Tuesday Q&A
Posted: August 21st, 2012 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 42 Comments »I’m still working my way through the game. I’m getting a lot of questions that can be addressed without me finishing so I’ll address the hot topics right here.
Is Phillip Hunt a lock for the roster? You need to change the way you think about Hunt. He is no longer a fringe guy trying to play his way on the roster. Hunt is now part of the team, the same as Trent Cole, Nate Allen, or Evan Mathis. Hunt is an Eagle. At this point, he’s the #3 DE on the team. There might have been a battle between he and Darryl Tapp at one point, but that’s ancient history. It’s right there with the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Battle of Copenhagen. History. And Hunt is playing the role of Lord Nelson.
What happens with Tapp? The Eagles will keep him through at least next week. They’ll want him to play on Friday night. After that, I would think the Eagles would start shopping him around the league. Have to hold him in case someone gets injured. Darryl Tapp is a good player. Problem is that you want Cole/Babin/Hunt/Graham on the field. Curry is the developmental DE (who is actually pretty ready to play). Tapp is just the odd man out. If the top 5 are good to go after 3 games, I think you start shopping Tapp. I don’t think he’s good enough to start in the league, but he can be a valuable backup. Should be worth a pick.
I don’t think the Eagles will keep him as 6th DE. His only value would be if you played him. Tapp makes too much to be inactive. You could play him over Graham, but I think that would be dumb. I’d rather have Graham on the field.
What was Castillo doing last night? The Eagles blitzed a lot on 3rd downs. The Pats ran screens and had good success. Castillo was getting out-coached, right? That depends. My guess is that Castillo was working on the Eagles blitz package. If so, then you don’t blame him a bit. The defense must have a chance to work on blitzes. They can’t do them against our OL because the line has seen them over and over. The element of surprise is gone. You need to see them against another team.
Now, if Castillo thought the blitzes were the solution to the screen game, then he would be completely at fault. I doubt that is the case. The fact we kept doing very similar blitzes on 3rd/longs, but with different players on the field made it feel as though it was more of a practice plan. Let’s see which players execute the blitz the best. Let’s see what we need to work on.
I know this notion will drive some people nuts. Why do that if NE is going to burn the D? That’s why you don’t obsess on results in the preseason. You are working on elements of your game. You’re not totally focused on the opponent and what he’s doing. The preseason is all about getting ready for the regular season. Better to see what parts of the blitz work/don’t work now so you can adjust them by September.
Bryce Brown vs Chris Polk? Brown in a landslide. I love Polk’s heart and effort. He is doing everything possible to make this roster. The problem is that he’s an effort guy at RB. You can find those guys all over the place. I don’t want it to come across that Polk isn’t talented. He does have some talent. He’s just not special in any way, aside from effort. If the NFL allowed 60 man rosters, keeping a guy like Polk would be great. I just don’t think you can justify him on the Eagles roster. Andy doesn’t use his RBs very well. Having a situational player like Polk would be a waste of a spot.
Last night Paul Domowitch tweeted out that he’s heard from scouts that Polk won’t make it onto the Eagles practice squad. Some other team will claim him. That’s just a chance you have to take. Unless…if the Eagles can talk Polk into having surgery on something (shoulder?), he can go to IR. If he isn’t injured or isn’t getting surgery of some sort, can’t go to IR. I think Polk would want to try and play this year, to catch on with another team. Reason someone else would want him is injuries. We’re suddenly deep at RB. Teams like GB are scrambling to find RBs.
Update on FB spot? Stanley Havili made his move last night. He had a good lead block on Shady’s TD run. Didn’t kill the LB, but had to move to get to the right spot and then drew a stalemate. That worked. Havili had a good run up the gut to set up the score. He had a good hit on punt coverage. Had a good block (almost 2) on Boykin’s long KOR. Havili had an impressive chip block on pass play. Knocked DT to the ground. Finally, someone stepped up and showed that he deserved the job. He’s no lock, but that performance was very impressive and gives him a great chance to be the FB.
What was going on between Reid/Jenkins? We don’t know the specific subject that set Andy off, but a few observant readers wondered if a screen pass was the issue. A few plays prior to the incident, there was a screen where Jenkins gave up pursuit very quickly. I don’t think he had any chance to affect the play, but it might have bothered Andy to see the lax effort.
