Foles Eve
Posted: December 16th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 59 Comments »Are you excited? Nervous? Flat out worried?
Sunday is just one game, but it will set the tone for the final few weeks. Foles could come out rusty or he could come out and play at a high level. It will be a really bad sign if he really struggles. Opposing QBs have a rating of 99 against the Giants. This is a team you should be able to throw effectively on.
If you do want to feel optimistic, Fran Duffy is your man. Fran put together a great post at PE.com showing how and why Foles will succeed in the Eagles offense. Great job by Mr. D.
I’m optimistic, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some concern at all. Anyone who saw Foles play Dallas in October of 2013 knows what I’m talking about. He was 11-29-80. He was awful. Foles made poor reads. He made poor throws. He missed wide open guys. The Eagles lost 17-3. Foles played much better after that game and ended up having a great season. But you did see just what rock bottom looked like.
Sunday is going to be one of the most interesting 11-2 vs 2-11 matchups in a long time.
*****
Brent Celek might be in his final season. He’s certainly having some fun.
Brent Celek was fired up during the #Eagles win over LA. Don't believe us? Listen for yourself…#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/9O5LevQ4kC
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 15, 2017
*****
I am curious to see what Jim Schwartz does on Sunday.
The Giants were conservative in the first meeting. They were very conservative last week, running a draw on 3rd/14 in the Red Zone.
Will Schwartz blitz and attack to disrupt them? Will he let them dink and dunk and focus on tackling? If you make them drive the long field, 5 yards at a time, life will be hard on Eli. But it also is frustrating for defensive players, especially pass rushers.
Eli was getting rid of the ball in two seconds or less sometimes in the first game. Rushers have no shot against that.
_
I’m here to stand up for A_T_G, who put up that Celek video a couple posts ago.
All U 3 letter guys stick together I guess
Damn right. We invite you to join us. Does H_L_F work
“Are you excited? Nervous? Flat out worried?”
All three, same as I was before the season opener with Wentz.
Every game.
I was rewatching some of the games from 2012-13 after Foles took over under Reid’s system with Pederson as QB coach.
– Foles had a really good touch on the ball and had no problem throwing in tight coverage and letting his WRs make plays. That would get him into trouble because there were a lot of dropped interceptions.
– He’s really slow when he’s dropping back. It’s really noticeable after he takes over for Vick and you’re used to watching Wentz for almost 2 seasons. To his credit he seems to have control over the situation. He knows where the pass rushers are.
– He got better over the course of the season. When his 1st read wasn’t there he knew exactly where to go with the ball and who would be open.
There’s a reason why that team was 4-12: the offensive line was horrendous. They were playing King Dunlap, Dennis Kelly, Dallas Reynolds, and Demetress Bell.
– King Dunlap would get “illegal hands to face” calls on every other play. And DE’s would run wide and neither Dunlap or Bell could stop it.
– The offensive skill players were explosive.
– I forgot how fast Brent Celek was. 2012 Brent Celek would probably be the fastest guy on today’s roster.
– LeSean McCoy was extremely talented and covered up a lot of deficiencies on that line. So many times a defender would be at his face by the time the ball was handed off to him and he would cut quickly and get a 2-3 yard gain.
– Bryce Brown was decent, too bad he had fumbling issues. There was one play where he blocked a blitzer coming off the edge one on one for about 3 seconds.
– Maclin was extremely incosistent. Riley Cooper looked like a star. Jason Avant was awesome.
That team was talented. If Jason Peters, Jason Kelce, and Todd Herremans were healthy all season they could have probably made the playoffs.
Fuck Nnamdi. That guy was a waste of money.
Big V, Warmack and Seumalo would make Dunlap, Kelly, and Reynolds look pretty good.
Big V has played better tackle than any of those 3.
Negated by having Seumalo or Warmack next to him. Big V is arguably not as good as Dunlap which is disgusting.
Let’s not exaggerate. Big V has been serviceable and is better than Dunlap or Bell at LT, but Warmack and Seumalo are two of the worst guards I’ve ever seen on a professional football field.
It still makes me mad that Nnamdi got Kerri Washington.
Awesome walk down memory lane.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/phi/2012_roster.htm
There are some real turds on this roster. Especially bum ass clowns Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman; what a bunch of perpetual fuckups. Amazing how shitty Coleman looks again in Carolina since Josh Norman left.
12-2 2-12 has a nice ring to it. Not really worried, FOles is a professional and took all the first team snaps this week. (backspaced that sentence out twice so maybe a little).
I’d be willing to bet that Foles had a concussion during that Dallas game.
I thought that while watching it. He was so off, there had to be something wrong. I say the same thing about Wentz in the Seattle game this year after he took that cheap shot on the 3rd play (rightly penalized too).
I expect to be able to run the ball well, and also pass it well. I also expect to handle their offense. I expect the team to rally around Foles like a team with it’s back to the wall. Could be a carbon copy of Foles’ other start against the Giants.
Foles is a decent QB that can do well if we stay ahead of the sticks.
