Fixable Problems
Posted: December 20th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 119 Comments »After re-watching the game, listening to Jim Schwartz and checking the numbers, I feel better about the defense than I did on Sunday. As you watched the game live, the struggles seemed overwhelming.
The big takeaway for me is that the problems seemed fixable. When you lack talent and simply aren’t good enough, all you can do is hope for some luck to get you through the rest of the season.
Let’s go back to Sunday. The Eagles let the Giants drive downfield. On 3rd and 7, Vinny Curry storms in for a sack. Drive over. You give up a FG, but that’s no big deal. Unfortunately Jalen Mills was called for holding. Giants get a new set of downs and score a TD. Mills was sloppy with his hands and too aggressive. That’s a four-point swing.
On the next series, the Giants get down inside the Red Zone. Mills bites on a slant ‘n go. That leaves the WR wide open for an easy TD. Mills had Safety help to the inside. He cannot bite to the inside there. He had no help outside. That’s horrible DB play. You must know where your help is and play accordingly. The Giants might score anyway, but you don’t give them an easy TD.
The next series involved Mills getting a penalty that turned 2nd and 10 into a 1st down. You always want the offense playing off-schedule (2nd and long, 3rd and long). Then there is a crossing route with a blatant pick play that isn’t called. Most officials are going to call OPI for a pick like that. Ridiculous non-call. Anyway, you give up a few yards, but it’s not the end of the world. Until Rodney McLeod misses an easy tackle that turns into a 67-yard TD.
Ugh.
McLeod’s most important job is to keep plays from turning into huge plays. He had the WR pinned to the sideline. Just get one foot…heck one toe…on the sideline. Didn’t do it. Maybe the Giants drive down and score there, but they got an easy seven points.
Move on to the 2nd half.
The defense holds the Giants to a 3 & out. Only give up two yards. On the next series, the Eagles again hold them to a 3 & out. They give up six yards on that series. The defense has settled down and is playing much better. Life is good.
Then Najee Goode jumps offside on 4th and 4. The Giants get a gift 1st down. Five plays later the Giants get a 57-yard TD pass.
Ugh.
There is no question that the defense had a bad day, but a handful of mistakes made it so much worse. Schwartz and the staff have pointed those mistakes out. The players know they must play better. We’ll have to wait and see if they get fixed.
As Schwartz pointed out, the defense struggled, but they did just enough to win. You can live with a bad game as long as you still come out on top.
*****
As I looked over the gamebook, I hadn’t realized that the Eagles only gave up six points in the second half. I think that’s part of what Schwartz was talking about when he focused on the Eagles winning.
That isn’t to say the Eagles shut them down. Not even close. One drive ended in a blocked FG. One drive ended on downs. The final drive involved desperation plays.
The Giants gained 205 yards in the 2nd half, but only had six points to show for it. That is taking bend, but don’t break defense to the extreme level.
*****
Jimmy Bama did a good piece on Ronald Darby and his extreme ups and downs on Sunday.
He was outstanding at times, awful at others.
Darby has had a ton of passes thrown his way recently. Teams are either targeting him or scared of Jalen Mills. I’m guessing they are targeting Darby.
He has the talent to play better. Schwartz talked about the need for him to use better technique. You could certainly see that in some of the clips Jimmy showed.
_
Watching the game, it seemed like Schwartz had the Dbacks playing soft on the receivers. So when Eli took the snap from the shotgun, the quick slants were impossible to defend.
I think it’s a combo of the Dbacks playing soft coverage and being overly aggressive on biting on pump fakes.. more than half of the Giants’ passing yardage came from either slants or sluggos. May be time to mix some press man into the coverages and take our chances on getting beat over the top.
I agree and think the time for more press coverages was against Eli and his battered wrs.
It’s not just one bad performance that is cause for concern. It’s three sub par performances.
All on the road. This team is different at home. Especially the defense
And all with a decent cushion in terms of “urgency”. As much as we’d all like 110% motivation at all times, I do believe that being up considerably in the standings makes them lean back a bit (granted we still won). I think they’ll start to pick up their adrenaline with home field on the line with the games dwindling and then of course hopefully in the playoffs.
