Talent Level
Posted: September 12th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 168 Comments »I think the Eagles are definitely more talented than they were a year ago. There is no magical formula for proving that, but the eye test can tell us a lot. I also think you can focus on playmaking ability as a way to judge a roster. How did the Eagles fare on Sunday?
4 different pass-catchers had receptions of 23 or more yards. That included a TE, slot receiver and two outside receivers. You want chunk plays on offense, especially in the passing game. The Eagles got those and it helped them to score 22 points on offense. Carson Wentz has actual…weapons. Beyond the plays that did work, Torrey Smith got behind the defense two other times and could have had a pair of long TDs. Wentz was off-target on both throws, but the speed that Smith showed will affect opposing defenses in the coming weeks.
Analytics people loved the Eagles DL last year. Some fans hated the group, asking where the plays were. On Sunday the DL accounted for all 4 of the team’s sacks. They also came up with 4 TFLs, 2 FF and a FR. Even better, Fletcher Cox took that fumble and ran it in for the final TD of the game. Bennie Logan was a run-stuffer, but proved to be a limited playmaker. He finished last year with 2.5 sacks and 5 TFLs. Tim Jernigan has 1 sack and 1 TFL already. And remember that the Skins actually have a good OL.
MLB Jordan Hicks continues to be a takeaway machine. He’s normally Mr. INT, but had to settle for recovering a fumble in the opener. He did make a leaping attempt at a pass and that would have been a crazy pick, but he couldn’t get his hands on the ball. Hicks does a great job of playing the passing lanes. Nigel Bradham had a chance for an INT and probably a pick-six, but he dropped the ball. He made a beautiful break on the ball on that play. He read the QB perfectly and put himself in position to make the play, but couldn’t hang on.
Caleb Sturgis hit a 50-yard FG right before the half. He’ll be out for a few weeks, but it is always good to know that you can get the ball just inside the 35-yard line and you’re in scoring position.
Jalen Mills broke up a pass in the end zone and picked off a pass in the Red Zone. That is a pair of impact plays from a CB. The Eagles didn’t get those plays very often a year ago. The ball came right to Mills on the pick, but the point is that he did make the catch. How often does the DB drop that and you hear “I guess that’s why he’s not playing receiver”? When the other team offers you a gift…accept it.
That was the best game of Mills young NFL career. Nelson Agholor also played his best game. You can argue that Zach Ertz and Carson Wentz each played their best game. I know Ertz had 15 catches a couple of years ago, but he caught all 8 passes thrown his way on Sunday and moved the chains play after play. Wentz came up big on 3rd down and in the Red Zone. That was a big difference in the game. Halapoulivaati Vaitai took over at LT and played more than half the game. He wasn’t perfect, but looked better than starting OTs from multiple teams on opening weekend.
Rookie Derek Barnett had a TFL and played the run pretty well. He got one hit on the QB that I saw. Corey Clement had the opening tackle of the season, when he blew up the returner on the initial kickoff. How many people saw that coming? He was in on another tackle in KO coverage.
The new players were good. The returning players were better. I like the talent level of this team. There are still some areas that need to get better obviously, but the point is that you don’t solve everything in one offseason. Most of what the Eagles did seems to have worked and the team feels like it is heading in the right direction.
_
But the offense doesn’t seem very explosive to me. A little boring IMO which is why there probably isn’t much hype around the team this year in comparison to past years. It’s not the type of offense that keep up in a shootout against the Packers or the Cowboys
If Wentz hadn’t been off on those bombs to Smith and Agholor, it sure would have seemed a lot more explosive. They had lots of separation. We’re talking two more TDs there.
i read that Doug mentioned that Wentz’s foot slipped on the first one that was under thrown, and that he felt Wentz tried to overcompensate on the second one after what happened on the first.
regardless of the excuses…his long ball accuracy needs work…as for the lost opportunity and woulda…coulda…shoulda had 2 moreTDS…I will file that under “if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle…so fecking what”…LOL
I know it has to be on live games but last year every journalist were saying his deep accuracy was bad, this year at TC it was unanimous how improved he was. I’m quite confident.
agreed…#airyards will always be a meme for us on this board…because that is something that can be tracked so easily…
It will be a meme because it was used to discredit…. The Savior. Just more ammo for the oversensitive Eagles fan who thinks there’s an anti-Philly conspiracy out there. Batteries at Santa Clause, cheering at Michael Irvin, etc.
