Skins Talk
Posted: November 16th, 2012 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 23 Comments »The Eagles will begin a 7-game win streak on Sunday by beating the Washington Redskins. In case you aren’t familiar with them, I thought I would share some info on their players and schemes.
The team was founded in 1808 by Irish monks. They sucked until George Allen came along and lost a Super Bowl with the Over the Hill Gang in the early 1970s. The Skins went back to being irrelevant until they hired Joe Gibbs in 1980. He delivered 3 Super Bowl trophies with 3 different starting QBs and RBs. That is amazing. Gibbs left after the 1992 season and the Skins ceased operations. Or maybe they kept playing, but were so bad no one cared. I can’t find any records of activity.
In April they drafted Robert Griffin III who has since earned the nickname of RG3and6. He looks like a great QB, but unfortunately has already begun to show his limitations. He hasn’t helped the run or pass defense this year. No TFLs, sacks, or INTs.
I kid, I kid. RG3and6 (I will abuse that nickname as long as I can) does look like a great player. One concern I had with him and the Skins offense was that they did a lot of creative stuff early on that people simply weren’t used to. They ran the option. They used the full house backfield (QB + 3 others). They threw all kinds of creative play-action passes.
September was great for them. The Skins averaged 31 points a game and looked like an offensive juggernaut. Since then, the team averages just 21 points a game and has been held to less than 20 points three times. The more game tape you put out there, the more defensive coaches and players will start to figure you out. Then it boils down to talent and execution.
The Skins have had some injuries that hurt them and they didn’t exactly start the season with elite playmakers. They had some talented guys, but players that weren’t so good coaches would have to gameplan against them. Losing Fred Davis and Pierre Garcon took a lot of bite out of the passing game. Santana Moss remains productive, but no one fears him.
The running game remains effective. Mike Shanahan can almost always run the ball. He sticks with it and knows how to get good blocking.
The defense is a mess. The Skins are at the bottom of the league in a lot of categories. Losing OLB Brian Orakpo really hurt them. Ryan Kerrigan now is the only front seven player that you really worry about. The secondary is somewhere between bad and awful.
Shanny’s goal with going with the 3-4 was to be creative with a blitz package and create lots of turnovers and big plays. The failure to cover well on the back end hurts the pass rush and has allowed teams to move the ball in big chunks. Just think about the play late in the Giants game. Eli hit Cruz for a long TD to win the game because the Safety was playing too close to the LOS and let the WR get behind him. That is horrible pass defense.
RG3and6 – Looks like the real deal. Accurate. Has been hurt by drops in several games this year. Dynamic runner. Explosive when he gets in space. Had a 76-yd TD run earlier. Still learning how to read NFL defenses. Makes plenty of rookie mistakes, but like our old buddy Donovan, he is protective of the ball. Only has 3 picks all year. (Vick laughs, “Shoot, I can do that in one game.”)
RB Alfred Morris – Violent runner. Doesn’t go down on first contact. Stays behind his pads. Can take hits or give them. Fun to watch, but not to tackle. Lacks the burst to deliver huge gains, but will move the chains.
WR Pierre Garcon – Sounds like he will play Sunday. Inconsistent hands, but outstanding RAC ability. Can deliver big plays. Had an 88-yd TD in the opener.
OL – Haven’t had a chance to study them in depth. LT Trent Williams looks like a stud at times. RT Tyler Polumbus is not a good player. Effective group, but they won’t be mistaken for the Hogs anytime soon.
OLB Ryan Kerrigan – Leads the team with 4.5 sacks. Great motor. Quick, relentless pass rusher. Picked off a pass and ran it back for a TD. (Nick…don’t throw it to this guy)
ILB London Fletcher – Alas, the end is near. One of my favorite non-Eagles. Simply a badass dude. In the opener a Rams player taunted him after a good play. London caused the guy to fumble on the very next play. Don’t run your mouth at this guy. Show respect and hope he’s in a good mood. Age is starting to catch up, though. London has been bothered by dizziness. His game has slipped due to this. The week off may have helped him. We’ll know the first time he knocks the crap out of an Eagle.
* * * * *
Jimmy Bama has some good Skins posts up.
Here is his look at the Skins use of the Sluggo route (slant & go).
Here is his Q&A with a Skins blogger. The guy picks the Eagles to win 38-34. 38 points? Does he mean this week or the season series?
* * * * *
For SB Nation Philly, I wrote about who is to blame for the mess known as the Eagles 2012 season so far.
I tried to pin it all on McNabb, Reno Mahe, and Rory Segrest, but couldn’t quite do it.
_
Do you really think Shanny has really thrown the towel in for re-evaluation? Or did the giant’s stumbling and bumbling plus the severe beating London Fletcher gave him change his mind?
I think Shanny was just mad when he made the comments. He wants to win. He’ll coach accordingly. Heck, he’s got a ton of young guys to play anyway. There’s only a few guys he could really bench. Haven’t seen it yet.
Foles gets a good opponent to make his first start against, weak defense and I believe ESPN had a stat that the Redskins have lost their last 8 games against rookie QBS(probably doesn’t mean anything, but interesting anyway).
Saw that stat and forgot to mention it. How weird is that? Who has a losing streak to rookies that covers multiple years?
Foles, just don’t play like Christian Ponder. More than all the field goals at the start. Just…don’t…melt…down. Don’t turn Madeiu Williams into a star. Don’t give the world’s worst fumble/interception return.
