Q & A
Posted: September 21st, 2011 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 54 Comments »Here are answers to questions/comments from the DGR and in general.
Reid should have challenged the Hayden INT. I had a good professor in college that taught me a great phrase – Presentitis. That is using current knowledge to judge past events. We now know the Hayden INT was a critical moment. At that time in the game, it was less clear.
ATL led 14-10. Their offense had 103 total yards at that point. The previous offensive series featured a TFL, sack, and Matt Ryan scramble. It seemed like our defense had control of the game.
The INT happened at our 49. The Falcons needed 20 yards to get in FG range. “Letting” them have the ball with the INT guaranteed nothing. If Reid threw the flag and lost, we were down a timeout and out of challenges for the game.
Reid absolutely made the right call (based on what was known at the time) to not challenge. His decision looks foolish now because of a missed tackle by Moise Fokou that turned a dump pass into a 32-yd gain and the replay that NBC shared with the world 10 minutes too late. You can’t use presentitis when judging the event. You have to focus on what was known at that time.
But he should have trusted Jason Avant. I love Jason Avant to death, but he’s a player. You can’t trust those guys. They always want to challenge plays. The players don’t have to live with the consequences of the decision. The coach does. If there was a player to trust, it would be Jason, but I don’t blame Reid one bit for not listening to him.
Throwing the Hail Mary at halftime would have been risky…Vick could have been hit. Agreed. And that’s why I didn’t have a strong feeling about kicking the FG vs throwing the ball. I just found it odd to have the rookie try a 63-yd FG. If it were less than 60, that’s a no-brainer. I won’t complain about keeping Vick from getting hit on a low percentage pass play.
Who were the DTs on Turner’s long run? Cullen Jenkins was at LDT. I think Patt was the RDT.
How is Jenkins as a run defender? Pretty good. His specialty is getting penetration and making plays in the backfield or being disruptive. Jenkins isn’t going to take on double teams and hold his ground as well as Patt or Dixon. He doesn’t have that kind of bulk and it’s not his game. Jenkins isn’t a Darwin Walker type that struggles on run defense and gets blown off the ball.
Why didn’t Phillip Hunt play more? I’m not sure. As I said in the DGR, it could have been that Washburn went with the hot hand, since Cole was killing Baker. It also could be that he didn’t think Hunt was a good matchup against the Falcons, since they like to run the ball so much. I do agree he made a mistake in not using Hunt more. I think that will change the next time Hunt plays.
Eagles should have drafted Sean Lee. I love Sean Lee and would have been on Cloud 9 if that had happened. However, at the time the Eagles had Stewart Bradley on the mend and hoped he would return to his previous form. MLB wasn’t seen as a critical need at the time.
Does Ronnie Brown look slow? Can’t say I’ve noticed that. He’s gotten the ball in tough circumstances. The run for 11 yards was a good play that gave him a chance to get upfield. Other times he gets the ball and doesn’t seem to have much room. Ronnie is a downhill runner. He needs space to get going. He isn’t like LeDean where he can accelerate instantly.
What’s up with LB coaching in recent years? The LB coach was a guy named Bill Shuey. I can’t tell you a whole lot about him. I’m not sure if he’s got a job anywhere this year. Mike Caldwell is the new LBs coach. He was a good player for us and other teams about a decade ago. I think the old system was hard on LBs. They wanted complete players, but it is hard as heck to find those kind of LBs today. There aren’t enough good 4-3 LBs to go around.
Why did they move Chaney? I’ve touched on this quite a few times. The Eagles wanted to take advantage of his skill set. They felt like putting him at OLB would let him cover and use his speed. Also, SAM is an important position in the new scheme. Let’s remember that Chaney was the MLB in games vs MIN and GB at the end of the year when teams ran the ball on us. Having him at MLB doesn’t make the difference that people want to think it would.
Could the Eagles go with a 3-4 or some hybrid look? No. They’re sticking with the system and working on ways to improve it.
Why not play the Nickel more? The Eagles want to do that. The Rams and Falcons are power running teams. You can’t go Nickel vs them all game long, unless you have truly special personnel. The Eagles will play a lot of Nickel vs other teams where the matchup works better.
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New PE.com column is out. Thoughts on the Falcons/Eagles game.
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I posted a couple of video clips of Jason Peters doing his thing. He really is a fun LT to watch.
Does Ronnie Brown look slow?
Yes. When standing next to Lesean, Desean, Maclin, and Vick, he looks slow.