One thing I do believe is that Andy is pissed at his team right now. The starters weren’t good vs PIT. They came out sloppy vs the NE 1’s/2’s. I think Andy was frustrated in part due to last year and the 1-4 start where we were plagued by sloppy mistakes. He is trying to get this team to wake up and avoid that kind of football. If we had just won one extra game in the early stretch, we’re NFC East champs. Didn’t happen, though.
My guess is that Andy is trying to push some buttons to get the team fired up. Last summer we beat the Ravens in an ugly PS opener. The Steelers then dominated our starters. In the third game we beat CLE, but it wasn’t a great showing. Our backups then got the best of the Jets backups in the finale. We were 3-1, but there were all kinds of warning signs.
Andy didn’t know that team very well (due to the lockout and all the new guys). This year he knows the team. He is more willing to push buttons and try different things. He is not going to let the team continue to be sloppy. And the team did respond well. After the shouting incident, we dominated the rest of the way.
Why didn’t Andy yell at Castillo? Some people have mistaken the fact that Andy yelled at Washburn to mean that he was looking to get on his coaches. Andy went over to get on his DL. Wash interceded on their part and that led to him getting yelled at. If Andy wanted to go after coaches, he would have done that and Castillo would have gotten some criticism.
The key point from Andy seems to have been about effort and intensity. That’s all on the players. That’s why Andy was going after his DL to start with. Again…if this was about gameplans and playcalls…Juan would have gotten yelled at.
LT update? King Dunlap played well enough to keep his job. I thought he had a good showing. Not great, but good. I have yet to really study the 2nd half, beyond a couple of drives, so I can’t talk as much about Bell. He began well, but things got sloppier as the game went on. That should not have happened. Very curious to see what happened.
Did Jai-Jar play? Yes. He played some in the 2nd half. I didn’t focus on him. Did his job on a short pass into the right flat and the ball fell incomplete. Jai-Jar was in the right spot and ready to tackle the guy for minimal gain. Sounds small (and it is), but at least he did something right. The coaches can find something positive. You’ve got to do anything you can to rebuild the young man’s confidence.
DeMeco Ryans? The thing I love is that he can actually shed blocks with his hands. He will aggressively engage blockers, but he can consistently win the battle. There were some coverage plays where you could see that he’s not a speedster anymore. I thought he was good vs inside runs.
Backup OL update? Bell-Vandy-Vallos-Reynolds-Kelly. I was surprised, but happy to see Steve Vallos as the backup C. I wrote last week that he just seems like a Mudd guy. Reynolds did not impress me last week. I only saw a bit of Vallos. Will watch him closely. I’m hoping he took advantage of his chance to win a job. Vandy was much better at LG than last week at C.
Is it okay to get excited over Nick Foles? Abso-friggin-lutely. He leads the NFL in passer rating. It is easy to get nervous after the way that Bobby Hoying or Kevin Kolb turned out not to be stud QBs. Difference is that Foles is just 2 games into his career. Neither one of them started like this. Hoying’s great games came in November of his 2nd season. Kolb had an impressive rookie preseason (QB rating of 87.7, 617 yds, 2 TDs, 0 INTs), but wasn’t nearly as impressive as Foles.
Is the 3 TE idea dead? Sure looks that way. Brett Brackett had a good camp. He’s been more up and down in the PS games. I think a year on the practice squad will help him a lot. Get bigger, stronger. Work on his blocking. Could be 3rd TE in 2013. Still like long term potential. Just doesn’t look ready right now.
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Gimpy posted his MAQB column, with some good presason thoughts. Check it out.
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Just saw the Foles video you linked to on twitter. Foles seems to going to his progression really fast and seems able to lead the receivers with the ball, but one thing for sure, we will never mistake his arm for McNabb or Vick.
Also kinda weird seen a QB for the Eagles just stand in the pocket.
yea i keep seeing in a lot of places that he has great arm strength, but on the INT in the RZ, it looked like he severely underthrew maclin. had he gotten that ball up another couple of yards, it might have been an easy TD.