Do try to drive the ball downfield, got way better receivers than Ponder, but no Harvin to help out. Don’t try to nibble. That’s what Foles did against these guys, and that’s what Ponder did. They have a horrible secondary, and a short field really helps them, so the more bigger plays we have, the better the chances of TDs and wins.
This is a bit off topic, but relevant to your comments both here and on Twitter. You have mentioned that Mathis is legitimately good (the “legitimate” part implying he is not a product of the Mudd system, but could play well in any/most systems successfully). Can you expand on that? You use the fact that he was sought after in FA, but to me, that’s not exactly evidence enough. First off, if I remember correctly, only one other team really pursued him, and at the time, even you said he wasn’t a guy you HAVE to sign if there is competition for him. Second, the fact that a second team looked at him doesn’t necessarily provide proof that he would have succeeded in a different system, just that another team thought it may be possible. Before coming here though, I get the sense that Mathis was a journeyman and wasn’t all that good of an Olineman.
I will say, this may just be an issue of semantics. You’re clearly not arguing that he is a GREAT Olineman by any means. You’re simply saying he is legitimately good and will be a quality starter regardless of if we switch to a different scheme next season. To me, it is something that still remains to be seen, but I would definitely love to hear you expand upon your thoughts on him at some point (it may be a good end of the season/offseason topic rather than right now).
PFF again has Mathis rated as one of the top OGs in the league. He’s not playing as well this year, but he’s still among the best in the league. He’s a pure LG because he lacks in-line power, but is probably the best OG at making blocks on the second level due to his exceptional athleticism..
Ravens run a power blocking scheme, so the fact they were interested in Mathis tells you they saw him as capable of playing in multiple schemes.
Mathis would be adequate in a man scheme, but any blocking scheme where you don’t use him for combo blocks, screens, etc. where he can block on the second level (same with Kelce) would be a waste of his talent.
The first two parts I’m not really debating. I think he has been a good LG for us, under the Mudd system. I also think it is obvious that the Ravens believed in Mathis considering they offered him a contract. That doesn’t mean they were necessarily right. We have seen over and over and over again that teams will like a player, sign him, and when they let him play in their scheme, realize he is not a good fit for them and that player ends up being a FA bust. So to me, the fact that the Ravens showed interest doesn’t negate the fact that we can still debate whether or not he would be successful in a different scheme.
I think the evidence so far suggests that he benefits from Mudds system. That being said, I also acknowledge that the evidence is FAAAAAAAR from complete and there certainly is a very good possibility that Mathis has also simply improved as an Olineman overall and would in fact be successful in multiple schemes. Until he actually plays in a different one, we will not know for certain. Still, I think it would be interesting to hear some more arguments why he would or wouldn’t succeed in different schemes based on how he has improved since coming to the Eagles and how those improvements would be universal rather than scheme-specific.
T-Law:
“The Over the Hill Gang” . . . excellent!
Great stuff.
You asked in the previous post about a veteran DC for the future. If we hire an offensive guy, getting a veteran DC is needed, If we go for a defensive guy, he can hire a young coach to work with…would then need a veteran OC to run that side of the ball.
“Bothered by dizziness” sounds pretty scary, especially with all the evidence of brain trauma in retired players. Maybe it’s time to hang up the cleats for Fletcher
Interesting tidbit:
@ESPNNFL: @Redskins have lost 8 straight games against rookie starting QBs, longest streak since 1970. Next up: Nick Foles
Reason for winning the game!
T-Law:
I want Foles to roll the ‘Skins so I don’t have to hear “Hail to the Redskins” over and over again during the broadcast.
McNabb’s first career start was against the Redskins too. His passing stats were terrible, but we won. You look at the stats from the game and scratch your head and ask, “How did we score 35 pts?” 6 turnovers, a KOR TD, 4 FG’s and a 2 pt conversion (Probably the only one we ever made) will do the trick. And lots of rushing yards back when Andy knew what that was.
Great, great H2H show Tommy! I was literally laughing my ass off on the Captain Pike reference and the ‘Wheel of Reid Fortune’. That is priceless stuff! Thanks to you and Jimmy for keeping me laughing during this dismal season.
Thanks for the Rick Reilly nugget as well…I hadn’t heard of that. Unreal.
Foles stats:
65% completions
2 TDs
1 INT
1 sack
27 points
I’m heading back to my pond now…
lol, Reid never made a superbowl without Freddie Mitchell, priceless.
maybe it’s just me but if you’re a football player and you’re having problems with “dizziness” you might want to retire
When you are certainly sure that you will be losing against a 3-6 team you know that times are hard…
There’s no one on the Redskins that strikes fear into opposing players except maybe RG3and6. The only problem with that is that the Eagles have been doing an amazing job of making pedestrian players look like All-Pros. It’s maddening.
Tommy,
surely you mean its the start of an 11 game winning streak
The only teams in the NFL that have 5 game losing streaks are the Eagles and Cards, the two teams that have Andy Reid coached qbs. I know it don’t mean nothin’, I’m just pissed off that the Redskins are a 3.5 favorite.
Where did 3 and 6 come from? When I hear it I think of old money, 3 and 6 (i.e. 3 shillings and 6 pence or colloquially 3 and half bob) which was worth at the time of decimalisation just over 55 cents.
Redskins record is 3 and 6.