Would’ve. Could’ve. Should’ve.
you don’t need shootouts when you have a pretty good D
Speaking of hype, it’s actually kind of funny. Last year the larger media sort of dismissed Wentz from the broader overview of stats and team narrative, etc. And it was us saying “no you have to look closer, he’s got the stuff”. Yesterday it was like, stats and highlights generally have the larger media saying oh wow this kid is legit, while the closer look makes questions on stuff like the short pass accuracy and generally questions like “is he getting through his progressions? is he being given any? Does he have time to?”
The D should keep us out of most shoot-out scenarios. Including Dallas.
There were Eagles fans who thought Wentz was going to be legit starting from the first game, based on preseason? I don’t remember that, but I do remember people getting excited after the first several.
I’m saying generally from the national media, Wentz got left out of the good young QB conversation throughout the off season. While we were generally more optimistic.
After week 1, I’ve seen a lot of those national folks reverse course based on some stats and some highlights, where I was afraid if they looked at the game with scrutiny, there would still see plenty to reinforce last year’s narrative.
Hm… Unfortunately, I only got to see the 2nd quarter, when he wasn’t playing well at all. Still the passes getting away from him, the bad deep ball, the crappy screens. But then half an hour later, they’re winning by multiple scores…
that’s what I mean, the problems were there to see if you watched. The micro view if you will. But from the macro view of the game, those multiple score leads, the stats, the highlights have generated some buzz around Wentz nationally that I did not expect. Because they could have easily reinforced last years narrative with the micro view.
I think it’s too early to write off his ability to throw deep on 2 or 3 throws this year, but the concern is reasonable. The short lateral throws are concerning. Slow, floaty, and off target. He wasn’t getting through his progressions that well it looked like, a lot of plays didn’t have any, but the O-line was erratic and there wasn’t a lot of time so that may make sense. Generally need to see more.
The only thing you missed was that he was very good in a few key 3rd and long situations. Generally speaking, he was a play maker. But he is still inconsistent.
Probably more like a Favre than a Manning. Oh well, you can win with both kinds…
I agree with you about the OL been erratic. Wentz will play a lot better if the OL protected him better.
We didn’t have any problem staying with the mighty Cowboys last year. There is no reason this team isn’t goof enough to beat the Cowboys. The Packers, no comment.
They goof. Very goof.
Trust me… there is nothing “mighty” about the Dallas Girl Scouts.
They did have the long TD to Agholor and Wentz missed a couple of deep throws that would have been huge plays.
There is big play capability here in the WRs this year whether deep balls to Smith or Jeffrey pulling down balls.
Just a question of whether Wentz has the arm strength and accuracy to make those throws.
Coming out of a win is nice…coming out of win where the QB left some yards on the field, even better. Aside from missing Smith twice, Wentz missed a wide open NA and wide open back(I think) both in the flats… to force it to AJ for an incompletion. Wentz will only mature as he gets older and he’ll see these wide open guys…
Sure. But he’ll still miss open players that we see in the TV a few times a game. We should have unreasonable expectations, not impossible.
no body is perfect. Silly to even expect that. But it’s not silly to think Wentz is sitting there saying he’d like those throws back….
Hey, look, Tom Brady is not impeccable! Even he had missed some of his targets in that Chiefs and Patriots game. Even he is not above making mistakes and he’s been in the league for almost 15-20 years. And inspite of all that, people still refer to him as the G.O.A.T. The point is, this is Wentz’s 2nd year. He will improve, just give him a chance!
No RB, Jeffries isn’t any good, that’s why CHI let him go and Blount stinks. The OL will have problems all season.
astute analysis…
https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/2460515-user-blocking
All I see is – “This user is blocked”
Typical idiotic troll post. Another guy who doesn’t even know the name of the Eagles’ marquee free agent addition.
Jerome McDougle?
Exactly. It is the same guy under 4-5 IDs who has been doing this for nearly a year.
Just ‘block him’ and don’t respond. He’ll get bored and troll elsewhere.
I liken them to walkers from the tv show on AMC. Every once in awhile they need a snack to munch on before they can be used for something productive. Like being unleashed on other people that don’t fit in on this board.
If they are walkers, it is best to be quiet around them, not engage, and let them shuffle on through.
Until they can be unleashed on an unsuspecting victim. 🙂
After “Jeffries” I stopped reading.