Rams will be hitting the road to advance in the playoffs.
The Seahawks have a wizard at QB, were playing at home, and only scored 24, 7 of which came after a blown call that should’ve killed the drive.
The Rams average 30+ PPG and were playing at home. They scored 28 (excluding the blocked punt TD), 7 of which came after a turnover which gave them a short field.
Neither of these performances was dominant but I wouldn’t necessarily call them “sub-par” either. They were okay performances against very good offensive opponents.
The Giants game is a different matter. That was sub-par.
The problem is that the Giants killed us using the same tactics in week 2. Schwartz should have had a much better plan for stopping that than he apparently did.
Are you saying that if he had heeded your advice, maybe we wouldn’t have lost both games?
I agree, which is why I think there’s no other way to describe the performance in the Giants game than “sub-par”.
Just saying I don’t think the “the defense is falling apart” trend is as strong as some people are claiming.
The ref missing the false start on that Najee Goode offsides is infuriating. Along with the blatant OPI that was missed on the Shepard TD, that’s 14 points the Giants scored that resulted directly from egregious blown calls by the refs.
Obviously, the D has to play better, and had a chance to stop both of those officiating errors from turning into TDs. But when the refs miss calls in critical spots like that it does make their jobs harder.
We can forget about the score then and just look at the 450+ yards that the Giants hung on us. This is a team with a completely dysfunctional offense who looked like a well oiled machine against us. That is cause for concern, especially since the rams offensive scheme specializes in these screens and slants to get YAC. They are looking at this game film right now and drawing up their gameplan for how to destroy our defense. Have to improve.
I don’t disagree with you that we have to improve, but I think the idea that other teams will be able to precisely copy the Giants’ game plan is a bit overblown. He’s a smart veteran QB who’s extremely accurate on the short passes, his receivers are used to running those plays, and his OL is accustomed to blocking for three step drops. Not every team in the league will be able to replicate that formula.
Blocking your man for < 2.5s sounds like one of the easier jobs of a lineman. Not every qb is as accurate on the slant but we won’t be facing scrubs in the playoffs. I doubt Brees would have any trouble.
Pass blocking technique is different for quick drops – it’s not just a question of holding your block, but of blocking defenders in such a way as to prevent them from getting their arms up to deflect passes at the moment the pass is released. Quick hitters require precise timing, have low trajectories out of the quarterback’s hand and are released within a few yards of the LOS and hence have little clearance. Blockers have to hit guys quickly and at just the right time to jolt them and keep them from leaping or sticking their arms up, rather than sliding their feet and trying to ride the rusher outside past the QB or just stone them. Any professional lineman should be able to do this but those on teams that run a lot of short passing stuff and hence practice this skill all the time are likely to be better at it than those on teams that don’t. It’s a game of inches and fractions of a seconds at the NFL level so even being slightly less practiced can make a difference.
I agree with you that Brees and the Saints are a big threat to beat us using a Giants type gameplan because they do run these kinds of passes and are very good at it. But I’m not as concerned about teams like the Vikings or Panthers whose QBs aren’t pocket timing passers and who use the mobility of their QBs to get him a lot of throwing platforms outside the pocket to compensate duplicating it.
Good response. Clearly you know a few things. I think we agree that Brees (and Brady should we get there) are issues. I thought it was interesting Ben Solak on Tuesday’s Locked on Eagles podcast put the blame on the linebacking crew, specifically Jim’s reluctance to use base defense because we have no lb depth. More pressure on the corners to perform I guess. Seems like they don’t press much at the line – isn’t that a good way to slow down the quick release game? Maybe they don’t practice it enough. Hopefully you’re right that this is more of a match up issue than a team showing defensive coordinators how to pick us apart. I’m still a little nervous.
I broadly agree with Tommy having rewatched the game, we kept sustaining Giants drives with stupid mistakes and penalties.
One area i am most concerned with is our LB’s and secondary have been taking horrible angles on plays, often taking themselves out of the play, or making what should have been simpler tackles and making they much harder because they are not in position. 3-4 of Gurleys big plays should have been stopped for 7-8 yards, but became big plays because the Jenkins/McLeod took too aggressive angles against him, and happened again and again last week.
