Early Postgame Thoughts – PIT
Posted: August 19th, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 61 Comments »To quote Emmitt Shakespeare, “We got debacled”.
Bad showing. The defense started great, but a penalty kept an early drive alive and the Steelers never slowed down after that. Mike Vick and the offense pressed. That resulted in forced throws and INTs. Our starters got outplayed.
Before we go to the trouble of hiding all the sharp objects let’s remember a few things. Tonight’s game was a big success. We had NO major injuries. That is goal #1, #2, and #3 in every preseason game. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is the preseason. You don’t hold the team to the same level of expectations that you do in real games.
I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t be concerned by tonight’s struggles. The offense was bad. The back seven struggled vs the run and pass. Tackling was sloppy. 3rd down defense was shockingly bad. There are lots of issues for Andy, Marty, and Juan to fix.
I know a lot of people are ready to bench Casey Matthews and shuffle the LBs. Let me look at the tape first. Let’s see what really happened. What were the problems? Are they fixable? Are they likely to get fixed?
Something else to keep in mind about this game. Andy Reid does a terrible job on the road in the preseason. Don’t know why. He is 2-8 in last 10 road games before tonight. Andy is solid at home. We did fine in those regular seasons on the road, but in the preseason there is something missing. I’m not saying he should change anything. I don’t really care about struggling on the road in August. Just wanted to point out the pattern.
Quick observations:
* Mike Kafka was terrific. That is exactly what we needed to see from him.
* Dion Lewis was terrific as well. He had one fumble, but played really well aside from that. Very pleasant surprise.
* Gerald Jones is making a strong push for the Practice Squad.
* King Dunlap appeared to have a good game. Can’t wait to see him on tape.
* Vince Young did some good things. He got better from last week as a passer. Bad INT, but did show progress.
* I thought the D-line did some good things. We got several big hits on Steelers QBs.
* You just have to live and die with Asante’s gambles.
Enough guessing and rambling on my part. Time to watch the tape.
So glad to have been on a plane for this game…
I don’t need to see more of Matthews At MLB. I’m not overreacting he’s just not ready right now. Chaney is the solution. I don’t get the love affair with Matthews. I just don’t .
It wasn’t pretty until the 5 minute mark of the 4th Qtr.
Really looking forward to the analysis on the LBs from Tommy. Although, no need to panic on what happens in preseason. This might have been just what was needed . Get those issues exposed and fixed before the games actually count…
The guys on PE.com and NFL Live did re-itterate that not having our big starting DTs does hurt the LBs quite a bit against the run.
@TyPhilly21
I agree about Chaney. He looked so promising last year. I also fail to see how Matthews is granted a starting position as a rookie. I don’t care about his bloodline — Eli is not Peyton. I can’t understand why he is not being challenged at the position.
@Tommy
Asante will always gamble, that’s his game, plus this is this pre-season. He can afford to try and pull an inside straight. If he gets it, there’s cheers. If he doesn’t, it’s just the pre-season.
Shady McCoy looked good.
And we learned that Chad Hall can tackle.
Seems like we play crappy the game after we break camp every preseason. Guys minds are just somewhere else. Combine that with the road thing and we get debacled.
I don’t remember the exact moment, but at some point it just became funny. When the best things you can point to involve third string players, you know it was a bad showing.
I’m not drawing any conclusions from it. Honestly I think it’s probably good to stink up the place in a meaningless game against a good team. But damn was that a terrible game for an Eagles fan to watch. It almost felt scripted.
@ Dan…
Forgot about the breaking camp thing. I think we do tend to play poorly right after that. Good memory.
RE: Shady
Dude is good. Love watching him run.
Howe this for a novel idea. Put Chaney and Fokou back where they played well past year n let Matthews fight out WLB with Clayton that way we have only one mostly unknown quantity at LB instead of 3 guys learning new positions at once.
