We Don’t Know
Posted: September 28th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 122 Comments »Are the Eagles a good team?
We don’t know. They’re off to a 2-1 start and look like they are the most complete team in the NFC East so far, but they have hardly been great. If not for some huge Red Zone stops, the team could be 1-2 or even 0-3. But the Eagles did make those plays and they’re 2-1.
We’ve got a lot to learn about this team. The offense looks explosive, but also highly erratic. They scored 14 points in 3 quarters on Sunday, but then added 13 points in the final few minutes to finish the game with 27 and a W.
The defense has been absolutely dominant for parts of all three games, but right now they are 20th in points allowed and 21st in yards allowed. There is a non-offensive TD from the Skins game that affects the scoring defense and injuries hurt them the last two weeks, but the defense still needs to get better. They are too talented to be down in the 20’s in those rankings.
Think about players.
LeGarrette Blount struggled in the opener and was essentially benched for Week 2. That seemed to get his attention and he ran like a madman against the Giants. He attacked the line of scrimmage and never went down on first contact. That was the player the team envisioned when they signed him in the offseason. Now the question is which Blount will show up this week. Will we see the sluggish guy from the opener or the hammer from Sunday?
Alshon Jeffery is on pace for a 75-992-5 season. That’s solid, but not compelling. He’s been up and down this year. He made the huge catch on Sunday to set up the winning kick, but also had a couple of costly penalties. He hasn’t stood out the way you might expect a stud receiver to. But not all of that is on him. Jeffery was wide open for a long TD and Carson Wentz just missed him. The connection between Wentz and Jeffery is awkward right now. The two of them don’t have great chemistry. That should come with time.
I say “should” because there are no guarantees. Just because Jeffery is a good WR and Wentz is a good QB doesn’t mean they’ll develop a special chemistry. It certainly happened with Donovan McNabb and TO, but there are plenty of other instances where a free agent marriage didn’t work out. We don’t know what will happen.
It takes time for a team to show who they truly are. The Eagles looked great last September and turned out to be the very definition of mediocrity. The grind of the long NFL season will expose who you are as a team and as a player.
I feel pretty encouraged by what I’ve seen from the Eagles so far. This team has found a way to win games despite things not going smoothly. When everything is clicking, you can see just how good a team is. But teams that fight through adversity show a mental, physical and emotional toughness that can be hugely valuable over the course of a season.
The Eagles could have easily folded after giving up 21 straight points on Sunday. The Chiefs hit them with a barrage of late game points the week before. That had to be in the back of their minds (if not the front). Instead, the Eagles started making some key plays and found a way to win.
Remember that when the team got down 27-13 the week before, they didn’t quit. They scored a late TD, recovered the onside kick and had a chance to tie the game on the final play. That result wasn’t good, but maybe the experience of going through that served them well on Sunday when they responded better to suddenly being behind in the 4th quarter.
We’ve got a lot of season left and a lot to learn. Not everything is going to turn out like we hope, but so far we’ve seen more good than bad and that’s certainly encouraging for the long haul.
_
Do you think Blount was benched for his game 1 performance? I thought he ran hard that first game too — not going down easy, and falling forward a lot. It was just that first contact was usually at the line of scrimmage at best. Maybe there were holes that he wasn’t hitting, or something like that. But since they gave Clement first team reps leading up to the KC game, it almost seemed like maybe Blount’s style didn’t fit well with KC’s defensive strengths and it may have been more of a game plan thing. Given Seumalo got benched after that game, I doubt Blount would have done well either.
Anyways, hoping for an easier win. These hard-fought games seem to incur more injuries, which we can’t afford. It’s also hard to get a handle on how good the team is when we could be 0-3 just as easily as we could be 3-0.
I like that the team has been pretty scrappy so far. We haven’t seen the best version of this team (combine the run game coming to life, the deep ball coming to life, and Alshon being what we know he can be, along with the D clicking as we’ve seen them at times), and there is no guarantee we will, but that prospect keeps it exciting (and frustrating at times).
An Eagles win in LA this Sunday will get them to 3-1 which would be an extraordinary result given that 3 games were on the road.