We got burnt by slants all day against the Giants, but while people blame the corner – generally its the underneath coverage of the LB’s that really disrupt those routes, but instead again and again the LB’s bit on play action or RPO’s, rushed to the line of scrummage and took themselves out the play opening up simple completions. Which is crazy to do when the Giants are an awful running team and were not putting up big yardage against us either.
My guess is that our defense is trying to press too much, trying to make plays and get instant stops, which is the exact opposite of how they played most of the year. One of the things that impressed me earlier in the year was the patience we played with on defense, make them drive the field 5 yards at a time, do your job, and either the DL will make a play, or you get a penalty on offense or the QB misses a throw and suddenly you are in 3rd and long and you get a stop. Think this mentality has effected all the levels of the defense – DL being too greedy for sacks and TL, LB’s being too nosy, our secondary trying to get tackles before the 1st down marker, going for picks and getting beat on double moves. Perhaps it is the pressure of being the no.1 seed, that the defense needs to go from being very good to dominant. Add in the Wentz injury and the situation only gets worse as the defense suddenly feels it needs to carry the game.
Defense go put on some Patriots film, listen to some of Bill Belicheat’s NFL films stuff, and realize you just need to “do your job”, and there is enough talent on the DL, special teams and offense still to go win any game.
Aren’t the Eagles the most penalized team in the league? So stupid mistakes and penalties might just be how we roll, not fixable.
Is that stat adjusted for jerrah jones ref friend fix factor?
Eagles have collected a lot of laundry this year. Unfortunately, it probably has the side effect allowing any ref on any given Sunday the luxury of feeling justified calling ticky tacky shit on the Eagles as a whole.
Depends on the type of penalties, i don’t care about my secondary getting a bit handsy as long as its not stupid. Taking a holding call when you have no help and the WR has just beaten you on a double is a good play. Taking a PI call is no worse than giving up the same reception – just make sure you do it only on genuinely catchable balls and in such a way that most the time you don’t get called for it.
Stupid penalties are a problem, but Seattle always gave away penalties and they are one of the best defenses of recent memory. Play smart, let the opponent beat themselves, not the other way around.
I agree. Offsides, formation, 12 men, unsportsmanlike conduct, holding downfield on a big run -penalties like those are dumb. Others are sometimes better results than what might happen otherwise.
Right, I’d rather take a 5 yard penalty any day than a TD. As John Stockton said, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.”
I have a solution, play our home games in Seattle.
Nope. 11th most, both in # of flags and yardage. So barely bottom third of the league.
Hm. Maybe I was just remembering this:
https://247sports.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/Bolt/Eagles-first-in-the-NFL-in-penalty-yards-per-game-109347391
Of course the Najee Bade penalty was actually a special teams penalty– pretty much the only blot on an otherwise amazing ST performance.
I thought we all agreed that he was drawn off by the LS false-start?
Yes that was unlucky, But if it goes against us then our tears can’t help
I’m just saying Special teams was amazing full stop. Refs just got a call wrong
I’m feeling a tad better. You see division games like this all the time where on paper one team should obliterate the other. Eagles v Giants, Patriots v Dolphins, Falcons v Buccs, just to name a few recent ones the one team plays down and the other plays up, then it’s a coin toss. Just good to get out with the W. Got to get that home field advantage, if we do we got a prayer. Love this team at home.
If the problems were/are fixable, one would naturally ask why were they not fixed?
The Giants used this same offensive approach against us in week 2. It should not work again in week 14. Or at the very least, we should be prepared to respond better once we see them deploy it again.
What was Schwartz’s game plan? Did he think the Giants would change their approach when it worked so well before? It is great to say it is fixable, but we saw it was not fixed; it seemed to work even more the second time.
Schwartz better have answers for this offensive approach because any other team that plays us is going to try and use it.
“If the problems were/are fixable, one would naturally ask why were they not fixed?”