I know it sounds like I’m really being harsh on Matthews but I just don’t think he is being put in a position to succeed. Seems idk just seems strange to just give a 4th rder the job of being the brain center of the D without contesting him with anyone but fellow rookies
I enjoyed Vick hitting Troy P. (injury risk aside…)
Going into this game, there were a couple of things I was hoping to see. First and foremost, I wanted us to stay healthy. Second, I wanted to see how Matthews AND the LB core would play against a team that likes to run the ball. Third, I wanted to see how our STers performed, specifically our kicker/punter/returner.
In terms of health, it sounds like we suffered no significant injuries. It doesn’t sound like Avant or Cole’s injuries should affect them next week, so I was happy about that.
As for the LBs, Fokou was the guy who stood out from the bunch to me, at least among the starting three. I wasn’t all that focused on Chaney, but he never stood out throughout the first half. That concerns me, especially considering he is supposed to be the one guy we are most comfortable with. As for Matthews, I’m no scout, nor do I have an indepth knowledge of how our defense should run, but he looked incredibly hesitant to me. At the start of every play, it seemed like he basically would stand there for a full second trying to understand what is going on in front of him before reacting. Now even if he is being told to read and then react on D, that amount of time to react seems like it takes too long. Once he reacted though, I felt he either got blocked and couldn’t shed the block or ran away from the play. With the way our wide 9 technique is setup, it seems like he has to hit the right hole quickly and clog it up or make the play in order to succeed, and based on the live game, it didn’t seem like he managed to do that all that well.
I guess for me, the Matthews thing just seems like it is our coaches, whether it is Reid or Juan or both, simply being stubborn about wanting to be right with Matthews. Don’t get me wrong, Matthews may turn out to be a quality player, and maybe all it takes is for him to react quicker (which is something you expect a rookie to get better at over time), but why the heck would you not have a legitimate backup plan/competition for the MLB spot. While there is certainly potential for Matthews to be a solid player, there is so much potential for him to fail, particularly this year. I understand that Chaney can slide back to MLB if need be, but that still requires additional shuffling. Bringing in a guy who can legitimately push Matthews can only help the team. Anyway… enough of a rant for now. I really look forward to your review on all of the LBs Tommy.
As for the STers, we really got to see nothing from them. Chas Henry had the one nice punt, although you could argue it took a bit of a lucky bounce. Regardless, I am not overly concerned about Henry right now. Henerey on the other hand sounded as if he had a tough week at camp and I was really hoping to see him attempt a few quality kicks. Lastly, our defense didn’t make any stops that forced the punter to actually allow a return, so for a second straight preseason game, we didn’t really get to see Higgins. Unless they decide to change the rules back, I don’t know that we will see a ton of kick returns. In fact, while I hate the new rules, I think it makes zero sense to try and run it out the way Moss did when the ball is more than a few yards into the end zone. Teams didn’t do that before the rule change, so why does it make sense to do it after the rule change when the defense is now 5 yards closer to being able to tackle you? It’s as boring of a play as it gets, but I think you risk a lot by running it out of the endzone when it is kicked 6 or 7 yards deep into the endzone. That being said, I still think a punt returner is a valuable player. I realize Higgins had a few drops, including one awful one on the beautiful deep ball from Kafka, but to me, the value of a 6th WR is more in terms of his value to STs than his value as a WR, and so far, Higgins hasn’t had a chance to show whether he can be a quality return man.
1st Qtr for Casey wasn’t nearly as bad as what people may have thought. Casey was sloppy to be sure, but his play wasn’t as bad as missed tackles by Coleman and Allen. They let short runs turn long at key times by just making rookie mistakes. Ugh.
I don’t know what all you guys are complaining about. I thought they looked pretty good.
Hah, Morton does have a sense of humor.
I’m not too worried about Matthews, remember not long ago, same position, we had unknown Joe Mays starting, who played quite poorly in the preseason, but then regular season started and. Oh wait.
Is Trotter still available ?
The guy I am worrying the most is Nate Allen. He was flat out horrible last night and reminded me more of a poor Sean Considine version.
Is JJ ready to play?