That being said I am afraid I agree with Jimmy B.:
Eagles at Chargers (-1): The Chargers are 0-3, but they are nowhere near as bad as their record would indicate. This is a very dangerous team with a good quarterback and two stud edge rushers. I believe that they will find ways to exploit the Eagles’ banged-up defense and get pressure on Carson Wentz defensively.
given our 1-7 record on the road last year, that alone is would mark a considerable improvement for this team.
Ouch. I didn’t have this terrible road record from last year in my head.
I don’t believe much in the so-called trap games, but this Sunday doesn’t bode well for the Eagles:
– coming off en emotional win against a divisional foe
– East coast team travelling to the West Coast
– playing a win- less but yet desperate Chargers team
– Cox-less D
– Rivers is due a great game
Cross country games on top of that usually don’t go well for anyone, but I think they go especially bad for us in the last 10 years or so.
I am hoping the team and coaches are thinking along these lines, too, and preparing to play full throttle.
One more bullit-point and the Eagles will have it in the bag.
I really have a bad feeling on this one.
Not having Cox this week is really going to show up I fear when just rushing 4 and expose this secondary badly.
Jaws was on last night from 6-7 and he said Cox was drawing double teams (2 OL/help) on nearly 60% of the snaps this year so far.
It’s going to be the same game as this week. We’ll attack them with the run, and they’ll chip us to death with short passes.
Except Philip Rivers is much better than Eli.
Here, have an article from the Chargers’ equivalent of BGN mourning the death of his ability to throw a ball:
https://www.boltsfromtheblue.com/2017/9/27/16374576/thanks-for-the-memories-philip-rivers?_ga=2.45115684.160917220.1506529765-1933183756.1506529765
We all know how that feels.
Yeah, that’s pretty NegaSandiegan. Look at the defenses he’s had to face.
His performance has fallen off the last few years, but my bet is he’s going to rebound. In any case, Eli is not exactly at his peak, either, so my statement shouldn’t be that controversial.
upvote for NegaSandiegan. its almost poetic! haha
*NegAngelan
“Remember that when the team got down 27-13 the week before, they didn’t quit. They scored a late TD, recovered the onside kick and had a chance to tie the game on the final play.”
You know one thing Doug talked about after the game to the team, and I think he is instilling in them with his aggressiveness, is that they are a team that is always attacking. Not that we have seen them up big, but I don’t think we are going to sit on any leads. I do like it.. even though I don’t like 4-8, I like the mentality it could bring.
Nice review of Mills game against ODB. Again, I dont understand the hate. He’s a limited player but certainly better than the last place ranking PFF gave him (spoiler: PFF is a joke). I’d say he’s one of the better CBs we’ve had here in the last ten years.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/jeff_mclane/philadelphia-eagles-jalen-mills-odell-beckham-new-york-giants-20170927.html
“I think [Manning] threw 52 passes in the game, and we charted 34 of them as less than two seconds.”
I think we are going to see a lot of three-step drops going forward as long as the CBs are playing off to protect the deep ball.
Hopefully, when our safeties get healthy again and can provide help over the top (i.e., someone other than Maragos), Schwartz will feel comfortable letting the CBs challenge the receivers at the line more to stop the quick passes.
It’s a strategy that beat us a lot last year, and neutralized our pass rush some. It may keep us in games, but it will rely on the offense doing better than last year. It’s probably a good strategy when we have a good lead, but not as much when close and especially not when behind.
That said, Mills did exactly as asked. He was asked to play off, and make the tackles, as Schwartz was willing to give up those short gains. He did that, for the most part. He did get beat a couple times (1st TD, and the Jenkins pass interference, and probably a couple of others). So, it’s hard to determine that Mills is the worst CB ever because he was doing as asked, which was to give up short throws only (which the Giants went for repeatedly).
Earlier in the year, one of the guys at BGN wrote a multipart piece about the elements of a great team. One of his hypotheses was that having a great secondary is more important than having a great pass rush. Situations like Sunday and last year’s game against the Packers seem to support this hypothesis.
If teams are running long developing pass plays, advantage to the team with a great pass rush or great DBs. But if a team doesn’t have great DBs, a great pass rush can be game planned around as we’ve seen.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean teams should completely devalue the pass rush. But as far as investment and resources, perhaps DB should take priority over pass rush.
Now, if a team has a great pass rush and great DBs… That’s certainly a *possibility* with our DB depth and the Darby and Jones getting healthy and playing well.