That seems silly to me. Maybe I’m interpreting you incorrectly. But for example, obesity is fixable. We’ve seen people beat it. But just because it’s fixable, that doesn’t make it reasonable to expect nobody to be obese.
Huh? The point is Schwartz and the players already saw this movie in week 2 (in our house) and saw how effective it was.
When you face that team again later, you better have answers to what they did, how they did it and how to stop it.
If we fought once and I kept punching you in the face with a right cross, I think you’d make sure next time we fought you had a better defense vs the right cross and might even find a way to use that approach to your advantage. Pretty straight forward.
So is the goal to shut down a certain effective weapon or win the game? Remind me again?
If your “right cross” was weak, and the punches didn’t hurt or help you win the fight, and I won the fight? No, I would not focus on that next time we fought. Not one iota.
Goal is fantasy stats.
“You play to shut down the slant!”
You win games by playing the odds – making it as likely as possible to win, as unlikely as possible to lose . The 2-11 Giants were 1 throw/offsides from winning. That’s a coin flip. The defense played poorly against a terrible offense. Not saying we should freak out (bad games do happen), but the goal is to get somewhere in the postseason, not beat the dysfunctional Giants. The Eagles need to get better.
As Doug said in his PC, teams don’t really alter their game plans dramatically based on what other teams have done. They do what they do and emphasize areas of weakness.
Defenses will cue off of exploited weaknesses in offenses more frequently than offenses trying something new.
The Giants run tempo a lot. They do a lot of quick passes and play action. That’s their package.
Another team that doesn’t do those things isn’t going to suddenly pull them out in the playoffs.
Except New England.
Disagree. NE will absolutely use what works against any defense as would any good team that has the capability to do so. If Schwartz never changes anything based on what teams have done to beat his unit, we are totally fucked.
I believe the word “never” in there – (yes you said “if”…) is way off though.
I SAID “EXCEPT NEW ENGLAND”.
this was gold, Jerry. Gold.
They fixed it in the first half. They tried to change things up and blitz an extra player for the first 3 or 4 drives, and played a lot (but not exclusively, ’cause of course that would be *really* dumb) of single high safety. Eli picked it apart. They then adjusted, played more 2 deep, and the slants and quick passes were defended much better, including getting a pick and several other “should have beens.” Again, they still mixed in some single high looks, and give Eli credit for recognizing when they went to it – he carved it up pretty much every time they mixed it in. But it was less common, and the Giants didn’t have nearly as much success overall after they decreased the number of single high looks they gave.
I think they’re trying to see how much they can get away with that look in the playoffs – you want to be able to mix things up if you can. Maybe hoping that Darby can impact the scheme positively. Apparently not, is the answer: Eli has shown he can consistently recognize and kill that look. It’ll be interesting to see what Carr does this week.
Right, it seems clear Schwartz doesn’t have the tools or skill as a coordinator to shut down the Giants.
Probably we just don’t have the personnel right now because of injuries and the quality of our CB position. One would expect smart and accurate QBs to give us trouble, so we should hope to avoid Brees, Brady, Big Ben, maybe Ryan and Goff.
In fact, it would be best to just avoid all above average QBs on the path to the Superbowl.
That would be best!I don’t worry so much about the athletic dudes as the ones with great precision and ability to read a D.
Off topic. You should check out a Kala U-bass sometime. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had with one at Chuck Levin’s in DC, and my wife got me the steel wound strung version (because I like a little sparkle in my bass tone).. it’s thumping good fun.
Nice, I have one with black rubberish strings and the electric body. I used to bring it with me to gigs and use my looper to lay down basslines and then jam over it with the guitar. Those are very cool instruments!
Just to play devils advocate, isn’t the only major injury on defense, Jordan Hicks?
Look, I hope the problems are fixable and I want to believe the biggest problem was fatigue, but no matter how I look at it seems whenever the pass rush isn’t in high gear, decent QBS are able to pass on this defense.
Well, yeah, but big injury. I could have said the CBs suck, but I hate repeating myself too much (and Mills got a Pro Bowl alternate nod, lol!).