Shady would get a negative run or two and put us at 3 and 8+. Foles cannot operate that way. I hope all the RBs (Ajayi specifically) take the 2-3 yards when its there.
My recollection of Foles at the end of his 1st Eagles tenure was a QB who had lost his ability to stand in the pocket and make throws vs pressure. He was constantly throwing off his back foot and often backpedaling as soon as he took the snap.
If I don’t see that again I’ll be happy. I didn’t see it in his quarter + against the Rams, and they certainly have a pass rush that can make a QB nervous.
One thing that’s painfully clear is that iggles have to go top OL prospect in RD 1. Even if we get Peters back there is a gaping abyss at LG.
Sign a journeyman and draft 2 OL. We’ve definitely missed on some signings, but Barbre, Wis, and Mathis all turned out better than expected.
2/3rd correct. Barbre Doll was missed far too many blocks and missed far too many games.
Wiz has been fine, and is under contract next year. I wouldn’t discount Seumalo having a bounce back year yet either… He has the tools and showed ability as a rookie. Our OL was elite when healthy and Vaitai is a quality back up / fringe starter. OG depth would be nice, and we need long term Tackle and LG solutions, but those don’t need to be addressed in the 1st round in 2018. We have little to no cap or draft capital next year, so the eagles may well need to wait on longer term needs.
It is very dangerous to force picks in the 1st round, if there is no OL worthy of the pick the don’t force it, we don’t need another fireman. Take the best player in the 1st (or trade down – I am near certain we will). Come back in 4th/5th and force some depth… 2x TE’s, LB, OG, S.
I bet there will a few O-lineman worth it there because teams are going to mega-reach for a bunch of sucky bum QBs ahead of us.
If a top 10 talent at LB, DE, S, or WR drops down the board I consider him, but I agree 100%, assuming all other things are equal I think OL has to be the top priority.
I think they should strongly consider trading back into the second round and picking 2 or more, actually.
Chargers must be kicking themselves over their kicker experiment in the beginning of the season. Legitimately lost them the dolphins game, arguable lost them a 2-0 start. Could have looked at a pretty secure PO situation, even if KC hadn’t had their meltdown, they’d have looked good for a wildcard with the meltdowns of the Bills, Texans and everyone else in the AFC.
Never trust a young hoe!
https://twitter.com/JoelEmbiid/status/909552353656889345
Embiid = God
Is Roger Goodell Really the most important mean in the entire NFL ??
..
He gets paid to keep the myriad of sport Killin issues at bay
His job is to appear to be the most important man in the NFL so that the owners don’t take the flack for any decisions. The recent drama is all because he’s decided to do something while in this position of power, and the owners don’t like that their figurehead would dare use his authority.
This x 100000000000
And it is only a few owners who really didn’t want him back with the same power. 27 or 28 of them were just fine with Goodell.
Yes he is the fall guy do they can keep printing money .. but can’t imagine them smiling to pay him 200M .. they shud dump him
he’s pretty bad at his job. he involves the league in things it shouldn’t be involved in. meanwhile he ignores obvious problems.
empty seats, plummeting ratings
it all shows how bad Goodell really is.
I’ll bite; what are the obvious problems? Are there more empty seats than other years? Are the ratings down due to cord cutting? Verizon just doubled their yearly payment to the NFL for the right to stream games; that doesn’t indicate a problem to me.
Heck yes id agree. .but the cheap as sss owners are about to pay him 200M !!I’d think they’d be able to find plenty of far better people
On night shift currently. I have to get up early to watch this game. God I hope it’s worth fucking up my sleep schedule for the next three days.
From looking at video of Foles in KC, and then seeing his work last week against the Rams, I noticed something. It seems like Foles’ footwork is better.
On several of those RPO’s, Nicky faked the hand off, then snapped his feet sharply into a pass-ready position. It was almost like jumping into the position.
I noticed Carson doing that too – jumping into position and tossing the ball like a dart – during some of the games this year. I think the Denver game is when that first stood out to me.
The KC clips show Foles’ feet kind of shuffling more slowly into position. I think there are some coaching fine points going on here that will make Nicky look even sharper than we’ve seen him in the past.
Just hoping the left side of the O line holds up. If so, we’ll be just fine. Go Eagles!
Good observation. I haven’t thought about it, but now that you mention it I know what you are talking about, and it makes a lot of sense. You only have seconds to throw back there. The sooner you get your feet set, the sooner you can throw a proper pass with your feet set. How many times (in general) do you see a pass rush get in quickly, and the qb isn’t set and misses a wide open guy? I’d think this is part of Carson’s success on 3rd downs.
Foles already set the tone for the season last weekend. When he came in the game the Eagles had about a 15% chance of winning per win probably. He was helped a lot of the Long strip sac but at the time the Eagles had improved their winning % to about 45% already. The team rallied and won against much longer odds than they face against the Giants today.
Good post.