Great DL are more important than great DBs. DL can affect both the run game and the pass game. Our DL forces teams to throw short passes. They don’t want to, they have to. Our problem is not that we don’t have great CBs, it’s that we have terrible CBs. Bare competence at that position will lead to this defense excelling.
The comparison was between pass rush specifically and DBs, not the DL in general (and stopping the run in particular).
If you have great DBs, then offenses will struggle to throw short and long passes, and a mediocre pass rush will have time to get home.
Again this isn’t about the conventional wisdom regarding games being won in the trenches. A DL that cant stop the run will be abused. And play action will lead to big plays for the offense.
This is about the pass rush vs shut down corners.
Okay, but it seems awfully divorced from reality, at least to me. The DL does play the run. Shutdown corners are nearly as rare as unicorns, especially in this era’s rulebook. If we had prime Deion Sanders and Revis Island on our team, yeah, I think we’d probably do pretty well.
If your Dline is so good that you dictate to the other team that they *must* throw short passes (because they can’t run the ball or risk throwing deep), then you are setting the table for success.
And … don’t leave out the possibility of the “lull them into complacency” effect. I think Schwartz likes the guys with aggressive attitudes because he wants them to *eventually in a game* gamble on a read and go for the pick.
Yes, calculated risk. See it and react.
Agreed; you force a team to become one dimensional, which makes game planning that much easier. As we saw, make them throw short- and tackle.
no way. An elite pass rush is worth gold.
I dunno. Give a QB all day to throw, he would treat it like 7 on 7s. QBs make mistakes with a rush in their face.
The argument isn’t that you give the QB all day to throw. We’re not talking about zero pass rush. The argument is that having elite DBs is more advantageous to a defense then having an elite pass rush.
It may still be wrong, but you have to at least get the argument right.
It’s funny how many people are rejecting this argument outright but I wonder what the stats would suggest.
I apologize, I didn’t realize you took comments literally.
I’ll change all day to 3 seconds, which is all day to a good QB.
“It’s funny how many people are rejecting this argument outright but I wonder what the stats would suggest.”
Why is that funny?
Elite corners should give an okay pass rush plenty of time to move a QB off his spot.
It’s funny because it may actually be right regardless of what our opinions are or what conventional wisdom is on the matter.
A good pass rush can make up for a mediocre secondary….not the other way around; the line is much more important…
as they say, games are won in the trenches..
I guess we’ll find out this year, huh?
Look at the Patriots defense to see that a great secondary isn’t more important than pass rush
We really need to get our hands up- it baffles me that we don’t bat more balls into the air at the line of scrimmage.
The guy is only in his second year. If he continues to progress he could develop into a fine CB.
How much longer will the change of scenery have an impact on Mr Rivers?
We might be lucky to play them so early in the season this year because he has elected to keep his family in San Diego and has a long commute to work each day. Rhythm and habits seem to play an important role in an athlete’s life and performance on the field… So, hopefully he hasn’t found his stride (and won’t this coming Sunday).
Will Doug be brave enough to pound the rock against one of the worst run defenses in the league again this week?
Will Blount get enough carries for 100 yds?
Sign me up. (But my fantasy team is banking on Smallwood)
Likewise!
no. If it’s working, then other RB’s are in there too.
Wow!
The StubHub Center in LA has a capacity of only 27,000! It is expected that at least half of the fans will be wearing Eagles colors this coming Sunday..
I’ll be there!
For real?
Yea
The stadium was 25% empty last week……………
Eagles should be a good draw though. I bet we fill it halfway or more with midnight green.
And Kelly Green…!
Yes, that too :p
That’s shocking.
zero sympathy for owners that move teams. Or owners generally re: stadium deals.
The strangest thing about Alshon for me is that he has the reputation of being a guy who is big and lengthy and can go up and get balls against tight coverage and snares everything in his wingspan.
I haven’t seen that guy yet.
I watch someone like Brice Butler of the Cows and I think, why can’t we have that guy? He made some really tough contested catches against the Cardinals, where he went up, used his strength get position against coverage, snare the ball with his hands, protect the ball from the DB as he tried to knock it loose, and came down with it.
Then I remember Torrey Smith going up on a deep ball with a DB in his face, and it clangs off his hands.
It just feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve had a guy who is truly capable of making plays to make his QB look good.