I dont think the int was because of arm strength, because there was a good zip on it and a perfect spiral. It was simply a matter of him not seeing the safety.
I agree. It certainly didn’t look like he couldn’t have put another 5 yards on it, just a mistake in decision making or in execution but not ability.
People questioned Tom Brady’s arm strength and the first thing Charlie did when he got to New England was bulk him up some.
That ball was under thrown and he didn’t see the safety. Even if the ball wasn’t picked, the ball was at least 5 yards short. I can’t tell if Foles likes to finesse passes or just doesn’t have a great arm because he doesn’t generate alot of arm speed and all of his deep throws have been under thrown slightly.
Did anyone else notice how many plays Nate Allen was in? I have been his biggest critic since he was drafted, but he looked very good on Monday. I hope this is the year he makes the leap.
The defense was very sloppy but showed hints of dominance. The Dline was getting lots of pressure, Kendricks looked like a DROY candidate, and DRC was making plays. Bad penalties and got schemed by one of the top teams in the NFL made the defense look bad at times. The good thing is that it is preseason.
God, I love Boykin. What a great pick.
I also think Kendricks can be a DROY candidate, problem is right now he is competing against Luke Kuechly
Here is the Foles vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjbiitXJ_I
I love the pass to Celek @ 5:20 in
i’m sure you will cover this in the DGR, but what the heck happened on the play where vick got hurt?
it looked like mathis got beat, and beat pretty hard. i will give him some credit, though. he held the crap out of that guy to slow him down (i’m assuming to protect the QB). i’ll take a penalty over an injured QB anyday.
at the same time, it looked like herremans was driving his guy deep when vick started to scramble backwards. just happened to go right into the line of fire.
at first, i wanted to ask why herremans didnt hold his guy to prevent a big hit on the QB, but i’m guessing that he probably didnt think vick would be back that far…
Kelce says he was supposed to help Mathis if the LB was on the other side, but Mathis read it wrong and expected Kelce to help out but the LB was on the wrong side. It was all on Mathis. Vick looped around the sack, came up looking downfield, saw DeSean coming open and though he could make the throw. An aggressive play by the QB, but I don’t know how you teach him NOT to make that play, it’s all bang bang, you’d like to have him just throw it away but not sure he was out of the pocket.
I’ll cover this in the DGR. austinfan is right about mis-communication between Kelce, Mathis. Evan says it is his fault and has been up front with taking the blame.
I’ll fully explain the play in the DGR.
RE: Castillo
I know you are the ultimate optimist, but wow, that is the most optimistic view on Castillo you could possibly come up with. I just don’t buy it is that simple. Sure, Castillo could be working on a few things with his defense, but it is clear based on AR yelling at his players that the Eagles also wanted to have some success in this game. There is no way AR was OK with getting torched multiple times on 3rd down by screen plays because we were “practicing blitzing.” I certainly don’t think you dump a DC after a preseason game as some fans have been suggesting, but let’s face it, that was not a good showing by Castillo and regardless of what Castillo was hoping to do last night, he was out coached by McDaniels.
There’s a simple way to defend screens, don’t blitz.
But there’s an obvious draw back there.
It’s one of the thing you try to teach players, look for the keys for the screen, and for this group it’s more important because Washburn teaches them to be so aggressive off the snap, they have less time to react.
Though Hunt had a great hustle play on one screen where he made the tackle on the 12 and possibly saved a TD. Impressive combination of hustle and speed.
AR doesn’t care about winning preseason games, Eagles have gone 1-3 a number of years – only losing franchises worry about winning these games because they need confidence and to sell tickets. If they decided they needed to blitz, and the players needed to learn to read screens, then they would have continued to blitz.
Austinfan . . . . generally speaking, I agree.
But, in the past few seasons, I think some teams have become so proficient in the screen game that blitz or no blitz, screens work.
For (a most painful) example . . . in the 2008 NFC Title Game, the Cardinals had 3rd & 8 at the Eagles 8 yard line. Todd Haley — the Cards OC — calls a screen to the left (like Charlie Weiss did over and over again in the 2004 SB with great success), anticipating a blitz I guess.
Jim Johnson crossed up Haley and called a zone coverage.