If anything, this is a good game to get stuff like this out of the way. With our offseason, followed by all the major love from the Baltimore game, I think we were in danger of starting to believe our own hype, which could be especially dangerous with such a young team.
Far better we get a kick in the pants now, and get brought back down to earth in PS, than in week 1. You can bet we’ll be p***ed off going into game 3.
Still think moving allen to ss was a mistake he played out of position tonight, very un sure of himself.
@matt even tho allen is playing SS he didnt changed positions , castillo changed the names of the positions
So anyone else think Jones looks better than Hall. I’d rather have a guy w some potential over a small slow guy who has very limited upside. I hope we give jones some more reps the last couple preseason games
[…] Early Postgame Thoughts | Iggles BlitzBefore we go to the trouble of hiding all the sharp objects let’s remember a few things. Tonight’s game was a big success. We had NO major injuries. That is goal #1, #2, and #3 in every preseason game. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is the preseason. You don’t hold the team to the same level of expectations that you do in real games. […]
[…] Early postgame thoughts – Tommy Lawlor, IgglesBlitz […]
The Steelers executed well to expose our weakness at the LB positions. Once their ball carriers got over the LOS, there was open field for them to run. Ben also carried the ball himself on snap and up the middle, as our middle was wide open and not a single player there for about 10 yards. Our DL lined up on both sides WIDE and LB dropped off 10 yards. It was an open space inviting abuse!
The tackling was not up to par last night. The first defender was in the proximity but failed to get hold of or slow down the ball carrier. Once the first chance of tackle was missed, we didn’t have another guy behind to stop the run. They better find a way to scheme it right for the real games.
One observation on our 2nd/3rd string WR connection with QB. They seem to be throwing only to 1-2 WR, without checking on other openings. Perhaps it was the play called, or the QB has a special connection with certain WR: Young to Hall and Kalfa to Higgins, though Jones was the recipient of 2 TDs. This makes it easy to defend them.
Sorry Tommy I’m not waiting for you to review the tape on Matthews. He is Simoneau with long hair. Put Chaney back at the MIKE and Allen back at FS.
Juan Castillo is on a very short leash with me, I have no confidence in him. He is moving players (Allen and Chaney) out of their best positions. He is handing a spot to a rookie based on bloodline, IMO. And I know everything is vanilla in preseason, but those were some damn easy to read blitzes last night. Not much in the way of disguise there.
For god’s sake, Allen’s assignments is the same as last year, he did not switch position, only the name changed. I also think it’s too early to say what Chaney’s best position is.
And finally I simply refuse to believe for one second that any NFL coach even think the slightest about bloodline. The only people thinking about that is the fans constantly beating on Casey for not being his brother. He’s a 4th round pick, not 1st round like his brother. He’s a 4-3 linebacker. Not a pass rushing 3-4 outside linebacker.
Casey was handed the stating job because Castillo and most likely Andy too, liked what they saw from him on tape and thought he would be a good fit for the scheme. If it turns out he’s not ready to be the starter it’s a good thing there’s is still some guys available on the streets. Or Chaney can be moved to the middle
Can you let me know your thoughts on that 9 yard scamble by Big Ben off the quick snap?
I’m hoping that was a huge mistake by the defense and not a deisgn flaw….because the wide 9 – if the LB’s aren’t in the gaps, looks like it could be run on all day….well maybe even if they are in the gaps – and suck…
Tommy
would you take a flyer on Lofa Tatupu? The fact he hasn’t signed with anyone yet might be causing concerns, but maybe teams just wait to sign him before week 1 in order to avoid guaranteeing him a full season’s salary?!
This is just the optimist in me, but the D worried me less than it might have. This is a Defense which will struggle against power offenses like Pittsburgh, especially if the Eagles are playing from behind. We will never be a good team against short throws and power running due the scheme and personnel.
If the O hadn’t been so terrible, the D would have been able to play to their strengths and not their weaknesses. I am far more concerned about how bad Vick looked than anything else – from all I’ve heard about him having a super camp this year it sure didn’t show it last night.