I’m not even asking for an ODB who can make circus catches against perfect coverage, I just want a guy who can high point a ball and actually come down with it.
It works both ways. Wentz’s spotty deep ball accuracy + ball placement is the issue for Alshon. Most times he just doesn’t give Alshon a good chance. Cutler might have been mediocre but he was one of the better QBs at throwing deep.
Smith isn’t a go up and get it type WR. He’s been an one trick pony his entire career, which is why I’d rather see what Hollins can do with some of his snaps.
I’m not referring to just Alshon, I’m saying Eagles receivers generally, this year and previous years. Brice Butler isn’t the Cows #1 receiver, in fact he’s sort of afterthought with Dez and Witten and Beasley doing 3rd down shit, but there he is making big boy catches as the cowboys maybe 4th or 5th option.
We never seem to have those guys who are good at going up and getting the ball, the ones who can turn a 50/50 pass into a touchdown.
I’m hoping Alshon will be that guy, but already this year he’s dropped a couple that were the kinds of balls I thought we paid him 14 million to catch.
It might just be a blip, new team new QB new offense etc. But I just really want a guy who can battle for the ball.
Our previous coaches did seem to prefer WRs that were small/fast or played small. When we did get a big WR that played big, he had rocks for brains and hands (DGB). Even then Doug didn’t really seem to like chucking it up to him.
As for Alshon, it would have been nice if he could have won some of those jump balls but he’s not entirely to blame. Sometimes you’re going to lose because the ball isn’t placed well enough to bring in. It also seems like the possession WRs without great chemistry are struggling. Dez isn’t producing the same despite being arguably the best WR in the league at battling for the ball.
Brice Butler has really flashed in his career and Dez has been coaching him up on the finer points of contested catches (they have shown this taking place on the sidelines) Not sure it’s fair to use him as the standard of replacement level WRs.
Alshon has been matched up 1 on 1 against three All-Pro cornerbacks in the past three weeks.
Josh Norman All-Pro 2015
Marcus Peters All Pro-2016
Janoris Jenkins All-Pro 2016
All three of these guys are in their prime and he still put up pretty good numbers.
The things that sticks out with Alshon is that he seems to be the anti-DeSean/Odell-type of player. He’s doesn’t need the ball thrown to him 15 times per game to stroke his ego.
I’ll admit I’m a little down on Torrey Smith. I know he’s been open a few times deep and the passes were inaccurate, but he seems more like an average receiver to me. Personally, I’d really like to see Mack Hollins get some more snaps spelling both Torrey and Ags.
I’d agree that Torrey Smith feels about average. He might feel a little better than average when Wentz starts throwing better deep balls.
But one thing’s for sure: unlike maybe all of our WRs last year (including 2016 Agholor), Smith feels like a professional. And he doesn’t cost us that much. And we can cut him when we want. All in all, a great stopgap while Wentz is developing and possibly more if Wentz does get that deep ball going.
Mack Hollins 2018
THESE PROTESTING NI GGERS AREN’T WORKING OUT
You’re on the wrong board loser. Run away now, we don’t want you here
I’ll stay, NI GGER LOVING POS.
Wow, you’re so edgy and cool. You must be all of 12 years old
All I see is “This user is blocked. “
You’re anti block user and anti “don’t feed the trolls”?
This Chargers game is the first game I truly don’t have a good feel for what might happen.
On one hand their 0-3, but on the other hand they still have some stud players on that roster and on paper at least look dangerous.
We’re also traveling to the west coast, and we’ve played the Chargers in some weird games which they’ve won.
Injury status is going to mean a lot too, who’s playing and who’s not playing?
I can see this going any which way, but I’ll be thrilled if we get out with the win.
If we come out with a win, I’m prepared to declare this Eagles team a legitimate playoff contender.
Every win we get during these next few games as people come back from all these soft tissue injuries are just money in the bank.
With how putrid the Cardinals looked we could easy be at 4-1 after the next 2 weeks, just got to go get it.
There’s no gimmies in the NFL, my friend.
Except the Browns. The Browns are a gimme.
3-1 at the quarter pole is a great start.
2-2 ain’t bad either, right?