I hope the Eagles do the exact opposite of what 90% of fans seem to be calling for, and let Foles air it out and throw. Eagles run game is not as consistent as people seem to think – there are plenty of flaws on the left side of the line now, Wentz’s ability to keep the ball helped hold DE’s from crashing opened up the run game as well. Trying to ‘pound the rock’ will leave us with plenty of 3rd downs that Foles just will not be able to convert as consistently as Wentz, who stole 3-4 3rd down conversions each week with his legs or escapability.
Foles is a good and willing downfield thrower, has a good sense and feel for screen game (one thing that should improve over what Wentz offered), and is great at finding the holes in zone coverage. His weaknesses are against tight man coverage and being unable to handle pressure up the middle, both of which are far more likely to happen on 3rd down.
Throw early, especially with a few deep shots, and use the screen game to keep the LB’s on their heels, which should then open up the run game, forcing teams to stay in more zone coverage on 1st and 2nd downs. Foles’ best games come when you call aggressively – it is one of the reason why he failed with the ultra conservative Rams, and even Chip in 2014, you need to let Foles go out and make big chunk plays to move the offence.
I like this, and agree that the running game is a little overrated by fans. Plus I don’t feel like it has an identity. The rotation is inconsistent and strange to me. 3rd or 4th and short, Blount is never in. But he gets used a lot on first down to run into the pile and get 2 yards. I haven’t complained about it much, because of the results. But all seaon long I’ve been trying to understand the usage of the backs, and I don’t fully get it.
“The rotation is inconsistent and strange to me.”
Because the RB coach is as overrated as coach as he was as a player. His rotations make zero sense. Go with a feature back or go F yourself.
You don’t need a feature back to either have a good offence or even a run game, and especially with the Eagles situation where our best back is still learning the system, using different backs for different situations makes a lot of sense.
Eagles run the ball well, but it is not a run first offence. It is not conceived that way and we don’t have either the TE’s or OL for that kind of approach, especially with a statue at QB with Foles. West Coast systems set up everything with the pass game, which in turn spreads out the defense and gives space for the run game to thrive.
That’s nonsense talk; the league wide lack of feature backs has totally ruined a very cool aspect of NFL football ………..and also the ability to project RB fantasy stats. My fantasy griping aside, football is a lot more fun to watch when running of the ball is done by a feature back; not a committee and not a “QB.”
“Eagles run game is not as consistent as people seem to think -”
Because the team doesn’t fully commit to it for long enough stretches of the game.
How many run first teams have made deep playoff runs recently? Cowboys got bounced first round last year, Cam in 2015 was playing out of his mind as a passer and their running game outside of Cam was inconsistent. 2013 Seahawks i guess, although Wilson did throw it a lot. Kaepernick with the 49ers was probably the most run focused offence in the last decade.
Notice two things with this?
1) the best running attacks in the modern NFL tend to require a mobile QB, to hold defenders, and to manage the fact that great run blocking OL’s tend to struggle in pass protection.
2) It really is not that common – nearly all the teams that win the superbowl do it passing, and the majority who make progress in the playoffs do it through the air.
The only chance the Eagles have of going deep in the playoffs is if Foles channels 2011 Manning or 2012 Flacco, plays at the best of his ability, doesn’t make mistakes and the Defense does enough to win games. Playing conservative just guarantees we will lose.
I’m not disputing anything you’ve laid out, but…..
– are there teams that specifically lost playoff games because they tried to run it too much?
-when you’re playing sucky bastards that can’t stop the run, I’d like to run them over.
Marty Schottenheimer coached teams.
That’s a fair point, but those aren’t terribly recent.
The game has skewed even more to the pass since then. In other words, Marty was crazy to do that even back then, but now it would be suicide.
All I’m interested in is humbling opposition and causing, rather than, sustaining injuries.
But I did see New England win a title with the #1 rushing offense in the NFL a few years ago, so I know there is a way to run more without running too much.
All of our DBs were body bagged in the first game and we couldn’t play the short passes as aggressively as would have been ideal due to missed tackle fears. No such concern today; KILL EM!
I’m setting the over/under for the point at which Foles breaks his own record for TD passes in a single game at 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter. I’d say midway through the second half but we don’t want to just GIVE the sharps easy money.
In all seriousness, I want to see three things: (1) a solid performance from Foles (200+ yards, no turnovers, 24+ points, a few nice throws to convert 3rd downs); (2) no more injuries to key players; (3) a W to clinch a bye. Get it done boys!
It’s fairly common knowledge that Foles played that Oct 2013 Dallas game with a concussion.
Bill O’Brien has no idea what you’re talking about.
Cincy job is opening up according to PFT. That has to be one of the least attractive jobs in the NFL. I’d be willing to bet that they fill it internally.
And Houston is straight up stupid if they fire Bill O’Brien.
That would be the kind of landing spot that I could see interested Schwartz. They have a QB, some good pieces on defense, but they lack a leader and someone to hold them accountable when they screw up.
Cincy?
Yes, Cincy. Not Houston. I’m with you there. They’d be morons to fire O’Brien and Schwartz is not the coach you want with a young QB.
No doubt, but I’d also look at how undisciplined Detroit was with Schwartz as the HC and not see that as a good fit with guys like Burfict on the roster.