For sure the talent level at receiver is better, with 3 of last year’s active players (Treggs, DGB & Paul Turner) either on the practice squad or out of the league altogether. It also has to help to have consistency in both the “system” and the QB for the 1st time in what seems like forever. I don’t think Ertz has ever had the same starting QB 2 years in a row until this year, and he came into the league in 2013?
On defense, Jernigan is a better pass rusher than Logan, Long > Barwin, and again, guys are playing in the same system for the 2nd year in a row. That’s gotta be a factor as well.
Nice call out on the Clement KO coverage. That’s how to start a game.
The look on that dude’s face was great (his helmet popped off). That is the look of a man who traveled toward that tackle his whole life.
Is it me, or does Bradham look quicker so far this year? I thought he looked like a bulkier linebacker last year, but so far (especially on the wheel route he had to cover with Clark running) he’s looked good.
What do you guys think?
Maybe a little bit, yeah. He was always the nickle LB, so he must not of been Trotter out there.
Wasn’t picturing Trotter (even early Trotter) but his athleticism really stood out to me. He made the break on the INT that he should have had; then he had to work around the pick by Reed to cover Clark on a wheel route. He stayed with him.
Just don’t remember seeing that last year.
He seemed to be targeted a fair amount in coverage.
The DL got a lot of attention and credit but if Kendricks keeps playing at a decent level this is the best group of LBs the Eagles have had in a long, long time. Not a spectacular group but a very solid one.
Too bad we can’t have 11 All-Pro’s on defense. I’ll settle for solid
Kapedia was on WIP yesterday at 4:30 PM and will be again every Monday. Always worth a listen. I might subscribe to the Athlete because of his writing and analysis.
– Didn’t think the Eagles’ OL played that badly. Just thought Vaitai really struggled in the 2nd half in place of Peters. Skins’ blitzed more than 50% of their snaps and Eagles struggled to adjust especially on the interior.
– Eagles blitzed 32% of the snaps on Sunday which was one of the highest amounts since Schwartz was here. Curious to see if Schwartz will blitz more with Darby out now or just that game circumstances dictate it.
– Wentz was looking downfield even when he was scrambling out of the pocket and not many QBs could make a number of plays he did while on the run.
– Wentz was 9 for 11 on 3rd downs and had a perfect QB rating. Kapedia thought it was the stat line of the game and the reason the Eagles’ won.
Great stat about Went on third downs. When watching it seemed like even though he was missing some passes on other downs he was great third downs, but I didn’t know he was that good.
Thanks for relaying to the page. Good stuff. Glad Sheil is back.
Already subscribed to the PHL TheAthletic, it is worth it
Nice article!
I feel like this team is still suffering from those personnel moves made by Chip. How much better would we be if we still had LeSean and DeSean?
However, we may not have been able to get Carson.
What do you guys think?
I think it’s time to move on…
By it you mean a year ago right?
On one hand, both are legitimate talents that are still some of the best players in the league. On the other, them being here, plus Peters being old, would have made another dream team scenario where we’d push to try and win before they got too old. So, in a very, very slim and optimistic light, we could only rebuild because they Chip got rid of them. Thanks [go fuck yourself], Chip.
It can be hard because carrying the contracts of those guys would mean we would have to drop some other high-paid guys. May have been forced to let Peters go, or not sign some free agents, etc. With Bradford, the offense would have had the majority of the cap space.
I was working during the season opener, is KC really that dominant?
Based on the first week, Superbowl is going to be Rams over Chiefs, Jared Goff MVP.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1656180fcb791c24a91309ab37289b9a9d427331de9a952904a95708fd0a157.png
Says it all
lol, vote for Bradford as MVP – Vikes over Chiefs
I only saw the first half. Andy was clearly bored from the offseason and threw the kitchen sink at NE offensively.
I actually think the Chiefs are a pretty close mirror to the Eagles.
KC has a good OL. Kelce, Hunt and Hill can all hurt you. The rest of their guys are more the type that have to be schemed open but can make the catch. I’d say overall the offenses are pretty even.
KC has a good front 7. Stout against the run. Ford and Houston can be terrors off the edge. Outside of Marcus Peters their DBs aren’t great. KC seems to like to drop 8 and only rush 3 alot.
For the Eagles I’d like to see the offense use Smallwood, try to get him some creases to jump cut into and hopefully get a few explosive plays. Ags should eat against their nickel CB. When they come Wentz needs to just get the ball out to a WR and let them try to make a play, the houdini act is great but you’ll never go broke making a profit. Minimize the negative plays.