I asked that question and I admitted being used to Shady have an effect. Plus Brown hasn’t seen a lot of action.
I guess the Eagles felt they needed to change things up at LB. Chaney is now at MIKE, Casey at WIL, and Fokou at SAM. How should we read this move? Clearly they are not happy with what was happening at LB, but either they are not so down on any particular player to bench him or they don’t feel comfortable enough with any particular player to start him over what we presently have. I understand the logic that you have argued about Chaney at SAM, but to me, he looked a whole lot better at MIKE last year than at SAM so far this year. Of course, we aren’t comparing apples to apples because they are completely different schemes, but it certainly will be interesting to see how Chaney plays and obviously how Matthews and Fokou adjust to the new positions.
So they are our best 3 linebackers and they weren’t getting out of there lanes, rather preempting this move 😉
I’m terrified of Matthews in space covering an RB.
Might not be as bad as it seems. He did surprisingly well against Gonzo last week
Casey is fine in space. Is he going to run 50 yards with Miles Austin? hell no but anything coming into the flat or TE’s up the seam shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
My concern with Matthews has been more about his strength in fighting off blocks and making plays at the line of scrimmage than it has been in coverage. I can’t say I have focused on Matthews coverage skills, but coming in, that was considered his strength while shedding blocks was considered his weakness. If that holds true at the NFL level, WIL could be a good position for him. The big concern for me is that he will only have less than a weeks worth of practice at the position (and we’re talking in-season practice, not TC practice) before being required to perform at a new position in a game. Honestly, I feel like they have put way to much pressure on Matthews in his rookie season, but at this point, I guess he’ll split reps with Rolle over there, which likely makes the most sense.
So do the WILL and SAM responsibilities flip-flop back to last year’s? Do the SS and FS positions switch again?
I like this move for a couple of obvious reasons (puts Chaney and Fokou back in positions where they have excelled) and also because it opens the door to the Little Ball of Hate moving in at WIL at some point.
I like this move for a couple of obvious reasons (puts Chaney and Fokou back in positions where they have excelled) and also because it opens the door to the Little Ball of Hate moving in at WIL at some point.
I believe the move was made for two reasons. (1) The last game exposed Chaney. Throw over the top to the TE. Chaney’s speed was the catalyst for his move to SAM. But you can’t teach height. (2) Fokou has a SAM mentality. Get to the ballcarrier quickly. Good for the SAM position; not so for the WILL. He was undisciplined and was caught out of position many times.
This move also allows Reid/Castillo to evaluate Mathews/Rolle at the same position. I did notice in the ATL game that Mathews was in on more passing downs.
Here we go again with the re arranging of the deck chairs at the LB position…..hope it works out this time around…as I look at it they have no other option – just plain awful that they did not see this coming when quite a few of the fans saw this early on…..@Tommy – the Defense seems to be having a problem with the no huddle…from what I saw in the Rams game and then the ATL game – your thoughts…I guess we love to rotate our DL quite a bit and the no huddle cancels that out…if I were the Jints game planning, I would try and get Eli go no huddle quite a bit…Tommy what can Castillo do to answer the no huddle…maybe get a couple of linemen to take a dive 🙂
Presentitus. Not bad although I don’t think its strong enough or clear enough. Sadly, the Latin translation is even more obtuse. It’s a logical fallacy to use post hoc knowledge to evaluate pre hoc decisions. This is one of mankind’s great logical failings. We have to make decisions (such as draft picks) using the knowledge that we have at the time of the decision, but people judge those decisions with information that they have after the event has occurred.
Just to give one non-football example, suppose you flip a coin and call heads. If the coin lands tails, people will say that you made a mistake. How is that a mistake? There was no way to know which way the coin would land so there was no way to make a mistake.
Oh well. I’m not going to win this argument. I’m fighting against human nature.
I don’t fault AR for not challenging the INT with the information he had at the time. If it did turn out that there was no good angle of the replay and he ended up loosing the challenge/timeout, we would have all been on him for wasting a timeout and giving up his challenges so early in the game. That being said, I do think there is reason to criticize ARs history of challenging plays. They mentioned that he has had the fewest challenges of any coach during the game. In addition, he has not had a very good track record with his challenges. I don’t know if the Eagles go about making the decision to challenge a play differently than any other team, but I do think there are coaches who certainly have a better feel for when to call a challenge and when not to.
Seeing that play live, I was livid that Reid wasn’t challenging, yet knew he wasn’t going to. That ball was thrown low and hard. A receiver cathing that ball at that angle would have been impresive. It looked like he caught it on a skip, even if that wasn’t the case, it’s likely it goes through his hands and he trapped it. Everyone’s seen those in slow motion a hundred times.