Ok, I’ll refrain from pushing the panic button but it is hovering ever so slightly above.
One thing that caught my attention during the game is that the commentators pointed out that Tomlin really got on his players to play well after the Washington game.
My belief (really hope at this point) is that the game simply meant more to the Steelers than the Eagles. They needed to win while the Eagles more-or-less were more laxadasical with their approach.
(But that defense was pathetic even if that was the case. UGLY)
Vick needs to understand that going 3 and out and punting is not the end of the world. Sometimes u won’t get much goin till the 2nd half, big deal. He gets frustrated when he can’t get things going and he starts trying too hard to make somthin happen.
A lot of mistakes are correctable, but lack of physical ability (Matthews’ inability to get off blocks, Dunlap not being able to pull) aren’t.
Kurt Coleman just doesn’t seem strong enough to start against physical teams. Coleman definitely plays physical, but he doesn’t lay the wood. It wouldn’t shock me to see Jarrett start sooner, rather than later. Jarrett never had any issues around the box.
More LB speculation Tommy, but are we even sure Chaney would do well as MLB in this scheme? Is he good at getting off block etc.?
Also if we were to have our starters be Fokou – Chaney – Clayton, would Clayton take Chaney’s role of covering TE’s from SLB and Fokou stay at WLB or would it be the more “traditional” roles with Clayton at WILL and Fokou at SAM?
Not sure whay Asante would jump a route when he knows he has no help behind him. A veteran should not make that mistake. I love Asante, but at times, his mouth is better than his play.
Also, Matthews will be a good LB, but he’s been exposed. Yes, having Patterson and Dixon in there to take on the guards would help some, but teams are going to scheme to attack him now. Time to sign a Kirk Morrison or another veteran to help Matthews along and leave Chaney and Moises in at SLB and WLB.
And finally what is wrong with Nate Allen? You’d think he was a rookie….he was routinely out of place last night. Kurt looked like the second round pick and Nate like the 7th.
I know it’s preseason, but man I have never seen a team so dominated in every part of the game like last night.
Yeah, I echo the feelings on Nate Allen. Maybe it’s just because FOX replayed that play where he had a clear shot at Ben Rothlesbooger but hesitated and they scored.
I have a feeling people who didn’t like Matthews starting before preseason don’t like him now and refuse to like him in the future. Get off the “bloodline” stuff. This hurts your argument and makes you look like a TATEr. Nobody – NOBODY – thinks he’s his brother. Casey was a good LB in college and is the kind of high-IQ, high-motor guy Juan thinks will succeed in this position. He might be wrong. He might be right. This has NOTHING to do with Clay.
@Tommy
Not sure if that play when Ben ran for a mile up the middle was a design flaw of Wide 9. It seems odd to me that our middle LOS was wide open, not just that play but in a number of snaps. They purposely lined up the DL to both sides which was not commonly seen.
The LB needs to come up to the line to stop the run up the middle. Or only one side of DL is on Wide 9 position, like how Titans ran it. A big DT in the middle would also help, which can be put in when Patterson returns or some of our DT to fill that role. I should think this can be fixed.
– Nate Allen: First “real” game since the patella injury. He looked hesitant. We’ll see what happens when he gets his confidence back. I do agree that he was terrible last night
– Asante Samuel. That was NOT his fault. We rushed 6 guys there (Allen was a free runner). If Nate doesn’t jump, Ben gets hit and they don’t score. Asante played within the defense. Ironically, if Samuel doesn’t play tight, Brown breaks off into a slant and gets an easy first down.
JO said: “Not sure whay Asante would jump a route when he knows he has no help behind him. A veteran should not make that mistake. I love Asante, but at times, his mouth is better than his play.”
I think Nate Allen was really the one to blame on the first Steelers TD. The D was running an overload blitz, so Asante was looking for the ball to come out early. And the design of the blitz did get a free runner headed straight at Big Ben. But instead of taking his free run at the QB to make him throw the ball or take evasive action, Nate Allen slowed up and jumped as high as he could in the air when he saw Ben pump fake, eliminating the pass rush and leaving Asante out to dry.