For the defense it’s going to be a balancing act of containing their dynamic players with putting Smith under pressure to force mistakes.
Should be a close game, the winner will be the team who is more opportunistic with big plays and takeaways.
‘You’ll never go broke making a profit”
Sam Bradford: “Hold my beer.”
KC has play friggin makers. Ford, Johnson, Hunt…and oh man Hill looks like the fastest thing to ever wear a football uniform.
Berry looked amazing too…but yeah about that.
I scurred.
Houston is the guy who scares me the most. Dee Ford is mostly just a speed guy, but Houston is the whole package. He’s kind of like their Brandon Graham.
Ford has power, maybe not the same speed to power conversion as Houston (but who does right now?) but he’s not just a speed guy.
Extra rest for Reid always trouble, plus home field. Going 2-0 would ratchet my expectations for the season up a notch.
This is my fear. AR, given time (outside of game-time decisions), is excellent at prepping his time. One of the best.
That said, week 2 is probably the single hardest week in the NFL season to predict. Lots of false positives and false negatives from week 1 as coaches make adjustments to schemes.
For some reason my German beer gut is telling me that Smallwood will have his breakout game on Sunday, rushing for 140 yards and 2 TDs.
For some reason my American piss beer gut is telling me our entire run game is gonna do about half that.
Unfortunately agrees with you. . Going strong that we are wrong.
But we win. 4 Agholor and two DB 96 tds…
Sounds like a pretty…stout rushing attack.
Darby gets hurt, CJ Smith gets cut from the PS?
Is this going to be another one of those things where they keep cutting and resigning the other guy so that they can actually pay both of them? Who did they do that with a few years ago?
Jimmy had a good write up about that. Was it an OL and a LB?
They also kept 2 CB gameday inactive.
Good chance this has as much to do with Big V running with first team in practice and needed a body for the scout squad.
LB was my thought too.
Greene/Sheperd last year.
And probably.
My guess is that there’s an open casting call going to happen in practice at CB until somebody takes the spot opened after Darby’s injury, and there aren’t going to be any reps for Smith for a bit. They’re also gonna need somebody to take the reps that Peters isn’t.
I guess Sheil is not the only one concerned about Big V’s performance and Peter’s health
Sturgis to IR, eligible to return after 8 weeks.
Signed kicker Jake Elliot from Cincy’s PS.
Count me as a guy who was disappointed in the line last year. I had extremely high hopes, and they didn’t meet those expectations. Coming in this year my expectations have been tempered. So far, they are exceeding what I expect. They will be expected to continue the insane pressure. This secondary can’t hold up under normal circumstances.
got half way through before realizing you were talking about the D-line. Totally agree. Had high hopes for the D-line, and they wreaked havoc on a solid O-line, they exceeded expectations. Late in the first half they zoomed in on Cousin’s face and he had the crazy haunted and hunted eyes going.
So my scouting report against KC stands, we should throw at #23, and run at Dee Ford.
On defense, if we can be stout against the run I don’t think Alex Smith is going to look like a hall of famer again. Tyreek Hill is the make or break guy, we can’t let him beat us over the top, but that’s going to be really hard to stop because none of our guys at corner or safety are speedsters.
Alex is going to have to make the decision to chuck it down field in 1.5 seconds or less… or he’s going to fumble the ball away whilst getting sacked.
Short passes to avoid the rush that put the onus on the secondary to tackle=same strategy against us as last year. It will play right into his normal skillset.
Yes, but I prefer that over getting roasted with those 20+ yard plays.
Salako is back D3FB! All that offseason tape watching is not for naught.
Josh Andrews is still here too…
ooff…. this is not encouraging stuff about our new kicker.
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/9/12/16296302/jake-elliott-eagles-new-kicker-caleb-sturgis-philadelphia-bengals-cincinnati-memphis
Every field goal is going to be an adventure for the next few weeks. Honestly I wish we’d found a vet on the streets rather than a rookie who just got cut, but who knows.
Where is Murderleg when ya need him? Wait nvm.
“Moved past Stephen Gostkowski (369 points) and DeAngelo Williams (362) to take the program’s all-time scoring mark.”
Gostowski is pretty good and Elliot is better than him (just like Barnett is better than Reggie White)! Math never lies!