It is a big injury, but Kendricks has picked up much of the slack. I can’t help but believe that a lot of the missed tackles and mental coverage issues are caused by fatigue. Playing 3 straight road games in late November would be tough on any team, especially when 2 of the games were intense and played on the west coast.
Yeah, I’m excited to see if the defense looks like a whole new team at home.
Kendricks has played well, but IMO Hicks is almost an All-Pro type of player.
I don’t think Darby is fully up to speed
I agree.
I see your point, but I think his point was lack of execution, otherwise couldn’t the same argument be made after the first Eagles/Giants game?
The thing is it wasnt just this game. Was 3 weeks in a row the D has struggled. First it was the sole weapon on the Seahawks Wilson putting numbers on us. We actually loss that game. Next it was Rams people say oh they are a high scoring O with Gurley we won so we’ll let it slide. Now the bottom of the ladder Giants with all its weapons n simple jab n hook plays (slant, slant, deep) they were doing what they like with this D.
Eagles D is on a downward trend. My understanding is rival games are the only games where more gameplanning is done as they faceoff twice a year n winning your div is the easiest way to make playoffs. Same thing happened week 2. Schwartz same problem last year.
Wheres the adjustments. Is the loss of Hicks that big of a deal on the D like how the Cowgirls are without Lee? Im hoping this get fixed. Sooner this season rather than later post season.
Don’t think we’re collapsing now because we’re missing Hicks. He’s an upgrade over any of our backups but we have to remember that Hicks was having a quiet season when he was playing.
He was having a quiet season because they were sending the ball elsewhere.
I had some time to watch some of the OTs in next years class. First impressions weren’t good but maybe it’ll change after more analysis. I think there’s maybe one blue chip guy in Connor Williams and then there’s a lot of guys that have clear flaws.
Everybody’s worried because the Giants nearly beat the Eagles twice.
As far as I’m concerned, if the Eagles just barely win the rest of their games this season and become Superbowl champions… that’d be ok.
I am not worried that the Eagles are one -hopefully meaningless -game away from sweeping the division. These are always hard games. Look at the Pats getting beaten by a crappy Dolphins team. Wins in the division are big even if they’re “ugly” and by one point.
The fact is when it comes to divisional rivalries, more often than not you can ignore all statistics including records.
My wife shared that she was sitting across the living room live blogging my positions and stress level through the second half of the Rams game on Facebook. My brother offered that it was good at least that our backup QB has starter experience (he is a GB fan). My wife said she looked over and replied that I would not be much consoled by that comment at the moment.
I’ve never appreciated before how rare these opportunities are, or how fleeting they can be. If we are going to barely win the rest of our games, I might as well remove the furniture from the living room and just have space for pacing and coasters for drinks.
But, yeah, I’ll take it.
If she can stand being in the same room with you, well then I don’t think you care enough about the team.
At least Howie and coach Peterson give us a prepared team and smart football .. thus our TVs are safer than during the Andy era. ..
I’ve said it before, but huge credit to Howie and Joe for adjusting the roster top to bottom. Just think 2 years ago kelly was rescheduling Christmas parties.
Chip hated more than kotite .. Andy soon to be the 2nd best coach in team history
I’d love to be able to see that live blog, I imagine my girlfriend could probably write a best seller based on my emotional rollercoasters.
My advice is also to lock the cats up in a different room.
If we won by an interception on the half yard line with 1 second on the clock it wud COUNT!!!
That’s crazy, nothing like that could ever happen.
Agree Not possible … ok what if they played like crap but overcame a 25 point deficit to WIN. . Ha, play like crap but still won
Have you lost your marbles? That could never happen. Especially not in a Super Bowl.
I know what an imagination i have .. what if happened within a season or 2 of each other ??
Dude, lay off the Christmas kush, that stuff will make you fantasize crazy.
We all i mean ALL are waiting for Santa in January!! COME GET YOUR SNOWBALLS in JAN AT THE LINC HOME FIELD Advantage SANTA !!
But barely winning games isn’t sustainable or an indicator of future success
To me what makes a good defense is when they buckle down and don’t allow a TD under any circumstances. Maybe the opposition kicks a FG, but nothing else. So where I agree there were bad plays that kept the defense on the field the defense failed in its job of not allowing a TD.