If I were a betting man, I would bet the house on the Chargers.
https://twitter.com/Tim_McManus/status/913439805232549889
Imagine that, the defense looks significantly worse when your 2 most important defenders get hurt. If Graham had gone down we would have known that someone paid the devil.
https://youtu.be/Y9_IZ5J3LEw
Identity. Every winning team has one. Eagles will find theirs. I think the OL needs to find it’s stride as well as Wentz. Once Wentz accuracy increases, so will the “chemistry”…
For the first time this season, our CBs might not be the biggest underdogs in their matchup but it could still be ugly.
Keenan Allen vs Jalen Mills – a.k.a battle of the slow guys. As by default, don’t expect Mills to win.
Tyrell Williams vs Rasul Douglas – This might be the key battle since Williams can beat you deep and on catch and runs (pretty identical to Pryor earlier this season). I expect Douglas to be the most tested this week, which may result in picks or burnt toast.
Travis Benjamin vs Patrick Robinson – PFF says Robinson is pretty good so he should do pretty well. Unfortunately PFF is wrong.
Benjamin is a speed guy right? I’m not sure that’s a good matchup for Robinson… Unfortunately with Darby hurt we don’t really have any corners who match up well with speed guys. If Mcleod is back that’s really the key, we can’t go another game with Maragos back there.
Yea Benjamin is a speed guy. If McLeod isn’t back then I hope Watkins is healthy enough to play safety.
Yeah, Watkins over Maragos for sure, but really neither Watkins or Graham back there would inspire a whole lot of confidence.
Get well Mcleod!
I’d probably start Insomniac over Maragos.
I’d take one paycheck, some beer for the PTSD and a concussion to start.
Has to be an available ball boy wearing one of those blue vests that can take a break while we are play D. He can go back to ball boy duties while we are on O.
I thought the Highlander instantly rejuvenated. He would be great at availability is the best ability.
McLeod will be playing, barring a setback.
Graham and Watkins, not so much !
To this point I have not figured Robinson out at all yet. Every time I see him he is making a play, so he is A-ok in my book. We shall see if speed ain’t his thing.
Allen is a beast. I like Mills, but Allen gonna get his.
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/9/28/16377558/eagles-enemy-chargers-film-review-philadelphia-los-angeles-philip-rivers-joey-bosa
Really nifty preview of the Chargers. I don’t know too much about them so it was nice to see their strengths and weaknesses broken down. Sounds like even though they have the stud bookend rushers, the rest of the D is a mess. We might be able to really get some damage done both passing and rushing this week.
Unless of course the bookends keep CW running for his life. I think Rivers will dissect our secondary if Cox can’t play.
This game is gonna be a case for giving Cox a raise.
Another one?
Damn, Bradford is out again this week. I know I’m in the minority, but I thought Bradford could be a long-term solution (prior to the trade up for Wentz). I know the guy has made a mint in salary, but it’s a shame he never seems to be healthy. His play in week 1 was extremely impressive as he finally started throwing the ball downfield.
He’s the ultimate tease. If he has his best game ever you can be certain he’s going to be hurt within the next week.
Notice that last week, they did fine without him. That has happened a lot in his career.
I dunno if the Rams were fine when he left.. they just weren’t worse off!
During the time he was with the Rams, when he was injured the backup QB usually did just as well as him.
Flirting with 0-16 that is
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/9/28/16380978/eagles-injury-report-five-players-fletcher-cox-philadelphia-corey-graham-chargers-melvin-gordon-nfl
Injury update, not much new news. Cox is still out (and might be out another week or two) but Mcleod and Hicks are back, so that’s great news at least.
NI GGER BLM TERRORIST Jenkins IS GOING TO TEAR AN ACL.
FYI… I have reported you to the FBI. Every post you make strengthens the case against you.
I think disqus has a bug, I see the same “This user is blocked.” posts way too often.
Do. Not. Feed. The. Trolls.
Troll showed up right around when geagle disappeared…
Just don’t feed him.
Geagle is really gone? Carpal tunnel syndrome?
HAven’t seen him all season.
Ok, there’s a weather delay in Green Bay right now for thunderstorms, how insane is that?
Never seen that before.
Lightning. They did it in the Dallas game last week.
Must have been Trump being angry with Jerry…
Trump the almighty.
They do it regularly for lightning.
Why?
Because of rain?
Tony Romo is the best commentator currently on tv… hands down. I really can’t believe how good he is. CBS made a great decision.
He is really good.
That hit was ugly. Malicious. Hefty fine and ban for that B.S.