All I can think is they want to get a look at him and will go for it on 4th down a little more. There may be a revolving door if he keeps going like he had been. Maybe he made a correction ?
what happened to that Roberto Aguayo guy? He went from a 2nd round pick to out of the league in 2 years?
I can’t be the only one nostalgic for Cody Parkey, can I?
Cook with 22 carries, 127 yards; 3 rec, 10 yards
If this offense had Cook, they would match up nicely on paper with the Cowboys albeit the Boys having the better OL.
Can we please stop whining about not getting Cook? The Eagles were making calls for trading up but instead ended up with Sidney Jones. Let’s see if that (non) move come back to haunt them in the long run…
We’ll see this a lot this year already.
Just a question whether Jones can come in next year and be a good starter.
Thank you x 1,000,000
I was so happy when the Eagles didn’t get Cook. #noregrets
The most annoying thing about the Cook whining is that the Eagles didn’t even pass on him in the second round and take someone else. He was taken before their pick. I can only imaging how much Howie would have been criticized if they gave up a fourth round pick to move up one or two spots in the second round.
Tell the complainers that the 4th would have been Pumphrey and watch their heads exploded trying to out-Negadelphian each other.
They play football on paper? We have better d, st, qb, wr, and te than Minnesota. Thou shalt not covet. How many games have we lost this year due to subpar rbs?
In the immortal words of Tom33 from 2 hours ago, “I think it’s time to move on…”
Wait till 2018 when he gets a 6 game suspension for domestic violence before wishing for Cook. Kid is a disaster off the field, there is a reason why he fell 30 spots or so in the draft than his talent would indicate.
True. Cook is a complete POS>
Allen Barbre getting absolutely roasted in here at LG.
https://twitter.com/PFF_Gordon/status/907563665175523328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-907563665175523328%26autosize%3D1
During his time at Memphis, Elliott sent 210 of his 330 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks.
That’s pretty bad (63%) and reading his draft profile that was not be design but rather due to his weakness.
The gunners on our kick off coverage team better be ready…
What was the FBS average? I don’t know the average in FBS but 74 of 99 were touchbacks in 2015. He was #1 in 2015 in number of TBs. 2nd was 66, 3rd was 62, 4th was 59 so I doubt he was pretty bad in 2015.
2016 he went way down He was 3rd in number – 64 (out of 94).
He was 71.8% for 15 & 16.
Good stuff mate.
Since they moved the touchback to the 25, more teams have been aiming the kickoff to the goalline instead of out the back of the endzone. Generally, they can get them down around the 20, and sometimes better. That will affect the NFL percentage a bit.
Fun fact (that needs checking). I believe, with KC’s win over New England on Thursday, Andy Reid has now beaten every team in the league at least once.
it’s just going to be even more impressive when the Pats go undefeated.
That’s how good Brady and Belichek are. They will be the first team to lose their first game and still go undefeated!
Don’t know about that, but he had already beat them in 2014. That was the famous “on to Cincinnati” game where the Chiefs absolutely destroyed the Pats on SNF I think. Of course, the Pats came back and won the SB that year…
Edit – 41-14 on MNF – week 4 2014
The only teams he didn’t defeat while the Eagles coach were the Titans and the Eagles (duh!).
The last team he had to beat was the Titans. After beating Chip Kelly in week 3 of his first year. He was able to defeat the Titans that same year a few weeks later. He completed the NFL sweep in 2013.
When did he beat the Pats as Eagles coach? How did I miss that?
December 19, 1999, 24-9.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199912190phi.htm
So, McNabb’s rookie year, but Koy Detmer started that game. Against Drew Bledsoe, and Pete Carroll coaching. You’re forgiven for forgetting; I sure had.
Reid did not beat New England after that (four games — scheduled ones every four years in 2003, 2007, 2011 and the super bowl). So Reid did not beat Belichick while with the Eagles.
I was at that game in the old seats they had on the field at the vet. Al Harris ran by and I told him he was the man, he nodded he head in agreement. It was amazing!
Thank you.
So, how’s everyone enjoying National Overreaction Day? Any amusing incidents you’d like to share?
The Patriots suck, Brady’s old, KC’s going to win the Superbowl, not getting Cooks is like missing out on Tom Brady…
How many losses will the missing from Sturgis and Darby cost us?
we’ll claim all of them.
2.
That would be my guess as well. Think the Darby injury will hurt us more in the medium run..
Definitely, unless Rasul Douglas can be the next Josh Norman in 2 games.