A good example was in the Rams game when Wentz through an interception the opening drive. The Rams easily went in for a TD on only a few plays. On the other hand, when Long forced a fumble deep in Rams territory and McLeod recovered, the Rams held the Eagles to a FG. Not allowing TDS was always one of the strengths of Jim Johnson’s defenses.
I’m not as worried about the tackling or the coverage. It’s the penalties. The coaches can’t adjust for them. They extend drives and wear down the defense. They have been problematic recently and need to get under control.
Pretty interesting read lol……check out the “in-game threads by all the other fans as well as ours!”
https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2017/12/20/16798464/what-theyre-saying-week-15-big-dick-nick-does-ny
I look forward to these every week. They are a lot of fun to read
Always enjoy watching coach DeFilippo’s breakdowns…
https://youtu.be/bDc6v-YRk0o
That was awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Did you guys see Nelson with the “Alshon-like” TD catch? Wow, Nellie!
I really do not want to lose him next season, but unless Reich gets a HC job, he is gone
Yeah. I agree totally.
I’ve seen a lot of people suggesting moving Frank Reich to Doug’s assistant position or just releasing him to make place for DeFilippo. The problem is that someone of DeFilippo’s caliber wants (and eventually gets) play-calling duties as OC, or play-calling duties as HC, or ultimately a HC role overseeing someone else calling the plays. Eagles having Doug cannot offer DeFillipo any of these scenarios. So, seeing him gone, I’m thinking – I hope at least they can keep Frank Reich!
Listening to that Schwartz press conference and it seemed like he placed a lot of blame on the players which is something you just don’t hear/see Pederson do. Wonder how that goes over with the players especially some of the defensive players he mentioned.
Some of the problems are ‘correctable’ (eg poor tackling especially by the secondary, some of the penalties) but teams have given a blueprint on how to attack this defense too.
Not having a credible MLB to play and a dropoff by Kendricks have hurt too.
Other thing I wonder too is how fatigued the DL is right now. Barnett seems to have a ‘rookie wall’ and not been nearly as disruptive the past few weeks.
Ditto Curry & Jernigan who seem to be struggling to generate consistent pressure too.
Hope that the lasts season of the game is meaningless and that there is a chance to give the DL an extended rest before the Divisional Round.
I think it depends on match ups – we beat the OL plenty but just couldn’t get Wilson to the ground vs Seattle. Rams we did get pressure when we could get them off schedule, problem was Gurley was so effective it limited our pass rush opportunities. Giants ran a max 5 step offense, which really doesn’t give a DL a chance to really make plays.
Think if we play the Vikings, Saints, Falcons or Panthers in the playoffs all of whom when passing have a much bigger emphasis on slower developing deeper plays.
Re: Barnett, Jernigan, and Curry.
I yelled at you all the whole offseason about this. There’s a way to get around our pass rush, and it’s the quick strike offense. Throw the ball in under 2 sec, and our DL isn’t going to get sacks. They aren’t struggling. They’re being schemed out of the game.
Every DC will take a dink and dunk over explosive plays. The problem is when dink and dunk turns into explosive plays because of sloppy tackling.
Yep, you pretty much have to dink and dunk because of our DL. No DL can get to a player in 2 sec.
I think the “blueprint to beat our team” fears are way overblown in football.
We just saw the Dolphins take down the Patriots. The Bears beat the Steelers earlier in the year. Denver walloped Dallas, and that was WITH Zeke.
Those successes aren’t easy to replicate, and teams are rarely able to. In our last three games, our defense has struggled, but in three entirely different ways. I wouldn’t say any one of them has provided a “blueprint” so much as revealed a specific match-up of strengths & differences between individual teams.