(It kind of makes you wonder if all the stories about Castillo emphasizing tipped passes so much in camp had anything to do with Allen’s decision on that play.)
@Kevin, I thought DRC was the free blitzer who jumped on that play, but I agree with your overall point about Asante.
@Steve
DRC blitzed on the right side of the D (was picked up by the the RB). Allen was a free runner from the left side of the D. If he doesn’t jump, he hits Ben (maybe even before he throws the ball). You’re taught never to jump but to keep your hands up. Unfortunately, your natural instinct is to jump.
FYI, I’m not a fan of DRC as a blitzer. He’s not physical enough.
High motor doesn’t do Jack at MLB. If you are ONLY making hustle plays at MLB you are not long for the middle.
If teams scheme to attack our MLB they will see they just need a lineman in the vicinity of him b/c he can’t get off blocks when he actually tries to take them on. He was constantly shooting the wrong gap and taking himself out of plays and trying to run around blocks instead of taking them on.
I could give a flying #2 about motor if you suck. MLB sucked last night. Just like Allen sucked.
Coleman isn’t big enough to be in the box as a run stopper(SN: if coleman is going to start please tell me why we didn’t even try to keep Mikell, Coleman is just a slower less experienced version of Mikell that has no “Hit Power” just like Mikell). Play Jarrett or Page and tell Nate to focus on coverage.(which he wasn’t good at last night either).
I’m not even going to talk about the O other than to say the OL was better than I expected. And Should we really have to tell Vick to run/dump it off/throw it away if a team drops 8 into coverage? The O will be fine. Once we actually scheme it always is with Andy/MM.
Castillo doesn’t seem to have a sense of the moment with blitzing. I could give a basic assessment of what we were doing on D on about 95% of the snaps, I know its Vanilla but not good at all. I have a feeling Vet QBs are going to give Castillo problems for the better part of the season. Not good for games vs Giants, Cowboys.
Joe Buck sounds like death, I think it’s time to pull him and let him get his voice back. I thought Bradshaw was drunk. Have you ever heard 3 people who wanted to be at a preseason game less then those 3 last night. Awful production by FoxSports.
I can sense it already. Matthews is the new goat of Eagles fans. It won’t matter how well he plays in the future, because Eagles fans can close the book on him after one half of one preseason game played horribly by the whole team.
Matt D,
Let’s not forget to add Nate Allen to that list.
I am not sure Matthews is the answer. All night long he just couldn’t get off blocks. Nate Allen didn’t play well, looked like he was aways a step behind.
Not a big Juan Castillo fan. I was very surprised that we did not go after a real defensive coach for the coordinator position. However, I will defer to Reid’s decision for a little while. To me, he is overmatched. The screaming anf yelling and pacing the sidelines are theatrics best saved for position coaches. In my opinion, I want a more cerebral and caclulating coordinator.
Also, the whole Casey Matthews “bloodline” thing is only front and center because Juan Castillo keeps talking about it. Every chance he gets, he is talking about how “the dinner table conversations went in the Matthews house”. I don’t think it is a TATEr thing at all. Also, not sure about this wide nine stuff. It looks like we will get hammered on run defense. What happens when we don’t jump out to an early lead and a tema like the Giants are playing with us, not from behind. I think Brandon Jacobs has got to be drooling looking at our tiny defensive unit, he is bigger than some of our defensive tackles.
@Kevin,
You’re right. For some reasons I thought it was DRC that jumped.
I remember watching in real time and the second I saw Allen (who I thought was DRC) jump, I knew we were in trouble.
I agree with you about DRC blitzing, but: (1) I think he can get better with coaching and expirience, and (2) I’m hoping they have some different stuff planned where they use Nnamdi differently, but aren’t showing it in the preseason.
Cliff —
It’s not that people are expecting Casey to be as good as Clay. They play a different game.