I really hope they won’t play him on the outside facing Hill. Could get ugly quickly…
Watkins is probably on Hill, he’s most likely the 2nd fastest CB we have after Darby. It’s going to be ugly regardless.
@ Kansas City 1:00 PM FOX Sun
New York 1:00 PM FOX Sun
@ Los Angeles 4:05 PM FOX Sun
Arizona 1:00 PM FOX Sun
@ Carolina 8:25 PM CBS Thurs
Washington 8:30 PM ESPN Mon
San Francisco 1:00 PM FOX Sun
Denver 1:00 PM CBS Sun
bye
1. They go 2-3 through the first 5 games of this stretch now and 2-1 in the final three at home. Leaves them at 5-4 going into the bye.
I’m glad that every fan base has at least one guy with a crystal ball.
Thank you.
You asked.
I had them 9-7 this year (home in Jan) and 5-4 before the bye before the season
They do need to go into the bye 5-4 or better to make the playoffs. Tough schedule after the bye.
That’s called fishing and taking the bait. I guess it was a rhetorical question .
Little off, the Chargers game is in 3 weeks. The game after the Bye is @Rams
Yo Chillax mon…Didn’t you ask everyone to get their crystal balls out?
Zero
Interesting stuff from Sal Pal for a change:
– Blitzed 28% of the snaps on Sun vs 19% last year; 50% in the 4th qtr including on the Mills INT
– Long has already become a leader on defense including gathering the defensive unit on the field when Darby went down & instructing them to stay within their roles; something the defense has been missing the past few years
The Philadelphia Eagles are signing former Kansas City Chiefs cornerback DeVante Bausby to their practice squad, according to a report from NFL Draft Diamonds.
The Eagles seem to like the ‘Sudfeld’ strategy, signing ex players to their practice squad in the week before facing their former team.
If he was on KC’s practice squad, you need to do it at least six days before the game (10 days for bye week). I guess that would be before any game planning has occurred. But if he was a free agent, no problem.
He was released of the Chiefs practice squad 10 days ago and hence a Free Agent.
Eagles were 1/1 in the red zone although they did kick a 37-yard FG from the 20 in the 4th qtr.
As for other news, I took a shit today and it felt good.
Line opened up at -4.5 Chiefs on Sunday night and has stayed there so far which means equal money is going on both teams early.
Really surprised by that and thought it would open at -6.5 or -7 for the Chiefs coming off the impressive victory in NE.
Figured since it opened so low that the line would drift up to -5.5 or -6 as betters put more money on the Chiefs especially early in the week.
Usually the sharps will jump on a line early in the week in Sept that they really like too because they know the bookies are still figuring things out.
Probably means that nationally, they thought the Eagles win was also pretty impressive.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is that Schwartz might use Brandon Graham’s coverage ability better this year. If we’re blitzing more, Graham can drop into coverage occasionally–he’s probably as good as any DE in the league at coverage after his time at LB.
Not that we shouldn’t have Graham rushing the passer more–he’s obviously great at it. It’s just nice to have the flexibility. Maybe he’s the Dawkins of the Dline who can actually do it all?
Maybe one or two snaps a game if you’re blitzing Kendricks and/or Hicks -it drives me nuts when great pass rushers are used in coverage. If it’s only 5% of the play calls I can live with it for the possible confusion it might create.
Yeah I would really hate to see them take their best pass rusher and drop him into coverage. Getting too cute.
5% sounds about right. You want to make it a rare, high impact play, like when Dawkins would blitz. In Graham’s case of dropping into coverage, the high impact would be from the unexpected blitzers. He is so good at rushing you do want to make his coverage plays count.
Trent Cole HATED it and specifically flamed idiot McDermott for doing it too much in 2010.
Greg Ward released after signing Bausby.
Ward was really a fun guy to watch at WR. I hope once he gets more used to the position that he can stick on a team. It’s a shame he wasn’t converted to WR earlier in has career, he might be on the team now.
OT:
Who will spend a grand on the new IPhone X?
Nobody will do it wisely
People who have way too much disposable income.
People who are already so bought in to the Apple ecosystem that they can’t ever switch to Android/PC. “But my phone is broken and the Samsung won’t connect to my Maaacccbooookkkk.” Apple has them hooked, and the fix just got more expensive.
Can I get the Xs once they’re releasing XI?
I would if it had a headphone jack
It really amazes me how some people on earth are still not using any wireless headphones in 2017.. ;))
I am camped outside the store right now. I have been shoving $20 under the door all night.