It was 1st and 10, not like it was 3rd down and we would be punting anyways.
Being out of challenges is a whole different situation with all scoring plays now being reviewed.
I thought the ATL challenge of Samuel’s pick was a great call.
Maybe the call doesn’t get overturned because NBC doesn’t have any replay. Still worth challenging EVERY somewhat questionable turnover.
Problem is, Reid had already used one early in the second on that really bad completion call.
From what I remember of the rules, if he had thrown the flag and been wrong — and there was every expectation at that point he would have been — he would have had no more challenges the rest of the game. With the way the refs had been calling the game up until that point, I’d want to keep those challenges.
I can’t agree with you Nick. Like you, I very much wanted to challenge that play. But the replays showed absolutely nothing. I was really surprised that they didn’t have additional angles. As it turned out, they did. They just didn’t bother showing them to us.
Based on what Reid KNEW AT THE TIME a challenge would have been irresponsible. As much as I wanted him to throw the flag, there was absolutely nothing that would have justified such a move at that time.
I agree with you analysis of Reid as a play challenger. Overall, I like Reid as a coach. And he seems to genuinely re-evaluate his program each off season. But if I were the owner of that team, I would insist that challenges and time management be taken out of Reid’s control He’s just atrocious at both of them.
Since Schmitt hasn’t been so hot FB do you think there’s any chance we could see Clay Harbor back there like Pittsburgh does with their FB/TE’s?
I’m curious as to why Atlanta didn’t have anyone back on that last FG attempt before halftime to return it in the likely event it didn’t go to the back of the end zone.
Mistake on the part of their coaches. We got lucky.
In every season there are starters who lose their jobs, Who do you think will lose their job first? I would guess one of the safetys,
Could be Kyle DeVan since there is a definite guy waiting to take his place.
Safety is possible, but that’s partly up in the air with Nate’s knee. Eagles do want him on the field, but don’t want to rush him.
The way I see it, the most likely spots (barring injury of course) are Page’s spot, any of the LB spots not occupied by Chaney, and DeVan’s spot.
DeVan has been serviceable, but there is a guy waiting to take his place and DeVan hasn’t blown anyone away with the level he is playing at. Both safeties have had ups and downs.
Page played well week 1 but got exposed last week, and Allen is a guy the team likes. If Allen is healthy, he could quickly get worked back into the starting lineup. Coleman has had his problems as well, but unless Jarrett has been really impressing the coaches behind the scenes in practice (which seems doubtful considering where he is during gameday), Coleman is way ahead of his replacement, Jarrett.
Finally, at LB, the rotation of the LBs shows that the team is obviously uncomfortable with the play of the LBs so far. I think the coaches have designed the LB core around Chaney, and we have also seen him perform at a high level (at least in last years scheme), so I think he is safe. On top of that, I think the reshuffle of the LBers makes it easier for them to substitute Fokou and Matthews because our best backups at LB (Rolle and Clayton) are best suited for the outside.
Looks like it won’t be Kelce. How cool is that.
The Eagles have yet to face a huge defensive tackle though.
Could be Kyle DeVan since there is a definite guy waiting to take his place.
Safety is possible, but that’s partly up in the air with Nate’s knee. Eagles do want him on the field, but don’t want to rush him.
Did we ever figure out exactly why the Eagles didn’t resign, or even consider resigning Stew Bradley. Was he looking for a big payday, or did they just think it was time to move on? Obviously Stew had a hard time last year coming back from his injury, and I was never sure that he was destined to be great as some people felt, but wouldn’t having a big body in the middle right now be pretty helpful. I know we went out and got other toys, so if Stew was looking for big money I get it, but I never heard the reasons we moved on.
Also, do you think the Eagles knew this Wide 9 would be susceptible to the run up the middle the way it has been. Is this it’s known flaw, and the reason others don’t run this defense, or is it a matter of the players not executing against the run correctly as they still learn the system?
Stew wanted a big payday. Eagles weren’t willing to commit to him. There’s already been talk that the Cards may cut him after this year.
I love him to death and want the best for him, but I wonder if the 2008 Stew is ever coming back.
He did not look good against the ‘skins as they ran all over Arizona’s D, though he was showing his midriff for all the girls.
Stew wanted a big payday. Eagles weren’t willing to commit to him. There’s already been talk that the Cards may cut him after this year.