It’s that Casey has been handed a starting job right from the get-go, unseating a guy who impressed down the stretch last year, and his defensive coordinator can’t stop talking about the family dinner conversations the Matthews’ have.
Matt D – I don’t blame Casey; he was 4th rd pick who some people thought was picked earlier than he should due to his lack of athleticism, size/speed getting off blocks and overall lack of great talent. It’s 100% Juan’s undeniable dreams of getting a chance to sit at the Mathews dinner table, his lack of understanding that with the Wide 9 the MLB NEED’s to stop the run(ideally athletic, fast and obviously having a knack for getting off blocks) and his liking Casey’s instants and leadership TOO much.
Chaney on the other hand proved last year to most commentators and people watching that he has definite Pro Bowl potential as a MLB. He also fits the basic
requirements as a MLB for this defensive scheme.
You’d be surprised how often coaches fall in love with a player and are blinded from reality. Casey is what he is Juan’s the one most people(at least outside the Philly area) see as the problem. For his Juan’s sake, he at least deserves a dinner invite from the Mathews though.
Watched the game again. Matthews was worse than I expected. We should play Jordan-Chaney-Fokou, our best 3 LBs. Even better we should of got Tulloch for the peanuts Detroit had to pay him.
Could be just my perception, but when I look at Juan Castillo it always seems that he has that deer in headlights look and is running around screaming and encouraging players. That is not what derfensive coordinator should be doing. I guess I kind of took consolation with his hiring, thinking that he was just going to be the figurehead puppet for a Jim Washburn run defense.
Sorry, forgot putting name. But Juan really does deserve a dinner with the Mathews for doing everything in his powers to make Casey a starter. He’s more than showed his affection for their son.
Are Eagles fans too much in love with Nate Allen? Last year he really made no plays except for a couple of interceptions that were thrown right to him. Then there was last night’s preseason game against the Steelers!
Off topic. What happens to Lybia after Khadafi leaves?
Relax, everyone. I was kind of upset last night until I thought of “When We Were Kings,” the documentary about the 1974 Ali/Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle.” Back when Ali was training for this fight, observers were concerned that his sparring partners were constantly getting the best of him. What they didn’t know, however, was that Ali was purposely exposing his weaknesses and working on them, making him a stronger, better fighter in the process. This strategy allowed him to recapture the heavyweight title from the heavily-favored George Foreman on a sweltering night in Zaire.
The Eagles are doing the same thing here. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself today to make myself feel better about last night’s beatdown.
Could it be that the Eagles already knew that Chaney could play middle linebacker and that they were just trying to:
A: Get Mathews some Experience
B:Get Chaney more experience in coverage
C: Motivate Jordan
D: Give themselves time to work a deal for a MLB
E: Throw off the Rams trying to scheme for game 1
F: Anything but actually start Mathews in a real game
People hated on Casey before we picked him and before Juan was talking about the dinner table.
I also don’t think that a guy like Brandon Jacobs will get the best of us. As I saw it last night, the problem was that their RB were at the line quite fast and we didn’t catch them in the backfield. Jacobs is not exactly a speedster so we might catch him in the backfield
I feel our defense is set up to play when we have a lead – just rush the passer…and when we play from behind we are going to have a problem…fail to understand why would you put a rookie MLB though all of training camp especially when Chaney played the position so well last season – truly a dumb decision…I have no faith in Castillo
PS: Morton – I love reading your comments – you always show me the other end of the spectrum
Tommy – do u think we pick up Kirk Morrison? If not who do you think will be on the Eagles radar?the Raiders seem to have quite a few injuries…any chance we trade maybe a CB to get one of their players?
@nicolajNN
It’s not about disliking Casey, I thought he was 1 of the top three 4-3 MLB’s in the draft and would have been perfect for the Eagles past defensive scheme. Now the DT’s job isn’t geared primarily to stopping the run like b4 and Casey isn’t the fastest, strongest or greatest at shedding blocks in order to get to the RB. It just might have not been the right draft for the Eagles to draft him(or a player of his skill set’s).
@ name
Oh. I see. Juan Castillo is the goat.