Sent from my insecurity.
Playcalling left a lot to be desired. Wentz needs to improve his long ball accuracy. O-line got pushed around on running plays but in fairness, the running plays were obvious. Otherwise team looks improved from last year for sure. BTW- skins look lost
All valid, but we’ve looked our absolute worst vs. Washington over the last 3 years, so that win was really key. I think Wentz will be better at connecting on those deep routes once he has some actual time to play with the current crop of WRs.
Yeah….it can’t be easy to adjust to having actual skilled WR’s. It’ll take a little time to adjust to Torrey’s speed and I’m sure practice is nothing like the speed of a real game and the opponents cbs vs ours. Can’t wait to see our first bomb to TSmitty!
I’m reminded of playing pickup basketball, and you finally get to play someone who knows how to cut. Right toward the basket. Crap! Too late…
How is al gore doing?
I finally got to watch the game today. I agree that Wasteam looks like shit. Eagles got lucky on some of those deep balls, but then again that’s the gambit with bringing more pressure, even if you don’t get there you hope you can force it off just enough. Was surprised with the amount of blitzing. Tackling was pretty darn good with the exception of the TD. Robinson in particular was excellent.
The offensive line looked better than I was expecting given some of the griping. They held up pretty well in pass pro. Vaitai had some ups and downs and there was one blitz where they just got the protection call wrong, but overall pretty solid. i’m guessing people are lumping in some of the bad RB pickups and the play naturally breaking down (Carson ran himself into some trouble a few times where he didn’t need to).
The run game was pretty blah, but I’m optomistic. They were pretty close on a half dozen of the runs to busting bigger ones open. Typically just one guy needing to sustain a block a half count longer, that’ll come with time, and a few where the backs couldn’t beat their one man.
WR’s were solid. Alshon had a couple of “THATS WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR” missed opportunities.
I didn’t have too many problems with the play calling. The runs were occasionally obvious. From what I gather the two main complaints were lack of running ball and the bubbles.
On the lack of running I think the coaches know we aren’t great and have decided that some of the plays where you pound it to stay with the sticks they’ll sacrifice for those low % big plays. It’s nice to run the ball and get 3rd and 2 when you’re sitting 2nd and 7 but I think they are saying fuck it, we’ll take the 20% chance of a big play and improve our odds of scoring over having to run 6 or 7 plays succesfully to accomplish the same thing. And if not it’s 3rd and 7 and we’re not too much worse for wear.
The bubbles are mainly built in RPOs to try to take advantage of teams loading the box. Two that I’m pretty sure were
1. The fumble to Ags, It may have just been a dummy but it looked like they had a draw to Sproles out the backside with Kelce and Sem leading a convoy had Wentz just handed it off.
2. Another bubble to Ags in the second half, they had it set up perfectly for Ags to hit the edge and pick up a decent chunk of yards but Jeffery looked back to the inside like he wasn’t sure it was going to be a pass and didn’t want to expend the effort if it wasn’t, causing him to miss the block.
I think teams know that Wentz is making these decisions pre snap and trying to bait him. I think he’ll get better at reading them as time goes on (still has to learn how to throw a catchable bubble) and will learn that sometimes just give the ball to the RB, take your two yards and live to fight another down.
I didn’t really think about the tackling – because it was dependably good. Excellent point. And I think the Kendricks hit on Kelley counters a few of the demerits from the TD of his compatriots.
My biggest question in all of this is why in the hell did CIN have a kicker on their practice squad?
Dumb FO. They drafted him high and were afraid to look stupid by outright cutting him. So they look even dumber by putting him on the PS and losing him anyway.
We signed him. Dumb or dumber?
Nah. We showed how dumb it was to try to stash a kicker.
Ummm, I think signing a kicker is pretty smart if you don’t have one.
Drafting one high if you think he’s the guy -OK.
Cutting the pick after one camp -if you have better options, do it.
Putting him on the practice squad if he’s not good enough to keep on the roster -not sure what the benefit of that is.
T-Law said: “When the other team offers you a gift… accept it.”
But here’s what I have to add to that: ‘Not only accept it, but capitalize on it! Make something good out of it! You know… like, score some TDs!!!!”
Carson Wentz Tosses 58-Yard TD to Nelson Agholor! | Can’t-Miss Play | NFL Week 1 Highlights
https://youtu.be/Atm8Br2McNM