I agree about possible fatigue though. After reading Tommy’s post and thinking about the increase in mistakes over the last several weeks (I think the grueling “away” schedule probably contributed), perhaps resting an extra week could do some good…
I think Eagles fans are a little sensitive, because we’ve had teams that have been “figured out.” That game when Vick got figured out, that game when Chip got figured out, even when the league figured out Reid…
PFF had top 12 Pro Bowl snubs:
JASON KELCE, C, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
PFF grade: 94.4
(Replacing Travis Frederick)
It’s tough to overstate just how good Kelce has been as a run-blocker this season. His quickness and ability to execute any block assignment thrown his way has been instrumental in that offense running as efficiently as it has. If you need any example of how well he is playing, just look at what he did this past weekend, where he was a huge reason Damon Harrison had his lowest-graded performance of the season in the middle of the Giants defensive front. Kelce has been the best run-blocking center in the game by some margin, and easily deserves a spot.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-12-biggest-snubs-of-the-pro-bowl-roster-selections
From now on, I shall refer to those bastards as the Redhawks…
https://www.sbnation.com/2017/12/20/16797408/washington-redhawks-football-team-name-protest-internet-hoax
The giant red boys.
I still don’t understand how this isn’t good for the team to change the name. Every team sells alternate jerseys, but they still can’t see how much they’d make on a complete rebrand selling new gear?
The arrogance of Snyder is unbelievable.
This is my guess as to the main reason why the name hasn’t changed.
presidential
WASTEAM does more “winning”.
Nailed it.
NFL commissioner-like?
I assume the vast majority of Washington’s fans aren’t as upset by the name as non-fans, and many would probably be outraged at having to abandon all the memorabilia they’ve collected over the years/decades (doubly so if they viewed it as coming from outside pressure).
In fact, my guess is fan backlash is the major reason they’ve held firm on this. If fans were clamoring for a change, the team would change its stance in a heartbeat.
bingo
I don’t think you’d need to abandon the old gear, though . In the same way that Eagle’s fans didn’t abandon the kelly green gear when we switched over, it would eventually just end up being the dominant look over time.
I’m in, too, that’s a good one. Redhawks it is.
Yeah, I figure if the grassroots movement gets strong enough…it will force the issue. They are now and forever the Washington Redhawks.
Fuck Dan Snyder.
“They used the same exact gameplan as Week 2 and Schwartz couldn’t stop them!”
I have to think that’s intentional. The way to beat Eli is to give him lots of opportunities to throw INTs. Yeah, it would be better on the stat line if they never scored a single point, but Schwartz’ job is to win games. I wouldn’t give a fuck about stats if I were him as long as he’s winning. Bradham has dropped 3 INTs in 2 games. How good does the defense look if he’s grabbing them? If they execute the game plan of tackling short?
I think I will buy Bradham a Jugs Machine for Christmas.
The Patriots had a tough time away at division rival Miami recently too…..
So opponents are targeting Darby over Mills, and Mills is going to the pro bowl? I mean.. He has not been that good.
How many years of utter BS probowl rosters will it take for people to treat the probowl as utter BS? Infinity?
Hate the idea of ‘re-watched 1 game and Eagles D is OK’ when the Eagles D has been torched 3 weeks in a row…To sit and think ‘meh, just a play here or two Eagles D would have been better’….Eagles D SUCKED vs. the Giants. It wasn’t a bad game – it was “puke-able” defense….Eagles played FLAT the last 3 games. Oh it’s OK because Wilson is playing like Superman…until of course – they played the Rams and Seattles world came crashing down….
That’s why I made the comment the other day about stopping Crabtree. He’s on ‘OK’ player…but better WR than the Giants have. I’m firing up Crabtree in all fantasy formats….
Good news — Eagles have a few weeks(nice luxury) to tinker/fix/prepare/rest for the playoffs. Just win this week….than we worry more next week… 🙂
eh… Tommy rewatched it, in conditions of rationality where he could make a better evaluation, and disagrees. Sometimes when people aren’t drunk and sitting on the edge of their seat, they are able to perceive better.
The point of film study is to watch the game over again and determine WHY the defense was bad. In the NFL, it’s only rarely a question of “one team is way more talented than the other” or “one team lacks heart/focus/etc.”. It’s often a matter of technique or strategic adjustments that can be made. Tommy’s saying that having watched the film he thinks the Eagles are capable of making these adjustments.