: Agholor v. History
Seems every Sunday, Agholor’s play prompts calls for immediately cutting him — or at least requiring him to sit in the corner for 3 hours.
In response, during the week, a commenter or two (mostly one) insists that Agholor’s just in Y-2 . . . and so many great receivers rose from the ashes in Y-3.
FALSE.
________________
Look at the Top-30 WRs this season.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2016/receiving.htm
Only 2 receivers — Emmanuel Sanders and Golden Tate — had weak receiving numbers their 1st and 2nd years.
In the case of Sanders, he was a 3rd Pick of the Steelers — not a 1st — and playing behind Mike Wallace, Hines Ward, and Antonio Brown.
Golden Tate was Seattle’s 2nd Rd pick in 2010 (60th overall) — not a 1st — and, like Agholor, struggled his first couple years. Then Tate found his niche.
In the current NFL, the data shows that productive receivers start putting up solid numbers, at a minimum, by Y-2. Not Y-3.
_________________
Looking at the NFL’s Top 50 WRs of All Time, the answer’s very much the same.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/rec_career.htm
Of that group, only former Falcon 1st Rd pick Roddy White had Agholor-like numbers his first two seasons.
And that was before the current pass-happy-style of NFL football took hold.
(An argument could be made that Chris Carter also fits the “he waited until Y-3 to become good.” But in Carter’s Y-2, in a much less pass-friendly NFL, he had 39 receptions for 19.5 YPC and 6 TDs. Already a play-maker in tougher times.)
__________________
Is there hope that Agholor turns things around like Tate did?
Sure. There’s always hope.
But this refrain of, “oh, lots of good WRs hit their stride in Y-3” is just not supported by the data.
Sure, a couple — out of hundreds — have done that.
But history is not on Agholor’s side at this point.