I love him to death and want the best for him, but I wonder if the 2008 Stew is ever coming back.
I’m waiting to hear the definite details on LB before writing anything. Not sure exactly who is going where yet, aside from Chaney to MLB.
Tommy,
Do you have any belief that Mason Foster was our pick in round 3 of this year’s draft? Was taken by TB at pick 84 and we traded pick 85 directly after their pick. If they knew Stew was gone then they had to be looking. And if that was the case why not trade up ahead of TB to nab him given all our picks? I’m no scout but loved him coming out of Wash and he absolutely killed it this past Sunday. Thanks.
I never got the feeling the Eagles were super high on Foster. Don’t know that for a fact. Just my take.
I’m waiting to hear the definite details on LB before writing anything. Not sure exactly who is going where yet, aside from Chaney to MLB.
RE: Sean Lee
I didn’t want to replace one health question mark with another.
That was the concern. And legit. Had he donned Eagles green, he’d probably be doing his Buckhalter impression and tearing stuff we’ve never even heard of.
Not to beat a dead horse or cry over spilled milk or (insert favorite after-the-fact regretful cliche), but I said instantly that Reid should throw the flag, not 10 minutes later when it was confirmed by the Rosemary Woods replay. But having said that, I didn’t realize Reid was down to his last challenge so I can see how that would affect his choice. I was disappointed because it seemed like we were gaining momentum at that point in the game. As it turned out, we showed our resiliency by continuing to power forward regardless of that setback.
Do you truly expect me to take the word of a man named after America’s #1 source of roast beef? Well, I do.
For that sir, you get free horseradish.
Tommy, I appreciate your PE.com column. Puts things in perspective. On the one hand, a loss is a loss. Regardless of when it happens it still counts at the end of the season when determining home-field advantage in the playoffs. On the other hand, you’re right that it’s more important to have mojo in Dec than Sept. Maybe I am giving too much importance to home-field, considering how well the Giants and the Packers fared in their Super Bowl years.
Thought this article was pretty interesting:
A receiver’s eye view of the Eagles CBs, courtesy of Roddy White
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jim_trotter/09/21/eagles.secondary/index.html
Reading that article you would think that NA and AS is so easy to beat and pass against.
The article was really good as to how a WR analyzes and thinks about attacking a game plan. But all that was theoretical so it always sounds good (i.e. it will work). However when game time hits, there are other forces at work that can’t be accounted for (like how the Eagles counteract with different defensive coverages than what was expected).
Tommy,
Who has been the primary nickle back? I haven’t been really paying attention to that and I guess I should. It looked like DRC was on Amendola a lot in the Rams game and he struggled mightily. I understand he’s a talent, and I’m sure the eventual Samuel replacement, but shouldn’t Hanson be on the field in nickel situations?
Tommy – I have asked this before – but can you throw some light on why the FO has still not got a deal done with DJax? I really applaud and was actually surprised by his hustle play to save the TD – I would expect that from a guy like Avant
What would Asante do if he saw Peters coming at him?
Better job then Mike Jenkins 🙂
BTW, Where is Clayton? Is he pushing for playing time?
Question: if you have a bunch of sh*tty to average deck furniture and you decide to rearrange it to change the look, does it change the fact that you’re deck furniture is still in sh*tty to average condition.
Maybe not, but perhaps if you can put it on the deck, behind the row of attack dogs but in front of the bomb-proof shelter, in such a way that people don’t really see it and everyone forgets about it during the parade down Broad Street
Haha, I like where you’re going with that analogy. However, what if that bomb-proof shelter appears to be really sturdy, but than in the middle of a bombing you notice the foundation doesn’t seem so strong. (i.e. our safeties who like very average letting a 36 yr old TE who didn’t have a catch the week before look like he’s his 25 yr old self). You might just find yourself curled up in a corner sucking your thumb hoping it holds up (this will be me when the playoffs come around).
“Eagles should have drafted Sean Lee. I love Sean Lee and would have been on Cloud 9 if that had happened. However, at the time the Eagles had Stewart Bradley on the mend and hoped he would return to his previous form. MLB wasn’t seen as a critical need at the time.”
And this is precisely why Howie Roseman has been unimpressive as a GM thus far.
When your MLB is an older player coming back from an *ACL tear*, you are going to pass on premium talent at the position in the 2nd round of the draft because you “hope” that older MLB will somehow return to form?
Good GMs take talent when it shows up on their board, regardless of the state of the position. If you draft for need, especially in the 2nd round or later, you often end up with inferior players and you find yourself missing out on top talent.