Regardless, Tim Hightower — on his only catch of the day — threaded his way through the Eagles’ defense for the go ahead TD.
Im with Tommy here. Had it been the play calling Castillo would have been yelled at. I think AR was mad at the DL for selling out and not recognizing the screen (Just because the play call is a blitz does not mean you have to sell out and not try to recognize the screen)
Yep. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Andy yelled at the DL knowing that Wash would step into the line of fire and the players would have to see the two coaches they respect so much yelling at each other because of their effort.
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the truth. I would be very surprised if we ever learned that it was the truth.
Between the Vick injury and the Patriots resting their starters this game seems difficult to evaluate. We haven’t seen the true starting offense click yet, and the defense still looked sloppy to start.
True. It is hard to get a feel for the team. The defense did tackle well and the blown assignments/confusion from last week went away. The offense got better as Foles played.
You do wonder if Vick will have any issues in the real games or if he can just flip the switch and be ready to go.
Let’s calm down about Foles, he was 8 for 16 in the 1st half for 75 yards, 1 TD, 1 Int and another interception dropped. Mike Kafka can do that for you! Came out against the NE scrubs in the 3rd Q and lite it up, 10-12 (including a McCoy drop), 145 yards, but with much better talent than on the other side of the ball.
He showed some real nice flashes, saw the field, did a good job of placing the ball where his receivers could make easy catches, for the most part felt the pressure and moved in the pocket without panicking. On the other hand, still has a problem with his deep throw, seems he throws it better under pressure, when he has time thinks too much and gets his mechanics screwed up and underthrows the ball. Like most young QBs, he stares down his receivers too much.
He has a good but not great arm, shows more athleticism than expected (has Rubin got his hands on Foles?), and better accuracy (did they rework his mechanics from college?). But remember Eli, who has similar skills, needed four years to become above average and six years to approach elite status. So be prepared for some serious growing pains.
Brown is very talented, now comes the hard work, teaching him how to run like a NFL RB, and not try and bounce outside – for one thing, he’s not Lewis or Shady, he’s 225 lbs, probably be 230 lbs by this time next year (he’s only 21) and needs to learn how to use his size – run over a safety or two and your dekes become more effective as they plant their feet to brace for contact. And his pass blocking needs a lot of work.
Havili also whiffed on a run block to the left in the 3 Q, he’s not as impressive as Emil as a blocker, and I’m not sure I keep either over Polk.
Brackett needs a year on the PS to add more strength and work on blocking, he’s useless in line though he did make a couple move blocks.
Dixon is on the wrong team, Tapp is on the right team at the wrong time.
Ryans never was a speedster, ran a 4.65 at the combine, might have lost a step but that was never his strong suit, but Chaney ran a 4.51 and is slower on the field.
Marsh looks like he’s picking up CB, or Stallworth is finished, or both.
Why do you want Polk have Havili? Polk would never get a carry behind Shady, Lewis and Brown.
I also thought alot about Eli Manning when I watched Foles. Seems to have the same toughness in he pocket, even tho Manning was more easy to rattle then Foles seems to be right now.
I know AR, Doug and MM have worked alot on Foles foot work this summer and most of a QBs accuracy comes from having the correct footwork.
I wish there was a way to keep Polk. I like the way he plays, and when he had his few back to back plays, he really got fired up. He is tough as nails, and can drag some guys.
There was one run where he was in the middle of a pile of like 6 guys, and he moved the whole pile with him, and he seems to relish contact.
He is the exact opposite of the speed shiftiness of the rest of our backfield.
Think about this: Desean, Demaris, Lewis on the field at the same time…that group can run under a table.
Re: Cliff Harris
T-Law —
I’ll await your DGR, but I didn’t see him last night at CB or PR. Lot’s of Lindley and Hughes in the 2nd half and Gilyard at PR.
Has Harris fallen out of favor?
Or is the team building a public case for other teams to let him pass through final cut-downs and onto the Eagles practice squad?
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And — as the late Whitey Ashburn would say — “How ’bout that Philip Thomas?” He seems to have made more plays than J-Jar in his limited preseason game time.
Thomas is built like true SS. And he seems to have a nose for the ball. But because the Pats basically ran-out the clock in the 4th Q, I don’t remember seeing Thomas having much of an opportunity to show off his pass-coverage skills and knowledge of the scheme.
REMEMBER DWIGHT HICKS.
I thought Cliff Harris was out with an injury
This year the Eagles want Michael Vick to do several things he has never done before. He needs to slide and avoid big hits, he needs to get rid of the ball quickly, he needs to be able to read defenses better with particular attention to pre snap reads, and he needs to make quick decisions as to when to run and not spend a lot of time avoiding the pressure only to finally pull the ball down and run. He needs to know when to throw the ball away. Well, all this new stuff seems to have him confused. He does not seem relaxed out there. His pocket presence has been lacking and his performance has been lackluster. Maybe all this new stuff is more than he can handle. After all he needed to do and tried to do all the same things last year and ended up having a pretty bad year – at least for turnovers and injuries. Just look at Foles. He may not be ready to be a starter but he has shown more confidence, poise and pocket presence than not only Kafka but Vick. Foles and Edwards have shown that they know when to throw the ball away. Kafka and Vick have not. Are the Eagles asking Vick to do too much? Has Kafka shown that he has the arm and pocket presence to be an NFL quarterback – starter or backup?
Really good stuff. You brought up a couple of points I hadn’t considered. I really hope you’re right about the blitzing as that gave me fits last night. It’s nice to see two weeks in a row our D do well on 1st and 2nd down, but it is all for naught if we can’t get them off the field. One person I haven’t seen/ heard anything about is Kevin Thomas. The move to bring him in didn’t get much buzz, but he seemed an ideal fit for what they want to do on D, and he was a former 3rd round pick and has starting experience. Is he just stuck so far down the depth chart that he hasn’t had a chance to show anything, or is he still a step slower due to his injury from his rookie season? I’d be interested in seeing if he gets any time in the two upcoming games to see what he can do.
Finally got around to watching the first half, man that was a brutal half in a lot of respects, but holy smokes Mychal Kendricks can fucking play. He was everywhere in that first half and was looking good while doing it. I loved the first screen pass (I think it was the 2nd play of the game) where he took his blocker and drove him into the runners path to stop the gain. Awesome play. He’s fast too, looks real good on blitzes.
I’m really excited about our draft class this year, every one of our first 5 picks is looking hot out of the gate, plus Damaris Johnson and Bryce Brown are looking like players too. Could end up being the best draft class of the Andy Reid era.
Agree on Castillo. The blitz calls seemed scripted and there was no attempt to hide the blitzes. Not to say it isn’t discouraging that the Patriots just showed the world that the Eagles have a pretty hard time defending screens out of a blitz but that is a mild worry for the preseason.
Agree on Ryans BUT I believe the Patriots had him isolated on three separate occasions on a WR. Once he was burned. Once he defended the play beautifully. And the third time I think it was completed but for minimal gain or maybe it was a bad pass? Can’t remember that one. Either way, very pleased with his performance. Not many teams use players like NE or have players like an Edelman.
I think Tapp will be traded as well but if not, I can still see him on the roster. I know it is a lot to pay a player to be on the bench but the other players at that end of the roster just seem like jags.
On Jai-Jar, actually this is, IMO, very good news. If he is ever going to be a player in the NFL, he first needed to get some confidence. It seemed like in the first game he was completely messed up from the beginning….where am I supposed to be? Should I move up? Should I move back? Everything he did was wrong. If was where he need to be in game #2, then maybe he can build on that and stop thinking so much.
Not mentioned but very interested in how Rolle looked. To me, I was very pleased. Looked like he was playing his position and played in control. Much improved.
Here are a few of my random thoughts….
* Kendricks was all over the field. Good to see him used on a blitz, showed good speed, made tackles, and he was always around the ball. Looks like we finally hit on a 2nd round lb.
* On one play, (2:46 mark on this Foles clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjbiitXJ_I) King blocked down on the DT, and Danny Watkins pulled from his RG spot to knock an outside rusher from the left side. He got enough of him to knock him down and out of the play.
A couple of plays later, NE was stunting their DTs. He cleaned up the LDT right in front of him, then when the RDT worked around he knocked him over as well.
Good to see some improvement from him.
* I am afraid that B.Graham is just not that good. He looks great in one-on-ones, but too many times he seems to get stonewalled in the game. I mean just stood up, and it is over. Vick is not a practice player, but shows up in games. It seems to me that Brandon is the opposite. Maybe it is not fair because we got Cole, Babin and Hunt who are all lighting it up, or lit it up last year, and the expectations of DE is a lot higher.
* Speaking of DE, which is our deepest position, why the heck do we keep putting Jenkins and Cox out there? We put our DEs at the DT spot, and our DTs at the DE spot.
* I noticed on a few plays where the ball was snapped, and Dixon took a good second or two before he started moving. I don’t care that he is big, he is not playing like a guy that we would keep too many DTs on the roster to keep him.
* Get Patterson healthy. This skull thing has me nervous, when he is cleared to play, it will take him a little time to get in playing shape. Most 53 man projections are trying to keep as many d-linemen as possible and just putting Patt on PUP to accomplish that. This is 2012, we can put a man on the moon you would think we can make him a special helmet or something. Landri is a good story, but better off the bench. Cedric is not a run stuffer, Dixon sucks. We need a run stuffer in there and he is a guy that we will seriously miss when he is gone.
* I still have a hard time wrapping my head around pre-season. I cannot stand the Eagles getting beat on a play. I can’t even play Madden because it is close enough to reality to ruin my day if it is not a blow out. In retrospect, practicing blitzes even when tactically it doesn’t make sense sounds like a good line of thinking and should help me feel better.
* Reid letting his guard down in press conferences, chewing out players on national tv, not to mention getting Banner out of the front office. One side of me thought we were in full blown melt down phase, the other was glad to see someone giving a crap about it all. Maybe this will be the year that Reid is loved instead of just tolerated.
That is all I got,
Mike
Good thoughts. One correction, I don’t think we can put a man on the moon any longer. We no longer have space craft to do so. Still, if Patt were perscribed a mixture of Rogaine, Kevlar, and spider silk proteins, I would think a helmet would just serve as decoration.
Maybe he can become one of “Barry’s Kids.” Take some HGH and grow more skull…
Maybe if they didn’t put a man on the moon we would be happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vquDkTw-G-4
I’ve got to stop reading Philly reporters. After a few articles, I thought the Patriots just rolled through our defense, which can’t stop anyone. Then I looked at the first half stats:
NE RBs – 18 carries for 36 yards
NE QBs – 13/27 142 1-0, 5.3 YPA, 2 sacks
Of those 27 attempts, 15 were to RBs, suggesting good coverage downfield.
Now it wasn’t against Brady and the TEs, but it was still a group of players about the same level of talent as Cleveland’s starting team. Too many silly penalties (though the call on Cox was ticky tacky), but it was a solid performance for preseason.
Real problem last year was coverage on RBs as well, but I think once the season start, the D will be better prepared for RB screens.
Also, just saw a video over at Bama’s site. Cox is doing nothing. Not impressed at all. No penetration. Not disruptive. Hope the entire game tape shows something more.
I think you just saw the cut up of the 3rd down D right?
Yep, just the cut up. That is why I hope the entire game tape shows something more.
I only did the cut up, never actually looked at the individual players, but when Tommy’s DGR comes, we should get a better idea.
Jimmy’s quote of calling Kendricks the “man beast” got me thinking… could his nickname be the minotaur? http://thebeastoftheeast.com/s/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=154
Tommy, Gimpy needs to get some burn on this site too. Love the MAQB column even if Gimpy gets ornery when you talk smack about the Pitt program.
He’s a good guy. Been friends for a while. Glad you guys enjoy his writing.
“I know this notion will drive some people nuts. Why do that if NE is
going to burn the D? That’s why you don’t obsess on results in the
preseason. You are working on elements of your game. You’re not
totally focused on the opponent and what he’s doing. The preseason is
all about getting ready for the regular season. Better to see what
parts of the blitz work/don’t work now so you can adjust them by
September.”
Thank you, Tommy. If more people understood this, they would have less heartburn over Eagles preseason games.